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Sorry but I just feel there is something not right with their whole situation.

well, that is certainly a truism .................... sorry, couldn't resist

Not really. When I was a child most people didn’t have a car. Now they do, but it is a very recent thing in the great scheme of things. Bottom line is that with the population growth and increasing wealth, long term we cannot have private fossil-fuelled cars for everyone. Moving away from that to electric is more expensive. Traditionally when there is a limited resource, it is managed by pricing. So poor people won’t be able to afford it. It was always thus, even if it offends any socialist tendencies you might have. The socialists expect “they” will pay for poor people to have stuff they can’t afford, whilst not specifying where the money “they” will give them, comes from. Of course if our public transport wasn’t worse than most 3rd world countries, it would be better.

Go and give them some money if you wish and support their lifestyle if your that bothered with my comments. These are the new generation of boaters that’s on the canal, don’t seam to of done a hard days work in their lives and want to be supported by donations. so they can live on the canal system.

That look as if it could be Type 2 Microbial Corrosion (not 'normal' corrosion due to electrical 'leakage') 'Wider pictures' show similar random silver 'pits' in the blacking. Boat owners and yards know all about rust. There is endless literature on electro-chemical and galvanic corrosion – all under the general heading of ‘rust’. But there are other types of corrosion which closely resemble (but are not) rust in the conventional sense about which little is known by boat owners and by many yards. This is a corrosion caused by microbiological action which is can occur on boat hulls, particularly those lying in canals or rivers containing high levels of chemicals or decaying vegetable matter. Microbially Induced Corrosion (MIC) is a highly unpredictable process but under the influence of micro-organisms, corrosion processes can be rapid, happening in a matter of months compared to the years it would take for ordinary abiotic corrosion to reach serious proportions. This phenomenon is well known in the oil, gas, water and mining industries but is little understood in the steel boating world. MIC frequently occurs in areas with high nitrate content in the water – this particularly pertains to arable regions of the canal network and particularly to canals and rivers on the east side of the UK and where there is intensive crop farming using non organic chemical fertilizers with consequential phosphate, sulphate and nitrate run-off into the watercourses. Marinas fed by rivers are another risk area and, in salt water environments, it is well known that harbour muds are highly contaminated by sulphides produced by these creatures. Sulphide films are, by their very nature, highly corrosive and the identification of such very obvious. It is usually found under muddy and slimy surfaces, sometimes even behind paint coatings and a very careful visual inspection is necessary to locate it. It is not discoverable by non-destructive testing such as ultrasonic thickness measurement, eddy current testing or the magnetic method familiar to most marine surveyors. The bacteria are often found inside oxidised welds or in areas which contain physical defects such as porosity, overlap or lack of penetration. The microbes leading to this condition can both cause corrosion from beneath existing coatings or seek out pinpricks in the steel coating and cause the reaction to occur from the outside. MIC bacteria can be present under previous blackings and is not eradicated by simple pressure washing. Unless correctly treated, MIC can continue to thrive beneath the coating, emerging as major pitting.

From the pollution/CO2 point of view there's little point forcing all ~30k UK canal boats to switch (expensively!) from diesel to electric, they contribute maybe 0.01% of the CO2 that ~30M cars do, the money would be far better spent pushing up EV use and efficiency. But logic doesn't come into it, I'm sure that they'll get caught in in the eliminate-diesel hysteria. Quiet vibration-free boats with no exhaust fumes though, that's a very good reason to do it. Yes charging points would be needed, but in reality this is a tiny problem compared to the car one which *will* be solved. Could even go through Dudley tunnel if the boat would fit...

Re the ownership question, if at all possible talk with any other boat owners / dwellers on site to verify the owner. How long known etc.

I've had family...and a friend's experience of a major broker selling boats complete with the broker's survey. Both times they encountered serious problems within weeks, that would have been thrown up if they had paid for their own survey. Both of them had the broker appearing kindly and pointing out faults during the buying process...which they then supposedly fixed ....to make them trusted. In one case the seller of the boat had left it with the broker with a brand new set of batteries. When my friend viewed it...it had old batteries , with the broker saying " we'll put new batteries in it as a service to you"...ensuring my friend felt they could be trusted. Phone calls within weeks.. when these other faults showed up brought the same response.." well..it is a secondhand boat". Throw away any seller survey...even from major brokers...and get your own !

Nothing inferior about a diesel stove. Most sea going trawlers, yachts and small ships will have them. Stay in for a month without having to clean, no dust, tend to be very economic and once heated provide a lovely steady heat. You also already have a diesel supply on board so no need for sacks of coal on roof or clogging the cratch up. Once our Morso Squirrel dies (installed 2001), we will be replacing with some oil fired unit.

To be clear my post was not at all aimed at Matt and Ally, I’m actually a big supporter of their vlog and find them quite open and honest with everything they’ve said and fine them them quite genuine. My post was to question the price that was put on the boat through the brokerage listing as we all know the state of the boat and nothing was mentioned on the advert. I wish them the best of luck and will continue supporting them.

Sums them up, there’s something not right in all this if you know boats. The gullible fools out there that support them obviously know nothing about boats and that goes for the fellow Youtube Boat Vloggers who support them, most of which have no real experience with boats also.

Disbonding near sacrificial anodes is due to..... racks brain........can't remember the name. Hydrogen bubbles are formed on parent metal skin if excessive galvanic current present which forces coating off. I think it's called overpolarisation or something. That's why on impressed CP current systems more protective current is not a silver bullet. The steel coating disbonds by H2 forcing it off. Ironically if the coating was 99% and no anodes the coating would not disbond due to H2 bubbles as H2 bubbles would not form. This could be a case of what I keep banging on about...... great coating but pinholed concentrates the galvanic loss. Did you say baseplate was coated too?

The new link doesn't replicate the old link, so it is a diversion.

Caveat Emptor. I've seen scrap sold for more. So it is floating now? Must have been "fixed" somehow.

Find your mooring if you are not CCing before you buy.

No it states 2 ranges : 10v to 14v for the 12v version or 20v to 28v for the 24v version. It's laid out badly though. Yes, they are designed as vehicle heaters, so the normal voltage from your alternator is fine. If your alternator is going much above 14.4v get it fixed! Note Alan's manual also states the controller will shut off the heater if the voltage is too high for it, so if it's running it's happy.

Make sure you have some basic engine spares, such as fuel filters, fan belts, and the tools you will need. And know and feel confident about how to use them!

Its not expensive now, most of the costs for my conversion were covered by the sale of the diesel engine and gearbox, ok I am an engineer so I did it myself, but as time goes on I could easily put together kits from forklift trucks if I felt like some extra money in my life, which I dont as I value my time to much

I can't see the boating market following anything other than the car market on batteries. EV usage will dictate battery direction for years if not forever. For EV use, battery technology will be the key advantage each car company will have so I can't see replaceable batteries anytime soon. Tesla have very complex battery technology and are probably 5 years ahead of the competition so they will not give that up easily. Also remember today you need a fork lift to move the battery pack on a Tesla ...10 times the size of the pack on my boat. Yes, they will get smaller but significant improvements will be 10 years away. Its nice to think of chargers around the network or replaceable battery packs but there is no commercial basis for doing this so it ain't goin to happen. Solar, Li's and big alternators will work for canal boats for the next 20 years.

https://www.nortoncanesboatbuilders.co.uk/home/index.php/boatyard-services/gritblasting

Aqueduct marina Church Minshul do grit and epoxy.

Depends what device you're using. The easiest way is with a laptop. Right click anywhere on the map and a menu will appear. One of the choices is the measuring tool. On my phone you press and hold to drop a pin, then pull up the menu which appears at the bottom and choose 'measure distance'

Banbury, as Athy said ..................old route in yellow, new route in red. ..

Where can I get a Nichollson's Guide to the Canals of Mars? ?

Why is it that whenever anybody tries to do something interesting or imaginative some lickspittle always pops up with half a dozen reasons why it simply isn't possible? The first half dozen of the old BW bylaws began with 'It is an offence to' Hardly encouraging.

I'm not entirely sure I have understood the problem. But my general approach in a cross current (eg on tidal waters, or with a strong crosswind, or I think in the case you describe) is as follows. For the sake of illustration assume the cross current is to the left, and that there is nothing coming the other way. [Sound your horn, and hope that the boat coming the other way knows you have priority.] 1) Work out the course that you want the boat to take over the ground 2) Adjust the direction the boat is pointing, and engine speed, to achieve this result. 3) Don't worry too much where the boat is pointing. Focus on where it is going. You will be pointing to the right of where you want to go. 4) If the boat is drifting to the left of your intended course then steer more to the right, or increase power, or both. 5) If the boat is drifting to the right a bit then steer a bit less to the right, or reduce power, or both. 6) At the last minute you will need to straighten up to get the bows through the lock gates. You may need to increase power at the same time. Don't straighten up too early (or too late!). 7) It's best to go at a reasonable speed, but with some power in reserve. Being tentative doesn't usually end well. If you need to stop (eg if someone is coming the other way and not stopping) then do a 180 turn (to the right in this case, ie into the current) and then hold position by pointing the boat directly into the current. If there is room to turn. This video of going into West Stockwith might help. (the current is left to right here, so the opposite scenario to what I have just written).

One-off or rare unfortunate occurrences don't make for "vandalism hot-spots". There are undoubtedly bored and malicious yoof in many places on the country, some of which canals run through, but vandalism is pretty rare if you look at the number of boats out there -- it's just that when it happens the news now travels much faster and further than it used to and people get more wound up about it. I'm not saying some places aren't dodgier than others, just that people shouldn't panic about it. I've been through most of the places mentioned several times and never been vandalised once, so that must prove vandalism doesn't exist ?