wrigglefingers

Jan, If you've not parcelled up the fiddle base Singer 12 for Carl, I'd put a bid in for it as I have a case for it, but my machine was dropped by a child (on his toe, which made me feel that karma was at play, somehow) and it fell down some concrete steps. Sad times. It may be worth you contacting Helen Howes if you have part machines you need to shift on that Carl doesn't want. She buys, rebuilds or breaks very antique machines for parts. Some of the older parts are getting harder to source, in particular, boat shuttles and bobbins. I have her details if you'd like them. If anyone would like a treadle 201K in working order but that needs the case titivating, let me know; one seems to have taken up residence here. I know it works, I've sewn two suits of sails on it.

I'm so sorry to read this, Dave. Please accept my sympathy and those of Lady Muck. We will be thinking of you in the coming days.

They nailed my toes to the stern bench and pushed me over the stern, head nestled on the back button fender. Surprisingly comfortable ... What a brilliant weekend though ....

Tsk ... moderators .... hurtling up Ryder's Green at Tawny warp factor .25

Surely not ... who dun that then?

Nobody ever, ever gets my jokes. Not ever, not even Athy; that's how clever they are.

This was such sad news on Sunday morning. John and Fi were soulmates in everything and radiated that love to everyone they met. Fi will be much missed by John and Craig and by the rest of us. Whether we knew her in person, or through the blog of NB Epiphany's travels, we have all lost someone dear.

Jaq, It was so moving to read your account of the last days. It is very hard to record the passing of a loved one so eloquently. I know that the love that surrounded you will continue to provide comfort in the coming days. Please be mindful of your own need for care and rest now; I wish you well and keep us up to date with your progress, when you can. Jill

Good work all round folks. Don't use Mr Muscle on your expensive fabric cratch cover or pram hood because if it's a very nice and expensive one, chances are that the cloth used is worsted spun mohair (as used on car tonneau hoods) and even weak household bleach will dissolve animal protein. Mohair will dye effectively with food colour and vinegar though. Don't try black food colour because it's actually dark green or blue; that's how my Dad kept his Edwardian suit looking smart in the 50s.

Sarah Edgson sold Cobbett and I like her very much. Straight-forward and knows the boat market inside out.

Exactly this. It took me ages to work just how much welly Cobbett needed to get her working for me. It's a completely different skill set and I was utterly nonplussed at first. You don't need to be in the least bit subtle with the power. I was generally too timid with Cobbett. Partly, that was because I had the wrong engine in her, I think, in hindsight. I'd been talked out of having a Gardner 3LW on the grounds that it would be massively over-specified and I didn't have the skills to maintain it. The secondhand Beta JD3 was a disaster although the new short engine that replaced it was fine once Richard did some modifications to her. Nonetheless, it revved far higher than a Gardner would, and so I was extremely timid around over-revving her. I did get far more confident with her over time though and found when I went back to helming a modern narrowboat that it slipped all over the place and was far more twitchy. If I could get Cobbett into a deep channel, she'd helm herself and not deviate; in shallow water, much less easy. She always swam well, though, in chug-a-long mode she barely disturbed the water.

Corbett had a PRM260 on a near as dammit 3:1 reduction. What I do know about Cobbett (62' curvy swims and planked double curved front Josher bow, absolutely no rivets) drew 2'7" at build but once people and stuff were loaded on her, was gauged at far closer to 3'. She liked to get into the channel and sit chuntering along. I found her very responsive even after she was fully loaded. She did, however, steer very differently to my previous boat which drew less than 1'10". Learning to steer her was a long learning curve but worth it. Boating with her was quite the best thing and I deeply regret not being able to keep her because my bloody knee made boating so difficult.

It seems to me that Canopus is over-propped. Cobbett at 62' had a 20" square prop on her and I had absolutely no issues whatsoever. She also had no fake fake rivets either. If I recall correctly, Canopus was only a 'loose copy' of a Northwich and had some amendments to the design called for by the owner. They were documented here at one point. If I can find a link, I'll post it. Being as we have two threads running on the boat, I'm going to merge the threads and move the whole lot to Building and Maintenance rather than History and Heritage.