Arthur Marshall

Voltage was down to about 11.5 - winter plays hell with the domestic battery with the early use of lights, and the radio sems to eat quite a lot of it too. But I thought leisure batteries were designed to cope with this cycle? I always assumed the pressure sensor was a mechanical thing rather than electrical. As long as there's an explanation I'm happy, even if I have to admit I don't understand it! My schooldays of doing physics are too far behind me, and I've never really understood all this stuff...

The pressure switch on my fresh water pump appears to get confused if the battery voltage is low - is this normal? What happens is that it doesn't switch off properly after the tap is closed but cycles on and off in a grumbling manner. Seems to work fine on fully charged battery.

Has anyone any idea how much replating a forty foot narrowboat might cost? And how long a replating job should last before it needs to be done again? I had the boat done (bottom and sides) about fifteen years ago. Is it worth getting it surveyed and checked out or should I be able to assume it'll be OK for a few years yet? I'm dubious about the value of surveyors since they did a friend's boat, found a very small thin bit which he patched and missed a three foot area which nearly sank him. The final bit is the engine. It's currently a Lister SR2 which has been given problems for a while and cost a small fortune in repairs. Again, is it worth replacing this? I know I could just buy a new(ish) boat but the current one has been a part of my life for half of it, and I like it.

I've got considerable hearing loss from playing in bands for forty years, but I don't think it's been made any worse by standing on top of a Lister for the past twenty. I suspect it's the top end of your hearing that damages quicker, which is why I can't hear birdsong any more, but the low register doesn't affect you so much.

Bronze - serious breakdown last year, got a load of advice and £1000 towards a gearbox repair. Hope I never need them again, but worth it for peace of mind, especially in an old boat, with an old engine and an ancient boater sitting on the back who can't get down into the engine bay very well any more.

My band used to play at the Waverton carnival, and I used to moor up opposite the houses just befoer the bridge. It was then (and probaby isnow) the only bit of canal deep enough to get close enough to thebank to moor apart from the designated BW/disabled boat morring the other side of the bridge. There was nowhere else in Waverton dredged enough to get a boat in and it was he last decent shopping point for a while. At the time, everyone seemed friendly enough, but they certainly fed the ducks.

It's a summer project - I just like thinking about boating when I can't actually boat!

I've done most of my boating on my tod, and have never quite had the nerve to tackle Birmingham! Reading one of the other threads, someone mentioned a Delph/Stourton route as being easier for a singlehander. As I quite fancy he idea of going through there this year (it seems a shame to miss it out and I may not have many years boating left in me), any advice as to routes, moorings, overnight stops etc would be more than welcome. I'm not bothered about pubs as for various reasons my alcohol intake is now more or less zero...

Sounded good, tried it... have now built the fire the right way up... maybe my house is upside down.

Has anyone ever had an automatic bilge pump that's worked? I've always used them, and both times they've really been needed they haven't switched on when the water rose in the bilge. I don't trust them any more.

I pay end of garden fee to BW, so my total mooring cost is about £800. Still a lot cheaper than most marinas. Mind you, there are no facilities here at all apart from parking. When I was at Croughton by Ellesmere Port, there was water, elsan and a small basin with power at farm rates for about the same money.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why marinas are so expensive? I've always moored on farm moorings, currently pay less than £500 a year for a 40 foot boat and even this is obviously all profit for the farmer. The last Marina I stayed at while repairs were being done charged a sight more than that for exactly the same facilities (ie none), the owner lived on a boat on one of his pontoons - so how come over two grand a year per boat?

Isn't one of the problems that you simply can't cc during winter because of the stoppages? I would have thought that this should be taken into account in the pricing of a winter mooring, which it appears isn't the case.

That's where mine was, and also was one of the reasons I took it out. I think mine was about six inches from the fire when the bed was pulled out. Felt warm on a cold morning, but never very safe. That was before the boat had a coal fire...

Middlewich folk & boat festival is in July, I think.

Mine had one fitted when I bought it, and when it died I put another one in - it was nice to have instant heat. However, after a while it failed to stay alight, which is never a good sign in any form of gas fire, and I replaced it with bookshelves... the main problem with catalytic heaters is that they produce a huge amount of water vapour and therefore condensation, which is definitely not a good thing in a boat. Solid fuel any time, me.

If I remember rightly, there's what used to be a dairy (I think) abandoned at the end of the wharf and an abandoned warehouse on the other side. The dairy is a wreck and covers quite a large area. It's all a bit run down but the village itself is lovely. Certainly plenty of room for a development. I'd be tempted to move there meself if there was anywhere to tie up the tub.

Unless it's all been improved, the only place you can moor at Waverton is opposite the houses - everywhere else is too shallow. And it's the last shop for miles going south. The "wharf", last time I looked, had some nice bollards and a sign saying reserved for BW boats and the disabled boat.

There's a bit on their site which says it's a download app for iphone or android at about £6 a region and "RCR will be providing one region of your choice to our members as a free membership benefit, with additional regions being available at a discount to members. .All RCR members will receive notification on how and where to download their regional map as soon as it is available" The standalone software is over a hundred quid - the old CanalPlanner was about fifty i seem to remember and I presume the onlne CanalPlan is still up and running and free to use.

I make them all through the spring and summer and they keep us going through the winter... it takes a fortnight of daily papers before it's worth making any, and then you get about twenty bricks. I liberated an old two level shopping trolley someone had dumped on our street and dry them out on that - you can just wheel them into the sun and then back into shelter when it rains. Take a week to dry out in summer, more if it isn't sunny, but by that time you're ready with another load of papers & sawdust soaking in the bin. You wouldn't want to just use them in the fire - they do make a fair bit of ash. Never thought of putting the papers through the shredder...

Hi - anyone been on one of RCR's Diesel Engine maintenance courses? If so, any opinion?

Sounds like a good idea from the general consensus round here. I'll try to find someone who can do it without chargingme a fortune...

Thanks for that - I will compare the pics when I go tomorrow... I have no idea how to check the diaphragm - I suspect this is beyond my level of technical knowledge! I'll mention it to the engineer when I get the thing serviced.