kevinl

I'm looking at getting a new stove and the best deals and range seem to come from Machine Mart. From £95.00 inc Vat for a pot belly up to £700ish. Anybody know anything about them? Even though I'm still tempted to same up a bit more and get a Boatmen stove. Kev

As long as whatever you use to seal the split can be cleanly removed when you do come to get it welded. I wouldn't use araldite type stuff otherwise removing it to get as clean new weld would be difficult.

I've seen this happen and the split opened up quite quickly so I'd be tempted to at least put a rachet strap round the tank over the split then monitor and get if rewelded as and when. Probably it's just a little bit of a localised welding issue and won't get any worse but if it's not it would help to take some of the strain off either side of the split. K

My boat currently has a badly peeling couple of coats of an own brand enamel from a well know central England chandlers. The paint went on OK and looked good at first but it's now flaking off quite badly, in under 2 years. The undercoat looks perfectly sound so can I just go over it (after a bit of sanding) with a better brand of enamel paint or, can as many here have recommended just use Dulux Weathershield? I did wonder if I could use hammerite smooth. Any advise? Many tanks K

Me too

The plan with the pipeline is to shift 66,000,000 gallons of water a day. Won't 66 millions gallons flowing down the canals have a bit of an effect? To me 66 million gallons sounds a fast flowing river, won't it rip anything that's not nailed down off its moorings, what happens when it hits the locks or weirs as they will become and more worryingly if I go down south will I ever be able to back to the north or will I need a bigger engine (or a tow off naughty Cal)? Plus won't the banks erode with a flow of water like that. Anybody out there clever enough to do the maths for nearly 3 million gallons an hour down a 20 feet wide by 4 feet deep canal?

Quote from Sunday's Daily Mail "The company has also suggested that the pipeline may not connect to reservoirs but link instead to England’s underused canal network." United Utilities plan to transfer water from the north to the south by building a pipeline next to the proposed high speed train line and using "the underused canal network" to transfer water. Anybody know where the underused bit is and more seriously what would be the effect of canals having flowing water? How would it work with locks? Is this really a seriously viable proposition or just some know-nothing doing some blue sky, think outside the envelope bulls**tting? Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106547/Rail-pipe-bring-water-South--2-6billion-plan-build-alongside-HS2-route.html#ixzz1nb8Cn1n5

Try these guys or Midland Chandlery do them too. http://www.procastnotts.com/index.php/13/info.php?p=13

What made me go for a narrowboat were things: the wood/coal fire. I want to be able to use my boat throughout the year, OK, sometimes I don't get out of the marina so it's more like a caravan, but I can potter about. watch telly, read, banter with the other owners or whatever it's better than being at home. I have seen fires on cruisers but they never looked safe to me so unless you pay for one with (an expensive) gas or diesel heater then you won't be using it much in the winter. Secondly of all the cruisers I looked at very few had an inboard diesel engine, petrol is: expensive, potentially more dangerous than diesel and not that widely available on the cut so jerry can and a funnel. So unless you want to lock the boat up and head south for the winter like most of the other cruiser owners then I'd go with the nb every time. K

1. At the moment, he lives near Manchester. Presumably a barge (instead of a narrowboat) would be an OK boat around there? I assume that the Manchester Ship Canal is both still navigable and also wide enough for a barge? The Manchester Canal is very much open but you can't moor on it and passage along it has to be booked. Certainly yoiu can't liveaboard on there. There are plans in the pipeline to build a port in Salford and bring it back into full use. 2. Are all the other canals and rivers around Manchester also wide enough for barges? Yes, Britain's first canal the Bridgewater right in the city centre, can't get much closer than that. 3. Darren says that he is not particularly bothered about whether he continues to live near Manchester or not. That widens his options in one sense but narrows them in another. Would it be viable for him to move to somewhere near Liverpool and to live on a boat on the inland waterways in the Liverpool area, please? If so:- The leeds-liverpool canal springs to mind. 3.1 whereabouts would be a good place to consider, please? Although Birmingham famously has more canals than Venice Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire have more than their fair share. 3.2. what sort of annual costs would one be likely to have to consider, please? Someone has mentioned a total cost of £2 per day. Presumably that is roughly the total cost for keeping a boat on an inland waterway but it probably doesn't include the costs of the boat itself - eg fuel, gas and whatever else a boat might need? I pay £65.00 a month for the marina fees (non residential) for a 30 foot boat and £300.00 for a licence (might sound cheap to a BW licence payers but it's the Bridgewater not BW so not as much as you guys). Fuel and gas depends on how you use them how far you cruise (if at all) each day and how much cooking you do. 4. Sure, the average barge is larger than most other boats. Would the costs of owning a barge be exponentially more expensive than some other types of boats or do the costs tend to work in a linear fashion, please? Bigger it is the more it costs, most things work on the size of the boat alone, so it's a trade off money for room. I think I could live for extended periods on a 30-40 foot boat, alone that is bit cosy for 2. 5. Is there a specific charge for using a stretch of canal or a flight of locks managed by BW, please, or does all this depend on the type of boat/mooring licence that one has? Only the odd bits of river and canal aren't BW but if you have a Bridgewater licence first week on BW is free after that about £25.00 per week (for me) dependent on boat size on top of my £300.00 Bridgewater licence. Hope this helps K

Anyone know the nature of the "event", is it something boat related?

Good luck, at 97 miles and 92 locks you'll have to go some. Generally this is quoted as a 50 hour trip so 1 week is quite a push, just as well you have a few willing youngsters (bit of an oxymoron?) to do the locks some of which are quite challenging I've always thought. 100 miles at 4mph and 97 locks at 15 minutes each is 50 hours(ish) The advantage to anticlockwise is you get the 30 lock free miles on the Bridgewater near the end of the trip so you can play catch-up a bit if necessary (within the speed limits obviously). That may all sound a bit negative but go for it, it's a great cruise but if it were me I'll lake to have a bit more time to enjoy: the Anderton lift, Lymm (Cheshire in general really, it's all nice), Barton swing bridge (only a short diversion off the ring), city centre Manchester (Castlefields) too much to list. One thing I would take is large umbrella, it's not been as clement Up North as it has for some of the rest of the country. Have a great time and wave when you overtake me.

Looks like there's a new boater in the making here. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018435/Isabelle-Byrne-2-saves-falling-murky-canal.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

£380.00 for 5 people for 6 days = £12.66 per person per day, bargain

Likin’ it so far but… Mayalid – “ball hanging out” – Tried that, got me put on a register of some sort. Leo – “Hello sailor who’s your friend” – Should I do that in my Julian Clarey voice or not, which do you do? Muddywaters – “Follow them into the pub” - Sorry, not allowed, as I say I’m already on this register, strictly off limits. Matty40 – “Continous Stalker” – That’s what the judge called me too, coincidence or are you a Salford Magistrate in your spare time.

I live a short walk from my local, a modern but nice enough canalside pub adjacent to a marina, where boats regularly moor in the marina and on the bank for the night and presumably some of the boaters are in the pud enjoying a quite drink, but how do I get to meet them for a bit of boater’s banter, is there a secret sign I don’t know about? I’ve tried sitting at the bar reading Towpath Talk and muttering “Bloody British Waterways” at regular intervals but no joy, the only person that did approach me asked the way to the gents, when I came back with “pump-out or cassette” he just gave me a puzzled look and quickly backed away so obviously not a boater, no true boater could resist that question, ever. Then I had a cunning plan (a Baldrick moment if you like), if I don’t look like a boater, maybe if I smelt like one….. so move over Channel Number 5, K-Lo’s Essence d’Bargee is the new smell on the block. Made with a careful balanced cocktail of red diesel, engine oil, wood smoke and elsan fluid, dabbed liberally behind the ears then a liberal coating of dog sh*t (or the nearest available faeces) applied to the soles of the shoes and as much pre-chewed food as |I could fit into my beard and they had to know I was one of them. Nothing, however, the pub was unusually quiet that night as everyone seemed to leave just after I arrived, so come on guys what’s the secret sign, let me in on it, please!!

Hi All After reading this forum for years I finally thought I'de better join in as today seem to be talk about toilets day and I have a question, pump out or cassette, which am I? To explain, I rarely go out on my boat for more than 3 or 4 days at a time so if I take 6 Immodium the days before departure I can last the whole trip without a No. 2. When I get back my therapist wife performs colonic irrigation on me and all is well again. I argue this makes me a pump-out for I think very obvious reasons she, however, says that I'm simply using my digestive tract as a biological cassette a kind of human Thetford thing, who's right. Kev