tjg1677

Hello and welcome to a great forum. Some great advice here, in fact just read Gracies post and now in a total dilemma as on reflection doubts are now creeping and I May have to sell the boat................. NOT !! . If you are doing the northern run, one of my favourite places and often overlooked is Black Horse broad, which is just past Horning when heading to Wroxham. I dont know what it is about it as there are no pubs and no moorings, you have to mudweight overnight ( not convenient for the hounds I know but definitely worth a couple of hours for lunch stop ), but for me there is something particularly magical about that broad and yet you hardly ever see it mentioned. It is a private broad and closed during the winter but I believe is open usually between Easter and October. Hope you enjoy your hols and as everyone has pointed out, prepare to return time and time again. trev

Just as a slight addition to the great info from timbo, I am fairly certain that to qualify to fly a red ensign, the vessel has to be registered on the Lloyds register of shipping as a british vessel. When I was in the merch, the company I worked for decided to flag out all of its coastal tanker fleet. Originally they were looking at Liberia or Nassau but decided that as they would no longer be entitled to fly the red duster, not to do so. In the end they opted for Douglas ( IOM ) which weirdly had more relaxed rules than the Dept of Transport ( now the MCA ) but yet allowed the ships to still fly the red ensign and be sort of british registered but not fall under the auspices of the DOT, all very odd. Being ex RN too, I would love to fly a white ensign on GK but sadly that would be rather frowned upon. I think I will get the Lincolnshire flag which is nice and colourful or even design my own house flag, and no, not open suggestions thanks, I know what you lot are like....lol trev

Best type to fit are the ones which give a digital readout indicating CO content in the air as ppm ( parts per million ). When i owned my narrowboat, I was chairman of the club I belonged to, we had caretakers living in a flat above the clubhouse, which was heated by a solid fuel boiler. A CO alarm was fitted in the cellar where the boiler was situated and another in the flat. The alarms used to sound if the wind was in a certain direction and to investigate this further I had extra alarms fitted with a digital readout. One night i had a phone call from the caretakers that all alarms were sounding and reading high. To cut a long story short it transpired that when the boiler was installed thirty odd years ago, there was no flue liner fitted, the flue pipe from the boiler just being piped to the existing chimney system. In a building that is 200 years old, the brickwork in the chimney breasts had become porous and in certain conditions were leaking CO into the building.. A very sobering thought because as chairman I was legally responsible for the caretakers welfare and it brought it home sharply what the consequences could have been. Moral of the story, don't dismiss the use of these units, they do save lives!! Trev

Most domesticated ( culinary wise ) ex naval bods, with the exception of course of the chefs and stewards, were the stokers. First thing we were taught to do as a baby stoker during the middle watch was how to do jacket taties on the fuel pumps or main engine throttle casing. Once more advanced a boiler room stoker could make the most delicious pot mess ( stew ) imaginable using the nearest steam drain, never been able to reproduce that taste since - delicious. The middle watch on deck often used to send down their most junior member to the boiler room with a big pot of soup to be heated for the lads on deck, using said steam drain. One day a rather gobby junior came down the B/R demanding to heat up his gallon or so of soup, this upset the killick of the watch, so he got his own back by directing the lad to put his pot under the vacuum breaker for the evaps, of course the contents vanished in seconds as they were sucked into the evap. The lad was then told to go next door to the engine room and ask the watch chief for his heated soup, a very long wait as the evaps had long since turned eight pints of finest naffi cream of tomato into distilled water, needless to say we didnt see hin down the boiler room again ! Bit off topic i know but couldnt resist telling that one. Trev

My goodness, hasn't Hammy aged well, rumour had it that he hit the downward spiral after the success of the original series and was hooked on drink, chocolate drops and lady hamsters.... just shows, never believe all you are told in the press........

Always live from the pump rooms bolton, then Dr Who at teatime. Or a bit more on topic, very boat related - tales of the riverbank,

I would definitely buy it.

Yes, definitely a bearing scraper used for larger bearing journals to ensure a good annular fit. Used one identical to that last in 1982 to fettle the brass journals on a minesweeping winch input shaft. Third picture is a deflection gauge for checking radial throwout (concentricity ) on shafting and rotary equipment. Very useful for checking your propshaft is not bent ! Fourth pic, the v shaped gadget is a centre finder used for finding the centre of a circle. Trev

thank goodness we had a gyro compass when I was at sea!!!

Hello and welcome. Ferry marina at horning fits all of your requirements to the letter. The downside is that they really are not cheap but I believe do have space. Do recommend their workshop though, they did about 4k's worth of work for me last year and have to admit that i was 110 percent delighted with their work and prices. Hope this is of some help Good luck with your search and please let us all know how you get on. Trev

That was fascinating to read, particularly the price list, options and vat at 25%. Ironic really as the base spec when new is about five to eight thousand quid lower than the current second hand prices, fabulous! Trev

A very big thumbs up from me, these tutorials are fantastic and not doing my diet any good at all lol, not that i need an excuse but these dishes look marvelous, keep up the good work CC and thanks. Trev

Hope that you and BA got back to the wet shed safe n sound griff. trev

Bit of an update, thanks by the way to all who have contributed, much appreciated. I have been quiet on this one coz I have been trying to source a decent quote but not had a lot of luck. However, stumbled across this site, very interesting range and gives you the opportunity to make your own up - watch this space for further updates. Link to site is SeaScrew.com check it out. Trev

brilliant effort all, now that is a job well done, she looks fabulous!!

ermmm no thanks MM, I will pass on that if you don't mind lol.

Me too, you just cant put a price on this forum and how we all help one another. I have said it before and i make no apologies for repeating, long may it live. Trev Have used Iain's legacy, just to remind us what it's all about...........................

Thanks once again everyone for their input, it has been truly fantastic. Thank you also Stuart for your very kind offer, i have ordered some vents and once i have the dims, i will be in touch. You are a truly great bunch Trev

Oh dear, now you have got me worried.

Thanks all and nice one, some real top tips there, spacers it is, may even experiment by laminating sheets of one inch polystyrene foam to make the thickness, easy to work, cut and glue. Thanks again, i love this forum, it gives one some great advice, ideas and food for thought. Trev

thanks Alan and JM for the input, all useful stuff, looks like ufo vents are th way forward. I do still have the problem of the vinyl though. The void is about three inches deep but the vinyl is fitted between stringers approx eight inches apart and the material will simply not stretch that much to pull up flush with the deckhead, so still looking for solutions to that one please. trev

I paid a deposit to Creative 5 months ago to have a new canopy fitted over the upper helm, still have no idea when they will be doing it, communication is terrible and answers when you do get them are very vague, will update if I get anywhere with them but seriously tempted in the meantime to go elsewhere..... trev.

Hello all, It is becoming apparent that I need to fit some more upper ventilation to my boat as it has two cabins with absolutely no ventilation at all, crazy !! My boat has the vinyl headlining fitted that allows approx a 3 inch void space between the roof and vinyl, my main concern is how on earth do you make this good and look reasonable when you fit a vent above it without just a nasty 4 inch diameter hole in the vinyl. Also, what is the best type of vent to use, in the past on narrowboats it was easy as you just fitted brass mushroom vents, wouldn't quite look right on a cruiser methinks, I have considered the flat pancake / UFO type vents but I don't feel they give the best ventilation, however I stand to be corrected on this as I have had little experience with them. Any info / input / help / past experiences all gratefully received. thanks in advance Trev.

Hi griff, Try this link to a bluray and dvd player. It is powered from the mains via a 12v wall wart type transformer, so will run off BA's 12v system, quite reasonably priced too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDP-S5500-Blu-Ray-Player-Sharing/dp/B00R34L7ZS Trev

And dont forget the Scammel Scarab three wheel artics that British Rail used in the sixties. There were some converted from petrol engines to battery power as an experiment. There was one of these running around grimsby fish docks in the eighties, it was owned by a fish merchant to move boxes of fish from the landing quays to the processing factory, i remember the batteries on it were absolutely huge.........