Bettie Boo
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Posts posted by Bettie Boo
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4 minutes ago, cuthound said:
Betty, Braunston and Wigrams Turn are both on the Grand Union (Wigwams Turn is on the section shared by the GU and the Southern Oxford Canal), so both are on a wide canal.
Ray is commenting on widebeam boats travelling from Braunston to Hillmorton, on the North Oxford canal, which is a narrowonderful canal.
He was not criticising you.
Thanks for that cuthound.
As I wrote earlier I thought the bit between Braunston & Wigrams Turn were considered part of the Oxford as well and couldn't figure out why he was saying that cruising that section was thoughtless for a widebeam operator to cruise, when he had assisted/accompanied us on our maiden vouyage on said section.
Just to clarify I didn't actually think he was criticizing me personally, just widebeam operators in general who choose to cruise that section.
Sorry for the confusion Ray - I stand corrected and you still have your upstanding, kind and helpful attributes IMO
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12 minutes ago, Ray T said:
Yes, I am the same, not changed.
I will repeat, "I am not against wide beams persay", but as I said in the quoted post the North Oxford Canal is a narrow canal and is unsuitable for wide boats either in the past or now.
Why you are taking this comment personally I don't know.
Is the bit of canal between Braunston & Wiggrams Turn not considered part of the north Oxford? If not, then I stand corrected.
I thought it was, and as so, found the comment of it being "thoughtless" somewhat confusing coming from someone who quite happily took a couple of complete novices for a small cruise on said section of canal.
^^ because of my personal experience Ray - I just don't see how you can do one thing and then call it a thoughtless act when others do it.
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On 01/10/2017 at 17:25, Ray T said:
This is Matty's photo.
I am not at liberty to post the photo but a well known Historic boater has posted a photo of a butty he was towing passing a wide boat, on the North Oxford that Alan was referring to, there was virtually no water between the two boats. I am not against wide boats per say, but to me taking them on narrow canals is just thoughtless. Waits for flack...........
Not trying to imply the above comment is meretricious or anything but; we met someone who seemed like a kind, knowledgable & down to earth person going by the name of Ray T 4 years ago.
He came down to Braunston to see our Widebeam being craned off the truck into the water at Braunston, he took some really lovely photos of the day and even provided a bottle of Newcastle Brown for the christening. Then a couple of months later offered to accompany us on our maiden cruise up to Wiggrams turn to teach us some of the basic do's & don'ts of cruising / mooring. Didn't seem bothered at all, us being a widebeam and cruising / mooring on those waters at the time.
Are you not the same man? If so, I guess times & attitudes change quicker than I thought.
I can't fatham out that if it was such a thoughtless thing to do why you offered to accompany us
** Please note this ^^^ does not take away from the gratitude that both hubby & I both have for you and Simon for taking us out that day, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and learned loads of vital info.
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We found banking wasn't an issue at all, we had our accounts set up as "paperless" accounts and gave them a friends address, but insisted that they were not to send any snail mail to that address.
As for medical, we started out by arranging with our Doctors practice to keep us registared there. However as we traveled quite extensively for the first couple of years it did become a pain in the backside to get repeat prescriptions as I needed to see him every 3 months for blood tests. It was quite difficult to get registared at a new surgery that is close to the canal withing a 40 mile radius of our current cruising pattern, but I did prevail with the assistance of the local hospital...long story.
Other folks will tell you its quite easy and that any surgery will take you on as a temporary patient, in my experience that certainly wasn't the case.
IMO, the easiest way is to use a friend or relatives address.
Good luck
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Dave this is a message from Jenlyn who no longer posts on this forum, but does on TB where he posted this:
" I obviously cannot post on cwdf, so I will pass my condolences to Dave from here. I am sincerely sorry to hear of your loss, cherish your memories, as they can never be taken away.
Take care"Although we have never met, please accept my most sincere condolences; as Steve said above, treasure your memories of Beverly and I hope you can find some solace in them. A glass will be raised on the 8th
Betty & Dave
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2 hours ago, matty40s said:
The central Grand Union has been busy all Summer (Stoke Bruerne to Braunston) - hire companies have had a cracking season. The Bank Holiday was not as busy as I expected going from Northants up to Anderton, but I did make sure I hit all the pinch points either very early or very late.
I'd agree with that ^^, we've cruised a couple of times between Marsworth and Stoke Bruerne this summer and on our non-cruising days we've been passed by at least 20-30 boats a day, well except the rainy days.
Wyvern must be laughing all the way to the bank with this summers proceeds; and only 3 of them have managed to "bump" into us so far this summer
(no real damage done by any of them, thankfully) and none of them seemed overly intoxicated! All were very pleasant and ever so apologetic
Noticed a fair few Napton hireboats down this way this year, definitely more than in the past couple of years.
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1 hour ago, Dyertribe said:
Glad to hear you are getting better. I'm sure your attitude has a lot to do with the speed of your recovery.
I'm a firm believer in a positive attitude when trying to get past a serious illness; and apparently quite a few Doctors and nurses do as well. At my last check-up the Doctor actually said one of the main reasons my stay in the hospital earlier this year was as short as it was (I didn't think 7 weeks was a short time) was down to my positive attitude and my determination to get well enough to leave.
So glad to hear things are working out for you and you are well on the road to recovery. Don't fret about walking with a stick, I still do on the tow path, but am getting stronger little by little and am aiming to be rid of it by winter (fingers crossed)
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Been quite busy on the GU the last few days, anywhere between 20 - 30 boats a day, mind you theres a fair few festivals/gatherings/fun days etc around, so lots of trade boats on the move as well as the Wyven fleet of hire boats crab crawling along
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I give up
but please let us all know how it all works out running your engine for 1 hour a day and how long it takes to go through your first set of batteries.
Sorry for hijacking your thread Heffalump, I hope you got the info you were seeking?
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17 minutes ago, LadyG said:
Gosh, well done, even understanding what that sudoko is all about, just a complete no no for me.
I disagree about one/two persons laundry, that 's not right, has to be x2!
I have do have a 19 inch TV, but don't watch it: I then used the laptop on the few occasions I watched mainstream TV, in the end I gave up, and stopped watching altogether, though I miss BBC NEWS.
I have DVDs from last xmas, not actually watched them, even though they were on my xmas wish list, and were presents!
I probably will have an oil lamp, as they do lift the chill from the air, but are not great in the lumens department. I think it is best to have lots of alternatives, so that if for example the electricity dies, one has means of heat, warmth, and light, and candles ar very popular, tea lighs are cheap, and I rather like the strings of LEDs for festive garlands.
Yes of course two people produce more dirty laundry a week than one would, I didn't mean to insinuate it wouldn't be otherwise. But the washer really doesn't consider whether it's washing a tea towel or a full load it takes the same amout of electricity to run.
If your "electricity dies" I'd suggest you'd be looking at replacing your battery bank quite sharpish - the aim is to Never let your batteries go below a 50% SOC - we actually strive to keep ours above that at all times. As in doing things like: if we know we will have the telly on for a few hours in the evening we switch the freezer off as soon as the sun is off the solar panels (I bought a freezer which will hold it's tempature for 18 - 20 hours with out being hooked up to power) then when we run the engine in the morning the freezer is turned back on.
I do agree that having a back up for the important things; heat, lights, a cooking device, fresh water & a loo facility is definanetly a good way to go about things. That doesn't mean we sit around trying to read by the light of a candle or tea light, or cook a 3 course meal on the MF stove. If we did, we'd end up spending more on tea lights & candles than we do on diesel to produce the same amount of light.
As I said earlier, life styles differ greatly, and really "to each his own" is my motto, how you choose to live is completely your business and yours alone. But thinking that running your engine for 1 hour a day is simply unrealistic in my mind whether moving or not.
I presume when you get your boat you will be single handling it? Have you asked other ladies who are on their own what the average time is for going through locks? Or even a flight of locks! It takes us on average anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes; now that's not necessarily a good example as we are a WB and there are two of us, but we aren't in a rush. But based on your 1 hour a day, means we could only do 2 locks and 20 minutes of traveling, all the while not getting very far if it's in a busy spot where you will need to slow down for moored boats.
I would suggest when trying to set out your monthly expenditures rather then basing it on a "minimun" spend you base it on a "maximum" or at least realistic spend, that way you'll avoid a lot of nasty suprises that first year.
Oh as a foot note...you mentioned pulling up to a pub and charging your batteries from their supplied power points. We've only been cruising for 4 years now, and only on the wide canals & rivers south of Braunston; but we've only ever come across one pub that offers this facility and that was on the Thames and to moor there it was £15 per night - needless to say we gave it a miss. Maybe it's a more popular concept on the narrow canals or up north. Mind you with that said, it's not something we've ever looked out for so could possibably passed many pubs by that do indeed offer such facilities. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct me if I've given you missleading information.
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9 minutes ago, LadyG said:
oops
and I am budgeting £30 min, , big difference.
You need to realize there is a big difference in how we all live on our boats and the amount of electricity we use. One person or two I don't think would make a huge difference really, you'll still want to do a load of washing at least once a week, you'll still need to have a light on to read (unless your planning on using oil lamps only), you'll still need to charge whatever gagets you have onboard whether it be a phone, tablet or laptop and so on, even if you aren't planning on having a tv, but if you're planning on watching dvd's I guess you will indeed need a tv to watch them on and it will use electricity all of which take power from your battery bank which will need to have the engine run to top them back up.
I'm not saying that it absoutly couldn't be done on £300 worth of fuel per year, but it sure would be a very meager & restricted lifestyle in my opinion.
Due to my recent health issues, we haven't traveled more than about 60 -70 miles per year for the past couple of years, so my suggeston above regarding the amount of fuel we consume does not reflect much traveling at all really; the cost is based on how long we need to run the engine for each day to extend the life span of our battery bank for as long as possible.
Dave has conceded that the 40 inch tv does consume a massive amount of power and instead of having it on when neither of us are actually watching it, it is now turned on daily to watch the morning news and weather and in the evenings when there is something on we want to watch. I got hooked on Sudoku whilst in the hospital and it takes no power at all other than my wee brain
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6 minutes ago, Heffalump said:
Thanks for that, whilst I would like solar, to begin with it would depend on if it was already installed on a boat, until I saved up for some!
I had budgeted around 100-120 squid for diseasel a month in my workings out.
I reckon you'll be fine with that budget - I'm no expert or anything, but it looks sensible to me at least.
I would highly recommend investing in whatever amount of solar you can as soon as you can even if you can only get 1/4 of your planned bank, and add to it when finances allow. It will save you in the long run
Best of luck
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On 03/08/2017 at 09:16, Heffalump said:
Not wanting to derail lady g's thread, but taking note of some things posted there, I'm adding up some monthly costs.
Are there any liveaboards without a generator, who are on the boat all day, use a TV, move from one town to the next every two weeks, and know how much diesel they use a month?
This ^^ describes us to a T. No genny, I'm on the boat all day, every day, Dave as well "most" days, we travel every 10 days or so, have a large screen TV and use the washing machine weekly, 1 phone, 1 laptop & 1 tablet, fridge & freezer. We do have 4 x 250 solar panels though.
We had a discussion yesterday after reading Lady G's post of estimating £300 for fuel per year. Dave figures we spend approx. £80 -£90 per month in the summer, depending on how sunny it is. As in we've had to run the engine longer each day in July than we did in June - way less sun! and in the winter he figures it's about £95 - £100 per month again depending on the amount of sun.
**we only turn on the central heating on really cold days and then only for 1 hour in the mornings when needed...approx. 12 - 15 times each winter so far, the rest of the heat comes from the SF stove. Mind you with that said, we have a seperate tank for the heating anyway; the main tank is for engine use only.
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Lovely bathroom...can't wait to see some more
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8 hours ago, blackrose said:
40hp is on the low side. Have you punched the tide on any tidal waters? If your engine can achieve close to max revs in gear then it's probably producing enough power.
Immediately after my prop was re-pitched I took the boat upstream from Leleham to Reading on red and yellow boards on the Thames and always had plenty of power. Mike the Boilerman of this forum gave me a lift back to the boatyard in Laleham to get my car and the blokes in the yard were impressed that I'd make it to Reading in those conditions in under two days.
Fair play Mike, anytime we have been on the Thames it's been summer and green boards only. And being not much of a risk taker, I for one wouldn't have been comfortable in cruising on yellow or reds. We made sure we were well off the river before winter set in.
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not sure if this is helpful or not; but we have a Barrus Shire 40hp in our 57 x 10.10 WB and it does us well on the canals and Rivers; Thames, Lee & Stourt.
Sorry, can't offer any advice on the engine you've mentioned - but I'm sure others will be along shortly that can share their experiences.
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I really don't understand what all the fuss is about regarding adding a few emoticons (for lack of a better term). For those members who wish not to use them, they aren't being forced to are they?
For those members who use facebook and other social media sites that use such things they will take to using them quite easily, and it's really not rocket science to figure them out. Even I was able to figure it out within a few seconds!
There have been loads of times in the past when a post really made me chuckle and my only opition was to give them a greenie...now I can give them a "haha" and then there are the occassions where I think a "not impressed" or "sad" would be appropriate
I do agree that negative "emoticons" should not take away from the members rep points, which I believe has already been corrected.
I appreciate the forum needs to keep up with the times, as we all do in other areas of our lives; I loved frayed bell bottoms and tank tops back in the late 70's, but sadly it was a fad that didn't survive the test of time...point being I see nothing wrong with the newest changes. Good work Rich & the support team members
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Personally I like the the new additions and don't really see a down side to it.
If someone wants to continue giving greenies only, there's nothing stopping them from doing so is there? Those of us who will choose to use the new opitions will do so.
No harm done as far as I can see.
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Is there a prize for whoever has the nearest guess?
If I said 69 would I be close?
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40 minutes ago, clavers said:
Hello,
Bit of a novice here and I'm hoping you knowledgeable people can help my little brain understand alternator wiring as I've confused myself no end reading around the forums!
I have a new Barrus Shire 45 which has a 50amp alt for starter battery and 240amp alt for domestic batteries.
My shell builder installed the engine and starter battery which is connected battery +ve to starter motor and battery -ve to a stud on the engine housing
I've now connected 240amp alt +ve to my domestic battery +ve. The 240amp alt is described in the manual of an insulated earth design and says it 'requires a heavy duty earthing wire installed at all times.' It came with a 25mm2 cable connected from alternator -ve terminal to somewhere I can't quite see on the engine!
So my questions and confusion centre around:
1) Do I need to make any further connections to/from the starter battery and 50amp alternator?
2) I have my domestic battery -ve connected to a stud on the engine housing. Should I connect starter battery -ve to my domestic battery bank -ve (or anywhere else....hull?) or does the fact it connects back to the engine mean nothing else is required?
3) Is the 25mm2 cable from the 240amp alt -ve the 'heavy duty earthing wire' that the manual refers to? Do I also need to connect 240amp alt negative to domestic battery negative?
4) Do I need to connect either battery -ve to hull or is the fact that they connect back to the engine all that is required (bit like question 2 I suppose?!)
5) Do I need to run a cable between engine and hull as the engine is mounted on anti vibration rubber mounts.
Sorry if this is all incredibly basic...I just don't want to blow anything or anyone else up!
Many thanks!
Hi and welcome to the forum; now I'm Very much a novice myself and can offer no recommendations to your questions. However, I just want to clarify something. We have a Barrus Shire 40hp and our large domestic altenator is 16amp/240v travel power which puts out 3.5kw of AC power, which charges our 8 x T105's quite adequately supported with our solar aray, this provides us with all the 240 AC power we require.
Are you sure it's 240amp rather than 240v AC?
Just asking as others have said that's a massive alternator at 240amp.
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2 hours ago, Bromleyxphil said:
Thanks that is more like the info I am after. My wife and I were after a narrowboat but after lots of research and getting on lots of boats hire, shows, invitation she has decided she would find long term in a narrow too much of a challenge.......better before we buy! When I say cc I mean see as much of the system as we can but at a leisurely pace, then truck to the other half. I know a wide cuts out the midlands but if she can't live on one that cuts out it all. I hope to gain from your experience as to how much difference in where we can travel a 12 foot or an 11 or 10 foot would make? Both accessibility and ease of use. How long to go, is 57feet still the magic number or would 60feet be better. I have read the length restrictions on the Calder and Hebble etc but I expect there is a difference between where they say you can go and where you can go. It's your experience I am after.
cheers
phil
Hi Phil,
First and foremost let me clarify something, although we have lived and cruised on our boat for 4 years now, we do not consider ourselves to be experts, and in actuality we are still considered by a fair few on this forum to be complete novices.
With that said I'd be happy to share with you "our experiences" in cruising a widebeam on the Southern section of the Network...
As perviously stated we are just shy of 11ft, we are 10.10 (a strange width, and I have yet to come across another WB of the same width).
There are at least 2 WB Hotel boats that cruise the GU, both are 12 ft and I know they go up as far as Warwick at least if not onto Soulihull. How they do it, I'm not really sure as I know between Brentford & Braunston there are a few pinch points, most of which are deconstructed old bridges but with the foundations still in place. You will, as others have said, need to take care at some the the bridge holes which are on blind bends and have a decent sounding (as in loudness) horn, and not be afraid to use it.
As we tend to travel slower than most narrow boats (due to us causing to much of a bow wave if we travel over 3mph), we keep a look out for any narrow boats behind us and offer to pull over and let them pass at the next safe spot to do so. I'm not really sure if the bow wave is due to the design of our boat or if all WB's have this effect. But since we are never in any rush it is not something that concerns us.
As far a length we are 57ft. and with a Trad stern, we have loads of interior space. 2 bedrooms, bathroom, large galley & salon, the design of the back affords us to have a laundry facility on one side and a larger than average tool/spare parts storage area on the other side of the interior of the hatch before entering the main bedroom.
This is our first boat and although we love her dearly, are there things we would change if we were to buy another? Sure there are, things like having a proper broom closet to store mop, broom, dust pan & brush and hoover, having the multi fuel stove on the port side instead of starboard, as a widebeam we need to give up the centre of the cut when meeting other boats oncoming and quite often end up going under low hanging branches, we are on our 3rd chimmeny now
More to follow....
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We cc with our WB, but can't really comment as to wether the North or South is best. We bought her up north and had her road hauled down to Braunston where she was renamed and launched.
We are just shy of 11ft wide and have had no problems at all on the southern canals (GU/K&A/North Oxford/Paddington/Regents) as well as the Rivers Thames, Lee & Stourt
We've met a fair few other folks with WB's down here who cc; some within a very limited range and others who cruise everything available to them.
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47 minutes ago, Starcoaster said:
Too flaming right!
Her crap is on her boat, not obstructing anyone else's way. Nobody owes the rest of us a pretty view...
Spot on Starcoaster - she is causing no problems for anyone else.
And the really great thing about boating is if your the type of person who gets offended by they way someone else's boat looks you should simply pull your pins and move on!
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1 hour ago, stegra said:
There seems to be a sudden surge in the number of insects buzzing around my boat. Admittedly, being on a hard standing literally 10 feet from a recycling plant is likely a major contributing factor, but I'm wondering what folks are using to control insects. My neighbours on the boatyard have just bought a zapper thing with a blue light that's supposed to attract them they but they only seem to be interested in their TV. I don't have a TV so my wine glass appears to be the main focus of their attention. I'd prefer to take a 'live and let live' approach but I'm getting a little tired of spitting out a fly or two every time I take a sip.
How about burning a Citronella candle close to your wine glass...you won't be killing them, but at least they should avoid death by drowning in what to them must be a vat of wine
(no real damage done by any of them, thankfully) and none of them seemed overly intoxicated! All were very pleasant and ever so apologetic
but please let us all know how it all works out running your engine for 1 hour a day and how long it takes to go through your first set of batteries.
Pre Purchase Surveyor Recommendations?
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Another vote for Trevor - he did ours when we were buying and traveled up to Chorley to do it; so I'd say that he traveled to do them 4 years ago