Bee

Its a rip off. You are paying for permission, neither more nor less. They are not providing anything for that, you cannot compare it to renting a flat, if you rent a flat the landlord provides a flat, if you give CRT a stack of cash you have to supply the boat and all they do is promise not to harass you. Its more like paying protection money.

Something ain't right, it's a 'project' engine, probably quite a good project if the price is right, otherwise it's just a load of work.

That is really annoying, making the dia bigger is either welding and grinding, never going to work very well or a bit of epoxy resin and a scrap of fibreglass tissue wrapped around it, or maybe ram a piece of dowel into the end of the handle and then bore it out to the smaller dia.

I used carpet tiles stuck to the lining below the gunwhale, didm`t work, got condensation on the tiles.

A big thank you to all who have given this some thought and ventured into the world of maths. Thanks for your help, I will see if I can find a pitch measurement stamped on it when I get it out. Now If I was to get rid of the propeller and fit a pair of paddle wheels ......

Thanks, I'll read that again in the morning with a cup of strong coffee and a chocolate biscuit.

I don't think Crowthers are wrong, I just wondered if anybody had the same engine and thought their boat went well with a particular prop. I can physically swing up to about 20 ", any more and the blade tips get close to the surface, the boat has not got a flat counter, its more like a dutch barge. The boat is in Holland and although it will keep up with the rest of the herd I have to cruise at about 1800 rpm which is a bit 'busy'. I might well do what mike and bottle suggest and find out what a bit more pitch would do, I am drawn to the word cheaply!

Room to swing up to about 20 inches with a few more engineering bricks in the bottom.

I have a Beta 43 hp and when I built the boat I fitted a 16 inch prop. by unknown pitch as it was available and cheap, this winter I will be fitting a more suitable prop. Beta recommend an 18 x 12 {I think} Crowthers reckon a 16 x 14 or thereabouts. Has anybody fitted anything which works really well outside these sizes? boat is 10m x 3,4m weighs a bit over 10 tons , ideally I could do with a bit more speed without revving the nuts off of it so 'overpropping' is acceptable.

Personally I would think sticking valve. If smoke has puffed from the air intake it has probably got there from a badly seating valve or sticking valve stem. If the valve is not snapping back with the valve spring it could be the push rod clattering around when the camshaft rotates. I am not familiar with the JP engines but that would be my guess.

When I go to work I miss the dog and when I get home the daft thing nearly knocks me over. Why do two creatures of entirely different species form such a bond?

Good lord, please keep away from me. You've upset the gods of household appliances and several others as well.

You do need to be concerned about water getting into the combustion chamber past the exhaust valve, worst possible scenario is a cylinder with water in it that does a real big heap of damage when you turn it over.

Cor, that's a challenge. The 9 Year old will really need his own space soon away from everybody else. The 7 and 3 year olds will be 9 and 5 or so when you probably move on and may have developed into different characters by then. I am not sure if a narrowboat is really big enough. I wouldn't worry too much about officialdom being difficult, living on a boat is not seen as tantamount to neglect these days unless you get some old dinosaur of a social worker. You will need to remain pretty much in one area to maintain continuity with school and social services. We have a son with Aspergers who is now 25, with hindsight we should have educated him at home but everyone is different, I wish you the very best of luck and if you need a name for the boat then 'Patience' is as good as any! If you want to PM mi I would be very happy to talk about our learning curve (mostly encouraging!)

If the licence and mooring fees were cheap as chips then there would be a chance to raise more money but I don't think that route is open now. Over the last few decades the costs have gone up so much that the golden goose is in danger of being well and truly cooked. Where has the money gone? Surely not to make up for a reduction in gov. grants? If it costs 10 times as much why isn't there 10 times more to spend? OK that's a bit simplistic but we now have the most expensive waterways and the most expensive railways in Europe and neither are particularly good. At the end of the day its down to political will.

If you have the ability to take a gearbox apart I expect you know that bearings should be available from Bearing Services Ltd or many other places so you don`t need to get an original part. Good luck.

Crowthers themselves can probably advise better than most on the best size. You need to know the reduction ratio of the gearbox, give all the info, waterline length, weight etc and trust them.

Tony Brooks has far more knowledge than I but before fitting it I would just check that the lever that pokes into the crankcase is the same just to avoid the slightest chance of anything mangling up when you turn it over and if you are thinking of running it on pickled gherkins take my word for it, it won`t go.

Be careful. It`s quite an expensive way of life, licence, mooring, survey, boat safety thingy, insurance, plus things that wear out, batteries, bits of engine etc. A house can be cheaper, entirely depending on whether you have a mortgage or own it outright. Personally I couldn`t stand the insecurity and worrying about being moved on. The second hand, cheaper boat option is a good idea and is not such an irreversible step. I also think that a lot of liveaboards extol all the nice sounding things, freedom, independence etc. but they secretly can`t admit to themselves or others just how worried and insecure they are.

Well, the problem has been dispersed to other places presumably which is hardly a solution. Years ago boats were made of wood and had a finite life, nowadays boats are made from grp and steel and last forever, consequently there are a lot of cheap `end of life` boats about that offer the chance of some sort of home. Add that to the finite number of moorings available and the expense of those that there are and this is the result. I have no idea how many boats Colecraft and L`pool boats, for example have produced but its a hell of a lot. I think if you want a new boat you should first buy an end of life wreck, scrap it, prove to CRT that you have removed it and then you would be allowed to build a new one. As for the answer to people needing cheap housing, maybe you should prove that an old relative has died before you are allowed to make a replacement. Am now hiding behind the sofa.