blackrose

One of the best soul albums ever recorded.

I'd recommend seeing your doctor if you can get an appointment.

Thanks, I've taken carbs from motorbikes apart and reassembled them before so I'm sure I'll be fine.

I did the same, aluminium scaffold pole with 2 plastic end caps stuck in with sealant.

What is your remote control exactly? I recently bought this for 25 quid which remotely controls my BT. It's great for when I get up onto the roof and walk to the bow to do throw a rope onto a lock side and get off the boat but the bow invariably drifts away from the lock wall. I can just push it back in with the BT remotely. I know some people will call it a remote GB but most of them wouldn't know how to take a 30 tonne boat through a lock single-handed. Well if they're grippy panels that sounds ideal.

Your roof isn't very curved compared to mine. They wouldn't work on mine unless they're some sort of non-slip panels? In a lock? That's bad practice.

How do you get out of an uphill lock without using the roof if you're not using the lock ladder? Single-handed. Even if you are using lock ladders, sometimes they're at the bow and inaccessible unless you walk over the roof or through the boat. When you're single-handed your roof is your working deck - or at least it should be.

Perhaps your roof isn't very curved? They wouldn't work on my roof in the wet. I used to slip on the foot wide gloss stripes that Liverpool Boats painted adjacent to every mushroom vent going down to the handrails. I painted over them with non-slip deckpaint.

Yes I'm not doubting it's possible, but what % of the roof is covered and unusable? No problem if you have crew but the OP is single-handed and will need to use the roof. I think you have flexible walk on panels which mitigates the issue, unless it's wet and the roof is curved.

Narrowboat? How have you managed to get 2.5kW of panels on the roof? I don't know the length of your boat but imagine the whole roof must be covered? I hope all those panels don't get in your way. I move a widebeam single-handed and the roof space is invaluable in terms of handling through locks. I have just less than 1kW of panels. I could perhaps add 1kW more without causing a problem.

I wouldn't. You should be turning the bow into waves if possible, and I know that's not always possible, but if a few waves do hit a louvered vent then a splash of water entering isn't going to be a problem. Certainly much less of a problem than the amount of water potentially entering through an unsecured loose deck board if a wave comes over the top of the deck. I'd focus the OP's attention more on taping over the bow door vents and possibly the bottom of the bow doors, assuming they're not being used, and also making sure the bow well deck scuppers can't get blocked with anything left on the deck.

I sold a large plastic canoe to a neighbour about 5 years ago. They left it on the bank next to their boat and wrecked it with their Webasto exhaust. It was still watertight and useable but just a very odd shape.

Does a grease gun exist that doesn't leak it's contents all over the place? One wouldn't think it was beyond the wit of man. I've got a grease gun but I'm loathe to use it because it so messy to fill and use. I keep it in a couple of plastic bags. I can use rubber or latex gloves but it's often difficult to do the job without touching other things and getting grease everywhere. I know that some boaters are never happier than when they're covered in grease but I'm not one of them.

A huge bit of kit at a huge cost. But in a previous video he seemed to be having some difficulty testing his inline GI and he gave up. I think I would have persevered but it's an aluminum hull so much more susceptible to galvanic corrosion moored alongside all that steel, so I can understand him buying an IT. On the other hand as he's not living aboard, I think a good GI and disconnecting the shoreline when he leaves the boat would have been fine.

It was just one of these. I think they cost about 30p if you need one. Perhaps you're thinking of something else?

Ok, you're basically saying the same thing as me just describing how you do it without tools. I'm not really sure what your point is or why you've repeated it? Also if the spark plug on your motorbike is that critical it would make sense to have a feeler gauge, gaping tool and a bit of emery cloth or a small wire brush in your tool kit under the seat. They don't take up much space. Anyway, if you must ride 2 stokes then you should be prepared to spend time by the roadside.

Spark plug gaps should still be set to the engine manufacturer's specification, or at least the gap checked before they're screwed into an engine. That hasn't changed and wasn't something people only did "in those days". But perhaps plugs are better quality these days and have a wider +/- gap tolerance so lots of people don't bother?

I think you would notice an extra foot of internal beam compared to the confines of a narrowboat, but what you'd notice much more would be having to open & close all 4 gates at every lock as well as the limited cruising range. If you're going wide you may as well GO WIDE!

Are you asking about how often galvanic currents occur, or how often galvanic isolators stop working? I'm not sure there's any statistical evidence for either, but galvanic currents occur all the time. That's how your anodes work and on a bigger scale galvanic currents exist between boats which aren't isolated and every other bit of submerged metal in a marina. It's nothing to do with poor maintenance of wiring or mains bollards, it's all about potential differences between metals of different nobilities. It's an electrochemical reaction. On the other hand, if you're asking about how often GIs stop working I've no idea.

I have a feeling the Safeshore GIs are pretty good but I've nothing to base that on. Could it be that if tested they would pass the ABYC standards but the cost of compliance is too onerous so they don't do it, relying on quality components instead? 99% of boaters don't even know if their boat has a GI fitted. They did. I bought my original Safeshore GI in 2006 and it came with one. It's just a 9v battery connector with 2 wires coming out of it. Yes, which, contradicting myself, is why I ended up changing mine for the Aquafax unit. Yes he spent about 600 quid on an Airlink IT (not GI). My boat's been fine for 2 decades with a GI, but Cruising the Cut now has an aluminium boat which is why he's so concerned about galvanic corrosion and wants the best protection.

Never say never. There shouldn't be excessive load on a fairlead but they have been known to come off and even whizz past people's heads, so clearly the way they're fixed to the boat is as important as the way the boat is handled. Have you never seen a narrow boater jump off a moving boat at a lock, centre-line in hand and stop the boat on a bollard? It's bad practice but it happens every day Boats can also move around quite a lot in locks and many single handlers only use the centre-line to secure the boat.

It might not need removal as that would mean draining the central heating system, or is it an air heater? Anyway it would be good for your own knowledge of your boat to know what kind of heater you've got and it will definitely help in finding someone to come out and fix it.

Whether it's historic or not the price a seller will accept will depend to some extent on how quickly they need to sell. If they're desperate a seller may accept an offer 20% below the asking price, so it's always worth making that sort of offer, especially if you're a cash buyer. They can always say no and make a counter-offer or stick to their original asking price, and if a low offer p*sses the seller off that's their problem. It's not meant to be personal, although some people will act like children and refuse to deal further with anyone who makes a low offer. Just leave them to it. As a buyer the advice is not to fall in love with any boat until it's yours.