Rose Narrowboats

It's always been known as "racking" round these parts.

We used to fit the Shield LM110s in our hire fleet and also retail them. We stopped dealing with them about 5 years ago having become very dissatisfied with their performance. Their rep. admitted (after we had taken the business elsewhere) that they had dropped the quality to keep price down. From memory I'm also fairly sure he said the LM series are Chinese made and just filled with acid on arrival in the UK; not that I have anything against Chinese made batteries per se. Like most cheaper lead-acids, they have "lead calcium technology" which they will tell you has all sorts of benefits such as better recovery from over discharge, but they don't mention the 25% per month self-discharge rate and I suspect a vastly reduced cycle life*. They were averaging less than two years on the hire fleet towards the end of our time with them, in some cases failing** before batteries twice their age with the same label on. Shield's product may have improved since then - it certainly needed to. * We also tried a Yuasa product recommended by another supplier. Their idea of a "heavy duty off grid leisure battery" (according to the label) turned out to have a cycle life of 80 - so less than three months. None of them lasted a season and Yuasa wouldn't warrant a single one of about 20, because according to them they weren't intended for continued use off shore power. They weren't cheap either. ** We test batteries fairly regularly and replace them when they drop below 80A/hrs in the case of 110A/hr. I should also point out that some other makes (Exide for one) claiming to be 110A/hr actually couldn't provide 80A/hr on a C20 test when brand new. I haven't found a decent lead-acid since: We used a few Leoch SLAs as a stop-gap but as expected they didn't last for us either, then upgraded to Leoch AGM's. I was very pleased with them initially but a high percentage of them seem to fall off a cliff capacity-wise at around three years old in the hire fleet - they're still okay at older than that in private boats we look after. Currently we're running sets of AGM's from several different suppliers in the hire fleet, but none of them are old enough to have an opinion on them yet - and by the time we do trust them, they'll probably no longer be available! I still miss the old orange top Fulmens.....you knew where you were with those (a chiropractor, usually).

https://vcmarine.co.uk/boat-sales/merlin-60ft-tug-style-narrowboat/ It definitely is one of Malcolm's then.

To me that doesn't look like one of Mr Braine's - the T&G in his boats had a simple vee shaped groove, and the frames aren't of quite the right proportions or spacing to me eye. Dave's suggestion of CTS is a good one. I'm sat nice and warm in one of Malcolm's cabins as type this and it's -5C outside. In terms of insulation the pitch pine used by Malcolm (and I expect CTS cabins were very similar) was one and an eighth inches thick so it has a fairly good R-value. They originally had a roofing felt (or tar paper) layer between the pine and the masonite outer layer. In 1994 when we put the steel skin on in place of the masonite we replaced the felt like for like and welded carefully, The woodwork is 50 years old this year, and bar a few marks caused by leaking windows is perfect condition. Condensation has never been an issue. I was pleasantly surprised to see that according to the current thread on here about coal, I'm not using any more than anyone else; about 10kg per day for all my heating and hot water despite having relatively large windows.

Pluto's BWB list must be early 70s as it still shows Maid Line at Stretton Stop - Rose took it over in 1972 - and a host of other names who were well established by 1980 in this area aren't on there.

When we sold her some time ago she was powered by an ST3 (so 30hp and plenty of oomph) with a large front pulley and a 70Amp A127 with one of our own design Ampower Services alternator controllers. Central heating was by an Alde 2928 gas boiler, fridge (with freezer compartment in the top) was 12v. About four hours cruising a day was "steady state" in terms of fully recharging the batteries. She's clearly been modified (including the addition of solar) somewhat since we sold her though. I still regret forgetting to take the stickers of the side before we sold her.

It's an old (obsolete) Shurflo one. The newer Shurflo ones, whilst looking different are dimensionally identical where it matters and much better designed. The one you have is held together by three plastic lugs, which go brittle with age and snap, causing the filter to quietly drain the contents of your water tank into the boat, so if it were mine I'd be changing it sooner rather than later, especially as it seems to be rigidly plumbed in which makes the lugs more likely to fail.

Thanks for posting that Pluto - it's nice to see an article written by my Grandfather. In 2013 length inspections (on foot) were done quarterly, with an annual inspection done by boat with a senior engineer onboard. Several years ago (2016 IIRC) the frequency of inspections was halved with the exception of certain key assets.

For the life of me I cannot see how you work out there is a paddle up at the tail of the lock? What am I missing?

Yep - we had approximately 70 litres spilt into the cut* by a multi-user boat on our water point a few years ago, and that was exactly same reaction I got. In the end the EA said they'd send someone out - who never turned up - and we cleaned it up as best we could, but before it had fetched the blacking of some of our boats. I expect everyone passing hrough thought we'd done it. *Unsurprisingly this is what happens when you put your water hose into the filler clearly marked diesel, and then go below for breakfast.

Ask 30 people, you'll probably get 40 different answers. Excel is very corrosive in my experience, but does burn well. Stoveglow is okay, Winterblaze is the best I've ever used: I get very little ash from it (but I've heard others say the opposite) and a very even heat. If you are rich and need smokeless, then try Homefire Ovals; anything smokeless I've ever tried needs the ashpan emptying twice a day compared to every other day with Winterblaze.

Hence my comment about when they fall out of favour again We've been here before, but you seemingly can't stop people trying to re-invent the wheel. I do wonder if this is more to do with capacity than cost? It would be awfully embarrassing just as Bulbourne is redeveloped to have to admit that they shouldn't have closed Bulbourne and Bradley workshops......

On the one hand I'm uncomfortable with the notion that a local authority can tell a navigation authority how to manage it's assets (how did BWB lose so many of its powers?) but at the same time there's no-one else to hold the current set-up to account. If steel piling is acceptable (though there were those in BW such as Peter White who hated it) then surely steel gates are acceptable - to a point. Likewise much original paddle gearing has gone (eg Coventry Canal bottom gates) with barely a murmur of protest I agree that it needs to be considered on a case by case basis. On some the lesser used bits of the BCN for example, I think steel gates and balance beams would be no brainer - at least until the phantom balance beam hacker trades his chain saw in for an angle grinder. Other places could be composite: wooden balance beams are much more tactile, and changing the balance beam is not a big job. I doubt many people would even notice the steel gate. Finally places such as Foxton should be kept as original as possible. I'd suggest that there should be a minimum of say one lock per flight or stretch of canal that is kept in original condition so that the original appearance and construction skills are not lost for the time in the future when steel gates go out of favour again. I'm not sure bouyancy is a major consideration on narrow locks - the cast iron ones on the Oxford work well - there just needs to be enough weight in the balance beam to er, balance it.... Anthony Grantham

There were two pairs called Rose & Castle. The first pic Ray has posted is not the pair that operated on the Mon & Brec as they were full length.

It raised a few eyebrows at the time amongst other operators, but then the whole hotel boat industry pretty well imploded around that time anyway with most of the pairs stopping and the old hands moving away or giving up. Sad really - it was the last commercial activity keeping proper pair boating skills alive and it just faded away almost without comment.

Tsarina was built by John Pinder and originally powered by a steam plant which only lasted lasted one season before being replaced by a Lister SR3. Tsarevna was built by Hancock & Lane and due to the original choice of engine for Tsarina they traded as the Steam Charter Co. The chap who had them built had worked for IWHC on Snipe and Taurus, hence the similarities between the pairs. Andy and Christine Newman bought them in 1982/3, took the SR out and replaced it with a 2-cylinder H series (HA or HB) and ran them in their company (Charter Cruising Co) until sometime in the mid-late 90s. They didn't stay in trade for long after that (I seem to recall the new owners offered a vegan only menu which was a very quick way of getting rid of the established customer base!) but IIRC they spent some years moored at the top of Hatton after they ceased trading. Edit to add: The postcard in Matty40s post shows them still with the name of the first owner, Steve Rees-Jones, on the butty back cabin.

This is exactly what we saw on a number of workboats built in the late 70s/early 80s which we were surveyed here. About half had been epoxied from new, the rest had been blacked, and one of them had much love since. The epoxied ones looked quite good at first glance, and the blacked ones quite scruffy. However the epoxied ones were peppered with deep pits and needed extensive steework. The blacked ones, whilst having a a very uneven surface had generally lost no more than 0.5mm and were fit for further service. Despite this, the owner opted to have them epoxied...... I think steel quality is the most important factor. As I'm typing this my feeet are being kept by a 1/4" thick steel baseplate that is 50 years old attached to iron sides that will be 85 years old at the end of this month. The last survey found nothing worse than 1.5mm seep pitting in the baseplate. When it finally does need replacing I'm thinking about trying Corten. From a cost benefit point of view I suspect that it is generally not worth spending the money trying to prolong the life of the baseplate by coating the underside of it, but concentrate instead on keeping the inside of it dry. I have seen a lot of boats which have gone from the inside out - particularly ex-hire boats in the area around the bathroom.

Parts for the 4900 are starting to become hard to get. I reconditioned two for my own boat last (the first one lasted over 40 years, so I reckon two should see me out...) but in both cases the shafts were worn, and they are no longer available as a spare from Jabsco so we machined some up. They have a carbon ring rather than conventional packing in the gland - that was still available last time I checked. Early versions of the pump have replaceable bronze bushes in the end plate and main body for the shaft and a brass wear disc behind the impeller, so as long as you know someone with a lathe they are repairable almost infinitely. Later ones don't have the bushes - but can always be bored out and have them fitted. Watch out for cracking on the inside face of the endplate - I think they suffer from it if they've been run dry and got too hot.

A good friend of mine bought the back end of Ariel from Ed Mortimer when he was at Macclesfield and that was the point the boat was cut just ahead of the engine room - the straight bit of sides ahead of there, which was more like 15' from memory and the pointy end (applied by BWB at Northwich IIRC) Jona decided weren't worth having as the top of the hull had previously been cut down to the top guard and needed refooting. The back end went to WFBCo for the attention of Mr Priest, but Jona didn't go ahead with it and eventually sold it back to Ed who had Graham Pearson rebuild as it is basically is today. As for the "middle bit" Ed decided to put a motor back end on it - which was built by Mike Heywood, not WFBCo as the advert implies - with the intenton of using it as a workboat, and called it Belgium. The next owner decided to rename it Ariel.

All the injector pump spares are still available - however at the cost of them very few people will spend the money on a properly reconditioned pump. The so called "reconditioned" pumps commonly available for around £300 pounds are no more than a clean, new seal kit and calibrate as best as possible given that most of the moving parts are now well past their wear tolerance. Some work okay, some don't. The water pump situation has improved now - I think all variants are available as pattern parts. I doubt (even given the availbility of the fuel to run them on) Kubota's will be around in 50 years time as they are just not as rebuildable as the BMCs are/were.

For balance, the only dent in my favourite hireboat (built by Brinklow Boats, so she's not fragile) was caused by a private boat on a 2am jaunt back from the pub at Newbold. If there hadn't been other victims of said idiots, I probably wouldn't have believed my hirers to be honest, the dent is that bad. We never did formally identify the other boat, although there was a boat in the area for a while which matched its description and had a freshly split open stem post.....

And I suspect more will now stop selling it as well. I think we will - it's too much of a theft risk. Plus we'll still have our duty of care to HMRC versus the user's right to self declaration conundrum as per Alan's quote.

It depends on the context. As number applied to a boat it was just part of the normal index number system introduced by BWB 1981. The 90000 series was originally allocated to shorter craft (I should know this, but I think it was vessels under under 20' l.o.a.) Instead of the normal pressed aluminium plates they 9xxxx numbers were issued as stickers to make them easier to attach to dinghies etc.

80621 is a BW asset number and the boat is still in BW livery, so it's safe to say at the time of that photo she was still in use a maintenance boat or very recently disposed of. The bottom photo could be the north end of Fazeley yard - all built over and called Peel's Wharf now.

Assuming of course that it is Taygeta.....either way, best thing for it I think. Some idiot's gone and drilled loads of holes in it so it'll never float anyway.