Keeping Up

It's the bit at the bottom that holds all the lumps of metal that have fallen off the gears

There are no prizes! People can rate you on your profile. I've just sent you some!

We were doing about 5mph up the Thames on an 80-ton 120-year old Dutch Barge conversion, which was totally un-manoeuvrable and completely un-stoppable, when a canoeist overtook us and turned in right under our bows where we couldn't see him, then halted broadside on and (we were told by the witnesses) raised one hand and said "Stop". Needless to say, we sunk him.

To return somehwere near-ish to the topic title, our first narrowboat was registered at Hull as a 13-ton ship "complete with all her boats, guns, ammunition, small arms, and appurtenances"

As mentioned above, the Tuesday Night Club covered it all (as far as England/Wales are concerned, not sure about Scotland) then effecively disbanded to explore Ireland and places further afield. Their website is excellent. Maybe Neil Arlidge will come on here and give some more details. In our case we've been to very nearly everywhere that we can reach in the connected system, counting since we first got our own boat in 1987. That DOES include such stretches as the Bristol Channel from Gloucester to Bristol, most of the Middle Levels and the Great Ouse tributaries, the Witham Navigable Drains and Kyme Eau. We have NOT yet explored the Basingstoke Canal (always been stopped when we've been near), the Wednesbury Oak Loop (BCN), the Titford Canal (BCN), the L&L from Wigan to Liverpool, Bow Back Waters, the River Ouse etc (Yorkshire), the Sheffield Canal (we're too long now), the Calder and Hebble Canal (we're too long now), the Rufford Branch (we're too long now), or the Lancaster Canal (we're too long now). There's not much on that list that we can still reach, and we're hoping that maybe we can get to the Basy next year and perhaps add Droitwich to the list too.

They told me also that any oil suitable for the engine owould be suitable for the gearbox (PRM150)

Aren't you eating with us, then?

Get an aerosol of fireproof foam. We got ours from Wickes, it's in a rather fetching shade of pink.

So is the inner parallel and a snug fit in side the collar, or tapered to leave a big gap?

You might be advised to edit the address to change the @ to something else (even the word "at") otherwise the spambots could recognise it and you'll get lots of adverts for things that you probably don't want and don't need. PS my daughter loved being on the boat with us until she reached mid-teens. Then she hated it, and would definitely have supported the childline number - until a couple of years later when she realised it was somewhere she could go with her boyfriend but without parents! After that, every Saturday night the boat keys kept finding their way into her handbag just before she went out.

OK so not completely useless. I could do without having an external gadget though, which would have to be unplugged and put away out of sight every time I park, unless I want to find a hole in the windscreen where it used to be when I come back. I wonder if it is as high a quality as my existing set up, my experience with similar iPod devices is that their FM modulators are nowhere near the broadcast quality. And what about the RDS traffic report facility, which at the moment will interrupt either the FM station I'm listening to or the CD player when an announcement comes through? Given the excellent FM reception I get at the moment, I find it hard to see it as progress.

At which time virtually every existing car radio will become useless - and not necessarily replaceable.

I wouldn't recommend it. Whenever I have tried this, it has led to failure. Just like pure lead, solder has a tendency to crreep into shape under pressure. Try it with some un-melted solder and you'll see what I mean; after melting and solidification it still performs the same, only much more slowly. After you have tightened the screw terminal, it will take about a month or two to become relatively loose, and probably no more than three months to become unacceptably loose to the point where the electrical conection is comprimised. Strangely the BSS rules appear to recommend the technique for battery cables - as a result I believe of a mistaken interpretation of the rules for sea-going boats which require the use of tinned wire as protection against the saline environment. In those sea-going regulations they are referring to wire where each strand is tinned, but that understanding did not migrate to the BSS.

What porpoise do they serve?

Yes I had to put fireproof foam between the skins of my chimney. It was necessary because the inner skin was significantly smaller than the inside diameter of the collar, so hot gases could get up between the skins and condense on the outer one. It seems there are basically two types of double-skin chimney. The type with a seam joint in the outer, generally seem to have a parallel-sided inner skin, which fits snugly inside the collar; there is no need for foam with them. The other type, generally of heavier construction and with no visible seam in the outer (and usually more expensive than the first type) have an inner skin which tapers at about the same rate as the outer skin but narrower at the bottom. These are a loose fit in the collar and may need to be filled with foam. The ones with the parallel inner, however, may not fit if the flue extends all the way to the top of the collar; the ones with the tapered inner may fit well if the flue extends to te top of the collar, and then wouldn't need any foam. At one point there seemed to be a geographical bias; in the north of England most boats had the long flue and used a tapered inner, in the south they had the shorter flue and needed the parallel inner. That geographical split has now become totally randomised. I too find the problem with a coolie hat. I no longer use it if it isn't raining (no need) or if the fire is going well (any rainwater will get vapourised in the flue). I only use it if it is raining or forecast to rain, and the fire is to be allowed to die right down. When not using the fire, I cap the chimney completely.

Putting in another plug, because it has proved very popular and I've had a lot of good feedback from people who have used it, in good weather you may find my Satellite Sundial useful. Just print it out and away you go!

As with most of the long flights, the time you take is often dictated by other traffic. When we came up Audlem this year, we started early in the morning and completed all except the last 2 in just over two hours (that was with just 2 of us, and most of the locks against us). At that point an elderly couple pulled out in front of us, and they took nearly an hour to get through the last two locks.