Ssscrudddy

So why not just put proper beer is meant to be served at -6°C. Wont it freeze at that temp?

I've fell in the canal, does that make me a proper boater?... even tho I dont have a boat yet!

Well if you are complaining about their spelling, I would suggest you check your own 1st. As a cyclist, thorns on the towpath are a given. The most I have had is 15, or rather, I only had 15 puncture patches, after which it was a long walk home.

I'm buying a boat. It comes with a canals licence until the end of Feb. But I want to keep it on the River Nene (EA). When I looked at their website it was quite clear I would be charged the whole year no matter when I bought their licence. It was also clear that if it is after Sept 1st the I get 50% discount. Because of where I will be (Northampton Becketts Park marina) I need a licence for the rivers & the canal, ie a gold licence. When I rang EA, they was happy to just charge me monthly (over 10 months but there is only 3 moths left for what I want) until end of Dec, at which point I will be buying a gold licence, so they will only be charging me 3 moths licence. I have to wonder what did you say to them/ask them. All I did was explain what I wanted & they seemed very happy to oblige, or to put it another way, EA are NOT going to charge me 1 years fee even tho they can, they will just charge me for just the 3 months I want it for (Oct to Dec), & then I'll get my gold.

I find it amusing that 2 people seem to be offended that WJM wants to do the lock by himself

I dont have a boat, I've never had a boat... but I'm working on it. But like Blackrose says, from what I've read on here & on various water authoriteis sites, it really does depend on the waterway, & you are supposed to do what they say

link doesnt work. need the correct link to the correct petition

Im the OP. I was asking about a boat. I couldnt find out enough info about the engine hours. I've since found a boat that I can find plenty of details about, & it has been cruising lots. Same age etc. My original question was trying to find out if the 1st boat had just beeen running the engine just to charge batteries (which is bad IMO). I am now not going to get that boat, & I think that is just what it has done

Haha, I love that idea with the dog poo, have another greenie

I would suggest, even though you are only currently window shopping, go & look at a few boats anyway just to get a feel for things. Pick some close ones, perhaps at a brokerage that will let you look without them coming with you so that at least you arent wasting anyones time. You dont have to look at loads if you arent ready to go yet, but seeing a few in the flesh you will have time to rethink your plans or not depending on how you feel. Bishop Auckland is a mighty long way to go

OK, thanks. I had it confirmed by them (EA). They will refund unused portion of the licence. They will also take monthly payments over 10 months (or what is left of their year) So assuming 1st October, £413 due over 6 months, = Monthly payments of £69 Then 1st Jan I can do my Gold licence instead, without having to get a refund on the EA licence because I wouldnt have yet paid for those unused 3 months (Jan to March)

I'm buying a boat. 58'. I expect to have it within 3 weeks. It's currently on the GUC & has a licence for that until Feb which the current owner I think is letting me have. I will be keeping it on the River Nene at Northampton which is EA. a 12 month licence, April 2013 to March 2014 is £825 (so presumably a bit more next year) a 50% discount because it is being done after 1st Sept is approx £413 (Sept 2013 to March 2014) Refunds If you upgrade to a Gold Licence, we can refund your individual waterway annual registration fee in full. Under a seperate section When we do not offer refunds - Late or end-of-season registrations Refunds - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/145976.aspx A Gold licence runs Jan to Dec & is £1186 at 2013 prices. So maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but from my reading of that, if I buy the discounted licence from EA for £413 (lets say 1st October) & then 3 months later on the 1st Jan upgrade to a gold licence, then I get my £413 back?

I've been looking at boats in order to buy. What I have noticed is that although they may look fine in the photo, quite often they are absolutely crap when you get there & the photo hasnt been doctored. Also a slap of paint on the exterior which you can see can make the boat look very nice indeed, but it is still crap. There was another thread here, where a guy wanted to buy an £18k boat (I think a 30ft Springer at Whilton), but the survey said it needed 14k of overplating alone & recommended it was only worth £2k in it's current state. I wanted a 58 ft boat (liveaboard) less than 20 years old, I thought maybe £30k, but once I started looking I very soon decided that I need to spend 40k because everything I saw in my original price range really was a load of old rubbish.

Congratz. A couple of years ago I would have been jealous, but not today. Although I've not got a boat yet it looks like it's going to happen pretty soon, & I'm looking forward to being as excited as you are.

Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I've decided not to bother with it. There are other boats out there. For example, I've just seen an advert for a NB called On Schedule. I went & had a look at it & it's perfect, ticks every box. They even have a blog about it here

Yep, thats it. Edit. Found an earlier advert for it from July, so I've emailed & asked for details. I've also asked if the guy sold it to Whilton.

Yes it would be my first boat & I know nothing apart from what I've read, most of it here. Been looking for a few years, finances have only just come together. First impressions were, the windows seemed a little mucky (from damp) inside the metal grooves holding the glass, & this will bug the hell out of me until I work out how to take them apart & clean/fix them (I'm not a clean freak tho). With this said I saw a 2013 boat that was 10 times worse. No other particular signs of damp that I could tell. The fit out was very amateurish, & didnt quite manage to follow the curve of the roof at one point. Rounded corners on windows squared off, lots of bits of attention to detail weren't that good. Didnt particularly bother me, but certainly didnt make me go ooh I like this, also didnt make me go urgh I dont like this (like most boats 'urgh' have done so far including 1 brand new boat that was £60k above my budget!) I thought they could have done a better job of cleaning it if they want to sell it. However it also had a lot of plusses that came to light as I was looking. Steel doors at the front (glazed) instead of wood. Every boat I've looked at so far has been a bit akward to get in & out front & back, some worse than others & I assumed this was just going to be the norm. This particular boat simply wasnt akward at all. Engine compartment very easy to get to, everything else has been a real pig faffing about moving stuff around etc. It ticked lots of boxes for me, eg full size double bed instead of those miniature fake 'double' beds. It's got the proper toilet for a boat (those other peeps are just wrong!!!! no dont start that's why I'm not saying what it is). It's got bits that would be nice to have if possible, but weren't a deal breaker if it didnt have them. I havent heard of the gearbox, TMC 60, when I googled it the 1st thing I saw was a foum thread complaining about clunky gearbox with this engine, Vetus 4.17, & after reading it all 1 thing that stuck in my head was dont idle this set up for more than 10 mins at a time. Now combine that with the fact this boat doesnt have a landline electric hook up, but it does have 6 batteries & a 2kw inverter enough to power the washing machine, does make me wonder if it's just been idling to charge batteries. I would put in a landline electric. The brokerage are supposed to be doing their own hull survey this week, can this be trusted? I would get my own full survey done anyway, but it would be nice to know if it's any good before I spend my own money, by then it would be a commitment to buy & hope nothing is wrong with it. I havent asked them to start the engine yet

The boat is in Whilton Marina on the A5 erm GUC, but I have no transport, & there is only a bus on Wednesdays. The engine compartment looked nice & clean, so probably never had an oil change! I cant really tell with this. The boat was a bit mucky, I would have thought if you are selling a boat you would make an effort to give it a really good clean inside. But the engine area was clean, & the easiest access I have seen yet, & it maybe has been well maintained, there was certainly plenty of sign of wear & tear on the bits that needed lifting to get to the engine.

Ok thanks peeps, that has put my mind at rest. Obviously unknowns are just that & I wont know what they've done, but I did download & read the manual.

Hey thanks peeps, looks like I'll be trying Trevor then. We got the bank loan, unfortunately some rotten sod went & bought the boat we wanted the day before we found out about the loan. Annoyingly we should have found out about the loan Saturday, but they sent it registered post & we was out, so we didnt get it until Monday! Oh well, keep looking.

I'm looking at a boat today, just wondering though, should I be worried if an engine has done 3500 hours? It's supposedly built in 2004, & has 6 batteries & an inverter which is enough to power a 3kg washing machine. I dont know (yet) if it has landline electric. So I'm thinking that maybe it hasnt (landline), meaning the batteries have only ever been charged from the engine. Therefore should I be worried about 3500 hours, or more importantly if it's only been used to mainly charge then batteries, should I be more worried? It's a Vetus 4.17

Thanks. The boat already has a safety cert. I'm after a full survey that is good enough to satisfy the banks needs (as well as my own)

Hi, I'm looking for a good surveyor in the Northampton area please, any reccomendations? I'm hoping to hear about a boat loan later today. If all goes well I already have a boat in mind. I would ideally like someone who can tell if a specific boat is worth having a proper survey done on it, & assuming 'yes' then I want a full survey done on said boat, that will be enough to satisfy any requirements of Royscot Larch. The specific boat is at Whilton Marina

Nothing to do with boats now, but I once received 2 summons for council tax. Amount owed was £0.00 (that isnt a typo) I pleaded guilty in court, they looked at me gone out, I said it's true I dont owe any money on my council tax, guilty as charged.