Big Weekend!!

A break in all the weekend working as a result of a problem in our test financials, saw me, as promised , winging my way to the midlands and Norton Canes Boatbuilders. Graham was great, as well as fitting me around other visits, and viewing Ebenezer II, he had arranged for me to have an hour on Nb Resolute making her way along the Birmingham and Fazeley. (You are right Sarah - she is beautiful, and handles really well). Graham won't put a K3 in the engine room - but having worked the J3 in Resolute, I could settle for that!!

Graham is a man with an eye for detail. His work is superb, and the lines of his boats are perfect. Again he doesn't finish the fitout - but guys at his yard can do that, so the boat can stay put until finished.

In my mind, the three shell builders I've seen (Mel Davis, RW Davis, and Norton Canes), produce different but equally beautiful boats. Their customers all speak very highly of the finished product, and they all seem to have a cult following on the cut. Money is almost the same, so it's fitout, engine choice and timing that could make the final decision!

Jumping off 4mph, and onto 70mph (!) down the M42 and a bit, and into Andys Bar-B-Que. That was a great 5 hours spent, including lighting a bunch of Tesco value fireworks, sorting out a dodgy floodlight, and cooking burgers and steak for my Brother and Dad!! Had a look over Nb Wolf, owned by Tom and fitted out to his specification. She's a 50foot BCN tug, newly built and modern internals. At this stage the more boats I can see - the better!!

Nb Titan. I looked at her on Brokerage at ABNB, Crick. Genuine boat, lovely, but wasn't for me. Pity I missed the new owners.

Well, back to work today! a frenetic week, and 2 further weekends. By the end of today I will have forgotton all about the tranquility of the canal system!

Funny how things happen!

There was me on Monday, whittering on about the Cotswold Canals, and today the headline news in Towpath Talk is all about the ambitious project. Click here to read their article. I really hope this project does see through to completion.
Thanks Towpath Talk for great journalism again.

As Promised!

The weekend turned out great! The Wild Duck is recommended as a great place to stay, truly a "Cotswold" local, but with great food and hopitality.

Even better was the visit to RW Davis. The mighty Kelvin in the previous 'blog pictures of the 13th September was fired up, and eventually wound down to an incredible 85rpm, awesome sound. Also looked over another 70foot Trader - partly to look at the gardner 2LW on board. Lovely engine, but not what I want. I really want a K3!! When Phil talks about reconditioning the K3 - it's thorough! Here's the (as yet), unsold engine he is currently working on. Yes, that is the big end sitting in its casing, and yes, they are the piston cylinders sitting on the floor waiting for a sleeve and piston. Forgot to get a picture of the actual pistons though -sorry! Every componant part is stripped down and the entire engine repainted, refurbished and rebuilt. I was barely able to lift a cylinder off the floor!

Driving home from Stroud, Saturday night, and there was a bridge in the middle of nowhere, and a sign to "Canal and Tunnel Inn".

Sunday saw a return to the spot, and exploration of the Stroudwater Navigation, part of the Cotswold Canals. Follow the link, or this one, to information and pictures of the restoration. The entire navigation has engineering approval for the restoration, and it being a fantastic 36 mile, 55 lock, 3800 yard tunnel, stretch of water joining the Thames to the Severn, I for one, would love to take K2 along it! There is already (according to a sign) a trip boat running at the Sapperton end of the Tunnel - but we couldn't even find the canal there in the huge village of 5 houses, a church and a pub! We were disappointed - as the trip boat ran all winter on Sundays. and we were up for the trip, but they sadly lost out on the revenue, and waterside support, shame. New life ambition - to take K2 along the Cotswolds canal, let's hope they do get it open.

Came home to an email from Crowther, who informed me that I needed a 30" prop for the Kelvin K3, and 28" for the RN DM3!! I already knew they had created a 22" specifically for RN, and Phil had been talking about 24" or 26"!! Someone at Crowther didn't read my requests - anybody at all got a 30" prop on a narrowboat? Isn't that called a dredger?

Quick Non-Canal Update (Off topic forum friends!)

After patiently waiting - the finale!!

Northern Rock rallied 20p yesterday and 30p plus today after various news of Amercan interested parties. So I jumped ship (see blog of Monday 24th September) to the tune of being up by a couple of hundred quid!

Not like my mate here at work, who bought at 196 and sold at 129!!! I bought at 184 and sold at 201. Ok fairs fair - they continued to rise to 210 as a days peak so far - but I had set 200 as my top limit.

Still - there's a couple of fenders, or a tank of diesel bought!! If I could do that everyday K2 would be a step nearer.......

A Beautiful Day Sailing...

MISSED!!

I'll just use my blog as a small moan -just to get it off my chest of course!! Invited for the last sailing day of the year, a fantastic autumn day of 17 degrees, force 4-5, sunny and good visibility. I was really looking forward to it. BUT

Failed loads all day Saturday, and a wasted Sunday struggling to understand failure codes from the upload routines from our software house, and here I am - still in the office Monday at 1932hrs, having not had a break, and missed the trip. Arggh! One day this company owes me hundreds of thousands of pounds in overtime!! Maybe I'll just get them to build K2 for me. (If my CEO is reading this - that would really motivate me!!) Wouldn't mind if the dividends paid out periodically!

OK moan over - whatever happens, I AM going to Saul this weekend. I want to get to grips with the Trader fit out and engines. I have spent hours trawling through engine torque curves, - (even creating my own for the Kelvin, as they don't seem to have ever been published!) gearbox ratios, even prop pitch and efficiencies. Advice on high torque low rev engines not labouring on the canal system, (and therefore decreasing efficiency as they coke up) compared to lower torque, higher rev engines, that potentially give slower speeds and drive against tidal currents. Everyone seems to have their pet loves and hates.

Another intrique clocked this week was the fact that the vintage K3 and Gardner 3, run at such a low temperature, they cannot sustain the throughput for a calorifier without major modification and thermostats. Otherwise it would end up super cooling the coolent, and running the engine inefficiently.

So many things to take into account, that I nearly threw my hat in the air and went off to see Minnow - for sale at Norton Canes, and powered by a 1 cylinder Bolinder - great! 70foot boat, with a single 9hp motor, ahh but that fantastic syncopated rythmn!

(Sorry Norton Canes - nicked your piccy of the motor, I loved it so much. Tell me if that offends please!)

Work, Work, Work - Bother !!

Well, for 19 days on the trot, before my Cotswold break, the picture on the left is my view.... oh, and now the 9 days after the trip as well.

Our business merge is scheduled for the 20th October, we need to keep to that strategy as well, so the pressure and stress is on!! (Not to mention late nights and lost weekends) We live in an open plan office environment, and that suits me very well, although it's not quite the country view you would get looking out of a side hatch.

Actually the office isn't all that bad! If I turn the camera round behind me - I get this view on the right instead. We are fortunate enough to have our office in 135 acres of pine woodland. My side hatch is 20foot by 15foot!!

That all said - I am really looking forward to the soon-to-be trips to talk boats and engines again. - I've had lots of salutory discussions on the just canal forum over engines. Thats a great place to chat, and it keeps me sane when all around is pressured.