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LadyG

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Up early, it's pouring with cold wet rain, sleet,  gusty.

Breakfast, then beer and baked potato, when a flashy plastic cruiser arrived.

Went out to catch ropes, it's brand new plastic, so plenty of fenders, though not at pontoon height,  but not many ropes, in fact no bow rope at all.

He had his prioroties right, Gin, tonic, fancy glasses, and a bowl for ice still intact on the table!

 

Compare this with a couple who went through the lock an hour earlier, full Henry Lloyd oilskins, ,lifejackets, straight in to lock, straight on to the cut. I'm not sure which would be considered more adventurous. 

Edited by LadyG
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7 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Up early, it's pouring with cold wet rain, gusty, had breakfast, then beer and baked potato, when a flashy plastic cruiser arrived.

Went out to catch ropes, it's brand new plastic, so plenty of fenders, though not at pontoon height,  but not many ropes, in fact no bow rope at all.

He had his prioroties right, Gin, tonic and a bowl for ice still intact on the table!

Well it could be a positive, boozing early might be a kindred spirit and possibly another "willing volunteer"  especially if he is tall and skinny. 

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15 minutes ago, Chagall said:

Well it could be a positive, boozing early might be a kindred spirit and possibly another "willing volunteer"  especially if he is tall and skinny. 

I'm afraid not, under 35, but not very practical, I don't see him as a gin and tonic person so much as a boat show boater :)

Anyways, having looked in my bow battery hole, what I need is a long thin battery, or two, and an electrician, bad news. My long term strategy is never to do the same job twice.

PS since taking up narrowboating I am not sure that eleven a.m. is early boozing if one is having breakfast at 06.00 and go to bed at 20.00. Anyways, I'm ready for my siesta, will move boat tomorow..

PPS after two years of ownership, I have moved about forty water miles. it's pathetic (sigh)

Edited by LadyG
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2 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I'm afraid not, under 35, but not very practical, I don't see him as a gin and tonic person so much as a boat show boater :)

Anyways, having looked in my bow battery hole, what I need is a long thin battery, or two, and an electrician, bad news. My long term strategy is never to do the same job twice.

PS since taking up narrowboating I am not sure tbat eleven a.m. is early boozing if one is having breakfast at 06.00 and go to bed at 20.00. Anyways, I'm ready for my siesta, will move boat tomorow..

PPS after two years of ownership, I have moved about forty water miles. it's pathetic!

Oh, thats a shame.  Bed at 8pm?  ...heck, I guess you must get up a few times to post on here before morning. 

 

I share the frustration re water miles, I retire next April so hope to gain more then. God willing. 

 

I hope you find an electrician. 

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10 minutes ago, Chagall said:

Oh, thats a shame.  Bed at 8pm?  ...heck, I guess you must get up a few times to post on here before morning. 

 

I share the frustration re water miles, I retire next April so hope to gain more then. God willing. 

 

I hope you find an electrician. 

Well obviously I take my 'puter to bed, I play bridge at eight pm, so that is when I dip under the duvet, I have to 'get up' a few times, but generally for other reasons.

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1 hour ago, Chagall said:

 

 

I hope you find an electrician. 

I have a story about tradespeople.

My toilet at home wouldn't flush anymore,so not being familiar with the workings of them,I looked in the Thompson directory and called a plumber.He arrived later and said it needed a new diaphragm (whatever one of those is) so I asked him to get on with it.He hesitated and said as he would have to remove the whole toilet from the waste conection it would be a very expensive job,and anyway he didn't have time today and would get back to me later, (which he never did.After waiting a few days getting fed up flushing the toilet with buckets of water,I dialled up You Tube to see what was involved fitting a toilet diaphragm,and was quite surprised to see how simple it was.No need to remove the toilet,just the cistern.Followed the guidance on You Tube removed the old part and took it down to my local plumbers merchant,thinking I bet they don't make these anymore,but showing it to the bloke behind the counter he jerked his head at a rack on the wall and I bought a pack of six for £5-99.

Fitting and re-asembly was easy,and I now have a fully functioning bog.

The point of my little tale is to use the internet and Google and You Tube to see if you can do the job yourself.

You may find it is simpler than you think.

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10 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

I have a story about tradespeople.

My toilet at home wouldn't flush anymore,so not being familiar with the workings of them,I looked in the Thompson directory and called a plumber.He arrived later and said it needed a new diaphragm (whatever one of those is) so I asked him to get on with it.He hesitated and said as he would have to remove the whole toilet from the waste conection it would be a very expensive job,and anyway he didn't have time today and would get back to me later, (which he never did.After waiting a few days getting fed up flushing the toilet with buckets of water,I dialled up You Tube to see what was involved fitting a toilet diaphragm,and was quite surprised to see how simple it was.No need to remove the toilet,just the cistern.Followed the guidance on You Tube removed the old part and took it down to my local plumbers merchant,thinking I bet they don't make these anymore,but showing it to the bloke behind the counter he jerked his head at a rack on the wall and I bought a pack of six for £5-99.

Fitting and re-asembly was easy,and I now have a fully functioning bog.

The point of my little tale is to use the internet and Google and You Tube to see if you can do the job yourself.

You may find it is simpler than you think.

Nice story, but toilets dont kill you.  

 

 

....even though I thought it might during a horrid episode in year 9!  (just ended with very wet hair) 

 

Edited by Chagall
and a bad memory! ?
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6 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Why an electrician?  Electricians as professionals, work on properties/factories. What you need is a boatyard engineer who will understand boats and not 18th edition regs.

Do boat yards employ Engineers 

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8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Do boat yards employ Engineers 

Is that a question?  Needs a ?

 

Some yards do, some better than others but better than someone used to lifting floorboards and chiseling boxes into a wall.

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Do boat yards employ Engineers 

 

I've often wondered what qualifications a 'boat engineer' would need to have to be classed as an engineer.

Most of them seem to be mechanics at best.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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I use the word electrician in its broader sense, in context. I should have said an electrical engineer used to working on boats and capable of doing more than replacing batteries.

I need someone who can do something other than remove car type batteries and replace. There are cables all over the place. Red, and black, and black with red.

I've tried numerous times to get the electrics sorted, and failed.

Edited by LadyG
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47 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Is that a question?  Needs a ?

 

Some yards do, some better than others but better than someone used to lifting floorboards and chiseling boxes into a wall.

Not all electricians spend their lives lifting board and chopping in boxes. there there things other than houses that use electricity you know

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9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Not all electricians spend their lives lifting board and chopping in boxes. there there things other than houses that use electricity you know

 

 

I spent a lot of time at Shell purchasing office in Lowestoft (many years ago) followed by crawling about in offshore modules. Then over to Stavanger working on the Troll platforms.

 

Another week and I'd be crawling about in the bowels of a submarine at BAE in Barrow.

 

Following the Falklands war and the investigations in to why so many sailors died in the fire I was involved in developing new systems of wiring installations, these were then carried over onto the Subs and the type 45 Destroyers. More sailors died as they were trapped by fallen cables and cable tray and couldn't get out (and either burnt to death or died of smoke inhalation), than died in the actual explosion.

 

Its amazing the G-Force transmitted into the cable tray when an exocet missile hits a warship.

 

There are lots of electric cabling used outside of domestic housing.

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15 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I spent a lot of time at Shell purchasing office in Lowestoft (many years ago) followed by crawling about in offshore modules. Then over to Stavanger working on the Troll platforms.

 

Another week and I'd be crawling about in the bowels of a submarine at BAE in Barrow.

 

Following the Falklands war and the investigations in to why so many sailors died in the fire I was involved in developing new systems of wiring installations, these were then carried over onto the Subs and the type 45 Destroyers. More sailors died as they were trapped by fallen cables and cable tray and couldn't get out (and either burnt to death or died of smoke inhalation), than died in the actual explosion.

 

Its amazing the G-Force transmitted into the cable tray when an exocet missile hits a warship.

 

There are lots of electric cabling used outside of domestic housing.

What year were you at Lowestoft?

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19 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

What year were you at Lowestoft?

 

Don't remember exactly but was probably 83-86 ?

I'd have a breakfast meeting with the buyer (normally around 6am-7am) then got to engineering and working with Shell London regarding issuing of new MESC numbers for the components. Following problems with crevice corrosion between the stainless steel cable fixings and the Galvanised cable tray we developed a range of metal cable ties that were coated in a new Polyester coating called Macropol. A huge amount of testing and Lloyds, DNV etc approvals were needed before we could get them specified.

 

Shell were also using a lot of Nylon 11 cable ties from a company in Bristol called Silver Fox, the problem with Nylon 11 is it burns (is HB rated = Horizontal Burn) and drips flaming droplets down into the stacks of cable tray, actually spreading the fire.

We worked with Du-Pont to develop a  VO (will not burn) rated form of Nylon 6.6 which alternated with the coated stainless steel fasteners.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Don't remember exactly but was probably 83-86 ?

I'd have a breakfast meeting with the buyer (normally around 6am-7am) then got to engineering and working with Shell London regarding issuing of new MESC numbers for the components. Following problems with crevice corrosion between the stainless steel cable fixings and the Galvanised cable tray we developed a range of metal cable ties that were coated in a new Polyester coating called Macropol. A huge amount of testing and Lloyds, DNV etc approvals were needed before we could get them specified.

 

Shell were also using a lot of Nylon 11 cable ties from a company in Bristol called Silver Fox, the problem with Nylon 11 is it burns (is HB rated = Horizontal Burn) and drips flaming droplets down into the stacks of cable tray, actually spreading the fire.

We worked with Du-Pont to develop a  VO (will not burn) rated form of Nylon 6.6 which alternated with the coated stainless steel fasteners.

I was Offshore Indi and Leman  from 75 to 93 with a couple of years at Bacton sometime in the middle

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I've often wondered what qualifications a 'boat engineer' would need to have to be classed as an engineer.

Most of them seem to be mechanics at best.

I agree; I have occasionally chuntered on here about what I consider to be a misuse of the term “Marine Engineer” when, with a few notable exceptions, I think the real description should more realistically be Fitter or possibly Mechanic. 
 

Howard

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22 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I was also working with the Phillips electrical specifiers at Bacton.

 

Small world.

Small world indeed. I spent some time in the early 70’s driving anchor handling supply vessels in the North Sea including running to the Inde and Leman fields before moving to other oil and gas fields worldwide. I was also deeply involved in the Southern Ocean, running large salvage tugs during and after the conflict, and spent time down there installing a large accommodation vessel in Port Stanley. 
 

Howard

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13 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I've often wondered what qualifications a 'boat engineer' would need to have to be classed as an engineer.

Most of them seem to be mechanics at best.

 

Well as when working I was registered with the engineering council as a technician engineer I suppose I might be called an engineer rather than a mechanic but in my book that is not that important. What is important is how well you can do the job and that includes proper diagnosis. Leading on from that how well you understand how the things you come across work, both in theory and practice. A rather major point is that I KNOW there are members here who could probably knock the spots off me with the dirty hands practical work but may not even hold conventional qualifications or the qualifications they hold are at the mechanic type level probably in a related field like vehicles or agriculture machinery.  If I have any strengths its probably more on the teaching and presenting side. So those who seem to like the "who is an engineer" type debate who would you rather employ? Me, or someone who can do the job efficiently and swiftly. Of course the problem comes with finding out who that someone is and to make matters worse I have found that big ship technicians are all too often useless on our type of boats. On the hie fleet I would always choose someone with decent qualifications in a related  field over the big ship boys. I fear, but don't know, that this is likely to apply to proper registered marine engineers as well. The trouble is that when I left work the only nationally recognised qualification for our sort of work was one only available to the armed forces. I did try to see if we could get one recognised and courses running but the nature of the inland industry, the way NVQs were structured and the demands of government funding made it impossible to achieve. From what I can  gather the NVQ demands caused the closure of the only such course I know about.

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

snip:   Of course the problem comes with finding out who that someone is 

 

 

...and never more so than for the OP and many like her.   Its also tricky asking those you might find for help, trying not to be a needy nuisance leads to all sorts of problems. 

 

 

Edited by Chagall
missed out the word 'for'
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