All Activity

Read the first part of your post and thought 'yes, I can just change my mushroom vents for lower UFO types', then read the rest! Thanks for the info David, not neccessarily what I wanted to hear 🙂 but good to know . No point just changing one problem for another.

Don't know! But I do know that I am devoutly pissed off with closed canals.I am moored in Huddersfield and I think we northern boaters have had a very raw deal from CRT. 48 hours notice to transit lock 1E, (when the HNC has some water in it) Huddersfield Broad shut due to low water,opened on Saturday,closed UFN on Sunday,due to low water. Had planned my last longish cruise of the year from Huddersfield to Froghall Basin on the Caldon canal, but navigation warnings for low water on the Rochdale, the Trent and Mersey and most of the Caldon is closed due to low water. I go to the boat,make a cup of coffee,switch the heater on and watch a bit of telly and generally potter around cos I can't go anywhere. I can do that in my garden shed and it won't cost me anything! Have advertised the boat for sale,and if and when it sells will probably buy a dirty great Harley Davidson.I will probably get more use out of it than a canal boat. Sorry to use your post to vent my frustration, I am now going for a beer.

I disagree - if someone knows little or nothing about a subject, how can they know if a boat is at 'market price' or 'overpriced' ? Knowledge and experience of a market is the only way to tell. If a boat is considered to be overpriced by someone then they will not buy it, but someone who does buy it considers it to be 'market price' I think diesel is 'overpriced at ~£1.40 per litre as I used to pay 28p per litre, and some years before that 5* petrol at 4 gallons (18 litres) for £1.00 Maybe I should stop buying it so the vendors know I cannot be duped ! In the last 3 years some of my vintage Gun collection have increased in value / price by over 3x using actual achieved auction sales of similar models. In the last 5 years ,my house has more than doubled in value, and since it was built in 2006 has more than trebled. in value. One 'person of thrifty origins' perception does not a market price make.

When a new guy like the author of this topic, who knows little about boats, feels boats are overpriced, that carries weight, and the market should listen. If he can't be duped, then it's going to be hard for vendors to dupe people that know the game.

I agree wiv the above.

Log periodic plus short pole. Twenty quid tops. Forget the bullshit stuff.

The seller is not responding to questions so far.

The only aerial we have ever got along with on the boat is a bog standard log periodic and an aerial alignment app. On the phone. Our caravan has one too except it comes enclosed a plastic case so that it looks a bit posher.

Directional log-periodic on a pole plus a sub £20 signal finder. Probably b=get the lot for £30 or so

Typical lift pump test. Take both the inlet and outlet pipe off. Thumb over the out let port and pump priming lever. It should hold pressure for abut 30 seconds or more. Ditto over the inlet, but this time it should hold vacuum. If this is the disk type pump, then they do clog the valves. I have cleaned they with care. Take the pump off and put witness marks on the base, body and cover so you get them all back correctly aligned. Then undo the six screws and take apart so you can see the valves and what is clogging them. When reassembling (ensure everything is lined up) just nip the screws, so the diaphragm can still move a little and use the priming lever to pull the diaphragm down while you tighten it.

Viewings are planned for the boat so all questions can be answered then? For me if I wanted a boat it would be in the running as a blank canvas ready for an easy finish, paperwork wouldn't be a problem as I would be keeping it long enough anyway

Hi All, so you have probably done this topic to death but, any recommendations for a decent aerial are welcome, currently have a Maxveiw VuCube which is great if you have a un-broken view of the southern sky however if a small tree or wasp is in the southern hemisphere the your fxxxxd. I here that the Moonrakers are good any thoughts is anyone using one? Thanks Dave

They are typically screwed upwards from inside into the wooden handrail. If, and it's a big if, the handrail wood is in good condition so it holds screws you may find taking the rail off, sealing and refitting would do the trick but I think I would make gaskets from closed cell neoprene foam, you can get self-adhesive. I fear you may find the wood of the roof itself has rotted around the screw holes where it has been constantly wet. In that case, you might be able to bodge it by fitting wooden pads on the ceiling to spread the load over the non-rotten areas and use longer screws.

Where is the logic ? Why are you deducting the VAT on the new build ? will you not be paying VAT ? You can buy the new build for £105K (VAT paid) or you can buy the 2nd hand boat at £75k (VAT paid)

I have/had UFO vents and they did not drip condensation themselves but where the steel roof they were set into was not adequately insulated then that did drip, even though it was just the narrow cut edge corresponding to the thickness of the steel. Insulating that edge stopped the problem.

Hard to comment without knowing who the three builders are. A 20 year old well looked-after boat by a respected builder could easily be worth as much as an off the peg mass-produced jobbie with lots of corners cut.

To be honest Rick, there was a thread a month or more ago where I was asking about panel mountings. I wasn't keen on drilling through the roof, but I obviously did in the end (and I used M8 bolts, because my panels seemed a bit too heavy for the M6 bolts used by the guy in the video). I would try searching for that thread because the folks here put in a lot of very useful replies. I remember one or two had used sikaflex only to mount the corner brackets holding the panels, and had no problems at all in any weathers. There was a suggestion about using glueing down a wider sheet of plywood or metal, and attaching the corner brackets to that sheet (so that you get more contact area for the adhesive). Also, there is a particular type of sikaflex that the website advise using (521 or 252, I think) for extra strength. In hindsight, seeing the strength of the stuff, I'd be tempted if using corner mounts (and smaller panels) to try using sikaflex only, but don't take that as advice- its only a thought. But if your panels are 20kg plus, that's quite a lateral push if you bump into a lock wall say, and I personally would hesitate about only using magnetic mounts (although I did think hard about them, and about larger magnetic blocks for even more holding force). I found these ones, but didnt end up getting them: https://www.bimblesolar.com/extras/mounting/magnetic-mounts-42 Re the height, I think as long as the panels are well clear of the edge of the roof they can go above mushroom vents, and mine sit no higher than my front panels, which are on triangle style mounts. There was also a discussion about how useful it is to tilt the panels, particularly in winter when the sun is low, and my own takeaway from that was that tilting is sometimes beneficial- specifically when the boat faces east-west or vice versa, so the the panels (when tilted up) can face south.

I changed my UFO vents for mushrooms, and the hole was the same size (4 inches/100 mm). The problem I had with the UFOs was that the interiors were full of green growth, and there was no way to take them apart and clean them - the outer cover was pop riveted to the roof. Not only did they leak, but the roof under the cover was horribly rusty.

On this day in 2002 An evening trip on A39 from Victoria Quays Sheffield to Tinsley Marina and return, for a Mikron performance