BilgePump
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Posts posted by BilgePump
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2 minutes ago, bizzard said:
It's on again today. 3.45pm, freeview 26.
Didn't read the title properly and thought the post was going to be about some vindictive and cantankerous lengthsman.
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On 30/12/2023 at 15:34, magnetman said:
I tried making a puzzle with a jigsaw once but the blades were the wrong shape.
I think they should be called fretsaw puzzles.
I have a suspicious feeling that cookie cutter puzzle might be even more accurate.
Either fretsaw or scroll saw. I've got an old Hobbies treadle fretsaw of my dad's that works pretty well for tiny stuff, in addition to a modern electric scroll saw. The old treadle saws can still be picked up from about £20. Making jigsaws was exactly what I used it for when I was a wee nipper.
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Just now, magnetman said:
'seems to be difficult to find on the internet'
I think the OP meant offside farmer's field type moorings. Just MtB and myself were reminding them of the CaRT options.
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5 minutes ago, MtB said:
The CaRT site allows you to set notifications for when a mooring becomes available at specific locations. Not a waiting list but means you can jump on the site without having to keep checking. For example, my phone bings whenever a mooring becomes available at Hest Bank because I set an alert on it about four years ago when I was considering putting the boat up there.
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17 hours ago, magnetman said:
I thought the BMW crowd had gone Tesla. M3?
They blatantly copied German car makers branding.
Model S = Mercedes S class
Model X = BMW Xx series
Model 3 = BMW 3 series/Merc C class (ABC same thing)
Model Y = Asking a question.
And the fact that some of the old school BMW etc drivers who only knew full throttle on ICE cars are now flooring electric vehicles with their insane acceleration.
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14 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:
I went for the afternoon in February on a delivery once, stayed the night. Next morning I was iced in solid for 2 weeks! You do know that there is an unmapped mine shaft under the moorings somewhere don't you?
I didn't but it doesn't surprise me at all. Old pits all round there so wouldn't have thought that they could be sure of the location of every old shaft, gallery, tunnel etc.
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When i sorted a new NB policy about 7 years ago, they did fully comp for the boat provided that dad or mum (owners), children (me&sis) or other 'qualified' friends were at the tiller..
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8 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:
Higher Poynton is on the summit pound of the Macclesfield Canal.
It is 520 feet above sea level and freezes very quickly and hard in winter.
It is a lovely place to moor. In summer.
It's a decent palce to moor, year round.
Come on, you have spent a lot more time boating in the area than me but it's not Siberia
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22 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Its also true that some people have personal experience of how badly it can go wrong.
.....
I really like it. I started when I was very young have always done it and always will do it.
It won't suit everyone but equally it won't cause everyone to top themselves
at least I hope not 
Marketing blurb for CWDF
Come to ask your canal questions
Stay to see the criticism of your post
Linger to witness the bunfight and name calling between other members
Retreat when it looks as though life on a boat only leads to Davy Jones' locker
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Playing devil's advocate here. For those people who like boats, bunking down on one every night isn't a bad thing. Carting toilet bases and gas bottles around is part of the gig. Counting amps in and out keeps the lights on. Some places would be horrific, some a doddle to have a mooring.
OP mentioned a specific area/canal. If I didn't have a bricks and mortar home in the future (not my house) then without a doubt I would get a better boat and busk life around the stretch up there. Would still need to rent some land based storage though. And for those on here who don't know where Victoria Pit is (as mentioned by OP), it's Higher Poynton, opposite Bailey's Trading Post/Mrs B's (next to Braidbar) between bridges 14-15 on the Macc. Not a bad neighbourhood or cheap accommodation; just the opposite - it's rural and on the edge of the really posh bits of Cheshire.
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4 minutes ago, LadyG said:
As always the first few posts answered the question.
But did they? Who on this thread has a mooring in the area the OP is talking about? Who can advise with confidence? I know a few people who could but they are not craptalkking on this thread.
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How the fork did this thread get so nasty? OP asked about specific mooring area and logistics. Not easy to do but not impossible, but we've got people from many miles away arguing about nonsense.
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4 hours ago, Clodi said:
My BSS is due in a couple of months time. I have a problem in that we may not actually be in the country to arrange an inspection before the due date. Our boat is kept on a CRT Waterside mooring & I'm not sure what action to take. Obviously if possible I'll get an inspection asap but if this isn't possible does anyone know what the score is?
I've asked our CRT 'local manager' but as they're not actually boaters & new to the job they couldn't tell me & now it's the holidays I don't expect an answer until the new-year.
Our licence runs for another 10 months until renewal.
I have a CaRT mooring and they sent me a reminder three months before BSS was due to expire. Forgot and only remembered a day before. When phoned BSS chap he was able to do it a week later but told me that there probably wouldn't be problems until licence renewal in any case. CaRT never sent me a message about being a week out and once it was done system updated automatically with new BSS pass.
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Just after posting about New Mills marina I've seen this recent thread here about ABC's extended stay category
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I don't think that there are proper residential berths at Victoria pit are there? The first place I thought of in the area was New Mills marina who I'm sure used to do residential some years ago but it now seems under ABC that the only other option is 'Extended stay' (but it's still non-residential) for those using the marina more than regular leisure users, at a 20% surcharge over their standard £51 per foot per year (=£61.20), or £3672 for a 60 foot boat.
There are some people living on the Upper Macc and Peak Forest with moorings. None of the CaRT moorings show as residential but I know of a couple of boaters who use a CaRT or farm leisure mooring, live on them unobtrusively and regularly go for cruises to the water/waste point or off on holidays. I'm sure that there are people on marinas in the area doing the same. The whole point though is that it's completely unofficial, can't use as post, doc's or bank address etc. and total lack of security of tenure.
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NB Ellis always looked very nice and the chap posting here seemed a decent chap and with a classy above board offering. Not cheap at £1250pp/pw but that is probably cut down to the wire with overheads and need to pay themselves a wage. Only 2 guests so not cramming people in.
Not loads of others though I don't think. There was one round here in the NW in the mid 2010s called Wandering Duck but that ceased pre-covid iirc, and again they had a good boat and nice people so not as though these kind of things are mega money makers for the operators..
Could there be another possibility if can't find anything else suitable. Just a regular hire boat with a boat mover approved by the hire company with you to assist on days where you want to move? Would take a lot of sorting and wouldn't be cheap but could be better than trying to find something that maybe doesn't exist in the area you're looking at cruising.
In all honesty though, handling a narrowboat is easy enough on the canals the OP is suggesting so can't really understand the reluctance towards self drive holiday hire. If it may be that will be solo then yes, that is a factor and most co's will not hire but either get a friend along or possibly see if the hire company can provide an approved crewmember.
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On a 60' cruiser stern my dad fitted out - from the rear deck you would step down past a permanent double bed to port and small wardrobe, past the bathroom (shower, full sink and porta potti), past a U shaped galley to port (shower and cooker back to back on the same bulkhead), past an L shaped dinette that could convert into a double bed, then through an area with a small scale 3 piece suite (double sofa and two wing chairs) facing a woodburner and then into an open area where another folding table would normally be set up to work at but could have more chairs unfolded or a couple of camp beds put down if other guests. Out through bow doors into a cratch area with gas bottles in the bow locker.
Good things about it were that it had a cruiser stern for sociable fair weather cruising and was a pretty flexible space internally that could accommodate up to 6 people overnight but was very comfortable for a single person or couple on a longer basis. Galley and bathroom were compact but with the things you needed. Dinette was large and central and a good place to sleep in the winter if on your own as it was closer to the woodburning stove. The forward open plan area was way big enough to have converted into a second bedroom with another bulkhead, although the layout as was made it easy to run through the boat in a hurry if necessary, no dog legs through areas.
Bad things about it included the cruiser stern making engine access a pain compared to a traditional engine room, you were stepping from a wet deck straight into the bedroom. Also, the forward space was underutilised, virtually the same could have been got into 55' boat.
Would I layout a boat like that now myself? No, my requirements aren't those that my dad had when he had two teenage kids, but I'd take a lot of the little components to make a boat that suited me and my use of the canals nowadays.
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13 hours ago, magnetman said:
Its a bit like chainsaws. The design is basically the perfect solution to the problem. It will be a long time before a better solution is found to cutting through wood. It might never happen.
<pedantic> Massive circular saws and bandsaw based saw mills seem to work better than a chainsaw based Alaskan saw mill for cutting lengthways into boards but yes, for just cutting across the grain into smaller logs, a chainsaw's the tool you need </pedantic>
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It sounds as if the advice has been to get hold of a water transfer pump ( ebay: petrol flood water pump). Ones with 3" roll flat hoses can shift maybe a max of one thousand litres or a ton of water per minute.
However, the questions remain as to
why is it so full of water?
is the boat floating or sitting on the bottom?
are any of the vents, outlets under water meaning that any water coming out immediately goes back in?
A picture if possible or a few more details would really help to get any advice that forum membes may be able to offer.
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19 minutes ago, wakey_wake said:
Expecting to be at some point later a continuous cruiser, I wondered whether I could tow the boat (55ft steel nb) myself, thereby giving exercise some purpose, and so I had got as far as wondering about steering and stopping. It seemed obvious to me that the horse can make it go, but what stops it?
I'm only nine stone and could pull along our 60' NB using a double rope (one at stern to pull, one forward of midships to keep direction) quite effectively on empty stretches with no moored boats. Don't pull too fast though or stopping the thing becomes rather difficult. You can do about a mile an hour like this, but you probably woldn't want to do it for more than an hour.
eta: DM beat me to the same points. Faster fingers!
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That is one beautiful boat. Could never own one like it though; don't have the money or time to dedicate to the necessary maintenance on a historic wooden boat. There's a lot of hull, topsides, mast and spars to sand, paint or varnish. You would have to put in a ton of elbow grease on a continuous basis. Take one eye off a wooden boat and the rot sets in, small jobs that have been ignored become serious jobs to remedy. Like vintage traction engines, it's the kind of boat I love to see but someone with far deeper pockets, time and knowledge needs to be custodian of.
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It wouldn't be the project itself, or even the lack of engine that would be my biggest worries but 6 or 7 hundred pounds per month costs where it is currently. By the time we're at the end of January the storage costs are more than to buy the hull.
Not trying to dismiss the OP's ideas but have made the same mistake myself in the past with a project sailboat (but much cheaper storage costs £150/mo) and ended up selling on without ever finishing.
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12 minutes ago, haggis said:
I suppose if everyone who has a boat in a marina also has a motor home there the car park would need to be almost as big as the waterspace, especially in marinas where there is a high percentage of live aboards, above or below the radar. A line will have to be drawn somewhere and it isprobably easier to have a complete ban rather than a partial one
I guess that a lot of this problem is that the campervans we see in the UK have grown from the little VW bus with a toilet tent to RVs that are more akin in size to rockstar tour buses.
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5 minutes ago, Rusty Rivet said:
Could you borrow a coal boat and take a trip up the Welsh. 20 ton would last a few years. 😉
I can see the headline now "Coal baron gets 15 years in the big house for cross border contraband smuggling operation"
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Manchester city centre park home (boat) for sale
in General Boating
Posted
The idea of having to walk all round the boat just to get from the tiller to inside seems utterly bonkers. Not only that but it doesn't appear that there is any other form of emergency escape (houdini/side hatch/opening window). The one entrance/exit at the bow is next to the galley, where I imagine a fire taking hold is not inconceivable. Wires in galley look unfinished, boat is bland 'London white', no mention of mooring or transferability, older hull with new ply and GRP superstructure. It will appeal to a newby who won't pick up on 'boat' things.