lostnortherner

Middlewich branch closed from Stanthorne to Wardle. Large breach last night by River Wheelock. Everyone safe at this moment afaik

I suspect the over heating is as a result of the higher power output? She's fine on canals - its just when you are flat out on rivers that she overheats. Personally I don't go over about 1500/1600 rpm and it's fine. Those who have commented that she will overheat report they were running around 2000 rpm at the time. The Beta is noticably more fuel efficient than the old BMC, and as other have said, much quieter, smoother and more reliable.

We put a Beta 43 in Kinver about 3 years ago. It cost about £7k for the job, and we managed to sell the scrap BMC back to Calcutt for a few hundred (I forget how much). Solved all our breakdowns and engine issues in one lump. We do find it gets a bit hot flogging along rivers if you like to give it some, I suspect the skin tank is not really big enough, but it's not a problem really. ABC at Alvechurch did it. There was about a month lead time, as Beta made engine mounts for us to fit the old BMC mountings.

Ours blew after about 2000 hours ish. Our (ABC) marina had a spare that wasn't expensive (65p rings a bell but I can't find the invoices) - certainly cheaper than ordering one and including postage.

Could you not just format the cell into fractions, and use a custom format for it to always use 1/8ths. I do that for adding miles and chains.

Having found it quite busy there earlier this week, I think they could easily put rings in on the Oozells Loop on the side furthest from the Sea Life, as well as more near the existing rings by the Sea Life. I've never ventured right round the loop to see what else there is further round. There also seems to be a lot of 'trip boat only' moorings that never get used - although some of them I would think would be a bit noisy near the ICC. It wouldn't be unreasonable to have an extra space or two there.

I told him to report it to Police. The lad checking the mooring tickets didn't seem interested, but did say he'd report it to his boss.

Going back to ropes being cut - happened in Llangollen basin last night. Boat next to us has his burnt through in two places!

There's a couple of things out there. They might not win any design awards mind... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-Dual-Waterproof-USB-Car-Cigarette-Lighter-Socket-Charger-Power-Adapter-/391095295683?hash=item5b0f189ec3 http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/12v-24v-recessed-twin-usb-power-socket-5v-21a.html You could always use something like this : http://www.alectro.co.uk/Pages/USB-Wall-Plates.html, and hard wire it into one of the above items hidden behind the panel?

We have just moved our boat from managed (formerly ABC, but we didn't want to transfer (back) to BCBM) to self managed. The day to day running of the job is shared between three of us. I'm currently planning the winter maintenance programme, which is using up a bit of time, but through the rest of the year, I doubt it takes me more than 30 mins work a week. Our secretary is doing the bookings for 2016 at the moment, which again, is taking up a bit of time and organising, but I suspect the rest of the year is generally similar to me. We are looking at having the bathroom refitted/refreshed this winter, but provisionally our annual subs look to be under £1000 even allowing for the cost of the bathroom works. Losing the management fees out of the equation is saving us a fortune, and I do wonder why we didn't do it sooner! I certainly would not rule out looking at a share in a self managed boat - just ask how much work (if any) you will be asked to contribute. It will certainly work out far cheaper than a syndicate run by a management company.

I find ours get mostly used to make farting noises when SWMBO is in the middle of a bunch of people - but then childish things like that amuse me (and her sometimes)

From my memory from passing through last year, there is now a boom fitted for the end nearest the lock. There was also so little flow at the time, the river stopped flowing over the weir while we filled the lock! Certainly nothing at all to worry about going up stream.

We have just moved Kinver over to self management after the ABC/BCBM affair last autumn, and (so far) think it is going well - save for a couple of issues with the handover, which we have resolved now. We've stayed moored at Alvechurch, and carry on much the same as we did, except the paper work comes to us now, rather than going to ABC. I'd be happy to share our experiences via email/PM/phone if it helps.

Railway staff are tested via an independent company (eg Bupa for routine screenings), there is another company who come out to breathalise staff involved in incidents, but thankfully I've not found out who they are. It's not the police though.