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To me both the OP's ideas/proposals seem completely unnecessary. You don't need an additional system to disengage the gearbox while running the engine because when you're moored up nobody is going to try to take your boat for a joyride while you're onboard. I've never heard of it happening, so you're creating a problem that doesn't actually exist. I always take my tiller bar off when I finish a cruise and keep it inside because I don't have a spare and don't want it nicked, so unless these imaginary joyriders had some makeshift tiller they wouldn't be able to steer the boat, but perhaps yours is wheel steering. Anyway, personally I wouldn't be sleeping while my engine was running although I'm sure some people do. On your second question, yes there are systems that can be installed which detect low battery voltage and start an engine or generator to charge batteries, but I really think you need to live on the boat for a while to actually see what you need before installing such a system. I think you'd be better off making sure you've got an efficient solar setup. Engine/alternator charging is so inefficient, noisy and polluting and I wouldn't want my engine to start automatically while I wasn't around. As a charging system while cruising the engine is fine as the energy and hot water is created as a by-product of moving the boat, but moored up with the engine running for hours to generate power isn't ideal. It sounds to me that like a lot of new liveaboards, your mindset is all about generating power to satisfy your existing power usage rather than reducing your power demand. Living off grid is about balancing the two so try thinking more about the second part of that equation, it actually makes life onboard a lot simpler, cheaper and less equipment intensive.

Ryan is on his way. We managed to escape. Now at the waterside pub having a well deserved carvery

Two separate issues being conflated: firstly, CaRT are re-defining the standard for distance between water, rubbish and elsan points and secondly they are declaring some facilities such as showers as not part of their core business and will be closing them. The latter seems inevitable and has not proved to be a good use of scarce resources in any case (even allowing for the fact that for the few-ish users they may be important) However, the matter of care facility frequency needs more debate, especially as it does not seem to build in any resiliency for when one breaks down or overflows. If one every x miles is considered essential then a resilient systems should have them at intervals less that half (?) of x. (some smaller distance anyway - it may come down to a statistical calculation ie how often will a boater have to travel more than x as as a result of outage)

It's been discussed extensively on here, and the general take is that no standard style narrow boat or wide beam that will fit the canals qualifies. At least one of the builders who made sales claims about VAT exemption had a clause in their actual contract that essentially said "and if HMRC disagree then the Buyer will have to pay any outstanding VAT and penalties" So if you go down this route, keep about 25% of the final sales total to one side in case it comes back to bite you ...

I really don't get the objections here -- CART are closing facilities which are used by very few boaters (but quite a few non-boaters, allegedly...) and are expensive to maintain (and often out of order), and going to use the money saved to improve/better maintain Elsan/water/pumpout facilities which are used by almost all boaters. Why would anyone think this is a bad idea? Except those who either hate anything CART does as a matter of principle, or -- against all the evidence -- think there's a magic canal money tree to pay for them... 😉

Should we not go back to the days when every self respecting boater carried a spade on their boat for such disposals.

All quiet on the Western front...very quiet. Over 30 boats waiting below Stoke Bruerne this morning...with only one widebeam waiting to descend!!. 9.30am and CRT man scratching head looking at the pump house....no power. Eventually, it is found that electric co have a local planned outage until 4pm...so no back pumping...Weedon pound continues to drop. Oh, and the pound has also been stripped as the completely empty Northampton arm has been filled for a Friday to Monday opening. At 2.30 pm, a single boat from SB comes past, no boats from Long Buckby direction yet... at 11am, they were trying to sort the faulty gate out!!

That sounds a bit rough on the pigeons

Whilst CaRT regularly cite 'vandalism' as the cause of closures, as most of these facilities attract regular heavy users with communities springing up around them, I think that their excuse should be amended to 'passive indifference'. Many people expect it to be someone else's duty to clean up after them, and will continue to add to the mess when they encounter it. A prime example of this is the state of arenas after pop festivals. The misuse of public facilities generally demonstrates the lack of respect shown and always results in closures.

Just rung the insurance company, they're happy to cover solar charging whilst away from the boat as long as the batteries are installed correctly and maintained according to manufactures instructions, including the BMS.

Running one's engine for long periods whilst moored is fundamentally antisocial, regardless of the CRT T&Cs. Just bear that in mind, please.

Frankly, I was always staggered CRT have shower blocks etc and never quite understood why. This is not the 1970's. Personally Elsan points and water taps are all I need on the network. I think it's the same for most boaters nowadays plus pump-outs for those who have not seen the light.

Your neighbours don't want to be annoyed by your engine running. It's a bit like the guys who run a frame generator and go to the pub for peace and quiet. It tends to be a very iritating noise if one is moored out in the countryside, where sound carries further, and one tends to expect peace and quiet. I have a neighbour who runs his engine every day, its not intolerable because there tends to be some general traffic noise during the day, Monday to Saturday, indeed I often run my engine about an hour per day, even though I have 550 W solar panels. Though I'm pretty sure he could cut down engine wear, and diesel costs by fitting a few solar panels, if he ran the engine every day while at work, I would not be impressed. You should.be able to charge your batteries when you move your boat, that's the basic idea of living on a boat. Be aware that the noxious fumes from your engine impact on your neighbours, if you have any!

Ryan was just leaving lock 7 as we were at the lock. We are now at hillmorton.

Only eight boats came down from Braunston. I met them on the way up. The Weedon pound area yesterday was very shallow. I was grinding along the bottom. An inch less and I’m not sure if I’d have reached Whilton. Very civilised departure for us that were going at 10am this morning up the Buckby locks. I was grounded in the spot where I had moored overnight, quite a tussle to get free. The level had dropped a bit more but I was with sight of the first lock. I’m going through Braunston tunnel at 9am tomorrow. Plenty of water in the Norton pound.

Busy on the Coventry too, both ways but busier with more boats heading towards Atherstone than Glascote.

Or why not install one of those sucky pipe things which supermarkets used to send cash from the tills upstairs with?

Now opened

Depending on when Keith ‘did the work’ you might find it was done by Dave Linney or Simon Wain both of whom worked at Stretton many years ago and both of whom are still around. cant see either fitting an oil filled overplate section with a sump plug. For a start the plates have to be plug welded together so minimal voids. Oil wouldnt go far. when we had fenny overplated underneath we cut sections out of the new plate,welded new plate to old bottom and then put the cutout sections back in. And drilled and plug welded the inner to the outer bottom. Very little room for oil, you would have to force it in. Mind you if you had a leak between plates you and all the wildlife would soon know

In the hold it's the original or at least pretty old - riveted lap joints every few feet, riveted onto the chine angles and keelson (but no rivets on the bottom of the knees...?) Most of that has been overplated; the weird plug is a Keith Ball idea to fill any void above the overplate with old engine oil! Under the cabin is entirely new bottom plate and welded footings, not very much original boat at that end really.

Those Johnson impellers are easy to replace, google Johnson 810 (as on yours) for a selection. I’m not sure on the raw water feed impeller but our similar one that’s hot from a skin tank feed needs replacing annually. You don’t want impeller bits in your engine.

I don't know where you've got that idea from, . . but the multi-arch road bridge over the old original course of the Soar at Kegworth affects the depths lowside of the bridge in exactly the same way as the piers of every other multi-arch non-tidal river bridge do. When the Shallow Lock and the New Cut were built, back in the 1800's, the main operational 'difficulties' would have been getting the upriver traffic towlines back onto the hauling path from the navigation arch, . . irrespective of whether or not there was any extra fresh on.

If it lands with a thud, there is still not enough water.

I feel for the fuel boats with nowhere to shower after a day's work. NABO suggested that they were given the key the vollies have to access showers and loos (many are still working) but CRT declined this.

Ian, like you I do much of my boating on an unconverted boat without a shower on board. But we are very much in a minority. I was rather surprised when 20 or 30 years ago BW started building showers, as even then the number of boats without them seemed quite small, and I could never see the point. At the time BW was in a more expansionist mode (Millennium restorations etc.), but those times are past, and CRT's financial position is precipitous. And at the same time there has been a growth in vanlifers and others making use of CRT facilities without contributing to the cost of maintaining them. There's no way the facilities could become self-supporting financially, for reasons given by others above. CRT are in the same position as any local authority that is having to close public toilets it cannot afford to maintain. This is the right decision.