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Hi MalibuSam. If you have a read through some of the other "new to boating" posts you will see that quite a few people start their boating journeys thinking that a widebeam apartment-style boat is what they want. Many experienced members spend a lot of time encouraging people to think through their options carefully before committing their money. For example, there is a big difference between a luxurious widebeam that will be mostly marina-based and a boat that will allow its owner to explore the extent of the inland waterways. That is not to say that there aren't plenty of very happy widebeam owners. I'm a newbie like you and found the advice I got on the forum invaluable when I was looking for my used narrowboat. No disrespect was meant by the other responders I'm sure. In terms of sofas, loads of boat owners recommend Sofabed Barn, while many others find something suitable in places like IKEA. I guess a modular sofa is easiest for getting in and out of small doors. Welcome to the world of boating! I expect if you are happy to provide a bit more info about where you will be based and what you plan to do with your boat then the replies and feedback you get will be helpful. PS there might be some widebeam Facebook groups that could help too.

I just skimmed this thread for the first time. Bearing in mind how many folk on here have claimed Thunderboat is a home of pestilence and the epitome of nastiness, I think they should have gone to specsavers and taken a look closer to home! Well done OP for sticking it out, clearly you are robust enough to survive CCing. I am a bit surprised that people are still claiming the OP’s plans are pisstaking, around us (Fazeley to Fradley) we see the same boats all the time along that fairly short stretch of water (12 miles) and none of them have patrol notices etc. If you stick clear of honeypot sites (which is probably just Gloucester docks on the G&S) I think you will be fine.

Was in the papers earlier in the week, poxy snowflakes. Same snowflakes who don't want teaching about WW2 as it's too scary. I'm sure our ancestors will be proud of the results of their sacrifices

just to point out that with a VSR you don't need a multi-output charger as long as the VSR is bi-directional or is sensed off the battery connected to the charger/solar. Usually the domestics. I think I would just connect all three charger outputs to the domestic bank, make sure the alternator and any solar is also connected to the domestic bank and ensure the VSR (unless bi-directional) is sensing from the domestic bank. Then whenever the charge source is delivering in excess of 13.6 to 13.8 volts the VSR will close and charge both banks. If you have solar then unless you disconnected it or it was dark the VSR is likely to be closed. You shoudl find 12V on both main termianls of the VSR because the engine and domestic battery negatives are linked. It 12V engine battery on one side and 12V domestic battery on the other.

It's interesting to me that you said that, because I know that knee problems often limit people's ability to continue canal boating. How? It's well known on the forum that I've made a habit of volunteering myself as crew for people in order to go boating more, and among the people I've helped in this way I can think of two in particular for whom their knees were a problem, and having me on their crew, a fit agile man with enough boating knowledge to do the locks, was very useful for them. So Harold, maybe you'd be mad to give up boating, I advise that you just persuade a friend or relative to go boating with you and teach them how to do the activities for which a good healthy pair of knees is a requirement! The odd thing is, my knees are fine and in general I feel really good and healthy, but I've had a very different and life-threatening illness this year which has made me hesitate to offer myself as crew! However, my doctors have so far worked wonders to keep me alive and well through it, and I do still plan to get out on the water for a trip on the Thames 8th-24th October, subject to what I'm told at a consultation at the hospital scheduled for 8th September. I appear to be recovering very well and expect to be still alive and boating when I'm 100!

Pump out or cassette?

The good thing about this thread, is it's given me the idea of spending a good 3-4 months on the G&S next year. It's a lovely canal...

Shed boat on the outside Palace on the inside. This is a wide beam obviously

I certainly wouldn't leave valuables in open view but I think its really interesting what you say about not making it look TOO secure We used to use these very expensive cases for some of our musical gear on tour and they were solid as a rock, the only problem is people quickly cottoned onto the fact that if you have a £500 case then what's inside it must REALLY be worth stealing. I use a strong but very tatty case these days and it never gets a second look.

I'm a month into using the Sterling BtoB so still learning how to use them. My alternator is 240A so I bought 2 * 60A BtoBs wired in parallel. Firstly, advice to anyone buying them, dont get one of the reconditioned units! They say in the adverts they are the same as the new ones but they are not. The cooling capabilities are much reduced so they overheat. I returned 2 and got 2 new units which cool much better (very good service from Sterling though). Couple of issues. Firstly these units take circa 55A input from the alternator each but only put out 45A into the batteries. The rest is heat! There is a lot of waste heat but the issue is that you are loosing 10A that the alternator is making which would be far better into the batteries. Its fine for me as my alternator is huge and I can afford to loose the 20 A (from the 2 btob's) and the alternator doesnt overheat. If you are on a 70A alternator you will loose some of the engergy from the alternator. Second issue is how the BtoB controls. The voltage the unit goes from Bulk to 'condition' via absorbtion seems to be at a voltage that the btob makes up itself. I have put a voltage sense wire on mine but the voltage shown on the unit by the right hand side LEDs seems to have a mind of its own and doesnt seem so consistent over a varying output current range. This makes it a bit difficult when trying to get up to 100%, as when you get into the tail current phase and the amps fall, its a bit hit and miss when the btob drops its charge. The LiFePo4 setting seems too high so I am using a lower voltage now of 14.0V (so it goes out of bulk at about 70% charge) and leave it in absorbtion for an hour (all at 80A charge), using the custom setting. I think the btob can be set to match any system but it takes a bit of playing round with it. Typical of Sterling kit though, one of the units can decide to go to half power if the wind changes to the north so the voltage at the Li's reduces, so an impending move from bulk to conditioning is delayed! One benefit I am finding with them though is my 'hybrid' system is using power from the LA's when I get the Li's down to 30-40% so I need to get the LA's fro 90 something% to 100% each day (ie put 30-40Ahrs back into the LA's). With the BtoBs, the alternator puts 14.4V back into the LAs and charges them in an hour or so whilst charging the Li's so I end up with say 160Ahrs going into the Li's and 40A going back in the LAs in less than a couple of hours, so that is 110Ahrs each hour rather than 90Ahrs. That is fine for me. Overall I think the BtoB's are the best idea for my set up with a big alternator and LA's in need of charge but not sure I would use them on a small alternator and a single dump LA battery. I would charge direct from the alternator using one of Nick's controllers. I am still learning!

We holiday in the country and areas we used to moor up and drive to and from for work. Yesterday we rode the railway line from Northampton to mkt harborough. I used to work 4 miles from where it starts. Never went near it.. The Uk is stuffed with wonderful places, just off the beaten track.

Still for sale? No Starcross lovers then.

Agreed but it is normally almost impossible to run a properly installed Waterpuppy shower pump dry if its been properly installed because there shoudl be a slight swan neck in the inlet hose so when the pump is stopped any water in the outlet hose runs back and lodges in the pump.

Quite. How you can legitimately CC on a stretch of canal you can easily transit in less than a day is beyond me...there might not be a letter of law regarding it but there is certainly a spirt and the piss takers always make it harder for those who try to comply.

Earwig oh again. It is utterly laughable that anyone would want/need to analyse their movements with respect to CRT's "minimum requirements" and plan their movements accordingly. where is the concept of CONTINUOUSLY CRUISING ? where is the cruising concept if a boater shuffles up and down a short piece of canal for a few months instead of getting a mooring like rational folk would do? there are many lovely seasoned boaters who move around most or all of the network who really are continuous cruising - the others are just trying to take advantage of some loosely defined regulations that were put in place to stop the piss-takers. perhaps we should coin a new (?) phrase - "water gypsies" ............................... although, come to think of it, that may be unfair to genuine Romany gypsies.

I don't think he was taking issue with you.... I think he just hung his further explanation onto your post. You supported him, and he clarified and expanded. That's how I saw it, anyway

'Twas not an attempt to solve Nick's issue, but more pro bono for those who read through threads looking for info on 12V versus 24v refrigeration. Fred Drift rules....

A pair of these say https://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/Item/SSP200PS would be cheaper with the current offer than the flexi panels and probably produce more power on a hot day as they would stay cooler than flexi panels stuck to a steel roof. Combine that with a good charge controller, assuming you already have an inverter, https://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/Item/SCC110030210 Add in the wires, connectors, fuses, still comes cheaper than the ones you're looking at. Jen

With no starter battery in the circuit there could be a high resistance path to 12V via the charger and/or voltage sensitive relay. This could lead to 12V being measured by a high impedance multimeter. Doesn't necessarily mean that either the charger, or VSR is borked. The 12V you are seeing may not be able to supply any current. A small spark doesn't need much current, or could be caused by a discharging capacitor in the charger. Geriatric starter batteries can and do fail suddenly all on their own. I wouldn't go trying to diagnose other possible faults without a good starter battery in the circuit. You may be calling something a fault that is just normal behaviour of an incomplete circuit. Jen

No. That's the problem. There are no 'regs' (as in Regulations, which specify exactly what is/is not required). There are simply the rather vague words in the 1995 Act, which refer to 'place', which is undefined, 'bona fide for navigation', which is undefined, and '14 days or such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances', also undefined. CRT, and before them BW, have tried to codify these into more specific requirements, but have been challenged on the legality of doing so more than once, and the guidelines have been rewritten more than once as a result. CRT have indicated some patterns of use which, in their view, are definitely unacceptable, but it doesn't necessarily follow that anything which exceeds those patterns is de facto acceptable. Hence any boater who decides to only just exceed the published minimum requirements is taking a risk that his pattern of movement may be deemed non-compliant.

First off the water puppy has proven itself over many years in hire boat service as a shower pump. Its problem is that without fancy extras you have to push a button to drain the shower because its a rubber impellor pump that must not run dry. I bought a 10 year old hire boat and 20 years later the water Puppy was still working well. As the pump kicks as its energised it looks to me as if something other than seizure is stopping the impellor turning so take the bottom plate off to expose the impeller and see if anything is jambing it. 3 or 6 screws plus a new gasket and impeller if needed. Once the impeller is out you can try twisting the shaft. If it won't revolve I expect a bearing has seized up. That's when you price up a Whale and a Water Puppy

Hi everyone, reading the remarks makes me a bit sheepish really, I realise I am most likley just being a bit of a wimp. Anyhow I have someone from this forum who is happy to come along and help subject to his work, so its still iffy but I reckon we will manage. All else failing we can call CART for a hand but would feel a bit embarrased to ask for help like that. Thank you al so much for your input I really appreciate it.

Looks like a quick few swipes with a wire brush and most of that will disappear. Then rust converter on top. Gets banged about on the canals so keep some spare paint to slap it back on every so often !

Ok so thats the first week sorted, he is going from june to october though. Llangollen, then shroppie, staffs worcester, seven, worcester and birmingham, through brum, farmers bridge , b and f. coventry, braunston, south oxford. lunun. Grand union . Northampton.

Fish and chips without salt!!! You need taking before the beak and transporting!!