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A well-maintained diesel inboard ought to beat a petrol outboard for reliability every time. A decent outboard costs a fair bit and realistically you shouldn't even need it (or the associated dangers of petrol storage). Unless you're going somewhere high risk where a back up engine makes sense (but a Narrowboat certainly doesn't!), are you sure you wouldn't you be better off spending the money on getting your engine and gearbox into good shape?

Couple of pics of French 'Narrowboat' - Berrichon, easier to walk all around the boat and also has bollards in the middle which make life much easier.

Thanks for that both don't fancy secondary glazing seems a lot of faffing about when my windows should be watertight as is i am going to use puraflex 40 to re-seal the windows not the foam stuff as i really rate the stuff and good value at 4 quid a tube but i'm still curious to whether i can put drain holes in the windows myself and if so why didn't they have them when made? anyway back to Jenny pmsl

Please could someone tell me :- Is there a daily limit of greenies and if so what is it and when does the clock restart? Thanks. I ask because I had no greenies left to give at lunch time and then I had new ones by tea.

Yea, I only took him cause you (CT) defaulted on payment. I did say to Auntie Waitrose that we would put the duck back in the auction next Christmas so after a year with us, he could see the canal network with a less intelligent couple.

Ronnie, if you join the Lowland Canals Association ( http://www.lowlandcanalsassociation.org ) you will be on the mailing group and the chairman recently shared the letter he sent to the Minister of Transport. You may be able to lift bits of it. haggis

For anybody who's not a member of the Lowland Canals Association A concerted effort has started to force/embarrass Scottish Canals and Parliament into taking action. A Twitter campaign (whatever that is) has started to all MSP's, news agencies etc Anybody with any suggestions of who would be worth contacting put them here, or indeed any useful suggestions of any sort Time to stop sitting around tutting and do something about it Please share. Scottish Canals have closed the Forth Clyde canal to navigable craft since they have failed to adequately maintain two key bridges. This is one of the oldest man made sea to sea crossings in the world. They have subsequently failed in their statutory duty. Evidence attached. Please help us firstly raise this issue publicly and secondly perhaps help us crowd fund to challenge legally. As anyone can. www.legislation.gov.uk LEGISLATION.GOV.UK

So to get back to the OP's point, about what is the "best" diesel engine for a narrowboat, bearing in mind that she admits to little knowledge of engines. So she needs a fit, forget and then service type of engine - so not a vintage type, as she has little mechanical knowledge (or interest?) I suggest there are four basic groups, in declining order of suitability for her requirements: 1) Best - a modern Japanese engine, properly marinised, e.g. Barrus Shire or Vetus to name but two. Reliable, widely understood, although spares can be pricey. 2) Secondly, one of the popular boat engines commonly found from the previous generation, e.g. BMC 1.5/1.8, Lister SR/ST. Again, reliable and widely understood, potentially can still be very reliable but now getting on in years so there are good ones and bad ones - but cheaper as a consequence. 3) Not recommended: Less common makes, frequently ex-car engines, often with marine conversions of questionable quality, as noted in post above, e.g Ford, Peugeot, VW. Not widely understood on the cut, and may be horribly bodged and/or just plain unsuitable for the task. 4) Least. A vintage engine, which may be reliable, but requires some mechanical knowledge to work with it, they aren't fit & forget, e.g, Russell Newbery, National, Gardner, old Listers, Armstrong Siddeley. Not only are you in the hands of specialists to repair these (unless you have the the ability to do it yourself), but spare parts are often hard to find and/or very expensive. Does that seem a fair summary? It would not be my pecking order, but my circumstances are different!

Brouilly is of course one of the 10 named village wine regions of Beaujoais, along with St-Amour (too late to dash out for some now for Valentine's Day), Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-a-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, and Côte de Brouilly.

We were lucky enough to see a wild Crane on the Norfolk Broads in 2016. Didn't manage to catch a glimpse of any when we went back last year though.

Here are a few inside gutter pics

I posted this a couple of weeks ago under the 'will the canals last' thread - I reckon the same rationale could apply to the moorings management. Once upon a time, not so long ago, last Friday, Winston (or Win to all those knew him) was proud to be a British Waterways lengthsman. He was responsible for a length of canal and had a short dumb workboat which he moved along the canal to wherever he thought a job needed doing. The boat had a small wood burning stove and Win, using his boat as a work platform, would saw down overhanging branches from the offside, break them into short lengths, stow them in the hold and use them to warm himself on a freezing cold day and brew a mashing of tea for his lunch. Any trees or other problems which were a hazard to navigation would be reported by Win and dealt with by the maintenance gang. Win would walk a different length of towpath of his section everyday, carrying a long handled blade to clear away any small shrubs growing out of the towpath wall and trim long grass and towpath hedges as he went. Win was responsible for several locks along his length. Every morning he would clear away accumulated rubbish from the by-wash, occasionally oil and grease the paddle gear, paint the balance beams and keep the lock surroundings clean and tidy. He knew the location of the culverts and the best way to keep them clear. Win would inform the local Licence Enforcement Officer of any boat navigating his section without a licence. Win would instruct novice boaters in the workings of a lock and show them the safe way to work the lock and how to wind paddles up and down. Boaters would wave and smile at Win. He would smile and wave back and tell them of any problems or stoppages to the best of his knowledge. Walkers would enquire of Win how the locks work and he found the time to tell them. Win was everybody’s ray of sunshine and instant point of contact and the fount of all knowledge on his length of canal. Win never won awards in the best length competition but his work was respected by all. But ‘The Office’ said, “How does Win do his job without instruction?” So they created a planning position and hired two people, a Section Supervisor to write the method statements and one person to do time studies. Then ‘The Office’ said, “How will we know that Win is doing his tasks correctly?” So they created a quality control position and hired two people, one to do the risk assessments and one to write the reports. Then ‘The Office’ said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So they created a payroll department and hired two people, one to be time keeper and one to be payroll officer. Then ‘The Office’ said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative position and hired three people, a Section Inspector, an Assistant Admin Officer and a Legal Secretary. Twelve months later, ‘The Office’ said: “We have had this system in operation for one year and we are £125,000 over-budget, we must cut back on the overall costs.” And so, of course, the first thing ‘The Office’ did was make Win redundant...

Please excuse my English and my misunderstanding if I make mistakes in interpretation. Of course, narrow boat are typical British boats but I think they also have their place on the French canals like Briair, Burgundy, Nivernais, Midi. This boat model is ideal for channels, not just for English channels. There were French boats with equivalent dimensions and different aspects ("fûte of the berry" or Berrichon, "flûte of the Ourcq") but there is not enough to see them on the water. I am not judgmental or opinionful about abandoning the boat. Perhaps the disease (or worse) kept the owner away. This poor boat is perhaps the visible face of another misfortune, even more serious ...

Yes! I'm finding it more and more difficult to get me leg over.

Agreed. Please post a pic @Chas78 (no more girls) She looks good in the book (well in my head anyway, always wearing a green dress)

She doesn't look quite the same in " Call the midwife " I of course am unchanged Only cos the missus is watching you

And now, back to Chas78 and his windows...............

Have a heart!

Fair enough Peter ... like everything boating it's personal choices ... funily enough the bsc man I used had to be convinced jubilee clips on fuel pipes were permissable but I have my own full bsc mannual which is useful to argue certain points although a lot is still left that is open to interpretation which can cause major headaches. Rick

Lucky your a specialist bird quack. I thought it was a hairy canary called Sean

When we moored on the Broads on a 40' x 12' GRP we never had her out in 10 years that we owned her. She never had any fouling issues I know because I checked under water. On the other hand we also had a 21' cruiser which fouled terribly with Zebra mussels and needed regular scraping off. A similar sized day boat we had never had fouling issues. My dinghy was always fine but Chris's would produce 2 builders buckets of Zebra mussels every year. I can only gather from my observations that the degree of fouling depends on the type of antifoul used. Oh and don't get hung up on Osmosis, it's not the killer some would have you believe, it has been said that a boat with Osmosis will outlive it's owner. In fact the Navy has quite a few GRP boats so they must be OK with the stuff. Phil

Although our shop is closed until the end of February, we can help if you phone us on 01270 811059 - or you can order Knots for the Cut from our book website at http://www.canalbookshop.co.uk/knots.html

Bit of a 'give-away' (assuming you have a BSSC) as it will have a huge big label on it saying "Diesel" - unless you have implemented the latest anti-siphon technology and used a 'Pump-Out' label in lieu of 'Diesel'

Returning after a couple of weeks on board, I was in a petrol station filling up the car. Instinctively started chatting to the guy filling up next to me. "Lock-side chat". Then realised from the look on his face, I was back in the parallel universe.