Dav and Pen

This post brought back some good memories well remember Binkie. With regard to tug of war these were a usual feature of early rallies. Had a good one at the Lym rally between the Jaguar and Dart. The jag was loaded and had an HA2 and the engine had full revs before being put into gear, nick went into the engine hole and put his foot against the governer and we held them until they got full revs on then we went backwards. Dart had a gardener bus engine and big prop. Prize barrel of beer and they were non drinkers!! happy days even if soaking wet.

I assume from your post that you have had a bad experience of a prm box. I have had only good experience having had a 250 on a PJ3 and now a 500 on a130hp Perkins. In its 10 years it must have done thousands of gear changes without a blink and just an annual oil change. The pj3 was a replacement for PD2 which should be avoided at all costs. My last NB had a lister HB2 a really lovely engine. david

I have had much of my barges bilges (rounded) and bottom overplayed in the last10 years and it has always been done by the shipyard welders using rods. The steel is 5.5mm. They cut a number of holes in the new plate to weld to the bottom as well as the edges the plates being 3.8 m wide. The last time a Romanian welder who had been shipyard trained made such a good job that the other welders came to admire his work, I was very pleased. By the way my barge is 100 years old and was originally made of 5.5mm steel. Parts of the bottom had gone below 4 mm and the starboard bilge towards the stern down to 3 mm in places. Rubbed through over the years. Docking in sept for insurance survey so hope no mor work needed. david

Ah happy? Days flogging down the Ashby from copsal wharf with 22 tones house coal. Trying not to finish up in a field, at least we kept it open and dredged a channel for you escapees from the Oxford. Oh dear. David

Had this problem with HB. It was the leak off pipe and there had been a mod at some stage that hadn't been fitted. Everybody knew of the potential problem. Get the covers off and have a look.

Pleased that Alton still has its PD2 and frankly amazed. When we ran it camping for the NBT somehow we managed to keep it and the Tadworths PD going mainly thanks to Ted Ward and then Ian Kemp. tadworths broke its crank whilst ticking over in Atherstone top lock but limped back to Braunston where there were spare parts to get it running for the rest of that season. After that got a PH3 water cooled out of a trinity house generating set and stuck a prm box it up to 27 hp and no ducting. david

My barge is 22 x 4.05 x 1.1. 2.9 air draft. We can go anywhere on the connected system without taking the wheelhouse down and have crossed the Nivernais 3 times. However it is getting shallower not helped by the stupid habit of emptying locks after uphill boats. im afraid it is getting like the. BWB days with no dredging of the so called liesure canals and none likely. The new build so called replica barges are drawing less than 1 m with many at 85 cms. BW build their work flats with a draft of 10" in the 70's so we knew the game was up.

I used Jotun quick step deck paint and it certainly went off quickly. However it is to hard and has literally cracked. It now has to be taken off and back to bare steel. It's red oxide primer and sikkens af this time and see how that works. At present it's 35 c in central France so not much point putting any paint on as can't even touch the decks. When we had narrow boats always used red oxide primer and red oxide paint on gunwales and foredeck. Easy to touch up and always looked good. the jotun product has since been withdrawn, just my luck to use it. david

Keep to outsides of bends and if the ducks are paddling it's shallow

The Zero rated vat rate for. Boats is quite clear and the roof could never be accepted as the measurement point for the formula required to achieve the 15 tone measurement. My barge is 22 x 4.05 x 1.5 under the gunwhale and by filling in a 744c form I can get certain things article at zero rate. When we ran big Northwich and Woolwich boats they just made the old 15 ton rule but only just due to their high sides and we got repair work done vat zero. David

Ran a PD2 with engine hole doors open for years. Crane had an Sr3 when brought from Willow Wren and never any trouble, our 50 footer had an HB with no trunking and always kept doors open. H series are probably the best air cooled listers for narrow boats. A good silencer helps with the noise but maybe the reason I now have hearing aids or it could be using windy hammers on ships decks with no ear defenders. david

There is also the. Brittany canals to consider not so well known and not so busy the midi is busy but sunny. The Burgundy canals in June are pretty peaceful but unfortunately no airports serviced from U.K. but easy by road. Locoboat is in all these locations as is Le Boat but these are cruisers.

We had a boatman who got stuck in Loughborough by a flood one winter. He met up with some students who persuaded him it would be a good idea to plant some weed on islands in the sewer and then harvest it in due course. He had some plants in the back cabin but forgot to water them so grand scheme came to nowt.

So the Planning Committee of Daventry council give themselves planning permission to go ahead with the canal arm despite the majority in a recent referendum being against it. Local democracy in action. They do not say how much it will cost or where the money will come from, they say that CRT is for the project but will they take on the maintenance once its finished. As a local tax payer believe me there is a lot more things that need doing in Daventry district before a canal although it might be handy now the local tip only opens 3 days a week. David

According to the local paper it goes before the DDC planing committee this week with recommendations for approval. After that funds and tenders, who knows still lots of opposition in the area.