john6767

If you have a Nicholson's, you should get a good enough idea of where SE is to line up the dish, top of the page is always N. Works for me, although I only use the satellite system when can not get freeview, and you get more channels (OK Dave mainly) you may want to watch on freeview then free to air satellite.

If you mean the width of the actual channel, that is going to vary wildly. It is generally the lock widths that will be the limiting factor, and for narrow canals around the 7ft mark is the limit. So as you say 9'3" will be limited to wide canals. Also what type of boat is it, as the air draft and cabin profile may also be a factor.

So which bridge exactly is it at Stockton? Bridge 26 Stockton Lane is this one and bridge 24 bellow Shop lock is this one So if its the one bellow Shop lock then it does look like the limiting factor is waterline width, where the one by the pub could well limit width above waterline.

So taking those 2 together my assertion would be that it is not a width restriction at the waterline, but rather an above water restriction due to the bridge profile that in many cases limits the practical width to 12' 6".

That's what it says to me.

I studied that when we went through in August. I failed to see how having a control box on each side actually helps, both sides seemed perfectly accessible so I would have thought one control box would have been adequate. Am I missing something?

The Waterscape guide says this about the beam on the northern GU, reads rather ambiguously to me.

Not travelled after dark that many times, a couple of occasions spring to mind though. Leicester Line back to Calcutt Marina, we were held up a Watford locks this time last year, so got late and it was dark when we were about halfway between Braunston and Napton. Almost every boat we passed someone stuck their head out a scowled, so I think many people do believe it is not allowed to travel after dark. A good number of those would have been hire boats though. Another occasion was in May on the BCN challenge, it fell dark on us at the top on the Cannock Extension canal, which is dead straight. Coming back down a boat (not on the challenge) was going up with his light on. You can see that that was like at 7:40 in the video, I could not see much at all. When we passed he gave be an ear full for not having my light on.

Got the dry mesh stuff under the mattress, as you say it is not absorbent at all, it is an open mesh that provides an air gap between the bed base and the mattress.

Hopefully just bad luck, and glad to see it has not put you off. Possibly you are right to some extent, fewer boats means a bit more chance of stuff like this, and there is less of the "safety in numbers" effect I guess.

I filled the greaser early on in the summer. The grease tin was almost empty so I filled it using the screwdriver and finger method poking it in and trying to get out a much air as possible. Afterwards greaser was not turning down tight after a turn or 2 each night after cruising, and I kept thinking must adjust it, but there was only a bit of water getting in and being caught in a ice cream tub have underneath, so never got round to it. I refilled the grease at the begining of Sept from a new tin of grease using the, hold it over the hole on the plate and push down whilst unwinding the screw, method. On putting it back the greaser now goes solid after a turn or 2, and little water getting in. I can only put it down to air in the grease not making the greaser turn down tight, and letting some water in. I guess it probably means it needs adjusting too.

I have a Boaters Phone Co. one and it certainly does work. It is just using the strap adapter and in the marina it takes it from the point where the phone is not usable inside the boat to having a good reliable signal. I would however suspect the improvement is by getting an aerial outside the boat, not sure what it would do if you did not have some usable signal outside in the first place.

Rob, we moor at Calcutt, and the difference between Vodafone and 3 is the same for us so I think that is the dominant factor here, not your equipment. I get a very good signal on 3 on a ZTE MF112 dongle, but struggle inside the boat to get any signal on my phone on Vodafone. The masts for 3 and Vodafone are close to each other in Southam, so not really sure why the big difference.

Not sure I can go with some of your points c of g and c of b are not forces, they are points in space about which forces act/pass through. Clearly if the boat is at rest the actual forces are equal (Newton). I can not see why the c of g must be above the c of b for a boat to float, the location of these points does not affect if a boat floats or not, only its stability. A Google search tells me that some sail boats are designed with the c of g below the c of b to provide stability. Not sure it really is more complicated, it just the location of the c of g and c of b is it not? Using a narrowboat example if you put the ballast on the cabin roof rather than the base plate, the g of g would be raised, and the boat would be more unstable (I guess you could argue about the definition of unstable here, but for this purpose it is how easy it rolls). With the ballast on the base plate the c of g will be lower than if it were on the roof, and you must be able to get to the point adding more ballast on the base plate that the c of g goes below the c of b. I can not see why that can not happen, even if it's not a good thing. This I can agree with

The Leicester ring takes much more than a week to do, so if it will be a week it rules that out. Loads of people do the Warwickshire ring in a 1 weeks hire, but you will need to put is a few decent days. You will get tuition from them all (I hope), and depending on the company they will help you through your fist locks. It's not hard, so don't worry. There are many hire companies on the ring, some suggestions to look at would be Kate Boats, Calcutt Boats, Napton Narrowboats, Black Prince (at Wigrams), Union Canal Carriers, Rose Narrowboats.

That is what meant by my closing comment. I fully accept that the general case for boats is that the centre of buoyancy it below the centre of gravity ,and that the boat is unstable, until if rolls at which point the centre of buoyancy shits and it generates a righting moment, unless it rolls to far and woops.... I was just wondering, in the case of a narrowboat can you get the case where the c of g is below the centre of buoyancy in the steady state condition. A ex-working boat ballasted with slabs would seem to be a good candidate?

I would say the purpose is basically to make the boat more stable, but in a narrowboat I would suggest also partly to put more of the boat under water, ie make it sit lower in the water so you can get the prop under water for example. For boat stability there are 2 things to consider the "centre of buoyancy" and the "centre of gravity". Basically if the centre of gravity is lower than the center of buoyancy the boat is intrinsically stable. The centre of buoyancy is the centre of gravity of the displaced water, so with a narrowboat that you could as a first approximation consider to have vertical sides, that would put the centre of buoyancy halfway between the surface of the water and the bottom of the boat. It you put mass in the bottom of the boat you can lower the location of the centre of gravity of the boat towards the centre of buoyancy. The closer it gets the more stable it gets. I think that is correct, my physics may be a bit rusty though! What I don't know is with a typical narrowboat, is the centre of gravity actually lower than the centre of buoyancy, ie intrinsically stable, or is it the more general case where it is above until the boat rolls?

Don't know what the fuss is about, had no problem is turning round there is August. Was warned by the Cotswold Canals Trust trip boat about the shallows on the left as you approach the bend, and the prop did stir up gravel off the bed as I turned, but there was never an issue getting round.

I do agree we are based at Calcutt, and with Napton closed and the culvert at Lower Shuckbourgh stopping us getting to Braunston, Leamington is the only direction we can go and that is straight into 20 locks, not good for a relaxing weekend out!

We were moored outside the Wharf at Fenny Compton on Friday night. Loads of water on the summit level, and loads coming down Napton. No problems at all, and coming back on Saturday was great, sun shining, no moored boats and only passed 3 boats until we got to the top of Napton to find ourselves 4th in line for the locks. Was then busy all the way down, mostly all the half term hire boats that left on Friday coming up.

Thanks, you learn something new every day! I will give it a try at the weekend.

Have I understood this correctly. The engine cooling water circulates through a coil in the calorifier and heats up the domestic hot water. Also the central heating water circuit goes through a second coil in the calorifer so that can also provide domestic hot water. What I had not thought about is circulating the c/h water without the gas boiler lit so that the radiators are heated from the hot water in the calorifier. Is that what you are saying works, which would basically be free heat to the radiators whilst the engine is running.

Am I the only one that thinks the standard keys with the hex and bar, are really poor for the water/diesel fillers. The bar is not very wide and does not fit the slot well. I use a "bicycle" spanner which the end of fits the slot nicely!