BilgePump

I like that and my experience is of a similar nature to the OP's. Approaching Bugsworth turn off, coming from New Mills side, another boat I've passed many times before is coming towards me. I got overcautious so decided to reverse up a little bit and hey presto I'm slewed across the canal. Judging by the angle the boat ended at there was an acre of space to slip two NBs past each other through the gap. I'd just made a botch of judging it. Took a minute to get back in line and open up the gap again. So, along through comes Judith Mary with a full complement of elderly citizens, all enjoying the view from their tables. I looked at the skipper and put my head in my hand in apology and embarrassment. I bet I wasn't the first or last to have done that on him and touch wood haven't done it since.

A very serious consideration. On cabin cruisers, open boats etc designed for use with an outboard there's usually a dedicated locker for the fuel tank. This will be lacking on a narrowboat and I certainly wouldn't want to be storing a petrol tank in the cratch, engine bay, back deck or in the cabin. Some of the smaller outboards have an integral tank (a 2003 Yamaha 5hp I had had an integral tank aswell as a fuel line to a tank) but I doubt the integral tank would contain enough to get very far. I'm sure it would move you but stopping the boat would be a different matter. If home or boatyard is some distance away, I really doubt it is a good idea to be carrying enough petrol on the boat in less than ideal places. If home or boatyard will be within a few miles then a stern rope and centre rope are sufficient to tow the boat by hand and control it from the bank without the need for someone on the helm. Still takes some stopping but I'm under ten stone and have towed a 60ft NB in the past this way for a couple of miles

Always a plan, but plans go awry. Leave boat, go to pub, drink too much, walk back, that's where those hedges you mentioned will come in :-)

Some of the CRT ones make it look like a palace

That's a £200+ bog roll holder, propped up against a set of ladders. Quality. I want to put into a marina like that!

Hell's bells, that is steep, and likely as you say to be a punitive charge intended to discourage boaters from getting in people from outside the marina. Somewhere like Preston which Wayne could cover seems more amenable. They ask for £3mil public liability and £5/day or £60/month licence per contractor. This is payable by the contractor.

Okay, not all there is, but a start before you look at their passport and find out that they are Mr Mitty from Neverland. Completing part of the transaction at a home address, verifiable by LR would give a greater degree of confidence, granted. But, what of the CCer who only has a courtesy mailbox on land and wants to trade their boat? What about someone like me? I've lived in my home for a decade but I don't own it. Council bills, yes, but LR, sorry. The sum in question is far more than I have ever paid for a boat so I can only think that a belt, braces, wellies and sowester approach to verifying everything about the seller and the boat would be advisable.

A boatyard will charge upwards of £40+ VAT per hour for anything from jetwashing to engine rebuilds. Some is stuff we could do ourselves, some the magic known only to diesel whisperers. For general maintenance/handyman work I really don't think £150/7.5hr day is unreasonable before business overheads, NI, tax, down time between jobs, speccing jobs etc etc.

I think once you get your name out there you will surprised how many North West jobs there could be. T&M and L&L to start with but there will be a lot more within an hour commute from you. Portfolio, shmortfolio, just tell tell them you have one of the most popular threads (probably the most popular non political one) on the most popular canal forum. As for marinas, obviously insurance is essential wherever (10mil in many) but load their extra charge onto the bill and your time for filling in three different forms. I bet it's amazing how quickly a boat will move 40ft to the towpath side. Saying that, I am now hoping that there isn't a by-law preventing tradesmen from carrying a bag of tools down the towpath to complete a small job on the interior of a boat.

Slightly harsh re ebay ads but fully agree that you must be able to see paperwork that stacks up. £500 GRP project would be fine without but when handing over £34k, everything has to tally. Having bought and sold a few boats on ebay, it can work well as a marketplace for genuine sellers and buyers. A month long ad on there for a NB will get over 10k views, a few hundred watchers and plenty of leads, far more than Apollo Duck. And they're not all dreamers as the OP here is proving

^^^ This. The client can also feel assured knowing that they own the materials regardless of the contractor's business affairs. If materials are purchased in a client's name it also means that it is only your labour involved and so you will at least be doing okay before hitting the VAT threshold.

Paper trail. That is all there is. If there is a receipt for build or a sale some years back that would be reasonable. Has it been in the same marina for years? Do the neighbouyrs know the vendors? Do the marina staff have any info? Any contract should declare that the craft is free from liabilities when sold but I don't think that there is something similar to an HPI clearance check for boats (others will know better).

Wayne, you have the skills. First off, your thread has been a masterclass in small boat restoration. That boat is going to leave your drive better than any Buck was brand new. Only you will be able to determine whether you can work with the ups/downs of self employed. Personally, the lousy pay is fine for not having to answer to an HR drone in a suit.

If it's only for b&w docs in volume then a laser printer is great and not too expensive. It is horrendous waiting for a backlog of 100 sheets to print on an inkjet. As already noted, there is also a greater resilience to moisture with a laser print. Price to print is cheap. The occasional colour print can be ordered online and printed on a commercial printer. However, if you just have a few sheets a week to print then an inkjet will probably be fine, especially if you want some colour in there. Of the inkjet printers I've had, a couple had serious clogging issues. One of these was down to the heat of the environment 90F+, even a few days of inactivity and it would block, and the other hadn't been used for six months. The only reason I got a laser printer (Brother) was the sheer amount of stuff I needed to print at the time. It's still going after 9 years and I would definitely replace it with a similar one when it finally conks out. As for what will work with an ipad, even the dirt cheap inkjets connect wirelessly, supposedly.

The picture Mayalld posted is exactly the type that should be included in any log of a self build nowadays. A thousand pictures would have been 30 rolls of film back when, but now is just a load of digital files with no cost of developing. Sadly ours was done back in the days of Kodachrome and I think we have only a few pics between shell and fully fitted.

Sensible location of services, pipes, cables, pumps, tanks etc, detailed documentation of the build and a high standard of finish can make for a very impressive one off boat. The quirkiness of some though mean that if there is a change of ownership the new owner can be stumped if they don't have the information in a logbook or the original owner isn't around to ask, even if the question is as simple as 'how do i access the shower pipes?' (panel screws are hidden behind the mirror so that has to be removed first) 'where is the main water pump' (yep, you'll have to remove the fridge to get to that). I've seen some beautiful owner fitouts around, quality hardwoods throughout, lots of toys, gleaming engines. There are also some very vanilla but quite serviceable ones, built well to a budget, and then there are some that are little more than a lined shell with normal flat-pack furniture. The use of space here is far inferior to those with built in furniture but the cost a lot less. Free standing chairs are fine but if cupboards, beds etc are too then it may be that cost has been an issue on other parts of the build. Of course it may be that the owner just likes it like that and it offered a speedy way to make the interior comfortable. And then there are some fitouts/ 're-fits' that have basically hijacked a pallet wagon. It's the country cottage / cabin look, sometimes it's done well, at others with a bowsaw and three inch nails.

Our boat was supplied as engine, windows, pipework. bearers, vents and not much more. My dad was (still with us) a chippy teacher. After 25 years we keep noticing things that my dad didn't do/ I din't fix correctly. Snagging takes time and that can often apply to a professional fit.

Okay not about France but if it is difficult enough for a hire boat to work in the UK, think twice about trying it abroad I once had a little 15' fishing boat in Greece. Very often tourists would offer money for me or others with similar boats to take them into the bay. They never really understood it when I'd reject a hundred euros for a few hours. The fact was my boat was registered as only for people with a Greek fishing licence, it was only for leisure or selling the catch and finally I had no inclination to take strangers out to sea. If the port police thought you were playing the illegal charter game, well your favourite bits would go through the carb of one of their Yam 150s

We're not into the season yet. Get around with your budget. See what you can get in your desired size ten years old. Make a few cheeky offers. Maybe buying a house new is okay, but if it cars or boats, the initial drop is painful.

IIRC Colvic offered the bare hull moulding upwards on a lot of their boats. The superstructure moulding was optional. Probably no mould number in it. All the Colvic I have seen in commission have been good solid boats. I've also seen a ton of half-finished dreams that never made it off hard standing.

It's not specific to Hull. I'm sure the idiots here in Manchester would have done precisely the same. I guess graffiti art has a very fluid and subjective boundary between vandalism and enhancement. Tagging everywhere is the equivalent of the cat peeing all over the place. With Banksy, Invader, Shepard Fairey et al, their public work can be at times whimsical and at others thought provoking. It's art, not just mindless daubing.

And within a few days it had been defaced. Local window cleaner with a bit of quick thinking did his best to save it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-42857424

As Arthur says. I do very similar, move from marina a few miles, stay, come back, go back, repeat. For the last decade the nb has only gone on extended trips every few years or so. No issues raised by BWB/CaRT about being seen moored on the same waterway/similar spot. This is oop north, Peak and Macc.

Same here, they're names that were prominent, talented and successful in their professions in their prime. They do actually look like quite an interesting mix of people. At least they should be a little bit less self absorbed than the twenty something Z-list wannabes that I've never heard of that seem to be associated with many of these reality shows. Whenever I hear an inarticulate idiot with a few thousand followers on Twitter claim that they are a 'social media influencer' I want to throw a brick at the screen.