Dewsbury to Nuneaton

[Peter X]

I see what you mean. But we escaped; a bit of brute force got us into forward, and we let enough water down to do the last two locks, so here we are. It's 11pm, but we made it to the summit. In the morning we'll decide whether we now have enough confidence in Lingy's boat to ask CRT to let us through the tunnel.

[Peter X]

No water getting through the cooling system this morning, so Stephen called CRT to say we can't do the tunnel today. He's calling Lingy to decide our next move.

[doratheexplorer]

This isn't really selling the HNC to me.  You'd have been plenty quicker going round the Rochdale.  Prettier too.

[TheBiscuits]

1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

This isn't really selling the HNC to me.

Why not?

 

Most of the trouble so far seems to be wrong  equipment  (handcuff keys) and a troublesome cooling system.  The delays mean they didn't make as much progress as they planned, so didn't get through some of the locks that are on time restrictions on the day they wanted to, so had to wait until the next day.

 

The fallen tree didn't help, but that can and does happen elsewhere and is just one of those things.

 

1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

You'd have been plenty quicker going round the Rochdale.

The historic boats that were stuck there for months might disagree!

[Lingy]

There is no water in the pounds.

They have had problems getting in the locks that have made matters far worse.This is not an easy stretch of canal to get up,i spoke to the crt guy who told me this stretch needs manning to stop these hire people emptying the pounds and flooding others out.

The boat was fine until it met these dry pounds and the struggle is real for any boat going through.

 blown the head gasket in any case.

So yes make sure you know your boats in perfect condition before attempting this.

I did say to Stephen too  take it the other route before he started out.

 

Anyone have any luck they can pass on get in touch 

 

 

[Peter X]

I think The biscuits is right, our biggest problem has been our cooling system. The HNC is a very interesting canal, a bit tricky because it has leakage problems which means a certain amount of letting water down, and you need to have the right handcuff key and work with the fact that some places are locked shut overnight. And there's a very long tunnel at the top which is not everyone's cup of tea. But it's been good fun. Some lovely scenery too.

[Lingy]

4 minutes ago, Peter X said:

I think The biscuits is right, our biggest problem has been our cooling system. The HNC is a very interesting canal, a bit tricky because it has leakage problems which means a certain amount of letting water down, and you need to have the right handcuff key and work with the fact that some places are locked shut overnight. And there's a very long tunnel at the top which is not everyone's cup of tea. But it's been good fun. Some lovely scenery too.

From Aspley to shepley bridge through the broad canal and heavy calder flooding It never once over heated on me,the belt slipped on a day trip up the calder which i immediately tightened  . You took it through the broad canal with no over heating Pete.

The over heating started on the hnc.

While you have the boards up get me a picture of the alternator front back and sides and send them through on wattsapp.

 

 

 

[Peter X]

Will do now my phone's charged again.

[Peter X]

Just came through the tunnel, filling up with water at Diggle. Water cooling is working nicely after Lingy checked it all over yesterday. 

[Peter X]

Things went well yesterday until the water stopped coming out of the cooling system again. After just leaving it off a bit some flow returned, but it's an ongoing worry which I'll deal with in the overheating topic under Maintenance.

Stephen was thinking of going yesterday evening due to a combination of Lingy being well dischuffed with him and personal troubles at home, and he got bad news from home this morning which made his mind up, so he's gone. I'm determined to do what I can to help Lingy, so here I am 9 locks down from the summit hoping to sort out the water problems with help from afar then to make progress south. Without stopping over Saturday night in any dodgy suburbs of Manchester, wherever those might be.

[cuthound]

Well done Pete. Have a greenie for your tenacity. Keep at it and you will get there.

 

If the raw water inlet wasn't blocked with a plastic bag or similar the  intermittent cooling is probably caused by bits of the old impeller causing temporary internal blockages.

 

When Lingy returns it's probably worth flushing the Bowman heat exchanger out.

Edited July 6, 2019 by cuthound
Spillung

[Peter X]

Lingy turned up Sunday and he and I have limped on, stopping often for him to gradually mend the engine. We're now off the HNC at the start of the Peak Forest and very glad to be, particularly because it was so difficult to get in to the side and so poorly dredged. But we still have serious problems with overheating and suspect the head gasket may be blown. The trip may have to be abandoned if the engine cannot be made to run reliably.

[Peter X]

Things are looking up. Lingy got the heat exchanger out and cleaned its tubes out (he found a couple of small bits of that impeller in there), and the water flow is much improved, did a mile or two today without going above 80°

But he wants to replace the dodgy water intake cup&lid, and is off getting a replacement.

Sadly for when he gets back, it's now raining heavily. We are near Manchester of course.

[Dr Bob]

5 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Things are looking up. Lingy got the heat exchanger out and cleaned its tubes out (he found a couple of small bits of that impeller in there), and the water flow is much improved, did a mile or two today without going above 80°

But he wants to replace the dodgy water intake cup&lid, and is off getting a replacement.

Sadly for when he gets back, it's now raining heavily. We are near Manchester of course.

Aye, they're not playing cricket either.

[Peter X]

The rain has eased off, maybe there is hope for your cricket.

[Peter X]

On 03/07/2019 at 08:33, doratheexplorer said:

This isn't really selling the HNC to me.  You'd have been plenty quicker going round the Rochdale.  Prettier too.

With hindsight after having done it all, I have revised my opinion of the HNC downwards. It's got some great scenery except the first and last few miles, but it needs a lot of maintenance doing, starting with dredging so that boats can get into the side in more places; doing the lock landings would be a good start, then making some more visitor moorings. The one next to Tesco's in Stalybridge was very useful.

The pound between locks 3W and 4W just below Stalybridge was terrible; rubbish galore, silted up, impossible to get near the bank. CRT, please sort it out.

We mostly had enough water coming down, and no doubt partly because .not a lot of boats use this canal. Because of the above problems, it has a bad reputation.

[Peter X]

This morning Steve did enough that we can go on, and we reached the bottom lock at Marple. Tomorrow we go up the 16 locks, pause at the top then press on along the Macclesfield.

The Peak Forest canal has been OK. It has a certain amount of vegetation in it, with potential for getting round the prop or clogging the water intake, but that's only been a minor thing.

This morning Steve did enough that we can go on, and we reached the bottom lock at Marple. Tomorrow we go up the 16 locks, pause at the top then press on along the Macclesfield.

The Peak Forest canal has been OK. It has a certain amount of vegetation in it, with potential for getting round the prop or clogging the water intake, but that's only been a minor thing.

[Peter X]

Done the Macclesfield (nice canal), now about to do Harecastle tunnel. Raw water cooling worries are just a thing of the past, Lingy's patched up the input filter and fettled the rest enough that we can now get on with the move.

[haggis]

Glad to hear that you had a better day today and fingers crossed that the rest of the journey is trouble free.

 

haggis

[bizzard]

14 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Done the Macclesfield (nice canal), now about to do Harecastle tunnel. Raw water cooling worries are just a thing of the past, Lingy's patched up the input filter and fettled the rest enough that we can now get on with the move.

Be aware of the arches inside the tunnel going south. Easy to bash your head on them. They are-were painted white..      Good luck chaps.

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, Peter X said:

Done the Macclesfield (nice canal), now about to do Harecastle tunnel. Raw water cooling worries are just a thing of the past, Lingy's patched up the input filter and fettled the rest enough that we can now get on with the move.

 

Hope it's not the rusty water from your cooling system that has discoloured the water in that photo. ??

[Boater Sam]

Watch out for Boggart in the tunnel, he hides in a recess in the wall near the middle of the tunnel. And the cows that swim through.

[Peter X]

Great Haywood; finally on a canal I know. Home Saturday night all being well.

[cuthound]

I'll try and keep an eye out for you as you pass my mooring tomorrow.

 

What is the name of the boat?

[TheBiscuits]

6 minutes ago, cuthound said:

What is the name of the boat?

Officially, or what they called her every time she boiled over?