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That's alright, she will just run a crowdfunder if it sinks and buy a 5000 berth cruise liner.

Thought I would put a video of my boat with it's little engine. Can't remember if I ever did after not being on here for a while.

If you compare the mechanical properties of HDPE with steel you can get some idea of the relative strength and how resistant to damage it will be -- bearing in mind that the sides are 15mm thick compared to typically 6mm for steel. Anyone who doesn't like maths, look away now... 😉 The Young's modulus (stiffness) and tensile strength of steel are both about 140x higher than HDPE, the elongation at yield is similar (about 15%) -- if you stretch either by more than this (e.g. bashing into a concrete lock corner in between the beams) it will stay stretched, so you'll get a dent. The fact that the HDPE is 2.5x thicker increases panel stiffness by 6.25x, so this means a 6mm steel hull is 23x stiffer in between the I-beams than HDPE, and has 56x more tensile strength. So if you bash the boat into something hard the HDPE will bend a lot more than steel (about 5x) but will spring back if you don't hit too hard; if you do hit too hard it will first bend permanently and then break. If you crunch the numbers and compare them to steel and work out how fast you can ram the concrete, the boat speed to cause a permanent dent for HDPE is 1/5 that of of steel and to make a hole the figure is 1/7, which are *huge* differences. I've seen a fair number of steel boats with dents in them, so presumably with HDPE the number would be a lot higher since they would happen at a much slower speed. I don't think many steel canal boats have been holed by impacts (though I bet some have...) but the difference here is even bigger, so the risk of holing an HDPE boat in a collision must be *much* higher. GRP is *much* stiffer than HDPE but also can't stretch as much, so boats built from this are less robust than steel (hence why their owners don't like them hitting things or being hit by them e.g. steel boats) -- but nowhere near as bad as HDPE. I hope Shaun has taken all this into account, because it suggests that HDPE in these thicknesses isn't a good choice for big heavy boats in the rough-and-tumble canal environment -- and may be difficult or impossible to get insurance for, given how much more fragile it would be than steel, or even GRP... 😞 To be as robust against impacts as 6mm steel (which is probably thicker than needed...) HDPE would need to be about 70mm thick, which would make it about 50% heavier -- and presumably a *lot* more expensive... 😞

Oh no, not another one. I fit the general demographic myself - in my 20s, fairly recent CC liveaboard - but: * Financial motivation not the main thing; I've wanted to live on a boat ever since I said "mummy I want to live on one of those" aged single figures and jumped at the chance when working practices changed due to Covid. The costs of a 30ft boat aren't less than renting a similarly-sized room somewhere, and I could afford more than that if I wanted to live on land. * Remote working and not tied to a specific location, so I can actually cruise and not just shuffle around a 20-mile radius of some fixed point. * I have some woodworking and electrical skills, and am willing to wield a spanner given a manual, so I can at least try to look after it myself. These articles always seem to understate the costs and the enforced differences in lifestyle, and encourage people with no knowledge or particular interest in boats to jump into it. I've met some people who've been seduced that way who clearly have no idea what they're getting into.

I thought it was relevant to most boaters, ie general interest to general boaters, which is why I put it in General. I wish some people would stop nitpicking at every opportunity. Mind you, I accept Peterboats heading was more informative and if we can get the threads merged, do it with his title.

I expect the government wouldn't know the difference between a river and a canal.

That might be useful. Actually, borrowing quite a lot from wooden canal boat design might be a good idea in general (the ribs already are for example) as there are some similarities in properties between wood and HDPE. Other potentially useful things to borrow would be the use of a thin, sacrificial steel shoe plate where the sides and base meet and possibly steel rubbing strips and ice plates at the bow. With regard to the question of how to attach ribs/frames - that one is relatively straightforward. HDPE does weld easily so you can add either a full HDPE rib or a low attachment rib/series of lugs to which you can mechanically fasten a steel rib. One direction which has been alluded to above which might be a useful halfway house is the use of HDPE for cabins. Wooden cabins do have quite a few advantages, e.g. keeping the centre of gravity lower and reducing condensation. They are also better for sound deadening. However, they are quite difficult to keep sealed between the boards, fairly high maintenance and do rot through easily if damage goes unnoticed or is not rapidly repaired. HDPE might add the advantages of wood without the drawbacks. It does need a proper upstand lip all the way around just inside the gunwhales for attachment but if that was done I can imagine this could be quite a useful approach. It might, for example, have been a good option for Oates if it was reasonably cost-effective. Oates had its wooden cabin replaced with steel, but to keep it stable the weight had to be kept down. That has meant thin steel and I can't add any high level storage. I would have had more options with welded HDPE panels. There are still a few 1970s boats about with wooden tops which now need replacement so I can imagine there are some good opportunities to try this if it is reasonably cost-effective. Alec

A much smaller railway swing bridge is located on the Tat Bank (or Rood End) branch of the BCN. First is 1937 photo, from the "Britain from Above" collection via Duncan Moore's excellent website https://lostbcnimages.blogspot.com/2022/05/oldbury-and-titford-area.html Other two are mine. The bridge still exists, with swing mechanism intact if rusted solid, but can't be reached by narrowboat. You can visit it by canoe. There's no access by land as it's within the BIP site.

I'm sorry but this post is utter bollocks! Asking for calorifier recommendations is hardly the moon on a stick, and the problem isn't a mix of suggestions - it's more a lack of suggestions. If you don't have any calorifier recommendations you don't HAVE to use your keyboard - you can always walk away and let someone else answer. Just a suggestion - try it next time? Just to add I've clearly stated it needs replacing - not that that should matter

Here you go rusty69, this is what happens mixing epoxy and bitumen! Can happen in two weeks or two years. But it’s sudden death 💀 either way

People who own canal boats capable of navigating are the only group who need locks to be functional. Kayak users, sup, anglers, walkers will never use a single lock. Locks must be by far the most expensive part of keeping a canal operational so it is incredibly sensible to charge those who use locks more money. The obvious way to do it is via tolls including a toll to remain on a certain section of water in a boat. Very difficult to get back to this model of charging for use of an asset but perhaps over time it will become more obvious that this is the only way to keep the network open in the long term. And no, it won't be cheap. Another thing is the CRT need to put in more residential moorings. People want to live on boats and some, albeit a tiny proportion, of them will pay good money to do so. I'd like to see fees for living on boats increased enormously to filter out those who are only on boats because it is so cheap from those who are invested in living on boats. Time for the parasites to be cleared me thinks.

all brilliant questions and thank you all for your feedback honestly, any advice on fitting this out would be brilliant anyone is more than welcome to come and see this for themselves in the workshop (as I have said I will be getting this back to tweek certain issues and will be showing more pictures of progress )

How about just sendng C&RT an email explaining how you stand on the various issues and suggest that you would fully support the withdrawl of all licenecs of less than 12 months duration - which would immediately give their income a boost.

I think both threads should be closed as not relevant to boats. Its all a fiction, an illusion of management, virtual stupidity.

Isn't playing with electric in a bath tub extremely dangerous? Or is it only if it has water and a person in at the time?

Yep, Richard Feynman.

The reason steel canal boats have to be heavy and low in the water -- if we ignore air draft -- is stability, because they have a heavy steel cabin. Boats built out of aluminium drew less and were still stable because of having a much lighter superstructure, but cost would be a problem nowadays. Maybe HDPE can provide a lower cost solution that's still robust enough?

Lark in a very unusual place for a narrowboat. @Captain Pegg this is the mark to beat on the Challenge I think! 😀 (only shallow-drafted boats need apply)

Surely in Wales they would be Corgie rather then Dinky

Ah, as suspected, Elephantine. This being a boating forum, one presumes your interest is like minded. But no. You snipe. I am merely responding.