[Brass double hatch swing latch knob!]

1 hour ago, Cheshire cat said:

Do you mean like this

If they are what you have lost I can tell you where I got some made

That is exactly the thing. 

Please let me know where you had them made.

I had assumed they were standard stuff but they were a special made item for Braidbar, and no longer supplied. 

Either have to find a Braidbar owner with a spare or get them made up seems to be the way. 

 

 

[Brass double hatch swing latch knob!]

Not sure if that's the right term. Anyway, we have these hatch closures, with two brass knobs and a swinging bar piece. You unscrew one knob a turn or two to release the bar in order to open the hatch. 

I was removing trousers from the prop in Leicester at the back and I inadvertently rubbed my back against the rear hatch knob until it dropped off with a clunk, and rolled off the gunnel into the depths. 

Brass doesn't work with the magnet. Too deep to dive too at that spot. 

The problem is - I can't find a replacement anywhere. Not made any more apparently. not surprised if they roll into the cut like that tbh.

But then I thought - someone on here might know different, might know where such a thing could be found. It's a bit specialist but somebody out there will know exactly what that knob is, and where to get one! 

Travelling in hope. 

[Have we past "Peak Canal Network"?]

TBH I haven't read the whole thread so apologise if this has already been covered.

Oak beam locks and bricks made sense, when oak was an easily available resource, courtesy of Nelson era fleet support oak plantation and bricks were all that was available. 

Now it's an expensive material. 

From a purely aesthetic level, I love a good old oak lock. profoundly satisfying. Like a pint of perfect English ale. H

Hundreds of years in the experience. 

But, I suspect a modern, much much cheaper, equally effective low-cost materials approach might be just as effective for navigation. If we want to keep navigating, I think we need to embrace non-traditional materials. 

Perhaps there are particular locks, canals that should be granted heritage protection as a particular attraction, but for much of the system, such things as piped pressurised concrete mousse brickwork reinforcement,  and cheap steel box beam/gate construction might be required - even built around the rotting remains of ancient construction. Painted to match. Wood bits added for rubbing strakes. 

I think Brunel would have danced for joy at such materials. 

Otherwise, it's a one way street isn't it. 

[BMC 1500 - over-heating]

35 minutes ago, hider said:

What do you mean " and now this" ?   Very insulting and unnecessary.  Are you Mr. perfect?

Tony Brook's lifetime experience, and qualifications on boat engine room issues, diagnosis and solutions, plus his training and explanation experience, puts him in a league, that is very very small in the canal world.

I mean, he literally wrote the manual. 

Anything he says on engine room matters, is absolutely worth listening to. 

I'd say, if he says your advice is wrong, there's a very strong likelihood he is right. It's not about ego - so if you have an alternative solution, offer it for consideration.  Nobody is too old to learn. 

I see now, that you have flounced off. 

As for the OP's issue, that sort of disappeared for you didn't it, under the red mist of your own ego. I'd seriously fear anyone going near my engine issues with that kind of issue of their own to sort out. 

[Where has all the water gone?]

Claydon locks has a water issue down at the Cropredy end, where there are some moring's and a small yard with slipway.

The issue is historically related to the stretch above with the moorings, where there is an individual who 'polices' the letting down of water, in part because he regards it as 'his' water, and in part because of some bad feeling towards the moorings and yard lower down. He may well be the farmer with extraction rights mentioned upthread - I don't know. 

Anyone from the area will know and probably have encountered this aggressive character - he once threatened to throw me in the cut when I was trying to let down enough to get off the bottom down there. 

I am sure there is an alternative view of this situation, there always is - but it's one reason you'll ground going up or down there. 

[Sounds of the countryside]

Guns.

It's like a war zone out there with all the herberts in Hunting jackets blasting away at the weekend. Just about to kick off on Scotland with the helicopter hedge fund herberts blasting at the poor grouse being chucked out of their cages. 

[Abuse of Facilities]

Thats awful. I thought the correct way to use self pump out was out in the country into a handy ditch. It's obviously going to make a mess of proper facilities. 

1 minute ago, Midnight said:

What's wrong with a self pumpout into containers which bare then poured into the elsan? What's different to cassettes. Using the drinking water tap to flush out us a bit of a no no. Especially if the end was pushed into the rinse out. 

well, the issue is the shit going in all directions at high velocity. If that's been your experience of cassettes, you've been doing it wrong.

Self-pumpouts should be banned, they are simply an invitation to pump shit out at night. Everyone knows that's what they are for. Remote mooring, put the pipe under water, and move on next day. Everyone knows that's what they are for. Or into the farmers ditch by the towpath. 

Pumping ito containers - ludicrous - where are the controls? You'd need a whole cabled control system to manage the flow. 

I know this because I had a self pump-out on the previous boat. Used it once at a facility, and had to strip down and wash after - backwash. Shit all over. A fountain of it. Took ages to hose down the facility. 

Ban them. 

[Changing a boat's name]

Well, we changed the name of our first boat. 
Over the next 10 years, loads of stuff went wrong. Cost a fortune. 
So much for The ‘it’s just superstition’ brigade. 
I can guarantee if you change the name, things will start going wrong on your boat. 

it’s as certain as if you’d put a curse on it. 

[SLOW DOWN! or maybe not…]

1 hour ago, hider said:

Which just goes to confirm that sarcasm IS  the lowest form of language.

Humour, not language. The lowest form of language is American. Easily confused. 

[SLOW DOWN! or maybe not…]

56 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Proper fenders:  [17" alloys]

 

That beats my shropshire barrow wheels. Mind you I don't see the long gangplank. Problem with the 'shelf' is that the barrow wheels tend to be too floaty. 

I am currently looking at putting in a second bollard at the front, to enable tying up without needing to climb onto the bow, and also to provide triangulation/spring effect. But I definitely don't want a line cunningly laid at perfect trip height for anyone stepping off the boat at night! I can see how that will end. 

[Boat Decision]

That's a handsome boat and I'd have looked at it. Good luck with the sale. In my experience, as the broker isn't buying from you, a good one will give good advice on how to price it. A huge element of the pricing is actually how keen you are to sell, and how quick. Bear inmund that if you leave it for months on brokerage you will have to clean it again. 

[Grab handles on cratch.]

Thanks folks. I’ll go ahead, and the additional mooring cleat is a great idea.

[Grab handles on cratch.]

Neither of us is as nimble as we used to be. Both finding it hard to step up onto the foredeck in front of the cratch for mooring etc. 

I'd like to fit a couple of grab handles to help, facing forward on the cratch, nice and sturdy. The cratch assembly should cope. I was thinking of using a pair of vintage double door handles I have had in the shed for the last 30 years. they are brass, and ideally need chroming or nickel plating to match the new boat metalwork. 

Anyone know any reason this is a mistake?

And, what's the way to get stuff plated? 

[Canal in Leicester.]

Seems I may have been a bit harsh in my judgement of the fair city of Leicester. We’ll be back later in the year, and stopping at friars mill. 

[Canal in Leicester.]

It's 10 years since we last went through Leicester. Last time we'd hoped to moor in the main drag safe moorings, and visit the cathedral. But that wan't possible because the moorings were tiny and full. We thought at the time that Leicester doesn't seem to value its waterfront.

Anyway, 10 years on. Coming the other way, heading south. Encounter a wide beam just above leicester, with its prop completely destroyed, shaft damaged, cutlass broken and mount bolt sheared from an obstruction. New boat, experienced owners. They'd poled the wide beam a couple of miles to moor. They had invited friends from Canada to experience the magic of boating Englands waterways and been sabotaged by refuse.

 

Proceeding into leicester we encountered one of the worst rubbish filled shallow pounds I've seen in 20 years boating.  

council tip as the boat that joined us commented. The stink off the canal was foul. 

Just after the first lock, another boat, small job with and outboard, prop smashed off. Same location, different direction. 

We took clothing, rubbish sacks and a seemingly infinite elastic off our own prop. 

We decide not to moor, on the main drag, even though there are now what look like OK moorings, but the whole main stretch was 'no mooring' due to a 'waterside festival'. It doesn't look like safe mooring anyway, unless you want to stock up on skunk. 

They could start the 'waterside festival' event by clearing out the reefs of matted fermenting rubbish sacks, mattresses, clothing, and bottles?

But I don't think that's going to happen is it. 

Best thing about Leicester is the view as you get out of it.

This is all odd because, the local parks are astoundingly good. Both North and south, fantastic nature parks, cycle routes etc. But It's like the canal and river are simply ignored. 

 

[The Leicester Ring Interactive Map]

Very good, public service there. I am sure that will be useful to future boaters. 

[The Leicester Ring Interactive Map]

Definitely worth including on the map I'd have thought. 

We only know about the dogging aspect because we had the last mooring, which is directly by the little car park. I was wondering why cars were parked up so long with people in and their lights on! 

[Canal book recommendation]

37 minutes ago, Up-Side-Down said:

Which leads me to reflect on the moral fibre of improper bacon ........

There's not a lot of any sort of fibre, moral or otherwise,  in most of the stuff sold as bacon these days. It releases so much water into the pan that it boils rather than fries. Yuck. 

[The Leicester Ring Interactive Map]

We stopped, going anticlockwise, about 5 hrs after Braunston. Unfortunately I can't recall the name of the place but it was by a little car park adjacent to the canal, in a wooded area. It's just before the cutting where the towpath is closed. 

Turns out it is a dogging site! Also drug dealing during the day, but it certainly picked up as the light faded. Seems quite popular with the locals. 

Just so folk know. I couldn't see it on your map. 

 

[Canal book recommendation]

We stopped at Foxton last week and popped into the shop at 'Lock 61'.

They have an outstanding extensive collection of old canal books and related interest books there, loads of rare stuff that's out of print.

All down to the lady enthusiast who scours books sales across the country to add to the collection. Given the effort that must go into finding the books, very reasonably priced. 

Plus, a fine bacon butty made with proper bacon! 

[As we leave Chester]

If Hack Green is closed, I think that is where the nuclear bunker is. That is well worth a visit - truly chilling insight into the cold war era. 

Worth a visit while you wait. 

[can this dream really come true?]

Absolutely do not buy a new boat for first.

The confidence borne of ignorance is a massive factor in boating, and the evidence is to be found in sale yards across the system, at discount, waiting for the next inexperienced mistake-maker.

I think  it takes living on the boat for a winter to learn what you don't know at the outset, about living aboard, about boat designs, and the 'dream' which can so easily be the 'living nightmare'. 

In my case I learned that winter on the K&A in a narrowboat was pretty awful - claustrophobic, windy and wet, mud from the squelchy towpath, and every few days a cold and wet trip to refill with water. Roasting hot in the front saloon, and very cold in the back bedroom. Cramped conditions and too much time in the same tiny space is not a recipe for happy relationships either. 

Damp muddy clothes, muddy boots, muddy floor, mud everywhere - feeling more and more disconnected and alienated from the world in general and more and more like a vagrant. Of which there are no shortages on the cut. Not so good for mental health. 

What I learned is that I am not hardy enough to live aboard on the cut, and now I am a seasonal boater. 

Retaining some sort of land based accommodation is in my view vital - compromise on boat and land options to enable it, because the one-way jump from land to boat living might be a huge and irreversible mistake. 

[CRT advice to moor using centre line.]

51 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

It's not on their FB page - where did you see it?

Also, what was the advice? I always use the centreline to hold the boat while sorting out the main ropes. If that was their advice, there's no problem, nor if it was to use a slack centre rope if the mooring loks a bit dodgy.

Cant find the post now. It was nothing to do with 'while mooring', but just make sure you moor properly using the centre line. 

Might be its already been deleted as it was such tripe. 

[CRT advice to moor using centre line.]

I see a facebook post today from CRT, advising 'to always moor properly using the centre line'. 

I've never moored using the centre line, because it pulls the boat over when boats pass in shallow water. On the K&A mooring up with taut centre lines is going to lead to the boat rolling like a log. 

I've always understood that proper mooring is appropriate use of bow and stern, with springs to hold the boat secure and steady. 

Centre lines I thought were primarily boat handling aids, for lock landings etc. Not for mooring with. 

I think CRT are giving bad advice here, but perhaps I am wrong. 

[Let'splay 'Escape from Yorkshire']

Fact is, boating on the canals is intrinsically political. It is a system that requires fairly large amounts of state funding - AKA other people's taxes.

the current direction of travel will see boat licences raised to rented accommodation equivalency. 

All of us who want to enjoy the canals need to get properly involved in the politics or we will see the canals revert to the dereliction of the past. 

Put bluntly it doesn't need a complete navigable system to maintain the bits that 'matter' in terms of the general population that pay the taxes.

As blunt examples, Th western K&A would be 'improved' by the removal of the smoke spewing squatters, as would London's canals. This from the perspective of clean air, and general use of the waterway facility. Obviously not from the boaters. 

We all need to get involved here or we will see the waterways reduced each year and the system let go.