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Keeping Up

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Posts posted by Keeping Up

  1. In any area of work - boats, cars, houses, roads, electrics, etc - there are cowboy operatives who do a bad job. To then condemn all work as bad practice which must be avoided, is simply ludicrous (unless of course you are a surveyor who has a vested interest in generating work for your favourite boatyard). The above article only just stops short of saying that all welding should be avoided when building a boat in the first place. To suggest that all overplating is bad, and quoting specific examples where the aforementioned cowboy hasn't properly welded the overplating and hasn't done his homework on depth and stability etc, is simply crazy. To recommend that you remove the entire outer of a hull, plus the interior at all those places, leaves you without anything at all! A narrowboat such as ours - which is the one referenced above that went from 6mm after 24 years to 1mm a year later - which has been properly and carefully overplated by a  highly professional and extremely experienced boatyard is every bit as sound as it was before the repairs suddenly became necessary.

    • Greenie 1
  2. I was recently told by a reliable source (a re-seller of Marine 16, who buys it in bulk and markets it under his own brand label) that yes the recommended quantity is correct if you suspect a mild case of the bug that needs to be cured, but that as a purely preventative measure then one-half of that amount is correct, ie 1ml per 2 litres of fuel, so a 500ml bottle is sufficient for 1000 litres of fuel. He assured me that Marine-16 agree with this, but do not print it on their own bottles because then they would only sell half as much.

  3. 54 minutes ago, frangar said:

    They will proabably be offended by my engine too... and i do like an early start.....

    I remember once setting my alarm clock for 4 a.m. to get an early start (whilst on the BCN Challenge) but instead being woken at 3.45 by the sound of an approaching Bolinder. In comparison to the raucous screech of an alarm clock, it was like being woken by the sweetest of music!

    • Greenie 2
  4. 2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

    ...  unless you are couting the ungated stop lock at the start of the Ashby.

    I always love to stop there and pretend to work through that lock, pushing the imaginary gates and winding the imaginary paddles. It sure confuses any boat that is following me, especially when I stop and back-set it for them!

    • Greenie 1
  5. 4 hours ago, Richard10002 said:


    The Varta Hobby had quite a good reputation when I was researching them some years ago. Particularly in the Motorhome and caravan community IIRC.

     

    Unfortunately, I managed to kill them just as easily as any other LA battery I bought :( 

    Many years ago I had a set of Varta Hobby batteries, and they gave great service for over 5 years so then I bought a new set; they lasted for just over 2 weeks. It turned out they had changed the formula to include calcium and we were the first UK customers of the new type. When the replacement set also died within 2 weeks it was clear that they had got things totally wrong, and they withdrew the entire range from the market for about 4 months while they re-engineered them. We of course got our money back. Yes they reintroduced them, with calcium, but they have never been as good since.

  6. On 07/05/2021 at 22:28, Tacet said:

    Are you not mistaking the Severn estuary for the Bristol Channel?

     

    It's all so confusing around there! When we set out from Sharpness once we met a cruiser who had come down the Avon from Stratford to Tewkesbury, then down the Severn, and was heading for Portishead so he could rejoin the Avon there and thus travel back up to Stratford.

    • Haha 3
  7. 1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

    That and other issues are what made boating fun and enjoyable - every day a challenge or as IBM puut it an oportunity.

    Now it's silent engines, humongous electric cookers / microwaves  / showersthat want different technology or at least lead acid traction batteries - so everyone fits inadequate automotive batteries and whinges about them.

     

    Ah well, all in the past for us the Management has called an end to our boating (no fun single handed)

    Anyone want a 60 foot NB with all sorts of bells and whistles??

    I agree with you 100%. For exactly the same reason, after we have completed one final trip next month, there will also be a 67ft NB available (with all bells and whistles)

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