Jump to content

Richard10002

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,806

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    18

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Richard10002

  2. 3 internet dongle, yes or no ?

    in Boat Equipment

    Posted

    What is "3 mifi" exactly, please? Can I buy one on line?

     

    http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/MiFi

     

    A "no-brainer", as they say!

     

    I bought one from a 3 store. £18 per month for 15Gb per month on a 24 month contract. Used it to log on with iPhone, iPad, and 2 laptops on our delivery trip from Barton to Stretford in October. TV on the iPad was a godsend for the football and the rugby. Info on the boat and the route was instantly available online at all times.

     

    If you don't want to be committed for a couple of years, there is a PAYG option but I don't think you can buy as much bandwidth per month.

     

    You could also get a smartphone with a Three "all you can eat" contract that allows tethering - possibly the best of both worlds.

  3. Re: 'Buying troubles? Metro Free Newspaper Article.

    in General Boating

    Posted

    From that BBC Link.........

     

    The developer which owns the mooring site says the couple are free to move their boat.

    Mr Mew said that option was not open to them as their boat no longer floats and could break up if a crane was used to lift it

     

    How is a non-floating houseboat worth £200000? Sorry to see anybody lose their home but in this case the boat part of the houseboat had clearly reached the end of its life.A houseboat that doesn't float isn't much of a boat.The owners were given the opportunity to buy a 99 year lease and at no point did the marina owners deny the owners the rght to move. A sad story for sure but I don't see what wider implications this has for the waterways in general.

     

    Didn't see the bit about the 99 year lease..... How much was it? The boatbowner obviously decided it wasn't worth it to him.... Probably conscious that he would also neednto buy a new boat in the foreseeable future.

     

    This case says nothing about security of tenure on the canals. Your security is as long as your rental agreement or lease then, if you continuously cruise, it's for as long as you like. This is an isolated case which has very few precedents which could be taken forward to another case.

  5. Roughly what do boat yards charge

    in General Boating

    Posted · Edited by Richard10002

    I paid the yard at Barton Turns Marina about £200 to slip and refloat for a survey in September. I also paid them about £400 to give it 3 coats of Rytex blacking while it was out of the water for a few days. Total £600 Inc. VAT for a 45ft flat bottomed narrow boat.

  6. Best solutions?

    in Boat Equipment

    Posted

    One plan from three, from £25 sim only - all you can data, and yes your iPhone will work with this and be a wifi hotspot.

     

    Digital TV, depends if you have a home mooring to choose between satellite or teristerial to be honest.

     

    I'm pretty sure you can get All you can eat data on a SIM only PAYG for a £15 per month top up, and are allowed to tether.

     

    Ive always had trouble getting my iPhone 3GS to act as a "personal hotspot". Seems to want to do it by Bluetooth or USB cable, and I cant get my netbook or iPad to see it, or vice versa.

     

    Also, as I want to have my phone in my pocket, or somewhere handy, I wasnt sure about how much power the Hotspot would use.Anyway - it made sense to have a dedicated system for the boat, and the mifi just works - although if the OP needs more than 15Gb per month, it obviously wouldnt be the right option.

  10. Contract query

    in General Boating

    Posted

    Actually what has happened is a re-negotiation of the 5% figure which we felt was too high. As I said before, I'm not expecting every tiny flaw or imperfection to be righted...it's more of a case of finding a dangerous or improperly fitted system which I then have to pay for if it's under £3500 regardless of whether the survey listed it or not. That was the sticking point.

     

    You're right, the other option was to walk away, which is what I would have done if it couldn't be resolved.

     

    I just wanted to know if this method was common practice with boat buying contracts..?

     

    Thanks for the input so far..

     

    Rich

     

    What did you renegotiate to?

  13. ANNOUNCEMENT! I seem to have a boat!

    in New to Boating?

    Posted

     

    Don't worry too much about moving her - it's really OK once you get under way. Just take your time and get used to

    how the boat responds. Our first ever journey on a boat was from Sawley (Derby / Notts way) to Preston Brook !

    The whole Trent and Mersey. It was BRILLIANT. Enjoy your time on the water ...

     

    Good luck

    Andy

     

    Our first trip is very similar...from Barton Turns Marina, via Preston Brook, to Stretford..... Starting next Thursday.

     

    We're very apprehensive :(

     

    Richard

  15. Bridgewater Canal Licence cost

    in General Boating

    Posted

    Response from Mike Webb to my email of yesterday. The charges are split into licence and mooring fees, although I'm not sure thatvyou could pay one without the other? 45ft boat.

     

    "The cost of a licence from the 1st October to 31st December is as follows

     

    Cruising Licence £135

    Mooring fee payable directly to this company in addition to fees paid to Watch House CC £167.33

    Boat number fee one off payment £16.50

     

    Total £318.83

     

    Fees for 2012 for a 45 foot craft moored at Watch House

     

    Licence £389

    Mooring Fee £527

    Total £916

     

    May be paid by Direct Debit over 12 months total cost £934.44"

     

    Cheers,

     

    Richard

  17. No Horn & No Wire?

    in Boat Building & Maintenance

    Posted

    Yeah - whotever you dont go through any tunnels until its wired properly

     

    Are you saying that we must have a working electric horn to go through a tunnel, (we're doing the whole Trent & Mersey from Barton to Preston Brook in a couple of weeks) ?

     

    Or would it be OK to have a lung powered one?

     

    Serious question - I genuinely don't know :( (in my offshore days, it was fine to use a lung powered horn as a foghorn).

     

    Many Thanks

     

    Richard

  18. No Horn & No Wire?

    in Boat Building & Maintenance

    Posted

    I'll probably get a bugle as the short term solution. I'm hoping i'll find some wires looking for a home while clearing out various lockers.

     

    Ive seen horns with a couple of tubes for around £70, (presumably these are 2 tone and loud), but I've also seen a simple looking horn for £16 - is the cheap one a false economy, or are the expensive ones a bit flash. I've also seen both types on boats mored nearby.

     

    Thanks for the help so far.

     

    BTW - I can't see me getting involved with diodes and complicated switches, so no need for a diagram - although others might find it useful and/or interesting.

     

    Richard

  19. No Horn & No Wire?

    in Boat Building & Maintenance

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    Our boat has a button for a horn on the throttle post, but there is no horn, and I can't find the wire exiting somewhere around the cratch. There is evidence that a horn was fitted at some time.

     

    Without running a cable from stern to bow, is there likely to be an existing circuit that we could piggy back off, as a short term solution?

     

    I was thinking the headlamp circuit..... I think this would need a switch at the headlamp end so that it wasn't shining permanently, and I guess the headlamp would dim when we used the horn.

     

    Is there likely to be another circuit we could use?

     

    Many Thanks

     

    Richard

  21. Tooway 10mb

    in General Boating

    Posted

    I'll second the 3 Mifi solution. £19 per month for 15Gb on a 24 month contract.

     

    There shouldn't be too many canals where you can't get a signal with 3.

     

    If mobile broadband definitely doesn't work for you, perhaps satellite is the only option. If so, £25 for 4 Gb per month isn't a massive price to pay compared to landline broadband of only a few years ago.

  22. Where is the best place to buy my first boat?

    in New to Boating?

    Posted · Edited by Richard10002

    Hi Steve,

     

    We've just bought our 1st narrowboat, and we found it somewhere we weren't looking, and that we didn't even know existed until I read a post on here..... So I would say it's not the place that matters, it's the boat.

     

    "How do I find my first boat", would be my suggestion for your question.

     

    I read loads of posts on here and got a pretty quick general education on narrowboat related stuff. I also have the benefit of having sailed for 30+ years, and having owned a sailing yacht from 2006 to 2010.

     

    When I seriously started looking in July, I did the following:

     

    I found all the brokers I could identify within 50 miles of us, put their web pages on the desktop of my laptop, ( home page of iPad).

     

    I also set up a search on Apolloduck and eBay for boats between 40ft and 50ft and between £10,000 and £30,000 and put these on my desktop/ homepage.

     

    (I set a distance of up to 50 miles from home as a kind of limit but we actually only travelled up to about 30 miles to view the 20 or so boats that we viewed)

     

    I looked at each of the above at least daily, and we found a few boats at 45ft to 50ft aged from 30 years to 10 years old for around £25k to £30k. Those we came close to liking enough to offer on kept getting sold before we made a decision. This told me that we were probably going to have to pay more than our budget of £20k for something we liked and, that if we liked something enough to want it, we needed to offer quickly. We also identified what we liked and didn't like about various boats.

     

    Did we find our boat by the above method? No!

     

    I was reading a post here about Barton Marina, merely because we live near Barton in Manchester. However, it turned out the thread was about Barton Turns Marina near Burton on Trent.... Mostly about how windy it is, and how the wind is always in the wrong direction for whatever you need to do. It was also about how noisy the Gastro Pub is at weekends, and how noisy the A38 is. There was a link for the Marina, so I clicked it. On the Marina web page, there was a link for boats for sale and, on the brokerage page were two boats for sale. One was Fevre Dream, advertised as a 45ft, Gary Gorton built in 2001, just reduced to £18,000 for a quick sale. To cut a long story short, we viewed it next day, offered the asking price immediately, had it surveyed 8 days later, which was the earliest the yard could lift her. After a great survey, an paying for her as fast as i could get the sellers bank details, I'm now on board, 16 days after first seeing her. I'm also 100 miles and 66 locks away from home, which is a bit further than we had initially planned for a delivery trip!

     

    I would suggest setting up a few searches as above, and viewing as many boats as you can, both private and broker sales. In addition, follow every lead that raises it's head, (like we did), and have a look at some of the other boat sites every few days.. e.g. I found other sites like boatsandoutboards not very user friendly, but had a look now and then, and found a few boats not listed elsewhere. I would also keep an eye on this site for snippets of info, and for something that might point you in the direction of your new boat. I viewed all new posts at least once a day - I didn't read them all, just those seemed appropriate or interesting.

     

    There is no doubt that we got lucky.... But you make your own luck to a degree.

     

    Happy Hunting

     

    Richard

     

    PS: I can confirm that Barton Turns Marina is as windy as they say. I haven't dared to reverse off the visitors pontoon yet, for fear of making a right cock up of things :)

     

    I can't comment on The Waterfront Pub as I arrived last night at around 1am when it was closing down for the night, and Thursday night was quiet, but it wasn't the weekend. I can tell you that the chips and burgers are to die for, and the steak is pretty good, although not the best I've ever had. Everyone related to the Marina has been incredibly friendly so far - it seems a different world to Manchester.

     

    The A38 is noisy, but we live near the M6, so are a bit oblivious to traffic noise.

  23. Service injectors or Diesel Additive.

    in General Boating

    Posted

    That little combination of replies makes up my mind :) i'll bide my time and see how it goes.

     

    Tony - starts after a couple of turns with the starter, and runs fine alongside, both idling,, and with about 1500 revs in gear, forward and reverse. I haven't actually seen any black smoke yet.

     

    Yard has either serviced the engine, or will be doing so early next week.

     

    To be fair to the surveyor, he said we wouldn't come to any trouble if we did our trip from Barton to Stretford and seeing how it goes.

     

    Thanks to each for the help. Our first trip will be in an hour or so - from the visitors berths at Barton to berth No. 71..... A total of about 100 yards :)

     

    Cheers

     

    Richard

  24. Service injectors or Diesel Additive.

    in General Boating

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    Steve Hands, surveyor, did a pre purchase inspection for us last Friday and said that, as the engine, (Vetus 4.14), was blowing black smoke, ( unburnt fuel), and had probably been little used for 2 years or so, it might be worth having the injectors serviced/reconditioned. Said it should cost around £30 per injector.

     

    However, he also said that he didn't think it was urgent, and it would be worth trying an additive like Forte or BG244, and see if it sorts things out.

     

    Broker/yard, (Simon at Simtech Marine, Barton Turns Marina), quotes £45 per injector for removal, sending off, and refitting, but also says that these engines tend to work or not, and the additive route may be worth trying. Apparently Simon's background is in diesel engines.

     

    I'm torn between the two. On the one hand, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" suggests that something could go wrong/be disturbed in the process, so leave well alone. On the other hand, "don't spoil the ship for a ha'pporth of tar", suggests that I don't skimp, just get it done.

     

    Money isn't an issue in the scheme of things - the boat was a good deal, so £180 is well within the budget if it's money well spent.

     

    Any thoughts and suggestions welcomed - appreciate its my decision in the end :)

     

    Many Thanks,

     

    Richard

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.