TimYoung

In 1972, in Leeman Road Working Men's Club in York, beer was 9 1/2P a pint. One could be quite ill for a £1. I was there!

Severn is based at Northwich on the Weaver. Tim

Beware the shape of the cills on the majority of the locks when going down. The locks were built for wide boats which stay in the middle. If your 62' narrow boat is held to the side there is a danger of landing your stern on the cill.

I recall that Ariel was known as the the 'Painters Boat' when the sides were cut down to ease access.

I believe the brass fitting is a bilge pump. The cylinder is the plunger and the rubber is the valve. There will be a square socket for the stancheon and the pumping handle. A vertical rod would connect to the bridge on the plunger. Tug kennet has three pumps like this. The pump cylinder is around two feet long with another valve in the bottom.

Another difference in the fish named motors was that they had the lighter 9HP Bolinder engines. As the boats would ride higher when empty, the stern tube is set 2" lower in the stern to keep the blades in the water. The blade for a 15HP engine only just clears the skeg. Tim

If Sid's ditch is the channel along by a wall, there is loads of room for a 14'3" shortboat.

Strangely relevant to this post it is a fact that the Queen's rowing barge IS electric. Seems it has duplex systems which will run completely independently. I don't know how I know!

Northern Trent and Mersey Tunnels, Kennet at 9' wide passes them with no problems with the funnel and wheelbox down. The pinch point is the stop lock, only just fits!

We have a long keb. It lies along Rudd's cabin and engine hole with the the prongs going down the back of the back end rail. The shaft is a length of bannister rail which has a flat where the wall brackets would fit. The wielder knows where the prongs are because the flat and the prongs are aligned. The wood is only softwood but when it degrades it isn't expensive to change.

The boat design that finally became the steel shortboat can cope with any amount of water on either deck. Water spilling on to the foredeck hits the front of the the cabin, spills around and falls off. Going downhill the water hits the back deck, tops up the ballast tank ,hits the back of the engine room and the wash board in the slide and again spills away. The shortboat has evolved to be be impervious to the waterfalls it might meet. A submarine perhaps. New boats should maybe aim to have some of the same qualities.

Our shortboat Severn is 61'10" long x 14'3". We travel from Wigan to Leeds with no trouble at all. To my mind one important consideration is the shape of the stern. A shortboat is rounded at both ends which fits into the cill either way. This means that not only can you use all the length but also you can turn as you exit the lock. Modern shapes of wide boat can have flat transoms with square corners which limit how manoeverable they are as they exit locks.

Our little tug Kennet was fitted with a Crossley 3 cylinder air start engine, following the Gardner fitted on build in 1931. The air start engines were fitted to several of the ICI Brunner motor coasters in 4 cylinder form.

All the FMC fish named boats were originally fitted with the 9hp pup in a shorter engine room. So short that the fuel tank had a dish to clear the boatman's leg when kicking. They were a snappy engine that had to be run hard to keep them warm, unlike the more docile 15hp model. Because the engine was much lighter, the prop shaft on the fishes is mounted 2" lower in the in the swim to keep the blade in the water when empty.