Bee

Phew! Excellent!

I agree, if you look at the cross section of a most accomodation bridges underwater and above water the last thing you need is a fat narrowboat, In the pic of `Angel Hardy` above it is a lovely boat and a much better cross section for actual boating although probably too big to to use on many canals but if it was scaled down the result could be a better cruising prospect than a fat narrowboat, I guess many owners would agree if they had any say in the matter but these things are produced to give the maximum possible interior room with no allowance for appearance and precious little thought for handling. I blame the builders and the `designers`

Well, I don't like the fat narrowboat ones, I think they are a result of lazy boat design, or in fact not much design at all. Most narrowboats are (loosely) based on an existing historic design, there is not much history of wide boats on English canals to design a half decent `Replica` from so what you end up with is a boxy thing with all the grace of a brick built with little shape and as cheaply as possible. People will say that it would cost far too much to build some shape into them, OK, it would cost more but decent side decks for ease of use and safety and better ends is not hard to do. Just to say, my own boat is `Wide` and a damned hard thing it was to fit out because it is all curves but somewhere between the two extremes it should be possible to do it better. Now where`s my pencil and a sheet of paper,

The point is though that the cost of boating is very much dependant on the grant from central government. The amount that boaters pay and that we all argue about is nothing like the full cost of running the canals. Just think of it as a sort of council tax, the amount we pay in council tax is again dependant on the government grant. And just think of the angling folks, they have to have an EA licence of £30 -£50 a year (and more). ostensibly to keep the water clean and look after the fish (!) The similarity between all three of these examples is that the more we pay to these organisations the less the government pays. It should be viewed as a straightforward tax. The government cuts the grants every year and it costs us (Much) more, The existence of the somewhat despised continuous cruiser, council tax defaulter or angler without an EA licence is never mentioned in the corridors of power but we really ought to point our blunderbusses at the real reasons for our costs and not at each other.

I think its important to know if it is a wooden boat or a steel one, if it is a wooden boat then spreading might be the issue in which case a its likely that a bit of gentle pulling in would help. If it is metal then it could well be a bit bent as well as being spread in which case a bit of more determined pulling in would help a lot. I would be surprised if the base plate is the problem if it was fitted by someone who knew what he was doing. Hard to tell without looking but if someone has welded a bottom onto a 7`1" boat or even a fraction wider and left a so called sacrificial edge sticking out then it could be a problem that could be best solved with an angle grinder

Check the costs involved, licence, moorings insurance, survey for the Boat safety scheme and much more, It is expensive, it can be lonely, It is certainly muddy in winter and the legal situation re continously moving and living on board in Marinas and suchlike is always tricky. Not sure if I would recommend it these days but then buying or renting a house is not so great either, I think I would try to keep my head down and live in a box van or something. One thing is for sure though, if you do buy a boat it is yours to do what you wish with and although the waterways might not have been built for living on many hundreds if not thousands live on boats and why not?

Don't know but Morris's of Shrewsbury do their version -Ankor wax. I used it on my Allegro. Still fell apart though

You really need to check out the Dutch Barge Association, more specific knowledge there. I wouldn't worry too much about the internal surfaces above the waterline. The area below the waterline is the important bit, there is a very good chance that the hull has been overplated to a greater or lesser degree so the surface that you are looking at from inside might not be the bit that is keeping the water out so a good clean and some sort of hull grease slathered over the bottom is probably your best bet. As for portholes It should be OK but be careful, Is that boat a Tjalk? there might not be a lot of freeboard when fitted out. Underwater portholes are not a great idea!

I did a short trip when the river was high - probably on yellow boards- and it was sort of OK, note the 'Sort of' That was downstream. Going upstream would have been much safer but if the current gets hold of the fore end it can cause all sorts of issues and of course if things do go a bit wrong you can't just stop like you can on a canal. If the water level is low its a perfectly OK trip and rather lovely

Excellent. That is a big, big project.

In my experience it takes longer to fit/refit a boat than anything in a house, things are not square, there is no space, every time you need to cut a piece of ply its in and out of the boat half a dozen times and there are pipes and wires to fit stuff around. That makes for bigger than expected bills.

Aaaaargh!!!! This is not uncommon. A real issue is that most stuff - tanks of various sorts, plumbing - again of various sorts, wiring - done by several chancers and much much more is only visible if you destroy half the boat by taking it apart, by the time you have done that you will know perfectly well what is wrong with it. Same with engines, it will be obvious after a week of cruising what is wrong with it but until then neither you or the experts will really know. For others embarking on this journey always assume that any integral tank is on its way to total failure quite soon. Surveyors are good at some things but they have not got X ray vision. PS Avoid lawyers at all costs, they will break your pocket and your heart. The boat can only break your pocket