DJW

Yes, plenty. Our 57' went round easily. I don't even think 70' would be a problem from memory

There's a big stack of pallets available at the solar farm on Westwood road near Trowbridge. Not sure of the quality/dryness as I know some pallets don't burn well. You'd need a vehicle to collect but it's there for the taking (legitimately!)

When was the dredging fine? We were there mid July and couldn't get in to the water point on those moorings. We only draw a little over 2' but the river was well down at the time

Midland service centre do a great inline water gauge. We had one start to play up after 9 years and I've replaced it with the latest version. It's a dead simple fit with a remote analogue or digital gauge. Cost was about 70 pounds I think

We've been up and down wardle lock three times recently and I can't say I remember the gates leaking especially badly.

Agree near Roger Fuller's is a good place. We left ours for a couple of days there earlier this year no problem. There are even rings there

We came past Barnet yesterday. She looks in fine condition, hope the new owner looks after her

This has scuppered our plans to go from the Weaver into Manchester and out on the Ashton/Peak Forest. I called Peel Ports this morning and, after speaking to the demolition contractors, the lady told me the stoppage *could* be over in three weeks rather than the initial estimate of four. I asked if there was a possibility of occasional escorted passages through the stoppage, as I have known CRT to do this in some cases before. I was told there would be absolutely no boats through during those three (or four) weeks. They are apparently inundated with calls about this stoppage but I definitely got the impression they won't budge on this - no through traffic for 3-4 weeks.

Should have mentioned the shell is made by Taurus which I think built sailaways in Newark although probably not many! I may be wrong but didn't Liverpool boats use a similar bolt-less swans neck design at some point?

Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty confident there is no locking nut under filler on the top. When we had the bearing changed before we were left with some chips in the paint on the top of the swan neck, i guess from the boatyard whacking it back onto a taper. There was no attempt to repaint the (cosmetic) damage so I doubt any filler was used either. Equally I can't recall ever seeing a grub screw in the side of the swans neck - before or after the bearing was changed before. Is it possible the swans neck is just a (good!) taper fit? i.e. it fits onto the tapered rudder stock but with no securing bolt to keep it there? Bee - that's my worst case idea, that it's all welded together and would have to be cut up and rewelded. Given the boatyard who changed the bearing before don't call any cutting/welding I'm hoping that's not the case.

Our tiller has an unusual fixing to the rudder - i believe the join is called a swans neck but apologies if I've got that wrong. The tiller bearing is knackered and needs replacing. We asked at a boatyard last year and they couldn't figure out how to separate the rudder from the tiller to allow the bearing to be changed.. Their advice was to wait until the boat is out of the water next. That's due this year but the bearing is now really worn so could with replacing sooner ideally. I've attached some pictures in case anyone has seen this design before. This is the swans neck from the top (note absence of the usual bolt!): This is the swans neck from underneath - you can't really tell but the rudder tube appears to be welded to the underside of the swans neck: So you might think the rudder plate was bolted to the rudder tube (that's what the boatyard we asked last year suggested). That's definitely not the case as this photo from last time the boat was out of the water shows: So any ideas on how this lot comes apart to allow the bearing to be changed?? We have had the bearing changed once before and I called the guy a couple of years later to ask how he did it. Unfortunately he couldn't remember the specifics, just that he didn't think it involved any cutting/welding but it was a bu**er to do!! Thanks all

This may be starting the obvious but the tidal section extends above hanham all the way to Keynsham on spring tides. I think nicholsons warns you of this but we met a couple of boats last year around spring tide time who didn't know. As always, speak to the lock keepers (Netham) and they will advise on timings

The (potential) winding hole near foulridge wharf is indeed pretty shallow on the off side. Much better to go through the tunnel and wind...even there it's a touch shallow!

No not yet, that's part two of this job! All i've done for now is isolated the thermostat so the system is completely manual for the time being. Will investigate the shorting another time

Time for tonight's thrilling update! It looks like there was an air lock in the system which has worked its way out by running the pump. I've had the boiler on for an hour and a bit and the pipework is all nicely hot. The lounge radiator is belting heat out, the others are only warm as they are the far side of the calorifier, which I assume is taking a lot of heat out of the system as suggested by Robden, so will probably take a lot longer to get properly hot. Two of the radiators were only warm at the bottom so I tried bleeding them and the bleed water (not air) was virtually clear so presumably some old water left in the pipework which I didn't manage to flush out. Dor - I think you were right actually, I've bled as much of the clear water out as I can and topped up the header tank steadily with fresh water/antifreeze mix and the radiators are getting warm right the way up. Unfortunately I've run out of antifreeze so I'll have to finish the job another time! I think in time I might add a bypass option for the calorifier as suggested by Robden so we can get the radiators hot quicker. So a team effort from the forum - thanks to all for helping out

It does look less obtrusive from that angle Helen. Still, I hope they don't crop up at every lock!

Agreed FTS it's away from the beams and the bollards but I think any unnecessary obstruction at locks has to be a bad idea

Just noticed this on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32702277 At the risk of sounding like the health and safety police, that looks like it could be a real nuisance when working through the lock. Are we allowed to run ropes round its feet?!

We've had a week moored in London and spotted a few boats on the tideway which we have photos of - names are Matilda, Per Ardua, Skara Brae and Pericles (widebeam). If any of these are forum members I'd be happy to send any photos I have of you!

We've had a week moored in London and spotted a few boats on the tideway which we have photos of - names are Matilda, Per Ardua, Skara Brae and Pericles (widebeam). If any of these are forum members I'd be happy to send any photos I have of you!

Right, sorry for the delay Mike (too busy boating!) but I've done some homework and it appears we have a one pipe system. dor - I thoroughly mixed the antifreeze/water solution in a container before refilling the system so I'm happy that it's mixed properly. ROBDEN - Interesting and to be honest I probably haven't run the boiler for two hours to try it given how little heat we got into the rads in the 1 hour or so I tried it for the other night. Unfortunately as it stands we can't isolate the calorifier from our system. The radiators all have valves to close them off and just heat the calorifier but you can't do it the other way around. Just to add a little more complication, whilst cruising today I turned the circulation pump on (without the boiler running) and *all* the radiators got warm (the bottom half anyway), suggesting that the pump is circulating properly and distributing the heat from the domestic hot water around the CH system via the calorifer coil. I wonder if it's possible an air lock has worked its way out somewhere (the level in the boiler's header tank has dropped slightly). It's too warm here right now to fire the boiler up but I will give it another go tonight and see if the radiators get any hotter than last time I tried it. Will report back again once I've run the boiler for a bit.

Thanks mike, I'll do some homework and report back soon!

Thanks for the replies all. Mike - I followed your advice about isolating individual components and have tracked the fault down to something to do with the thermostat. So I've disconnected that and it now works just manually switching the pump on/off. That's fine for now at least. Now for the next problem! Part of the reason we rarely used the boiler is because it's always been extremely ineffective at actually heating the boat. I always put this down to sludge in the system so whilst I had it drained down I removed the radiators and flushed them through with mains water. A fair bit of sludge came out so I thought we'd be in business when I got it all working again. Unfortunately it's as useless as it ever was! The system from the boiler is: large lounge radiator --> calorifier --> small corridor radiator --> small bedroom radiator --> very small bathroom radiator --> return to boiler The lounge radiator gets warm to half way along and one side of the calorifier coil is luke-warm to touch. Other than that the system is stone cold. The flow pipe from the boiler is very hot, the return is stone cold. I've bled all the radiators but 1/2 a warm radiator is the best we seem to get. I notice from the boat-specific Alde manual that they suggest boats over 55' might need a separate circulation pump to help out the one built into the boiler. Our boat is 57' and has the system as above. Is the standard pump to blame for the poor performance?

Ours doesn't have the 12/240 selector switch you mentioned. The only controls on the boiler itself are the combined spark/temperature knob but I will have a check for moisture around all the wiring, good idea. We haven't used the boiler in ages (partly due to the CH leak) but we did fire it up about six months ago for our boat safety inspection and it was fine then and we haven't (deliberately) changed anything since.