Narrowboat Communicator

Honestly you would be amazed at how little the tanks are effected by movement, after every journey the tank looks like it did before we set off. I suppose it's like a cup of coffee on the roof of your boat, it doesn't spill or fall over whilst going through locks. I have had the occasional bump in the locks and still the tank is fine. I have the tanks filled to the top and have glass sliders that fit the tank perfectly, so if they did slosh about the water is so restricted in movement that you only get very very minor spillage. I'm talking egg cups worth over a day, but I don't mind that as I don't think you could get them 100% water tight. I have put the tanks on natural slate tiles so any water that may decide to spill only goes on them and is pretty much contained. But like I said its only a egg cup or two over 8-10 hours cruising. I used to have marine fish in my house but on a boat with a loud traditional engine like mine, I don't think they would like the vibrations or noise. The marine fish are sooooo sensitive its unbelievable! So I went for tropical fish, but I keep the much more sought after kind rather than the normal. And had a brackish tank as they are very hardy and easy compared to marine. Most water on the canal water points contains around 30-50ppm of nitrate! So unless you want to use reverse osmosis filters etc the water would have to be treated and mixed before hand and that takes loads of time and space! But my tropical fish are doing well on just dechlorinated water, and i dont treat my water. The water tank in a boat is perfect to use for tropical fish as the chlorine etc eveparates after 24 hours so i fill the water tank on the boat and do my water changes on the tanks the next day. I've kept them for 3 years on the boat and they still doing great :-) We haven't got a iguana I was just giving a example, but we also had 2 birds, love birds that was cuddly tame and one day they escaped and never come back. But if I'm honest, they was so messy I wouldn't have birds again. And yes our Bengal is also manic!! Many times we are woken up in the night with him running wild!!!

Ha ha..... No we have a Grand Union Large Woolwich replica, it's 70ft, the tanks are fitted in the back cabin.

Hi everyone, I just want to see how many have pets on their boat, be it a cat or a iguana ....... We have a boxer dog, two cats, one Siamese and one Bengal, two large turtles in a 4 foot tank, a 4 foot tropical fish tank, and a 3 foot brackish water tank with puffe fish and a lobster! We have done hundreds of locks and all the tanks don't spill water, we had glass sliders made for them. Hope someone else has unusual pets on their boat :-)

Yes, my ha2 used to spit oil on the engine room wall (only one side) when we used to rev her to much, but recently it doesn't do it or lose any oil. Yes, my ha2 used to spit oil on the engine room wall (only one side) when we used to rev her to much, but recently it doesn't do it or lose any oil.

Perhaps it isn't judder it's just how it is? It is the only boat I have ever handled. It's nothing major but since the tyre incident it's got me thinking...... But when the tyre was around the prop it felt really odd, almost like some one was holding my arm and moving it.

Lol, Kevin the universal joints are huge!! I had the floor up ( the slats above the prop shaft ) and ran engine in gear and there is a ever do slight wobble to it, but can't say I noticed what it was like before. Like you said, communicator has over sized universal joints. I always get paranoide about mechanical things before we go away. Last year I brought a London taxi to go to the south of France, and I took 2000 pounds worth of spares with me, I still have them as I never needed them!! Lol, Kevin the universal joints are huge!! I had the floor up ( the slats above the prop shaft ) and ran engine in gear and there is a ever do slight wobble to it, but can't say I noticed what it was like before. Like you said, communicator has over sized universal joints. I always get paranoide about mechanical things before we go away. Last year I brought a London taxi to go to the south of France, and I took 2000 pounds worth of spares with me, I still have them as I never needed them!! Lol, Kevin the universal joints are huge!! I had the floor up ( the slats above the prop shaft ) and ran engine in gear and there is a ever do slight wobble to it, but can't say I noticed what it was like before. Like you said, communicator has over sized universal joints. I always get paranoide about mechanical things before we go away. Last year I brought a London taxi to go to the south of France, and I took 2000 pounds worth of spares with me, I still have them as I never needed them!!

That's good then, at least I know if im out crusing now and it's fine things won't get any worse even if there was some damage. I take our boat out most weekends but not any long distance really, were having a 16 day cruise up the rivers (or down) in August and just wanted to make sure my boat was ok Cheers

When we had the boat out 2 years ago they said the prop had some dinks but nothing to worrie about, perhaps that may cause our tiller to vibrate a little. Our prop is 20 years old and I expect it's had worse in the past. Could you tell you had bent tips?

I may be paranoid but recently I had a car tyre stall my engine! It took 3 attempts of starting engine and giving it some revs and putting it into reverse (we have lister ha2) to get it off, we were lucky. We have no weed hatch and in the 5 years we have our boat putting it into reverse always done the trick. But now I keep thinking I may have damaged or weakend something down below. The boat feels the same and we have always had a slight tiller judder on full steam since we had her, but now I have convinced myself something's not right. What are the chances or consequences of attaning Damage from such events??