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On the 3 all you can eat plan don't they limit the amount of data you can use for tethering? P

Just in the process of purchasing a Compact Duette 40 from Heritage and interested in how much residual heat is given out when being used. Whether that be just for heating or cooking or both. What I'm trying now to establish is where to put my radiators and how many I'll need. Do I need one in the kitchen for instance. it's a 70ft boat. Going to try and attach a rough plan of it to give an idea. You have 4 radiators hargreaves but how big are they, how big is your boat and where did you put them? Any help much appreciated. P

Looking at a narrow boat with a 1938 Gardner 4LW on board. It looks enormous and too big for a 62 foot boat. Anyone know anything about these engines and whether they present a problem in such a small vessel. I'm practical but looking to buy my first boat and just passed on a one with a Lister HRW4 in it. However this engine appears in better condition. Still concerned about bore glazing problems and that the engine will be under-run. As ever, thank you for any sage advice.

Hi Dan, Thanks for letting me know about that boat. We decided not to pursue Starcross in the end and are hopefully just about to wrap up buying another boat - our offer has been accepted and now just hoping it gets through the survey with no major problems.

Thanks for the responses - yes we have a test day set up and will be finding out how manageable the boat is. Looking forward to it and hopefully if all goes OK and it's something I think the wife and I can handle we'll be purchasing... subject to survey of course. Looking forward to joining the narrowboat community and getting real experience so I can help others out on here rather than asking questions all the time! Really do appreciate the feedback and support from everyone :-)

Sorry title of this thread should be 'What would you do...?' If you had a Lister HRW 4 59 HP engine on your 70ft narrowboat and were cruising canals and rivers how would you go about it... considering the engine has a considerable excess of power, particularly for canal cruising? I'm going to be in this situation hopefully soon and any advice and tips from you seasoned boaters would be very much appreciated :-)

Hello Sabcat, Yes, it isn't billowing out of the exhaust and at times the smoke was pretty clear plus the engine had only been running about 5 - 10 minutes really.

Thanks Alan. I think, as others have said, the issue with this engine is fuel leakage into the engine, diluting the oil, which is a problem with some of the Lister models... however due to a telephone conversation with an extremely helpful and gracious gent who is following this thread, I believe, though it involves a detailed process, it may not be as daunting to sort out as I first thought.

As a matter of interest what does the HR stand for? I guess W stands for Water-cooled.

Someone asked about the smoke - it was bluey- grey so I think it is burning oil.

Apologies - I'm not sure if the prop needs to be bigger... it was just that was one of the things the present owner wanted to do and I've heard somewhere else that running a powerful engine with a small propellor can cause problems.

Thank you all for the replies. The boat is a narrowboat and was built for the Thames where I'm guessing the extra power would have been good against the current. I think it spent the last 18 months on the canals so not needed that power at all and it's probably what is giving rise to the problems. I think the prop is currently 17 inch so needs to be bigger but due to my lack of experience I'm not sure how that would help the situation, if at all. Would it be best to hang on to the engine repair the faults and make do or am I looking at a new engine. If a new/reconditioned engine, what would be the best for canal and occasional river, and how much am I looking at? Many thanks for further advice.

Thank you for the replies. Yes I think the prop is too small for the engine. I don't really understand prop sizing...what would be the right size for this engine? P

Hi all, I recently looked at a boat with a Lister HRW 4 onboard. The exhaust was pretty smoky especially when put under load and the gentleman that owned the boat kept the oil level way below the recommend minimum suggested on the dipstick. I didn't really understand why he did that but he did give a reason - something to do with the engine starting more easily in the cold...?? I know nothing at all about engines, as you can probably tell, so any help with this would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you for the additional posts, experiences and advice - I won't be making a purchase lightly and though I do enjoy working with wood, augmenting my knowledge and learning new skills - a wooden boat of this size though may be too much for me to take on. I guess it is up to me to make the final judgement call. C'mon Richard, I am aware that 'run away' is used as a figure of speech. :-) :-).... It doesn't offend me but to me it means 'don't consider it any further' which isn't that constructive. I want to consider things in as much detail as I can before I make a decision...then I can find out and learn. The more info I can get - and on this forum is a really good place to get it - the better I can consider and the more informed my decision will be. I'm also aware that I'll be caulking the boat should I buy it - I'll have caulking parties I think, my friends can come over and help, I may even run some caulking courses - there's an idea! £10 for half a day. Any takers? It's very therapeutic I'm told :-) Just for added information - a fellow called Jem Bates has done, or at least supervised, most of the work on this boat.

Ok - as a newbie forum member, I have to protest a bit... I've posted about a couple of boats on here in order to get advice and insight from those more experienced than I as yes, I'm a first time buyer, but guys and gals, with all due respect, that doesn't make me stupid :-) Lots of people have been very generous taking the time to offer words of wisdom and I'm extremely grateful to them, what I don't really understand are the 'run away, run a mile' statements and a few comments that are well,..... supercilious and a little patronising. I'm going to be buying a used boat for sure and like anything that has been used or pre-owned it will come with a degree of risk, of course. As a diligent buyer I want to be as informed as I can be so as to minimise that risk - you know how it is...remember when you bought your first boat - so I'm researching as much as I can and hoping that folk on here will furnish me with insightful nuggets of knowledge. A large degree of what I've garnered from this forum has been fantastically helpful and much advice has been given by members in the way of 'consider this and that, the pro's and cons' etc. which is great, but while I don't want people to tell me what I want to hear, the finite sweeping statements of doom and gloom are not very constructive - I'm just saying. A chap on a different thread to this who told me to 'run a mile' from another boat also said 'there are loads of boats out there' but for me personally there isn't. An important criteria for me is that as well as the boat being between 65 and 72 ft, it also has to be a bit different. It has to have character, so that means I'm probably looking at something old or in this case a wooden boat, particularly for the budget I have. I'm not averse to doing a bit of work and I am handy but my job can take me away quite a lot so major maintenance or refurbishment is not ideal. I'm going to go and see Starcross next week out of the water and also another Butty, a steel hulled one, in Cambridge and I won't be running away from either of them or any boat I see for that matter. I'll do what we all do - I'll weigh up the situation according to my personal preferences and take the risk of purchase or not... If not, I'll walk away, having learnt a little more about this fascinating world of narrowboating. :-)

Three quarters of the planking has been replaced. Yes I'm aware it has no engine - I was looking into fitting a hybrid or electric engine - even an outboard. I'm seeing it next week out of the water while the owner caulks it with oakum. There are some metal bands at the fore of the vessel that were coming away when I saw it and I think he'll be sorting that out too.

Yes it is a nice boat - I'm just trying to weigh up how much upkeep a wooden boat needs, I know it is quite a bit and can be costly..it won't help that I'm away a lot.

No it's this gal called Starcross - here it is http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=356770

Anybody have any experience of owning a wooden hull narrowboat? I'm considering purchasing one and just wondered if there is anything I should look out for? I'm lucky enough to be able to see the boat out of the water next week. Thank you for any help.

Hello - yes Magnetman, we discussed Napton specifically and the owner said it just gets through - I didn't ask about Hurleston. The boat hasn't moved for about four years from where it is moored near Banbury and is sat on a bed of silt churned up by passing narrowboats. The guy who owns it also said that it takes him a day to get it out from the mooring ...just to get over the silt bank that has been created. I've seen the engine running, a Lister JP3 and it seems OK (though there is a leak in the cooling system of the PRM gearbox which needs welding) but never actually taken it out on the water due to the silt bank issue. I'm going to offer quite a bit less than the boat is for sale at just because I think it does need a whole load of work so I'll see if we can get a deal done then get it fully surveyed.

Sorry magnetman I missed your question there and I'm not sure I understand it - apologies, my knowledge of boats is rather scant. It does have riveted front section and the hull is iron with a steel base-plate. Why do you ask?

Thanks for all the feedback and knowledge. Yes it is an old boat pre -1910 and there are plenty of issues with it, I'm just hoping they are idiosyncratic traits rather than major structural faults. Only way to find out is a full pre-purchase survey and I'll definitely have that done once the vendor and I can agree on a price.

I viewed a 70 ft narrow boat the other day that is made up of two hulls welded together. I think it was a Butty that then had a motor stern put on it. The thing is where the hulls join there is a slight bend in the boat. If you look straight down the boat's roof from the bow to the stern it bananas slightly. The owner said the 'twist' in the hull is due to it constantly being knocked bashed a bit in the same place when entering locks, but that doesn't sound feasible to me. Just wondered what others in theses forums, with a lot more experience than I, thought...? Thank you.

Sounds like a thorough job you did there Julynian! I've been to see the boat again and there is a lot more work to do than I first realised - not sure if it's a bit much for me. Also the owner told me he bonded a very thin layer of polystyrene (what looks like 1mm) to the aquaseal that had been painted on the steel before adding a layer of thicker polystyrene on top. That would seem to have been a good idea in regards to preventing condensation only he let slip that it might not be fire-safety compliant... :-/ Anyone come across this technique of insulation before and know what the deal is with fire-safety? Thank you for any help.