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Don't you talk about my boat's mother like that!

I'd say get your solar on ASAP. There's not much point burning fuel to charge batteries at peak solar season if you don't need to. Do you know how many amp hours you are using each day and therefore how many you need to replace? Are you sure your batteries are OK and you are not trying to charge knackered batteries? I know it doesn't help with the genny question, but every hour of this sunshine could be going into your batteries ...

We have had our boat shuffled around and remoored many times to make best use of available mooring space. Provided it is tied up so as the boat won't get damaged I don't see the problem and certainly don't believe it is a criminal act. You have a lot to learn about inland boating!!

If you buy a decent second hand honda gennie for the moment to get you by until you update solar etc you will get all or most of your money back on it when you sell it anyway.

Yes solar all the way first and gen as a back up for winter . For solar don’t get an “ installer “ they charge loads and you get poor system that suits their profit imo . After loads and loads of research into my new up coming system I have come to conclusion most don’t know what they are taking about or do but steer you towards the solution that suits them not you . Cheap china is not always the best . Look at Bimble they I am sure can sell you a complete kit for your needs at a very reasonable price then either fit yourself , semi fit your self ( what i am doing ) or get a decent boat engineer to do it or parts of it . Cheaper and you will end up with a much better system. Fun designing and fitting too . Regard geny I only have a Honda eu 2200 because the missus insists on ironing everything. If not a eu1000i is just as good but smaller and cheaper and will charge most batteries as a back up to solar no issue . Btw I work from the boat and a lot more during lockdown . If you are cc on the cut computers are power hogs to use all working day , suggest low power laptop dialled all the down to snail performance unless you are gonna run engines / gen a lot esp if you have fridge as well . 800 watts of solar will do for 8 months but I winter you will need to have back up and be a misser unless you are moving all the time

Agreed and only one a victron inverter charger won’t spit out . Expensive yes but they run forever and give a faultless next wave output. Reason on why it’s probably the most popular gen on the cut .

What, to get the missus to sort it out for you?

I have had my base plate done twice and it doesn't scrape off. This was brought home to me at Debdale while I was there they lifted a boat. The bottom was end to end with mussels, they weren't scraped off in the canal.

There are special docks about. They are called bottom docks. There is one at braunston, called bottom lock dock. You float the boat in, and drain the water. The dock is filled with special hot paint. This comes in by tanker which is parked outside, and pumps the stuff into the dock. This burns off the crap on the boat, and coats the whole thing. You leave the boat in whilst the paint cools overnight. ( smoking is not recommended) and you have to sleep in a special tent. when the paint is hard you cut round the skim of paint round the boat and fill the dock. Off you go. Once the boat is out the dock is emptied, and a solvent used to thin down the hardened paint, which is pumped back into the tanker. Very green.

Nah, thats for Australians called Bruce. ?

Yes, I suspect, though I have absolutely no concrete evidence, that a much greater proportion of boaters, (and I am talking about inland waterways, not lumpy waters) are able to talk at length about the merits of battery chargers, the finer points of engines and pump outs but not about such basic boating skills. I have always thought it strange that yachties in general are often keen to improve their boating skills whereas inland boaters tend to disregard such matters in favour of more mechanical subjects. Howard

Thank you. I don't think I have seen that one before, hope it is OK to add to my collection. River Great Ouse, last week.

It's a good job no one we actually know reads the forum any more so Dave won't know about me spilling the beans about his combo, specially as he's coming up for 60 and 20 years ago was, hmm, prolly a bit old for that ... Oh ... Gulp ... Bribes?

just a bit of light hearted nonsense, let's be honest the forum needs it, theres millions and millions of politics threads right now and only one talking Mornington Crescent

There may be a sudden upsurge in single sex relationships - a husband, his husband and their three brothers each, all hiring a boat together for a big family week out. Oddly, they all seem to belong to the same army unit....

Hello, me again. Been continuing my search for my first boat the for the last few weeks and came across this one: https://www.abcboatsales.com/boat-sales/tantalus/ Not sure if i'm spamming this section with these threads, please advise if this is bad behaviour and i'll stop, but i really enjoy reading the feedback from you all here. This boat i think fixes some of the issues people had with the boat on my last thread, however it also has an alde gas boiler for water and radiators, this feels like it would be a bad heating option to me. Cheers as always!

Get one with a lpg conversion . Solves all and much cheaper to run

Thats too easy! It's obviously the "Battle Suite"by Samuel Scheidt. Give us a more difficult one.

That was kind of my original thought. It's either that and/or I just try and marina hop until things are sorted. I have a car so it would probably solve a lot of grief finding parking.

I have sent a message to the seller as this is the stern end of VELA, not the fore end as mentioned in the advert

Honda, end of.

So many issues here it might need another thread! Which is better: 1. A keeper at every lock 2. Travelling keepers you have to wait for 3, Do-it-yourself locking, as in the UK(The French have looked at this and been appalled) 4. Remote controlled locks (from an office with cameras somewhere else. 5. Automatic locks (with emergency attendance when it goes wrong) The Nivernais has choice 2, with 1 at busy times of year. We find this agreeable, and the student keepers excellent (also, in my observation devoid of any anti-German feeling, or similar). We never tip with cash, nor have I seen it expected, though we do sometimes offer a drink, and take a fair share of working gates and sluices - as in the photo.

If that is your preferred method, then if there is someone already using the bollard, it's only courtesy to make sure your rope is below theirs on the bollard. Then either boat can leave first without disturbing the other rope. Howard

When mooring for any length of time,I take a turn around the bollard,and lead the line back to the boat's cleat. How does one "dip the eyes" doing that?

I think you mean which rules are used by some, and which rules are used by others, don't you? As we have seen over the past few days, in the big wide world, rules can apply differently to different people.

It being sunny today I trust some photos in the rain can be excused. Here, at Champs-sur-Yonne, is one of the hardest locks to get into when the river is running. A strong sideways set takes a vessel towards the jetty, so you approach close to the towpath, then turn at an angle. Barges here were made of far thinner metal than narrowboats ever are, so, with a full-width vessel it pays to be careful. I once saw a laded Dutch freighter taken sideways here. The steerer saved the day by easing the vessel forward until the starboard side of the bow was just inside the lock. Meanwhile his pal dropped a tyre in at the stern against the jetty. They then just pivoted the boat straight against the lock entrance using the engine. To add to the show their Alsatian dog stood with its paws on the wheel as if it had done the whole thing itself.

The staff in our marina are working a lot less operating the service dock...but they are loosing money on this...but are working far harder doing other stuff, i.e. Checking boats. A continuous string of calls from moorers asking to check this that and the other. The grounds man is flat out keeping t undergrowth in check. Wouldnt really expect a reduction. Ours isn't a highly staffed marina.

...which you design on a PC which is linked to the Internet via a Huawei router?

Changing the prop will make no difference in this situation. As Tony says, the width and depth of the channel determines the water flow to the prop. You may reduce the engine revs by fitting a coarser prop, but will end up sitting in the mud at exactly the same speed as before. The 4mph limit on canals is rarely achievable; even planning a journey at 3mph is a struggle. Slow down, relax and enjoy being overtaken by pedestrians.

Not trying to defend his action but I said this close to the beginning of this topic and it seemed to have been ignored. Sad, but we all risk going that way.

The lock keepers at Selby and Naburn will advise you. Going up stream you leave Selby as the tide floods, tidal effect generally declines after Cawood but that depends on spring vs neap tides and the amount of fresh (ie natural flow of rainwater down the river). The levels do vary a lot with the amount of fresh and state of tide. Be aware that there are 3 swingbridges, 2 at Selby (one rail, one road) and a road one at Cawood. All the bridges are manned and can be contacted by phone or preferably by radio. Most of the time in a narrowboat you won’t need the bridges swung but always best to check the air draft at the bridges - you don’t want to be bearing down on a bridge with 3 mph of current behind you to find you don’t fit under the bridge! If you are travelling in winter, obviously there is greater risk of high levels to due fresh. Coming back the other way they seem to let you out of Naburn before high tide, meaning you are against the tide to start with, however the tidal effect that high up is normally marginal to zero. You pick up the ebb further down. I think the early departure is to ensure that there is plenty of water over the cill (and over the mud banks!) at Selby. And maybe to get into Selby before the flow peaks. My tips for getting back into Selby are thus: 1) round up (ie turn the boat round) as soon as you are past the bridges, then drift back with the current - no rush! 2) when rounding up, turn left (having first gone over to the right, very close to the old jetty). I noticed that the current was stronger near the RH bank, so this helps to push the back of the boat round. Turning the other way means the bow is in the strong current which makes it harder to turn. Start the turn from very low speed through the water The river isn’t very wide here and it’s easy to run out of room. 3) drift back so that the bow is roughly in line with the upstream side of the lock entrance. Drift slowly sideways towards the lock entrance. Fortunately there is a patch of calm water near the lock entrance which makes it quite easy most of the time. Biggest problem is going from moving water to still water with the same power on and thus hitting the upstream lock wall. When quite close, apply lots of rudder and power to swing the boat round into the lock entrance. It is easier than it sounds! Best to take it all quite slowly. I will also mention that the difficulty varies from “not much” in benign conditions - modest tides, little fresh - to downright dodgy in a narrowboat - large spring tides and a lot of fresh. So don’t go if the conditions are dodgy.