Sea Dog

Actually, I don't have evidence because I think you might be right Bill. Plenty of evidence that used oil from petrol engines is carcinogenic it seems, but I'm surprised to learn not from diesel engines. It's a bad day when you don't learn something, so thanks!

Whilst expanding foam will stick like, well, horrible sticky stuff, it also expands like unpredictability expanding horrible sticky stuff. Imagine Paddington was on your boat roof making marmalade sandwiches with industrial quantities of marmalade that won't come off..... I wouldn't.

Dear licensing authority, I wonder whether you can resolve a disagreement? Can you tell me which is most pertinent: size or what you do with it. Yours, etc.

Burning any oil is bound to produce nasties, of course, but old engine oil is carcinogenic even before you burn it. Council tips, some marinas and many CRT facilities will take it for safe disposal. 10 litres every 6 months isn't gonna save you much off your heating bill, so why not treat your stove to proper oil all the time and do the right thing with your old engine oil? Two 5 litres containers every 6 months isn't really a chore to dispose of properly, surely?

I used a plastic syphon pump that cost about a fiver - but unfortunately that means the top hose had to come off. Cleaner than draining for the bottom one though. Edited to add that I typed that at the same time as Ditchcrawler. I don't advocate taking the hose off unnecessarily, so the pump is a sub optimal solution to a proper drain point.

Hi Cairokid, welcome to the forum. Yes, someone could give you such a list but, whereas it might be fairly non-contentious to post a yachtie's list as you have, it would be much more subjective here. Perhaps that's because yacht prices more closely equate with build quality in their much larger market dominated by relatively high volume manufacturers than the somewhat more bespoke nature of canal boats. They're not all truly 'bespoke' of course, but a couple of boats a year isn't uncommon. Many second hand boats are from builders who only made a few and succumbed to market forces - some may have deserved that, others probably didn't. Perhaps surprisingly if you know not a lot about canal boats, so much is about style, but also there are (and were) good and less good shell builders and good and less good fitters-out. Some do/did both, many are fitted out by owners themselves with variable results. A good hull is undoubtedly a great start, as is well specified and properly installed equipment fit and good joinery. The trick is to find the best mix of that in a layout you like within your budget, but in a 7' wide boat you will have to compromise. For what it's worth, I found my compromise in a Piper and I've not been disappointed. Well, she doesn't have a boatman's back cabin and a separate engine room, but I do still have a wife, so there's another compromise. Someone will be along shortly to give you their list or recommend a particular marque, but just watch what happens if it's a Hudson - some wouldn't have anything else, others would rather, erm, not. Perhaps not so many will knock their build quality though? If you're looking to buy, read the forum a bit, have a look at reputable brokers with good websites (such as abnb.co.uk), maybe do Crick show and you'll develop your own preferences too, I'm sure. By the time you know what style and layout you're looking for, I suspect you'll also know which builders are on your shortlist. Not the list you asked for, but I hope it's some help.

Bathams!

Amen to that! Sounds like you hae a pretty much ideal set up. My engine has a very nicely located drain cock, so draining everything above that point is a breeze..... but the skin tank is another matter.

Moor near a pub and in walking distance of provisions; put off mooring in the middle of nowhere until your more experienced and confident. Get to know your stove well so you can keep it in 24/7.

Pretty sure there'll be a drain cock on the OP's Beta 38 since Beta put one on the 43 - the manual will clear that up. Drain cock in the skin tank or bottom hose (more rubber joints to weep though perhaps) might be handy, but how will it get all the coolant out? The bottom of most skin tanks is probably the bottom plate of the boat, in which case a hose will need to come off to suck or free drain the last bit anyway, won't it? A wee bit more detail on that idea may be useful, Ditchy.

Just put Cauliflower - everyone here will know that you mean Calorifier! My Beta 43 has a drain cock, low down on the right hand side. If you don't have a Beta 38 manual, they are available free online via their website. Once you've drained down the engine (and thus everything higher than the drain cock), empty the skin tank using your pump via the top hose connection or drain from the bottom one. This is the cold, messy, hangy upside downy bit of an otherwise easy enough job which reminds you how nice it would be if you could remember to change your antifreeze in the summer!

Google "Silky RX". It comes on a 65g container with a big 65 on it, but the RX works best in the search engine. I got mine in Midland Chandlers, who also have an Internet shop. It was about 7 quid iirc, and it comes in a small plastic bottle, so I can't imagine the postage being outrageous if you can't find a local supplier. Dosage is 1 teaspoonful a month into the holding tank (so it lasts about a year), and they recommend a double dose to start things off. It's small dissolvable granules, so just sprinkle into the pan, erm, when there's something else in there, and they'll flush through the macerator and into the tank without problem. It claims to dissolve solid deposits and I believe that as it quickly restored my duff tank gauge sender to reliable working order. Whether that covers your requirement for a descaler, I'm not sure. Hope that helps.

Since you said your coolant had a blue tinge, if your concentration is insufficient according to your tester, add concentrated blue antifreeze. This is both antifreeze and anti corrosion. You may need to drain some existing coolant out to add it. Dispose of this old coolant as advised earlier.

The centre line is a handling line: if to use it to moor, it will cause your boat to roll each time the line comes under tension. That advice doesn't help you to get a secure mooring at your short pontoon, but it will give you a more comfortable mooring wherever else you do moor. As for your current conundrum, anything do will be sub-optimal to mooring on a pontoon long enough for your boat, so I'd be looking for a mooring better suited to your length. Ideally, your stern and bow lines would run at 45 degrees in the 'longer than the boat' direction. Now, you are where you are, and you're never going to cure the issue using the head rope alone as it's got 20' of the wrong angle and wrong direction going on! To make the best of what you have, you need somewhere else to attach a line to, which could be your fender attachment points IF they're strong enough and at gunwale height (there's little point removing one line high up only to add another). Now Google mooring 'springs' to see how these are attached and run. They're not what the name suggests, they're simply mooring ropes configured in a way to control the movement of a moored boat. It won't be wasted research - they'll be helpful in many mooring scenarios and can also be used for boat handling, such as "springing off". There's nothing like local knowledge so, as someone already suggested, have a look what others in your situation have done. Do allow that they may also not have the best solution though! Edited to add that you posted you'd fixed it whilst I was typing! Oh well, there may be something useful to someone in the above

Silky 65 enzyme treatment.

This morning I asked whether the water had risen enough (as seemed to be on the cards) for everyone to be back on their boats and thus for everyone, particularly the old boy, to be OK. Half a day and another page of posts later, we're no wiser as to whether rising water levels have eased the predicament, all we know is that the argument has deepened. Go figure, as the Americans would say.

How did it go Peterboat? Did you get sufficient water last night to get him aboard?

You also need to consider that the height you can get away with will diminish towards the sides when you're going through arches. This profile constraint is not the same for all bridges and tunnels.

Day doo doh, don't dey doh!

Fair call about the tatties, OG! There's a fine line between quick fix and a bodge though, and one just as thin between the effort required to do a job and to do a job well. The Engineer in me won't allow me to stop short of doing things right, but there's usually more than one way to skin a cat.

Oh, that's useful to know - added to my Xmas list too! Many thanks lads!

A separate skin fitting is an easy fix really. A u bend under the sink will prevent draughts and blow back, and there's no danger of mud off your potatoes (or whatever goes down your gallery plug hole) ending up in the shower pump or your shower tray because it free drains straight over the side. Leaving the sink and shower pump linked together and then messing about with loops, etc, just bodges the initial bodge in my opinion. Fix it right; fix it once.

Crikey, at 11 quid a bag, I'm not surprised!