Bee

You wouldn't catch me doing the Amsterdam - Rhine canal in a narrowboat, it's like 'the Bering sea in The Deadliest Catch' on there sometimes. You're gonna need a bigger boat

I had 3 narrowboats, did that for 12 yrs or so. Then a gap of some years, house kids etc. Then 15 years ago fitted out a 10metre x 3.4 metre tug and have kept it on the European canals, (Also travelled the Thames, Severn, GU to nearly Braunston, Warks. Avon,bristol Avon and River Wey) Have since travelled many miles in Europe and i reckon that is probably the best way to do it - Not the only way by any means, I did wonder about a small fishing boat at one time with rudimentary accomodation and also a Wilderness Beaver or similar but the compromises between narrowboat and sea going are very difficult. Also looked out of the window of my narrowboat near Warwick once to see Shane Acton and Shrimpy going by (look it up on Google) - buy the book if you can find it, it is inspirational.

You will get lots of opinions, many negative. There is much to think about, Personally I would say that building a boat to a particular label is not the most important thing, it is just a label. Narrowboats are obviously built to suit narrow locks and crossing the channel is pushing the envelope but given very good weather almost anything can cross the channel so that is the real limiting factor. I personally would not bother with electric. Charging points across the channel are very scarce and you might find serious problems with anything over a few hours using more power than the batteries can cope with, tides, currents and distance can halve your range. Diesel tanks must have good access to clean them and a proper fuel filtration arrangement too. There are narrowboats happily wandering around the quiet waterways of Europe but there are waterways that we avoid because they can be uncomfortable and Bee is a much more suitable boat. A well built conventional narrowboat would be my choice if I had to do it. Don't forget about Brexit and all that stuff and lastly I would stick a decent inflatable on board in case it all goes wrong.

I think there were stern wheelers on the Rhine until quite recently (?). the wheel was not like the Mississippi image of the wheel but buried ender the stern. Quite how the rudder arrangement worked I've no idea, must have been a bit unresponsive I'd have thought.

Hooray! Now these freeloaders will have to pay their way. Oh, Hang on, now I can't afford a licence either. (Just a comment, my boat is not in the UK)

Personally I would do pretty much as Tony suggests, Buy a brass 'Tank connecter' from Screwfix, clean up the surfaces so they are clean and flat, fix a bit of in 15mm copper with a hose tail on it, fix and forget, I wouldn't worry about trying to get a tube right down to the tank bottom, the last couple of inches are neither here nor there as far as capacity is concerned. As for capping off the disused pipe it depends on what is on the end of it, if it is threaded then a trip to a plumbers merchant should provide you with a cap of some sort.

Donkeys years ago near Manchester some youths flung stones at me and the boat as i approached a bridge, i was drinking a beer from a heavy pint glass and instinct took over - hurled the glass at them, luckily missed and the glass sailed off to somewhere unknown. I still flinch at the thought of where the glass went and hopefully it missed anything important. I had a shorter temper in those days...