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As your children are in their 30s and 40s and are outdoorsy I'd say don't be constrained by limiting the number of locks. They are fun and will be easy peasy with 4 adults on a boat. Hubby and I regularly did 30+ in a day and the sense of achievement is superb - nothing like feeling you have really earned a pint at the end of a day's busy boating! So much of the network is stunningly beautiful so you will be spoilt for choice. Hope you all have a great time.

I'm amazed at the life cycle of the supermarket trolley. Particularly the part where they return to the canals to spawn. Their majestic leaps over lock gates to reach the summit pound spawning grounds is a sight to see. Unfortunately, they then all die, to form a tangle of wire debris in the cut for boats to bump over. The next generation are born as hand baskets and head for the sea to grow. Many are captured by supermarket employees with fishing rods as they head for the coast and taken away to a life in captivity

I may be in a minority but I find it quite entertaining when topics go on a meander. It's only when people start bitching and being hateful to each other that I turn away. I haven't even got my boat any more, but I still can't leave the forum behind.

For me I just do a screenshot of the picture and post that. 👍

The duplicate topic has been merged with this one.

It's undoubtedly going to be the small print that puts the onus on the owners to keep the boat in a seaworthy condition. Not saying it is the case here but if you can't be bothered to pull your boat out of the water every two to three years to black the hull it's not surprising that the insurance company might feel reluctant to cough up. Buying your first boat from Facebook Marketplace has got to be a huge gamble.

I wonder in what way was the boat "not fit for purchase" and whether whatever it was is fixed or there is little point in sorting out the inside.

I would suggest the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union canal. Middlewich to Nantwich say on the main canal and return, total 8 locks. Hiring from Andersen boats, very well kept and comfortable boats. The base is 3 more locks down from Middlewich so in the 4 days you could do a maximum of 14 locks if you wanted to. An out and back trip is better than trying to rush round a ring, you can decide when to turn round and it all looks different in the other direction anyway.

I wouldn't say that fits the bill of not too many locks, or not going through a city. I'd recommend hiring from Napton Narrowboats at Autherley Junction and heading north. Plenty of pubs, and probably only 2 locks, depending on how far you get.

Had nice weather yesterday so decided to put some ballast back in. Used some engineering bricks for the first 3 bays, the old broken up paving slabs will fill the rest, but that will wait for another day. Somebody mentioned using the garden netting to create the air space and it appears to be a good call.

Some closure: Unfortunately, I had to pull out of this boat and even sadder to the whole boat buying process for a while. The boat - after the pre purchase survey - proved to be more of a project boat than the tidying/fixing it up I was expecting. I have to move out by end of the month so no time for that. I'll keep my eye and ears open, saving money to buy a better one in the mean time. I learnt a lot in the process. Thank you all for your input and suggestions

It is a rotten day today so I will add another old photo in case it is of interest to anyone. This is Napton Junction in the summer of 1961. Which side of the junction I do not know. Perhaps the Oxford side. 'Betegeuse' is passing by us. Ahead is the motor and I cannot remember its name. Perhaps someone will know. Also perhaps the family running the pair. There are I think three children sitting on the back cabin, along, no doubt with mum the steerer. It is towards the end of BW carrying and someone may know what trade the pair were involved in at that time. The boat alongside the towpath is our 'Somerset'. An early conversion. Not a pioneer, but nevertheless quite early. I know virtually nothing of our boat's history. Alan Faulkner told me, in 1976, that as far as he knew Somerset had always been in FMC's Northern fleet, and she passed into the DIWE NW Division in 1949 where she served for a while with motor Avis. But there is no mention of her in Robert Wilson's 'Too Many Boats' as being one of the ex FMC's butty boats in that Division, nor in the SE Division, albeit her Lees & Atkins sisters Devon and Dorset were. Given that by 1956 when our family bought her she had long since been converted, perhaps the DIWE got rid of her without her ever being in its service. I have already written about our experiences with Somerset. She was quite challenging. Not only was she light in the water, but she had a lot of tophamper. So cross-winds were unwelcome. Her Cone propulsion system, which I have described earlier was such that the flow of water across and thus into the inlets was critical. Set in the middle of the bottom of the boat, well ahead of the stern, the Cones were prone to cavitation. Particularly when going, or rather not going, astern. The effects of this could be quite alarming, and not only for us. I will dig out a couple of photos of Somerset. They may be of interest

Cavewoman then? But seriously, a van is a much smaller space and has less “stuff” than a modern narrowboat. I also have 100Ah in my caravan. Camper vans tend not to be parked up “off grid” for several days or weeks - they either get driven or are on a site with hookup - as a generalisation. On the boat we tend to use about 200Ah a day, although we are certainly not frugal.

Not sure where the £350 comes from. I have 600Ah which cost around £1800. I guess £350 might get you the cheapest 100Ah battery but that is only any use if you wished you had been born as a caveman. People who are looking at Li probably have electrical demands greater than one rusty candle and a sink foot pump for water.

Somewhere in the United States where it clearly rains. Could this be another type of house boat?

The second one of course, which is why this option is becoming increasingly popular with boaters -- at least, until the insurance companies stick their oar in... 😉 Just don't expect that the LFP batteries will last as long as promised, or that your alternator won't cook itself, or your LA batteries won't die from sulphation. If you're starting from an existing system based round "dumb" alternator/LA/shore/genny charging it's much cheaper to drop in an LFP as you say, because it's always expensive to replace something that's already there and working whether it's batteries or an engine. For a new build/fitout the tradeoff is very different, LFP has many advantages, and is not that much more expensive than a *good* LA-based system. Since the OP is looking to upgrade an existing LA/alternator-based system, adding drop-in LFP is the cheapest and simplest option, but he needs to be aware of the potential pitfalls, and that things may not be as rosy as some of the vloggers make out... 😉

The only time we have a problem is in the wind cruising under bridges. Then we put the fan assist air on to give positive air pressure to the burner

I think Ian's point is that your "works fine" needs to be defined. Do you mean works fine right now. In that case, yes. Do you mean will still work fine after 10 years of long summer cruising days with batteries already fully charged by solar? Well we don't know that, but the suspicion is it probably won't. The difficuly with something with a projected life of well over 10 years, is that it takes a long time to discover that you have done something that in fact has reduced the expected life to half what it should be.

After using trolleys at canalside supermarkets I throw the pound coin in the canal just to be a rebel. For the coin holder a tamper resist torx key or a nylon washer the right dimensions can work. I once got the Tesco ones open with a nylon ring the right size with a 1/2 inch piece cut out. It would bend, slot in then open up and unlock. Pull it out afterwards. Worked ok. don't use trolleys these days so no need.

The only ones they are shafting are other boaters who would like to use the space they are taking up.

Another owner on our shared boat polished the mushroom vents then put something on them to preserve the shine. Bad move! The vents quickly looked awful and it was almost impossible to get them looking good again. Don't know what was used, some sort of varnish I suspect . When we got Kelpie her vents had been professionally treated and they still look really good and we have never had to touch them..

Maybe charge ports should be on the top Back to binoculars, when they are out of alignment (collimation) I can detect it straight away, even if only slightly out of alignment, if it's bad it makes me go cross eyed! Now what amazes me is when someone thinks they are ok, wtf!?

or look at mine and say "are you sure its a lister ? its doesn't sound like a dumper truck, make enough smoke to hide a tank regiment or chuck oil everywhere " <Joking> 🙂 seriously the number of new posters who come on here 'I've just bought/am about to buy' and have never ever ever even been on a canal boat of any description except for the one they bought/about to buy me too and I think i've instilled a bit of that into the mutants, problem is they bring all the broken things they can't repair to me and expect that I can work miracles....

Black polycarbonate sheet can look nice as an instrument panel.

odd that the advert doesn't mention whether the senders are included or not. looking at the picture of the rear they look like generic 52mm gauges, so you might have to take a punt on getting the matching senders (usually only £5-10 on ebay for a gauge and sender) if the existing ones on your engine don't match. not clear to me with that particular ad whether its 12V or 24V. you could buy a key switch, tacho 3 or 4 guages and senders then you have to fit them to something and work out how to wire up a buzzer (diodes needed) , couple of lamps .... so it doesn't look too bad an option, but yes the quality will be of the usual Chinese standard and the 'manual' will be indicative rather than comprehensive... (or comprehensible). there was a thread about someone who wanted a replacement lister (I think) panel and they found a uk company who made panels to your spec or 'copies' of existing. can't remember the name of the uk company, but they may be worth a try. ETA - Dragon marine systems was the company name - personally I thought them a bit pricey but you get what you pay for...