Opener

A wide-beamed neighbour had an effective solution. A flat plate with a short upstand at the outside edge. Fits, via a central hole, snugly round the roof collar. Plate naturally slopes overboard. Any nasties run onto/ collect on the plate and run to the lowest edge where a gap in the upstand feeds into an attached straight length of pipe long enough to allow run off to miss the cabin side. A bonus is that it is open to the sky so gets washed by rain. Plate can be round, square or whatever.

Me neither - I clicked on the first OP post 🤔

Step 1: take a trip to Skipton on a nice day. Take a skippered trip with Pennine (short) or Skipton ((longer/further) - sit and watch the scenery/ducks go by. Even have a meal on board if you fancy. Step 2: try and book a day boat. Pennine, Skipton and Snaygill all have well equipped day boats. Great for a half-day, day or evening out. You can see a fair bit in a day + no luggage required (take food/refreshments). Step 3: short break on a full sized boat from any of the above +Silsden. You'll work out whether you can live on/steer a biggun. Don't worry about L&L locks and bridges. If you get stuck there'll be another boat along soon - could be an experienced skipper or total amateur. You'll work it out between you - that's half the fun of narras. Go for it!

Good news - you've got a lock free section between the top of Bingley and the bottom of Gargrave. 17 miles and at least three hire firms with a good selection of boat sizes (period and day hire). Bad news - there are stacks of swing bridges on the stretch. Plenty of scenery, towns, moorings and nothing too complicated to navigate.

If ducks are the solution to duckweed, what do you do about fairy floating moss?

Boats do weird things to you. Just come back from a few days in a ditch. Usually get a degree of boat head. But at one point, in a known shallow mooring, I had to get off the boat and rock it. I was convinced we were aground cos I was not conscious of any movement as I moved around the boat. I would hope you get used to the motion otherwise you'll miss out on the joys of boating in torrential rain/ howling wind / etc. Maybe Stugeron is a short-term answer till you 'get your legs'. PS - what is Mal de Mayor? Is having a problem with your Local Authority?

Serious question - can you get '..lower hull sides cut out..'? Would that be conditional on a strip out and refit? Presumably interior fittings are fixed to whatever which in turn are fitted to the hull. It would all fall down when the hull is cut out. Sounds a bit like building a boat from scratch (almost) - you'd only have a few original bits to work with.

Ask him where he got his cratch board - I want one from there 😁.

Seriously, can extent of 'boat head' have something to do with ballasting of das boot? When I am at the tiller, I can tell when crew is stationary and when a coffee is making its way to me. If you/the boat is more heavily ballasted there should be less rocking motion and maybe less lasting effect when back on land.

Yup. Boat Head.

We've got a 50ft, cruiser stern. Plenty of ventilation. I always wonder if a dehumidifier, once it has dried the air in the boat, will pull in outside air and try to dry out the canal 🙄. For years we have relied upon dehum crystals - two trays - and a couple of those disposable ones the same size as washing capsule boxes. We've got big windows which do steam up when cooking but soon clears. Stove for cold weather. Have recently added an Aero device which seems to also collect stacks. Never had any concerns or problems with mustiness, mould or damp.

So, once you have solved the problem of how soluble your proposed float is in water/auntie-freeze, you drill a suitable sized hole in said lid so that your 'vertical'/ indicator sticks and slides through it. Much more stable.

Have you actually considered that they can't see inside? He's probably admiring the reflection of his Admiral's hat worn at a jaunty angle, his nonchalant pose at the tiller and the lovely shiny paint job he's just paid a mint for. Well, I would if it was me!!

Good luck with finding that spare belt - we had to tear the boat apart to find ours!! Knew I'd seen - just not where 🤔.

Used to moor at Reedley - Sunday evening sport was to watch moorers returning after a 'good session' at Inn on the Wharf. Got their own bar on site now so no need to travel.