Basingstoke Assault 7.

I was so exhausted last night after sawing up a load of wood, that I fell asleep after a meal and missed the BBQ and bonfire. Oh well, I had nothing to BBQ anyway.
There was an extremely bitter north east wind blowing, so I had go below several times on the journey back just to get warmed up. The ghoul hanging from the high bridge had now gone, so I can only assume that someone had climbed out on the concrete girders to retrieve it. It was far too high to poke out with a stick. I caught up with nb Watoo Watoo to go through Ash lock together and not long after that, I had a bladefull of plastic sack that put the boat totally out of control. I was at the mercy of the wind and ended up at the bottom of someone's garden (I did consider dressing as a fairy), before I managed to remove the sack.

Passing Through Mytchett Lake.

Otherwise the trip was uneventful and I arrived at Mytchett in good time to moor alongside nb Nancy Bell, which had been there for the last three days with a broken engine water pump. Fortunately, Dick had an electric waterpump, which he hopes will enable him to do the return journey back to the Wey. I moored next to nb Rowan, with the broken crankshaft, which I will be towing back to Pyrford over the next three days. I am hoping that my Narrow Boat Trust experience of towing and locking a pair of boats will pay off, but towing an unknown boat will be a challenge for the first mile or two and lock I expect.

Basingstoke Assault 6.

Three boats left the Fox & Hounds at 10am to move through thin ice to the swing bridge. Leo No.2 and Orions Way were already there when I arrived, but Brian and Kathryn were having difficulty opening it. Leo was moved back and I nudged it open with the bow fender, as my bow was much higher out of the water than the other two boats.
The landscape had now changed from the birch and pine on sandy soil at Deepcut to oak, ash and beech on more open farmland.

Deep  Clear Water With Wartime Tank Traps Everywhere.

The water was very clean and wide, with well kept banks and mostly deep at the edges. Of course, this long pound was used by hire boats from Galleon Marine as well as private ones in the summer, unlike the pounds below Deepcut.
In a short time we came to Blacksmiths Bridge and had to wind the boats before mooring just below the bridge.

                                                  Moorings At Blacksmiths Bridge.

More use of the chainsaw on the bank, as too much timber on the cabin top was making it difficult to get through the bridges.
Some of us walked down to the landslip, but the towpath was blocked off for safety reasons, so it was not wise to proceed further. The towpath had been pushed in it's entirety several feet into the canal and 3" wide cracks were visible in the path. Several thousand pounds are going to have to be spent correcting this and I cannot see it being completed before the end of the summer. Just getting plant to the site is going to be a logistical nightmare, as the towpath is so narrow. Yet another piece of bad luck for this canal and it was all going so well.

With The Towpath Closed, Could It Be Any More Peaceful?

Basingstoke Assault 5

Most of the remaining boats left Potter's Pool this morning, still going in the direction of Odiham, although we had heard earlier about the landslip the other side of Blacksmiths Bridge, which had since slid further into the cut with large oak trees at a precarious angle. The unanimous decision was not to try and pass this obstruction, in case it eventually blocked the cut and there would be no way back.

Cruising the long summit pound was a pleasant experience in mostly deep water, although the wind was icy, especially when we passed the many flashes (wide areas of water) along this stretch.

The Morse control with bungee firmly it place, was now back to normal and no longer slipped back towards neutral gear, so I was pleased with the result. My mother was always telling me to carry a spare piece of elastic.....or was it my sister she told?

This section is notorious for it's very low bridges, so everything possible was removed from the cabin top and I had to rearrange the wood to fit underneath the first one, Farnborough Road Bridge. Even the short tube to support the TV aerial had to be taken down and that is only 8" high!

                                                  Headroom - What Headroom?

There was only one lock at Ash, where I met the new canal manager, Phil Allan, who assisted Stronghold and Penkenna through.

At some point before I reached the pub, I had to saw up some of the wood I had collected along the way. Kathryn had told me about a mooring stage near to Farnborough Airfield that would be far away from civilisation, but when I got there, Penkenna was already moored up for the night. However, there was room to moor the stern end and I was able to saw up a sackful of logs. At that point it was possible to view the length of the airfield runway and see the occasional private jet taking off and landing.

Bollards At Moorings Close To Farnborough Airfield.

Further down the cut, a ghoul was hanging from the underside of a high road bridge. Someone's idea of a joke probably, but it would appear scary at dusk. Whoever put it there would have had to straddle the concrete beams at one side and then walk out over the water to put it in place - not an easy thing to attempt by the look of it, but you have to give credit for ingenuity.

I Bet This Would Scare You At Dusk!

Soon I got to The Fox and Hounds where some of the other boats were moored up. I had to upload some photos to this blog, so hopefully there was wi-fi in the pub. My lucky day, with a pint to go with it. Kathryn, Brian and I repaired there later for more beer and conversation.

Basingstoke Assault 4.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning with thin ice on the water.

Moorings In Potter's Pool.

 I surfed the net for info on Morse controls and eventually found someone with the same problem on Canal World Discussion Forums. As usual, there were several possible solutions. One involved hanging a sou'wester on the lever and putting a bottle of beer in it. If the speed was too fast, drink some beer until the speed was right. Continue drinking the beer if tickover was required, then get another bottle from the fridge to continue cruising. A better suggestion was to fix a tension spring in place on the injector pump lever to counter the strong pull of the spring inside, which returned the lever to tickover speed. As I did not have any springs on board, a bungee cord had to do the job. Hopefully it will work when I go cruising tomorrow.

Blue Bungee Cord In Position.

Several boats left this morning and all the crews agreed to be back at Potter's for a final shindig on Thursday evening. Kathryn and I had a walk to see David and Jane Brixey on nb Rowan, who had an engine problem the day before and had to be towed the final leg of the journey. The four year old Russell Newbury engine had begun knocking and David wisely shut it down. The engineer was in attendance and thought it may well be a loose flywheel, but later discovered that the crankshaft had fractured and could be seen after a side cover was removed on the crankcase. No more motoring on this trip for them!
I discovered by chance, that there was a local beer festival on at Mytchett, so armed with my CAMRA card, I had to investigate. There were 30 ales on tap, but a man can only drink so much and I think I did my best. A little rest was now in order, as I had lost an hours sleep when the clocks were put forward overnight. The Friday start boats arrived and we repaired to the pub to put the world to rights and compare notes on the trip, so I had the chance to meet people whose boats I knew, but not their crews. One, Peter had been a member of the Narrow Boat Trust in the early days, when coal was shovelled out of the boats by hand. Yet again, it was another enjoyable evening, but in different company.

Basingstoke Assault 3.

Today was to be the testing time for the canal and see if all the locks of Brookwood and Deepcut would do what was expected of them. In total there were 17 locks to negotiate. Although I pulled the pins at 9am, there was still a long queue at Brookwood bottom lock, even though the earlier boats were away about 8am. It was a two hour wait before I entered the lock with the tug Finch.

Plenty Of Rubbish And Weed At Brookwood Bottom  Lock.

It seems that the delay was because nb Nexus had picked up a log that jammed between the skeg and propeller, so she had to be shafted out before the blockage could be cleared. A lot of the gates would not open fully, so whoever was first in, had to reverse behind the partly closed gate to allow the other boat in. However, Finch ran onto an obstruction in the second lock and the gates could only be closed with all his stern fenders lifted up. Onwards to Deepcut flight, where once again we had volunteers to man the locks and I must say that they were very much appreciated. Yet again, I was having to "chuck back" in reverse frequently to clear the blades, until eventually the engine stalled with a serious bladefull.

Not What You Would Want Around The Propeller Blades

On investigation, there was a fisherman's shelter wrapped around the propeller. My new propeller cleaner made short work of that and I caught up with Jeff on Finch soon after. I was collecting dead wood for the fire as I went and Erin, Jeff's 10 year old grand daughter, was invaluable in picking up the pieces that I missed.

Captain Jeff and First Mate, Erin.

We got to the top lock about 4pm and from there it was plain sailing in deep water with an unobstructed propeller - how lovely that was.
I was still having a minor problem with the Morse control and had to hold the lever in position to maintain the requisite speed, which meant that I was suffering a cold hand, as well as being inconvenient. Eventually I came to Potter's Pool and Potters Pub, named after Bob Potter, the local entrepreneur, who also owns the Lakeside Country Club, of World Darts fame. A celebratory meal was enjoyed by all that evening to rejoice in the conquering of Deepcut after so many years of neglect.

Basingstoke Assault 2.

After a chilly night, we awoke to wall to wall blue skies for a change, after so much rain in the past few months. Fires were smoking and engines fired up for a 9am start. Jeff lit the burner to heat up the hot bulb on his Petter and after about ten minutes it was ready to kick over and fired up straight away.

1936 Petter with gas burner on.

We cruised slowly up to the first of the St John's flight of five locks and waited again to get through the first one, but after that progress was fairly swift. The Rangers were again in attendance at the top to caulk up the gates and so prevent loss of valuable water. As I made my exit from the top lock, the engine refused to respond to the throttle and I naturally thought the propeller blades were choked up yet again, but the Morse control was very slack and after lifting the deck board, I could see that the throttle lever on the injector pump was not responding, so the cable had broken or come adrift. Unfortunately, it was the former, so here I was stranded miles from any chandlery and no means of propulsion, although thoughts of a jury rig were already crossing my mind. Several boats passed by asking if I was OK, until Brian on nb Whisper offered me his spare cable, which I accepted with grateful gratitude. Not long after, another Brian on nb Zavala offered me his old cable too, so I was being inundated with them. It took about an hour to replace the cable and get under way again, but there was still a problem.

How does this thing work?

The gearbox was not engaging until 1,000rpm, which was causing the engine to dance about violently on it's mountings, so after mooring up at Brookwood Country Park, it was up with the deckboards again to investigate the reason why. I am still not sure why this occurred, but I found that by increasing the length of the adjustable gear lever inside the Morse control, the gear lever on the gearbox would engage gear at just above tickover speed. Problem solved and another step up the learning curve. In retrospect, I think the old system of speedwheel and reversing rod, would be much more robust and reliable than cable, but I also need to carry a spare cable in future.

Quiet Moorings at Brookwood.

The day ended with a visit to the Hunters Lodge in the pleasant company of Dick and Brenda and Carol and Phil. Being Good Friday, the place was quickly filling up and we were very lucky to get a table so quickly.

Basingstoke Assault 1

At last, the full length of the Basingstoke Canal was finally opened to cruise on Thurs 28th March 2013 by the Byfleet Boat Club and anyone else who cared to apply for this Easter cruise. With thanks to Surrey and Hampshire County Councils who committed £5.6 million to restoration and the Basingstoke Canal Society, who applied the pressure.
Although the canal was restored in the seventies and opened in 1991, it has suffered serious neglect since, with little or no money injected into it's upkeep. However, here's hoping that the cash injection will now encourage boaters to make full use of it and clear the silt that makes it so shallow in places. 48 boats had applied to take part originally, but several dropped out at the last minute and as the Thames was on red boards, it was impossible to come from afar. About 12 boats were moored at the boat club overnight and we set off for Woodham Junction about 9am. It took me an hour to get through Lock 1 after the preceeding six boats and I thought that this would be the pattern for the rest of the trip, but the boats naturally spaced out as we went. Needless to say my Axiom propeller picked up a bladefull of rubbish before I even got out of the first lock. Fortunately, I had come prepared with a newly constructed prop cleaner, so no need to roll up sleeves and get my hands and arms in the dirty cold water.

                                  Weed Cutting Broken Machine Hacksaw Blade.

Houseboats owners get very shirty, if going any faster than tickover speed.

I was in the company of Dick and Brenda on nb Nancy Bell and we completed the Woodham flight of 6 locks without waiting in any queues, although the locks were against us of course. Having small outlets to the sluices made filling very slow, but we got to Bridge Barn Hotel, our first overnight stop, in three and a half hours. Boats ahead of me were moored four abreast, so there was no through passage, but there did not need to be, as no boats were moving on this stretch of water, apart from ourselves. Tug 'Finch' arrived just before dark and breasted up alongside. The engine sounded like a Bollinder, but was indeed a hot bulb Petter - very unusual and totally new to me.

                                                    Moorings at Bridge Barn.

Baffled Once Again.

 The engine air intake is at least 12ins above the waterline.

For some time now I have been thinking about the engine air intake in the hull, which had a rather poorly constructed wooden baffle glued to the inside of the hull.

A good example of 'bush' carpentry.

When investigating this recently, it came away in my hand and on further inspection I decided that it was just not good enough.
With a view to navigating the tidal Thames later in the year and reading about the narrowboat that sunk recently, the time to replace was now, although my intake is well above the waterline and Stronghold had not been replated like this one:-

http://www.pla.co.uk/pdfs/maritime/Safety_Bulletin_Issue_1_Sept_2012.pdf 

Using a cereal box, which I had to hand, I marked out the sides and face of the baffle and sellotaped them together. I could now offer this up to the rectangular hole in the hull and confirm that it would fit.

The shape was then marked out on a sheet of 18g aluminium and cut out with a jigsaw. The corners were bent at right angles using a vise and mallet.



Offered up to a flat board to ensure the glueing flanges were flat.

 It was now ready to be glued to the hull with a contact adhesive. Using any other type of glue would necessitate clamping in position and this was clearly not possible. I am always reluctant to drill holes anywhere in the hull, so adhesive was the only other way.



Glued to the hull.

Some slight adjustment was needed as the hull had a gentle curve at the point of fixing. Eventually the adhesive was applied to both surfaces and left to dry before pressing the aluminium into position. The corners were then sealed inside and out with silicon, adding further strength to the glue. Even if there were a few gaps in the sealant, only small amounts of water would get in and I would feel much more secure cruising down to the Thames Barrier through the wash of those Thames Clippers.

A view from the outside.

Moving House

One of the original Basingstoke houseboats being punted on to the Thames for onward travel to Laleham by tug.

                                                             The propulsion unit.

 A housebox in Molesey lock on the Thames, with a tug either end.

Not much room to spare here. The new home will be in the weir stream on the other side of the lock island.

Not More Alternator Problems?

I have had my reconditioned alternator now for 6 months, but it has had little use and behaved very well until a few weeks ago, when the charging light would glow on start up and increase in brightness as the engine was revved up. Despite this, the batteries showed voltage of 14.2 with the engine running, so it was charging, but what was wrong? Off to Google of course and then to Canal World Discussion Forums – if they didn’t know, then no one would! Various ‘experts’ proffered answers personally and the common solution was that the rectifier was at fault, or there was a bad connection somewhere in the system. The latter was the easiest to look for and I did find a few connections which were a bit suspect, but the problem was not solved. So, I either had to take off the alternator and return it under guarantee, get it tested somewhere, buy an exchange unit from a different supplier, or call in a marine engineer to sort it all out at considerable expense. The obvious answer was to send it back under guarantee, but I had been told by my local garage when they removed the glued on pulley that the reconditioners had caused them no end of trouble with duff units in the past and they would no longer deal with them. Forewarned is forearmed, so I wasn’t going to risk that route. After considerable mulling over, I decided to take it to my local garage and get them to exchange it. However, when I took it in they suggested that I take it to “The Lucas Old Boys”, who were former employees of the Lucas official workshop in Brighton some years ago and now worked at Victoria Road Garage. I wish I had known of these guys when I first had problems. It’s possible to talk to the man on the spot, instead of doing it all by remote control. Sure enough, they had testing equipment and diagnosed a faulty rectifier. They also had one in stock and could replace it on the spot.........exactly what I wanted. It turned out after removal that I could see signs of arcing between the + terminal post to earth inside the cover, which had caused a high current through one of the diodes, which got so hot, it melted the soft soldered joints and caused the diode to drop out, so it was loose inside the cover. There must have been something else loose inside too, to cause the short. Try telling that to the guys who reconditioned it and see if they own up. So much for a guarantee then............it would be my word against theirs!



Rectifier Unit with diode missing from exposed brass circular mounting.



Evidence of arcing between terminal post and bolt head.

Anyway, it is now refitted and is working a treat once again.

Owning a boat is such a learning curve; a bit like owning your first car. It’s a bit like the old adage: “It not what you know, it’s who you know” and there is always someone who knows more than you and who to go to in times of need.