Rose Narrowboats

Yes - but that's different (to me at least) from sour grapes.

In some ways I agree - but it's part of the BMF audit, and it would take a braver person than I to want to risk ending up in court after an accident because I hadn't followed industry best practice I think kids wearing lifejackets might actually be less common these days (my memories of the 80s are of hoardes of orange lifejackets on Willow Wrens) but I think that's because there are far less children coming on boating holidays now for a host of reasons - and that part of the advert, encouraging children, showing them joining in and having fun, is to be applauded. Knowing the effort that went into getting it right for The Boater's DVD, the approach just surprised me.

They're still blue and yellow in my head I can see why they dropped the maroon though - it's prone to fading (almost as badly as red...). Not at all. I don't know any of the current management, but I knew Tim Parker fairly well and regarded him very highly - as did most in our trade. This business probably isn't how you imagine - we may be competitors, but a lot of us good friends as well.

Yet - and when the rudder hits something and whips round, there's no time to get out of the way. My real point though is that if you're doing a video you should be showing best practise, and that bit of film contains a number of things that are contrary to the BMF Hireboat Handover. Missed a couple of words too - should have read "child in the foredeck going into a tunnel".

People in the arc of the tiller (repeatedly), no life jackets 99.9% of the time, even on the kids, running on the lockside, child in the foredeck going into a tunnel, gang plank of the bow of the boat....clearly the guy in the office who approved that for uploading has no idea of handover requirements. Showcases CRT's current veg. management rather well too I thought.

Yeah but....when the water is colder it is more dense so the return pipe can be smaller, honest guv'! 🤪

A boiler run dry in a stove will proabably warp beyond redemption. FIll it with sand - especially if you have any intention of getting repaired (i.e. if is a stainless one) FWIW my new boiler - stainless, fitted this summer - makes a near continuous ticking noise. The old glass lined which (had lasted 20 or so years and only came out as a precaution because the stove had reached an age where it needed a full strip down) never made a sound.

We used to take the Alde pump out and use an inline Johnson Mouse pump instead as they lasted longer. They are also mag-drive, so won't ever leak.

Assuming you're doing this to live on, and the budget doesn't run to sprayfoam, then use 2" polystyrene on the deck head (done in two 1" layers to it will bend to the profile of the deckhead), minmum 1" on the cabinsides (preferably 2") and 2" below gunwhale. Cabin framing looks like 1" box, so 1" battens will do the job. Any less and the timber will soon start to go black (from condensation) where it is close to the box section. With the fraiming you have, run the battens fore and aft on the deckhead, cabin side and hullside- this minimises contact with the steel and also supports the ply better. 9mm ply for the deck head, 9 or 12mm for the cabin sides, 12mm below the gunwales. Personally I'd use T&G pine above the gunwhale - it's a lighter material (so the boat will be less roly) and you can go a bit thicker so it's stronger and also a slightly better insulator than ply. If you use T&G then thebattens need to be done accross the boat, not fore and aft Do not insulate with rockwool (except around the flue collar). Do not use MDF for lots of reasons. Do put thin polystyrene tape on all the between the battens and the steelwork. Do fit the polystyrene nice and tightly, and fill in all the little gaps - it makes a difference.

We've got both the Jabsco 58040-2012 and Sanimarin toilets in our hire fleet. Both are better in my experience than the other makes we've tried, with the Jabsco being the one I prefer of the two. They both tolerate most toilet papers, neither like disposable wipes or feminine hygiene products though.

Thank you for the free advert! However, we don't hire boats where the primary function is residential - unless the boat is going to a bonafide mooring either arranged by us or the hirer.

It's called Qest and often "mispelt" as Quest. It's still available in the US. I don't know of a UK supplier, but it can be ordered via Amazon. Get a straight coupler (part number QAC43R), take the nut off one end and use the male thread to connect a 15mm fitting to. The threads are 1/2" NPT rather than BSP, but that's never been an issue on Shurflos etc.

Copies of those brochures I would love to see!

FWIW I've just managed to date some photos I have of four of the Pimblott boats at Hillmorton to December 1977. Also visible in the pictures are the ex-working boat conversions Water Lily and Water Lupin. I'm certain that Water Lily was still in the fleet through 1978* and by 1980 the whole fleet was either Harborough or Rugby built so assuming the Pimblott boats outlasted the conversions (which seems reasonable) they only did so by a year! * I built a model of it at school (ahhh) made out of cereal boxes, which with hindsight was remarkably accurate given the crude way the sterns were constructed!

I don't think it can be 1972 either as Rugby Boats very briefly operated from the far end of the arm with a poly tunnel over the gauging dock and I'm pretty sure that was over that period. What also strikes me about that photo is the total lack of any of the rest of the hire fleet in the arm. You are absolutely correct that they had a much smaller pool of builders to turn to, but from what I was told BW had a fair bit of input into the design. The cabin profile was a BW idea designed to minimise the chances of damage in bridge holes and in the ever shrinking Harecastle Tunnel. I believe the first boat to use the design was the Yarwoods built inspection launch Vigilante, but the repair-yard built BW hire boat conversions and the zoo bus cabins used the same profile albeit in timber rather than in steel as per Vigilante. The big bluff bow was intended to protect the boat from collision damage or sinking (misadventures with gate paddles or cills) but it made them absoloute pigs to get on and off. They were intentionally shallow drafted to cope with the conditions of the time, and the vee-bottom was to ensure they could get close to the bank for mooring in an era where there was much less piling, but the trade off was that in the wind they were a bit like a polystyrene cup. They were however very good (so my mother assures me) at putting the fear of god into yoghurt pots when the bow was seen looming through a blind bridge hole at short notice

I'd always thought that they were built by Pimblott's in the 60s. If they were built in the 70s then they had very short lives in the hire fleet as I think the last of them at Hillmorton had gone by 1980 - replaced as I recall by a batch of Rugby Boats including Water Soldier and Water Fern. Waterway Girl, Waterway Lass and Waterway Nymph I can remember, and I think Waterway Maid. Anyone know what the names of the other ones were? Another one was (is?) moored in Swan Lane Basin which still has it's original Perkins 4.108 and hydraulic drive. It says something about the practicalities of hire fleet operation that having built such sturdy and complicated boats as these, the next generation of BW hire boats were fibreglass topped and Lister SR powered!

The ground pressure theory is interesting...but I'm not entirely convinced as Hillmorton Locks built are built on terrible ground - part running sand and part bog. The house at the bottom lock is built on an oak raft, and I've half an idea the locks may be braced similarly. The paired locks at Hillmorton were built nearly 70 apart, and the new locks are arguably the best desighned anywhere on the system (especially in respect of the culverts) yet both designs use bottom gates. I don't buy the ease of use theory either - even one person can open a pair of mitre gates at least as quickly as heavy single gate. So I'd like to put forward another theory - cost. Certainly two of the canals that use single bottom gates that I can think of were built on the cheap - the Oxford below Banbury, and the last bit of the Stratford. I'm not sure how that ties in with BCN finances at the time they built single bottom gates though?

Which went on to become Warstock - probably best known for their widely copied aluminium, nylon bushed, top bearings amongst many other useful products for boat builders. I miss Roy - he was a good and very versatile chap. His son is still in the industry.

It's great stuff froma usage point of view and I'd be more than happy to stock it at 1p a litre more than conventional diesel, but the last time I got a quote (on 2300ltrs) it was 25p a litre more, and there was still a distinct lack of clarity (in my mind at least) around the tax situation.

Right age of can, and definitely Braunston, but not Frank Nurser himself. Maybe early Ron Hough? Nurser painted can for comparison:

I've seen a lot of this too, and I think it is induced by certain companies who are (with good intentions) putting the fear of god into their customers in respect of not hitting things. All ours are firmly instructed not to even get the pole off the cabin top unless the boat is stationary. Mind you, they are also told never to moor the boat up with the centre line, but most seem to have acquired the habit by observing other people and assuming they must know what they are doing......

I was a little depressed to note that when I rang around for fuel today, the bulk price for red has gone up 2p per litre since the start of the month.

On the Oxford just north of Braunston Turn I think; the boat on the right is on the water point next to Midland Chandlers.

Apologies Goiath, the angle comment was aimed at the OP as most contraptions (up to and including the engine crane ) are likely to end up pulling vertically, The stakes are brilliant - and very tough. I'd owned some for recovery purposes for years before it dawned on me to put some on the boat as well.

If you've driven your stakes in correctly (i.e at an angle) I'm not sure a vertical pull is that great an idea for either the bank or your stake anyway. Far simpler to get some hexagonal pins with an eye in (I use ex MOD ground anchor pins) so when you want to remove them just shove another in the eye and twist - the fact they are hex profiled means the enlarge the hole in the ground much more effectively than twisting a round pin. Example of what I'm on about here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/british-army-ground-anchor-plate-pins-165883002 and you're really worried about coming adrift, go the whole hog and buy 8 plus the anchor plate!