Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!

Just to keep my hand in, so to speak, while I wait for an improvement in this weather so I can get down the boat and do some real work, I thought I would produce a new cabin shaft for Minnow. (seeing as I snapped my very old cabin shaft last year whilst out boating and using a cabin shaft for one of it’s true purposes, which I’ll explain.

Cabin shafts should be made the correct length so that when working downhill on narrow locks, the motor boat can be almost stopped as it leaves the tail of the lock and the steerer can, whilst standing on the counter, poke the point of the shaft in the end of the balance beam and push it shut then transfer to the opposite bottom gate balance beam and shut that one in the same way. On some older balance beams, certainly around the BCN. the ends of the balance beams have a rectangular piece of timber fitted to them for this exact practice as can be seen on the Wolverhampton 21 where they also bear the shaft point marks where they are still used by some. (me included) Alternatively the lock wheeler can carry the cabin shaft and open/close offside gates without having to cross the lock for if like my Dawn you won’t step across the gap between the one closed gate and the opposite side then you have to walk all the way round the top gate to get to the other gate. Beware however on metal balance beams such as some of those on the Trent & Mersey when sometimes you have to get a purchase on something on the beam. It was on the Wolverhampton 21 last year when I was returning single handed down this flight from the working boat gathering at the Black Country Museum that I managed to snap my old cabin shaft closing bottom gates. Luckily there was nobody about to see me almost go in the cut as it snapped.
Another use I have seen them put to is closing ground paddles by placing the point behind the ratchet and rotating the shaft, thus causing the point to be moved away by the curved hook of the shaft thereby raising the ratchet and allowing the paddle rack to free fall. Although I have never tried to replicate this method.

I was browsing in B & Q the other weekend looking for some PVA wood glue to repair one of our dining chairs that managed to get one of the arms broken off at Christmas lunch when by chance I spotted a rack in the timber section which contained many different wooden mouldings including round dowels which went up to 1 ½ “ in diameter and 8foot long. OK about a foot short I thought but that will make an ideal replacement. And so that was carried round to the checkout and purchased. ( I wasn’t bothered about the price tag as Dawn had given me the money to get the glue!) This was taken home and down in the garden shed I got to work on it with firstly a really good serrated kitchen knife (that’s alright Dawn works Saturdays and she will never know)(Oops she does now!) and proceeded to cut a round taper on the last four inches, finishing this off, to get a good fit in the shaft head, with a wood rasp. When completed, the head was hammered onto the shaft and a wood screw put in through a hole in the blade to secure it to the shaft. Now for then other end and this was rounded off, again using true engineering tooling (serrated knife and rasp) then finished of with sand paper. Now for the painting. The shaft head was painted black whilst a foot of the opposite end was painted green. This was followed by masking up from the end of the red to the black head with four sections spiralling along its length which were then painted red, yellow, blue and white. The whole job was then coated with two coats of good quality clear yacht varnish. I would have posted a picture but it is on the boat as I write so I will have to post one later perhaps
Dow bang 'em about
Blossom