Cafnod

Hi Both Glad there has been some food for thought here, it is really what a forum should be about. Do check out the used 110v gear, I have had some bargains, although postage can be expensive, and remember 110 gear is much safer near the water. Have an enjoyable time fitting out.

Hi Carrie We used to use plastic bread crates. Hi Steve fruitwoods smell lovely when they burn, especially apple. A decent chainsaw and clothing by the time you have bought a combi can etc would probably be nearer £400 - 500. Dont spend that unless you get into it. We found loads and loads of branches on the GU in winter, also stuff stacked near locks that BW had pulled out.

Just to balance things out. I have used a hand brace with auger bits for boring the water pipe holes through all of the wooden bulkheads, then notched the bulkheads so that if they ever needed to come out the pipes stay in situ. Using the brace while I had the bulkhead on the trestles was quiet, rewarding and accurate. I often use a hand tool rather than a power tool for many jobs, I realise they are not suitable for every application, or even every task but they do not need a shoreline, generator or recharge, they run on cheese sandwiches and elbow grease. So dont forget the humble hand tool has its place in fitouts and can often save the day. BTW Daniel I have stood in a large puddle, in the pouring rain whilst welding 6mm plate with a 180 amp petrol engine driven welder, does not make it good practice and one should not let the folly of our youth be the shame of age, if I am quoting my chesterton correctly.

You should be fine even on a curved roof, the holesaw will start on the raised part first, but dont worry, keep the drill upright. My Bosch has a mechanical gearbox, think it is a CSB 2 850 RET probably long since obsolete. But I have drilled all the pump out vents skin fittings and done all of the chain drilling for electrical socket and chimeny with it, plus loads of 20mm holesaw cuts for conduit and cable glands and pipes through the front and rear bulkheads, and BTW none of my starrett hole cutters have been blunted or lost teeth after a few holes, that is why they are the choice of boat builders, steel fabricators and electricians all over Europe and north America.

They honestly look like very expensive ocean going units to me, I think they are of a much higher specification than anything I or anyone I know would use. what is their physical footprint?

We all learn new things all the time and if you are not familiar with what you are hearing or looking for it is best to ask, especially if you are on steep learning curve with a lot of new information to assimilate about your new boat. Reason I said look for the pump is I always try to use Occams razor of not multiplying entities beyond necessity, in this case if it is not working is it switched on? Rather than if it is not working is there a problem that requires diagnoses and repair. Its just I have seen things stripped down or large amounts of work done unecessarily because the 'no one switched it on at the wall' scenario occured.

Hi I always run my genny either on the bank or on a sheet of ply if it is on the rear deck, just in case something nasty happens and it goes live at the frame. Unlikely I know but with my ancient gensets you never can tell and you are working on steel in water. I use a RCD at the tool end of the extension, I test it before use and when changing tools. I try to keep external cable runs as short as possible by passing the cable through hatches and windows. If you are buying modern double insulated power tools shock hazard from the tool itself is enormously reduced I have found cordless tools from hobby ranges or DIY shops fine for woodwork and the odd small hole in metal. I have Hitachi 24v cordless gear and it is great for steel, at a price. The new generation of li ion tools are amazing, I have a Bosch cordless screwdriver and that runs nearly all day on one battery. For holecutting I would get a drill with a 13mm chuck. If your genset does 110v you often see industrial 110v drills and other power tools on ebay very cheap, they arlso tend to get 'borrowed' less, and remember screwfix do a 3kw 110v transformer for £50 odd, and though it may look a lot you will save ahuge ammount on the 110v gear initially and it is much safer touse.

Gosh arent the media good at seizing one isolated quote out of everything one has to say, using it out of context and then making that a reason to take the atitude they do, or use that quote to make people seem to be complete idiots/monsters/whatever you want to do. Did you work on the Sun in the 80's? I also have a great deal of respect for narrowboatworld they were the only media organisation willing to take a stand about some of the appaling treatment people have received at the hands of the people you fete. Such as the awful boat fitting that was done by a vanishing builder. Even Daniel, a teenager albeit university educated, practical and with a strong upbringing in a specialised area of the inland waterways is not impressed with your reviewing. Please do not think I am taking a stand against you personally or the magazine you work for, the reviews that I have the biggest problem with are not in WW, if I could remember the name of the mag they appear in I would name it but I honestly cannot, and the big piles of back issues of old mags went to the charity bookshop a while ago now so I cannot look. BTW This included TGO, Trail, climber, on the edge, piles of various inland waterways mags, PBO, and many other interests that we pursue. But respect is earned and it would seem you are trying to put your magazine at least on a different footing, perhaps you will lead by example, one can only hope so. BTW Was the two part article on taking a narrowboat to European waterways under you editorship, cannot remember the authors name but it was quite hard hitting?

On power tools I have a Bosch drill that is about 17 years old, biggest model they did at the time, it handles holecutters up to 125mm, although I have only used 102mm in steel. It is still on its first set of brushes but I am looking for its thrid chuck, too many big holesaws. Jigsaw is an industrial AEG used it in steel up to 6mm. Rest of the stuff is mainly Hitachi (235mm circular saw, cordless drills, recip saw, M12 router, cordless circ saw) it is low end industrial and is very good indeed. If you are very serious about you fitout a table saw and router table will work wonders, both in dimensioning and finishing timber. I have found a Trton workcentre excellent as a portable solution that enable the use of power tools. Once set up amazingly accurate.

Hi Yes connect them directly to the battery but put an inline fuseholder in the circuit to protect the system against shorts. remember we are dealing with electricity and water here. Bilge pumps and float switches do not draw any current unless operating. The current draw of the pump is much of a muchness, the switch uses a very neglible amount to operate the circuit. I think our pump may be a rule too. I have a generic one that has a very long lead and a long hose on it for fluid transfer, god knows what make but years old it is blue.

I would have thought you would hear the circulation pump running (if it is) do check your pump is switched on before trying to bleed the system.

Hi Dan The nearest I have seen about electrical fittings is a comment on the size of the inverter, as if no boat could do without one, and if the boat has brass light switches. Technical? Hoho. Just compare the amount of info in any of the offshore boat mags, the hints tips and ideas, the encouragement in PBO to undertake projects, the best way to carry them out. The mags for the inland boats foster a culture of depndancy on the one hand in brainwashing people into boatyards to using marine quality fittings for self builds from chandlers. A lot of what I have seen in chandlers is mid range caravan fittings at vastly inflated prices. But I guess chandlers advertise too. Obviously those reviews have lodged in my pysche. ''....................And it is fitted with 45hp blah engine with the usual numpty boat installation about which nothing more can be said.......Coupled with XYZ gearbox and the convenient single lever control even a three year old could cross the atlantic in this boat with ease.......................'' ''They have chosen to have oak faced ply and sapele trim (because they dont have any individuality or an original idea in their heads and the builders told them what everyone else has been stupid enough to accept) but have taken the unusual step of wanting to have pink curtains which they designed themselves from an arts and crafts coffee table book their daughter in law bought them for christmass'' Why do I get the impression someone is making all this up? I read a review of a vintage dutch Tjchalik(?) and the guy did his usual dribbling about it and went on and on about the lines of the thing, yet there was not a picture of the outside to illustrate his point. Either bad editing or bad journalism, or do they have such little respect for the intelligence of the mag buyer, thinking they wont notice it? So you are only interested in reviewing someones pride an joy, you are not interested in pointing out bad workmanship, problems, or unethical practices that you may become aware of due to your unique position. To me this completely unethical atitude is biased in trying not to offend any of your precious advertisers. Perhaps that is why the boat that was posted on here as condemned ended up being bought. With those poor people who got into debt over it and not even having a usable home until Gary'scompany helped them out. So, no doubt next month we wil see the usual gushing reviews, the news that someone else has gone bump. You say that you covered buying a boat in an article in June. Why do I wonder what that was like, whether it pointed out that surveyors often will not comment on engines, cover themselves in case they make a mistake (again an example of someone abdicating responsibility for losing someone elses money), did it mention how many companies have gone down leaving people bereft of both their dreams and their lifes savings? I suspect not, and as I certainly will not buy it and dont have access to the back issue perhaps I should stop the conjecture.

If the switch is on and the fuse is NOT blown it is fairly likely that it runs the stove, if the switch is off then it probably runs a pump, why not try it and see?

Hi Richard I cannot comment on the content of articles on WW for the last year or eighteen months, that is when we stopped buying inland waterways magazines. The mag I looked at was in the toilet (not floatng) at the marina where we berth our boat was not WW, if it is still there when I go to the boat tomorrow I will look. The marina manager and I had a laugh about it when I showed him the article. What I can say is that I wrote a letter to all of the mags, yours included about brokers and the treatment we had received from some of them; Drove 180 miles to see a tug that I had rung about the day before. I was told they were open all day, I was welcome to come and see it. Got there and the place was locked up. When i found someone it was 'There are guests on that boat this weekend and I dont have keys anyway and I am at lunch.' If it is for a liveaboard I dont have anything suitable' Exit. Two of us took an afternoon off to go and see a boat, I had rung that morning. 'It is a 60 foot Colecraft, very traditional.....' We drove over and it had not been there for over a week. 'The person had been on holiday and did not know it was no longer here.' A large advertiser in WW with a hire fleet who do brokerage had a big advert of boats for sale. 'Come down anytime next week'. We did. Oh all our staff are at the NEC show we cannot even let you look at the outside of any boat. Now I could go on but I suspect you get the idea. I wrote to all of the mags. I named companies and the times dates and places where this occured. When I spoke to John currer of VC Marine about going to look at a boat and I said are you sure it will be there he wondered why I was asking him, after I had explained he said he could not believe people behaved like that and was disgusted. Now I know that all of the mags got a letter about this matter, I made it clear that I did not expect them to name names and I was more interested in the notion of mooting a professional body to which brokers could belong to where one could have a bit of confidence with whom one was dealing with rather than getting anyone a slateing in print. No reply. From you or anyone else. Despite an SAE, 2 email addresses and 3 telephone numbers. So can you please explain, why you only review good boats, and do not comment on substandard workmanship or problems when you come across them? Can you tell me why knowing that a lot of the wortwhile boats will be sold you still put these advertisements in? They are obviously just a waste of time and money for everyone concerned except people who are earning advertising revenue from them. Well I am not going to go into it here but if the inland boat owners book is as much use as the narrowboat builders book I will keep my £15 in my pocket thanks. Although I will say the WW has proven useful.

Hi If you are going to use a hole saw buy a Starrett or an Irwin, they a little dear but the best on the market. Drill a 6mm pilot hole in the centre, then use the drill on the slowest setting. I use an 850 watt Bosch for cutters of this diameter and greater. Do use plenty of lubricant, cutting paste, oil, WD40, whatever you have but do not get it in the cut, it is an offense that will get you a large fine. If necessary make a dam out of plastecene, or get a rag to catch excess lubricant. Make sure the drill has a side handle and keep hold of it. I regulalry use holesaws up to 125mm without problems, just take it slowly and carefully. If doing it the old fashioned way get a compass and mark a circle of thye required diameter. Centre dot punch holes every 4mm. Drill the punched holes with a 3mm bit. I normally start the cutting out with an abrafile or a needlefile, then I either use a junior hacksaw blade or a jigsaw. You can do the complete job with a jigsaw, either boring a large start hole slightly to the inside of the circle line. Or if there is a nearby boatyard they will do it very fast with a plasma cutter for not a lot (depending on the boatyard).

OK Gary The job of the advertising editor is to obtain revenue by selling advertising space. When we first looked at buying a boat there was no way I wanted to wait the time or play roulette that buying a new boat entailed. I have since learned who I can (probably) trust. However the adverts have a six week lead time, we were ringing up about boats that had been (allegedly) sold. 'That went three/four/six weeks ago' But the magazine has only just come out. 'Dont blame me the magazines require six week lead times. so I was wasting my time money and effort in ringing up about a load of boats that were not going to be there. One seller (trade) after telling me not to bother ringing about boats in the mags said he was busy and hung up. So I do not agree that the advertising is even ethical, it is just a waste of everyones time and resources. Back to the revues. I can give you mag title, month and page number for the semi trad that is really a trad, what do they get right. There is never a mention of the quality of the welding, the neatness of the engine bay wiring or comments on engine installation. All of these things are easily looked at by someone who knows boats. No they just drool about the interior, both in terms of fttings and layout.A sort of ideal home or country life for boats. I have never seen articles on how to go about buying a boat, pitfalls to avoid, things to check, everything is geared toward repressenting the builders or fitters as some sort of superhero who you should be grateful to have take your money. I do not know of what happened with Anthony M, only that I believe he went bankrupt, howeveer I remember the mags going into paroxyms of ecstacy about his working practices, yet I have seen mentioned that he had gone bump before................ So why can the mags not look a bit more closely at these people instead of lauding them like kings? Do they get anything for testing boats? Is it oh yes come and hava an expensive lunch and a lot of booze and a short cruise and here is a nice freebie? I wonder cos I have driven new lorries, new busses, new motorhomes, new coaches and oodles of new cars and I could never give any of them the kind of praise that these people do. Because I have a large motorhome that needs a heavy goods recovery should it break down I am in the caravan club (they run a special scheme for members) so I get their magazines and they seem to make honest apraisals of caravans that they test, pointing out advantages and drawbacks, using a ratings system. Other mags I have bought over the years, musical equipment and motorhomes to name two interests, do the same thing. So why are boats treated differently? I wonder if it is illegal to mislead people the way they do. I would very much like to look into this side of it.

Hi Mark You say travel powers only put out low voltages at low revs? I thought they were an alternator powering an inverter, have I got this wrong?

Well Chris I have shown you what the sort of fodder the main dealers use for service managers. The under the arches garage is not there to: Have managers who do nothing Have girly's who answer the phone and dont even do that very well. Have big posh reception areas Have parts departments who go on special courses in stuppidity (my citroen berlingo has a small trim panel under the headlight, according to them it is part of the bumper) Therefore as YOU are not footing the bill for all of the above the under the arches garage can do a good job relatively cheaply. Hi neil all the ones I served my light vehicle training on and before anyone says they are heavy please remember we had 27 scammells, had 2.2 or 2.5 BMC diesels. The best ones had 2.5 blocks with 2.2 heads (bigger valves) some were manual and some had (I think) Borg Warner 35 auto boxes. They were all on swivel pin steering and had 16inch wheels, with incredible lock. I had one that we pulled the back seats out of and used for breakdowns, although it really did not like towing a ten ton Ford D series.

Gosh Neil its like listening to my old foreman talking, although the price of core plugs was less then.................... sounds like the classic motor engineers solution to a common mechanical repair. Cannot add anything to what Neil has said Wil except that core plugs are a consumable item, though I cannot remember when I last did one on a car or a light commercial unless it was frost damaged. I get a chance to do it it might be worth pointing the antifreeze hydrometer into your header tank to see what level of protection you have there. If you dont know when it was last changed might be an idea to do it.

I know an excellent saw doctor near Ross on Wye Ade, next time I speak to him I will ask if he knows anyone nearer you. I use triton saw blades, excellent quality,cut and finish and triton or CMT router bits. Trick is I have found look after them and keep them maintained and they dont require too much work.

1 No because you are running the main boat engine to produce electricity, obviously a smaller engine can be made quieter, at least in theory. 2 Yes it is inefficient, expensive,causes wear and pollution and is really a compromise. It is convenient though. Dedicated gensets mean that if there is a problem with the main engine you can still have electricity, if the genset fails you can still charge batteries to run an inverter. If you were generating electricity and or battery charging you could still run your main engine on red diesel. You will not be able to use red diesel for direct or indirect propulsion should the derogation be removed. Boat builders love to maximise profits, putting in an easily mounted travel power is a high profit low effort option for them to make lots of money.

Hi Graham, I feel the consensus opinion of a table saw is the one to go for. I use Bradfords builders merchants for most of my timber as it is reasonably priced, they deliver for free for orders over £100 and the local one has someone who knows about hardwood, softwood and machining. My local Jewsons used to hire a table saw, dont know if they still do. a spindle moulder would give a one shot good finish, it is how most mouldings are turned out. You COULD make up an angled jig for a router and pass the work through that, you could also probably make a jig for a good hand held electric planer. As Ade said if you do use a circular saw yourself make sure you use pushsticks and treat the machine with the greatest of respect. good luck with whatever method you use.

Looks like you have pinholed a core plug by the oil filter Will, I am flat out at the moment but let me know when you are back at your mooring and if it is not sorted I will talk you through the job over the phone if life is still as manic as it as at the moment and I cannot get to Pershore.

Hi Is your genset watercooled or air cooled?

I did both the light and heavy exams, although where I worked the only light vehicles we worked on were a fleet of black London type taxis (FX4's). Which were really large cars with commercial vehicle type technology, ie steering boxes, diesel engines, drum brakes all round and remote brake servos. Gosh electric retarders, have not worked on a Telmar for years, only ever on a coach too. When we were running in europe on convoy exceptional the low loader trailers had massive 1/2 ton electric retarders as extra braking devices cos the law at that time allowed you to overload by the weight of any additional safety device fitted never worked on them although found them very effective in the Alps for stopping.