tehmarks

@Alan de Enfield: the difference being, of course, that burning acetylene produces carbon dioxide (one of the many bad things we're trying to avoid producing), whereas burning hydrogen does not.

I did that on the last boat with a panel mounted towards the stern end, but there wasn't more than a person's-foot width between the edge of the panel and the handrail if it didn't overlap the handrail on the other side. It definitely made my life a bit awkward. I've gone for flexible panels on this boat for that reason, though I might augment them with some rigid panels when I have the funds and the inclination. Mainly because rigid panels are so cheap in comparison, and in comparison to even five years ago.

But often not easily if you plan to use the roof to get to the other end of the boat, which I personally think is essential as a single-hander.

Some recent tonic.

I'm late to the party, and I haven't actually looked at the boat in question, but boating is boating no matter what sort or state of tub you do it in. If you are attracted to life on the waterways for the waterways and not for the faux 'lifestyle', then I'd argue that any boat now is better than an expensive boat tomorrow. That is, granted, with the caveat that if you buy a project you need to have the enthusiasm to take on the project. Only you can know whether that is the case or not. And with the other obvious caveat that you need to know what you're buying and whether you are happy with it. There's little point buying a sinking wreck if you want to move aboard with the minimum of fuss. Again, only you can know where you stand in that respect. Buy with the facts and based on rationality, and I'm sure you won't go wrong. But for goodness sake, don't sit back and dream. Go out and do something about it in the now

@Loddon: I've currently planned for it to log the network name, cell connection state and signal strength, and data connection state on any change of state. There's no reason it couldn't log any other data that is available through the Android telephony interfaces though; I just hadn't considered that anything else might be useful. No timestamp either, as I think on balance the privacy issues that having provable tracking of one's location through time is a bigger drawback than positive. If I were to scale it up for general release, I'd probably have all data anonymised and sent to a cloud service without being stored locally (with timestamp), and aggregate data sent back to the device for display to mitigate this. I'm tempted to turn it into a wider cruise log app, where you can record moorings with photos, notes, etc — but I doubt there's any real demand for an app like that, so for now I'm going to focus on implementing the bit that I actually want for myself! The logging aspect is already done, just need to put together a UI to display the data.

I've continuously cruised 2015-2018 and 2020-present, and it's rare that I struggle for signal just tethering to my phone with nothing else. The key is to check the signal before you moor and find out that you don't have any! In the worst-case scenarios, I stick my phone outside in a dry bag — suboptimal, but workable. My point isn't to tell you that you don't need anything, more to reassure you that it won't be impossible to do what you're doing, particularly with an additional gadget. I'm writing an Android app at the minute to log signal strength while cruising, to give a good reference as to where is good and where is not so good. Happy to send you it when I'm (/if I'm ever) done, if you'd find it useful.

Movement should be limited to essential movement only. Moving on to a different boat-size mooring, when few should be moving at all, is hardly in the spirit of that, is it? Nor does it cause any issues with boats occupying those moorings, because few other boats should be moving and thus encountering mooring difficulties. As long as you're not moored on a water point, lock landing (looking at you, CRT at Wardle Lock) or other patently stupid place, I don't see the problem.

Thank you all, happy to hear I can get rid of this 'orrible carpet at long last!

Far enough to be safe and sensible in terms of freeboard — but it seems, to me, to be suboptimal for the outlet to be underwater by default? Which is what I was worried may happen if I add another 100kg of flooring. On reflection, as pointed out, I'm not actually convinced it'll actually make any tangible difference... Compared to some on here I feel I only play at boating, so it's always refreshing to hear the more experienced voices. Even when they're pointing out what should be blindingly obvious

The bathroom and galley skin fittings (welded pipe type with appropriate plumbing and seacocks) are already virtually at the waterline. The carpet will weigh virtually nothing, but I was worried that heavier flooring may pose a problem. I can't conceptualise how heavy bamboo or vinyl flooring are. That said, very good point, it's somewhat irrelevant compared to the weight of a few guests...

I've been planning to replace the carpet throughout the boat since I bought it, but it's occurred to me recently that the additional weight may pose a problem. I'd rather not mess around with removing ballast if I don't have to, because getting the subfloor up will involve dismantling most of my built-in furniture. I don't suppose anyone has any rough data for the weights (per m^2) for strand-woven bamboo, LVT and carpet? Unsurprisingly it's not something that manufacturers seem to publish in their data sheets, and I thought Canal World might hold the answer and save me sending several separate emails. The installed carpet is relatively lightweight — like this sort of thing.

Only because I live in abject chaos! To be honest, I haven't had the motivation to look after myself most of the past year; I've been living in a mildly depressed fog for most of the pandemic. Decided to stop being so useless last week, and now that my floor is spotless I reckon there's plenty of space for that sort of thing, even though I keep my table/sofa bed permanently in bed mode. In sunnier times I tend to do my exercise on the roof, or the towpath if the towpath is surfaced or otherwise serviceable.

I hate running with a passion, but you can't have any better access to running than living moored to the towpath. Cycling too. They take care of my cardio requirements, and I fill the rest in with bodyweight exercises in the style of the military — press-ups, sit-ups, planks, etc etc etc. I'm very enthusiastic about exercise that doesn't require equipment, and it certainly does the job for me as a fit and very active 31 year old. That sort of routine got me Army-fit a few years ago, though I never did join thanks to breaking my leg into three pieces halfway through the process. In fairness though, my passion is for climbing and mountaineering. Any extracurricular exercise is filler and training for getting into the mountains, rather than as the sole form of exercise I do. @sirweste: that is genius. I have a portable fingerboard that I hang from bridges because I couldn't think of any feasible way to mount one on the boat. Chapeau!

To come back full circle, appreciating that perhaps my viewpoint is a bit naïve and unfair on insurers. The original point was that I'm not aware of other insurers being quite so onerous with their survey requirements, rightly or wrongly. Perhaps I am wrong, I obviously only buy one marine insurance policy per year, I am not an informed expert on marine insurance. But this doesn't seem to be the norm, and so I am looking for alternatives. I'm going to call Craftinsure and Towergate (current insurer) tomorrow and go from there.

And likewise some give the sense that any weather event, no matter how benign and expected in the context of longer-term climate patterns, is the next entirely unforeseen calamity delaying your journey home for entirely unforeseeable reasons. I spend a lot of time in snowy places. Some bits of this country do well — but some bits really, really don't. ?

Mainly so that when some cretin, land or water-based, steals my entire life, I'm not left with no possessions, home or recompense.

Oh, for sure. But the exhaust (not) being 5" above the waterline has already been covered by the survey that I do have. It'd be a bit of a shit pointless survey otherwise, would it not? The choc block is unlikely to have sprouted of is own accord in the 29th year. It's a risk which exists for a craft of any age old enough to have been tinkered with. As I say, I do appreciate why they may have have taken the stance that they have, but it appears to be outwith the position of other insurers, and ultimately I'm going to exercise my ability to do business with more reasonable companies.

About to turn thirty, so yes, the survey is for insurance purposes. Wasn't covered by GJW last year, but I have been a customer of theirs in the past. I appreciate I see it from my perspective and not the perspective of an insurer making a decision based on fact and policy only, but I'm struggling to identify any serious risks that a full survey will likely discover, that the BSSC will not have discovered, that aren't engine-related. On the subject of the engine, it doesn't take thirty years for an abused engine to show itself as being unreliable. And in this instance that's irrelevant, as it's a new engine with circa 700 hours total. I've just sent him an email as I figure it'll be of potential interest to other customers if nothing else! I'm going to try a few others — I disagree with their requirement in principle, so I'd really rather avoid getting the surveyor back to tell me that my engine is in fine condition, my electrics are safe and my stove isn't about to kill me. I got a survey for insurance purposes specifically (but as noted, I should have checked the requirements of my prospective insurer myself, and more carefully. No problem at all with the surveyor!)

Firstly, yes, it's ultimately my fault for not checking the requirements in advance of having a survey conducted, but I was a bit surprised to receive this today from GJW: (My bold) I politely told them to fuck off, because I think that is three steps removed from being reasonable. Anyone want to suggest alternative insurers with a more realistic outlook?

The towpath is underwater above Middlewich Big Lock — definitely wouldn't like to be downhill on the river right now! What's truly insane is just how much snow has fallen so quickly.

My current weed hatch is of that design, with ten bolts and ten nuts to remove to gain access. Naturally the old wingnuts and bolts had rusted, damaged heads, etc, and took over an hour to remove the first time. I've now replaced them all with shiny new bolt, nuts and spring washers, but I still wouldn't fancy doing it in a hurry in extremis!

Ah. You're one of those people. ?

If you have a modern phone, you can install an app to record your conversations. Quite useful for those slimy sorts of organisations that refuse to communicate via written word. My last letting agents being a prime example.

I awoke to surprise snow a few days ago on the Trent & Mersey. Mostly now melted, but the towpath is icy and frozen, and the canal is now frozen over. Mist in the valley. Beautiful.