Thursday 15 November 2018

Of Happy Sails & Cooling Pipes

Following the previously mentioned abandoned journey I came to a decision. It was time to get the boat re-blacked and three engineers had quite independently mentioned that my overheating problems may have been caused at least in part by having insufficient cooling capacity for my engine.  The liquid cooling system is sealed, as is a road vehicle's. A car, though has a radiator which is further cooled by air when the car is in motion. My boat has a "skin tank" through which the hot water passes to be cooled by near contact with the lower temperatures of the river. The boat engine has tended to overheat after about four-hours of travel. The suggestion has been that it takes this length of time for the coolant to be raised to a temperature where it can no longer be cooled in time for its next race around the system. The engine continues to heat already overheated coolant and eventually blows. That's the theory anyway. I tried it out on a number of marine and motor engineers and they agreed it was a workable theory. The boatyard had a "fix" it applied to a number of boats i.e. the fitting of extra cooling pipes. Since the boat was coming out of the water anyway, this seemed to be a good time to have the work done.

I had a few days of living in my van and cooking outdoors under my canopy. All rather risky for October, but I was lucky with the weather. I cycled sixty miles that week too between the boatyard and the farm and in, out and around the town near the yard ... plus one other cycle ride I'll get to in the next essay.

My last River Canal Rescue engine inspection suggested that I needed to check the security of the engine mounts. The inspector attempted to adjust the mounting bolts, but couldn't get at the two forward ones. At the boatyard they could only get a spanner on to the mounting feet after taking out the calorifier, which had to be done to extend the cooling system. Getting a spanner on to the mounts was only part of the difficulty, nothing would turn so the mounts had to be cut out with an angle grinder. It was then there was further evidence of the Bodger's influence. The BMC 1.5 engine was not the original engine. It is much older than the rest of the boat. Presumably insufficient allowance had been made for the slightly different dimensions of the replacement engine and the allegedly adjustable mounting feet for the engine had been welded into place in some kind of attempt to shoehorn the engine into position. Unfortunately it was the wrong position and the engine was not square on to the prop. Had I been confident enough to take the boat out more regularly over the past seven years I would by now have probably had to replace the drive-shaft, the gear box, the engine or all three. I suppose every cloud has that good old silver lining. As it happened I needed four new mounting feet and a new coupling for the prop-shaft. It may have been a £1500 job, but that is much less expensive than it could have been.

The boat was in the boatyard for a week and I couldn't wait to get it out and give it a spin. On the first day I was able to have the boat back there were winds exceeding 20mph. I usually avoid travelling in winds like that but I took a chance. Getting out of the yard was going to be the first challenge because boats are moored right up to the narrow entrance alongside the main navigation of the river. Also everything is very exposed in the Fens because there are relatively few trees and stronger winds can make manoeuvring a challenge. However, I managed to get out of the marina with an almost textbook turn (one of my proudest moments) and, for the next three days, the boat ran like a dream. The temperature stayed at a steady 78-80ÂșC and there was none of the clanking I often got after running the boat for an hour or two. The throttle was more responsive too. This was the boat I had hoped I would be cruising in nearly seven years ago when I bought it to replace the old and broken down Springer for which I had paid so dearly and on which I had lost £12,000 in two years by the time I sold it!

I decided to go the long way home and head for one of the nicest local moorings relatively nearby at Benwick, adjacent to the graveyard. I had been craving a plate of steamed vegetables for days. That would give me chance to spend the night near the village where I could buy some fresh vegetables. Living in my van on a campsite for nearly a week my camping stove is not up to the job and I ran out of gas anyway.

After a couple of hours cruising I rounded the bend to where the mooring is and immediately saw I could not moor there. Another boat had beaten me to it. There was nothing for it but to move a bit further on and try and moor against the bank. With the strong cross-winds this was not an easy task. When I found a place that was not at the end of someone's garden the wind proved too strong and blew the bow across the river while I was trying to get the stern in close to the bank to disembark. I was almost jammed between the two banks and naturally a digger driver and a small child were there as spectators - that is the law in boating!

There was no choice but to try and straighten up and find somewhere less exposed. I found a spot just before a bridge on a bend. There were also some bushes nearby to deflect the wind a little. Unfortunately I was not close enough to the village to buy the fresh vegetables I had been planning for supper, so it was more improvising with whatever I could salvage. I wasn't sure if this mooring were part of someone's garden, but I didn't have much choice with the failing light. I'm glad that no one seemed to object. I couldn't get as close as I'd have liked with my gangplank. I used to have a longer plank salvaged from a reclaimed scaffold board, but that one rotted through. During the great 2016 repaint, Gary at the boatyard found me a spare plank which he painted up in the colours he was painting the boat. That was really helpful, but the length is rather short for Fenland navigations where mooring close to the bank is often difficult.

The following day was much calmer and the sun was out. It was beautiful. I thought I would try the Facebook Live function for the first time and broadcast several shortish videos. I downloaded those from Facebook and edited them in Final Cut Pro into the following nine minute wonder. Most of these were taken on that journey between the bridge near Benwick and Stonea, a journey of four hours or so. Obviously, I haven't got to grips with FCP because the captions I added to explain a couple of things I stumbled over during my improvised narrative did not appear when I put the video up on YouTube. Oh well! For information, the name of the lock I couldn't remember was "Horseway Lock" and St German's Pumping Station is the largest in Europe and can move one hundred tons of water per second according to this website


I planned to stop at Stonea overnight and intended to treat myself to a delicious home-cooked meal at the The Golden Lion 

That plan didn't quite work out ...