system 4-50

Lovely. Pump out & cruiser stern. Perfect.

I had it done at the same time as the rest of the boat. The ballast, engineering bricks, is sat on top. I asked them to get it as close to 25mm as possible and it is that or slightly more everywhere except under the stringers (? - the bits across) which they mostly missed entirely. The bearers mostly allow the bricks the pass under them. Height is not a problem for me as I am short (and shrinking), I am aiming for a headroom of 6ft 1in. I aim to keep the boat until I pop my clogs and after that I don't care. Yes, but I am only now locking the floor down. Most of my time last year was taken up with painting the damn thing. I haven't had a typical winter in it yet. My reason for doing this is UFH. I have a single loop making 6 passes down the length of the boat with no joints. I have not started on the above floor work eg boilers. I can't tell how well it saves heat yet as I have massive bust widows (sorry I couldn't resist that) (6 x 2ft x 4ft & 2 x 2ft x 3ft) which lose lots of heat. Or must do as they certainly let in a lot of heat in the summer. I am working on removable window blanks containing 1" Kingspan to correct this.

Have you got a family ie children?

I have got my bilge professionally sprayfoamed. I'll update this topic in 10 years time with an assessment of how well it has fared.

Less great: Digging the dog shit out of the grooves in your shoes. About once every two months. And out of all of the parts of the boat you visited before you noticed. Yes I look carefully where I put my feet. Usually. But it started to rain just as I got into the last lock of the day, having gambled and not got waterproofs on, on a lock with not much grass... and I had to travel with a great stink for the next half hour. That was last months dose. Less great: Having a mainline train system or motorway in your ear at night. But if I could go full-time, I would.

Nope. I checked that. The other end was free. "If you take a single turn around a bollard (or ring) hold it firmly in one hand and then pull with the other hand sideways on the centre of the rope (ie at right-angles to the rope) half-way between the boat and the bank, you should be able to pull the boat in towards you by a short distance. Then as you release the tension, take up the slack with the other hand. and repeat until the rope is as tight as you want it to be." Tried that too. "A lot of people use tie down straps (not sure if that is the correct name) that have a ratchet. I think Lidl's have them in store at the moment but not sure of the strength of them." An interesting idea. Presumably they don't have a great deal of travel (thinking about future occasions). No matter how many pies I eat I can't get my weight past 9 stone!

Last Friday I was checking the boat before leaving it for a day or two and decided that the mooring lines had stretched sufficiently to allow the boat excessive movement so I untied the bow line and tried to pull the boat in. I couldn't. No matter how hard I heaved the boat would not come in. There was a breeze but not so much that I would have expected to give me trouble, and I was not aground, the boat was happy to roll easily. I just was not strong enough after a long day and I guess the breeze was stronger than I thought. So, what tricks or tools are available to give a lightweight like myself more mechanical advantage ie pulling power in difficult situations? I managed it in the end, but it took me more than 20 minutes and I don't know how I did it. EDIT: I was doing it at about 21:30 in very poor light, maybe that contributed to it? An obstruction that I didn't see?

The "Post Information" shown on the "View New Content" page shows the last post details made on each topic listed. I don't find this particularly useful. What I really, really, would like to see is the date that the FIRST post was made, then I can avoid all the ancient topics resurrected by new subscribers in their initial enthusiasm. Any chance of this change being tried for an experimental period?

I'm single-handing and I like setting locks and I like driving the boat. So I occasionally get up early so that I have a good chance of travelling unaccompanied. It doesn't last all day because I'm slow so others catch me up. I don't mind being slow for myself but I understand that others want to crack on so I do the best I can to not delay them. On my own I may use use less than all paddles and mostly I pull the boat in and out of the lock on a line. Slow. Sharing locks with another single-hander tends to be a leapfrog with one setting the other coming in first and leaving first to set the next. Only done this a couple of times. Sharing locks with a 2 crew is the real bane. The most efficient way seems to be one of them sets the locks and the other drives and I stay on my boat all the time. This shouldn't be too bad if they can swap roles but it is remarkable how many 2 crews have one or more members who can only set or only drive. [in the case of one couple, she couldn't drive so had to set - and she was not willing to cross lock gates at any time.] This can put a severe load on the setter. I don't like the arrangement as 1. I don't get to do any locks 2. Some boaters feel I'm being lazy. 3. I feel I'm being lazy. But it does seem to be the quickest. Sharing locks with a >2 crew is bewildering. I just have to do whatever they want. There are too many bodies to coordinate with to suggest alternatives. Sometimes they know what they are doing and are staggeringly efficient, and some just get in each others way and are slower than me on my own. If the company is too high pressure then I'll contrive an artificial tea stop to lose them, taking care to discover their plans in case they are stopping or turning just ahead. I've not tried the idea of tying boats together so that only one driver is needed. Is this done and how easy would it be? Bicycles don't bother me - what does is tourists sitting on mid-distance lock gate arms, looking like boaters in the lock!

Each to his own. The System 4s were IBM clones and as such had the IBM high-quality hardware design without the IBM crap software. I moved on to IBM 360/370 machines later on and going back to having to allocate disk space manually for at least 5 years was just so mind-numbingly boring. I never had any exposure to the 1900 family so cannot compare. Re Obtaining information - I understand that a large number of specialists in obtaining hard-to-get information have recently come onto the jobs market., perhaps they could help.

Quite right! And you're the first person in many years to recognise it. A good machine for its day. I haven't made myself very clear. I want the system to utilise non-preferred area information supplied by each user for that user, not to hold a central idea of such places. That would create black spots that would tend to grow to fit their reputations - and who would legislate on whether it was fair or not? TV pointer links - excellent. What I'm after is much, much more integration of information sources.

Nearly all the information exists, in the computers of various companies, its getting access to it that is the problem, and the rest can be obtained. I'm not suggesting that the system holds a single set of "unpreferred" areas, rather, I want it to recognise ones the user puts in and hold them for future use by just that user. Have you ever met someone with that breadth of knowledge? Would they be prepared to be on call 24 x 7 for the moment I needed them?

Oh yes! And I'm prepared to write some of it if its done in languages I can do. Extracting the necessary info out of the other companies, thats the hard part.

Ok. I'd like to be able to plan a long cruise. I'd like a detailed itinerary with: 1. The distance and number of locks between points of interest 2. The total distance and number of locks travelled I'd like it to be split up into days of travel with overnight stopping points. But I don't want to overnight just anywhere. I'd like them to be selected with some criteria in mind. For example 14 day visitor moorings. Or armco or bollards so that I don't need to use pins. And I'd like to be able to flag ranges of canal as "no-stopping" areas. Sometimes I need to bring my car close to the boat so that I can load big and heavy stuff aboard, eg double bed, water tank. So car access might be another criteria. My boat uses diesel and gas (one day) so supply points for these could be another criteria. Including supply boats! But not just all the points, just the ones in the vicinity when my tank gets to a certain level. That can be determined from an initial value plus an average mileage. Unfortunately from time to time I need to travel to another part of the country (no, its not work). So I need to connect to transport. So I need the (or some) stopping places to be selected for connectivity to the railway system. Often a reasonable station is more than a walk (the most I have walked is 4.5 miles) and so I need a bus. I need the itinerary to identify places on the canals where it is easy to get a bus to a station, and to tell me the number of the bus(es), where I can pick it up (a local map), and the bus timetable. And then I need a train. So I need it to tell me the train times for a particular destination. But there may be several possibilities. For example, if I boat for an hour, travelling an extra mile with two locks, I might get to a point with a slightly longer bus journey but much faster train journey. So I need the itinerary to offer a range of options and/or choose the optimum route, allowing me to set the aspects that need to be optimised most. And I want it to be dynamic so that it is continually updated (daily?) as I progress. And take into account stoppage information automatically and dynamically, as it happens. The computing power to do this sort of stuff is easily available. The information all exists. It just needs drawing together, CanalPlan is very good at what it does but its scope is state of the art for 15 years ago. It is time for something more. Could someone knock something up that will do all this please? By Monday would be nice.

I am willing to contribute the sum of £100 (one hundred pounds) towards a prize for the winner of a competition in 2012 designed to test one or more narrowboating skills, subject to all the obvious conditions. One stipulation I would make is that it has to be a spectator event, ie one that can be enjoyed by onlookers. This rules out for example long distance events. Another would be that the event be primarily designed for the enjoyment of boaters, with no concessions to the media whatsoever. Preferably they should not be there. But giving a donation is the easy bit. The hard part is the organisation and planning of the event, and that is not within my capability at present ( though I have done such things many years ago).

The idea, maybe be misplaced, that the absolute ace can perform the entire manouvre having set the ideal throttle speed at the outset and not have to change it. The merely "good" of course use the minimum number of throttle changes. The rest of us keep altering it in the hope that the impact will be minimised...

I can't get to the boat due to other commitments. My attempt to obtain materials today from B&Q to make some useful parts at home was totally unsuccessful. Either out of stock or stock quality so poor I couldn't use it. Also their recent price restructuring. To buy an 8 by 4 board is is ~£24. To buy a half sheet is £19. To buy a quarter sheet is £15. Buying small quantities is just not sensible. So the answer to your question is yes, just a bit. Time for glass of wine perhaps.

If narrowboaters were to take part in their own Olympics, what events could there be? All events to be in classes by boat length etc. 1. Reversing around a difficult junction - with penalties for each touch of the throttle, each contact with the bank, each change of direction, and time faults. 2. Completing a course through hanging gates like those used by white-water canoeists, with similar penalties. The hardest part would probably be reversing the entire boat back through reverse gates without touching the gates. Note that brown not white water would be used. 3. Emptying a full Thetford against the clock, with penalties for any mess. [4] 4. Loading 4 x 20Kg sacks of smokeless with penalties for every fraction of a degree that the boat is moved off the level. To be done using the contestants own boat, to see how accurately he she understands the balance of their boat. 5. Tug of war - difficult to see how this could be set up fairly. 6. Winding against the clock, with penalties as for (1) above. 7. Single-handed locking against the clock, with penalties for spilling a variety of full drink glasses sat on a tray on the hatch. 8. Estimating a mooring gap. The contestant to stand on the opposite bank 50(?) yards away (down the line of the canal) and call for two moored boats to be moved until he she considers there is exactly the minimum gap that he she can cleanly get into. Then the contestant has to rejoin his her boat (without getting a closer inspection of the gap) and move said boat into the gap and moor it, with penalties for every less than ideal movement or collision, and disqualification if it is too small. 9. 100 metre sprint. The winner to be the quickest to move their boat from a standing start completely over a 100 metre course, singlehanded. And without using any engine. 10. Butty nudging. Moving a short square-sterned butty(?) by nudging it from behind over a 100 metre course against the clock in a wide canal. 11. Speed estimating. Each contestant in turn to drive their boat at a specified (different for each one between 2.0 and 3.0 mph) speed over a 50 metre course and the rest of the competitors are required to estimate the speed. Points awarded for the accuracy of the estimates and for the accuracy of the driven speed. No mechanical/electronic aids allowed.

In E London you should be safe from the possibility of the Council coming along and filling them in...

and for the scenery...

In very heavy rain such as we've had recently, the water appears to run down the length of my hatch runners, under the hatch, and into the cabin. Admittedly, my bow is rather high at the moment because of the stage of fitting out that I am at, which probably exacerbates the process, but slightly bow high I understood to be the norm. Additionally my hatch is not yet lined. What is supposed to stop the rain doing this? Is there a seal for this purpose? I am puzzled.

I have rails on my boat, as all sensible people do (together with pump out tank). One rail has two coats of grey primer/undercoat, one coat of spray topcoat, and one coat of exterior gloss. It has rusted underneath so I have started adding more paint as follows: On a single 5 foot section, I have sanded, removing all rust where necessary, added two coats of red oxide primer and one coat of the same exterior gloss as the rest of the rail. Now for the interesting bit. When it rains all of the rail gets wet. No surprise there. When the sun and wind gets to work, the original part of the rail gets totally dry (to the eye) in no time flat. On the new 5ft section it is a different story. This is still covered in blobs of water on top, on the sides, and underneath when the other is dry, and takes two to three hours longer to dry off. All of the rail is in the same situation wrt to wind and sun light, none of it is in the shade. Please can the painting gurus on the form tell me why there should be such a disparity in behaviour?

And another for Tuckeys. Excellent service.