davidg

Errrrr.....hang on a minute Alan. The deckboard, engine 'ole & cabin sides should be taller on a little boat which roughly compensates for that 7". If you want me to name a boat which got this point seriously wrong I'll tell you tomorrow.

Oooh. I can hear the spluttering from Dadford's wharf from here.

Or Llanfarian Kemp? (You'll struggle to find it, I did.)

Sounds a bit like the Adverc cycling, which is what it should do, but the on/off times should be more like 10minutes on/5minutes off (without looking it up). The voltage looks high too, again from memory I think the Adverc should cycle between 14V and 14.4V. The high voltage seen could depend on where it is being measured. The Adverc will try and produce 14.4V at the battery but if the measurement you see is taken near the alternator that voltage will be higher. The Adverc measures both and if the difference gets too high it should flash a warning. It means bad connection/wiring too thin somewhere down the line.

The Super D just out of shot on the right? Nah, it's the gate paddles.

Try Thorntons in Shrewsbury for bearings

I have some copper head gaskets if you are still looking

Depends which bridge you mean Pete. The Fosse bridge isn't the same bridge as the WFCo bridge and I regularly took pairs through the Fosse road bridge in the eighties though the bushes growing out of the old bridge could get a bit interesting for the cabin on the offside. The bridge below WFCo however...we told the Friends of President, did they listen? Forget how long it took to get them out.

Kharma, for the speed he came past the boat I was working on at Tomlow. I thought eny fule kno you couldn't get a pair breasted through that bridge.

Barrow plus a ruck of other boats from the Stretton arm, some old, some not so old. And hopefully Reginald.

Well if it was the other way up you would bang your head on the deadlight! (I would be among those with the sore head). And the shower door wouldn't open.

Buckden has a new engine room and cabin and at a guess a fair proportion of new platework (I can't remember how much). Major work was done at Brinklow Boat Services in 2006. It may look original and a fair bit of time was put into research but H&W it ain't.

While the rudder is out, after you have cleaned the rudder tube out tie a piece of rag to the end of a stick and give it a liberal dose of grease, then use the stick to poke it down the tube and cover the inside of the tube with grease

Not sure about the status of the towpath Mike. From Smeaton Lane bridge down to the main line is Rose Narrowboats private moorings and for perfectly good reasons there are "No public access" signs by the bridge and by the swing bridge over the main line of the canal. On our side of the bridge we generally don't mind people wandering up the towpath to have a look but a shout across can help deflect suspicious looks/questions. We certainly don't mind people having a look round the yard but bear in mind it is a working boatyard with lots of banging/sparks/trip hazards going on so making your presence known is wise. Down the woodwork end all is calm & peaceful however.

As I understand it the person responsible for RCD compliance is "normally the person who completes the boat". I'd have to look up where this came from but the question is: who completes the boat? Of course it would be ludicrous to ask the painter to oversee RCD compliance but if they are the last person writing invoices why not? When is a boat complete? And of course the CIN hinges on this because as currently specified it contains the completion date, which is another reason it would be better for the hull builder to provide the CIN with hull completion date coded into it. The boat completion date (whenever that is) can be on the declaration and in the technical file.

I think this discussion typifies the confusion and unsatisfactory nature of the way the HIN/CIN works. The whole RCD apparatus seems to operate on the basis that a customer goes to a boat shop to buy a boat in the same way that they would go to a car shop to buy a car or a bread shop to buy a loaf of bread: this is not, usually, the way canal boat building works and the RCD procedure has to be bent around to accommodate this. It is perfectly possible that the person responsible for signing off the RCD declaration - the last person to work on the boat - could be the boat painter or person who does the upholstery, after everyone else has signed their annex IIIA declaration. Try running that past the average upholsterer, particularly when they have to get their stamps/welder out to put the CIN on the boat! It would make more sense for the CIN to be provided by the hull builder. The boat would then have a identity number it could carry through subsequent build stages. Why it wasn't implemented in this way is beyond me but I'm sure the consultants who advised on it had their reasons.

Cleghorn Waring, or whatever they are called nowadays, will sell you a special Hep2o adaptor. Alternatively you could take a Stanley knife to the protruding bit of the fitting; take the rubber washer off first.

For the beams I would use iroko, it will outlast you. Unfortunately if you make the planks out of iroko they would need a crane to lift them so use douglas fir, as already been suggested. I believe douglas fir/oregon pine are the same tree depending which side of the US/Canada border you come from, or something like that.. I would make the beams the same width as the outside of the beam chocks and step the ends in to fit inside. The mast beam is wider in the middle to accommodate the housing for the mast without chopping too much of the beam away, Sculptor's looks about right, could possibly be made a bit wider maybe. They are usually done with ex. 2" sawn so as thick as you can get away with from that when planed up. I recently replace two of my top planks and to match the existing ones for thickness had to use 2.5" - ouch.

Came across this while looking at some other photos* in the NRM archive: Caption reads "Canal lock about 1900" and description says "Lock on the Shropshire Union Canal near Chester...." Given that later there is this: Captioned "Tub Boat on the Shropshire Union Canal, about 1900" I would guess both are on the Shropshire tub boat canals. My chimney certainly wouldn't fit under that gate even when fully raised. Both photos copyright National Railway Museum and SSPL *The luggage transporter at Manchester Victoria if you're interested. Take a look - wonderful piece of kit

And from the opposite direction this is the GC bridge. The train is moving in this one, wonder how long the photographer had to wait to get the shot... Copyright Leicester Museums

Another example where surveyors opinions may differ. I've come across some who insist on a valve if a hose is fitted, classing the appliance as a portable appliance and citing 7.10.1: All portable appliance connection points must be fitted with an isolation valve which is of course at variance with 7.11.1.

Depends on whether the appliance connection is in solid copper or via a hose. If a hose it needs a valve.

Have you tried lifting the collar out of the top of the rudder tube? If it is like mine (and see the photo of Fulbourne) there sufficient room to lift the collar clear of the tube which gives much more wiggle room at the top of the rudder stock & should clear any jamming. Lifting the collar might involve wooden wedges & a hammer or find something to lever it up under the lip which normally overhangs the top of the rudder tube. Watch your fingers because if it does unjam the rudder & rams head is likely to drop a bit.

I've just pulled out an old diary and I find I worked on Albion at WFBCo from November 1992 through to March 1993. Looks like we were putting in the floor bearers & battens in November (there is a reference to "gas heater" but I'm guessing that was to keep us warm!) running through lining to "lights" at the end. I would guess Liam Donnelley (Don) was also involved in the fit out. Steeelwork at that time would most likely have been Ken or Graeme if Dave is denying any knowledge of it. Ken tended to steer away from things like cabins so my money would be on Graeme.

Going back to GUCCCo gear wheels, Brinklow Boat Services had some cast off an original last year and there are still some available. Ring Steve Priest at BBS if you're interested. In conversation with Steve today, he mentioned that Tony Redshaw did have some spot on copies of the bracket for the other end of the clutch rod which houses the bevel gears at one time, cast in bronze as per original. Don't know if Paul still has any of these.