Vaughan

Actually they had Bakelite ashtrays with rubber suckers to stick them on the bulkhead, with a Hearts flag and the name of each individual boat, back in the 50s. They didn't last long at all. Pretty rare now and I should think they might be worth some money!

They made very good souvenirs, didn't they?

Photo doesn't say much for your diet, does it Griff?

I agree with Robin and would like to add that solar panels provide a regular charge, which tops the batteries up while you are not using the boat and prevents sulfation of the plates. So you will get more life out of the batteries and less long term expense.

The whole idea of the Plummer block is to take up the forward thrust from the propellor and stop the thrust from being taken by the gearbox and the flexible engine mounts. So there should be no forward movement of the shaft. The Plummer block also aligns the shaft with the inboard bearing (which is not a bearing, but a gland) and stops it from being worn oval by side pressure from a badly aligned shaft. Shaft alignment with the engine is still vital, but having the Plummer block makes it much easier. It is possible someone left the grubscrews loose the last time they had to draw the shaft back, to get the gearbox off and change the flywheel thrust plate.

Pardon? I thought my ! referred to the difficulty of salvage in such a situation. I think Marshman, talking of the problem, would have used an ! several times!!!! I shall remember not to use such a potentially offensive punctuation mark in future.

Oh dear! I am sorry if you thought my remark was condescending, or even aimed at you personally. It certainly wasn't intended to be and reading it back, I still don't think it looks that way. It seems so easy to offend, these days.

I hate to say "I told you so" but we were debating last year about not wanting to have the job of salvaging a large flat lump of concrete out of a floating reed bed!

I don't suppose the river Styx is within the BA sphere of authority. Otherwise, the Underworld would be a member of the National Park family.

I wish I could join you John. I have just had an e-mail offering to clean the outside of my boat for a good price, as it is looking a bit tatty and "you know what the others in the marina are like. They want all the boats to look tidy". I continue to pay the river toll, insurance and the moorings and I have also paid for winterising and servicing. If the others in the marina don't like the look of a boat that COVID has prevented me from using since autumn 2019 and probably still won't be able to visit this year, then they are more than welcome to go on board and clean the bugger for themselves.

Ah, but who pays the ferryman?

Gland packing comes in square profile of different sizes, such as quarter inch. Available at places such as Peachment or Brian Ward. Make sure all old gland packing is removed. With the nuts undone and the front of the gland drawn forward, wrap a length around the shaft and cut it so that it forms as tight a butt joint as possible. Push this into the stuffing box with a screwdriver. Add further pieces until you have filled the stuffing box. Three will usually be enough. Angle the cut joints in different positions, so they don't end up in line with each other. Slide the front part back in and do up one nut on each thread, to squeeze it all together, but not much more than finger tight. Run the engine in ahead gear at about 1500 revs for at least 10 minutes and feel the gland with your hand. If it is warm to the touch, that is normal but if it gets too hot to touch, ease the nuts off a turn. When you have found the best position, put on and tighten the lock nuts. One drip every couple of minutes when the engine is stopped, is normal. In all honesty, this is a job I would prefer to see done by a boatyard.

Claudette IV is one of Barry Johnson's Anglia class, built at St Olaves.

Neither do I but I am not sure that any of our individual puny gestures to save the planet are going to make any difference. After all, if it were not for global warming, Norfolk would still be under a glacier, whose remains formed what some now call the Great Estuary.

Actually it would be a bi-colour light, red and green, as a vessel under sail only does not carry a "steaming light".

No, I am talking about the previous life of the "new" engine!

I think that new engine was first bedded in sometime around 1959. Nothing wrong about that though!

The Perkins 4108 must have regular oil changes or the oil will sludge up. They recommend every 100 hours but 150 will do. The BMC goes a bit longer, 250 hours normally. The Nanni or Beta will happily do 400 hours between changes. Normally the filter is changed every second oil change. Always change the oil in autumn before the winter as old diesel oil is mildly acidic and will eat away at the crankshaft journals if you leave it in the sump over winter. Regular oil changes are very important for traditional engines such as Perkins and BMC.

Which is why Castrol GTX was marketed as "liquid engineering".

The water pipe is lubrication for the cutless bearing, at the outboard end of the shaft tube. The stern gland is a stuffing box, which may need tightening with a turn on the two nuts seen at the right in your photo, if the gland is dripping too much. If the two parts of the bearing get too close together, or you cannot control the drip by tightening, then the gland will need re-packing. I recommend you have that done by a boatyard. I notice the shaft tube is electrically bonded. Is that an earth for an inverter?

Does anyone remember when there used to be a Wimpy Bar on the High St in Stalham? It didn't stay in business for very long. Possibly because it closed for lunch, between one and two!

Well, we live and learn! Not exactly Haute Cuisine, for a week's holiday afloat!

No cooker?

This reminds me of a plan we had in Crown Blue Line to convert Bounty 44s (which we called Atlantic) for the handicapped, both mental and physical. The aft cabin, aft toilet and shower could be kept for other members of the party, or carers. Bounty bathtubs are built with solid floors, which means bulkheads can be removed easily, without weakening the structure. The boat would also have had suitable wiring for oxygen breathing apparatus and other medical equipment. One can see that there is a lot more involved in converting a holiday cruiser for the handicapped, than there is in a boat just designed for day trips. One can also see that doing this sort of conversion drastically reduces the number of berths, even in a 44ft boat, and also makes it less likely to attract "normal" bookings. So unfortunately, our new owners did not go through with the idea. Too much "impact on the bottom line"!