David Mack

Since some are getting petty about what content is appropriate for this thread, I'd question whether that is "nice on the waterways"! 🙂

Belfast's hull was primed with Jotun Penguard HB 2 part epoxy primer, and the same was used internally for the bilges. If you are going to use part cans, the weight of each component you need is given at https://www.smlmarinepaints.co.uk/uploads/files/library/files/2 pack weights 0314.pdf. Get yourself a cheap set of digital kitchen scales to weigh out the 2 components - a fiver from Asda when I bought mine. Since your boat is already out of the water you would get the best out of a 2 pack epoxy paint system if you had the hull shot blasted first. It will cost, but it will be a better job and will save you days or weeks of running around with an angle grinder and wire brush.

I knew someone who submitted a draft document for a project in Liverpool, which was strongly based on a similar previous project they had done in Manchester. Unfortunately, the search-and-replace failed to substitute for the one misspelled instance of 'Manchester'. The Liverpool client was not amused!

Agreed. David, your contributions to this and other threads are fascinating. Please continue to post, and just ignore the rest of us when the discussion wanders off in odd directions.

Is that for manually winding open the swing bridge?

I think that warm moist air from the cabin can find its way past the plywood panels into the unheated area around the tank, and the water vapour will condense on the cold hull sides, deck plate and water tank. Condensation will not be obvious if you look when the outside temperature is relatively warm, but I bet its there if you look early in the morning or late in the evening.

I seem to recall that was being sold from the GU in Tyseley, whereas this plot is on the Tame Valley.

Its an aerial for communicating with alien beings. There should be a wire coming out of the bottom which you can attach to your tinfoil helmet.

This plastic fitting was screwed onto a threaded pipe welded to the hull. It was all working perfectly, with no dripping, damp or smell, until I came to remove the wash basin and the heavily corroded pipe came off in my hand. The boat had been fitted out about 25 years earlier. But fortunately it was way above the water line.

But simple paddle wheels of constant diameter operating in a cylindrical casing, entirely above the bottom of the boat, would just churn up a lot of water but not produce much propulsive force. The key to the Hotchkiss cone must be that water is drawn in at the small end, and the paddle wheel (which I see has slightly curved blades) accelerates the water both along the cone towards the biģ end and out to the larger diameter. Thus water is drawn in at the small end and out at the large end, but using a single hull opening rather than separate intake and outlet openings, as with other water jet propulsion systems. I guess they were normally installed as handed pairs to cancel out any lateral forces. Simple devices and suitable for shallow water, but I wonder how the overall efficiency compares with a screw propeller outside the hull.

When the decision was made that for rebuilding of Notre Dame after the fire, the new roof would be made of timber, similar to that which was destroyed, they had to source timber from all over France to find enough oak trees of the right size. I wonder what that has done to the price of oak in the country.

Well a welded on socket would certainly be better, but if the OP doesn't have access to welding equipment (or the skill to do a proper job of it), then drilling and tapping the tank may be the only DIY option. A simple plug would be less vulnerable to the steel toecapped oaf than a screw in drain cock, and would need to be screwed in enough to seal and no more - gorilla muscles on an oversize spanner could indeed strip the thread.

The footnote to the report indicates that several reservoirs are being held at lower levels for engineering reasons. The big drop in the Shroppie/S&W group took place between December and January (although no reason is given in the January report), and the level rose by 3.6% from January to February. Since this section receives water throughout the year from Wolverhampton's sewage treatment works and from the BCN via the Wolverhampton flight, I suspect the low holding is of less concern than it might be elsewhere. The latest report gives the position at mid February, so the March report will be out soon, and will give a better picture of the water supply available at the beginning of the 'boating season'.

In my experience, if you arrive during manned hours the lock keeper will see you approaching, and if there are no boats using the lock he/she will start opening the gates or turning the lock before you arrive. If the traffic lights go green you can just motor straight into the lock, otherwise its usually easier just to hang around in midstream (current/flow/proximity of weir permitting) for a few minutes while the lock is readied. I can only recall one occasion when we actually had to moor up and go and find the keeper to see what was happening.

I don't see why you couldn't drill and tap a skin tank to take a drain cock like this as long as the steel is at least 3mm thick. But you would need room to rotate the fitting when screwing it in, so the drain would inevitably be a little above the bottom of the tank. A simple threaded plug could be fitted as close to the bottom of the tank as you could drill and tap.

You hope!

Normally skin tanks are mounted vertically on the side of the swim and all you have to do is loosen the bottom hose connection and the tank will empty into the bilges. Is yours on the bottom plate? If so you may have to pump it out with something like a Pela pump, or perhaps a wet and dry vac with a nozzle small enough to pass through the hose fitting.

@nigel carton also moves boats. I always find it a bit sad that someone has bought a boat, presumably to go boating on, yet they can't find the time to move the boat to their new home mooring. Especially as we are about to have a four day weekend which would be enough for most of the trip. And no reason not to leave the boat moored to the towpath for a week or two if the trip can't be completed in one go.

Well you can only really talk about gradient with reference to a flight of locks (not a single lock), and since there are reasonably long pounds between lock 1 and lock 2 and between lock 2 and lock 3/4 at Sowerby Bridge, the gradient of the flight must be a lot less than that at Bingley.

This forum has never treated the 'canal' in the forum name as a limitation on what can be discussed. All of us (or at least almost all of us) have boated sections of river as well as canal, and I see no problem whatsoever in this thread featuring the pictures of those boaters who spend more of their boating time on rivers and larger waterways. And if they make the occasional forays out onto coastal waters, and visit harbours, inlets and coastal rivers that most of us will never take our own boats to, that only adds to the forum in my opinion.

When I started boating the BCN in about 1973 most of the newer gates were framed and planked. But there were numerous older gates, some dated as far back as 1907, 1911 and 1913 I recall, which were of the baulks of timber side-by-side type. At the time I marvelled at the 60+ years age of some of these gates, but I guess back then the polluted nature of the waters probably killed off any biological rot organisms.

And if you go for the straight SAE 30, Just Kampers have it on special offer at £19.95 for 5 litres, and free delivery if you spend £75. https://www.justkampers.com/ml001-morris-sae30-oil-5litre-for-all-vw-aircooled-engines.html

Indeed, but only relevant if you want a reliable long term complete seal when the valve is closed.

Yes. That's why the colloquial expression for taking stuff to the scrapyard is "weighing it in".

About 5 years ago Uxbridge Boat Centre gave me a tenner off the price of a new 110Ah battery in exchange for the old one.