Stories about boats and waterways
The third and final part (for the moment) in this mini-series about unusual, rare and vintage narrowboat engines. Here we meet Keith Lodge who had a replica working boat built to his specification including a two-cylinder National DA2 engine from 1949.
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This is Part 2 of a three part mini-series about classic / vintage narrowboat engines as often heard chugging past on the canal. In this episode, I talked to Rob Goodman about his 1940s-era Kelvin K2 and its unusual starting procedure!
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This is Part 1 of a three part mini-series about classic / vintage narrowboat engines as often heard chugging past on the canal. In this episode, I talked to Chris Wenham aboard NB Herbert about his Russell Newbury engine.
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This vlog picks up immediately where the last one left off, as I head from Hillmorton Wharf to Yelvertoft marina where I had the boat taken out of the water and into their shiny new boat shed for blacking.
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In October last year I headed along the North Oxford canal to Hillmorton Marina where they have a little dockside crane, suitable to lift an engine out of a boat. Over the course of the next week I scrubbed out a load of muck and rust from the engine bilge, treated it with Vactan and then primed and painted it before getting the engine put back in.
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When taking the narrowboat to a marina for work on the bilge and also to get the hull blacked, I noticed that the batteries didn’t seem to be holding a charge and also that the alternator was disturbingly warm. The result was that I bought a new alternator and fitted it. This is the (almost “real-time”) recording of my hamfisted work, including several things you shouldn’t do when changing an alternator.
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Over the summer I noticed that in heavy rain there was a slight trickly of water coming down the stove flue. It appeared to be getting in underneath the chimney collar so I had to take it off, clean everything up, de-rust and re-seal. This video shows how I did it and how it was a bigger job than expected.
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A bit of DIY and a product review in this video as I think back to when I was moored over the summer and took the cratch cover off, firstly to kill off the algae growing on it, secondly to clean it, and thirdly to re-waterproof the canvas.
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Here’s a quick overview of the hasty oil and filter change that I did on the boat while waiting at Tewkesbury lock for the lock-keeper to return from lunch (as seen at the end of the last vlog). I’m not claiming this is a “how to” or “tutorial” because it was a bit shambolic but I got the job done and it’s fine, so it might be of use or interest to someone perhaps.
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It’s time for my 2017 Grand Tour to begin! Firstly I had to put in to Hillmorton Wharf for a fix of my leaking fuel pipes on the boat’s Lister Petter LPWS4 engine, then it was off – very gently – to Braunston. This’ll be a bit of an amble for the first few days as I’m scheduled to meet someone at Kilby near Leicester in the middle of the month.
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