Paul C

There is nothing wrong with the current rules. It’s about managing expectations. If people want their boat accurately diagnosed they should be able to go to a boatyard or a service call and be charged an hourly rate for such service. If they just want an opinion of the other forum members that comes with caveats and it’s necessary to comprehend many pages of waffle in between useful posts.

On a "modern" trad stern its normal to have some kind of compromise in the rear deck access due to the position of the engine. But the devil is in the detail - how low does the engine sit, how far forward (to give some free space around the step(s), how well sound insulated is it, how big is the hatch etc. That one, unless its an optical illusion of the poor photo, looks pretty terrible.

Not necessarily. Boat has asking price of £60k................survey reveals £10k needs spent on it.............£10k is spent on it...........boat is now worth £55k. Thus, the offer should be £15k below the asking.

A boat which doesn't need overplating, and hasn't been overplated, would be worth more. A boat which DOES need overplating, but hasn't been, would be worth less. It depends on how good the work is done and how extensive the corrosion is, its a length of string thing. There is no consistent quality of work from boatyards, that's if you can persuade them to give you a quote and stick to it, and do the necessary in a reasonable timescale - which is by no means guaranteed. I suppose if the work were done so poorly the overplating wasn't watertight, it could be deemed to cause more issues than it solves and actually devalue the boat, since it would need the additional work of undoing the shoddy repair attempt to put it right. Its a danger to already fall in love with a boat that needs work and isn't yours yet. But then if you approached the topic rationally, the conclusion you'd reach is.......don't buy a boat!

I believe he is at the stage where "he doesn't know what he doesn't know". In due course, he will progress to the next stage of "knows what he doesn't know", which most novice canal boat owners fall into until they have a couple of years boating experience behind them.

The bar is quite high for moderator intervention. He would need to "knowingly deceive". I believe most of his posts with tech info (rather than his opinion on matters) do deceive, but its not immediately obvious and probably unknowingly too. Best just regard the forum as "infotainment", and if it proves useful then all the better.

Is this AI-generated?

I have a "suite" of 3 meters which I use to check batteries: multimeter; DC clamp ammeter; and battery tester (Topdon Artibattery 101). The multimeter, reading voltage settings, is convenient to answer a basic "is it being charged or not?" question. The ammeter shows how much charge (and discharge) there is; and the battery tester can (theoretically) show battery capacity and state of charge. Regarding jumping from the leisure batteries, the answer is, so long as you can put back in the energy that you used in starting, then you'll be fine indefinitely. I am trusting that its a setup with an alternator as well as solar.

PM sent - let me know if you can't see it, due to the low post count etc. I am not sure if the forum is set up so you can't receive; or can't initiate a private conversation.

The heat loss saved vs extra complexity of install is why we don’t see it.

1st Law of Thermodynamics - energy cannot be created or destroyed - would suggest not. In the case of the stove, unless the backboiler is up to the same temperature as the rest of the stove (which will never happen), it will act as a heatsink and x units of coal will produce slightly less temperature rise. You could put more coal on to get the boat to comfy temperature (in a similar time to a stove with no backboiler), or you could put the same amount of coal on and it would take longer (and there would be less coal remaining unburnt). Similarly, the fact that the calorifier is in the circuit will act as a heatsink and the diesel boiler would either work harder, or go for longer. Contrast with the example of turning the engine on only to charge batteries vs charging batteries AND heating water. An engine is effectively a miniature CHP plant (combined heat and power) and because the heat which would be otherwise wasted (to the environment, via the skin tank warming some canal water) is also being used in a useful way, the overall efficiency will go up significantly if both tasks are accounted for.

I don't think its a "free" byproduct in that case.

No wonder I didn't see it, its such a terrible pic!

This is where the plate comes into the equation. Without details such as age/mileage/model, it is difficult to accurately value.

Wouldn't one be security for the other?

How did you determine that figure?

There was an incomplete attempt to produce a Wiki.

Tony, you don't actually have a narrowboat to offer for the swap here, do you? I think your prices are skewed, and thus your point about the inequity of the swap is rendered moot. I'd suggest you 1) look at the price of campervans, 2) look at the price of hiring one, 3) look at the likely price of (hiring) a narrowboat in the range of consideration of the OP again.

This is a very poor picture, there is almost no useful information in the majority of the picture on the left. And the right is cropped too tightly to show the towpath, thus we are unable to judge the available passing space. It looks like someone has gotten their boat into the open water of the marina entrance, lined up the widebeam with the bridgehole (almost) and taken the pic to try 'frame' it, or the boat mover.

No plate

"Smart" alternators on cars aren't that smart. Typically they have 2 extra wires, "con" and "mon" in techie language, which stands for control and monitoring lines. They are pulse-width modulated signals. The smart bit is in the ECU of the car which controls it, by monitoring various inputs and controlling outputs such as being able to command high idle, or turn on (or off) loads such as heated rear window as a power sink or load shedding.

If you're heading southbound you'd want to do the last of the Red Bull locks then get thru the tunnel. If you're going northbound, its not so much of an issue, you can tootle up to the tunnel then turn and go back to a nice mooring, then turn again and come up to the tunnel the next morning. So let's hope your planning and execution of locks is good enough to get to the tunnel mouth before 11:59am

I thought you had to book Harecastle these days.......online.......

I don't think there are ANY requirements. My rationale is that "marina" covers a broad range of moorings, from the simple 1-2 boats end of field, to a larger online mooring, to a finger-pontoon style broadened stretch of canal, to an offline marina. Sure, they could impose a stepped set of rules/requirements depending on size, but I don't believe they do. My advice would be to equip yourself and your boat with whatever you feel you need for your own personal safety - be it a decent torch for the winter months, lifejacket, better/more appropriate footwear, rescue ladder, liferings on the boat etc. It also has the advantage its near to hand if/when you go cruising.