RufusR

We have recerntly gone through the searching for and purchasing of a boat and it is clear it is very much a sellers market particularly for the good ones . We were guzumped on no less than 4 boats last summer . There are alot more people in the market for boats than there are good ones so they were flying out . In the end we got a good boat for a fair price as we bought from a friend of a friend . the brokers put it all down to several factors 1. Pension money becoming available 2. lots of media coverage of how great canal life is , Tim and Pru , John Sarge , David Suchet among many others 3. Less boats made during recession meaning low late second hand stock . 4. London house prices and house prices in general meaning more people looking at it as cheap housing So in a nutshell market forces and prices are expected to go up not down so IMO if you find the right boat for you , then buy it , life is too short to worry about a few quid , as long as you can afford the price that is

the marina I am in has no entrance in the traditional sense it is bascially a widened section of canal with full frontage access to the canal so in effect you are moored on the edge of the canal to a pontoon in order to pump out you have to join the main canal for a short distance . If rules were brought in to say boats that in effect never cruise dont need a liscence then how would you deal with this situation or are you saying if you have a cassette you dont pay and if you have a pump out you do ? All sounds very complex to manage and enforce

me too :-)

Whats wrong with another Squirrel ? I must admit I only have experience of my squirrel and my FIL's Boatman but compared to the latter the Squirrel is in another league, , ticks all the boxes . I certainly wouldnt want anything without a seperate ash pan door .

isnt there a name for a mostly stationary CCer ? CMer I believe ?

Canal Time ladies and Gentlemen canal time .. surely the reason we are on the cut if the slower pace of boating life free of stress and full of relaxation so why the need to go competitive cruising and charging past moored boats in order to complete a certain distance whilist on holiday ( or indeed IMO any time ) just cruise and when its time to go back , go back and dream of next year week of so of Canal time .. I now live on canal time so nothing gets done very fast any more lol PS competitive locking is also a anomally to me .. Slow down folks

We use Ecover makes me feel all green and fuzzy ( mouldy lol ) inside .. No honestly I like it and if you get it from supermarkets etc it is often on offer etc so stock up and its no more pricey than Fairy or other brands

We have an Isuzu 42 and have not seen any issues with coolant leak but I have had Isuzu engines before ( Van ) and they can pop their head gaskets and leak that way is there any sign of water in the oil ? ( to be honest your mechnaic would have spotted this ) the water in bilgies is probably condensation , espcially in this weather an esp if only half an inch , our skin tanks stream with the stuff in damp weather .. solution , Large incontenance pads ( we use the seat pads as they suck up 500-600ml each . I pop a set in everytime we come back from cruising or pump out and hook them out and dispose with a litter picker next time I check engine or greaser or every 1-2 weeks and replace , Keeps the bilgies nice and dry from condensation and any stray rain water that seaks in under the pram cover sides .

Bdum tish lol spelling never my strong point ..

lol dont get me wrong there is nothing I would love more than a traditional boat with vintage engine etc just not practical while the hound is around , maybe I will get mine when the little man moves on though I dont wish for that day ;-( agree with bedroon we are reverse layout so pram and cruiser ideal , large cratch would'nt be good but trad layout could work ok . I do like reverse layout mind , very sociable while cruising and lovely to fling the front doors open on a summers morn and lay in bed looking at the flora and fauna as the sun streams in .. ( not so good today , cold and raining like billio )

similar to house though we dont leave him aboard all day while at work ( to be honest didnt like doing it in house either ) as too much going on at the mooring so he would bark . Now I take him 3 days a week to a pet hotel for day care which is basically playing with other dogs all day he loves it . remaining two days I work from the boat ( luckily enough to be able to ) so he has company . For insurance etc we use boatmail.co.uk and therefore have a mailing address which is all you need .. Vet shouldnt be a problem they want your money so not that picky where you live

Hi Sharon maybe a little bit of advise to make things easier and tick a couple boxies , you mention dogs .. We have a big dog and we have a cruiser stern with a pram cover and I can assure you its a god send for wipping down wet dogs and storing dog towels , wet jackets and leads / harness's and toys etc .. A boat becomes a small space when you have a large wet pooch running about let alone pooches multple .. Its like having an extra porch when you have a pram on a cruiser . You can have a pram on a Semi trad but space is much more limited and would be tough for multiple hounds unless they are very small and unless you must have a trad I would avoid if practicality of dogs is a high priority Just from experience and preference before the traditionalist jump on me

this , we considered a no stove boat when we were looking to buy , several people told me you didnt need it with webos etc luckily we were beaten to the boat by others as if living aboard in this current weather I think I would be abandoning boating if I didnt have my squirrel , Webs etc are only really designed to run to warm up the boat they are not like a home boiler and run on a advanced controllers to maintain the heat . One problem I have heard of is they coke up with continual use . we use ours in morning and evening for an hour or so to warm the boat then the squirrel takes over and keeps it all toasty If you missus feels the cold like mine then going without a stove could end in divorce esp in this weather .. mrs R sits in front of squirrel even when heating on as well , in fleece and blanket .. i am in T -shirt lol Was told same by Webo service engineer

Now I have Squirrel and can barely get anthcite to burn burns great in our squirrel could this be to do with the installation ? admittedly it can take some lighting ( though there is a knack to it that someone showed me ) but once going it burns as well as most anything .

lots of these about and several in our marina , their boats look immaculate and unblemished where as mine needs some touching up of the cruising injuries in the spring , but just like a guitar is meant to played a high performance car driven hard and a Star wars toy played with, a narrow boat is born to cruise it will die inside if left in a marina

anthracite is what you need , smokeless and gives great heat and stays in forever , bit more pricey than house coal though , most good coal merchants will sell it just google for your local area . You probably want Anthracite small for a rayburn , this is what we use in our Squirrel

9.99 for 25 kilo doesn't seem particularly cheap to me , we pay £10 for Anthracite 25 kilo currently , our marina sells Winter Blaze at £8 a bag or 6 for £40 which seems good value , gonna give it a go but not sure if it will burn as well as antracite which is awesome stuff really .

LOL soo true .. never a dull moment , never been so busy , was hopeless / couldnt be bothered at DIY in a house but on a boat full on , Mrs R cant believe the change in me . so much to do so little time

this , we had a holiday booked in a cottage in Nov for our wedding anniversary , booked it before we took decision to live aboard , went on holiday and missed the boat so much we packed up and came home early .. I guess we are still in honeymoon period though

3 months aboard and loving it so far , was always what we wanted to do so dont see us going back on land , I never felt right in a house to be honest must have been a sailor in a previous life . FYI there is a liveaboard couple on marina near us she is 101 and he is 98 .. still going strong although they dont cruise anymore and are frail , everyone keeps an eye on them

Yes agreed and the old way is pretty much all I need it for but others are streaming which is the vogue these days and when that starts it doesnt just go slow it actually dies completely in some cases and wont load anything as said it was never intended for movies etc and why should it be its free !! I would say the marina could make money by having a higher bandwidth system and selling it but as folk are used to not paying for public Wifi these days I dare say the investment would not be worth it

we have only 58 boats on our marina but still have an issue , its multple vid streaming that does it , amazon sticks etc regards payment , 4 g system plus booster costs £220 for the kit and antenna and £30 for 6GB card so would have to be cheaper than that to make it worth while but would depend on your usage I guess

thanks for reply , we are ok with a bit of smoke where we are and as said its what they sell so its what most others use , might give a bag of it a go then .... just a bit of an anthracitaholic is all

Hi Delta 1, Yes 2,Free 3. No BUT see below 4. Terrible , As Boat is in effect a faraday cage getting wifi into the boat is not easy and reception without a booster is pants , I bought a Booster from Wifionboard.co.uk which works well and now get full signal however as there is no cap on it as soon as several people jump on it and start streaming movies it pretty much becomes useless hence you can only get a decent service at certain times of the day as bandwidth is not all that .. this was the same on our previous marina I am looking at getting a independent 4g booster and antenna from same company so we have our own independent wifi brought into the boat .