Bettie Boo

We use them for our winter clothing in the summer and visa versa in the winter - able to store 3 large ones in the piece of the corner sofa that lifts up for storage. Been great for us

Hi & welcome to the forum I would suggest you could significantly lower the cost of your cooking gas, a bottle cost £27 from the coal boats currently and lasts us over 2 months, I'd also say you can lower your costs on coal/wood for the stove unless you plan on keeping the windows open all winter and like it over 25 degrees inside Also, if you need to have a pump out every 2 weeks, you'll either have a Very small tank or your need to flush is FAR greater amount than the two of us do Best of luck, looks like your taking a sensible approach so far. Can't think of anything you've missed off, other than maybe some tools & solar (which in the long run is a massive savings on engine wear & tear as well as fuel.

Although somewhat limited, this has been our experience as well & we've never had the need to double up either.

That getting the groceries to the boat is sooo much easier than you think it's going to be, and therefore the "need" of a full size freezer isn't as important as you think it may be.

If he changed "claws" to talons, he'd have his 10

Simon made something very similar to this Ray, it was a Perfect seat as the bottom flipped up if no bum on it, IIRC

Quick question, for someone with a trad stern wanting a suicide seat, why couldn't they just install a much shorter tiller arm? This isn't for us, as Dave sits on top of the back hatch, and I stand on my little box off to one side so I can see over the roof (I'm not in the arc of the tiller arm with my box, as the back end is wide enough to do this in our case)

John, I hope you find much success & joy in your next choosen chapter in life; and a heartfelt thank you for all the time,effort & support you put into helping us who were new to boating & cc'ing in particular All the best B~

We've been fortunate enough to have free logs from crt contractors for the past 2 winters and have enough on the roof to see us through 1/2 this winter. The first year was pretty much all willow, last year was a mix of willow and a variety of hardwoods, this year it is mostly hardwood We would come across the contractors as they were cutting down trees and ask them if we could help ourselves; Dave would load the logs on the roof and then a couple days later cut & split them into stove lengths, pile them on the "roof deck" to season, then a quantity would be neatly piled into the covered cratch after a period of time, and the split wood that had been in the covered cratch would be moved indoors beside the stove Using this method, the wood seemed to season a little faster than it normally would and burned quite nicely mixed with the coal we bought off the coal boats I appreciate we have more roof space & a larger covered cratch than a narrow boat would have, but don't see why the same principle wouldn't work on a narrow boat, just on a smaller scale. ETA - changing a wrong word

Sorry again! but I thought all weed hatches were accessed like that? - ours is the same and is not difficult to access at all - even I can do it (and that's going some)!!

Careful Alan, you don't want anyone to think your instilling a political twist to a thread. And to be fair, with the way all the parties are currently behaving, wouldn't your above example apply to any and all of them?

sorry And what a lovely back end you have Mr. T

Fair point re the front cratch, but for us that space becomes the dry storage area for wood & coal during the winter months. We normally have about 20 bags of coal along with a fair amount of seasoned logs on the roof, but keep a good supply in the covered cratch so we aren't trying to work with wet bags of coal and logs. During the summer that space is our patio

Ahh good question...G I "think" we probably would go for a Trad Stern again, however internally I would want a reverse layout. With the galley / Saloon closest to the stern, bathrooms & bedrooms towards the front. With the Trad Stern it means we have a small room just inside the main back doors, one side is my laundry / gardening "room" & the other side is for Dave's tools and bike trolley storage, it also means if he wants to do something with the engine and it's poor weather he can shut the sliding hatch, remove the back stairs and work in a dry environment; mind you it's a fairly small space and I would imagine quite uncomfortable if you were on the portly side; luckily he's one of those that close to 60 hasn't suffered with middle age spread The thing that I really would like to have is a pram cover for the stern so I could set up a clothes horse to dry clothes in the winter months; my large wirly gig that attaches to the bike rack is great for spring/summer & fall, but not so great in the winter months waiting for a sunny dry day can be a long wait over here as I sure you well know. Here's a pic of our back end with the bike rack, and you can just see the washer behind Dave

Firstly - Welcome to the forum (Yipeeeeeee another Canadian wop wop wop) When we were looking at boats to buy we had a criteria list as long as your arm...no older than xxx, must have this type loo, must have 2 bedrooms, this size water tank, that size waste tank, bow thruster, price range, space for a freezer & washing machine, these two types of heating, these two types of heating hot H20 etc etc The one thing neither of us had a preference for was the stern type; with that said, neither of us had any experience of flat bottomed boats and or the pro's & con's of the effects of each style. We ended up with a Trad, which we are happy with; although we only learned after moving onboard we were not able to have a pram cover installed, I'm not sure if that's the case with all Trad sterns or only applies to us as ours is a WB. The other benefit for you having a semi would be a good place to keep you dog so it can be outside with you, or at least till it gets used to the boating life style. Good luck with your search ETA - missing word

My guess is it was a bouy

Sorry Simon, just noticed your thread or would have responded earlier. We're at least a day south of Stoke Bruen, and have one of Dave's relatives staying for a few days or I would have offered our extra room. Hope they find somewhere warm and dry to stay. B~

Not trying to be a smarty pants or anything But don't you need to run a wire from the BT at the front to the toggle switch at the back where your horn & light switches are? That is how ours is set up anyway

I won't argue with your maths, but just to say; I don't remember the last time we were able to travel at 4mph, I'd take a guess and say it was last summer on the river Lee. On the GU, we normally can achieve between 2 - 3 mph top speed, depending on width, depth, moored boats and the condition of the bank sides, any more than that and we'd be making one hell of a bow wave. I don't believe most boats travel on the canals at 4mph - some may, but IMO it's not the majority.

Our boat came with one when we bought it, as complete narrow boat novices it was used a lot in the first few months especially getting in and out of a marina & at the pump out facilities. We burnt it out going through the first big tunnel we came to and as we were on a fairly tight schedule of a long trip (Braunston - Brentford & then up the Thames to Lechlade) we didn't have a chance to have a look at it. By the time we did have a chance to look at what the problem was, we didn't bother as by that time we had enough practice at doing locks, landing, winding holes & getting into mooring spots we no longer needed it or missed it. There has been a couple of times that we felt it would have been handy, mostly on very windy days; but we've managed ok without it. If it were me having a sail away built, I'd have the tube and wiring in place but not bother with the expense of having the actual BT installed. As someone else said, it could be an advantage if/when selling the boat in future years. ETA - fat fingers

ah, least you forget the Boston Tea Party? My drinking habits have changed quite a bit in the last 5 years mostly due to the medications I need to take; I'll still have the odd glass or two of vino or a large Pimms on a hot summers day, and yes it wouldn't bother me to have either a Pimms or glass of wine when in charge of the tiller but I can count on one hand the amount of times I have over the past 3 years. If I'm doing the locks I won't partake in anything as I do have turns of poor balance / lightheadedness. Dave will have a couple of cans of beer or cider while at the tiller but normally no more until we are moored up for the day.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho Your just too funny & it took you no time at all to come back with that VERY (not) witty reply...thanks for the effort

Is this the guy who cilled his boat at Stoke Bruerne?

Well done Mr. Ditchcrawler