dm6045

I hate braunston tunnel! Last time we went through we had some (insert word of choice here) racing up behind us and then when he caught up proceeded to try to push us along fender to fender. Now i admit i never do braunston at full cruising speed but also dont do it at tickover, pulling over to let him pass was impossible as there was a steady stream of boats coming the other way. When we got out and let him pass he said ‘sorry i didnt see you’. Utter rot seeing as we had afew two many solar fairy lights festooning the boat at the time and his tunnel light was pointed straight at us rather than at an angle. He chose not to share the locks down with us!.

We had the same problem OH is just under 6’3 so our boat is a Reeves hull 13 mm baseplate 6’6 headroom in centre and 6’4”headroom in bath/ shower.

Not technically an answer to you question but best advice I can give you is get rid of it! ? Have a tonneu made instead have lived with our Pram hood for two years and I hate it... pain to put up, pain to take down... can’t travel with it up so they’re pointless IMHO. ours is only on in the winter in the marina and it’s taken off all summer I’m having a tonneu made this year and then the Pram hoods going in the bin! sorry for not actually being able to actually answer your question!

Lovely boat it was 2 along from us in the marina a couple of months ago and we had a cheeky look onboard. Only things I thought was that the bathroom didn’t really seem to match the rest of the boat (can’t explain just felt like it belonged somewhere else), and In my opinion the paintwork was starting to look a little tired (maybe just needed a good polish didn’t look too hard). And finally and most importantly it has a built in ironing board behind the dresser mirror in the bedroom and that should be got rid of imidiately just because nobody got time for that!!! ?

Ive seen it out and about a couple of times and in the marina with a sign on the roof but its the only one ive seen so I think they only have the one. They also do training courses on it aparently so I was told by one set of hirers i came across. It certainly looked very smart I wouldnt have noticed it was a hire boat until they told me. I seem to remember when i looked them up online before they had more information about it the boat i think it was a 4 berth (boatmans cabin and fixed double) so maybe they're updating the site? From what I was told they don't hire to first timers unless they have taken one of their full training courses first. (Probably why it looked as spotless as it did!)

http://www.narrowboatescapes.co.uk Have a trad with engine room and back cabin based at Braunston marina. V smart looking boat.

At yelvertoft we have the delight of the wind turbine in the marina that you can watch turning faster and faster the closer you get to the marina when returning... best thing is just to tie up outside and wait till 4-6pm and at some point then the wind usually dies... that Plan of course doesn’t work when your mother is insisting it isn’t windy and she wants to be back in now (mother knows best after all)! And then you end up blown side onto the pontoons and she tells you not to be so careless and that it’s lucky you didn’t damage someone else’s boat... ( by this point your having a mental breakdown because you didn’t want to come in anyway)! lmao ?

Have you got a car type radio when we recently had our new batteries and monitor installed there was a constant max 2 amp current with ‘everything’ turned off it turned out it was the radio drawing to keep its memory settings. Ok max of 2 amp isn’t 5 but if your readout isn’t particularly accurate it could be offset?

We did this last winter (spent every weekend at the boat) and we didn’t have any oil filled radiators so we just isolated the tank and opened the taps whenever we left. One thing to note though our fridge used to stop working as the boat would be too cold and so we would turn up to a warm and very smelly fridge! So I would advise turning the fridge off! Bit of a pain as milk tended to go off in a cool bag on a 3 hour journey each way. In fact it’s just got cold enough for the fridge to start doing it again last Friday turned up and warm fridge! We are going to get some radiators this winter

We had our tank blacked last year whilst being repainted and since then we had noticed a funny smell to the hot water and a 'film' on the water, taking some advice we decided to drain the tank down and see if the blacking was still soft and it was there was a very thick soft area in one corner. Surprising as we left the tank empty for 4 weeks after it was done! Last week we scraped a lot of the thick area off to leave just a thin layer and left the tank lid slightly open the advice we were given is that it shouldn't have taken more than a few days to harden up like this but here we are a week later and its still soft. Is there anything we can do to encourage it to dry? needless to say atm i'm thank full our Buckby cans are capable of holding water! thanks

Hello all i was just wondering if anyone has Solar panels mounted onto roof boxes and if so how did you make them? Im looking at 2 large 300w ish panels about 1000mm wide so it would be one flat panel per box rather than the 2 tilted panels hinged in the middle my thinking was to have the panel mounted on the lid so that it would hinge off the lid in one direction and have the lid hinge in the other so that they can be angled either way. one thing im not sure of though is how to then secure them in the tilted position incase of wind etc. does anyone have something similar that they could share pics of please. we got a quote from the marina to have them built but they wanted £450 per box (excluding solar panel) and frankly i cant afford that for a box! so although a novice at diy im willing to have a go if only i could get some tips on how! many thanks

These look quite excellent i may have to look into making some as we only have curtains at the moment

Ahhh thought it might be we're at weltonfield at the moment and they were surprised at the new paintjob because they said it no longer looks like one of their boats

Is this a reeves hull fitted by weltonfield? The roof fittings look remarkably similar to ours exept our vents are brass mushrooms and the woodwork looks very similar too?

Thanks for the replies may have to look into some form of secondary glazing. our pidgeon boxes dont suffer from condensation because they're lined and we have covers over them its mainly just the portholes. I was just worried about possible other causes as i know that cooking etc causes it so we always have the galley window open permanently and theres never a drop of condensation anywhere before the bedroom. But then then bedroom is a good 10 degrees colder than anything forward of it and the office is even colder we do need to cut an inspection hatch in the floor aswell because i think there is probably some water in the bilge as when we brought it the windows were leaking badly up untill now that its just been painted and windows re sealed. If there is water there would thst be making the situation worse?

Hello all the last couple of nights we have noticed a lot of condensation on the porthole in our office at the stern. we have never particularly suffered from bad condensation before but it was so bad that it fully soacked two microfibre cloths that we put on the porthole liner between dinner and bedtime, im just wondering if it was caused by the weather getting colder or if it could be something else? i dont think it could be poor ventilation as trevor whiting who did our survey and bss last year said we were overly jenerously ventilated as in the office alone there are the rear doors to stern (very draughty) side hatch (again draughty) two mushrooms and a pidgeon box. And judging by the average temperature of the room i would confirm its very well ventilated. There was also quite alot of condensation in the bedroom that also has good ventilation (another 2 mushrooms and a pidgeon box). We had the stove going full out which i always understood helped with condensation and all the internal doors always open so good airflow. I have checked the drain holes on the windows and they are clear but theres so much water its running down the woodwork. I put new moisture absorber things everywhere. Is there anything else i could do or that i should be checking to help find the cause? Thanks in advance

Thanks, ill have to check the size when we're back there next week but i would have thought so and as for it getting outside that would mean cutting a hole in the roof but it would be worth it to have a warm office. We've been looking at stoves to go there since we brought the boat but ruled out a full size one as 1, I dont think we could fit one there with enough clearance around it to satisfy bss and 2, our bedroom (just before the office) gets plenty warm enough with the main stove already and would be unbearable with 2. I actually like the fact that it goes out after a couple of hours as we would only want it whilst working although I could see how that is a negative if it is your main source of heat. the only reason I said about building a hearth is that above the swim the space is alot squarer meaning the surround would be easier to make as below the swim there is alot of different angles going on and would just generally leave more room for error.

Im really interested in seeing how this goes as i've been looking for a tiny stove for the office in the back cabin and one of these might just do the trick. (as much as i would dearly love a little epping type range cost is somewhat prohibitive.) The main stove heats the boat nicely but as the OH objects to the smell of my paints when i'm working and I object to the sound of his music when he is we like to keep the office door closed and after a while it does get freezing a little chilly in there what with the side hatch back doors and pidgeon box. It would also give me a legitimate reason to tell the OH we need to get rid of Pram Hood (YAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!) Do you think one would fit on the right beside the steps on a hearth built up to the hight of the swims?

Thanks but i've been trying both these numbers for a couple of days now and they both just go straight to voicemail.

Hello all, does anybody have an alternative way of contacting Brinklow Marina I have tried the phone and it always just goes to voicemail and haven't had any reply to emails. Urgently looking for a temp mooring for 3 weeks starting Sunday with mains hookup, and they're the most convenient if they have availability. Thanks

Yep Reeves hull - Weltonfield fit out. Yeah your cover is similar to what we have now, really i think im swaying more towards the standard weltonfield cover where it sits inside the gunnels like the second picture i put up. our well deck looks quite abit longer than yours i think ours is about 6 foot so combine that with the narrow board and it ends up with a saggy cover over the gunnels and generally looks abit sad (if a cover could express emotion that is lol ) I see you have a filler fitting on the bow we dont have that we just have to open the hatch and have you got the pipe on the right that goes down into the well deck locker for anchor chain? ours is currently bunged up with a brass bath plug need to find a slightly more elegant solution than that whilst its being painted.

thankyou, yes we do have the upstand and it still has the holes in it from the original cover fixings, our current cover blows inside the well deck if not poppered to the hull anyway so that wouldn't be any different. as i said earlier i like the fact that the weltonfield style cover will make it possible to access the bow and watertank easier from the bank as we have quite a long well deck and the curve of the bow starts at the cabin so forward of the cratch board is quite a bit further out from the bank than most other boats we see (plus i only have short legs! hahaha) so it may help matters. i've just spoken to several boaters and cover makers who seem to think they are a bad idea but i wondered what anybody who has actually lived with one thought as i get the feeling from the cover makers that they think its a bad idea because its not the 'standard' way its done.

Hello whilst Mr C is being painted we are looking into having a new cratch cover fitted as ours is leaking like a sieve and the water ends up running through the pipes from the cratch back to the engine bay so its not ideal. But my question is that we have the typical Weltonfield narrow cratch board (that doesnt extend over the gunnels) and ive noticed that most weltonfields have a cover that matches that profile ie. not covering the gunnels, at some point there has been an new cover made in the more common manner of extending it over the side but because of the board it just sags and generally looks sad ive seen two others like it also and one was a brand new cover and neither has looked great. Has anyone with experience of the weltonfield Cratch got a reason to have another 'normal' one made rather than one that matches the board that it would have had originally ill put a couple of pictures to show what i mean. this is what we have now. and this is what most weltonfields have or were built with i like the idea of going with second style because it will mean that the cover doesnt need to be rolled up to get onto the bow for the water tank. but just wondered if anyone with any experience of them has any advice, as i have spoken to one cover maker and they said it would be a bad idea as you would get alot of rain come in from underneath and they said that all covers should cover the gunnels. sorry for being so rambling all i can say is i'm tired and confuse myself lol!

We have a bow tank on our 61ft Reeves that is accesed through the hatch aswell, weather ours is full or empty it makes absolutely no difference to how low the bow sits i tested it with marks on the waterline and it doesnt budge it does however bring the stern up we can only see the top of the rudder if it is over 2/3 full and when only about 1/4 full the fender starts to get wet! i like having the tank open through the hatch as it means you can actually see whats going on in there.

The last time ill see Mr Crabtree looking like this as we left him for his full repaint eeeeeeek!!!!!