pete.i

Surely moderators this junk should be somewhere where we don't have to read the drivel such as the Virtual Pub????

Don't know don't care, just had a BSS done on my latest boat and everything is fine which is good enough for me. Gas still disappears after a while. Maybe you ought to direct your attentions to the OP and stop being inflammatory. But then you have always been like that so nothing new there then. Byee.

I have no idea where the gas in the pipes goes but it does go and went on the three boats that I have owned. My boats were/are only small, 30 footers, and the gas hob and oven are at the back quite near the gas locker but even if the gas has only been off for a week or so it still takes a while to get to the burners.

Every single person on this forum will inevitably say "go for it" or words to that effect, except me. I have had three boats so far. None have been liveaboard. I wouldn't give up my bricks and mortar for all the money in the world. It has been "nice" owning my boats and it has been fun to get away occasionally to pootle up and down the canal. That soon gets mind numbingly boring eventually. Okay I will admit that my plan to "sail the system" never came to fruition mainly because of speed. It would take me 3 hours to get to the end of the canal and three hours to get back a journey I could do in a car in 15 minutes. My second boat was motor cruiser on a trailer that I intended to trailer to the places I wanted to be and launch, pootle and put it back on the trailer. Yeah right that went well . My life is way too short to waste it taking all that time to look at a few ducks and the same ole same ole water. I did find my satisfaction in making the boat be something that I liked rather than what it was when I bought it and that has been my theme with all my boats. Having said that I can do more or less the same thing with a vehicle or even the bits of a vehicle without having to worry about holes under the water that I cannot see and that might bite me in the backside at any time. As I say I would NEVER consider living on a boat. Over the 12 or so years that I have had boats I have seen the system decline. I have seen AND experienced the wrath of the likes of fishermen, walkers one of who even took a pot shot at me with an air gun, and a few other things that have finally made me say that once my present boat is gone, and I only part own this one, I don't want to EVER own another boat. You mention the convenience of be able to go to your house to do your laundry etc. There is a lot to be said for that. There is a lot to be said to have, almost, trouble free gas and electricity without having to think about where the next volt or the next joule of warmth and warm water is going to come from. There is a lot to be said about not having to make up the stove when it goes out on a very cold and snowy morning. There is a lot to be said about not having think about where I am going to dispose of my next crap. There is a lot to be said about getting into a nice hot shower, in my case, or a nice hot bath without having to worry whether there will be enough water left to have a cup of tea. There are an awful of "there is a lot to be said of" when owning a boat. I'm not saying don't do it BUT life living aboard is not easy and much more to the point there is nobody on this forum, ESPECIALLY, who will admit that life on board can be b***dy hard. There are a lot who do live aboard though but think long and hard as to whether you want the ongoing expenses of keeping a boat on the water and the extreme hardships that you will, inevitably, have to endure at some point. IT AINT ALL ROSES in spite of what this lot will tell you.

Any diesel engine is noisy even modern ones and petrol engines are not much better although petrol engines are, definetly, not recommended for narrowboats. My 2017 car sounds like a tractor when I lift the bonnet. It does get quieter when I get in the cab but that is with a boat load of sound deadening. Old "traditional" engines are fearfully noisy. Some people like that, no accounting for taste I suppose. I have a Beta Marine 39 in my boat. This is a fairly modern engine and that is noisy especially when standing over it driving the boat. I suppose if you want quiet then you have to go electric. Stupidly expensive although some on this forum have done it. Allow £5,000 to £10,000 minimum for an engine change. In my experience every narrow boat that has a diesel type engine is noisy no matter how modern it is. I would think that rather than spending all that money on a different or new engine that, quite possibly, isn't going to make much difference it would be better to get things soundproofed better. Obviously this post has gone off topic AGAIN. Pretty much par for the course on this forum. Oh well nothing changes.

Get somebody in who knows what they are doing with electrics.

This is the stuff I used..................https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Temperature-Silicone-Sealant-Heat-Resistant-to-1200-C-Flues-Stoves-Glass/141192031302?hash=item20dfb36c46:g:SRsAAOSw2xRYbn3I and stove door rope of the required thickness. I found that cement didn't last long.

How racist. Not that the mods on here will do anything about it.

Just this^^^^^^^ I am an educational volunteer for the CRT and have been for eight or so years. We talk about water safety, canal history and how and why the canals are there. As matty40s says if it just gets a couple of children interested, although with the amount of work that I and other volunteers put into it I hope it's a lot more, then it's work well worth the effort. What curmugeonly boaters who only seem to want to blast CRT, ESPECIALLY on this forum, is that we will not be around for much longer and it's the kids that WILL be taking over the running of the canals. In my time as a volunteer I haven't seen many boaters who volunteer to help out most (not all I will admit) it seems to me, just want to pootle up and down the canal system and leave the work to others. If we want our canals to survive and more importantly the lifestyle that boaters want, then EVERYBODY, boaters, fishers, walkers, cyclists and people and children who use our canals, MUST get together and help out. Yes I know as boaters we pay a lot of money to use the canals and I am still a boater paying my bit but it isn't enough, everybody must dive in, um not literally, to help. Once the canal system disappears you all will have to live in bricks and mortar. Think it wont happen? Think again, it can. it has and quite possibly will happen if we as a canal community don't do all we can to keep the inland waterways system in existance. We have already seen what happens when builders get their hands on canal land. Even where canals and canalia are retained the hoy poloy who buy the properties overlooking the water don't want boaters in their field of view and, occasionally when I see some boats, I don't blame them for that. Some canals have disappeared totally and have been replaced by cardboard housing complexes. That WILL be the fate of the inland waterways system unless we ALL do our bit and teaching children about safety, maintenance, heritage etc etc is the only way to go because, as I keep saying, we will all be dead and gone all too soon.

We got ours moved from Boroughbridge to Selby a couple of years ago We don't have a big boat but, and I don't really care what others say, I wouldn't take a narrow boat on the River Ouse or any other river for that matter. I don't know whether the people that moved our boat were "professionals" or not but we paid them. All we did was ask at Boroughbridge marina and they organised it all for us.

Of course it is. But some on this forum just like to complain even when something is being done to clean up the crap that some boaters, (are they really "proper boaters" or just pee takers leaving all their shite all over the towpath?) insist on leaving behind. More often than not not even leaving it behind but actually living in amongst their own crap. As said some are their own worst enemy.

Klaxon?.................https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Or-Van-Air-Horn-Ahoooogah-Vintage-12v-Classic-Sound-Dog-Klaxon-Boat-Claxon/401623857444?hash=item5d82a5b924:g:hc4AAOSwr4Zb0wEd I use one of these........https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Bull-Horn-Red-Air-Horn-Loud12v-Raging-Sound-For-Car-Truck-Van/164428008056?_trkparms=aid%3D1110012%26algo%3DSPLICE.SOIPOST%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200420083544%26meid%3D75c7b1ebcd8e409ebc6d74646237f766%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D401623857444%26itm%3D164428008056%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DPromotedSellersOtherItemsV2&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219 No idea why those links haven't workied. Search 12 volt klaxon or 12 volt bull horn on Ebay.

The IWA, of which I was a member for a year or so a while back, "lost it's mojo" a long time ago. I know nothing about NABO or the NBTA but if they are doing anything, as said, they are very quiet about it. As for galvanising the rest of the boating fraternity to do anything with one voice or even be concerned about the possible demise of the canal system, um only when pigs fly. I no longer have a boat of my own although I do have a half share in a narrowboat. I got disillusioned with BW and then CRT a good while back even though I am an educational volunteer for CRT. I and my colleagues talk to children about water safety and canal history. It was. and still is, my hope that talking to kids about the inland waterway system would make, at least some of them, interested in taking responsibility for the canals when us lot of curmudgeonlies pop our clogs, as we inevitably will. This was something the IWA used to do when I joined them but the IWA's involvement in a lot of things canal seems to have waned dramatically in the last few years. My take on the subject is that the CRT would love to get rid of boaters but they cannot just kick everybody off the canals because there are thousands living on the waterways. I get the impression that boaters generally are a pain to deal with from the CRT point of view. I do hope I am wrong but that is the way I see it.

I'll keep saying this, CRT do not want boats on the canals. If they could get rid of boats without having to worry (do crt worry about anything?) about the 15,000 or so people who live on the canals they would do it tomorrow IMO. I'm off the canals now but was only ever a liesure boater. I look after someone else's boat and I get the use of that occasionally but she pays. I had an enjoyable 10 years but I'm so so glad that I am in bricks and mortar.

Good grief a "spanish windlass"? What era do you live in? Use one of these. Dirt cheap if you can find the right place. My two cost a tenner each in Aldi.

As Bengo says the bladders do fold and can crack. The one we originally had on the boat, long before we bought the boat, was nearly twenty years old. There were no leaks in that one BUT the inside was nearly completely covered in algae. I bought a new bladder from Thorne chandlery and promptly punctured it on a protruding screw when I was pushing it back in and that was through the canvas cover. The internal bladder cost around £40 back in early 2019. I didn't need to replace the canvas but the canvas does significantly add to the cost. I have put wooden battens around mine to try to reduce the folding effect when it empties but to be honest if it lasts another 20 years it will outlast me and probably CRT......Oh and I certainly wouldn't entertain joining bladders. A rigid plastic or stainless tank is a much better option if you have the room and the money.

We have a 200 litre Plastimo water bladder with canvas cover on our boat. It does stuff in quite well into confined spaces. They are not stupidly priced although the canvas cover is more expensive than the bladder. We got ours through Thorne chandlery who are distributors for Aquafax. We have the long thin one but there are other shapes but with less capacity. https://www.aquafax.co.uk/products/plastimo-water-tank-spare-inner-bladder-for-p16656-p16663 If you do decide to get one make absolutely sure that there are no errant screws projecting into the compartment that is going to house the bladder. We are not livaboard and our boat is purely for leisure. I don't think the bladders have enough capacity for a livaboard. I do not know whether bigger ones are available but hard plastic tanks do come in bigger sizes.

Yet another web site I will not be using. Soon there wont be any I can use because of their cookie policies and I can finally dump my computer along with my telly.

Yes it should be glued in and, usually the rope comes with the glue or at least the place you bought the rope from should have given you choice of buying the glue with the rope. Whichever it needs to be glued in with the correct glue otherwise it WILL fall out.

I cannot see why any of you think it's any uglier than every other narrow or wide beam boat on the system ESPECIALLY those with all the junk in the world stored on top. The only difference is the extra high bow which I will admit doesn't do it any favours but that is easily removed. All narrow boats are just a box on a hull. Absolutely nothing about any of them that is particulary pretty or out of the ordinary. They are designed to travel on narrow waterways and the term "sewer tube" is appropriately apt for ALL narrowboat style boats. Now this IS a pretty boat................. and no it isn't mine, unfortunately.

In 2010 ???

They are called thrips and they are a pain. They get behind computer screens and when they land on you they irritate something orrible. They are on corn and other crops and when the crops get harvested they fly all the place. Sometimes up ere in rural Yorkshire there is a dust like layer on our window sills inside the house.. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=876