Chris Lingwood

In fairness to the young lady I would probably have done the same thing. Its much easier to tidy up some embarrassment about not actually sinking than it is to refit a boat. On the other hand I would have shut the doors before getting pissed, its cold in these parts! A friend of mine almost went one better and tried to sink his boat while on the hard. His boat is slightly retarded in as much as the back deck/steps drain into the bilge. Having left his pump disconnected it rained....for a week.......then his floor started floating a bit! OOPS!

Well having finally got my exhaust back together and sealed I was all excited read for the ceremonial engine starting (its been a while). In goes the key, on goes the isolation switch. Position one.....click! WOHOO!!! LIGHTS! Position 2, prepare for cranking! CLICK! hmmmm....nothing. OK lets try the heaters. CLICK........CLICK.....CLICK..CLICK..CLICKCLICK.CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK. Oh dear! Lets try the starter again.........KAPOW!!!! Bugger! Turns out my starter battery was what is commonly known as f**ked! And as I had clearly not taken the hint that it wasn't going so succumb to my requests to turn the engine over it resolved to commit hari kari and blow the side off its self! Fortunately I had a bmw starter battery lying around and after 3 hours of cleaning battery acid out of my bilges I was reconnected and ready to try again. It worked that time. So the lesson for today is don't neglect your battery then expect it to start your engine! It will explode!

hmmm dildos! Sounds......great! ASAP look good but stainless is needlessly expensive which is a shame and the rest is brass. It would cost me abtou £40 to do the converters in stainless. John you are probably right that using steam pipe is best but at least some of it needs to be flexible. There's no way in hell I know how to specify the curve that's on it in such a way as it would ever fit the boat later. I think I've cracked it though. Turns out the outside diameter of 1" bsp is 1 3/8" so I can just convert from 1 1/2" to 1" then clamp on my flexible bit to a barrel nipple. And if I do that I can replace a straight section with proper pipe after I've got it all bolted to the boat. I'll be able to measure it accurately then. What's more is the bits only cost about £8 in total. Welding flanges is all well and good john but the engine manifold has a bsp thread on it as does both ends of my new silencer. Plus I don't know how to weld yet! This is the new one I've ended up with some slightly odd sized pipe because its left overs from someone else's exhaust. BUT it will neatly clamp to the skin fitting. And it is the same as the old stuff. It was just held together with exhaust tape...or not held together. Looked like swiss cheese when I took it apart!

oh so THATS why it takes ages to get bulbs changed at the marina.

oops. i've got big screens so i don't notice. I'll see if I can change it to a more conservative, "argh". EDIT: nope not allowed

That's got to be the oddest description for diesel in the world! Derv?....what is this.....derv?

That's exactly how I'm going to attach the flexible exhaust pipe to the hose tail (although perhaps exhaust clamps). But that's no good without the adapters as the 1 1/2inch is markedly bigger than 1 3/8 inch. I want this but with a 35mm hose not 38 damnable mm http://marinestore.co.uk/Merchant2/merchan...male-hose-tails

I'm having terrible trouble finding and adapter to bring my exhaust back together. I've got some flexible exhaust pipe 1 3/8" (35mm) ID silencer with 1 1/2" bsp male exhaust manifold with 1 1/2" bst female I can't find anyone who will sell me something which will connect these together with one step. 2* 1 1/2inch female bsp 1 3/8 (35mm) hose 1* 1 1/2inch male bsp 1 3/8 (35mm) hose Where oh where can I get them, the swindleries won't even swindle me for one! Plumbers merchants look at me like I'm a retard. God forbid they should pause from selling their new bathroom suites and actually lower themselves to selling some plumbing! If anyone suggests using some different pipe I'll whack them over the head with it!

I had a teddy called Granville......he wasn't on fire

That's very kind of you but I think I'll have a go at sourcing my own bits. Cheers to people who mentioned cafe rods. I'd not seen them before. Just need to decide how I'm going to do it now...

Iiiiiiintersting. Always one to try and save a few quid I might give this a go. I've got some massive bags of tlights and I'm sure i can make some saw dust. I do find I only need a bout 2 small chunks of firelighters and some kindling. But I am starting to run out untill I smash up another pallet. Does sound like a super excuse to make some horrible smells and a fire hazard

I'm not sure plastic track is going to work wonderfully well on my windows. There's not much room above them, its not impossible though. We are putting curtain tape on the top so we can always change it later if pole proves to be rubbish. A bracket at the end of the pole would work its true....hmmmm That hanging bottom pole looks like a good idea though, I hadn't even considered tumblehome, nor knew what it was called.

Bastards!

There's absolutely nothing wrong with those blinds, I just hate them! Most of the problem (apart from the bloody poles) is my windows go almost up to the ceiling so you loose about 3 inches of window to that mass of wood at the top. That and they hang away from the walls quite a bit, which I could fix...but I hate them...did I mention that? There are 4 windows I'm doing so I need 8 if I have poles at the top and bottom. They are about 3*50cm and 1*100 although I can't remember exactly. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to replace the ones in the kitchen or corridor. I might slip with the circular saw one of these days though...you never know! Hmm that's not a bad idea. I shall investigate.

boat so they need to be fairly compact but not wildly long. I've found these pipe clamps, anything from the top row or the three on the right from the second row would be ok I suppose. Shame that's in bombay http://www.brassfast.com/pipeclampsmunsenr...systemclips.htm# [edit] found them in a few places now, nice and cheap. I'm still open to other suggestions though[/edit]

My mum is coming this weekend to make me some curtains! I've got all the material but I've neglected to buy some poles. I'm tempted to just make them out of dowel but I'm also pretty busy at the moment. All I want is a simple pole with fairly short "stands" so its close to the wall around a meter long onto which I can have rings. Most of the ones I've seen in shops come far too far out of the window so I'd forever be walking into them especially as I would be. A friend of mine has used copper pipe brackets which don't look half bad. I'm tempted to copy him although they do have a slight air of rough and ready. Any other bright ideas? I tell you what I'll be glad to see the back of those damnable ikea wooden blinds. The stupid adjusting rod sticks half way across the room when you've got them pulled up. Hateful hateful things!

£6ish for 25kg of pureheat. I am in the frozen wastelands of the north though

She's 36 years old. Any VAT which may or may not have been paid is lost in the mists of time (we need a *ooooooooooooooooooo* smiley!) I think I come under example 3 at the moment anyway, thusly I win!

I have heard (although have no idea how to confirm this) that council tax is only applicable to house boats. Apparently (but again I can't confirm this) the definition of a house boat requires it to be permanently fixed without the ability to move. People in Sawley marina allegedly challenged the council on this basis and the claim was dropped. The home office got involved somehow as well. This is from a guy who was involved at the time. Interesting if true! But for now I'm a student and don't care

hehe...told you it wasn't normal! Now you see why a safe and secure mooring is a bit of a must! That's not the worst weather we've had, not far off though. You see that large area of open water on the first video. That is where BWML want to put 60 yes SIXTY! narrowboats on floating pontoons perpendicular to the key. They are clearly quite mental! Side on to those waves would sink my boat. Don't get me started on the chalets and caravan site. They are trying to turn a working boat yard into centre parcs. And yes that is tax payers money designated to be spend on waterways being diverted to fund a chalet site.

In fairness I've heard (since I last posted) they have intentions to add extra boards down the side of the jetty. I'll wait and see on that one they've made such a pigs ear of the rest of it that they probably won't be up to the job either. There still won't be enough cleats for tyres and mooring ropes though. I'm quite happy to stay where I am at the moment, well without the massive price rise. But such is life. I agree about the ladders. Currently there are none.Just to see the weather, this isn't a normal canal marina. Its windy! Been worse than this too!http://www.philodor.f2s.com/Glasson/Wind.html

Its around 2-4 meters deep where the moorings are not only that but BWML have had the cheek to put up "Danger deep water" signs. And most winters (with the exception of last winter) it freezes over fully, I'd not be happy jumping out into icy water. It would be a good 10 meter swim to the poorly defined bank in potentially 0 degree water. Because there's no chance of getting back onto the jetties. I could reroute that rope but I don't think the fender eyes are that strong on my boat. Also we have pretty extreme gales and I wouldn't be happy with just a centre line. This mooring isn't quite like a normal canal mooring (which is how BWML are treating it). We are very exposed to high winds and resultant remarkably high waves because we are on the coast. Because they are angled jetties the next boat would be set back from mine...or missing.

I'd like to argue against the move really. The price has just been increased by £500-£600 this year (just had the bill) so I'm in no mood to endanger myself and my fiancée for the sake of BWML's convenience and profit. To my knowledge the mooring fee will NOT be reduced accordingly although I haven't formally brought the situation to the managers attention. I want to know where I stand in reasonable persons opinion first. I have mentioned it to someone I believe to be higher up in BWML who's justification was that its their standard ratio of jetty to boat and since its what they always do then its fine. A frankly crap justification but one I should have expected from someone who later in the meeting admitted with a smile that he doesn't know very much about boats. I could by a tender but they WOULD charge you at the very least for the mooring if it was a constantly floating one. Licence probably wouldn't be needed because of the special nature of Glasson basin. Putting the stove out is a fair precaution BUT what if there is an unexpected electrical fire or gas fire. These things happen as I'm sure you're aware. Also the lounge is bow wards of the stove. Also adjusting the bow doors isn't really appropriate, she's a bit of a special case as far as bows go This isn't the only issue with the new jetties, I'm not convinced by their solidarity and I will not be convinced untill they have survived a few storms. Glasson basin with a firm wind across it has been known to generate waves up to my WINDOWS! Also there are in my opinion to few cleats for the conditions. I will HAVE to have AT LEAST 3 full sized tyres down the side of my boat. This is because the sides of the jetty are too high and "short" and in normal water levels my boat will be around level with the BASE of it at the stern. Since the basin has a sea lock/sea drains and is at the end of an often closed branch the water level can fluctuate quite significantly so I could find my boat hooked under the jetty and sunk. Unfortunate the ropes for these tyres will take up ALL of the cleats leaving none for actually mooring the boats and they are too small to be reused.