Leaderboard

If you are travelling down to Uxbridge, I would recommend that you forget about using marinas to refuel and instead make use of the excellent fuel boats. These are operated by real enthusiasts, the majority of them on that stretch trading under the umbrella of "Jules Fuels" after Julia Cooke who started the business but is herself I gather Semi-retired, (not that that stopped Jules from refuelling our two boats at Braunston recently!) Different boats ply different stretches, but whether you encounter Ryan, Nick, Andrew or anybody else you wll get first rate service, and a decent price. Keep them trading - they can often get to you in poor conditions, when you would not ant to be venturing out yourself. They deserve our support!

Hi all, been a while since I've posted here and i've decided to take a break from my usual begging for engine help to sit down and write something that I believe might help the boater community. I posted this on my Kennet and Avon facebook group earlier but thought it might be prudent to post it up here too. I wrote a snazzy intro i've copied below, but anyway I hope some of you might find it interesting. --- Hello everyone! 👋 As a solo software developer and fellow boater, I've been working on a solution that I believe could help us all: an app called Drift Diary. Drift Diary is designed to track the distance we travel on our beloved rivers and canals over the course of a license year by allowing us to log photos with geotagging data, creating a digital diary of our journey. Even better, it can generate PDF reports to verify travel distance with the Canal & River Trust should they decide that we haven't gone far enough, or missed us while logging boat numbers. But to make this app truly effective and user-friendly, I need your help. I am seeking volunteers from this group to participate in the first round of closed alpha testing for Drift Diary. This would involve using the app and providing feedback on any issues you encounter and your overall experience. Your privacy and data are important, so rest assured, the data collected is yours and yours only, also this app will be, and will remain free for all. It would mean a lot to have your input on this project. I believe together we can shape Drift Diary into a tool that genuinely benefits our community. If you're interested in participating or want to learn more, please let me know! The app has been submitted to the Google Play Store for review for a closed testing run and hopefully should be approved by the end of the week. If you are interested in testing this and own an Android phone then please DM me your email so I can add you to the list, once the app is approved then an email should be sent to you and you will be able to install the app. There are plans to support iphones too in the future, but Apple make this prohibitively hard/expensive for me to do at this time. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration. Happy cruising! God those are some huge screen-shots... 😕

I think the forum is a bit cynical because this happens again and again, potential new boaters done a bit of paper research but no real on the ground research, have a mate down the pub who says you only need to move a hundred yards every month (he has another mate who told him this but failed to mention he is in the enforcement process 😀), and its always a widebeam. A new owner with a widebeam is very often somebody who has no interest in/commitment to boating and just wants a cheap house on the water. My advice...walk some of the K&A and Thames, talk to boaters, if you like it then buy a narrowboat. After two or three years move to a widebeam if you still think you want to. ...and try to have a look at the Thames when its in flood.

OK, despite your horrendous lack of good research you sound determined. Go and have a good look at the K&A, the overcrowding, the shanty boats, the constant low level crime. We spent a lot of time there and loved it, but I would not live there now. I also like the Thames a lot but can never fully relax, it can be quite hard and so stressful to find a mooring spot in the busy season, you can't just stop like you can on a canal. As you have a job you might need to negotiate a couple of miles of very muddy towpath in the winter to get to a road or train. With your job you really need a car which adds a whole new dimension of trouble in finding parking spots. It can all be done, and is, but its not as idylic as its made out to be. The current high mortgage rate is only a blip, and owning a house is much more lucrative (financially) than living on a boat. Like you we moved to a boat at about 50 but were able to get a little modern house to rent out. Two people and a large dog can live in luxury on a 70 foot narrowboat and many of the best canals are narrow. Go and look at the K&A then hire a narrowboat for a week on the Trent and Mersey/Macclesfield/Peak Forest canals.

That bloke on "Have I Got News For You?" Made everybody laugh and they all loved him for it. Surely you remember? Some crazies even said he'd make a good Prime Minister but I was never so sure. I dunno what became of him.

So what? There are a raft of apps out there you don't use. Nobody's asking you to use this one, it's just being, rather generously, being made available to those who might. Your ungaciousness seems to have reached a new level.

Hire boat bases tend to have a high turnover of fuel between Easter and September, You may not get served on turnround days (Mondays,Fridays,Saturdays) at some bases.

I wash double bedding in a small Zanussi KWC1300 without difficulty. Quilt covers have to be with little else and if you don't fasten all the press studs everything else finishes up inside! A dryer uses too much electricity for me when not on a land line.

If you really want to live on a boat then do it, and 50 is a good age to do it. But 65 will come round in no time at all (I know this) and if you get unwell, or just a bad back, then you might need to move back to the land. Don't expect the government to house you. Is there any way you can get a smaller house to rent out and a boat? All the boat builders are churning out widebeams for wannabe liveaboards lately and many will not get on with the boaty life. I do wonder if (when) the widebeam bubble will burst and prices will drop like a stone? I am not sure they are a good investment just now. If you want to make a go of boaty life then both of you must really want it, and I fear from what I have heard the K&A is not the idyllic place it used to be when we were there. Do consider a good second hand narrowboat, maybe even 70 foot, and also could you possibly relocate your jobs to the North where the canals are not turning into overcrowded shanty towns?

Currently got about 20 from here and my facebook group I imagine i'd probably stop at around 30-40 for the first run.

When you remove the injector pump dipstick, have a look at the oil viscosity. With ours, diesel leakage diluted the oil a little from time to time. I used a large syringe and pipe to extract it then refill with fresh oil. Good luck! Happy to chat if it helps, you have my number.

The forum can be a bit abrupt. A lot of people come here, new to boating with similar and often unrealistic boating plans, so a certain amount of cynicism can set in and the let down can be a little less gentle than the recipient might want. If you can cope with this, then it is an excellent resource, with some people who have decades of experience. So far you've learnt about the existence narrow canals, the risks of hard core tidal trips with inland boats and that lorries are a good idea for avoiding them. Also more on continuous cruising on various navigation authority waters. Stick with it. It can be tremendously useful and help avoid some very expensive mistakes.

Yes, the blue knob lower left looks like a dipstick. It should just pull out. The triangular plate is where a fuel lift pump would be mounted. The two hexagonal plugs either end at the top are the pump bleed screws. The blue knob at the front, above the water pump, is for draining the brass fuel pulsation damper. N

Single loop is more efficient, header tank works as described by ChrisG.

That’s great, thank you 😊 We have booked Snowmane from Chas Hardern too!!

Perhaps RTFM.🙂

With the bypass valve closed, all the return flow has to go through the header tank easily releasing any air. It's not often you don't know all the answers 🙂!

I keep a log. About to renew full-year licence after a year CCing. I'd much rather keep some people in work than support the app.