Sir Percy

Most berths are arranged along the length of the boat, aren't they? Have you ever slept on a bed athwartships, and did it make any difference? If the boat were rocked, I'd imagine that head-to-foot rocking might be a little less pleasant than side-to-side, but I've been on train couchettes without noticing anything.

so, another means of moving air through (and out of an exit, I assume).

That's an answer to OP (whose bilge is not bone dry) about putting in floor vents, not about convection.

If there were a heat source, that would cause air movement upwards. Having a floor vent near to the stove and another floor vent some distance away, would provide air movement through the bilge, which would help to keep it dry. You see this arrangement in Victorian front rooms. Trade-off between warm cabin/dry bilge.

Goes against my O-level Physics thinking; warm air rises, no?

Seems to me, the safe way to install one of these would be externally. Looking at the Eber marine heating brochure, that's what they show in their installation example.

bbc.co.uk article tl;dr Caroline is 33 and works in higher education. She lives on a narrowboat, which she bought three years ago with an unsecured personal loan, which she repays at £705.42 per month. The boat is moored on a permanent residential mooring [Oxford?], for which Caroline pays £257.44 per month in mooring and boat licence fees. My solar panel hasn't generated much power today, so I run the generator for a few hours to boost the batteries. I need more efficient solar panels, as they will significantly offset my expenditure on petrol for the generator, and diesel for the boat engine (around £8 per week in total), but my current top priority is ordering coal for the winter. Usually I buy enough for a month at a time, but this winter there will be a stoppage (canal closure) at a bridge just north of my mooring, meaning that Dusty the fuel boat will be unable to get through for three months. Ordering three months' worth of fuel in advance is a pricey business, and will set me back around £400-500 on top of my usual monthly bills. So, no new solar panels just yet. Two years ago I acquired a £4,000 overdraft debt overnight (due to the Canal and River Trust omitting the VAT on my mooring fees and threatening me with a CCJ [county court judgement] unless I paid the VAT bill in full immediately) and I have been in the debt trap ever since.

IKEA do 80cm wide cellular blinds for £22. HOPPVALS If they'll fit, they'd be cheap to try out this winter. I'd be inclined to box up guides on either side.

Why are the new range called UBoatman? Alaaarrrmmm!

A fence handling a stolen police dog?

Police dog handlers are attending the scene - come by!

[Daily Express] Emergency services rushed to the scene at the Aire and Calder Navigation on Lock Lane and have closed the road, backing everyone away from the bridge. Staff working on the canal have been evacuated up to the road and firefighters and police are there with boats. Armed officers, police dogs and fire and rescue teams have rushed to the scene.

Ah, it wasn't me. I've just put it out here.

Hirer in a pub, d'you think?

Photo Post on Reddit: We've just stopped a boat that was floating Down the river Thames. Who the hell do we call?

There's two key words in the article linked to: 'scam' and 'understanding'. I don't think it's a scam if you understand how it works, and therefore how it should be installed for best results - so I was careful to make a note about the air gap required in my first post. For my particular application, the flooring will sit on 2x4" bearers at a level off the ballast (50mm tall, sitting on old cable). The foil should go on top of the ballast leaving ~one-and-a-half inch gap. Also careful to use the word 'foil' rather than 'bubble-wrap'. If you've used some bubble-wrap to lag your calorifier, the bubbles would have been the only thing providing some benefit.

I would have been using it under the floor. Wouldn't be expecting convection to be a factor there. It would be good for that, do you think?

Really? Was going to be installing soon. Haven't bought any yet. Can you remember where you saw that?

Have you had a look at thermal foil insulation? Could be comparable to 25mm Celotex-type sheets. If you've got irregular surfaces/spaces, might be easier to fit. Note: air gap needed.

The bollards on our mooring were replaced with this system about a couple of years ago. Very handy if you're using a corded power tool away from your boat at the end of the mooring where there's space for outdoor work.

Approx. dims are 90cm wide, 140cm tall, 60cm deep. There's a top cabinet section 40cm top-to-bottom, and four drawers 25cm t-t-b. So I reckon that if I section it up correctly I can have fit them under a standard 180cm long mattress 90cm above floor level - there'd be two drawers and the cabinet to one side and two drawers and an empty space that I could do something with on the other. I was toying with the idea of constructing the bed frame in 'loft-bed' style, so the sections could move in and out on sliders/castors (with some locking ofc!). The whole assembly could go in the foremost part of the forecabin. That rings a distant bell...

I'm thinking of making a captain's bed to go in my boat (possibly by way of repurposing a chest of drawers). Any advice, or experience to pass on? Ta!

The new ballast is all down on the baseplate. A lot of the pavers have been removed, and whats left has been taken up an shifted to fore and aft extremities of the boat - however, piled up to six layers high (on the baseplate). So I'll see how removing it changes things.

Boats are going to rock, there's not too much you can do about that...it's just that mine feels more reactive to my weight than before, which was unexpected. Have you recently installed anything of significant mass above the waterline?

Removing remnants of old pavers which now don't fit into the spaces between the new bearers, and added steel block ballast.