grunders

Hi Alan, Yes; feel free to use either image, or both images, on your page. The above photos should be credited to Nick Grundy. I also took a single photo of Sarpedon, the thumbnail link for which is below. It is higher resolution than the above photos. If you use it, please credit it to Ben Grundy.

Alan, Below are pictures of Sarpedon in 2011 at Ashwood Marina on the S & W Canal: Just for your information, the motor boat stern seen in Laurence's picture of Irene on Harris's Dock, Netherton is Beatty. The boats worked together for Barlows from 1955 to the end of 1959 when Beatty was sold for conversion. There is a photograph of Beatty and Irene in Hillmorton Top Lock, published in April 2011 Waterways World.

For 1 - I suppose you could use some sort of long rubber/rope fender which is attached at the T-stud and then at a point where the deckboard/cratchboard would be and loops down to almost water level in between (not sure whether that would work nor how attractive it would be). For 2 - as well as using springs (searchable on this forum), hang fenders at the points of contact - if no suitable hanging point on the boat, hang from the bank. For 3 - use fenders that don't float and dangle them in the water - e.g. a tyre (vertically) with half (or more, or less) in the water. Hope that helps

For those who are interested, here is my video of our recent passage through the Liverpool Link: It was an interesting journey - we were held up having only managed to get as far as Albert Dock and then held up again in the Stanley lock flight - but it was good fun and great to be able to travel from the hub of the city past the Three Graces and through the network of docks to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

The size (in kb i.e. filesize) of the photo is important - must be less than 150kb. Check the size of the photo you want to upload isn't too big, then try uploading again. If you get any error messages, post them. Don't navigate away from the page until it has finished uploading the picture (though this shouldn't take too long for a 150kb filesize). The physical size (i.e. in pixels) is less of an issue as it seems the software can resize but you might want to go for a square image or it won't fill the space available. On the use of avatar/photo, the photo appears in your public profile page on the forum, the avatar appears next to all your posts. I hope this helps.

The Huddersfield Narrow is 70' so you are all right there. Also you've got the Rochdale Canal. Admittedly, with both of these, you need to turn round once you've reached the Eastern ends. Then you've got the North-Eastern navigations accessible from Trent Falls.

I think the thread title should be: Every Crane Owner's Nightmare

Our gunwales see quite a lot of use as they are the only route (apart from the roof) to the steerer's position from the bow (or vice versa). Also can be used for cleaning windows/side of boat (giving somewhere to stand). I also use them when pushing the boat out from a bank - hands on handrails, one foot on gunwale, other foot pushing - this would be much less convenient without gunwales. Admittedly, if you are looking to maximise internal space, have minimal gunwales or none at all.

I see; that's clever. Does water come in at the centre of the gates (where they "mitre" (if that's the right word)) whilst the lock fills, or not? I'm trying to visualise these gates opening and the water being able to come in from the side but the way I see it, it would be more logical for the water to come in from the centre of the gates once they begin to turn/open or, at least, both from the side and from the centre. Also, am I right in thinking that this is the lock into Portishead Marina? If so, this picture from Google Earth... ...suggests that the Marina-end gates have the convex edge facing the river - do you (or does anyone else) know why that is? Surely a radial gate has its convex side towards the water pressure (the higher water level) so having the gates this way round only makes sense if the river will at times be higher than the level of the marina, and that doesn't happen, does it? I could be talking complete rubbish, of course. Anyway, thanks for clearing up the issue of where the water is coming from.

This is probably a silly question but in this picture... ...is the incoming water from the sides of the gates from paddles or just very leaky gates? I'm thinking it's more likely to be leaking gates although that would be a very substantial leak.

Yes, I can understand the struggle with the music. I start with the theory that the real sound is probably better than music. However, once you get people talking and the editing means you have snatches of random conversation this seems less of a good idea. Then, of course, the editing program randomly decides that it will delete all the audio from the video clips when joining them so I didn't have the option of using real sound at all (darn you, computer!). Then it's a choice of no sound at all or music. Youtube's system for recognising copyrighted music is quite good and I always feel guilty getting a 'copyright warning' so I don't tend to use 'commercial music' but then again I feel that a video with no sound is very boring and, of course, if someone doesn't like the music, they can turn the volume down or off. Anyway, it sounds like you heard what I decided to do in the end. I'd quite like to get someone to write a score for my videos but I think they need to be of a much higher quality before I can justify any expense to pay for such a privilege. I probably would have gone for a mix of the actual sound and music but, given the problems explained above, I just went for music. Glad you enjoyed it despite the music. I shall do a Liverpool Link video and try to use the real sound as much as possible (assuming my computer is playing nicely).

Since this has expanded to a thread about the Rochdale in general, just thought I would add a link to a previous thread: http://www.canalworl...showtopic=29888 Also, on the draught issue, Beatty draws 2' 10" and we did have a bit of trouble with depth at times but we made it. From my trip report, I quote the following: This from the first locks after the Nine: "Our experience at the second lock was a taster of what was to come - there was some rubbish on the sill preventing the gates fully closing. We raked the sill with the keb in order to get the gates closed properly. Throughout the ascent of these first 18 locks, Beatty was hitting lumps in the canal especially in bridgeholes - mainly this seemed to be stuff that had been thrown in although a couple of pounds were very shallow to start with. There was also, of course, plenty of stuff behind the gates in the locks (both visible and hidden under the water) which meant there was often at least 1 gate that wouldn't open properly. Getting out of these problems mainly involved just reversing off and trying a different position in the canal but the shafts saw a lot of use and, on one occasion, we were glad of a tow from Molly's Drum, the boat acompanying us, to pull us off of a particularly nasty lump." This bit about Rochdale itself: "Through the town we were again rolling over lumps in the cut until we reached bridge 57 at 1200.Here, we stopped dead in the bridgehole having ridden on to something quite big. We reversed and had another try but to no avail and we also managed to jam the prop with a pushchair. The propeller was luckily freed using a block of wood and sledge hammer and our attention then returned to getting the boat through the bridge. Raking the bottom with the keb revealed the pushchair but also a shopping trolley, and then finally a motorbike! This last item was a devil to remove but we eventually managed with three ropes and a bit of help from the locals." And these snippets on having too much water: "We crossed the summit again with no problems and water to spare. When we got to locks 40 - 43, the main problem was too much water. This was a section which was visibly short of water on the way up but now we were causing localised flooding by raising paddles. This was despite only 1 paddle being available at the bottom of each lock owing to 'flood prevention measures'. Lock 40 has short balance beams and with the amount of water coming over the top gates, it was impossible to open the gates conventionally. We eventually got one open by tying a rope to the heel-post of one gate, tying the other end to a bollard and pulling on the rope in between these points." Coming down the Nine: "There was still a lot of water (I suppose this isn't a surprise) which made opening bottom gates quite difficult but we managed." Despite the problems, I'd love to do it again.

Right! I have finally uploaded my video of our 29th April crossing of the Mersey ... and here it is: Description: "Apart from being quite shaky footage, I am quite pleased with this. This shows our journey from Ellesmere Port to Salthouse Dock, Liverpool in April 2011. We went down the Ship Canal to the River Mersey, went down river then crossed to Brunswick Lock and finally made our way through the dock system to Salthouse Dock. It was a very easy trip - the weather was very kind to us. I have included timings in the video so you can get an idea of how long each part of the journey took. We were pushing an incoming tide as we went down the Mersey so it was quite slow-going out on the river but great fun! The music is from Incompetech.com, by Kevin MacLeod. We left Liverpool using the (relatively) newly constructed link and I will upload a video of that part of the journey in due course."

No, I don't think so. We were right next to Lion, and Grange is easily recognisable with it's full length blue conversion. On a side note, Lion has very fine bows - there's very clear contrast with the two boats next to her - Victoria and Beatty. Just for interest's sake, here are my shots of the bows of the boats. I think I should have moved for a straighter view of each but never mind. I have to say that I'm not brilliant at recognising different types of boats but I think I've got quite a variety of styles there.

Lovely pictures. It looks like you had the perfect weather for it.