phishphace

Workhorse - From your dates it looks like you are heading off soon Last year we hired a boat on the late may bank holiday weekend, and Woolhampton is one of the first locks we had ever been through - which is scarey enough when the current is in full flow <- probably not helpful however just to make it more fun - there was a boat race on the friday - dragon boats I believe from London to Hungerford - I'm not sure whether its an annual event - if so watch out! one of the organisers wanted their boat to go into the lock before us, and was shouting at my husband to stop mid manoeuvre between the bridge and the lock, of course the current took him, and he was lucky not to damage the boat. Fortunately the rowers were great and pretty understanding A bit of a rambling story, but just look out for them if they are about this year

Thanks for that idea Keeping Up Mr PP had not thought of that as a solution.... instead he was thinking of building up a ply and fibre glass box and mounting the boss squarely on top (I think) - how ever your solution will be quicker (and cheaper) to do. Where do you get Sikaflex from?? is it available from chanderlies? But if anyone stills knows about the fibreglass - it would be good to know what type it is as other areas need small repairs regards Mrs PP

NB Phishphace was created by Harborough Marine and hence has a GRP top. Mr PP wishes to cunningly modify the top with some GRP work to refit the woodburner chimney boss such that it won't leak !!? However, he understands that GRP resins may be either Polyester or Epoxy you have to get the correct one to avoid potential undesirable reactions taking place... Wishing to avoid potential secondary reactions (such as Mrs PP exploding when she sees that NBPP is now a molten wreck ) his question is... does anyone know what resins were used on these boats / have any experience of modifications. A "surfing dude" colleague of mine has suggested that given its age and 'yellowish' base colour, its probably Polyester.. any ideas?? Also does anyone know of any suppliers of GRP materials. Many thanks Mrs PP

Thanks all looks like all we need is a little patience, lots of dust sheets and full body protective gear - as my husband will be doing this and grease will get everywhere!!

We need to re pack the propeller greaser - which we have never done before. Do we need to use any special type of grease or can you use a normal LM grease?? thanks in anticipation

Thanks for all the comments so far - The set up seems to be correct with the hot pipe uppermost. We have not added any antifreeze to it ourselves, so do not know whether that is the problem.

Hi Bottle The boiler is an Ellis Heater - this heats the water up nicely. the boiler heats up the water tank via a coil and the central heating runs off the same circuit as the coil We have pretty level pipework - and don't think we have any air locks - only the first 2 ft of the pipe heated up [conduction>??] - the radiator valves were both open. We don't know if the system has ever worked as we bought the boat in the summer from a marina [who was middle man] and they did not know if the radiator worked. the 50ft run is what is concerning us too s

Does any one know / have experience of what is the max distance from the water tank, that a radiator can be placed and for it still to heat up? Our central heating system has no pump, 22mm copper piping and a radiator right at the other end of a 25 ft run [and it does not get hot, warm or even loses that ice cold feeling ] We are thinking of removing this one [and only] radiator, but are a little worried that a small boatman stove [in the middle cabin] would not be sufficient to heat the whole of the boat. [small boatman stove currently in garage so can not be tested in boat.... ] any comments on boat heating welcomed s

hi richard we are in the same boat as you [well not quite literally ]. in august we purchased a Harborough that had water leaking in through the roof, windows sides etc, and we are currently trying to stop all the above. I fully appreciate what Keeping up says, as we have found similar problems [most with screws rusting through!] so far in the last two months we have - taken out the chimney where most of the water was coming in - this currently has many layers of plastic and tarpaulin covering it for the winter but the leak from that caused a lot of wood rot internally. - removed all but the rear window down the port side - these where resealed with a liberal dose of clear mastic on the inside and a paintable mastic under the metal frame on the outside. Be very wary of the windows if they are the louvre type - as we had gaps in the welds of the frames. - Again on the port side [as this was in the worst condition] we have individually removed most of the external screws, replacing with new stainless steel ones and squirting lots of mastic in the holes - Removed the old "putty" from the roof/sides and sides/metal joint and again filled with an external flexible paintable mastic. I think on that side alone we have used 6 or more tubes - thinking of taking out shares in DowCorning. The mastic was finished in late september and the other day, on a warm autumnal day, we managed to get two coats of undercoat to the portside so - hopefully that will protect it until we can do a proper paint job in the spring time. As for the type of mastic - it was a bit pot luck from Screwfix - it was a DowCorning make, and for external use - and black (?!? ) I am trying to put together a little work diary on my website - its a bit out of date, but you can see what we are up against. Good luck with your harborough! s

In our shower room, we have the shower curtain going round on three sides - but this meant that the shower got really small with the curtain hanging in the way so we use magnets to hold the shower curtain tight to the wall giving us more space in the shower As the come in lots of shapes and sizes - you can get them to match your decor

Thanks for all of your comments! will decommision one of the tanks and invest in a jerry can or two. As for the money saved.... I am sure Phishphace will throw up something unexpected to spend it on

We currently have a fuel capacity of ~60 gallons ( two 30 gallon tanks )on our 49ft narrowboat with 1.5BMC , which we intend to use for family holidays and day trips The survey recommended that we replace one of our fuel tanks which is badly corroded, but talking to our local welder, he suggested just decomissioning it and running off one 30 gallon tank. This option would of course be cheaper, but is that out weighed by the extra hassel of more frequent refuelling? (We are based on the Kennet and Avon) Any thoughts??

Would you use a metal wedge on a fibreglass top?? We have just removed the chimney from our Harborough - the wedge had been made with pieces of heat proof boarding, joint cement and mastic - funnily enough this had been leaking big time.

In our Harborough [1981] there lurks an "assumed" original Ellis Boiler. It has lost all its useful labels - like what model it is, and there was no paperwork regarding it when we bought the boat... We have not managed to get it working [neither did the Marina owner who sold the boat]. Is there a knack to lighting these? or has anyone got any tips, paperwork, rules of thumb that might help?

Yep exactly what concerns me After doing up a number of properties, I think I might know that feeling.... Was going to add some pictures but haven't not worked out how yet - a bit embarassing really - being a web developer and that... will have to add them later! Thinking about the rot on the drive home - Will make sure that no more water can get in - then will probably strip the room that the rot is in - just to get more of an idea what is going on - and enjoy the rest of the seasons crusing. May be the "big stripping" happens next year!?

Hi Bottle Yes, our first job is working on the outside, but I need to take out as much rotten wood as possible - to stop the dear old mould and fungi coming back... - just really wary of riping out as I have not quite worked out where it will end. Will put some pictures up - to give a better idea of what we've got We will remove the stove this weekend and make the hole water tight - with the stove out of the way I can tackle this wood work. I did find the thread regarding the sealant - very useful this forum!! - and the order has gone into screwfix!!

I'm on a roll now with this forum - Thanks for the replies given so far to my questions. As well as having some decaying paintwork on the outside, phishphace has some internal rot too. Where the stove chimney goes through the roof, the cement has cracked and water has been coming in for - lets say a while - so the rot has set in on the timber sheeting battoning behind the main baton at the top [where the wall meets the ceiling] the floor boards [should probably say she is a Harborough with a fibre glass top] How feasible is it to renovate a boat section by section? - [just looked at the beginning of Moleys Talpidae blog where it came apparent alot more was going to have to come out] We really don't want to do a massive strip out project [yet! as we should really finish the house first ] - but we want to stop her rotting from the inside out

Daniel We have the Newbury Bypass just up the canal from where we are - so we can hide under there if the weather becomes inclement - thanks - a great idea Sarah

As a boating novice - I am unsure about canal etiquette... Our old Harborough paintwork is in a state of disrepair, and we need to brush off all the loose rust / paint / rust / flower transfers / rust On the horizontal surfaces I can sweep up the mess and stop it going into the water - but on the the vertical bits this is going to be a bit more tricky How and where do you guys/galls prep your paintwork - causing as little water pollution as possible?

How did you guess it was sold at the longest length!

How are narrow boats measured? It's just that we have 3 documents that all quote different lengths I know metal can expand and contract - but 3ft seems a little extreme to me

We do have an hour meter but I guess one of the first jobs to do will be to re-wire the hour meter, so that it only counts when the engine is running, not when switched to Aux ?!

Just bought a 1981 Harborough project so have lots of questions but to start with.... What maintenance and frequency should be carried out on a 1.5 BMC ?