mjcoon
Well-known member
Is that the one where Harry H. Corbett was called Hemel because he was born in Hemel Hempstead, but might have been born in Berkhamsted?
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Coastal sailor does Brummy canals and tunnels
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Bru
Well-known member
Been there, done that!
Seriously, i have. That's the Old 13 into central Brummagem and I've worked President (the aforementioned steam narrowboat) up there in much the same way with our butty Kildare being dragged up behind by the rest of the crew
And yes, when your slick lock operators, it's a right pain in the bottom getting stuck behind slow coaches (my brother and I, on our own boat, generally tried to knock off any major lock flights at crack of sparrow fart while everybody else was fast asleep. Then get tied up adjacent to a suitable hostelry by early afternoon and watch the world go by over a glass or several of, ahem, mineral water)
Adios
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Seems like it
Bru
Well-known member
It's one of two possible post yachting scenarios. A 55' tug with a Gardner diesel, a trad aft cabin etc.
But the canals aren't the way they were and I'm not sure I'd be happy now so it might be a motorhome instead
Adios
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Its always a problem when you have a better time to compare to but a motorhome
come on.A spring tide mud berth in a salting then. A bit exposed but no authorities hassling you, more birds to listen to and no bikes to run you down
Bru
Well-known member
Its always a problem when you have a better time to compare to but a motorhome
A spring tide mud berth in a salting then. A bit exposed but no authorities hassling you, more birds to listen to and no bikes to run you down
Well the reality is that the day will come when we're no longer physically capable of even vaguely serious sailing. Hopefully not for another ten or twelve years but it will come
And a motorhome would give us the freedom to travel around visiting all the places we haven't been able to get to by boat
By the by, we're moving off our spring tide mud berth onto a swinging mooring precisely because it's limitations mean we hardly get to go anywhere between major cruises
Adios
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After I posted that I thought actually we're not talking about a final resting place. You're right its not a bad idea. Hassle though, this country is pretty tied up for free places to park overnight in something of any size more than a Romahome.
Morocco would be good though. I spent 6 weeks with a friend driving around and camping wherever we ended up, never any hassle. Safe country, very little crime at all. Outside of the tourist hotspots anyway. Funny thing there the Brits and Germans go crazy getting kitted up for serious off-roading, convoys of 4x4s with sand ladders hanging off the side and massive tyres more suitable for crossing the Congo, while the French and Spanish just off road their standard motor-homes, like this couple we spotted.
I guess if they get stuck they'd just shrug a bit and open a bottle of something, which is a fair plan as its not that remote. If the land is grazed someone will spot your big white hulk soon enough and wander over. We were fully equipped with a back street rented old Renault 19 and a single keyring torch my friend had won in a Christmas cracker. Other kit we got from local markets.
our car for completeness sake
When we gave it back after 6 weeks it had a 1 litre engine instead of the 1.4 it started with and when we sat in the back as he drove us to the Tangier ferry we found our knees were around our ears as we'd pushed the rear floor up that much hitting things. But not a single flat tyre
Talk about thread drift though
ProDave
Well-known member
Soryr for the miss information. It was actually the guy on one of the trip boats into the Dudley tunnel from the Black country museum that told me the thing about you having a right to request a free tow through if your boat would fit.
I have a friend who is a friend of President, he was on board for the millenium trip up the Thames.
One of our retirement plans is to buy our own narrowboat and live aboard for a couple of years exploring the whole network.
Adios
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And here is one of a thousand miles of deserted Atlantic coast no one will charge you for stopping on. To bring it back to boats a bit i have wondered about sailing around morocco but thats the difference between a camper van and a boat. There are probably only a dozen places to park a boat on the Atlantic coast.
Bru
Well-known member
A bit after i quit (won't go into that in public, suffice it to say that i didn't entirely agree with some decisions by committee!) but maybe i know him
I was fairly heavily involved in the work to restore and convert Kildare in the early nineties (my main involvement was restoring the aft cabin paintwork whilst preserving as much of the 1960s decorative paintwork as possible. The roses and castles on her cabin doors are however my work ... assuming they haven't been painted over by now!)
My final trip was the first leg of the second (or was it the third?) fly run from London City Road basin to Birmingham in the mid nineties
ProDave
Well-known member
His name was Harry. a biker with a pony tail. Lived in Oxford.
He told me of one instance of getting President wedged in a lock on the Oxford canal, 6ft 10" lock, 7ft boat.
Bru
Well-known member
Doesn't ring a bell
President is actually 7'1" beam (as were most working boats built for use South of Birmingham cos the locks were a bit over 7' originally and they built the boats as wide as possible)
I wouldn't have tried to get President up the Oxford! I had enough trouble on there with ec-FMC motor Clover and her butty Fazely!
Kurrawong_Kid
Well-known member
Slight thread drift. Friend of mine in the 70’s was a Birmingham councillor who had a Fairey Atalanta which he kept in his garden off City Road by the old Portland School for the winter. One year he towed her to Digbeth basin, had her craned in and motored down the Grand Union to the Thames. Mast up he sailed to Rouen, then mast down, he proceeded to Paris where he presented a fraternal letter from the Lord Mayor of Brum to the Mayor of Paris. He himself later became Lord Mayor, but was never the Commodore of the Birmingham Navy because he had a raggie whilst the navy were boats full of very noisy engines parading about in the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel or annoying the yellow welly brigade in the Solent with their brummy accents.
Stemar
Well-known member
That sounds far too much like the relationship far too many yotties of yesteryear had with their Stuart Turners for my liking.
Maybe I have no romance in my soul, but I want an engine where I turn the key and it starts. The only tinkering I want to do is check the oil from time to time. I'll leave this sort of thing to others
If you like that sort of thing, good luck to you!
Bru
Well-known member
There's classic narrowboat engines and then there's classic narrowboat engines
Some are indeed a labour of love. Many such, like the one in the video, are not actually the type of engines that would have ever been fitted in working narrowboats (things like petrol / paraffin engines, cigarette starters, compressed air start engines etc. were unheard of) - they are just vintage engines of various breeds that people have fitted for the love of it (and nothing wrong with that)
The really classic narrowboat engine would be a Bolinder semi-diesel but you really do *not* want one of those! Google starting one for fun
The best classics are slow revving old beasts like Russell Newburys (very popular), old Listers (bit noisy but bombproof) and the like which do indeed start with the turn of the key
rotrax
Well-known member
There's classic narrowboat engines and then there's classic narrowboat engines
Some are indeed a labour of love. Many such, like the one in the video, are not actually the type of engines that would have ever been fitted in working narrowboats (things like petrol / paraffin engines, cigarette starters, compressed air start engines etc. were unheard of) - they are just vintage engines of various breeds that people have fitted for the love of it (and nothing wrong with that)
The really classic narrowboat engine would be a Bolinder semi-diesel but you really do *not* want one of those! Google starting one for fun
The best classics are slow revving old beasts like Russell Newburys (very popular), old Listers (bit noisy but bombproof) and the like which do indeed start with the turn of the key
I once made a piston for a Bolinders Bru. It was cast in a green sand mould made from a paint tin and cast from alloy salvaged from melted Hillman Minx bell housings.
Starting was a right performance involving blowlamps, platinum mushrooms and ropes.
Reversing was by getting the engine to run backwards - being a two stroke that could be achieved. But certainly not quickly and easily. I never did that, but saw it done. IIRC it involved a white mark on the flywheel, a big boot and knowing EXACTLY when to drop the valve lifter. A black art, not a teachable skill.
I love the spec for your ideal boat, but I fear we had the best of it and those quiet days are long gone.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
That certainly accord with my experiences of motorhome drivers. Just remember the National Trust sticker on the back to warn other road users.
fisherman
Well-known member
When I recover my ancient Oyster boat, I have a rope attached to the trailer axle, eye splice on towbar end. The eye splice is dropped over the car towhitch, and the trailer detached, which means I can swivel the trailer about and tip it up to align the boat as I winch it on, without hauling the trailer back into the water. Breakback doesn't work so well as lifting the towbar end. If I wanted to launch over a small drop I would back the trailer wheels over the edge and do similar to shoot the boat off, or use the breakback.
I've done Wast Hill tunnel, and was worried about my terminal claustrophobia, but was surprisingly unworried.
I've done Wast Hill tunnel, and was worried about my terminal claustrophobia, but was surprisingly unworried.
fisherman
Well-known member
That's Brinsley Place, daughter was at uni in Brum.Been there, done that!
Seriously, i have. That's the Old 13 into central Brummagem and I've worked President (the aforementioned steam narrowboat) up there in much the same way with our butty Kildare being dragged up behind by the rest of the crew
And yes, when your slick lock operators, it's a right pain in the bottom getting stuck behind slow coaches (my brother and I, on our own boat, generally tried to knock off any major lock flights at crack of sparrow fart while everybody else was fast asleep. Then get tied up adjacent to a suitable hostelry by early afternoon and watch the world go by over a glass or several of, ahem, mineral water)
In a hired boat, swmbo handled the boat, she learned to very quickly after a lock or two. I ran up and down prepping the next one, leaving the last one ready for the boat behind, got quite slick at it.
Bru
Well-known member
You mean Brindley Place.
Brindley Place stands on the bank of the canal but the canal itself is the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and the flight of locks is properly known as the Farmers Bridge flight and more commonly known, amongst the boating fraternity as "the Old Thirteen"
The Brindley Place development of the area around Farmers Bridge and Old Turn Junction was only just getting going when I was boating around that area. My first visit to Gas Street Basin was to a scene of industrial devastation. Within a decade or so it was a bustling lively place full of bars, shops and so on without, happily, totally losing it's character