Keeping Up

I would say the first boat opens it and the third boat closes it. I've always done it that way on the Llangollen.

I had a redundant hole after moving the exhaust exit to the opposite side, so instead of blanking it off I fitted a bilge blower fan to suck in cool air and ducting to blow it over the alternator. In hot weather it made the engine bay about 10 degrees cooler, and hopefully will considerably prolong the life of the alternator. Putting a hand near the bay's original vent also showed that the fan provided enough air for the engine at up to 2000 rpm, above which speed it started to suck more through the vent.

If you know the canal really well, especially when there are short deep stretches where you can temporarily travel at or near 4mph, and you have an enthusiastic crew who can run back & forth between locks on a flight, it is easy to beat their defaults.

No, the longest of them was 12 hours 30 minutes (which included 30 minutes of shopping at Tesco's).

Job done! Total journey time (despite major gearbox issues) just 5 days and 2 hours. Yes they were long hard days, but the challenge was good fun.

Am I the only one who sees the title of this topic and thinks "You'd never get 1500hp from a BMC" ?

I have always just used MS PowerPoint for mine

I've always tried to space the weights a little way forwards and backwards, mainly out of habit from using an anchor with chain, but also from the instinctive feeling that a sideways pull is less likely to drag than one which partly lifts the weight off the bottom. I've never known them drag when a boat passed, but having said that the only time I've been passed by fast-moving boats was on the Thames which is of course much bigger; more commonly they slow down to ask what you are doing. Would it matter if you were dragged a few feet anyway?

Just to say, if you do want to take advantage of my offer, given the short timescale I really need to know by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon so that I can get all my next week's activities sorted out.

Yes that's a stupid rule but it represents a loophole that makes it easier to get the RCD

PM sent, but don't know if you can do PMs yet; if not, email me at keeping.up@btinternet.com. I could come with you, and we could do it in the timescale required, if you are reasonably fit & able so we can do long days. With over 50 years experience on the cut, & knowing every inch of that route, it would be easy.

The moorings on the river just above Osney lock, from there to Osney Bridge, are excellent. It is still only a few minutes walk into the centre of town from there; also there is a big supermarket a few minutes away in the other direction (and a launderette). If they are full, you can also moor on the river immediately beyond the Sheepwash junction.

I had new floors welded in my lockers to raise them by 1" because I was not happy that under certain circumstances of load etc the floor was on the water line. The consequence of a slight leak in the floor when the boat was unattended would have been a sunken boat. Then I had to repeat the exercise after having the boat overplated because that put the floor below the water line again. Then the bottles wouldn't fit and I had to have the sides raised too, but the end result was 100% satisfactory. Our arrangement is slightly unusual, with one bottle either side at the stern so a high pressure pipe (not hose) passes through the engine bay inside a conduit. I have had BSS inspectors try to fail this arrangement, based on their own made-up interpretations of the rules, but I also have a letter from the BSS people giving their approval to it so I have always gained the required pass.

I was once steering through Leicester and wound the wheel all the way up to see how fast the boat would go, and it came right off so I couldn't reduce speed. So I pulled on the rod to find neutral and the vibration had undone the nuts so it also came off completely. So at full throttle in forward gear, I dived into the engine hole and shut off the diesel, then prayed that the engine would stop before we reached the top end of Ladies Mile (it did, just) I once had to steer a boat where the rod changed the throttle and the wheel changed the gear. It was AWFUL.

I can remember walking in a Welsh valley near to Criggion radio station carrying a fluorescent tube, and being able to read the Morse code messages as the tube flashed on and off with the RF transmission.

Plus one for that one

My Beta manual says on one page that the oil should be changed before the winter to get rid of harmful acids, but on another page it says it should be changed after the winter because of the condensation caused by the cold weather. I refuse to do both!

One other issue that has not been mentioned here is the fact that if you look directly at the bright patch of light on the wall that is generated by your own torch, you will destroy your own "night vision" so that you will have trouble seeing properly when you look forwards again

This has always puzzled me. Surely when the boat is left standing for a long period such as this, all the oil will have drained into the sump and will be nowhere near any "vital bits" ???

The boat engine is unlikely to have been stressed as much as a car engine, nor revved as high, so a higher number of hours would be expected. Some engines are designed to be long-lived, others are designed to be disposable. For example old Perkins engines were designed to be everlasting (and many still appear to be so) but our original engine in 1991 was the Perkins MC42, the first of their modern range (based on a fork-lift engine); despite rigorous servicing and much replacement of parts it showed signs of wear after 10000 hours until after about 15000 hours it was completely worn out and not worth rebuilding. Our replacement was a Beta 43, which after 4000 hours seems to be just nicely run-in and will probably last for ever.

I've had problems at that same lock with that same volocky. Last year, as I walked down to the full lock, with the boat loosely tied to the lock mooring, I was about to open the gate to go in when he quickly wound up the bottom paddles for a boat that was yet to even enter the bottom lock. When I challenged him he got very angry and said that I should show more consideration because the upcoming boat was being steered by a disabled single-hander. When we met the other boat, it turned out to be a hireboat with a fit crew of 6 adults.

Exactly this ^^^

If it's only right at the back of the shaft, it could be water that has come in through the stern tube plus (as Tony suggests) old oil on top or even used stern-tube grease which certainly drips out of mine if the nuts are a bit loose.