Silverline

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, JanetAnne said:

Fowlers, Broadway's, Newson Boats (the Stratford's of course) the Darby's, Alec Hampton, Jimmy Toplis. 

This is one memory lane I am going to really enjoy! Shall we start a new thread  for it Peter?

They were a rum old bunch those Oulton Broad yard owners. Old man Knights was a classic. Always remember him planking up a new cruiser for his fleet. Planks were pulled into place with g-clamps and braces off the wall, the old boy then hammering in steel screws, leaving enough proud for about 3 or 4 turns of a screwdriver to tighten things up. As he worked he chewed on a gob of putty, some of which was thumbed over the screwhead and that was followed by a slap of white lead as a primer. Finesse it was not but his view was that his boats got such a hammering that quality was not required. For all that his boats were popular, all called Sir something or another apart from Guinevere, a boat that was probably his best letting boat. 

Then there was that bloke in his bobble hat, an Ivan Wooltaughton, Another class act, they don't make 'em like that any longer. Always put me in mind of a younger version of a certain wellie wearing character in Last of the Summer Wine! 

L.S.D Rich at the Wherry, Ivan Darby at the Commodore, Bill Solomon, Fred Newson, Desmond Truman, Jimmy Toplis, John Knights, Timmy Fowler, Alec Hampton, Jimmy Hoseason, Mr Fletcher on the salt-side, Leo Robinsons, Richardsons, David Austin, Peter Cooper, Phil Crosland, Lenny Balls, Tin Legs at Hamptons and lots of faces I remember but who's names I forget now. Memories for me, a disappearing history to others.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I did write a post, but it's not here, so I don't think it loaded up when the forum went down, so i'l post it again

Hearsay it might be, but if someone gives you a warning shot over something that could be a costly error, and those people HAVE dealt with them numerous times before, add some of the veiws aired on this thread, along with many negative reports on trip advisor, it's reasonable to form an opinion such as I have. What I'm NOT going to do is risk a four figure sum hiring a boat just to prove or justify a point.

I wonder.how many people who have contributed to this thread have advised others NOT to do something, because they have HEARD bad reports about I?.

More to the point, I wonder how many people will be honest and admit to it in open forum?.

[Hockham Admiral]

Members opinions will always be listened to,  Neil, by all of us.

But we are not an advisory company and hence really don't want hearsay. Your thoughts do count but please leave some anonymous person's out.

[Timbo]

3 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Memories for me, a disappearing history to others.

I did mean to ask Peter...what were the Romans really like? 

[JennyMorgan]

Much like you and I! Just wish they had spoken English so I didn't have to learn Latin at school.

[MauriceMynah]

ROMANS GO HOUSE.

[TheQ]

Romanes eunt domus

 

or

 

Romani ite domum  be correct for Romans go home,

 

yes I had to look it up, I'm not that good at English let alone the  French  they tried to teach me... and my memory for the film is even worse.....

 

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

ROMANS GO HOUSE.

Errrrrr?

[MauriceMynah]

Life of Brian, Peter

Roman soldier catches a man writing what he believes to be "Romans go home" on the city wall. He is in fact writing "Romans go house".

The roman soldier corrects the mans Latin and as a punishment makes him write "Romans go home" correctly, 100 times on the wall.

[JennyMorgan]

Ahh ha, alternative humour!

[donnygeoff]

Just a quick tale about noises in the night.......

As the bilge pump going off during the night has been mentioned, I was wondering if the cause of the noise could be something else........

First hire a long time ago from Freshwater Cruisers of Brundall.

The first night the "bilge pump"  was going off so in the morning while doing the engine checks as told to, I checked for water around the bottom, didn't see any, so thought, "the bilge pump works then, water must be getting in when under way, and the pump emptying it when stopped overnight"

So, after we moored up for the evening, I check for water again... nothing, it was as dry as a bone.

When settled down for the night, the pump noise started again, note made to phone yard in morning, as with no water down there it should not be running.....

At about 2 or 3 am it went off again waking myself and Mrs DG up

"That pumps working again, I will have to phone the yard later"

Then Mrs DG said.......

Have you remembered to turn the water pump off, like the yard said................

One flick of a switch and guess what...........

 

[addicted]

The last three boats we have owned have all had the water pump located in the bedroom.  Not really conducive to a good nights sleep especially when you have overnight guests who "get up" in the night and feel it essential to give their hands a really thorough wash under running water.

 

Carole

[ranworthbreeze]

On many of the Narrow Boats we have hired in the past they seem to put the fresh water pump under one of the beds, we used to turn it off overnight to get undisturbed sleep.

On Ranworth Breeze I tend to operate the hand bilge pump before going to bed, this always pulls any water out from a lower level than the auto bilge pumps so again a peaceful night.

Regards

Alan 

[Vaughan]

The Broads type stern gland (inboard bearing) is designed to drip very slowly, about once every 3 seconds, as it is water lubricated. It can be tightened up, to stop the drip, but then it might overheat when running. It is a fine adjustment.

In a boat such as Ranworthbreeze it is under the aft bed and so you hear it in the night, dripping into the bilge. The trick is, to tie a strip of linen rag or chiffon around the bearing and let it dangle in the bilge water, so the drips run down it and don't make a noise.

If the bilge pump is running every 15 minutes or so, this usually means the inboard bearing needs tightening, in which case phone the boatyard and they can cure this in 5 minutes.

If the fresh water pump is cutting in every few minutes then there is a leak somewhere in the system so you need to call the boatyard. Meantime you can always turn the pump off, with the switch provided for that purpose.

Anyone remember the old days, when the stern gland and the raw water pump had grease caps? Hirers were shown how to give the caps half a turn every morning, before starting the engine. So no funny noises in the night. At least not from the boat!

[JennyMorgan]

4 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Anyone remember the old days, when the stern gland and the raw water pump had grease caps? Hirers were shown how to give the caps half a turn every morning, before starting the engine. So no funny noises in the night. At least not from the boat!

Great, if you had a good wrist action.

[donnygeoff]

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

The trick is, to tie a strip of linen rag or chiffon around the bearing and let it dangle in the bilge water, so the drips run down it and don't make a noise.

that brought back memories of my granddads house, the kitchen sink tap had a drip, he tied cotton round it, left it dangling into the sink, no more drip, drip, drip.....

[Oddfellow]

10 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Anyone remember the old days, when the stern gland and the raw water pump had grease caps? Hirers were shown how to give the caps half a turn every morning, before starting the engine. So no funny noises in the night. At least not from the boat!

Those Jabsco 4900 raw water pumps are still in service on many boats. I favour them for their infinite ability to be repaired. The problem with the replacement ones from both Jabsco and Johnson is that only the impeller, cam and cover plate are replacement parts; there is no wear plate in them behind the impeller and this will render the pump scrap once wear gets too much. In the old days, you just put in a new plate. This is MOST annoying as the  replacement pump from Jabsco is one of the very few (perhaps the only) pump in the Jabsco range that does not have a wear plate. 

Yes, you can machine the pump body to take a wear plate, but that is a huge annoyance. 

[MauriceMynah]

My stern gland has a drip... nah come off it you lot, I'm being serious for once... I thought that a drip every 3 seconds was excessive and squdged more grease into it till it was a drip per minute. I noticed that after using the boat it returned to a drip around 5 seconds. What is the ideal I should aim for? and when leaving the boat for any significant period, am I doing any harm by squdging more into it, getting it back to 1 a minute?

[ranworthbreeze]

14 hours ago, Vaughan said:

In a boat such as Ranworthbreeze it is under the aft bed and so you hear it in the night, dripping into the bilge. The trick is, to tie a strip of linen rag or chiffon around the bearing and let it dangle in the bilge water, so the drips run down it and don't make a noise.

Hi Vaughan,

In the case of Ranworth Breeze the stern gland is in the engine bay, but if we did have a fast drip it would be heard from the aft bed. The aft cabin floor has an inspection hatch to see the stern tube and the bolts for the cutlass housing.

Normally the stern tube packing's will last a season but may need a slight tweek during the later part of the season.

We always love the stern tube greasers on the narrow boats, its just a pity we can not use an auto greaser on our boat.

Regards

Alan

[ranworthbreeze]

4 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

My stern gland has a drip... nah come off it you lot, I'm being serious for once... I thought that a drip every 3 seconds was excessive and squdged more grease into it till it was a drip per minute. I noticed that after using the boat it returned to a drip around 5 seconds. What is the ideal I should aim for? and when leaving the boat for any significant period, am I doing any harm by squdging more into it, getting it back to 1 a minute?

Hi John,

If you are taking the boat out of the water it might be an idea to have a look at prop shaft at the stern gland end to see if there is any wear.

A few years ago we had the prop shaft extracted and it was worn there, because of the time involved (to get the boat ready for the season start) we had Broom's parcel up the 8 foot long prop shaft and we had it collected and shipped to a company in Leeds for it to be stainless welded and machined to its original state.

Also see a picture of when we had issues with the cutlass housing.

Regards

Alan

 

[BroadAmbition]

Chuffin eck, this thread is huge, trying to get caught up, no where near done with it and now have to go forth back to do some kitchen wall grouting.  One thing that has so far caught my look-outs:-  "You don't know who I am"   or as I have heard a few times 'Don't you know who I am'?  My standard reply to this one albeit somewhat sarcastic is:-   'Blimey mate / Mrs, if you don't know who you are, how the dickens am I supposed to know? I suggest you phone a friend that does know you or get yersen off to see the trick-cyclist (Psychiatrist).   This winds them up no end! 

Griff

[Springsong]

Do you know who my father is?

Reply no mate do you?

that gets them every time.

[JennyMorgan]

13 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

My stern gland has a drip... nah come off it you lot, I'm being serious for once... I thought that a drip every 3 seconds was excessive and squdged more grease into it till it was a drip per minute. I noticed that after using the boat it returned to a drip around 5 seconds. What is the ideal I should aim for? and when leaving the boat for any significant period, am I doing any harm by squdging more into it, getting it back to 1 a minute?

Perhaps a simple case of repacking your stern-gland?

[MauriceMynah]

Well that depends Peter, what I'm really trying to find out is "At what frequency should that drip be?"

I won't know if any action is required at all without that single piece of information. "How many seconds should there be between drips?" is another way of putting it.

If my drip is excessive, action needs to be taken. If it is about right then that is indicative of my not having a problem. If I don't know what is right, then I don't know if anything is wrong. See my point?

[JennyMorgan]

To be honest, John, I don't think that it is a question of seconds between drips, more a case of minutes. However I would be guided by experts rather than a self opinionated, self appointed expert! It is some years since I have owned a shaft driven boat but a drip every five seconds seems excessive to me.