JDR

Marinised Kubota base engines very sought after by Yottie types. Never heard of any problems, reputation for reliability same as Betas that use same engines. Vibration on a triple is normal, with a 120deg crank the only way to eliminate it would be a balance shaft.

Eta: This is the smoke deflector plate that sits directly underneath the flue opening not the main baffle. If left in place on a standard boat installation it must have a negative effect on the stove's draw.

Tim can correct me but I think he is describing the baffle plate which is standard fitment on new Squirrels and not a flue based damper. I agree it is a daft looking design, in exactly the right place to catch anything swept down from above. After a year or two of acidic smoke I can see it being a pain to remove. If I was fitting that stove to my boat it would be rapidly skip bound.

I'd go by the manufacturer's recommendation for a boat and do the filter every change. The oil in my engine is normally still clear after 250hrs if I noticed it going black much earlier I'd reduce the time between changes. Your engine may be different. I'd also change the fuel filter at the same time as that is the biggest showstopper on diesel boat engines. On a motorbike engine there are more variables, if I had a bike with camshaft running directly in the head or did a lot of town work 1k changes would be the order of the day. If I had a bike with seperate g/box 5k and if it was a despatch bike then when it gets so bad you can't change gear.

A lot depends on whether you have a cabin bilge seperated by a bulkhead from the engine room/rear deck or a through bilge that runs the length of ther boat. If the former then no it isn't normal to have water in the cabin bilge.As you don't know how many days/weeks/months it has taken to get there I would use a Wet Vac to get rid of what is already there and see if any more appears. I would expect to hear the water pump cycling regularly if you had a leak on the water system. Some older boats were designed to have the shower empty into a trough bilge where it run to the back of the boat, so without knowing what you've got hard to say. It always looks worse than it is, I wouldn't panic yet.

Someone I knew on a 10' widebeam last year was quoted between £2.2k and £2.5 for rear canopy including as you said a tubular frame.

Eta: Where it becomes a major issue is when you are buying that bottle as a spare having changed the empty at some inconvenient time. You could then be 5 months and hundreds of miles from the retailer. As you in theory have a contract with the supplier has anybody had success returning a defective bottle to a different retailer from the one it was purchased?

With the amount of use/abuse bottles get in normal use I'd be very surprised if suppliers didn't allow for a certain rate of damaged bottles that get put back into circulation. I'd guess somewhere around the 5% mark. I have heard lots of anecdotal reports of someone buying one non sealing bottle over say a five year period. As long as the retailer swaps the bottle without aggro I don't think that's too bad.

If you turn the bottle off and the smell disappears all you have proved is that the shutoff works. It doesn't eliminate the likeliest problem on a bottle, damaged threads or mating surface.

Single locks easier by far. Unless lock is very deep the gates are easy to move, the bottom gates aren't leaking like a sieve and the speed the boat rises compared to a leaky broad lock is incredible. Everything about their design is tailored to narrowboat use, I even love the way the boat magically moves back just enough to allow gates to open when lock is empty. I think you can tell I'm a fan!

I had a problem with a bottle once caused by an almost invisible burr on the smooth mating surface. Took bottle back and it was changed no questions asked.

A Durite 86mm revcounter with mechanical hourmeter is a solid bit of kit and easy to get ball park right on the setup side, about £80. The VDO gauges are fitted as standard equipment on a lot of boats but only seem available with digital hourmeters which may suffer in a wet environment. They aren't cheap either.

I find a tacho useful. With a keel cooled Beta under boards it isn't always obvious what the engine is doing by noise, much as I love the reliability noone buys modern four cylinder diesels for the sound. I know on a river I can sit at 1500 revs dawn to dusk, the engine won't overheat and I'll use a litre an hour. If I had a slower revving engine where change of exhaust note and vibration make it easier to tell what is happening I don't see any need.

To work out the reference frequency you need to set up tacho for a Durite gauge..no of alternator poles/2 x (crankshaft pulley (inches)/alternator pulley) x full scale RPM (ie: for 0-4000 revcounter that figure is 4000). Divide by 60 to get answer.

Most rev counters will come with instructions to allow you to calibrate rev counter. You normally need to measure the diameter of the alternator and engine pulleys in inches and know how many pairs of poles your alternator has (eg for A127 you have six (pairs). You then compare the answer with a table provided and use a small screwdriver to move a round switch on the back of the counter to the number on the table, 1-8 on VDO and Durite gauges.

On balance I think you're right, too much info for a sticky and it's not like driving a car, everybody has their own methods.

I've noticed a lot of posts in different sections where people are asking for help before their first trip or have some experience but aren't confident singlehanding. Howabout a section at the top of boat handling describing the basics of boat handling for people starting out? Maybe another one for single handed boating as they both seem to be recurring questions.

Using a shaggy roller (if that's the right word) to apply paint is a great way to hide surface imperfections on an area like deck where finish isn't critical.

In the absence of any proof to the contrary I think you are wise to put a positive spin on it. The default setting for dealing with boaters is honesty and it can take a while to recalibrate your expectations (common sense obviously applies). Having worked for shitty employers I know how it can affect your worldview. I would be happy that you have diagnosed a fault that can be fixed easily albeit with unwanted expense. Remember what boat stands for, bring out another thousand.

I would have thought it more likely that the boat has spent a long time on a shoreline with charger permanently attached and running masking the true state of the batteries. The date of manufacture doesn't necessarily bear any relationship to when the batteries first went into service. I hope this is the case as the alternative, ie: swapping good batteries for duffers is not something I would expect from any seller.

Your engine is probably a Kubota marinised by Nanni in France. Kubota engines are very commonly used in agricultural plant. A tractor dealers can be another source of cheap spares.

Try giving ASAP supplies a call, always found them helpful in identifying equivalent filters. Fram filters are well made, I would have no issues with using them instead of OEM filters.

No Canal Please?