VoysinDeMurk

Well, the BA are responsible for navigation aren't they? Maybe the ghost of 'Chatterbox' will come back to haunt them for charging for mooring at Reedham and even the financial score! Alan.

I feel particularly sad about the sinking of Chatterbox, as with many 'boaty' people I have a deep affection for old boats, wooden boats in particular. They have soul and are redolent of real craftsmanship and steeped in memories of happy days. Sorry, getting all whimsical. For some years I coveted Chatterbox, even in her latter bedraggled state, and bored Julia with my wish to buy and restore her. Unfortunately, being in the expensive and time consuming process of restoring another old 'woody' I secretly knew it wouldn't be. However, with the finishing of my current restoration and her re-launch in sight it will be with a new name... 'Chatterbox'. It's the least I can do! Alan.

]I see that the sorry old remains of 'Chatterbox' at The Waterfront mooring in Norwich has sunk, or been scuppered, along with a little plastic 'windy' nearby. I wonder why after so many years looking sad and unloved but afloat has 'Chatterbox' succumbed so suddenly? Alan.

Hi Mark. Having read your reply, I think the valves are ball valves, they aren't 'cocks' but levers. They were for hydraulic lines on diggers or something similar. They only took me a couple of hours of easy work to put in and offer a lot of piece of mind. I didn't just fit them to guard against theft but also because I have a morbid fear of pyromaniacs! On the subject. . . I going to need a service on my twin Morris 1100 Vedettes in the next month or so. Is that up your street? Alan.

Between the filler caps and the fuel tanks on my boat I have installed simple 2" gate valves, they cost me £30 each. If I leave my boat for any length of time I just close them. So the filler cap only gives access to 7" of dry pipe. The valves are 'fuel safe' as I believe they are intended for use on heavy plant machines. Alan.

Take a regular old fashioned 12v electric fuel pump with a couple of lengths of pipe attached. Moor up beside the target, pop the inlet pipe into their fuel tank, the outlet into your own, switch on and sit back. No siphoning, no noise, no commotion and a steadily emptying tank. No I'm not recommending it. But a few years back, in spite of police attention a couple of reprobates were thieving their way around the Kent river moorings draining off hundreds of gallons of fuel without attracting particular attention. On one unfortunate occasion the police were even watching a mooring where a boat was drained, while it was being done! They just thought it was normal mooring activity. Apparently the two oiks even came up and lounged on the cabin roof of their boat with beer whilst their pump pumped! The police were so unimpressed they didn't even note any descriptions. It was some months later, after the offenders boat was seen going under the Kings Ferry Bridge with a suspicious number of Jerry cans in the cockpit, that they were rumbled. Alan.

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I appreciate it. I can certainly see the merit of having a stern weight available, it was something that hadn't occurred to me. I do have a manual winch and a Bruce but I was thinking of removing the winch as it's a big lump on the foredeck, and turning the chain locker into a generator locker with the possibility of fitting a compact electric winch just to raise a mudweight. I also have a good old-fashioned mushroom mud anchor knocking about somewhere but that definitely needs a big winch to get it out of the sticky stuff even when you motor over it, so maybe that should stay in the shed! . . . Don't you just love it when answers raise more questions? Thank you again.

My lovely old twin screw wooden cruiser and me are retiring together to the Broads. Away from the salt and tides of coastal cruising we are relocating, hopefully to Lodden for a gentler life. So 'Hello' to you Broadsmen and ladies. And a question, that may sound a bit silly, but. . . how heavy a mud-weight will I need for a 30' 0", 5 tonner, full displacement and 7' 6" airdraft? Thanks in advance. Alan.