Southern Star

We didn't have any problems when we did the Warwickshire Ring earlier this year, and that was during daytime in the Easter school holiday. We did see the usual lads hanging out by the canal, who gave us the usual "give us a ride Mister" thing but so long as you are friendly and polite to them, they soon move on.

Plus the food scraps feed the fish, ducks etc.

I have been told that the reason it is, or was, traditionally considered to be bad luck to change a boat's name, is because when boats were built of an all-wood construction, the old name would have to be cut out and this weakened the wood. I know not if this is true.

A chap on my mooring has one and he's pleased with it although he recently saw it out of the water for the first time for painting and he had the prop replaced as he said it was of woeful quality.

Probably the easiest first step would be to post links to a couple of boats you like here, and solicit general opinions about them. There are people who will come and have a look at boats with you, but nobody can tell how sound the hull is while it is in the water. Be aware that CRT seem to be taking an ever increasingly dim view of continuous cruisers.

I'm thinking you already had your mind set on this boat when you posted, you posted earlier about boats with outboard engines. It's not suitable as a liveboard boat unless you intend to stay in a marina and have permanent mains power.

Good. Our children need places to live.

I think what he meant was he's up to speed with every system on the boat and is ready to go out on it on his own. He is only 17 so that's not too bad an achievement. We've all got to start somewhere!

If you hired a boat on the North Oxford Canal (Rose Narrowboats for example) Then you could go to Hillmorton in one direction and to the end of the Ashby Canal in the other only passing through one stop lock, which isn't like an actual lock in that the water only rises and falls by 9 inches or so. However, I would agree with others are that the locks are an essential part of a canal experience.

A "Women-only arts centre"? I wonder what would happen if I tried to convert my boat into a "men only pub".

Seems a bit of a daft idea to advertise it on RightMove, the estate agent clearly does not have a clue about boats. Length, width, draft, what engine does it have, size of fuel tank, size of water tank, battery arrangement etc etc etc, not a mention.

I feel sorry for her in that she faces losing her home, but at the same time owning a boat is similar to driving a car, in that it is not a freedom but something which is done under licence, and the simple fact is that there are terms and conditions which go with the licence which simply are not optional. That may sound harsh, but it's a fact.

It only takes about a minute to turn a dinette into a bed. I suppose it depends on the individuals by my boat is 42' with one fixed double and a sofa bed and we have no problem with four aboard. As for 6-7 hours cruising a day, that's not really a great amount, we'll be away in August and we'll almost certainly smash out a couple of 11 hour days.

Unlikely HMRC would take any interest in a 10 litre transaction of red diesel once in a while. In any event, you do normally need to fill in a declaration form when buying red diesel from forecourts, and it you aren't using it for propulsion then in the section where you are asked about intended use, "generator" would suffice.

Yes, length, that is for a 12 metre boat. Many costs on a narrowboat are determined by length, licence, cost of blacking, insurance etc. The Medway is more geared towards grp cruisers than narrowboats, grp boats tend to be much shorter. I personally wouldn't travel to or from the main network from the Medway on my own, or on anything other than the calmest day. narrowboats are designed to float in muddy ditches four feet deep, not tidal estuaries. I have been up the Thames numerous times on the Cobelfret ferry and even that has difficulties on occasion.

Very expensive for moorings, mine would be over £4,000 a year at Allington Marina, at Brinklow Marina on the North Oxford it was just under £1,500 a year.

Narrowboat engines do not have a radiator, as a car does, as there would be no throughrush of air to cool it. Instead, the coolant is generally piped around a captive circuit and (on my boat anyway) the first thing it passes through is the calorifier. This is similar to a domestic immersion heater and the coolant is pumped through an internal coil, which heats the domestic water. After this it may pass through other fittings designed to shed heat, a towel rail in the wet room for example, and then a skin tank- a tank welded to the interior of the hull designed to exchange heat with the canal water- before being returned to the engine.

Mostly because they run on petrol rather than diesel, which isn't readily available on the canal network, as a result of which you will find yourself trudging a couple of miles to a petrol station every day with a couple of five litre cans.

Would be great to see the Mont extended, it's a wonderful canal.

I imagine Brinklow Marina would accommodate you, I moored there for a year and although they don't advertise short-term moorings there are plenty of free spaces and the people who run it are helpful and accommodating, I'd suggest you ring Eric the harbourmaster for a chat. It has everything there you would need, elsan point, diesel, pump-out etc and I believe they are building a toilet/shower block. I moved on only because an online mooring became available a few miles away at a super bargain price in a busy and friendly community, if there was one complaint I would make about Brinklow Marina it would be that it was a little too much like "a car park for boats". Still, that seems like exactly what you are looking fr.

I was going to say that crane access might be difficult, we came across this boat while it was ablaze and the fire brigade could only gain access with a Land Rover, it's quite a way from the road. Just to clarify for anybody wondering, the OP is my son who is boat-mad!