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Good advice, those plastic box pumps are rubbish. Ensure that the length of hose between the shower waste and the pump is twice the length from the pump to the skin fitting. Then the run back from the vertical part will not refill the shower tray. Forget non return valves too, they are a maintenance nightmare with hair etc.

For goodness sake forget the sump with integral bilge pump type shower pump. They have a terrible name for failing, leaking into bilges and so on. Fit a Whale gulper shower pump and be done with it. If you can, get a swan neck is close to the shower to try to minimize back leakage from the pipework when the pump is turned off.

He will be back before you leave

Twice in fact : 1st time was a couple of years ago when one battery was 'untouchably hot' and the alarm woke us in the middle of the night. 2nd time was a month ago when another battery in the bank developed an 'internal short circuit', and sent the CO alarm crazy. When I got the batteries out, the 1st one had 4 volts, and this latter one was 1.8 volts - no wonder the battery charger fan was running continuously. (I have a battery bank of 6x 230Ah batteries)

I have heard that rather depends on who you get come to your boat.

Personally I would walk and look for something else. I did that twice when I was shown an overpalted couple of boats.

No, that why they've flattened it - more inclusive, see? The rainbow is for the gaily oriented and the lines are for the straights. Probably paid a consultant half a million quid for that.... PS I presume the origin of "straight" as a euphemism for heterosexual derives from "bent" being used for the alternative. Possibly the former should be junked as the latter has been, and we should all just cease to keep finding ways to divvy people up into smaller and smaller compartments and just get on with being alive.

Bank Holiday weekend seems like a lifetime ago now, but here's the first of the updates on what happened To fast forward to the end result (Like you did when asked to read a book in school but couldn't be bothered), here's what we ended the weekend with; I say "we", as I had my dad on the job, which was enormously helpful to have a 2nd pair of hands, even if neither of us had any experience of replating a narrowboat! This was achieved in sections, as described previously. I was very conscious of learning from the mistakes of the previous owner, and not cutting out more than the new sheets would replace. Consequently the new sheets were rested up against the side of the hull and drawn around, to ensure good fit up. In order to do this the D iron needed to be removed. As it wasn't fully welded, this was relatively straightforward- just zip through the tacks with a 1mm disc in a grinder and get the bolster chisel behind it When replacing it i'll definitely be fully welding it on- water has become trapped behind it and caused some spectacular corrosion in points. Another point to note for prospective boat builders More soon, but i've reached the post image size limit

Why don’t you walk or cruise up to Kildwick and take a look, it’s not far from the Silsden Woodend moorings. The winding hole is very close to the swing bridge, about 300 metres before the bridge. As others have said, including me, it’s a good place for vehicular access and deliveries. The road is decent albeit narrow, two cars can pass.

I have no idea, but if they don't then definitely nothing will happen

It looks to be a very poor job - Looks as if it may have been done by a 'mobile fabricator' certainly is not up to a normal acceptable 'boat standard'. I would not have paid him for that work.

If I'm single handing and meet a boat coming the other way at a lock I treat it as a natural opportunity for a PNB and to put the kettle on. I'm not big on paddles being operated by anyone not connected with the boat(s) in the lock. I'll generally just appear in time to suggest the crew jump on board once the boat makes a level and I'm happy to open up and drop paddles.

Make sure the stop control is pushed fully home. With the control partly put the pump will not deliver diesel to the injectors. N

Hydrogen Sulphide gas is one you really want to be alerted to. When it hits damp surfaces - such as your mucous membranes - it turns into sulphuric acid, which isn't great in your nose and lungs. It's also a peculiar gas, because if you ignore the rotten egg smell your nose tunes it out after a while - you simply can't smell it at toxic dose levels. I'm very glad that common CO detectors will trigger on it at fairly low levels. It's not a nuisance alarm, it's something that needs attending to early. @Alan de Enfield avoided a probable exploding battery when his CO alarm triggered - he's mentioned it on here a few times.

Was it one of the Russian owned stately homes? Never thought of that as a solution. Fill them up with our old lithium batteries.

I'm just going by what they're called on the Bimble website. Perhaps Bimble don't actually mean 12v panels, but if the experts use that nomenclature then perhaps a solar novice such as myself can be forgiven for doing the same. But they're called 12v panels and on my other solar thread both Loddon and Alan agreed that panels of 40v + are more suitable and efficient in low light situations. So my general point stands. Most people seem to be installing "12v panels" with insufficient voltage output and this issue isn't being fully discussed on the forum.

Nice looking unit those Thetford excellences. Shame about the leaky vent. The hardware on the Excellence cassette does look slightly different to the standard cassettes so I think you might be right on the lack of parts issue. Also the standard cassettes all have an access hatch to enable maintenance, whereas I'm not sure this is the case on the Excellence.

Now you have added that we can see the problem is one of the following: Using more electricity than the installed solar can provide each day Battery bank not large enough for the amount of electricity being used - but I think is no so likely. Batteries now beyond their useful life. Either sulphated by long term under charging or now have shorting cells. I think this is the most likely without seeing the boaters power audit. Fitting a new battery in this case will just ensure that he will ruin that one as well.

Thornton Lock Pocklington Canal Opening ceremony Compare 25Jul2018 Thornton Lock Pocklington Canal while unnavigable 5May2002

I'd rather be guided by the advice of the manufacturer of the particular additive that I'm using. The Thetford advice is very general and applies to any additive including bleach, so they're just covering themselves because they don't know what you're using. If an additive for boat, RV and caravan toilets specifically says it doesn't damage toilet seals that's good enough for me and in 17 years of living aboard I've never had a problem. As I said, if an additive did damage seals then it wouldn't just be the lip seal of Thetford cassette toilets that users would need to worry about as additives are designed to be used with all types of toilets including pump-outs with internal seals exposed to the additive.

NO

What a ridiculous comment and not in any way what I wrote. In fact I mentioned that my CO alarm detected the hydrogen from my charging batteries. Why would I have one if I didn't wholeheartedly believe in them? The BSS certificate allows people to abdicate responsibility for their own safety, needing to be hand held and told by others to check their gas system for leaks and to have smoke detectors etc etc. We all have to pay around £200 every four years to ensure that these people don't kill themselves or others.

You need to plant Sunflowers and fix lots of little panels on em, then they'll always automaticaly face the sun.

Admittedly I haven't heard much from the others for a while.

I believe a car mot takes about 45 minutes and the customer has to take the car to the test station. Do you expect travelling time for free? Do you expect to pay for fuel only and not a mileage rate that reflects all car running costs . Zero overheads ? - what about the fees paid to BSS and the training fees and insurance ? If you can train up and do BSS exams for £100 each certificate I guarantee to employ you to do so for as long as I own a boat and I suspect you will never be short of work.

Aren't the costs of car MOTs unregulated too? I'm not sure but I've seen a wide variety of prices. Anyway if that's our comparison then what would 4 years worth of car MOTs cost?

This just came up on Facebook Credit where credit is due..... A collapsed culvert was found at Bradley yesterday, the canal was leaking water and at fast rate into the field below and the canal was at risk of a full breach. Less than 24hrs on, CRT lads & Contractors have attended site, assessed the situation, closed the canal to navigation, made a site area, installed dams, drained the area, and have pumps in place running to keep the area empty and stop us from losing anymore water. They are now on with assessing the full works needed but the contractors on site are hopeful that a full permanent repair could be possibly within a few weeks (that is if the contract is awarded to them). So as the header, credit where credit is due. Its not often contractors attend site and work so quickly, affectively and efficiently. We know the CRT lads themselves have our best interests at heart but this is something that is massively lacking usually from contractors. But it would appear not on this occasion. We are hopeful that CRT acknowledge and respect the fast acting work from all involved and hope that the permanent repairs needed are awarded this team. Thanks to everyone involved so far

There is a winding hole at Kildwick where there is also vehicular access next to the canal by Warehouse swing bridge.

The test is a waste of time and money, as anyone sensible kno. I've had one who failed my fire extinguishers, surprise, he had a car-full to sell me so I'd pass, the one that failed my brand new electrics (installed by the previous examiner) because he didn't understand wiring, the one who made me cut unnecessary holes in the boat, the one who insisted on an addition to the gas locker... And the last one who said it passed with a gas leak within the tolerances but refused to leave till he found it, which seeing as how it was right by the cooker (on a fitting the test insisted I have), I was pleased about, but obviously an ordinary, non gas, safe examiner would have just left me with it. Safety? Don't make laugh. It's a desk jockey's box ticking exercise and a scam, and always was.

I'm perfectly capable of inspecting my boat to determine if it's safe, so I just want the piece of paper to give to CRT; the cheaper the better. MP.

First boat i ever had surveyed to buy was three years old self fit out by a carpenter woodwork was amazing. But on looking at it I could see quite a few defects behind the woodwork. Knocked them down by ten thousand and had a full survey carried out. Several defects came up some dangerous in the fitting out process and the value put on the boat was another ten thousand less than I had offered. The surveyor said that the value of a self fit out is a lot less per foot than that of the professionals. I would value the boat as a sail away boat plus a little extra for any major components on the boat and be prepared to remove and refit a lot of the interior. It could be very frustrating process to finish the boat unless purchased at a good price.