blackrose

If you are going to use sealant try a small amount of this after cleaning the suspect area.. Put a bit on screw threads too. Clean off excess sealant with a bit of white spirit on a cloth. Make sure you're wearing latex or nitrile gloves. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0012RT1M8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_8SNJM3A7KBG5X8C0EKWX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I use this stuff in my generator and outboard to stop the fuel going stale over time. The other thing I do after using them is switch the fuel tap off and let the generator or outboard "run out of fuel" in order to burn all the fuel in the carb and reduce the chances of it gumming up if it's left for too long. I've no idea whether either of those measures would work with the new E10 petrol?

I have the same problem as the gutters on mine are undersized. They cope with most rain but not a downpour. I've just made a cover for my cruiser stern deckboards using 5mm thick checker plate pattern rubber sheet from Amazon. Seems to be working so far. I just roll it up and put it on the roof if I'm taking the boat out. I've oversized the matt by about 5" on 3 sides around the deckboards.

Not necessarily. I have external lockers on my boat that can't be kept dry. A puddle of water sits on the steel floor. They were horribly rusty until I scurfed them out and painted them with epoxy several years ago. They won't rust again and I've effectively cured the problem. The same system can be applied to any area of a steel boat that collects water including bilges. Stern glands are designed to drip a bit and bilge pumps won't get rid of all the water. I suppose a very careful owner could remove the water after each trip with a wetvac or some other pump but my point was that on many boats it's normal to have a bit of water in the engine bilges. On Streatley and Nuneham, both 1890s 90ft rivetted steel Thames steam passenger boats, a big part of our restoration was removing the rust and painting the bilges with several coats of epoxy. It wasn't just water from the stern glands that used to find it's way down there but also water from the boilers. They were designed to be wet bilges, but unfortunately steel and most single part paints aren't designed for long term immersion in water.

I hate to say it but if it's immersed in water all the time then vactan will only work for a limited time before it starts rusting again. You really need to get it dry, mechanically remove the rust with a wire brush on the end of a power tool and a few coats of a good two-part epoxy. That's really the only long term solution to preventing corrosion in what's effectively a wet bilge.

Just watching an episode of "Saving Lives at Sea" in which several RNLI crew refer to the area outside Portishead as the Bristol Channel. If local RNLI crew are saying it I don't think it was such a big mistake - in fact I seem to recall my pilot calling it the Bristol Channel so the terms seem to be used interchangeably. If we're being pedantic then perhaps that's an error but it hardly seems worthy of mention.

I changed mine recently, like for like and it was very easy, I just used the olive and compression nut that was already on the pipe in conjunction with the new regulator. However if you're installing something different and making modifications that might require a bit more plumbing skills.

Assume all fan belts are intact and the water pump is circulating the coolant?

What does "near" actually mean Pete? Can you be a bit more specific about where the rust came from exactly? Was it from the inside of the baseplate, the vertical walls of the swims, the stern gland tube, for example? Was it from an area normally immersed in water?

I think you just have to be aware that you're mooring on private land even though your weights or anchor are on the river bed. Riperian rights mean the the landowner is within their rights to tell you to move on.

It's single skinned and been painted from new more than 10 years ago but the paint is starting to peel.

What about engine paint? Will that stick to stainless? There are plenty of black stainless boat chimneys around so they must get painted with something?

What would you use to paint a stainless chimney? Key it and spray it with stove paint, or something else? I'm not sure how well stove spray paint stands up to rain and weather.

Yes. the voids in the handrail can be cut out and welded. If you're worried about welding the diverters directly to the roof you could always just stick them on with Stixall. They'll still do the same job.

Yes what you're proposing is fine apart from the araldite. Once the steel has expanded and contracted a few times with heat and cold the brittle araldite will crack and the rain water will get inside the handrails which will rust. Do the right thing and get the modifications welded.

You might be surprised. Pitch epoxy looks a lot like bitumen - intentionally. Anyway, whatever is used on old barges is up to the owners, but given the choice one would be stupid not to have a steel boat for use on brackish waters epoxy coated, including the baseplate.

What size cable ties were you using? The skinny ones will snap for sure. I bought some 12.7mm wide cable ties from ebay. They are pretty strong and don't snap by simply nudging the button against a lock gate - not even with with the force of my 30 tonne widebeam behind the nudge. BLACK NYLON CABLE TIES ZIP WRAPS 12.7mm x 290mm -1030mm Length / Very Heavy Duty | eBay

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but in general the baseplates of narrowboats aren't painted by builders because modern narrowboats have 10mm thick baseplates and sit in fresh water (and the builders can't be bothered to paint them!) But if you're having a steel boat built and it's going to sit in brackish water some of the time then make sure that the builder paints the base plate and every other part of the underwater hull with several coats of epoxy paint - bitumen based paint won't last any time at all in those conditions.

The mud suction has to be greater than the buoyancy of the boat and that seems unlikely to me. However if the mud suction keeps the boat down for long enough as in the case you cite above, and the rising water floods engine vents or gas locker/bow well deck scuppers, then that likelihood increases dramatically.

Ok, in that case ignore large chunks of what I've said.

Does anyone actually know of a narrowboat that has come down on a tidal mudbank and hasn't risen with the incoming tide? It might be possible to do a calculation if one knows the buoyancy of the boat and has some idea of the tensile strength of the vacuum formed between steel plate and mud/area2. I guess it's the properties of the mud that are the unknown factor.

Why do you assume that? I'm not sure in that respect new narrowboats are akin to new cars from a showroom. Perhaps some are, but then are you buying to use it or buying to sell it on? It's true that you'll probably get better value with a used boat, but that's because it's been used over several years, not because it's lost a quarter of its value as soon as it was sailed away. Edit: Also if this is going to be your first boat (my assumption), then although you may think you have a good idea of your perfect boat you probably don't. A few years spent on it would likely make you rethink what you really wanted. So I'd buy a used boat close to what you think you want and see how it goes. If it is your first boat then I can guarantee that in a few years time your perfect boat will be different from the one in your mind now.

I would also be wary of mud. People beach narrowboats all the time crossing the wash but that's sand rather than mud. I've never seen it done on a narrowboat but lots of people use the mudflats outside Portishead marina and that is most definitely mud. I'm sure it must have been done by narrowboats there too? The only time I've done it was on the tidal Thames and that was gravel.