Athy
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Posts posted by Athy
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42 minutes ago, IanD said:
A joke which probably didn't go down well in Louisiana.
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1 hour ago, magnetman said:
Is there a law saying you are not allowed to navigate a boat sideways?
I think CanalTime used to recommend it to their hirers.
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1 hour ago, MtB said:
I very much doubt that.
The glacially slow speed with which CRT introduced the current 20% fat bustud surcharge suggests to me that even if they change to charging by deck area, they will find a way to dribble out the change over about a 25 year period.
A greeno for that quite splendid expression.
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5 minutes ago, IanD said:
I did say the space was "almost treble per foot of length, when comparing 14' and 7' beam boats"... 😉
A 7' narrowboat is about 6' wide internally if you average above and below the gunwale, and by the time you take off the passageway needed to walk along the boat you have about 4' of usable width to live in -- for furniture, fittings, units, beds, wardrobes and so on. So you lose about 3' off the external boat width as far as useful living space is concerned, which is why narrowboats are cramped and pigs to fit out... 😞
By the same measure, a 14' wideboat has about 11' of usable width, which my calculator says is 2.75x4, which is "almost treble" isn't it? 😉
Have have rather moved the goal[posts (you did not previously mention that passageways did not constitute space) but yes, you have a point.
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22 minutes ago, IanD said:
more space inside -- almost treble per foot of length (14' vs 7' width)
It is some years since I passed my maths O level, but I do recall that 14 is two times seven, not three times seven,
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56 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:
Have you not considered that the reason for charging solely by length rather than a combination of length and width is because broad beam craft have quite limited access to the network?
Have you not considered that the reason may be historical? I don't know when BW introduced licence fees, but it was probably at a time when the vast majority of boats on the canals were narrow ones, so it never occurred to them to create a different pricing structure for the very few big 'uns which were aroiund?
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It does sound suspicious.
If you have no details of the boat, how do you know that its price is below market value?
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In the Fens yesterday we had a succession of very brief (a minute or so) hail showers, interspersed by sunny intervals, and it was windy, but not sufficiently so to blow the dustbins over. More like "April showers bring May flowers" than a proper storm.
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2 minutes ago, kris88 said:
That’s an opinion. In my opinion questions and answers are an interview.
Thank you for answering. You've got the job..
3 minutes ago, Goliath said:But why have to answer on demand anyone else’s loaded questions?
Because that's the essence of discussion
Not sure what you mean about "loaded" questions. Do you feel that there have been some in this thread? If so it's hardly a rarity, as most people asking a question already have a point of view about whatever subject it may be.
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17 minutes ago, kris88 said:
it’s none of your business. Just because you can ask questions on a public forum, doesn’t mean there is a requirement to answer them.
No, there's not.
But this is a discussion forum and ,if no on ever answered anyone else's questions, there would be precious little discussion.
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42 minutes ago, cuthound said:
I'll bet they were slow learners... 😅😂
Yes. They couldn't reed.
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6 hours ago, magnetman said:
That would have been the river Wey up at Godalming/Farncombe.
Horses are so last century!
That was rather the point. It was a Common Entrance history outing. Earlier in the day we had been to a working watermill, which was probably so century-before-last.
One of the advantages of teaching is that one can go to fun [places and the school foots the bill, as long as there is educational value in the visit. I also travelled on the Kent & East Sussex Railway and had seven or eight free holidays in France, though accompanied by between 15 and 40 pupils each time.
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2 minutes ago, David Mack said:
A trip on a horse drawn boat shows the difference - the complete absence of engine noise is wonderful.
Done that only once, on 'Iona' on the Wey & Arun (or is it the River Wey?) early this century, so I know what you mean. However, I was accompanied by a 15-strong Common Entrance form, so the silence was not unbroken.
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9 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:
Especialy in the politics section 🤣
...where half the posters are fine, sensible people and the other half are total comedians and/or dangerous lunatics, you mean?
Which half, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
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9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
You don't need blankets with a Sea Otter, you'll be plenty warm enough.
When it catches fire, you mean?
Note to Sylvo: humour is not banned on CWDF and many of us indulge in it, with varying degrees of success.
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\welcome to the forum. I understand the "missionary" angle, as I was (whoops, were) brought up in Sheffield but spent six years educating the natives in Bletchingley.
In your preamble you say that you look forward to positive comments about Sea Otters. Fine, it's always pleasant to be complimented on one's boat, but you'll learn more by being receptive to less flattering comments too. For example, I hope that MTB's earler post had you scurrying out to buy fire extinguishers and/or blankets.
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2 minutes ago, Tonka said:
Just buy ear defenders. Loads of money saved
Tee-hee. Having had boats with a Petter, a Rigas Dizelis and a Gardner, I've never felt the need for them....though come to think of it I had a little Springer for a while about ten years ago, and its mini-digger type engine of indeterminate parentage was a trifle abrupt - perhaps because that boat, unlike all the others, had a cruiser stern.,
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2 hours ago, IanD said:
, the fuel cost saving with a hybrid will probably never make up for the higher installation cost. Silent cruising is the reason people are doing this, but it's not cheap.
Does anyone on the canals really want that? The sound of a diesel engine, be it a burping Bolinder or a bumbling Barrus, is part of the attraction and ambience of the inland waterways. Are there people who actually wish to pay far more money for something completely lacking in character? I suppose the ability to scare the bejasus out of waterside fishermen may be an advantage for some, but that pleasure comes at a high price.
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13 minutes ago, Pluto said:
. There was always a jug of gravy on the shop counter so you could fill up your potato pies. Mmmmmmmmm, I can still recall the taste!
There are few things more evocative than the memory of a taste you enjoyed but can never taste again. At certain times, if I close my eyes, I ca taste my Mum's lemon pie; I've not tasted the like in 25 years and shall not do so again, but my taste buds retain the memory.
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1 minute ago, peterboat said:
no diesel is often not required
Diesel is usually required, then? Yes, as I thought.
4 hours ago, Paul C said:A diesel engine is more efficient at higher power than lower power. So with proper management, it can run 1) more efficiently, 2) when the boater chooses it to, instead of its being required to run when propulsion is needed.
Of course, 1) needs the additional consideration of, is it more efficient to run the engine (efficiently) but then have the losses from charging, then discharging, batteries together with the losses of an electric motor (which aren't that much). And 2) might be "when the batteries need charging and/or hot water is needed" than simply when the boater chooses to, if the battery bank becomes depleted for example.
That's a hybrid.
If it were to be able to plug in, its the car equivalent of a "plug in hybrid" and that requirement to run the diesel may be mitigated to less and less; or indeed never - for example if you plugged in A LOT and did very little boating (and had some alternate way to produce domestic hot water). At that point, it behaves like an electric boat with a small motor and a small (compared to a fully electric boat, but big compared to a conventional boat) battery bank.
Add solar and the 'plug in' mitigations are gifted, when its sunny.
So, a diesel-powered boat which has a solar panel on its roof is the best buy, you're saying? That sounds reasonable.
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5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
Lets make it simple ..........
Engine runs a generator
Generator charges batteries
Batteries power an electric motor
Electric motor turns the prop shaft
Prop shaft rotates the propellor.
Yes, and what powers tat engine. Diesel, I fancy.
That's simple, indeed.
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31 minutes ago, MtB said:
It's charging the batteries.
Precisely. It is obviously, therefore, serviceable. If the boat had no batteries, the Beta 43, being a provenly reliable and widely-used diesel engine, would be able to propel the boat all on its ownsome. So why encumber it with electric gadgetry and sting customers for another forty thou?
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On 07/04/2023 at 11:21, MtB said:
You appear to be discussing a different boat now.
The boat under discussion was built with an integrated dies engine and electric drive and massive big bank of batteries. All at an additional cost of £40k according to IanD.
So it never had a "perfectly serviceable dies engine in it already"
No, same boat, Waterhorse, whose advertising blurb says that it has a Beta 43 diesel as well as electric power. If it's not serviceable, what's it doing in the boat?
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15 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
But you are not listening - this is (was) a new boat built with the Hybrid drive - IT NEVER HAD A 'DIES' ENGINE IN IT.
But you are not reading: OH YES IT HAS!
March of the Widebeams
in General Boating
Posted
As it has taken you almost five e years to come up with that reply, obviously I respect it.