Leaderboard

For £50,000 to £60,000 in Widebeam terms you would either be looking at a Sailaway where you have to do the fit out yourself or something older which had already been done by someone else A quick check of the website Apollo Duck will show you both the layouts of the various Boats and more importantly the Prices being asked . For the amount of People you are attempting to accommodate I think on a narrowboat you would be looking at 70 foot . I know a Divorcee at Cosgrove in a similar position to yourself who assures me that even with 70 foot , where Teenagers are concerned she often finds herself on a Deckchair outside just to get some " me time " As for renting out I would simply forget it , nobody takes care of your Property in the way that you do and the idea of some renter who is perhaps aboard only for financial reasons rather than any affinity with the environment or the Boat simply fills me with dread . It can often be a Tragedy waiting to happen . My advice for what its worth is to take a walk down to the Canal and speak with some Boaters who are actually already living the lifestyle that you aspire to . People are very decent and kind and many will only be too happy to give you their experiences both good and bad , its essential you purchase the correct Boat and dont simply buy blind , this is where taking a regular walk along the " cut " and making a few acquaintances in your locale will prove invaluable .

That's a big machine gun ... wasn't .303 a more common size?

My first boss was fond of saying how easy it was to run a successful business, The same applies to a business plan or business case. All you have to do is: (1) Get work; (2) Do work; (3) Get paid. Failure to achieve any one of the three means total failure.

Quite right. Alan Fincher says he drinks the water from his boat tank and it's done him no harm, has it!

Yes that one is difficult isn't it. Everyone likes working the locks, so a chance to 'help you out' by working your lock is often enthusiastically proposed. The "stay on the boat" instruction often given particularly irks me as it is so presumptive and I get off anyway for safety reasons. I once got the bow fender caught and no amount of hooting the horn could draw anyone's attention on the bank as they were all gassing to each other. None of them was looking out for my boat (understandably)as it wasn't theirs. Fortunately the chain broke but since then I always get off in locks so I can keep an eye on the boat, windlass in hand.

And you can get decent fish and chips.

I noticed that the gangway down to the pontoon has a fence and a gate locked with a BW padlock so its obviously safe and secure, though I found it quicker to hop over the gate than to fumble about for my keys . Reminds me of Cambrian Wharf where there is a locked 8 foot high gate, and I have been told off by the residential boats there for leaving it briefly unlocked, Its such a fiddle to get it open that everybody hops over the 3 foot high fence right next to it. .............Dave

I have used bar keepers on some black spots which on removal of the vanish were very bad on a vertical surface. Mixed it to a paste left it on for a couple of hours and have a 100% success. Thanks to the recommendations of barkeepers on here.

This boat was powered by an 1100cc petrol engine coupled to a hydraulic drive

Try hiring a Boat for a week and taking your teenagers with you, preferably when it is cold and wet. Whilst a weeks hire is nothing like living on a boat it should give you a flavour of whether you and the kids can survive it or not.

Abe is OK, but it's not the same as riffling through a stack of real books, waiting for serendipity to hit you round the ear. And it's owned by Amazon now, like everything else.

Honestly wtf is your problem? Bore off ?

I find virtually nothing on telly to watch so I no longer have one. Radio is FAR better. If R4 is boring at any given time, I just browse through the R4 programmes previously broadcast on iPlayer and pick one of those to listen to. Then at the same time I can post rubbish on here

To be fair, Tim, with the borehole source you have good quality to start with, and as liveaboards you will have a much faster throughput of water, The water at our marine is OK but not as good as it is in Manchester (nice and soft, makes good tea) but it sits in the tank undisturbed for long periods. Maybe not in your yogurt pot, but it is a major task in our narrowboat -- one which I will be taking on once I am fully retired.

Yup 7 to 7 six days a week, 7 to 12 on Sundays.

I reckon me and the missus should be dead by now. Eight boats of various ages and tank types and we always drink straight from the tank. Bottled water was a very clever idea by some millionaire to make him a billionaire. Good idea in some Johnny Foreigner countries but a con in the UK innitt. On some occasions swmbo has been known to use a filter jug for her tea. The watter here is awesome, superb, much better than mains as its from a private bore hole and taint free.

Switch off the pump. Open a couple of taps. Empty a bit of water out the calorifier. Have an old towel handy. Unscrew the existing prv. Get yourself a roll of gas PTFE tape in the yellow pack (about 50p from screwfix or toolstation). Wrap a bit of PTFE up the thread of your new prv and install. Before messing about with the pump pressure set your accumulator to a few psi below the pump's cut in pressure with a tyre pressure gauge and a bike pump if required. I think 30 psi is your pump's cut out pressure and the cut in pressure would be about 25 psi, so set the accumulator to say 15 -18psi. Make sure you've got everything back together, close the taps and switch the pump back on. If the new prv hasn't sorted out the problem then reduce the pump pressure with the adjustment screw on the head of the pump. If you reduce pump pressure significantly you might then need to reduce the accumulator pressure a bit more too (with pump switched off and tap open).

The “ Mouses Ears”, nothing to do with the Disney version, had its origin in cart painting that preceded canal boats. Tony Lewery explored the connection in his early book, Narrowboat Painting. In my opinion, a decent set has the apex, or crown, touching the top of the doors in the centre and generous, sweeping curves, no straight lines, around the shoulders, ending at the point where the rear bulkhead meets the gunwale. Ventilation grilles can pose interesting issues for continuing the line..... Before the question is asked, the scalloping on the front bulkhead of working boats, usually in black on red oxide, is known to some painters as “ Elephants Toenails” on account of their similarity. Anorak off here......cheers! Dave

That's their own fault for straying the wrong side of them hills in the first place.

Google Liberon wood bleacher. N

Reverse layout is intuitively just 'wrong', for reasons that are beyond logical analysis. Same as bungalows, and three wheeled cars.

There is a further image in the group of pictures taken by Arthur Watts which shows the position of the bows and illustrates more clearly that the boat is set back from the others. Regards Martin O'Keeffe