davidg

This one? There are quite a few similar photos from the Somerset levels.

Not quite Ray, we would never have built something so.........err, distinctive. The boat first appeared tied up on the offside near Nelson Lane bridge in Warwick. It was subsequently moved to WFBCo and the bulbous bits added to create more internal space so the owner could live on it.

My money would be on someone who can't spell immersion (heater)

Spoilsport ?

Cripes, I've been selling mine to people too cheaply. One box turned up on ebay several years ago, when I won the auction the seller said they had four boxes, would I like the lot. It has turned out to be a very long term investment, not sure if I'm ahead yet.? They are very sweet little switches; unlike the secondhand ones which turn up regularly the sprung contacts haven't got lazy so they have a very satisfying positve action.

Of course you could use switches which swing both ways like these. I might know someone who has a stock of brand new (in about 1950) old stock?

There's a rather fine pub in Huddersfield called The Slubbers Arms. Gets a bit crowded before and after Town games.

Lifted from the CRT archive, I was actually looking for a different photo but came across this one. Looking at it again the headlamp on the motor boat to the left of the Edgware is also offset, and dropped. To address the original question: I picked up a good condition headlamp on ebay a couple of weeks ago for £20 to replace the one which has self destructed after 37 years on the boat. I took it off to repaint it for possibly the first time to discover the difficulty of getting paint to stick to the holes which should be metal.

Obviously nobody in the Grand Union Canal Company told their counterparts in the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company that. Note also the offset headlamp on the Edgware which I don't think anyone has had the cojones to replicate yet, probably because it looks so odd.

Ah, so in extremis then, we've all had to do that, if only you'd said that.

Really? So what purpose does the "non slip quality" serve then?

No you don’t.

@Graham_Robinson might be along in a bit if he can be bothered

Bit of a rough shunt!

Perhaps we should try another track, how about: Not sure how many days. I thought it was getting better, but until today I haven't had a cough, now I do. This could get worse before it gets better. I have original pressings of both of these, must be worth all of....25p?

And I immediately thought of this....

One thing that worked when I had this problem recently was: 1. Drain the calorifier 2. Remove the thermostat & anything else loose on the immersion heater 3. Trim back the foam spray round the boss, how far you go depends on how well ventilated the space is 4. Get as much if the foam off the copper in the trimmed back area as you can. This isn't going to be pleasant if you don't 5. Play a blowlamp around the boss for about thirty seconds 6. Put the box spanner on and turn it. The one I did this to came out by hand on the spanner without using the tommy bar 7. When you have fitted the new heater get a can of squirty foam and restore the insulation round the boss Depends what access is like of course. Mine was under a cruiser stern on a widebeam in a space where social distancing would be possible, side mounted on a vertical calorifier.

Beware anything deep with a glass lid if it is going back against the hullside.

Were one to put scumble on top of that I shudder to think of how it would look; it's aluminium wood primer.

How about RAL5012?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.......................

The bridge which the boat couldn't get through isn't the Blue Lias bridge, it's the one below Shop Lock and this is also the bridge Tranquil Rose couldn't pass through. It was possible to get a pair of boats through the Lias bridge provided that either 1) One of them didn't have a cabin on it and you put it on the outside or 2) One of them had a cabin you wished to remove and were prepared to go into the bridgehole hard enough The 12ft dimension which has been quoted for the Lias bridge is pretty meaningless as it is the arch which is the issue there. Wide beam boats often have to resort to dropping the pound to get through, causing damage to boats moored in that pound and up Kayes Arm. Bickley's bridge has also proved problematic for boats built at Delta Marine in the past: a former Bascote lock keeper had to prevent a hammer and chisel being taken to the arch with the words "Oh no you're ****ing not" when told what was about to happen. I'm told this isn't the first time Tranquil Rose has stuck in New Bridge (not a name in common usage for it, in many years of going over or under it this may be the first time I've used it), they got stuck last year too.

Read Pete Harrison’s comments: it never was.

<cough>Mandy Rice-Davies<cough>

Word on the cut is that they did an underwater survey yesterday. It's Higton by the way.