jonathanA

incralac is good stuff but needs careful application and very hard to get a good finish with a brush, best to use the aerosol version, in which case you might as well use any aerosol laquer. all of them are bugger to get off but will come off easily if you don't want them to...

you don't need to be a plumber to use something like this : https://www.screwfix.com/p/jg-speedfit-push-fit-flexible-tap-connector-hoses-15mm-x-1-2-x-300mm-2-pack/9938g

or look at mine and say "are you sure its a lister ? its doesn't sound like a dumper truck, make enough smoke to hide a tank regiment or chuck oil everywhere " <Joking> 🙂 seriously the number of new posters who come on here 'I've just bought/am about to buy' and have never ever ever even been on a canal boat of any description except for the one they bought/about to buy me too and I think i've instilled a bit of that into the mutants, problem is they bring all the broken things they can't repair to me and expect that I can work miracles....

very sad for the owners, I do hope it was chipped so they can prove its theirs, if/when its found. There is a renaissance as an unpowered boat on the boat listing.

no but he was happy to go into flights of fantasy and endless idle speculation on how the stop lever might or might not work and now 'imagines' the 'engineer' is going to charge 300 quid to fit a stop.... Personally I'm happy to await further info from the OP and hopefully it will be a good result all round.

odd that the advert doesn't mention whether the senders are included or not. looking at the picture of the rear they look like generic 52mm gauges, so you might have to take a punt on getting the matching senders (usually only £5-10 on ebay for a gauge and sender) if the existing ones on your engine don't match. not clear to me with that particular ad whether its 12V or 24V. you could buy a key switch, tacho 3 or 4 guages and senders then you have to fit them to something and work out how to wire up a buzzer (diodes needed) , couple of lamps .... so it doesn't look too bad an option, but yes the quality will be of the usual Chinese standard and the 'manual' will be indicative rather than comprehensive... (or comprehensible). there was a thread about someone who wanted a replacement lister (I think) panel and they found a uk company who made panels to your spec or 'copies' of existing. can't remember the name of the uk company, but they may be worth a try. ETA - Dragon marine systems was the company name - personally I thought them a bit pricey but you get what you pay for...

I think one of the issues is that sink wastes are usually 1 1/4" and the skin fittings more like 3/4. on mine there is a motley assortment of adapters bits of hose and jubilee clips fitted by the previous owner, the reducing diameter of the outlet just means any 'big bits' are prone to getting stuck at one of the reductions in diameter. good old fashioned plunger seems to do the job for me.

yes it seems that whats on offer is a 999 year lease for a steel framed warehouse, an old stable block, something with 115Years of lease to run and a sanitary station with 99 yr lease to run. oh and you have a liability of over £2K a year to discharge water into the canal or something.

I have one of those, I threatened to trade her in for a newer model, but she said at my age that would be very dangerous as I definitely wouldn't have enough charge for a newer model...

probably... but as mentioned there are two fuses involved so worth checking them for being blown or poor connections and maybe bench testing it before shelling out for new one. I think i would test the voltages at the 4 pole connector, it looked like Red was permanent 12v+ , black neg, grey ignition live and the other was +12V from the starter. problem might be finding the fuses 🙂 to check

wot he said. when we were in a marina, we paid for 15m/50 foot boat, but when we were on an 18m Jetty the marina said if they needed it we would have to move to a 15m jetty (or pay the 18m rate). was never a problem in reality. I think if i was paying for a 60 foot boat I'd want a jetty that was suitable, but as Dave Mack and others say, if you don't like the marinas charging regime you have a choice...

on the 4 cyl engine the oem/lister belts (751 17830) are 4PK 913. As the pukka lister ones are circa £25 quid its worth shopping round for equivalents. You can get some chinese shite for about a fiver, but the difference in quality is visible! that said I change them every 12 months so tend to try to find gates or something of decent quality if i can otherwise I just change the cheapos along with the oil. Someone on here told me it was worth cleaning any dust/gunge out of the pully grooves on the crankshaft/water pump/alternator so i do that from time to time and it seems to help belt life.

I would suggest a quick simple check might be to remove the inter-battey +ve links. measure the voltages across each battery, connect the one with the highest resting voltage back up, leaving the other two out of circuit, then see what happens. its a big bank at nearly 700AH, and each AGM of 230 is nearly as big as some peoples whole bank 🙂

I think it needs the OP to say whether hes going ahead with the craning/survey , he indicated it was at his cost and that he'd lose money if he didn't buy the boat. I guess the marina/broker might have offered to do the craning as part of the boat sale on the assumption the sales goes ahead. if hes a complete newbie, with no boating experience then a survey might be helpful, especially if he can be there when its done. It constantly surprises me how many people come on here who are buying/bought a boat but have absolutely no boating experience not even a holiday.... accepting people have to start somewhere 🙂 despite the varying opinions on here, if the survey he has seen is complete and recent and looks genuine (wouldn't be hard to ring the surveyor who did it and check) and he is happy with the boat what will another survey tell him ?

And if its not bats then it will be water voles especially by the canal....

I think I just go for the no more than 1/2 inch deflection on the longest run and the 90 degree twist. That seems to be OK but if I get any squeal I put a little more tension on. So I'm not sure you've over tensioned, more likely the alternator bearings would suffer I'd think.

agree with David Mack, I didn't read it like that, just what are the other ways. I suppose pedantically most of the suggestions apart from instantaneous gas heaters have been ways to heat a cauliflower rather than provide hot water directly. if he really doesn't want a cauliflower then its gas or electric, there are some around 2-3kw electric water heaters designed to supply modest amounts of hot water for hand washing and the like, so on a 'gas free' boat with a lots of battery capacity that could (just about) be an option. something like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/ariston-undersink-water-heater-2kw-15ltr/9720g arguably thats just another form of heat store.

I'm wondering if there are two different sounds, its not clear from the posts. could there be the normal warning buzzer sound then the 'whirring noise' and could this be this 'start relay' chattering, if it is a heater plug timer, then that would suggest either a battery problem or a high resistance in the start circuit. so we're back to needing some voltage readings.... or if no multimeter available then just an accurate description - do the lights go off when the key is turned to the 'crank/start' position and there is no engine turning over or other noises for instance. The exact sequence of events please, but voltage readings would be best as a start.

plenty of bollards on this forum... i suppose solar heating could be an option either direct solar water or via solar PV/immersion but obviously only any good on one of those rare hot summers days and therefore not the primary/only water heating method...

1990 boat, not been overplated, doesn't look like it is in desperate need of doing. the extracts of the surveyors reports about weedhatch and hull apertures are typical surveyor arse covering. Yes check out the thru hull fittings and make sure they are all good as Tracy said. i don't know your circumstances, but if the boat is a good price and you have some cash to sort out any issues, i'd save your money on craneout/survey and put it to getting it blacked and hull survey (for insurance if needed) at your convenience and without time pressure. worst case get third party insurance until you get a hull survey for fully comp.

exactly this forum is inundated with reports of stolen boats - NOT ! I'd go as far as to say its rare and in the majority of cases the boat is recovered fairly quickly. Breakins/theft from are more common, but still not that common and often its not the value of what's stolen so much as the damage caused...

i suspect, as with most things in life if you adopt a reasonable approach and are willing to listen then confrontation can be avoided, doubtless some of those reporting run-ins with sonny were from the piss takers or 'entitled' mobs. as a point of interest were you asked to pay anything and did you ?