Detling

there is the guillotine lock at the junction but I can't remember are problems, into the basin you do need care but the northern section is pretty normal.

This government seems particularily 'anti boat owner' they mentioned second homes and boats, they did not mention mobile homes, static caravans, and motorhome in the same way they were just lumped in the' other' catagory. As cleaners and nanny's were the first to be released, and now we have outdoor entertainment, in time for Glynbourne Festival you get some idea of who influences this government and they distinctly don't like boats for some reason. They hate anything Europe even more even when it is better than anything they have, look at the PPE shambles and now the enormous amount of money being spent trying to to aquire a 'GPS' alternative rather than pay (almost certainly less long term) to allow us to use the European sytem we paid for, built and works. Jury is still out on criminal record cooperation.

All engine holes get a bit of water through the stern gland where the prop shaft goes through the hull, the grease or rubber rings keep a lot out but the will drip a little bit, many people have an ice cream box under there to catch the odd drips. It is also not unknown for water draining off the back of the cabin roof to leak under covers. A 16 year old boat will have paint that needs attention, that is not cheap if you want a polished shiny boat with coachlines and signwriting, but it is unlikely there will be serious rust there check round the windows. The place to inspect for serious rust is the water line where electrolysis can happen as well as diesel removing the blacking allowing rust to occur, I would expect some pitting but 1mm max. Get a custom stainless chimney cost just over £100 and lasts for years, the black chinese built ones last a year if you are lucky. Expect to have to replace the battery bank in the near future, unless it has been looked after well and the boat has solar fitted.

Use the search facility there are dozens of threads on anchors, it will provide bedtime reading for weeks.

You can get a lot of the fittings on flea bay and with a decent pipe bender and tube you could have a go, look for bimini mountings. available in plastic, aluminium alloy, and stainless steel. You will need access to a decent sewing machine, corners finish up as 6 to 8 layers of your canvas to sew through.

The nuisance to other boats is not your boats speed and definately not the RPM of the engine, it is the mound of water your boat is pushing along the canal in front of it and the lump being pulled along behind. If you slow down 2 boatlengths or so in front of a moored boat the hump in front has time to flatten out as does the one behind you, if you cut the revs as you reach the boat the hump has already lifted and moved the moored boat. If you have a boat with a small prop and low tickover you need to be aware the guy following you past a line of moored boats may not be able to go as slow as you, and is may not be able to steer being in neutral most of the time. You should slow down early, travel at about 1 to 1.5 mph everyone is happy, no humps in front or behind. It does help if the moorer has his lines going forward and backward and not at a rightangle to the bank, even better with a spring.

I have also found that their search on the stoppages site seems to miss the older notes that still apply and have not been updated for a year.

If the boat is under 5 years old it may be woth while checking the RCD compliance, by law you cannot sell a boat without RCD under 5 years old. And check that it is for the boat as it is now and not just the hull with no internal fit out, gas, electric system etc. As said the canals are fairly lax but if you want to sell the new buyer may hold it against you.

One common problem if you don't use the boat often is spiders setting up home in the flame spreader in the oven it is just the right size in their eyes for a cosy nest. They go away but their clump of web doesn't and this causes uneven flame spread leading to the sort of problems you say you are getting.

Is it possible some oil escaped onto the hot engine bits whilst it was being changed. This would cause a hot oil smell but the engine would be fine.

I have 6mm eyebolts with a small spreader plate under the rail and a self locking nut. Had them now for 5 years no trouble, if the bolt were to fail the ring would still be on the rope and not flying like a missile, if the rope breaks then! I hope I am not behind it.

Sorry I was really talking about us part time cruisers who have bricks and mortar places to live as well. The price for onboard electricity bears little resemblance to shorside as well as vast swings between winter and summer, when solar makes it almost free.

Air source heating and other heat pump methods of heating have the problem of overall costs. Look at your electric and gas bills and you will see that 1kWh of electric is about 3 times the price of 1kWh of gas. A heat pump produces about 3kW of heat for every 1kW of electric put into it, so the number of kWh required to heat a room or hot water is abour 1/3rd of the kWh of gas but the cost is about the same. So you finish up with a more complex piece of equipment (more to break) which costs more to build and install and no real difference in running costs. The best outcome of using heat pumps is that you are reducing the amount of CO2 you put into the atmosphere to heat your house/boat and maybe reducing the air temperature or water temperature at the same time. But frozen roads and canals and rivers and lakes has human and wildlife implications as well, broken bones and thirsty birds etc. Just imagine what effect the 2000+ boats in London area taking a steady 5kW each from the canal water, how thick would the ice get.

Not quite guaranteed to destroy the eyes of an on oncoming steerer thus making a collision more likely. You will be able to see him or her shielding their eyes as they bounce off the wall.

The cost includes a lift out in year 5 for inspection, not sure if this is used as a way to get more work, as mine is only in year 2.

try saying that in Melbourne.

If going for a narrow beam please remember to aim up and to the right, but you knew that.

You will never reach 50A in the UK I have 600W mounted flat through a 40 Amp controller and the highes recorded is 33.4 amps. You are better off connecting the panels in parallel because of partial shading, which will limit the current significantly through the shaded panel, and if in series all panels. The Controllers to look at the reasonable end of the market, are MakeSkyBlue, good reliable and tracks well it is lower priced but beware of fakes it has been copied a lot, as are all good things. Victron do nice ones not that expensive and some have bluetooth conectivity so you can see what is happening and set up using your phone near the box they also support Lithium batteries. EPEver/Tracer are not bad but older technolgy and do not track the power as well as the other two, this can add up to over 10% power missed on a day with lots of small clouds. Outback is all singing and dancing but you pay for that. There are undoubtedly others but I do not know of them. As said a 50A will be more than enough and a 40A will limit the current to 40 amps in the unlikely event the input exceeds that, possibly for a few minutes at midday, when your batteries should be full on a sunny day.

I bought my boat young (3 years??) the hull is 2006 the 1st registration is 2008 so 2.5 years later. most of that time was spent floating in the bankrupt buiders yard whilst the Official Reciever was taken to court to release the boat, the last payment being made the day before the bankruptcy. During that time kids threw stones at it, they made a nice noise as they hit and chipped the paint, water came through a leak in a side hatch and rotted the bottom of the door lining, the oak floor buckled due to being sat in water. The RCD had not been signed by the builder. I paid 50% of what the seller/owner had paid the yard, a few thousand on repairs, batteries RCD survey. I got an unused boat still with the plastic still on the loo and oven and hob for half price. The chap who had it made couldn't face looking at it after 18 months of legal hassle which helped cause his heart attack, so beware His son was selling the boat. I did not buy direct but through a broker, and did not find out about the history till 6 months after I bought the boat.

As a liveaboard legally all gas work should be done by a gas safe engineer with marine LPG tickets, I think you will find they won't install a non room sealed unit.

Waking up to whe sound of cows tearing grass at 5am is part of the fun. Any plants on the boat are seen as a delicacy by the cows who can reach a surprising way from the bank. Centre lines and other mooring lines are also tasty as well as fenders. The edge is shallow in many places so you may have to have a few goes to find somewhere you can get off the boat, but it is a long long bank.

Mine is that way you put the hot coolant into the bottom of the skin tank which ten makes it's way throught the baffles and comes out of the top cooler. The other reservoir and expansion tank look to me as though they are part of a sealed central heating system, although why you put one on a boat beats me.

Have you got a wet / dry vac you want to chuck?

At best you have a 250 watt solar system there, the current is going to be limited to 5 ish amps by the 100 watt panel it will not allow any more through, so the 150 watt panels which probably are each capable of 6 or more amps ie 12+ in parallel, are being limited to 5 amps total maximum, you would get more solar power by just shorting out or removing the 100 watt panel, provided the controller can cope with 300 watts and 12+ amps input.