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3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Something doesn't sit right there. RYA yachtmaster fails to change gas bottle on canal boat 🙄

 

In fairness to Jo, I know several Yachtmasters who are no longer physically capable of swapping a 13 kilo propane bottle into a gas locker.

 

Us whippersnappers should remember it might be us one day if we make it that far.

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2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I suppose one must not suggest a match be used to detect a gas leak. 

 

That would be shocking. 

Prior to natural gas, the gas fitters  always used a match to find leaks. As it was all lead pipes in older houses there were lots of leaks due to porous pipework. I remember an old gas fitter I worked with as a youngster lighting up a gas pipe that ran around a archway in a cellar.   There must have been a dozen tiny flames on the pipe, like fairy lights, around the arch. It was very pretty, a shame to replace the pipe and lose the effect.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:
  • improvisation of jury rigs following gear failure

 

(which requires a modicum of ability to actually 'do stuff', ie rig a temporary rudder)

 

Her rudder was considerably heavier than a gas bottle.  You might choose to criticise her approach with dealing with the issue, but she wasn't so stupid as to try and lift it off on her own.

 

I didn't ask the lady her weight - I was taught that's considered rude -  but I suspect the rudder and tiller together were more than her bodyweight.

 

 

  • Greenie 1
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1 minute ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Her rudder was considerably heavier than a gas bottle.  You might choose to criticise her approach with dealing with the issue, but she wasn't so stupid as to try and lift it off on her own.

 

I didn't ask the lady her weight - I was taught that's considered rude -  but I suspect the rudder and tiller together were more than her bodyweight.

 

 

 

That was just an example - I did not write 'repair the broken rudder' (I was not the one who suggested that she get in the water and put it back in place) What I wrote (extract from the sylabus) was that you should be able to jury-rig the necessary equipment - that could simply mean lashing a spade or pole to the stern and making a 'steering board'.

 

"In maritime transport terms, and most commonly in sailing, jury-rigged is an adjective, a noun, and a verb. It can describe the actions of temporary makeshift running repairs made with only the tools and materials on board; and the subsequent results thereof. The origin of jury-rigged and jury-rigging lies in such efforts done on boats and ships, characteristically sail powered to begin with. Jury-rigging can be applied to any part of a ship"

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20 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

you should be able to jury-rig the necessary equipment - that could simply mean lashing a spade or pole to the stern and making a 'steering board'.

 

Not disagreeing, but you probably know better than I do that a bodge-it-and-scarper jury rigged rudder might work acceptably offshore to get you back towards land but would be a lot less useful in a restricted channel.

 

Better than nothing, but not as good as a tow to the boatyard!

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39 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Prior to natural gas, the gas fitters  always used a match to find leaks. As it was all lead pipes in older houses there were lots of leaks due to porous pipework. I remember an old gas fitter I worked with as a youngster lighting up a gas pipe that ran around a archway in a cellar.   There must have been a dozen tiny flames on the pipe, like fairy lights, around the arch. It was very pretty, a shame to replace the pipe and lose the effect.

Donkey's years ago when the very first town gas piping was laid and laid from the street branched into houses around London, they used old rifle barrels. There were thousands and thousands of them surplus, left over from various wars, Martini Henry's I think. They machined a female thread on one end and a male thread on the other to join them all together. I heard that there's still loads of it still in use around London,

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17 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Donkey's years ago when the very first town gas piping was laid and laid from the street branched into houses around London, they used old rifle barrels. There were thousands and thousands of them surplus, left over from various wars, Martini Henry's I think. They machined a female thread on one end and a male thread on the other to join them all together. I heard that there's still loads of it still in use around London,

This is the origin of "iron barrel pipe" referring to threaded malleable iron pipe.

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2 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

I bought a pen type gas leak detector of the internet.

It's a Habotest (made in China,where else?) and works fine. (I check it frequently by letting it 'sniff' a bit of gas from the cooker turning a burner on for a second or two)

It cost about £7.

I live about 15 minutes away from Elland, and if you would like to borrow it, send me a PM.

 

 

I bought a battery operated gas leak detector and tested the pipe coming through a bulkhead fitting. The alarm sounded but I later realised that the detector was actually picking up something from an adjacent section of exposed sprayfoam. I tested the sprayfoam in a few other places and the same thing happened. Some of those electronic detectors are crap. Or on the other hand perhaps they're too good and too sensitive? Either way some aren't very practical.

Edited by blackrose
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With town gas if you stuck your head in the oven turned the gas on without lighting it it would kill you.

With Natural gas you can do the same but it won't kill you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until you get bored of trying and decide to light up a cigarette😔

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2 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Not disagreeing, but you probably know better than I do that a bodge-it-and-scarper jury rigged rudder might work acceptably offshore to get you back towards land but would be a lot less useful in a restricted channel.

 

Better than nothing, but not as good as a tow to the boatyard!

If some bod wants to know why I did not build a jury rig it was because it would have been unsafe to make the next transit with a jury rig,  and not because I did not consider it. 

I considered my insurance would be invalidated. There was no movement on the canal. So Judith had to come and get me, or I'd have been there for another two months. 

I now have a  hole drilled in the rudder plate so it could be tied to an improvised tiller, but I would not risk a trial on a river in spate or driving straight in to a tunnel with no trials.

 

 

 

Edited by LadyG
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5 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

12v LPG gas detectors are available. I've hard wired one on my boat in a suitably low position. About £20, go Google.

 

Yes I once read a PBO test review of those gas detectors. They vary greatly in quality and susceptibility to moisture ingress which renders some sensors useless. I can guess which end of the quality & reliability spectrum a £20 unit will be at.

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I have a gas detector with a sensor low down  near the cooker, it started going off when I first got the boat and there was no gas on board.

So I disconnected it.

It's still on the wall, really must remove it but it will leave some holes in the woodwork.

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42 minutes ago, Jim Riley said:

12v LPG gas detectors are available. I've hard wired one on my boat in a suitably low position. About £20, go Google.

I have a very acute sense of smell, so this would be my first alarm. There are indeed gas detectors, but they don't actually prevent explosions, as evidenced by the forces training yacht many years ago which had one,  it did not trigger and the yacht blew up when the engine was fired up, no one died, but gas can accumulate very slowly.

I used to turn bottles off when leaving the yacht for more than a few hours, and ventilated as much as possible, also ran the bilge pump every day, I had a tap at the cooker, so that was turned off when underway. I don't take such precautions on a narrowboat as it's just a date box in a muddy ditch.

 

4 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

In fairness to Jo, I know several Yachtmasters who are no longer physically capable of swapping a 13 kilo propane bottle into a gas locker.

 

Us whippersnappers should remember it might be us one day if we make it that far.

Indeed, when I was in my prime,at seventeen I used to feed the sheep on a Sunday, I jumped over the dyke (a stone wall about three foot high), with my 56lb bag of feed over my shoulder, no problem except some very bad person had emptied the slurry from the henhouse just out of sight on the other side.

SPLAT!

It is just about possible for me to get a full bottle in to the anchor locker, but instead, I remove the empty and get the delivery person to put the full one in its space. He gets £2.00. 

Edited by LadyG
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25 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I struggle these days to get a full can into the locker. Maybe I should add that to my guidelines for giving up, along with climbing lock ladders.

Don't be silly, remove the empty and tip the delivery guy £2.00.

I tip the coal delivery £2/3/4 depending on degree of difficulty or my degree of generosity. 

I can climb lock ladders safely, just very slowly. Sometimes I wear a lifejacket.

I don't take boat out if weather is inclement. Wait til tomorrow :)

Edited by LadyG
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9 hours ago, bizzard said:

Donkey's years ago when the very first town gas piping was laid and laid from the street branched into houses around London, they used old rifle barrels. There were thousands and thousands of them surplus, left over from various wars, Martini Henry's I think. They machined a female thread on one end and a male thread on the other to join them all together. I heard that there's still loads of it still in use around London,

Before pipe threading became the norm, iron pipes were joined using loose-fitting iron sockets. Packing provided a gas-tight seal, mechanical strength being effected by ramming a rust weld mixture consisting of iron filings and a chemical,  into the remaining gap between socket and pipe. A chemical reaction between the components of the mixture, rapidly turned  the iron filings into rust. As rust occupies a greater volume than the original iron, its expansion securely united pipe and socket. A predecessor  of modern solvent weld plastic pipe, allowing jointing  without the need for precision machine tools such as taps and dies.  

Edited by Ronaldo47
typos
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