markb

QFT. I have three of these in my boat already (one warm white and two daylights) and they are great. I don't like the price, but they are admittedly a good product. So good infact, that I'm about to order another 2 as another 2 of my fluorescent tubes have just died. Mark.

Glad to see I'm not the only one!

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to, shame really!

would there be enough demand for a coal/diesel boat in the Anglian region? Mark.

I have a Kabola E3 in my NB. I live aboard and have it running 24/7. The minimum I can use is ~6litres a day. I think I can probably adjust the regulator down a bit further to use a bit less but havn't tried yet. Right now I am obviously using a bit more, but not much. I estimate it to be 7 litres (this was the figure in the last cold snap.) I'm considering swapping the metering stem to use kerosene, but need to sort out an easy supply first so I won't be doing it until the weather warms up! It works for me

at my marina i pay 16p per unit plus a standing charge of £21 per quarter. Last quarter my electric was only £1 more than the standing charge. But hey, £43 per quarter still isn't bad for electric. Certainly less than it would cost in diesel if I didn't have a hook up.

and window/door salesmen. Salesmen "can I interest you in a conservatory?" Me "yes, why not, can you put them on the side of a narrowboat?" Salesmen ".....erm....." (nobody mention pram hoods...)

Sorry, only just seen your edits. No problem, we can all make easy mistakes, but no, I did remove the old seal. I got a Fram CH814PL. I didn't hold them next to each other, but it seemed to fit pretty well. RE. your unedited post, the filter cam with 3 seals, one was a larger diameter than the other two and was of no use to me. The other two seemed to be identical to each other and the one which I removed. But for the last attempt I used the second of the new seals wondering if I'd nipped/deformed the first one when I installed it for the first time. I'll run it again tonight and hope it's all sorted.

if that exists, then I will almost certainly do that! Can anyone point me to somewhere to get one from?

I may do this next time, I don't think it would ensure the filter bowl was seated well enough though. I have good access and the filter bowl looked central every time but still popped out after 30secs or so of running. There are no taps of any sort so I think this is the most likely option, I'll remember that next time. I'm going to be rather paranoid of this seal popping out when I take the boat out tomorrow morning...

I just need to moan. Did the oil change on the BMC 1.5 in my boat last night. First of all the pump mounted on the engine to drain the oil out does nothing which is annoying but not a show-stopper. Got the oil drained, replaced the filter without too much mess, did the filter back up being as careful as I could to get it all square on the seal, fire it up: instant leak. re-seated the filter bowl: instant leak. re-seated the filter bowl: done, wait 15-20 secs, pop goes the seal covering the engine in oil. and again... and again... and again... The last time I had it running a couple of times for 30secs or so with no issues, but I'm still not 100% sure it's not going to pop out again, but I'd had enough and didn't want to cover everything in oil again, so I'll run it up again tonight and keep my fingers crossed. What a rubbish design. [/moan]

Lol, OK, maybe I gave them too much credit and they just didn't think it through! I would still be very surprised if (long term) the boats moored at the railings will be allowed to remain...

I'm really not one for any kind of "conspiracy stories" but this whole thing sounds to me like they don't really want the extra money, they would just prefer to not have big boats on the cam and reserve it for rowers and punts. I suspect the council aren't really serious about paying vast sums of money to install official moorings and that after a full investigation, that figure will be one of the many reasons to prove it's not a viable location for moorings (which, let's be honest, it's not!)

I moor at Isleham and intended to take a few trips to Cambridge last year, unfortunately doing work on the boat kept me from doing that. I would definitely have been doing a few trips this year, but if they make me pay I will almost certainly not bother. Shame... Mark.

Hi all, I'll try and keep it brief. My boat is going to require a repaint in the spring. It will also need blacking (it was done just before I bought it; April, but it's already looking sorry for itself.) The boat has several coats of paint on it already and most layers are peeling off underlying layers so chances are that to get a decent finish, it's got to go back to steel. I think (and please let me know if I'm wrong) that finding a company to media blast the whole thing then prime and black the bottom is going to be the "best" solution (I want to do the final paint myself...) Can anyone suggest anywhere that would undertake this kind of work? and if anyone has an idea, roughly how much it will cost for a ~50' trad. I am moored on the River Lark at Isleham, off the Gt Ouse so I am sure I'm going to have to travel, but that would be OK. Many thanks in advance, MArk.