Tacet

Does changing an outboard motor require a PCA?

cold water?

Ashing-up might be seen as a token gesture looking at the size of the hole.

I quite agree - so it looks as though I wasted an emoji

But since open-flued water heaters are clearly not best practice - will not all the insurances be invalidated?😉 A curious outcome as most of the navigation authorities that respect the BSS also impose compulsory insurance.

It's you that is wriggling, Alan. Your claim (which I say is scaremongering) is at failure to observe best practice or ISO could lead to insurance being invalidated. I say that it will not - at least in itself. I don't doubt that your boat is better maintained than mine. But is yours maintained to best practice (not just good practice) in all respects? If not, your insurance may be invalidated........ Incidentally, if the twin & earth is replaced by a suitable piece of flex, does the insurance become active again or does it remain invalid? You have previously said that Negligence would be considered a reason to not provide cover. If failure to maintain a boat to best practice also invalidates the insurance - just what are the circumstances in which a claim might be successfully brought? There can't be many left.

I feel this is scaremongering. The use of solid core cable on this boat contravenes no regulations; any insurance policy that required best practice in order for it to remain valid would be a rather poor one. Almost every incident that gives arise to a claim can, with hindsight, be attributed to some fault or error. Was the insurance on your boat invalidated when it had the engine flooding incident? Would not best practice require the pipes that parted to have better resisted? Or the fuel tank to have been properly sealed? Or the bilges to have been fitted with flooding alarms or automatic pumps? Is it insured now? Does it have the very-latest everything that mighty be deemed best practice?

I think a mouse (or rat) trap would be a good move

Did you remember to deposit a copy of the joint agreement with the auctioneer? If not, chokey for you. I will also agree not to bid for a further 50%

6 months inside for you, then. Dealers commit a criminal offence when forming a ring https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/17-18/12/section/1

If you win your lot, you have exchanged contracts whether you sign or not. The auctioneer has authority to sign on your behalf - although whether you can be found in order to hand over the deposit (assuming placing a sum is not a pre-requisite to bidding) is another matter. You are being a bit harsh on the guide price issue. As a principle, the seller cannot set a reserve that is very different from the guide as it is otherwise misrepresentation. If the seller decides, close to the auction, to fix a much higher reserve, the auctioneer is liable to get uppity and remove the property from the room. In setting the guide, the seller is (largely) committing to selling at that price - if that is the highest bid. The fact that the property sells well above the reserve is a function of the market, of course. If you have not successfully bid - either you have not met the reserve or not placed the highest bid. So better to view the guide price as shedding light on the reserve - and not the sale price.

No doubt you would be fine towing it slowly - to save folding it up?

Hired a boat from, I think Union Canal Cruisers, with this type of exhaust some years back. If you dropped (for example) a small apple down the exhaust whilst ticking over - and then gave it some beans, the apple shot out of the pipe and could, sometimes be caught to allow the experience to be repeated.

Unless you are happy to kid yourself, to get even the simple width (i.e. maximum width between two vertical, parallel planes) within 1/2" would require some modern technology such as a Total Station( of the non-fuel kind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_station)

The steerer dropping an offside paddle as the boat comes by on its own works for me, but as we usually work two-handed, doesn't achieve much. Closing the top gate or drawing a bottom paddle less so. Unless you wait until the boat has been brought to a dead stop (which takes an age), depending on its length I find that it either stops too soon or not soon enough - either of which invokes mild panic and humiliation. The all-too-few occasions I step off the boat with it moving forward and the engine going astern, close the gate and step back on just as it stops in the right place are impressive, but they can't be replicated reliably. Strapping-in to close the lock gate would look good too - but too many busybodies around to allow one to practice without criticism.

That would be me! With a single gate, I stand on the clapping-post side until there is a level, then drop that paddle and cross the gate before opening the gate. Less walking. And I tend to drop the second paddle whilst waiting for the boat to exit. Saves a few seconds at the end - but it does make shutting the gate tight a little harder.

The cork-in-a-bottle effect is less than obvious and, as Nock says, is very difficult to address once the boat is grounded. It can work in either direction of travel - but the warning signs may be easier to spot when going uphill. If it takes an age to fill the lock and the level of the upper pound drops a lot - watch out. The more cynical might say, on the HNC, that the first sign is that the pound below being in water.

Assuming they are ground, not gate paddles, having them drawn should help at least a bit. Where the levels are low-ish, it might be good practice not to drop the paddles until the boat has cleared the lock.

Largely true, I suppose it might foreshorten the agony too. You might look to see if you slow the leak (re-seat the paddles?) and hope that sufficient water can slip past your boat. But the bottom line is that there might be nothing much that can be done - and that you have very little time in which to do it! Not nice..

That's the real nasty dilemma. If the boat is making a good seal with the cill and the locksides, running water down might lift the upstream end when the downstream end is falling - thus exacerbating the situation.

This is good advice. But if the buyer(?) wishes to take it further, it needs to be quite sure whether there was a concluded contract (offer-and acceptance) and the terms thereof. E.g. what is the sale conditional on condition on? Does it allow the seller to rescind it? If so - for what reasons? Has subsequent behaviour indicated that the buyer is no longer willing to perform? Basic contract law if that advertising an item for sale at a price in an invitation to treat- not an open offer capable of acceptance. The OP uses different terminology - but most recently says it made an offer. Fundamental questions are the terms of the offer - and most crucially, was that offer accepted?

It's Historic England that is responsible for the statutory list. English Heritage cares for over 400 historic buildings blah blah

think you will soon need to better understand how far the sale process had progressed before the dispute started. The "pot-purchase" conversations suggest you think the sale had completed - whereas (subsequently) requesting the owner's contact details suggest you think it had not.