Stewart Kirby

Why not contact the owners? When they offer to post the boat to you, run away.

A quick google shows two P G Taylor boats, different lengths but they look remarkable similar. Apollo Duck wont open the ad for me at the moment but another site will. Looks a bit overpriced, especially if its been unused for two years, i doubt the photos are current.

No, cos she probably cant afford the "special underwear" after paying for the boat. Having said that, it is spider proof, so maybe .....

Mmm, there's good eating in spiders, lots of protein and a nice salty backtaste.Anyway,French & Peel,damn good boatbuilders, based on the Rochdale, home of rufty, tufty boaters. To be honest you have to be given the usual weather. Best of luck and enjoy.

Running all three puters is possible plus other stuff but as others have said you have to put the energy in before you can get it out. You need to do an audit of all your power requirements, puters, microwave, juicer, Kobe charging, electric kettle etc and the work out what you need to generate the power required to run each of the for a given time each day. Having said that my experience of living on the cut (for six months at a time in summer) is that many of the land based things you take for granted become unimportant. Watch the telly? No, let's watch the sunset, then the bats flying round the boat. Watch Orange is the New Black? No, let's make sure the fridge has chilled my wine, or beer. Shall I post my status on Facebook? No, I think I'll go and empty the PortaPotti. Shall I watch the weather forecast on Sky? No, I'll look out of the window in the morning. Honestly, if you want to keep all these trappings of land based life you might as well buy a "Fat Narrowboat" and moor it in Milton Keynes, on a Continous Cruiser licence. I look forward to all contrary opinions with anticipation because I've gone over to the dark side and bought a lumpy water boat, forced to 'cos canals are few and far between here in Tenerife.

Hmmm, two interesting boats with features that could appeal to the enthusiastic boater. Translation "Could be a hole in the water that you throw money in". Given their age and "appealing features" I would be getting out my hammer and banging it all over the shell. Some interesting comments "Fuel Tank - described as large by the owner". What? Has the owner never filled it up? Given the age of both boats and the hybrid steel/iron construction of one of them any insurance company will demand a full survey. Why does Badger not have a BSC? Both have interesting engines, definitely for the enthusiast. If you have good mechanical/engineering skills and deep pockets or are keen on preserving our canal heritage or just want to tie a boat up on the bottom of the canal in Oxford these are for you. Perhaps I am being a bit negative and they are fine boats but I would be cautious about both of them.

[quote Hello, We're just about to enter the world of boating and this is my first post, no doubt there will be many more as we are complete novices. We found a boat we'd like to buy which was built in the autumn of 2013. Should we get a survey before we buy it? Many thanks for your help! You say that you are complete novices and in that case I would get a survey done. A lot can happen in three years in a marine environment and this is probably the most expensive thing you will buy apart from property. Get a full survey, not just a hull thickness report and if there are any defects you can either get the seller to correct them or negotiate a reduced price for the boat. Given what has happened over the last month I would be looking to offer less than the asking price anyway as buyers are going to be scarce.

There are a few boats called Misty Blue around, is this the one you have just bought? http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/Canal-Narrow-Boats-for-sale/south-west-durham-46-semi-trad/131008

Many of the Calder and Hebble locks have that walkway inside. Fall Ings is deep and long so it's not a big problem there but you need to be constantly vigilant at every other lock with the walkways, very easy to find you drift back under the walkway and your tiller is trapped. How do I know?

We used to have a tug with a very low freeboard compared to most narrowboats. The most annoying comment was "are you sinking?". Despite the fact that I knew we were not I would still have to look at the waterline a few times to make sure we were not sinking.

BW used to charge for the Anderton Lift and the Standedge Tunnel but because they got money for their restoration from the Natioal Lottery they were told by the Lottery Commissioners to remove the charge.

That is exactly the approach to take, it's a fantastic part of the system and well worth enjoying at a relaxed pace. Personally my favourite places are East Marton, Skipton. Of course the weather plays its part.mEight hours in the dry, no problem, eight hours in the rain hmm.

OK, we are all different, when hiring we would do 8-10 hour days but when we got our own boat we had more time to think about where we wanted to visit and 4-6 hours days were more normal and we were cruising as a couple with a dog who liked his walks. He was flipping useless at locks and swing bridges, I had to get him a life jacket with a handle on top to fish him out after he had fallen in.

The locks in the area can be hard work, if possible share with another boat, it makes it easier and safer. Going uphill make sure you always open the ground paddles before opening the gate paddles so you don't swamp the boat. If your hire boat is approaching the maximum length for the L&L your steerer may get wet, especially in the Five Rise. The Bank Newton flight has interesting ground paddles called Jack Cloughs. It looks like there's a long pick axe handle horizontal to the ground, you need to grab it and lift it up, can be tough, it hope you have some crew or huge biceps. For me the thing that you really need to think about are the swing bridges. Where they carry a road across the canal they are likely to be operated using your BW Yale Key in the control panel and pushing buttons. Take the time to read the instructions so you do things in the right order as failing to do that can cause the bridge to stop. Road vehicles can get a little impatient when you've stolen their road but boats have priority so they just have to wait. If you are going through the swing bridges in a convoy its usual for the first boat to operate the first bridge and tag onto the end with the first boat through doing the next bridge and so on. The manual bridges will need those huge biceps again. I think doing it all in a week (well it's six days really) is pushing it a bit. If everything goes smoothly then you will be cruising for 8 hours a day, that's not my idea of a leisurely week.

If you try some routes using http://www.canalplan.org.ukyou will get some approximate timings. These are ideal timings because in the real world lots of moving boats or unexpected stoppages can slow you down. Beaten to it.

I used to use goat chains until the RSPCA caught me.

This is a very interesting thread and I would certainly like to see how these designs pan out as I am sure there are applications which could be utilised on boats. It is a bit bleeding edge but if you have the money and the need for all this energy then give it a go. My only reservation is about how necessary it all is. My own experience from living on a narrowboat for six months of the year (Spring/summer/Autumn) is that things like TV, the Internet etc are not too important after a while. yes, you want to be able to use your mobile, maybe your laptop and mobile phone but these don't need a complicated system to maintain them. Solid fuel or diesel heating is good, gas cooking is good too and there's always the barbie or the pub. Mind you, I can't talk, I'm going over to the dark side and I've ordered a lumpy water boat, no canals here in Tenerife so it's a no brainer.

Relatively cheap and if you don't mind lugging sacks around and having grunge run down your chimney they're OK. Low tech as well as sort of "traditional". I don't mind them. Having a diesel stove with its own separate tank can also save you money. We had a diesel tank of 88 litres For the engine and for some reason the previous owner who installed the diesel stove had a separate tank of 120 litres for the stove. I found I needed to fill the stove tank, at a lower rate of duty much more often than I had to fill the engine tank.

How about "Apollo Duck -Handbags" ?

I would have an electric immersion heater for hot water when hooked up to shore power, you won't disturb your neighbours running the engine to get hot water at your mooring. We used to have a Kabola Deisel stove (without a back boiler or rads) but on a 45ft boat even running it on the minimum setting it was sometimes too warm in the saloon where it was placed but then too cool in the bedroom at the back of the boat. Obviously a back boiler and rad would warm up the bedroom and provide hot water but personally I would go for something more controllable because it's a pain shutting down the diesel stove and then relighting it. I have no experience of Mikunis or Erbspachers but if they are correctly installed they seem to offer more control than a diesel stove or solid fuel stove. On our first boat I can remember mooring at Stanley Ferry at Xmas running the solid fuel stove with all the windows and doors open whilst it was snowing. Something with a timer would be good so you can get up in the morning to a warm boat rather than leaping out of bed, lighting the stove then retreating to bed until it's warm enough to get up.

First things first. Is this a boat you are going to live on all year round?,if not how often will you use it?

We used to have a couple of Dahon Curve folding bikes on board. Useful if the shops are a fair way away from your mooring and useful if you want to explore an area. They are a bit wobbly when you first set off on the towpath but you soon get used to them. I managed to record 12mph on a speed camera in a village whose name escapes me. Buy spare inner tubes and a good puncture repair kit, when the contractors cut hedges the towpaths are full of thorns. Shop around and you will get a good deal.

I recommend the hot pork pies from the shop above the second bridge along the Springs Branch. Be careful how you eat them, they will have warm liquid running out of them. Just over the road is a wine merchant and Whisky specialist. Also an old fashioned ironmongers in town.