charles123

As always you pays your money and takes your choice. The main factors being the hull look you want (not important to the majority of boat owners in my opinion which is a great pity) How long you are prepared to wait How much you are prepared to pay The risk factor in losing money if using lesser known builder. For me I am more than happy to recommend Tyler or Wilson who met my need for a nice looking boat, short lead time, good quality and competitive price Charles http://tuglyranarrowboatcharles.blogspot.c...es_archive.html

very neat job, since you have gone to a lot of trouble you might consider welding a plate across the bottom sufficient to form a foothold in the unlikely event of someone falling in Charles

I have been to all the museums but know Ellesmere Port best as its closer having been half a dozen times over 10 years. Its seems to be in a time warp and there is little that changes which is a great pity. I put this down to lack of direction or weak management from the Waterways Trust who operate/own the museums. While most museums are now turning over to free entrance to encourage maximum attendance, these 3 as far as I know still charge entrance fees. Which again supports my view of lack of modernisation. The best thing that can happen is to at least shake up the senior management or better still hand them all over to a national body that can invest money to develop the wonderfull canal heritage of ours Charles

If anyone knows what this costs to use and the waiting list and if there is a power washer that goes with it. I am sure we would be interested to know. I guess its only usefull for hull blacking during the late spring to early autumn as when its cold and wet its pointless trying to paint the hull Charles

I agree with Chris but the boat builder not knowing is not really a surprise its symptomatic of the business. You could ask your builder to contact a couple of previous customers of similar boats and ask the weight. Assuming they were lifted off the trailer by crane at the customers end. The weight comes from a gauge in the crane drivers cab Charles

dont forget these are your winter costs, better to estimate an average cost for the year Charles

A standard boat should weigh about 15 to 17 tons for this size, if its deep draft like mine it needs more ballast so its 19 tons but yours is wide beam so I dont know. I cant help regarding weight of crane but I can give you a phone number of a very reasonable crane operate (Skeet cranes )Worsley who could help if its that part of the world. John Skeet 07860208914 Watch what you are being charged for a crane they can vary a lot but your builder will have his own arrangement at his end for a good price, its at the other end that they leave you to arrange and prices will vary between £150 to £1000 (NB not wide beam) in my experience Charles

Just an opinion but if you are taking the legal route I dont think its going to be helpfull to put too much on the internet, just keep it private. In addition if its the builder I think it is they read this forum so another reason for keeping it private. I took a boat builder through the legal route a few years back and won. Good luck with this Charles

you wont find smaller than this http://www.fatscostoves.com/ Charles

You could try depron which is used as underfloor insulation, its one of the best you can get and not expensive, from memoury its 6mm thick Charles

My boat (Jonathan Wilson) has a 3 inch wide strip welded horizontally each side of the rudder across the full width of the rudder about a ft under water. This could act as a step if needed Charles

Steve, I would put boat quality top of your agenda, this is very variable depending on the operator and age of their fleet, nor are you restricted to these 3 operators, some of the smaller ones only have a small number of boats but can be more interesting boats, you shuld be able to search them out on the internet Charles

I am surprised at the prices quoted, I really dont believe anyone would pay that much, I certainly would not, at that price there is far too much profit being extracted. Will have to think more about this one An cheaper option would be to locate a modern engine in a box further down the boat offset like vintage engines in an engine room but I would use universal joints to take the prop shaft down the side of the boat to avoid the loss in headroom. Never really figured why they run it down the centre line and lose the head room in the rear cabin but there you are Charles

Have added a couple of photos of the foam I used on Lyra Charles http://tuglyranarrowboatcharles.blogspot.com/

When you think about it the standard installation of a narrowboat engine in the stern has the major disadvantages of being very awkward to get in and out of the rear deck in a trad boat and secondly its noisy despite soundproofing and a good silencer. For a new boat I would consider hydraulic drive so the engine could be positioned away from the rear thus getting round the two problems noted above. Anyone know what it costs? anyone got any expeiece of a boat fitted with this Thanks Charles

think about fender attachment eyes stern and bow bracket bow locker to allow padlock for rear hatch bracket to enable padlock or some other way of locking centre mooring rope attachment Charles

Thanks for everyones help on this. I have found that I can fit the 6kg bottle in if I stand it directly under the hatch as the hatch stands higher than the locker by about 1 inch. That gives me another 2kg capacity which is tiny really but it all helps. I was talking to another owner of the same shell who uses a bottle for a 2 week cruise as its for cooking only which is ok. The price of the 6kg is still extortionate at £13 wheras the 13 kg is about £16, but as gas suppliers have a monopoly no one is going to undercut another by more than a few pence Charles

I want to better understand my power consumption and wondered if there is a rule of thumb to calculate how much amperage I am using and therefore how much to put back in. I dont have any fancy equipment to monitor this only a volt meter on the instrument panel which I dare say is of little help in this respect I have 540 amps in 3 batteries. 50 amp alternator and Sterling alternator controller I want to add up the consumption in amps per day which is mostly taken up as follows TV and satellite decoder 5 hrs per day 12 20w halogen lamps 7 hrs per day Fridge 12 hrs per day Pumps etc only an hour or so I would guess As I say its only a rough guide I am after, hopefully some members of the board will have worked out a similar set of consumptions for their own boat Thanks in anticipation Charles

Les The price is dear that you were quoted, engineered floor comes in approx £22 a sq metre and is available at B&Q, Screwfix and Whickes at this price for good quality. I have it in my boat but Garys point and my own about it getting wet is very valid you have to be carefull to wipe up any water. Laminate flooring is half that price but the water issue is still valid, although the surface is a plastic laminate and therefore waterproof the problem is at the joints where the water penetrates and swells (both engineered and laminate) or discolours the wood (engineered) To minimise this I have rubbed Danish oil into all of the joints, I dont know how effective it is good luck Charles

Daniel, I will check on the 6kg and find out the size if I can. By the way the locker is correctly designed, as you know they have to drain to the lowest point at each side, well because the tug design of hull has a deep draft they have to build the hull that way otherwise the draining points would be under water Charles

no but engineered wood flooring comes in this size by many makers. What you need to watch is it getting wet as water will get down the joints that will swell or very least stan the wood as the varnish cost is on the top layer and the edges which are designed to be hidden receive little protective varnish. Consider vynil flooring which is hard to tell from real wood, only about 5mm thick but you need a good level floor to lay it on. Its a bit dearer to buy but entirely waterproof Charles

My gas locker will not take a 13kg bottle which is too tall, reason being the tug hull is lower. I only have about 18 inches in the height and the 13kg bottle is about 24 inches. Therefore I have a 3.9 kg bottle which does not last long. I went for a refill and checked 2 places the cost being £10 to £11. What I cant figure is that a 13kg refil is about £16, so my refil costs almost 3 times the cost of a 13kg refil why is this? Secondly am I correct in saying I cant use a gas bottle lying on its side as they have to be vertical to work even if it was secured to meet safety requirements? Anyone know of any othr altrnatives to my small bottle? thanks Charles

There is an alternative to finrads in various sizes, called perimeter or skirting raiators. I did consider them and as I recall were cheaper than finrads. In the end I went for conventional panel radiators There are a number of suppliers here is one http://www.discountedheating.co.uk/shop/ac...an_Heaters.html Charles