BilgePump

Have used the Osculati gelcoat filler before. About £13 for 200g small bean can size tin. Can be sanded quite fine and painted but as noted above don't put on too much or it will take ages to sand back flat.

Agree with much of what you say in this post. There's a boatload of fun to be had with a little trailer sailer. I have one the same size as the OP's, a Leisure 17 with fixed bilge keels. Perfectly capable of estuary, coastal and Irish sea sailing but with small enough dimensions to fit on even a narrow UK canal should it take the fancy. Also have its smaller sibling at 15' but that still has a little weekender cabin. The 15' at under 400kg is easy enough to launch and recover onto trailer and the 17' not much more hassle. Boat on the canal is just a 19' cabin cruiser, teeny, tiny, but can turn it on a sixpence. I do share your doubts about the usefulness of the electric outboard though. I got one with my boat which came off a lake where petrol powered outboards were banned. It's okay for manoeuvring around the moorings in still airs for a few minutes but wouldn't have a hope against running tide, heavy wind or for any extended period of time. That worked on a lake because you were only looking to get away from the jetty before hoisting the sails. Not much chance of utilising the sails on a narrow canal so the range of travel will be dictated by the battery capacity. Even a couple of fully charged 110Ah batteries wouldn't give the same range as just a gallon of petrol. If the plan is only to go ten minutes up the canal to sit and enjoy the sunshine in a nice location before returning then the silent operation is certainly a plus. For any kind of distance though it's not going to cut it; it's not even as though you could throw a ton of solar on the roof to put some back into the batteries. There's very little spare space on the roof of one of these small boats. Good news is that even the smallest petrol outboard will push a little Skipper along the canal and old secondhand working engines can be found without breaking the bank. ------------- next post (they got merged and were to two different people) ------------- To the OP. I'm sure there's a lot of enjoyment to be had on the canal with your boat. 3rd party only insurance will cost about £75 pa. Mine is through Navigators and General (Zurich) but plenty of other companies offer similarly priced cover. The 30 day canal and river short term explorer licence for 2023-4 was £138 so will be a bit more now. This allows you to use any 30 days in the year - maybe a few weeks, a few weekends and some odd days - in the water. It actually works out cheaper by the day than a week licence and allows you to cut short a week trip and pull the boat out without having paid for the abandoned days. If you are only going to use the boat by putting it in when in use and then storing it on dry land, and won't be using it more than a certain number of days in the year (56 it used to be iirc) then you can avoid the requirement of renewing the BSS. The short term licences are for boats visitng CaRT's water so don't rely on the registration number that long term licence holders display. The washboards to the cabin are usually just two pieces of plywood, a couple of retaining pieces and maybe a vent on it. It's an easy task and if you don't have the tools to do it yourself then it would be a quick job for any woodworker if you can give them a template of the old boards and you are prepared to do the sanding and varnishing yourself. For the window seal, I'm assuming that it has the rubber windscreen type seal type, not in ally frame of such. Have a look on YouTube for videos on how to do it yourself. The tools are pretty cheap on ebay and no matter who does the job the actual rubber seal will cost money (again available on ebay). Name removal will depend on whether vinyl stick on letters, painted or on their own plate. All jobs that a new boat owner can get to grips with and all part of the fun!

To the OP. You're doing your research right and you'll get a lot of information here but your plan to book a holiday on the canal that you would like to be on will give you a ton more knowledge than some of us on here will have about the area. If you can imagine yourself there on frozen December evenings, dealing with a broken engine or water pump, failed batteries (even if only a short distance from a home mooring) and the thought of living aboard still appeals then start looking at the ownership and mooring options. I think that you will have to make compromises and look at having registered address elsewhere with family if possible at first but most things can be worked around. That's not to say it will be cheap but your post doesn't sound as though you think this is a no-cost lifestyle.

Agree with both of you in different scenarios. Mooring fees are the kicker, especially if wanting true residential. Liveaboard CCing can be cheaper for sure but there's many people who can't use their boats like that.

I pay more for a no-frills, no amenities 27' towpath leisure mooring oop north here and licence for a little tupperware than have to shell out for the band A council tax and water at home. Would be near double that for liveaboard size NB. True residential marinas/moorings are an order of cost greater.

Eggs, many years ago down the lower Peak towards Ashton. Most scrotes are looking to nick stuff, not gift groceries.

Online, it's all automatic. Three months before, they email to remind you. When it passes, it updates in their records. It doesn't alert you the day it goes out of BSS certification though (or didn't last year).

If you do licensing online then CaRT email three months before expiry to remind you. They don't email the moment it goes out of date though. Got mine done a week or so late and regular examiner said they probably wouldn't have made an issue until licence renewal. If anything bad happened though and need to fall onto insurance then lack of one would be a big problem.

I remember a young lad living on a 20' yacht (Corribee iirc) some time ago, and he was doing fine. How was that possible in a boat with no standing headroom and a cabin the size of a two man ridge tent? Answer - he was on a full service marina mooring (electric, wi-fi, washing machine, showers, elsan, cafe, chandlery and close to plenty of town amenities, pubs and shops). The boat was for sleeping, a few meals and sailing; pretty much everything else he did was off the water. His work was computer based so he would spend the workday in various cafes, library, shared workspaces etc. Could you live on a boat that size if it didn't have access to all those facilities? It would be extremely hardcore and probably lead to physical and mental health issues. But...I imagine that it would be better than sleeping on a park bench or under a tarpaulin strung between trees in the woods. When someone asks me if I could live on my boat (before they understand how small it is) my response is to say that people were living in caves and round campfires in the past but it doesn't mean that we all would want to do the same these days.

Last year's canal and river licence was £755 for a 23' boat, so will be more from April 1st. I can't imagine there being many 23' yachts with sub 7' beam. 17' boats, yes, quite a few, 20' boats, maybe some but can't think of a 23' yacht that would go on the narrow canals. Even bilge or lifting keels on a boat that size will be a deep draft compared to most canal boats (for example a Leisure 23 draws about 2'8").

Now this is a great thread. Makes wonderful reading on a dreary Thursday morning at home. Bravo, thanks for posting these.

All shut on that road now. It was The Bay opposite which closed a year or more ago and is going to be turned into housing. The Pack Horse further down near the pole closed before Covid and is now owned by an alarm/security business. Still a few around but many have closed over the years.

Yip. Know it well. Only just shut as pub recently. Most recent tenants have taken on the Oak at the pole as food place with good reviews. In all honesty, I think it takes a certain type of person to be running a bar, rather than the location as such. I'd feel happy walking into any bar in Failsworth on my own. Would I ever want to run one on a Friday night? No, ta! But I know people who did it for years.

Go on, enlighten us as to which one it was

Newspaper? Should have been a copy of Land Rover Monthly, Old Glory, PBO or Waterways World.

Family's old 60' narrowboat had a bit in front of the cabin that was an open area, could put down a few camp beds, folding work table or chairs as needed. The entire cabin on the 17' or 19' GRP I have now would fit into that space (if you dropped the headroom to about 4'6") and they still each have room for two berths, a loo and space for a stove/wash bowl. Couldn't have lived full time on the narrowboat personally, not unless had workspace, garden, shed on land close to the boat.

Drove past yesterday on way to boat and big loader was unloading massive rebar lattice cylinders so assuming that that is something to do with the concrete piles menntined in post above. Sorry, no pic as was in car.

Whilst agreeing with the methods posted above, just wondering if anyone has tried the white vinegar and good wash method? Have always used a variety of the previous posters' suggestions but was told it was an alternative way.

Up to 48' 7" / 14.80m mooring at Bosley Top Lock L1 Leisure available now, currently on offer at £1858 (approx £38.30/ft) Up to 27' 3" / 8.30m mooring at Higher Poynton L1 Leisure available now, currently on offer at £1074(approx £37.60/ft) Those figures suggest that £1700 would get you approx 45' of CaRT mooring

I can think of at least three people over the years who passed away enjoying themselves on the water, right to the end. They just didn't know it was the last day. All late 70s to 80s, sudden, natural causes, when they were out on their boats. One sailing in the Irish sea, one at anchor fishing in the med and one just at anchor for the night on the river here. Always seems a better way to go than many others. Don't call it a 'weed' hatch over in the Caribbean. They'll think he's going to stuff it full of the finest and row back over. Mind you, the OAFC players could get a nice bonus.

And think of all the stoppages he avoided! Bet no one asks him if he has pumpout, cassette or composting loo on board!

remember that Frank Rothwell (73) is about to complete his second solo transatlantic row in three years, beating his own 2021 record for the oldest rower. He established Manchester Cabins, which sponsored the Ocean Youth Club, and in recent years he took over ownership of Oldham Athletic. I do hope he's been wearing his trademark flat cap on the crossing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68307134

Pauline is a beautiful boat. Only seen it from the outside a few years ago but thought the lines and everything were magic. Never seen the inside before the current FB ad but it seems to live up to the exterior. Price gets you a load of boat but I imagine it will require one seriously skilled and enthusiastic owner to keep her in shape. As an aside, I blooming hate facebook etc links where there is so much tracking cr@p in the URL that it takes lines to tell FB who referred who from what page and region etc. Not getting at our forum members, it's the big platforms at fault. For example, the straight link to the ad for Pauline is https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/775760507312896