Paul G2

I don't know how you feel about attending classes, but boating courses are generally quite enjoyable, and a good way to meet like-minded people who live in your vicinity. You really should see what is available in your neck of the woods, then sign up for a class or two. You need to insure your boat to license it - you might want to see if your insurance company offers discounts for any particular classes. You'll enjoy your boating a lot more if you know the basic rules, have a good idea of how to avoid dangers, and have the skills and knowledge to be a safe and considerate boater.

Some wooden hulls are designed to be "stuffed", which is the process of forcing stuffing material - kind of a fluffy rope, for lack of a better description - into the space between the planks. Nevertheless, even a well-stuffed boat will leak when put in the water dry. Wood expands when it gets wet. With planked hulls you need to leave room for expansion, which means the boat will leak until the wood swells. When I was a kid we had a plywood cruiser that we kept at home on a trailer. Even the plywood boat had room for expansion; where the hull met the keel leaked like a sieve until it swelled. We would put about a foot of water in the boat for a week or so before we meant to use it and it would swell up nicely and stay watertight.

I had to have a femural artery bypass done a couple weeks ago and had a drain tube that looked similar to the one in the cat photo. This was an 11 hour long surgery with a 10" long incision from my belly down onto my leg - so a lot of trauma in a pretty sensitive area. There was about 1" of drain tube protruding from my skin, with 6" - 8" of tube inside the wound. The drain tube was in place for six days - the entire time I was in the hospital. The tube was removed as I was being prepped for discharge from the hospital. There was no anesthetic given, the doctor just gently pulled it out. It didn't really feel like much of anything during the extraction. There was no pain involved, just a slight tugging sensation.

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There are enough seriously malicious psychopaths/vandals in this world that an owner doesn't really have to resort to arson to get their building torched. All it takes is a lack of security and sufficient fuel on a lower floor to get things going. If an unused building is presented as an open invitation to vandalism by virtue of being unsecured and unguarded, chances are pretty good it will get vandalized, or burned down. An owner can leave a building as an open invitation to vandalism and probably get away with it. The insurance company might be hesitant to pay a claim on the old building, however, if the intent is just to get rid of a historical building the easy way, a fire is the way to go.

Cats actually have a few (Wile E.) coyote genes in them. They often don't realize until it's too late that gravity is on 24/7/365.

Welcome to the forum. Considering the price range boat you are looking for, it would probably be a good idea for you to read this thread here on CWDF. The thread is about a common boat sale scam that you should probably be aware of. Good luck with your quest!

Take a look at the sanders on this page. I know those tools are the wrong voltage for you, I just wanted to point out the type of sander. I've had a couple of the higher end Bosch sanders for years and they work a treat. This type of sander works like the air sanders professional auto body workers use. It's an orbital sander, but it it orbits in a two steps forward, one step back kind of fashion. This means you can bear down on spots and the sander doesn't dig a big hole the way a purely orbital sander will. These type sanders also allow the disks to last longer because sanding in two directions is more efficient than just sanding in one direction.

Alan - you can use Google to search a single site, like CWDF. In any Google search box type "site:canalworld.net search term(s)". Make sure there is no space after "site:" and that there is a space between site:canalworld.net and your search term(s).

How tight is my stern gland? I suppose that answer depends on who you ask.

Can Opener!

You're a harsh man, professor - fair, but harsh!

Good luck with your move to the boat! I hope it helps with your mental health issues. Mental health is such a neglected and misunderstood field of medicine, I hope you are able to find good help for your problems. If you are going to spend time on the boat by yourself, I'd recommend that you find a canine companion. Dogs are really great listeners, and, when you think about having a session with a psychiatrist, the dog is actually a hell of a lot easier to talk to, and infinitely more understanding than any psychiatrist could ever be. Just my two pence worth...... Whatever happens, good luck with your issues - I really hope you eventually feel "whole"!

I'll be glad to help, if I can.

All the best, John. I hope all works well for you and your mum and your kids. It seems your mum and your kids are the winners in this decision as I'm sure they'll all be happy to see more of you. If you ever make it back to California, the porch light is always on for you.

Congratulations, Martin! Always nice to see a dream come true. Good luck with your venture. I hope it is a huge success!

What a horror story! So, is your theory that the bug got in there from your last fill up, or that it was contaminated by whomever stole the fuel from you? I suppose there is some solace in knowing that the fuel thief is probably going through the same misery you are.

This is just a guess, but I would imagine MTB could buy and sell you with just his pocket change. It's obvious from your liquidation proceedings that you are one of those people who live paycheck to paycheck and finance everything from their car to their coats. Taking away whatever you claim for your imaginary value of the PLM business, which is also financed beyond its true value, I'd bet a dime to a dollar that you have a net worth valued at less than the suit you are wearing, which you are making payments on because you financed it with you Visa card. You really have no clue what a joke of a person you are to people who actually have a bit more than two quid to rub together, do you?

Have you looked at the original paperwork from when you bought the boat to see if "overall length" is defined? It's obvious from this thread that there is a certain amount of ambiguity in what exactly constitutes "overall length", and the builder/vendor may have had the foresight to provide a definition of what they meant in your contracts.