davidb

About 12 years ago I converted our barge bowthruster system to diesel-electric and it has been no bother ever since. I have often thought a similar system could power a narrowboat which doesn't need to cruise too far or too quickly. It can deliver about 12 hp to the prop.

Freshwater shrimps?

Ive never in 30 years felt it as windy in the Ribble Valley as it was at 20:00, but the lights are still on and its abating, thank goodness. Wind speed graph from our Sailing Club ( speeds in knots so thats a gust of nearly 90 mph)

so are you saying you cut the pipes at the forward bulkhead so there is now no fresh water in the calorifier? so maybe the heat from the engine has now dried all the remains of the fresh water in there, but it is strange that it came out as steam unless the relief valve was stuck open. I assume the relief valve just vents into the engine room.

Thanks a lot, its getting clearer. Magpie said "The river bends south from north of Arches Lock to end up on the east of the plan" so is the river in mike's 1891 plan the un -navigable bit, just below the weir, the start of it being in my original photo behind the concrete columns holding up the car park?

Thanks Mike for the copy of the drawing. Is it North up? I can't just work out why it shows the River Aire on the right, it shows a road bridge over the river is this leading to space under the arches? David

So, is the structure still there, or just filled in and now part of the carpark? And are some of the arches still flat-topped? Strangely the Candle house isn't in the Bing photo. ( I can feel another visit to Leeds coming on ) cheers, David

When we were there in 2011, we walked through those "Dark Arches" many times and I always thought what a frightning place they would have been before electric lighting.

" The mobile phone signal is not good as you will be down in the valley and hidden from most good signals between bradford on avon and bathampton. In some areas my O2 phone has no signal" Apart from the stretch mentioned above, we have just completed the whole K&A and had a signal on our 3 mifi for the whole distance. In problem areas, of which there were few, i just put it on the roof near the hatch, under a cover. For that reason I would use a dongle, I wouldn't like to leave a smartphone on the roof. David

Tim, "so have no idea what is entailed with living aboard long term" fair enough, not a true liveaboard, but if I am on the boat for 9 months, without a home mooring without a shoreline, I do have a fair idea of whats involved. And I never run engines after 8pm unless moving along, if the batteries are struggling, the TV and laptop etc have to wait for another day. cheers, David

" Of course many many posters on this forum are not liveaboards " Is that true? perhaps we should have a poll to get an idea what pecentage live aboard, at least for part of the year? David

Hi Tim, I'm saying our draught is 1.0m plus 3 or 4" ( about 42" ) The only time I felt the bottom was running over a log or something between the Avon aqueducts David

hi Tim, the flat bottom plate is 2m wide before the chines slope up, the skeg probably increases the draught by 3" - 4". I would say there is as much usable water as there was in the LL between locks and much more than on the Lancaster. It has been a real pleasure these last 4 months. David

no problem at all with that draught, have just done it with a 1.0m draught widebeam. cheers, David

a well maintained diesel

Thanks Ian, yes, Rawlbolts would have been hard to come by in those days! I guess the pressure from the closed gates would have also helped to hold the walls out,

These locks were really going back to nature until the Society started clearing them They were well built with a neat stone invert, but why the wooden section of floor under the bottom gates? Repaired with brickwork where the stone had been damaged by boats:

Taken on Sat 14th Sept 2013 at Combe Hay Locks open day - the flight which had to be built to replace the failed Caisson project. Its more than a century since they were abandoned, but they have survived remarkably well, there is even some wood and ironwok remaining: Just look how the soft Bath stone has worn away with the boatman's clogs grinding away on it around the paddle gear:

I believe the design came from Shropshire! !

Thanks a lot to the volunteers of the Somersetshire Coal Canal Society who spent time yesterday showing us around their project. Quite amazing that the company managed to build a profitable canal through the difficult terrain climbing out of the Avon valley. And we thouight they had things easy down South! Ive got some pictures to upload later this week. Cheers, David

Thanks Patrick, I was thinking of exploring up there this weekend anyway, so a bit of guidance will be great! cheers, david

I agree with nebulae, don't even think about going it alone, research the local agents thoroughly, get personal recommendation on them. David

I have just had a bit of an explore round this area, Midford, not far from the Dundas Aqueduct on the K&A map by courtesy of the The Somersetshire Coal Canal Societies' web site: http://www.coalcanal.org/maps/m03.htm I have never seen such an overgrown valley! There would be firewood forever down there, in fact all around the area if a just fraction the trees were chopped down. If some trees were removed two magnificent intertwined railway viaducts would be revealed as well as the old canal structures. One of these railway lines featured in " The Titfield Thunderbolt" film from the 50s Also on their website is detail of a caisson boat lift:: http://www.coalcanal.org/features/Caisson/Caisson.php what a terrifying contraption that was, I wonder if anyone was daft enough to go through on their boat? Eek David