The IWA Festival of Water 2016 takes place over the August Bank Holiday weekend. This year it’s at Pelsall at the junction of the Wyrley & Essington Canal and the Cannock Extension Canal, towards the northern edge of the Birmingham Canal Navigations.
Moored at Pelsalll for the IWA Festival of Water 2016
Waterway Routes is already there. The Cheese boat will be behind us and the Jam Butty in front.
Entertainment on the common too.
There will be land based entertainment as well as the trading boats.
The WRGies tackle anything
The Waterway Recovery Group volunteers are busy tackling all the impossible jobs, like relocating a portable toilet which is too heavy to lift, using a pallet and a mini tractor. I wonder if anyone was in it.
Please come and say hello if you are visiting the show.
The Shrewsbury Canal once ran from Shrewsbury to Wappenshall Junction where it met the Newport Canal which ran to meet the Shropshire Union Canal at Norbury Junction.
Remember, you can update your map to the latest version – free during the first year and a small charge after that. You can also upgrade to a larger map. Just email paul@waterwayroutes.co.uk with details of your existing maps for a no obligation quote.
We may be hoping it stays too hot to need the central heating on our boat for a while but, sooner or later, we will need it working.
For the last two winters we have had free central heating on our boat, at least while the engine is running, after making one simple change. We’ve added an extra pump to the central heating circuit.
When the engine is running it heats the water in the calorifier through the first calorifier coil, with the rest of the engine heat wasted through the skin tanks as it heats the canal.
Free Central Heating Circuit
As originally installed the water in the calorifier can also be heated by the Webasto diesel powered central heating unit through the second calorifier coil. We’ve now installed an additional pump, shown in red on the diagram, which pumps water around the central heating system without the Webasto unit using any diesel.
With the new pump switched on the engine heats the water in the calorifier through the first coil and the heat is picked up through the second coil and pumped through the radiators. The new pump is wired with an on/off switch to the engine ignition circuit so it can only work when the engine is running.
The pump is a Jabasco 59510-0012 12v pump which has low resistance to water flow when switched off so the Webasto central heating will still work as normal when the new pump is switched off.
The result is that, within fifteen minutes of starting the engine, we have radiators throughout the boat which are hotter than when we run the Webasto unit, with no noticeable drop in the hot water temperature.
Whenever we are cruising, or just running the engine to charge the batteries, we have central heating available on demand, with no measurable running costs.
The Webasto unit can be used to keep the radiators warm during the evening, or to heat them in the morning. And our stove can supply additional warmth too.
Don’t wait until it gets cold before fitting one yourself.
