Francis Herne

Perhaps a silly question, but are you sure it is diesel? Some gearboxes take ATF which is pink and looks similar to red diesel at a glance. Asking because (a) you say it's near the gearbox (b) my own is currently dripping a small amount of ATF which I need to look into.

The truly ideal amount of solar, if you're living on board year-round and using a variety of electric appliances, will always be more than you can actually fit on the roof of a narrowboat. Depends on the boat, but you can probably get enough panels to cover your energy demands through the summer. There's a variety of good numbers and comments in this similar thread -- the tool @IanD linked to is particularly useful: https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html#api_5.2 Note that you'll need a big inverter to power all the stuff you mention, which will require a minimum number of batteries just to supply the necessary current within their rated limits. Practicality of charging from the engine will depend on the size of your alternator(s). With a new-build you can specify quite a high-power alternator, older engines typically have much smaller alternators that will need many more hours running to produce the same amount of energy. They can be upgraded after the fact depending on the engine. Lithium helps a lot because you don't need the long, low-current tail charging required to properly charge lead-acid batteries. Separate generators are an option, either standalone petrol ones or - much better, but much more expensive - small integrated diesel units. Diesel stove will typically use fuel from your propulsion tank, but I know people with a separate tank. You can probably cook on them; I cook stuff on my wood-burner in the winter. Hot water will come from waste heat from your engine, stove back boiler, or a separate diesel/gas water heater. Instant electric showers aren't practical due to the power draw; heating with an electric immersion coil can be an option in the summer but you won't have the power to spare year-round.

With this type of post, I do wonder why it seems verboten to name names so the rest of us can learn from it. Your first we'd all want to avoid; the second looks to have done a great job so perhaps a good choice if no rush. In my own experience: UCC and Candle Bridge at Braunston were both incredibly quick and helpful when fixing Lark up. Above and beyond. The gas fitter recommended by the marina I would never go near again - charged for work I didn't ask for or need, skipped part of the job without telling me, and left the neighbouring boat in a seriously dangerous condition (gas leak into the battery locker, easily detectable smell of gas through the whole boat; what's "testing"?).

Are you sure that's right? I still can't find much detail, but my impression (including from the thread you linked) is that this project includes the Carreghofa Lane (bridge 93) and B4398 (96) crossings but not the two A483 crossings (101 & 102) near Arddleen, so won't join up with the Welshpool section. Instead it would initially be an extension of the short section at Llanymynech used by the trip boat, and in the fairly near future linked to the national network via Crickheath, leaving the A483 as the last obstruction to reach Welshpool.

No. Only narrow canals around here.

The Home Guard used a motor launch 'Ladywood' as a patrol boat in Birmingham. https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/home-guard-motor-patrol-boat-ladywood.54548/ There are a couple of news articles in archives, and a couple of photos, but I haven't seen an account of it being used in anger. I'm also curious what the boat was and where they found it. Must be among the most elegant craft to have graced the BCN!

While we're on swing bridges, how about this little one? (ok, so I did post it in another thread a while ago) The coal bag is so the bow of my canoe will fit under it.

I can't find anything about this online (what's "The AI News"?) but The A483 crossing in Llanymynech already has a new bridge at navigable height (https://canalplan.org.uk/photo/ki_t5n), so this section will be connected to the national system as soon as the couple of miles from Crickheath to Llanymynech are reinstated. Only Schoolhouse Bridge now needs rebuilding to do that, and there's already a plan and a fundraising campaign. https://themontgomerycanal.org.uk/schoolhouse-bridge/ Unless I've missed one, there are only two dropped bridges from Llanymynech to just north of Ardleen (Carreghofa Lane and the B4398), so this plus Crickheath-Llanymynech will extend the connected navigation to the first remaining A483 obstruction.

Depends what you're trying to do. For many applications that 'return to base' - tenders, small workboats, day/weekend pleasure cruising and trip boats - enough battery life is very feasible. On narrowboats hybrid is much more fuel-efficient even if 100% of the energy comes from a generator; big diesel engines running near tickover (or doing nothing at all in locks) are quite wasteful. Not enough to cover the up-front costs on financial grounds though. I don't know if the same would be applicable to a cruiser with a petrol outboard - probably depends on the mix of usage? If you were based in a marina and made a lot of weekend trips but the occasional long journey the genny wouldn't get used much.

@Tracy D'arth Between the spelling of 'Harbor' and mention of nautical charts etc., isn't that advice for Gloucester, Massachusetts? It seems too vague to be helpful even for the right place to be honest. (It feels like I'm missing a joke but not sure what -- something in Theo's deleted post?)

1900 Humber Sloop, "Annie Barraclough": https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/boat/1900-humber-sloop-8967831/ Iron hull, 72' x 15', Gardner 6LW otherwise mostly an empty shell. £30k. Lots of space on the inside, but quite limited in where it can go.

Presumably due to people opening zero gates and just pushing them open with the boat.

October last year, high tide Sharpness 0918, I entered Gloucester Lock at 0830, left the bottom gates at 0847. Outgoing tide plus quite a bit of fresh (last day of yellow boards) was quite fierce in the Partings and especially after joining the main flow at Maisemore at 0936 - I was going backwards at 1700rpm and nowhere at 2000. Plugged very slowly up to Ashleworth where the tide caught me up (with a noticeable leading wave) at 1022, and after that quickly upstream, by Lark's standards anyway - Haw Bridge 1105, Upper Lode on the level at 1205 after a 10-minute pause at Lower Lode. Wouldn't want to leave any closer to the tide than that, you need the option to turn around and return to Gloucester if you find a tree stuck across the Partings. That did happen to me on the way down, but fortunately the 70ft widebeam I was following ploughed straight through it! Bear in mind the restriction on opening Llanthony Bridge between 0830 and 0900. Almost caught me out - you need to be on the right side of it beforehand if leaving that time.

Your screenshot cropped off the relevant bit:

They do seem to be operating with the alternating hours most of the time from what I saw. Definitely alternating hours both times I went through in the last few weeks, when a friend went through, and when some hire boaters I met had run into it unexpectedly. No-one I spoke to on the river mentioned having got through at another time.

Some of the bridgekeepers operating this way (which was virtually all of them) were quite cheerful and friendly when I passed through, so I don't think that's the reason. I assume they must be trained or instructed to do it like that - based on other experience with CRT, the ops manual is probably written by some office type with no clue about boats.

I spent a few weeks on the G&S last autumn and had the same problems as in the first post. Use of the lights seems wildly variable between bridges/keepers - a few do it 'by the book', most don't bother with flashing red, some (especially the hand-wound bridges) beckon rather than switching to green. At one point I discovered they can display red and green aspects simultaneously! The highlight was both me and a 70ft widebeam being given green lights to turn the 90° blind corner at Saul in opposite directions at the same time (as confirmed with them and the keeper afterward). The other thing is that most keepers won't start opening the bridge until you actually stop at the light. With a cross- or tailwind, and no 'landing' at several of them, it can be hard not to be blown past the light or into the bank. With my little boat I found that going in circles is easiest and gets a laugh. It would be much better if they (or presumably CRT's operating manual) had the sense to start opening the bridge in time for boats to arrive; if timed properly it would cause less disruption to road traffic as no need to get moving again from a stand. As above, operation of the one remotely-controlled bridge at Sandfield is a total pain. Whatever sensors are supposed to detect the boat don't, have to phone Fretherne every time to say you're there and confirm nothing's in the way.

The chain is maybe 5ft beyond the line of the bank, and quite slack. The boat is moored directly across the winding hole parallel to the canal a few feet past that. Goliath is only ~50ft so he might have been able to squeeze around without hitting the boat. Met him pointed south at the Anchor before Shebdon though and he hadn't tried. 🙁 The (non-CRT, but clearly regular) volunteer who appeared and helped me down Tyrley locks was great. Mostly went ahead and set locks rather than interfering with my routine. Reducing the bywash flow by letting water through the paddles isn't something I'd have done, but does seem to work... (I just tied up above Audlem top lock, promptly discovered the mooring rings by tripping over one. 🙄) Today's other silly incident - before Wheaton Aston, a tree surgeon walking down the towpath asked me if I'd seen a fallen tree. I hadn't, even after checking the pictures CRT had sent him (big tree, right across the towpath), so he continued forlornly south. I eventually came across it several hours later, in small pieces, in the bottom of someone's boat...

Just turned Lark around 360° for the sake of it. 31ft so plenty of room even with the chain. The boat moored there does (edit: did already!) have some suspicious paint scrapes where the bow of a carelessly winded boat might be expected to touch it.

So far as passing the present BSS inspection goes, remember the complete list of checks is publicly available: https://www.boatsafetyscheme.org/media/299273/bss-examination-checking-procedures-interim-public-version.pdf Probably wise to read everything applicable first and have a copy on hand in case it's disputed. Inspectors aren't allowed to fail a BSS exam based on their opinion of how lithium batteries should be installed, only on failures to meet a specific checklist item. The current edition has no checks specific to lithium. The only rule I can see that a 'hostile' inspector could try to fail your indoor lithiums under, assuming everything else is done correctly, is part of 3.1.1: but (obviously applying either of these to lithiums is a nonsense, but someone could try it at a stretch). Otherwise make sure everything is properly secured, insulated, fused etc. and you should be good.

"Work has commenced at Kilby Lock today and our maintenance team has discovered that the lock cill is non-existent." Doesn't sound like damage I'd expect a boat to cause...

I'll be there with the BCNS crew on Atlas. Thought about bringing Lark but looks unlikely so far.

You're quite right. I was thinking in terms of epoxy by default because of my own experience with canoes where it's much more common - particularly stitch-and-tape ones because epoxy adheres to wood far better than polyester. On something like this, now you point it out, I agree it's almost certainly polyester.

[EDITED slightly] If the fibreglass is made using epoxy resin, will be damaged by the UV from sunlight if not protected. This will reduce its strength by up to 30% and possibly cause surface crazing. [as rusty69 points out it could well be polyester without the same issue] It looks like under the peeling top coating there's another pigmented layer (maybe the original gelcoat) which should be ok, but if any patches are scraped back to the underlying clear/brownish fibreglass you should cover those with something fairly promptly.

My wooden canoe (red thing on the roof in my profile pic) is built to one of his plans. Very clear and easy to work from, and the result is ridiculously stable for a canoe while still easy to paddle. Strongly recommended. EDIT: so far as the topic goes, my feeling is that it can probably work. Say the limit is 40 people to avoid going up an MCA category, that's pessimistically 4 tons, maybe 10% of the boat's weight? Even on one side of the roof they're still about a foot in from the edge of the hull, and the railings could be placed further in if necessary. The paperwork will kill it though, if they've got this far without even considering what's required.