BilgePump

Just as another follow up to your post, it prompted me to pull the Mariner 48lb Whisper Thrust motor out. On closer look it's got the Mercury Marine sticker on it, Brunswick 1996 Made in USA. So, it seems they did dip a toe in the market as far back as that. Mine is still running okay but coming off the sailing boat has always been stuck in the dead ahead position on heading so still haven't tried it on the little canal cruiser. Now, I've managed to free it off and get it nicely moving so cheers to the OP for starting this thread. It set me off doing a job I've been meaning to do for a couple of years!

Jeez. Hadn't realised that engine's been removed. So that's a tug required to get it anywhere for hull work.

Looks lovely inside but now really just a flat and not looking great on the outside of the hull. £700k for the boat only because of location but 'mooring is offered on a 25 year lease from 2021 with a mooring charge of £9,800 plus VAT per annum.' Value of proposition must decrease as the years pass by. Come 2046 and no option to renew mooring then that boat is worth a teensy weensy fraction of today's price

I've got an old Mariner electric outboard. Rated at 314w, so less than 0.5hp with 48lb thrust. Don't know what age it is as it came with a small sailing boat off a lake where petrol outboards were banned. It can move a half ton boat easily enough, at a sedate pace, if there's no wind to battle. Any wind and all bets are off but you get that problem with little boats and small outboards regardless of power source. Never seen a Mariner branded electric before or since. I imagine one of the smaller Minn Kota ones would be fine for a little dinghy on a canal.

It's not about not being able to use it, but why be forced to use a Microsoft product? Writing something quite simple in old school HTML4 produces a document that can be viewed in any web browser, and nobody has to pay a license fee.

From your pics I think that you're right so there shouldn't be any big worries. Multiple layers of old paint have cracked and peeled and are showing slightly cracked light blue gelcoat below. Maybe some has grey filler in a bit. So, for a basic DIY job, just a bit of a blunt scraper and then a wire brush to get rid of all the flaking paint. Do not dig into the original gelcoat. Feather the edges of old paint surface as best as can be done with fine paper. Paint with colour to fill gap/match the rest, sand the whole lot and paint the same. It's pretty much impossible to go back to original gelcoat once it's been covered with layers of paint but there are plenty of GRP boats out there that have been painted over and over again.

Why, why, why? If there is a great candidate, a retired civil engineer, who only wants to send a scan of a handwritten sheet, then surely that is of better value than some little know nothing hitler who happens to be able to format a word doc.

There's Portland basin marina's dry-dock but that means going down Marple locks and obviously there' a current warning they could be closed at relatively short notice. Have used it in the past for blacking when we had the narrowboat. Furness Vale marina does have a decent dry-dock but when we were moored there it was normally booked up and often had a painting job in it which would occupy it for a good length of time.

Interesting point. I'd hope so on the basis that it is on something that is in the water but not in the water itself. It is being stored out of the water when not in use. I'm thinking along the lines of an old car being moved on a trailer behind a fully taxed, insured and MOT passed car. As long as its wheels aren't on the road the car being towed doesn't need tax or MOT itself.

Sorry, can't help with identifying the maker but you'll find that there are lots of other boats that on their listings have an engine like a Bugatti Veyron. Lots of boats also appear as having a draft of only a centimetre. The hulls must be made of that 'lighter-than-air' steel.

She's definitely coming along at pace. Surprised that you've managed to get anything done over the last few weeks with the lousy weather we're having.

On the short term licence page it states 'These licences are for small, unpowered or trailed boats and larger boats visiting our waterways for a short time from other navigations or coastal waters.' That would cover a small powered dinghy lifted in for individual days and taken home, a trailboat cabin cruiser dropped in via slipway for a week's cruising or a bigger boat coming from a non CaRT waterway to cruise CaRT's waters for a month. I'd forgotten that there is the option with short term licences to self-declare the safety of the vessel. An actual BSS cert isn't necessary. This is what I did when I first put my 19' boat on CaRT waters. At the time iirc there was a max of 56 days per year on short term like this but can't find a reference now. I never had to tell them where a home mooring was until I got the BSS sorted, paid for a long term licence and a towpath mooring.

You can use the thirty days whenever during the course of the year. Month is for a month of consecutive days from licence start date

As there is no such licence as 'portable powered', even a little dinghy with 2hp outboard falls into the lowest size class of powered boat which is anything up to 18' long. Current short term/ visitor licence prices are (from 0m to less than 5.5m Up to 18' 0") £138.42 (30 day explorer) £110.74 (month) £35.48 (week). Add on a BSS if electric powered (AIUI), add on insurance and it starts to look a lot more expensive than just paddling a kayak on a BCU membership.

OP is looking for a smaller leisure boat Alan. My CaRT mooring on the Cheshire/Derbyshire border is about a thousand a year for the coming renewal for a boat up to 26' long.

Thetford 165 are about £65 each, brand new, delivered with some free chemicals. So that's two and a bit new loos for the price of one insert.

Holy smokes, £150 to make the loo 'easier' to keep clean. Is this a product trying to create a problem to solve? That money goes a long way towards bog brushes and toilet bleach.

A bit like political parties' manifestos. Full of grandiose promises to all but in the end it's mostly just hot air, fluff and wishful economics, so very little ends up actually being achieved.

Fortunate enough to have a decent timber yard round here. Only in the worst of Covid were you not allowed to go in and choose your own timber. Could probably get cheaper if went further afield but the good thing is the people in there deal with timber all day long. You ask for 20 metres of 6x1 PAR redwood and they take you into the warehouse to the right bay to choose your timber, and then they'll cut it into whatever lengths you want. Generally 4.2m lengths for softwood so get them cut into half for 7 foot lengths.