Many of you will have noticed SONFLOWER in the centre of Banbury. Maybe you saw her being pulled into the Tooley's dock last Wednesday. Maybe you saw her being pulled out on Monday. You would not have noticed any difference.
I am sorry to report that the welding work to straighten slight imperfections in the alignment of the rear taff rail that prevent the rear gates closing was delayed because of the sickness of the welder. (Get well soon). She will be docked again some time in the future.Meanwhile, following on from my last post "Frustration" about a fault on the domestic water system. The calorifier relief valve was lifting discharging water into the canal, emptying the water tank and causing the water pump to run continuously. Talking about subjects like this with other boaters always seems to reveal that everyone else has had this fault and has a special way of curing the problem. Banbury Canal Day provided such a forum. Among other suggestions, a good friend, who is renowned for her DIY activity, emailed me with the details of a pressure reducing valve that was installed between pump and cauliflour to keep the pressure at the relief valve low. Looking at the specifications on the web I discovered that these valves are designed to operate at 16 bar (200psi) inlet pressure and the discharge from my pump is only supposed to be 2bar (30psi)!
A lot of dreamless nocturnal thought gave me the solution. Change the calorifier relief valve for one that works. I did it today: like for like. The pump shut off and the relief valve did not lift.
Untested by the rigours of boat life, however. For how long?
