bluetop Kew with the Mikron Theatre Company's narrowboat tied alongside
I've already talked about the Mikron Theatre Company being one of the highlights of the IWA Festival. Another one was Tony Brooks's mini-maintenance courses, which were free this year. I've borrowed a picture from your website, Tony: I hope you don't mind.
In conjunction with RCR - River Canal Rescue Ltd. - Tony gave three hour-long tutorials on each of the three days: The Diesel System; Battery and Charge testing; and Stern Glands. Over the course (sorry) of the long weekend I managed to get to each of these courses, though some were in bits when I had to be elsewhere. Does that make sense? Stupidly I failed to take a photo, hence the "borrowed" one above. We were all given a booklet of course notes: these will be very useful for refreshing my memory. I found the explanation of the fuel system very good. Tony talked about diesel bug and water, and how to deal with them. We were shown the insides of a sedimentor and an agglomerator. At last I know what a lift pump is. (Everybody talks about them but I've previously hidden my ignorance.) We got hands-on too: bleeding the fuel system; and bypassing a failed starter solenoid on the electrics course.
There's nothing like seeing a real stern gland, for example, to remove some of the scariness of attempting one's own maintenance or repairs. I now know what repacking a stern gland involves, and will know what I'm doing if I needed to adjust one. At least, I think I will. I'd have a go, anyway.
The festival was worth the £25 each three-day entrance fee (including evening entertainment) and the £36 camping fee just for this - and there was so much more!
There's an in-joke hidden in this post: if you've been on one of Tony Brooks's courses you'll spot it!
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