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.

I tried many, many different car stereos that allowed connection of iphones. this sony was by far the best for the money. Don't be tempted to go for the "updated" versions, they took features away and put them on the more expensive versions instead. The MEX-BT3800 is the one to go for in my opinion, "it just worksTM"

Two methods from me: Bedroom: Sony XDRDS12IP (iPod/iPhone dock with DAB radio and alarm clock) This sounds pretty decent for what it is, is an alarm clock which can wake you up to DAB/FM radio or your music from iPhone. It is 240V, but you could probably replace the "wall wart" to power from 12V and it has battery backup so always remembers the time and alarm still goes off even if unplugged. Saloon: Sony MEX-BT3800 (car stereo with USB to plug memory stick or iPhone into and bluetooth) This works really well, so well that I've got the same one in my car too!! Got it off ebay for ~£85. The fact it has bluetooth is great as i can stream music to it from my phone or my laptop. Connected to some cambridge audio speakers from richer sounds. Sound is very good, uses very little power. Mark.

I liveaboard and don't have a washer or drier. Go to the laundrette once a week after work which takes ~1 1/2 hours. All done in one go. Personally I'm quite happy without a washer. I don't mind going to the laundrette, just take a book and some headphones I live alone though, so others' situations may be different; I wouldn't want to be going every other day just to note: everything goes in one machine: £3 drying usually costs £2.50 assuming I've got jeans/hoodies to wash.

I spoke to the local council. There are no sites in the area that will take it and it is classed as a hazardous substance. They will arrange a collection, but will relieve me of £35 for the pleasure! I want to dispose of it properly, but they don't make it all too easy do they? I will try some other tips close to me that don't come under the same council, anyone know of any that take coolant near Isleham? (in the fens...)

Hi, I have just drained the cooling system on my boat as all the hoses were persihed and I had no idea if there was any coolant in there. As it turns out, there was and I now have ~25 litres of coolant to dispose of. I took it to the local council tip at the weekend, but they won't accept it. Where can I get rid of it? (safely and legally please..) Cheers, Mark.

OK, a quick update on the situation. I was using a little diaphragm pump to feed the stove but I yesterday morning I was having problems with it sucking air instead of diesel. I have now hooked up a small tank and am using it purely gravity fed. Using the gravity feed I had to put the regulator back to its initial height (~18mm from oil level in reg to inlet of burner) and de-adjust the High-Fire screw as it was now under-fuelling. I can't understand why, but it appears that the inlet pressure to the regulator is having an effect on the output. The pump pressure was ~4psi. The top of the fuel tank is now ~2 1/2 feet above the regulator oil level which is considerably less than 4psi head pressure.

ETA: Right, quick follow up to this. I've just noticed, on the manual I mentioned earlier, there is a diagram stating min/max heights! Unfortunately, the minimum height between oil level (in reg) and bottom of burner pot inlet is 12.5mm but there is no maximum height. On my stove at the moment there is only ~6mm but if I have it higher it starts to over-fuel. Could this point to a problem with the regulator?? I'm confused

Hi All, Maybe someone can help me out? (I suspect I will have to wait until monday to talk to Kuranda, but any help in the mean time will be apprecitated...) I installed a Kabola E3 in my NB a while ago and havn't been able to have it running properly until now. I was having diesel feed issues due to me trying to take the line up to gunwhale level to enter the boat (amongst other small issues!) Right now I've bodged a rubber hose through the door and it's working reliably. However another problem has now come to light. The stove is over-fuelling. Even with the regulator set to minimum the flame was virtually up the chimney and yellow. I got the instructions for this regulator from a link I found on this forum somewhere and tried to adjust the "high fire" adjustment and have taken this down to its minimum setting with no change. While I was doing this however, I noticed the regulator assembly was loose (i.e. could move up and down) i pushed it to the bottom of its "adjustment" which had a small effect but still didn't cure the problem. Right now I have taken the screw out totally (it virtually was anyway!) and have lowered the regulator further. The flame is now pretty good (blue with some yellow tips flicking occasionally) but it's still on its minimum setting. The height of the regulator is obviously crucial as the height difference between the oil level and inlet to burner pot will change the rate of delivery, but as mine appears to have been moved before I got it, how do I set the height appropriately? Once I've done that I'll obviously have to go and adjust the high-fire adjustment again. Thanks for reading, any help appreciated! Now I'm off to enjoy some heating in what will hopefully soon be non-damp boat! Cheers, Mark.

My boat is 50' long and I can just wind without using the slipway. I am moored at isleham marina and know several people there that have turned longer boats(presumably using slipway). If you have to wind will breasted up and need to use the slipway I think you will struggle, but obviously that depends on the length of the boats. It's a lovely stretch of river from isleham lock to the ferry though

Hi all, Couple of things you might be able to confirm/clarify for me... I will be re-painting my boat soon, but there are other more important jobs to get done before that (I recently bought it and have had quite a few bits to add/change etc.) One of these jobs is to replace a window, now, of course when I remove the old window I'm going to have to clean/prime/paint that area before re-fitting. So first question, I've searched the forum and there are lots of paints that people recommend, but price/performance both taken in to account it seems Rylard would be a safe bet. Any objections? Second question, where is a good place to get the paint from? I've got some added to my basket at boatpaints.co.uk has anyone had any good/bad experiences? Third question, I will be changing the colour of the boat when I eventually repaint it so I may aswell use the new colours for this little bit (and a few others...). I've seen a few boats with close to the colour scheme I want to go for but was hoping some of you guys might know the name of the main colour. The only picture I can find at the moment which is close is a boat for sale at Braunston on their website called "Allsorts" that is the shade of blue I would like, but the ones I really like the look of had blue panels with white and grey outers. I don't suppose anyone has any pics of boats in similar colours? From the Rylard colour chart it looks like I am after "Montego" blue does that sound/look right? Or should I just go with a grey undercoat for the time being? Sorry for the essay, i hope you understood all that... ETA a few links... NB Allsorts Rylard colour chart