Bee

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...

It is always said that you cannot put epoxy over bitumen. I think that for the actual, real, answer you need to get in touch with the technical dept. of, for instance, Jotun. I think that it is a bad idea but on Bee with bitumen down to the waterline then epoxy below it seems that the epoxy has stuck to the bitumen but the bitumen has not stuck at all to the epoxy (which is red so that is how I can tell) Maybe paint technology has come on a bit- who knows

I have one. The shaft on Bee is about 12 foot between the gland and the gearbox, the engine is a Beta 43 and it wobbles - as it should - the shaft has a Python drive and hefty thrust bearing near the stern gland and three or four pillow blocks supporting the 1.5 " shaft then a Fenaflex up against the gearbox. The Fenaflex will not take thrust, the tyre squashes or pulls apart depending on whether ahead or astern but its Ok for a wobbly engine so it doesn't wreck the output shaft bearing, the real thrust is taken by the Python drive thrust bearing and there is another pillow block between that and the conventional stuffing box. Not all of that is needed on a boat with a short shaft but Bee has been many miles over about 18 years and the stern gland and packing is still original and perfectly fine. There is no stress on the gearbox and no strain on the stern gland. It sounds expensive and complicated but it was all second hand and done to make expensive stuff last. It is a bit heavy though and the inertia when going into gear makes the PRM box clunk as it engages - nothing is perfect but Fenner flex couplings are v. good things.

These engines share a lot of parts when you don't expect it and then when you expect them to share parts they don't - the good old days of Brit. engineering!

Absolutely wonderful pictures. Thanks

I wonder if its possible to fit a couple of shock absorbers to it? I'm thinking maybe from a scrap washing machine or something? Might be possible to take one each side from a handy nut on the engine to a bracket on the side of the boat, Of course there will not be any handy brackets or bolts 'cos that's the way it goes but it might just work.

ASAP stock all sorts of hose but when I did the plumbing on BEE I used this Plumbing Hose 13mm (Per Metre) (asap-supplies.com) for everything and its been perfectly OK for years, You must use proper hose tails but its been fine for hot and cold water and it is much easier for those really awkward places that you really don't want to try in copper or anything non bendy. Obviously not for central heating but worked great on BEE

There has been a couple of us with Beta lift pump problems recently, engine cutting out etc and other problems so I had a look at the Beta manual and this is what it says...... ' The fuel pump will only lift fuel through 0.25 metres, if this is insufficient then an electric fuel lift pump must be fitted' That is only about 9" so unless the tank is built into the counter, sits on the swim or something like that then the thing is always going to be struggling. This probably explains why brand new Kubota pumps are on E Bay, someone is fitting them to mowers or small plant and changing the mechanical pumps for electric.