Martin Nicholas

A golf umbrella will fix the rain getting into a traditional stern and it can be lowered under bridges. The enemy of more open designs is the cold. CC'ing means that you almost never have to move in bad weather. Just watch the forecast and the rainfall radar; dodge the showers.

The buttons are momentary switches. The switch itself is the first thing to check. A replacement can be soldered in if that's where the fault lies.

It's "Robbie Cumming" FYI. He was on Radio 4's Loose Ends this week.

If the registration of the boat has lapsed BW give you the option of keeping the old number or having a new one. At least they used to.

Great Bedwyn Wharf. No idea who runs it, I'm afraid. Slightly old information.

I would have: 1. Shore. 2. No connection. 3. Inverter. That way it sould be impossible to short the shore and inverter together, no matter how keen with the switch.

Barry Wren fitted access hatches along the length of the boat, in the corridors. This is how he ballasted boats once they were in the water and thus got it right every time. It's been useful to get under there on many occasions since.

The Kabola manual shows the open end goes downwards.

Wilton Water - small and the only one for the summit of the K&A.

An update on the Drag coeffieicnts of Schilling rudder profiles, taken from this reasearch. In a straight line, Cd ranges between 0.015-0.055 depending on the type of fish. A NACA 0024 foil shape was measured at 0.01 in this paper. The introduction is a good read.

My pretty bog standard Screwfix set will take stacked saws. I use a spacer (a nut) too, so the inner one pokes out a few mm.

Consider the following: How do these advanced rudder designs affect efficiency in a straight line? Most narrowboats spend most of their time going in a straight line or very near it. Cd of a flat plate: 0.001-0.005. Cd of a streamlined body: 0.04 (Source: The Internet). What is the effect on steering in reverse? Probably it would improve. A bowthruster would be better if that's what you are after. How will this affect the forearm/tiller bar/rudder system? An increase in gain in this system isn't necessarily a good thing. It could lead to an unsteerable boat if the rudder is too effective. It could also result in vibration due to insufficient forearm damping. What if the design is wrong? You'll need to make and fit a new one as modifications look to be difficult. Compare with a flat rudder where it can be trimmed or extended with relative ease. Too large a rudder can result in vibration. Too small, makes steering difficult for a given speed. An improved rudder just increases cornering speed, no slowing down for a given corner, assuming the steerer has the skills and can push hard enough. How useful would this be? This thing is not new. R&D's used to offer an advanced rudder to anyone who would pay for it. They didn't prove popular.

Concentric hole saws - two on the same mandrel - will make the opening bigger for you. Use cutting oil (WD40 is not cutting oil).

Just measured a spare plug - it's ~1.4Ohm when cold. Just FYI. A Kubota manual says the following on glow plug time:

A metal cutting blade in any sort of circular saw is the thing. The blade in my Parkside plunge saw is for: "Soft wood, soft metal such as aluminium, copper, plastics." Recently used it to cut 6mm Al plate. An angle grinder is the WD40 of the machine tool world.

I forgot Polar Power. I think they use PM alternators.

PM Generators or Fischer Panda perhaps?

It's about here.

Most of these titles are out of print. The Canal Bookshop probably have them at reasoanble prices, or you could pay through the nose from your favorite online tat bazaar. A full set of the "Working Waterways" series would cover all the wartime titles, plus some others.

The force you feel on your arms is the same force turning the boat round the corner. This is useful to know when reversing - maximum turning effort, maximum force on your arms. Try it. One caveat - it has been asserted thet I know nothing about boats. Ho-hum.

Mel Davis built a boat based on reasearch by Strathclyde University and the owner's specifications. The reason it has not been widely adopted for other narrowboats is that is not cost effective. Most narrowboats don't go anywhere; all the rest go virtually nowhere prticularly when compared to the average commercial vessel. The published reasearch is invariably (?) for open water; it's debatable whether any of it applies to narrow, shallow, muddy canals.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/miscellaneous/0626135/

Gates that are merely closed are not sealed. There are gaps between: the heel post and the quoin, the bottom of the gates and the cill and there is often a gap between the mitres. This is true even for brand new gates. They have to be this way so they can be opened and closed by a human. Once the gates have a head of water behind them they will settle into the cill and quoins, forming an effective seal. This way you can get away with stone quoins and wooden heel posts. If there was a tight seal between the two, the gates would be too stiff to operate and the heel post would be worn out (and leak) in a week or so due to abrasion. If a gate is unsealed (open) the only points of contact are the pin at the bottom of the gate and the collar at the top. This is why a gate can fall into the lock if the collar fails. Look down at the bottom gates from a tail-bridge as the top paddels are lifted. Narrow, mitred locks, Fradley for example, are best. The gates lean backwards into their sealed position, hopefully snuggling into the quoins, pushing onto the cill and firmly closing the mitre. This phenomenon becomes more obvious as the gates wear. Gates are designed to be completely unsealed with no head of water against them, for ease of use and to minimise wear. Once there is sufficient head of water then all the joints: the cill, the quoins and the mitre should be fully sealed by dint of the pressure.

FYI: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/original/1025-general-canal-byelaws-1965.pdf

There's no mention of this in the "GENERAL CANAL BYE-LAWS: Operation of Locks", so it's not the law. Closing the bottom gates on an empty lock saves no water. For maximum leakage be sure to lave a lock full with the top gate(s) floating. The recommendation is "after use", not "after each use" or "after every use", so not needeed on a busy lock is in constant use throughout the day.