Bricks in bow.

[matty40s]

3 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

At chipping warden there’s a large batching plant in the compound but the concrete units to make the cut and cover tunnel seem to have stopped being placed. 

Someone realised that the concrete units being used for the cut and cover tunnel were the wrong size!!

I cant disclose where my info comes from, but it is 100% reliable.🙂

[ditchcrawler]

7 hours ago, David Mack said:

I don't know about 'money no object' but steel ballast was the easiest to fit under Fulbourne's floor to reduce the height at the bow and to make boating in the wind with an unloaded fully clothed up boat considerably easier!

https://www.pbase.com/timlewis/ballast_installation

I bought cast iron ingots locally here in Suffolk, a lucky find and scrap iron cost

[magnetman]

1 hour ago, Tam & Di said:

 

Poured concrete ballast is not accepted on boats on the Continent.

 

Tam

I heard about this but I wasn't quite sure how it would work in reality. 

 

Is there some sort of arrangement whereby the ballast is checked independently by a surveyor? 

 

I think this might relate to commercial boats being later converted to house boats. 

 

This activity (conversion) obviously requires a lot of ballasting. 

 

[MtB]

Checking on the interwebby, steel is 3 to 4 times the density of concrete. 

 

But one cubic metre of steel purchased as 5 off 4m x 2m x 25mm sheets is £12,240 from Parkers Steel, while one cubic metre of concrete is about £100 according to Checkatrade. 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

53 minutes ago, MtB said:

Checking on the interwebby, steel is 3 to 4 times the density of concrete. 

 

But one cubic metre of steel purchased as 5 off 4m x 2m x 25mm sheets is £12,240 from Parkers Steel, while one cubic metre of concrete is about £100 according to Checkatrade. 

 

 

[MtB]

5 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

 

If you can buy 25mm rolled plate at scrap steel prices, I'm all ears about where from! 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

Just now, MtB said:

 

If you can buy 25mm rolled plate at scrap steel prices, I'm all ears about where from! 

 

 

Why do you need rolled plate for balist?

[MtB]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

Why do you need rolled plate for balist?

 

To get the boat trimmed right, silly!

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

6 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

To get the boat trimmed right, silly!

 

 

Give in, I am going back to facebook and Garry Linaker 

[magnetman]

He changed his name ! 

 

Clever. Maybe the beeb will employ him.

[MtB]

Just now, magnetman said:

He changed his name ! 

 

Clever. Maybe the beeb will employ him.

 

Gary Vinegar, I've recently heard him dubbed...

 

 

 

[magnetman]

I am deeply saddened that this issue comes up as 'breaking news' on bbc and sky webshites. 

 

What is happening to the world? I want breaking news to be serious and preferably with loads of dead or really badly injured people. and fire. 

Rich celebrity idiots doesn't cut the mustard. 

[MtB]

Just now, magnetman said:

I am deeply saddened that this issue comes up as 'breaking news' on bbc and sky webshites. 

 

What is happening to the world? I want breaking news to be serious and preferably with loads of dead or really badly injured people. and fire. 

 

Or financial disaster. 

 

Imagine if a bank in the USA got into trouble and got shut down by the Fed following insider traders (e.g. the CEO) selling $4.4m in stock before fessing up to the market. 

 

That could never happen, right? 

 

 

 

 

[magnetman]

Bit wobbly with the Silicon Valley Bank. 

 

Someone must be having a joke right? 

 

Dollar pegged crypto down to 0.9? 

 

Yeah yeah yeah 

 

Go!

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Bit wobbly with the Silicon Valley Bank. 

 

 

You're kidding?

 

Good thing no UK companies use Silicon Bank and are at risk of losing their cash balances first thing Monday morning, innit....

[TheBiscuits]

On 12/03/2023 at 08:45, MtB said:

I have to admit I've never seen depleted uranium for sale, not even in the really big branches of Wickes.

 

Irritate the USA enough and they'll donate some to you at high velocity ...

[Bobbybass]

Movable ballast is good.

 

You may view an empty boat at a brokers...and it's nice and level. You move on board and fill the cupboards with tins and bottles.... normally on one side...and it starts to lean.

 

Also...some boats have toilet tanks on one side that fill and pull them over.

 

A heavy wife sat on one side....may get you rethinking the ballast situation. 😃

[Mike Tee]

or the wife ................

[blackrose]

On 12/03/2023 at 14:45, magnetman said:

Out of interest what problems did you get with the boat which had concrete ballast which caused you to dislike the idea? 

Did it sink? 

 

I think the concrete would probably stick to new steel better than old steel unless the latter was incredibly well prepared which is why I assume an old boat ballasted later with concrete would be likely to be worse. 

 

 

I wonder if anyone actually has had any severely negative outcomes from using poured concrete or if the unknown factor kicks in and makes people nervous. 

 

 

 

The problem was exactly as I described earlier. Water in the bilges get between the concrete and the steel.

 

No it didn't sink, but if sinking is your main criterion on whether a boat has a problem then I guess your bar is pretty low! As far as I'm concerned a rust trap that you can't treat us a serious issue in the long term. Whether concrete sticks to new steel better than old steel I have no idea, but I suspect you have no real idea about that either and you're just guessing.

Edited March 14, 2023 by blackrose

[magnetman]

My bar is pretty low then. I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow let alone in ten years' time so such things would not tend to concern me. 

 

If boats treated like this had a habit of sinking quickly then I might get worried but I have not heard of this as being particularly common. Maybe it is and people just don't talk about it. 

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

On 12/03/2023 at 08:45, MtB said:

And to expand on the point, gold and depleted uranium make better ballast because they are both denser than bricks, steel or lead. 

 

Gold bars can be purchased on line, here: https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/

 

But I have to admit I've never seen depleted uranium for sale, not even in the really big branches of Wickes. 

 

 

 As a schoolboy in the 1960's I used Uranium Intensifier on some underexposed negatives to bring out more detail.  I just moved the negatives around in the solution using my fingers. They (and my fingers) are all still intact, don't glow at night, and I didn't set off the alarm when visiting a nuclear power station a few years later!

 

Uranium added to glass gives it a deep red colour. Uranium glass used to be used to make red light bulbs. 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[D Ash]

On 12/03/2023 at 20:42, MtB said:

 

Gary Vinegar, I've recently heard him dubbed...

 

 

 

Gary Salt n' Vinegar might be more apt.

[midnight cowboy]

On 12/03/2023 at 08:44, Nightwatch said:

Old railway track is good. That’s the steel bits not the wooden sleepers.

Newer track has wonderful concrete sleepers - and what about reinforced concrete fence posts and beams from your local builder who otherwise has to pay landfill charges to dump them?