Salopgal
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Posts posted by Salopgal
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Yes, that's what I meant! Sorry! I've got concussion. I knocked myself almost out on the boat last night stepping into the engine room and I've not been right in the head since. I slept for 12 hours after it happened, which is unheard of. I know I ought to get checked out but I'll see how I go for a few days. I'm not right in the head most of the time, but this has taken the biscuit...
Wish I didn't have a divorce to go through as well...
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Yep! That's what it will cost with the undisclosed extras they charge 20% extra for if you are onboard a good deal...
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Is it every 4 years? I'm not sure of anything right now...!
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Thanks so much. I'm really struggling to estimate in my head what my "income needs" are, in relation to the boat and life in general. I've gone blank - but I'm estimating the following - what do you think?
Approx £268 for mooring fees
£858.97 per year boat licence for a 52 foot boat£500+ every two years blacking hull (not sure whether this is in any way accurate)
£150 every 4 years for Boat Safety certificate
annual maintenance £? (deisel for heating and running, wood for fire, gas bottles to cook, electricity metered)
Brain's gone after that....
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Hi
I'm panicking a bit as I've got to tell my solicitor my boat costs and am struggling (in my panic state) to find the BSS price for the safety certificate. Anyone give me a quick answer please?
Thanks!
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Well then - problem now sorted!!
Although the owners previous to me told me that they had never used the pump out toilet, when I got an engineer to check the tank as a last resort last week, we found the pump out tank to be full of what we think might be 10 to 15 year old waste! Took us hours to sort it and there's still a load of black unmentionable gunk in there, yet to be broken down and shifted. I’m assuming the owners I bought her from, also bought her with a full tank and didn’t think to check either (I feel a bit foolish, but it never occurred to me to ask if tank was empty at the time). So a quarter of a ton of waste has been pumped out and now Delilah’s sitting pretty in the water with no list - well, a slight one to starboard, but that's easily fixed.
I am a happy bunny, where the boat is concerned anyway. Don't get me started on the rest of my life though - it's crap! Ha!
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Thank you for posting - it is a very good video. Grateful to you for taking the time to mention it.
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At the risk of being shot down in flames....
I've seen Ecofans on a couple of boats in the past and forgotten to ask what brand they were - I know the owners liked them. There seems to be a dazzling range of these from £55 up to £145 and try as I might, I can't find out too easily what the difference in price represents in terms of output, build etc. Someone's offered to buy me one, which is very kind, but I don't know how they all differ. Caframo seem the most expensive, but look pretty sturdy.
Some have three blades, some just two - it's all so confusing!
Anyway, all constructive advice very welcome.
Thank you! K
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Or maybe the toilet is slowly leaking water into the tank and its nearly full. If the list has only started since you owned the boat you should try and find out why, not treat the symptoms by adding weight to the other side.
I'll see if I can get one of the marina engineers to check out the state of the pump out tank. Previous owners said they never used it, so I did assume it was/is empty, but that's a pretty foolhardy thing to do!!
I haven't managed to get all the water out of the cabin bilge, and without an inspection hatch just now I can't check it. I'll pull up carpet again in the cabin and see if I can get someone to cut me a hatch there.
How does one find out whether a boat was designed to have a wet bilge if the boat buildings have gone out of business (Stowe Hill in 2009). Previous owners did not have plans for boat and she's 21 years old. I'd like to find out whether she was designed to be a wet bilge, as has now been suggested by quite a few seasoned boaters...
Thanks!
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Well, as a watercolour artist with a dedicated studio where I live now, I've got a ridiculous number of very heavy books and equipment. I was going to shove most of it into storage but think I'll store the paint cans and fill the two cupboards with books at the weekend and see how it looks then.
I really, really do appreciate everyone's help here as the boat still belongs to my Mum and I'm caretaking it for her until I can afford to buy it off her!!Bless you Dean!
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it doesnt take much to change the list of a narrowboat. The first thing to look for is a place you could put some balast on the right side. This could be a simple dead weight which you leave sitting on the stern deck. Perhaps some concrete slab or a box of bricks fitting under a bench somewhere. You need to be creative. Some bricks are heavier than others and shouldnt cost too much. Balast can be hidden well with a bit of creativity.....fitted under a kitchen shelf...or against a wall behind the sofa etc.
Thanks Dean! There's a good space under the cratch and someone's put a little bit of ballast there (looks like garden paving but heavy, but not much of it) and there's room on top of it for more. I've got bricks and slate here so I could take a load down and put it in. As it happens, even when the water tank at the bow is full, the boat is still noticeably stern heavy, bow light, so engineer agrees that ballast at the front is possibly best. The only other place is in cupboard under dinette seating, again at the front, although it's currently full of tins of paint and that's not making much of a difference. I'll have to do a sketch of the layout and post it here if I can. Thanks again!!
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Shifting ballast is the only way. Long term I guess you could think about moving some heavy stuff over.
Don't forget you can also remove ballast from the port side to the starboard side doubling the effect.
Has it always been like this? Has something changed?
Weight on the roof will have a disproportionate effect. Do you have anything on the roof?
Are you tied tightly on the left? (it's not port on the canal)
and could you be on the bottom on the right?
Are your tanks full or empty? Does this make a difference?
Toilet tank?
Hiya Chris! Thanks for responding so quickly - really appreciated.
I spoke to an engineer at the marina, who shall remain nameless (!) and he didn't think that it would be too easy getting to the ballast under the floors and shifting it. Not sure why, unless it's the lack of hatches or even inspection holes. The carpet throughout is firmly tacked down but I eased it up with a knife in the cabin to see if there were any hatches. Hopefully, marina engineers could move ballast if it was absolutely necessary - after all someone put it in there!
I don't have plans for the boat at all, so sadly I just don't know at the moment whether the diesel and water tanks reach across evenly across the centre line of the boat - I think the water tank might, judging from the sloshing sounds when the boat moves, and when diesel and water tanks are full, the list is still there slightly.
I'm tied up on the right hand side of the boat, currently and mooring ropes are not too taught I don't think...
Nothing on the roof other than the pole and plank and they are situated on the right side.
I didn't notice the listing until quite recently, around about the same time I found the water in the cabin bilge. We didn't get it all out but quite a lot of it and none of it has come back so we've ruled out a leak.
The only change I've made recently is putting a bit more stuff in the cupboards and fridge, but nothing else and the combined weight of those items is quite small. I do have two mattresses on the bed - one old one covered with a memory foam topper, but again, not much of a combined weight.
No cabin bilge inspection hatch? Ours was under the laminate floor in the rear bedroom just before the step into the trad cabin.............our boat is 20 years old too.
You could always chuck a few bags on coal on the starboard side of the roof.................
No, no hatch at all. I could pull up all the carpet to have a look but the previous owner said he was not aware of any hatches or holes at all. He was a very thorough guy so I think he'd have known if one existed. Wish I had plans for this boat....
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My boat is listing slightly to the port side; I noticed it first, then a fellow boater confirmed it at the weekend - a fresh set of eyes and senses!
Boat is a 20 year old trad, with absolutely everything heavy on the port side i.e. cooker, fridge, all galley cupboards, wood burning stove, bathroom and loo (don't use the pump out toilet so it's not the tank but that is on port side) cabin bed and wardrobe, engine and main fixings and fittings in the engine room (batteries et al). I haven't even moved aboard proper yet so all my clothes, books, and posessions that are needed aboard would also all go in the storage on the port side. It seems like an insane design but it's all I have to work with.
I have no boat plans, I have no inspection hatches that we can find.
Apart from increasing the small amount of visible ballast that's already under the cratch on the starboard side, I'm not sure what I can do to trim the boat when all my stuff is onboard. Corridor from galley to back of boat all runs on the starboard side and no room for significant storage on the very narrow shelves.
Any advice on what I should/could do to remedy this, please?
Thanks!
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They don't do they?
There's a document circulating at my mooring "The Future" and where my nice shady pontoon is there's not one tree.
Madness.
Sorry, I don't follow. I am a bear of very little brain...
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The heat is coming through the roof and the sunny side of the boat. Try setting up a submersible pump system on a basic plug timer with a hose that will take water from the canal and spread it over the roof. Maybe an old hose pipe with holes. Should only be about a two metre head so not a very big pump would be required. A cheap Chinese one should be fine for the experiment and can be used for other applications like boat washing in the cooler season.
Am thinking that a submersible pump is a really good idea. Do you recommend any particular type that's pretty compact but still efficient?
Thanks!
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Interesting.
Lots of high low tech ways of keeping the boat cool but completely missing the obvious....
...moor under a tree.
No trees at marina. Constant cruising not an option currently. May go for the 'big bugger' fan options - will ask for the spenny one for a birthday present next month! Thanks one and all - it's always interesting to find out what solutions folk come up with and the under bed fans weren't even on my radar!
My friend who is moored under trees and has cream paintwork has a lovely cool boat.
I've got to work with what I've got for now and moving isn't an option with work and it being my first year of owning/living aboard...
Thanks again! K x
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I've been trying to find reviews of these just now, but no luck at all so far. I'm a bit suspicious, but there seem plenty of them around (which isn't a recommendation, I know). I'm on shore power...
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OK, so I'm a newbie and this is my first summer owning a boat, but when she's been shut up all day because I'm at work and no opportunity to give her an airing, it is absolutely unbearably hot when opening up late afternoon.
She's 52 foot long, fully portholed and none of them open. She has fore and aft hatches, one side hatch roughly mid way, one houdini hatch, one pigeon hatch and only two mushroom vents. If there's no breeze at all, it's still staggeringly hot inside and I'm suffering...I'd really love to know what nifty ideas folk have found for cooling the boat interior down quick enough to not need 5 cold showers before 7pm!! I'm trying not to be a wimp, but does such a thing exist as aircon for boats, for the rare, but possibly increasing likelihood that we will have 35 degree temperatures in the near and long futures? As this will be my home, I'd like to be a bit more comfortable.
Please
Thank you! K
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Wow Congratulations , I too will be leaving my rented house this coming Tuesday 18th June and starting the journey as a liveaboard boater upon my 2006 57ft Semi Trad, its taken me a year to get to this stage following on from a divorce and with this as the start of an all new life for me.
I purchased my boat from the owners via a well known boat yard a few weeks ago after having had the survey, re-blacked, and serviced im spending this weekend cleaning both house and boat in readiness of my depature and my move in to her. I have to say though after i parted with my well earned divorce settlement to buy the boat i had a few twinges of "Buyers Remorse" and have in fact been asking myself a few times have i done the right thing and im not even on board yet, I think the thing that worrys me the most is well everything lol from the powering of the boat even though i will be on mains the battery care, etc etc etc etc its everything really. Although i also am filled with excitement and really looking forward to this coming Tuesday and the start of THE NEW WAY OF LIFE
One more thing OMG its amazed me as too how much stuff ive collected over the years, im having a massive clearout of clothes and personal stuff.
So to others like us as the newbies good luck to us all.
Well you and I are like twins - same here dear Chap. Well, except I'm not quite the other side of the divorce, but in every other respect, including the jitters. But all in all, I can't wait for the new life to start - new boating companions, closer to nature, things to fix, possessions to strip away and ditch. At the end of the day, it's been my saving grace this new life and hope for a new future and so..... it's all good!! You can't possibly have as many clothes as we girls anyhow.....
Anyhow, you've got an extra five feet space on me, so make the most of all that luverley storage!
See you on the cut!
K
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Please excuse me tagging on the end of this post but it's sparked a question.
I've got an Eberspacher also - excuse my ignorance, but does the antifreeze just go in the CH header tank? I had to drain this down recently because of a leak and I put antifreeze in the header tank but not 50%. Does antifreeze go anwhere else in the system? Sorry, I'm a complete novice!
Thanks.
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Fair enough - I thought it might be a one (or less) hit wonder... The engineer at the marina laughed anyway, but he couldn't mock me too much as I was providing the beer!
Off to funeral tomorrow, so camera will have to wait.Hope to get help cutting a new inspection hatch, if I can get the blessed carpet up!!
WTS x
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Don't laugh, but I've bought one of these today:
http://www.lidl-ni.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/SID-DAFD748B-EE5E96D7/lidl_ni_ie/hs.xsl/index_31034.htm
Don't ever go into Lidl on Sundays normally, but happened to be passing and it felt like too much of a coincidence that it was there. I'm working extra hours at work this week so that'll pay for it.
I'll let you know whether it's any good. I'm going to try and get another hole made in the cabin floor as close to the rear bulkhead as possible. It's going to be fun trying to prise up the carpet - they must have used "No More Nails" to glue it down, it's so firm!
Thanks all!
K
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Have you looked inside the cupboards/wardrobes/etc?. Ours isn't a Stowe Hill trad it's a Stoke-on-Trent cruiser but it's the same vintage and that's where we found ours, next to the rear bulkhead inside a wardrobe. It wasn't very convenient there because only the top half of the cupboard opened so we cut another one where it was easier to get at.
I've looked everywhere I can in the whole cabin area - nothing so far. But the calorifier that was put in in 2011 covers up an area in bottom of wardrobe that just might have been the place...
I don't think any of the cupboards, which hold piping on their floor areas, have any inspection access.
It does list a little to port, but all the heaviest stuff is on that side. But evidently that's where I need to cut another hole so I'll ask engineer for help. Cupboards and wardrobe so tight fitted that I can barely get my head in side and floor very deep below so inspection hole will be tricky to make.
Oh dear...
BSS certificate price
in General Boating
Posted
Thanks all. I remembered the insurance and breakdown cover at the 11th hour, so both are factored in. Servicing wasn't but I can email the brief and let her know...
Thanks again, so much. x K