Bikertov

Gracie - I don't know why you did the "laughing" reaction - that is probably a normal everyday mealtime in your household by the sound of it

Photographic evidence please

Very useful to know this, and I must try it, as I have the advantage of "girly buttons" on A Frayed Knot

I need to reseal the joint between the sink moulding and bulkhead in the shower/heads on A Frayed Knot where it has also split away - is there a particular sealant you would recommend ?

We can both agree that being on the beautiful Isle of Man for any year of any race series - be it the TT, the Manx or otherwise - is an amazing experience. The friendliness of both residents and visitors, from all nationalities and backgrounds, was brilliant. None of the football-hooligan type rivalry regardless of your appearance or what bike you are on. I also experienced the island from a different perspective in my early teens in the late 70's as a CCF Cadet on annual camp, staying on the old base at Jurby. Oh what fun climbing Snaefell, wearing 37-pattern webbing and lugging a Lee Enfield .303 rifle, a 2 man bivy and compo rations ...

Following recommendations on here a few months back, I bought a Wessex window vac from Toolstation. They are certainly great for clearing the condensation from windscreens and windows, much better than a sponge or rag.

I was fortunate enough to go to the IOM TT for 10 days in 1992, on my then new Suzuki GSXR1100. It was the year Steve Hislop won the Senior TT on a Norton, No.19 - a bike that I have seen on display at the Goodwood FoS a few times since. He battled against Carl Fogarty for the win, in a race that some have said was the greatest of all time ! What an experience it was, and to get to go around the famous 26 mile circuit was just amazing. I touched 165 MPH on the mountain pulling away from The Creg Ny Baa, something that I probably wouldn't dare do these days. I believe the current outright lap record for the circuit is held by Steve Hickman, on a BMW, standing at 16m 36s at an AVERAGE speed of over 136 MPH. Just let that sink in for a minute - for anyone that has been to the IoM, and you will appreciate this yourself Griff once you have been, that is truly INSANE for the 26 mile road circuit. Oh, and Mad Sunday is just that - M A D !

So in other words a "loading gauge", as used on railways etc ?

Well I never - Funny that, who would have thought a pet shop would have sold out of such a popular children's pet as a snake ??

Yes, we were back in a couple of weeks ago Unfortunately, as Dom has said, we have a Strong Stream Advice in place which means no navigation and the St.Ives lock is closed again having been open for only a few days I did get out briefly last week - up to St.Ives bridge and back, just to check everything out We are onboard this weekend and have just spent our first night on the boat ! But no Cruising on the Ouse for now

How long are you around for today Mike ? I popped by your mooring yesterday evening but there didn't seem to be anyone on board

So is the general consensus NOT to repair the Mira ? My reasoning to keep it is that I am £50 down on the service kit etc that can't be returned now, and replacement brass cover assembly would be about £90 and I should be running again. No need to blank off old holes or make new ones, and no changes to the plumbing If I ditch the Mira for a new valve I would probably end up having to replumb (a new skill to learn for me) and patch existing holes and make new ones (more new skills). Otherwise a good few £100 for someone to do it for me.

Griff - do you fancy a trip down to St.Ives, to give me some instructions on A Frayed Knot ?

Reminds me of the one about the cannibal that passed his brother in the street

Too much information Smoggy This is meant to be a family friendly forum

Yes, that is on the wish list for future upgrades. Even if it is a portable panel for when out and about When I have the essential electrical work done this year (new fusing and busbars at a minimum) I will allow for a solar charge converter to be added too.

Yes (I think). There is a calorifier heated by the engine, and a backup immersion heater element running off 240V mains I wouldn't quite say the boat is reliant on 240V, but there certainly isn't enough/any native 12V / 5V (USB) capacity. That is something I need to address over the coming months. The fridge is 12V, but has the 240V-24V converter an extra There is also an inverter, so for now when away from the marina, and with the lack of 240V "in the wild" on the Ouse, I can use mains chargers for any gadgets. I will just need to make sure the battery banks get a recharge from the engine. And on that note, there are 5 batteries in 3 banks - 1 engine/starter, 2 house and 2 for the inverter. That is, until I do a major rewire and combine the house and inverter batteries.

Yes, there was one on the boat, and Jones gave me another that had spare.

The shower I have on A Frayed Know it an old Mira 88, that were quite popular back in the day on these Brooms and Sheerlines too I think. However, it was not working very well, with the temperature and flow knobs being very stiff. On reading up on this, the consensus was to replace all the seals etc, so I bought a service kit and new white knobs, and stripped it down thinking it would be an easy job ... but Oh No ! Having taken the internals home to clean up before fitting the new seals etc, after cleaning up the brass outer housing ("cover assembly") I noticed a massive crack in it, so when it was all reassembled it just spouted water everywhere. And of course, there are no isolating valves fitted, so I had to turn all the water off. Having spoken to the workshop at Jones, they said to repair the crack (by silver soldering) would not be worth it and probably wouldn't last long, and the replacement part is not cheap. So for now, they have capped off the hot and cold feed so at least I can have the water back on again for now. I could try and replace the shower with a whole new unit, but that will be fiddly and costly and I would probably have to get the workshop to do it, as plumbing is not a strong point of mine. As I already bought the service kit and knobs, I want to try and keep this one going if I can. So my question is ... does anyone have an old Mira 88 unit they are no longer using, that I could have the cover assembly from ?

They have given me a mooring at the end of the sales pontoon, until a 'better' one is available I was up last Sunday again, doing a few bits, and did go out on the river just up to St. Ives bridge and back a few times, to make sure everything was OK. At the time, the lock was still closed with a red 'X', but not reversed, and the river flow was quite slow. I now own a windlass, so in theory if the lock was working I could go through - if I was feeling brave enough ! Our plan is to be up on Sunday too, and spend the night aboard returning home on Monday. Hopefully that will include getting out on the river one way or another.

So nearly £100 less than me, and I couldn't navigate for the whole winter even if I wanted to or was in the water The river has been on "strong stream advice" flood alert for pretty much the whole period. Even if I ignored that (at my peril) the locks were either closed or reversed, meaning the doors both ends are held open to allow flood water straight through, so passage through is not possible.

I will shortly have to pay my toll for A Frayed Knot, to cover next year. Being on the River Great Ouse it comes under the Environment Agency rather than you guys who are under the BA. Our increase is only up 2% from last year (I believe it went up 4% last year), but the toll is higher than the The Broads to start with. We are charged by boat length, not area, and I will be paying £609.86 (being 29ft, so in the 7.5m - 10.0m band)

On this point they have done loads to achieve your wish, ensuring that as much water as possible has stayed in the system and not gone out to sea. Why have YOU been so remiss as to not gather it all up, when it was so conveniently kept and stored on land for you to do so.

The last one I saw was across my mothers shoulders ...

One for Grendel I reckon !