twoputtyrats

Yep, It's an essential piece of kit for anyones solid fuel stove - heats our 57ft from the arrow by the galley to the bedroom at the bow - if I set the fire properly overnight the heating hardly comes on in the morning... It really extemds our crusiing season... Simes.

Mardon was cheapest for us as new boaters I'm expecting to renew with him again in the next few weeks. Simon.

After having brought up a child in a house I can say most definately that a washer is vital - but also think about on a boat where you are going to dry stuff - especially when it's cold and wet outside, id spring for a washer dryer as well! so the 3.5Kw genset is a must.... This may not be seem too much of an issue at 6 months - but wait until your young darling gets mobile.. As far as TV, Video & Music goes a laptop/small form factor PC running mediacentre is a major win - with t-mobile web'n'walk being great for 3G connectivity. The PC really comes into it's own with young children as you make backup copies of all those kiddy DVD's onto the hard drive and hey presto - lots less tears... the little inverters are great for this, also you end up with less wires compared to a normal system with it all in a single box! and if you're away from the boat it all packs up into a single bag and can get easily hidden aboard or taken with you... A decent ariel is a must though... Oh and with a toddler on the boat - please fence in your bow and stern - spending time with daddy whilst he's driving the boat brings a whole new world of worries if you don't. Simes.

Thanks John, I'll look at this again, does anyone know how well standege passages are working at the moment? thanks, Simes.

I wonder if this has anythign to do with the proposed marina at Market Drayton, and the consequent reduction (according to policy) in linear moorings? Simes.

Totally agree with this - we had the option of a 35 but wanted that bit in reserve to handle the ribble link and the like, our plan is to be based up that way - year after next. Although I expect the extra horses may be useful on the trent about now! Simes.

Ok, Hopefully we'll be out of Elton Moss come Wednesday morning - they should be finished with the refit of our PRM gerabox by then. Then it's two weeks on the network ending up at our new home - the new marina at Great Haywood. We were in Manchester at dukes 92 - by the dukes lock on the rochdale yesterday very good pub by the way highly reccomended for food - beer less so. the canal is 2 inches at least over the top and bottom gates on the first three (as far as we went) of the rochdale 9 - I very much doubt you could drain the locks... With this in mind I'm not keen to try the cheshire ring... I was thnking of running down the T&M up the Macc divert to do the peak forest I was thining of going up the ashton to the huddersfield and up to hebden bridge but problems with the standedge may put a scupper to this? The back through the harecastle to great haywood this looks doable in two weeks. Failing that do the macc/peak forest then back down to the TM and look at points south of Great Haywood? We've been living on the shroppy for the past 12 months and really don't fancy the 4 counties as we regularly cruise about half of it... Obviously with flooding we wouldn't want to head too far south (oxford, kinver) but anyone got any ideas and reccomendations for watering holes en route? Thanks, SImes.

Nice to see I'm not alone, I get very little wash at 1000 she seems to cut the water quite cleanly, sometime's I'm passing moored boats at 800 sometimes @ 1000 and if the wind is strong 1200 on occasion especially on the more exposed parts of the shroppy. I beleive the key thing is to watch the effect you are having on your surroundings and travel accordingly to minimise it **especially** when passing moored boats. On a shallow section of canal you will need to go slower than on a deeper section. In the wind you may need to rev up to crab up the cut, and have no effect on the boats you pass. I don't know how - but "another way" seems to steer reasonably but not well as long as she is going forwards (even with drive disengaged).. I've sat at 800rpm on occasion behind a slow moving boat - and she handles reasonably well... I think to counter this she is a bit of a pig (worse than others I've hired) steering in reverse - you win some you loose some. Simes.

COugh... I suggest you look at a "modern" diesel in a narrowboat... as if the boat engines most of us have are modern diesels. At 1600 RPM the engine is starting to be very noisy and not something I'd want to sit on all day, this holds truw on most new boats I've been on... I'd suggest 1200 rpm is normal cruising, 1400 is fast cruising anything below 900 is near as damn it idling with the clutch disengaging about 750. I don't see any problems with my batteries charging and infact I don't see a significant increase in chrging voltage from 1200 to 2000 rpm... As for overpropped I think it works just fine..... but if you want to sit on a loud noisey diesel engine @ half full chat all day - be my guest.. One things for sure you'll be filling up a lot more often than I do ... check your fuel consumption chart from your engine manufacturer.. Looking at the beta website this is the reccomendations for my Beta 43 as fitted to my 58ft boat: Beta 43- 43hp 2,800rpm max 1857cc 50 – 70’ boat 18 tons weight propsize (2:1 reduction) 18” x 12” - i.e. what I have fitted. oh you'll also use twice the fuel I do as well..... I will give you peak torque is @ 1600RPM ... Simes.

ON that thought... Can I buy some diesel oh lets say 5000 litres of it @ current rates (but I'll buyit on interest free credit) and let fred bloggs at the boatyard store it for me - oh I don't know in his diesel tank, and then remove it from storage as I need to? would that be legal? Simes.

Our boat - "Another Way" is one of their 57ft Marbury's (the first in class) she's in the yard at Elton Moss for a few little bits of warranty rectification after our first year of ownership, nothing major just some niggles... She was their show boat at the IWA last year - we managed to get her without putting any money down until she was in the water and only paid the full amount after the show when we picked the boat up... We have put on nearly 300 engine hours in 2 weeks of holiday and weekends since the end of august last year and love her to bits... We've had no problems with them they are only too happy to sort any problems you might have with the. Artie, John and Ruth are as nice a bunch of people as you'd want to meet. One of the factors for us we thought is that the firm build their own boats (albeit higher spec) for thier share scheme - carefree cruising and hire business - narrow escapes. So if it works for them with that level of usage it should be ok for us. The boat sails well and the fit out is good we've some photo's on photobox of the build: http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4012436 and some ealry finished photos at the IWA and when we picked her up http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4015176 I woudl reccomend seriously considering them - their new czech built boats look very good too... drop me a PM or e-mail if you want any more info... oh and we have no relationship with them bar being a customer. Simes.

I'd see if you could adjust some of those places to make some good pubs in the eveining.. Audlem - you have the shroppie fly just before lock 13 on the flight (3 from the bottom). Sunday Night - if you can make middlewich and get up through kings lock (bridge 167) wander back into middlewich and the navigation inn on the left hand side of the main road is very good. Monday Night - Bistro 57 at the Hassal Green locks or a bit further (just before bridge 146) on if you can make the romping donkey - well worth a visit. Have no duggestions for Tuesday/Weds nights... Thursday night - make Brewood (bridge 13-14) - and the Admiral Rodney in the town. Friday night - depends on what time you need to be back but if you can make it back to Market Drayton the Talbot Inn is well worth visiting but this is a **long** run. Hope this helps. Simes.

Windows XP home's photo editor will do perfectly for this - just resize the image to 1024x768 or 800x600 at most. Simon.

I have a voda card from work - No way would I pay what they charge for data - I use t-mobile for personal use. I have the card with the ariel - seems to make a little difference, the canal network near me (south shroppy) seems to be heavily 3G free but GPRS is ok as long as the kids are in school. It's heavily tempramental based on posiiton, weather and network load/capacity. GPRS uses one or more voice slots to carry data probem is it's the lowest priority user of those slots. So if your in a busy area at a busy time GPRS stalls. - My favourite example is near a school at kick-out time... It also switches nicely between 3G and GPRS on the default profile... SImes.

Seems to have dissapeared off the waterscape stoppages list now.... Simes.

Yep - you need WnW MAX to run VOIP and MSN WnW plus allows you to use your mobile as a modem WnW basic just gives you 3G on your mobile... These tarrifs have been running for at least 6 months that I know of as I've been looking to upgrade from my old WnW tariff... Simes.

I remember wheelock well - this was the first lock we took after takign delivery of "another way" 58ft ... and yes you can certainly get up some speed hanging at the back of the lock on the first wheelock lock... nearly knocked me off my feet... we very quickly developed the slow open technique... So for heartbreak we nudge the rubbing board and open each paddle slowly... However the uphill cill on the shroppie has a metal bar that protrudes further into the lock chamber with a rubbing bar on this.. however you slip off this if you are holding forward as you rise and whallop the sill bar with your bow (not your front fender), so I always hang back in the shroppie until while the first paddles are opened then slowly move forwards to rub on the lock gate... Simes.

Strange... Our 1800W inverter is hardly troubled by the by the Sony 17" widescreen beastie we have, infact it and the signal booster run quite happily off the small 25quid 150w tesco's inverter we bought the other month. Sony Vaio Laptop's damn good XP mediaCenter (new ones will be vista) 1GB ram, 160GB HDD, hybrid (analogue and digital) TV tuner built in 17" HD (1440x900) widescreen DVD rewriter SD/Memorystick slot for camera remote control.. put it in a bag hide it in a cupboard or if we're leaving the boat - one thing to pack up and take home. Not cheap though over 1K, but brilliant. we copy stuff from the home system onto it to watch if we're sat on the boat at night... came with loads of free photo/movie editing software as well.. Simes.

That's good to know.... we're moving from Market Drayton on the Shroppie to Great Haywood when it opens it will hopefully be better for weekend runs out than Drayton - it's currently either Audlem or Tyrley+woodseaves twice every weekend. Playing havoc with the paintwork... I may swing past in the car tomorrow as I'm running up from Solihull to Drayton for a night on the boat. Thanks, Simon.

I paid 43.9 last week at Norbury.. I think he's up to just over 44 this week - so wheaton aston isn't th eonly cheap fuel - and as it's a much longer run for me at the weekend compared to norbury - I'll take the 2p a litre penalty. Simes.

We have a coverit cratch and stern cover..... Quality is good, although a couple of the poppers are a little tight..... whoever fitted it however (wether coverit themselves or our builder) neglected to ensure the swarf was cleared properly and we have a nice collection of rust spots in the paint work all around - we're back to the builder in the next few weeks for rectification.. We've also got a good quality laminate wood floor (think it was about 14-15 per m2 from floors are us) not aqualoc just normal stuff - it seems to be fine so far as mentioned plenty of expansion joints around the edges. We're a 57" and have front to back laiminate - one thing I'd be tempted to do is split it into a couple of sections especially if you're going full length... According to the builder it's a pain to fit as there are a lot of edges relative to floorspace covered (unlike a normal room). From our experience so far it's a lot better than carpet clearing up from muddy (or worse) towpaths, or spilt drinks is easy and worry free. we've not bothered so far with a hoover using a broom/shovel and a mop but will be getting a dustbuster for those awkward corners. Simes.

This may be contentious but if licencing is handled that badly here's a though for discussion -.... I'd really like to see something done by BW rather like SORN for cars.... If you haave a boat registered with BW you are responsible for the licence until you tell them otherwise i.e. you are automatically billed for the licence fee.. as this is a state enterprise they should be able to put a lien against incomes non-payers may have. If you do not display a valid BW craft number this should be treated as failure to display a registration plate on a motor vehicle.... If you are a liveaboard and a non payer - this is no different to living in a house and not paying ground rent, council tax etc etc.. you can and should be taken to court, and if necessary have your boat confiscated and destroyed - yes this is your home but you choose to live in this manner and should contribute a share towards the community costs... If BW cannot get their act together in handling commercial recoveries take that right away from them and give it to an organisation that can - Boat licences by the DVLA anyone? BW than become like the highways agency and are a cost centre responsible for upkeep and DVLA handle vehicle registrations both for inland and coastal craft... They already have the legal powers required and will and do enforce them.... Now this may seem very heavy handed but how can the waterways go to the government moaning about cuts in funding when we don't collect the appropriations we have already been given - obviously because we don't need it? Comments? Simes.