keith.

With the amount of work and probable expense I would take the offer of £10000. Middlemen in any business are going to make money on every transaction. I would look at the numbers from the point of view of how much a year it has cost to own Little Miss and how much fun you have had. Lessons learned and life goes on.

You need to be dealing from a position of fact. Speak to Craig and get an out of the water survey (I am sure that pound notes will have to be passed but the boat has already been on *******'s slip). Based on his written report make a decision. ******* do encourage their sellers to get a survey as it helps the sale. I bought from there and used Craig. Craig is great. ******* keep to their word but make sure you understand what that is. They have different negotiators and John (ex car salesman) is the one that I prefer to deal with.

The ball is in your court. You haven't paid the deposit yet. You can make the sale subject to all the equipment working and if the vendor agrees happy days. As we don't know the details of the boat or price any other advice is hard to give.

It is just a model number. Very similar to the 165 except you get a pump flush and a gauge showing how full the holding tank is. Both have a holding tank of 21 l. http://www.thetford-europe.com/product-category/toilets/portable-toilets/

I bought an ex hire boat in March. Originally fitted with a dump through toilet over a 200 l holding tank. The previous owners had got fed up with emptying a pump out tank and had replaced it with a composting toilet. There was some 6 weeks between my first seeing the boat and taking delivery so I investigated composting toilets. I concluded that I couldn't be bothered with the hassle and my first action before leaving the marina was to remove the Airhead and replace it with a 165 Porta Potti. Since then I have bought 2 x 335 Porta Pottis. I am seriously thinking of reverting to pumpout. Things to consider: The original 1/2 height dump through toilet sits on the holding tank giving a comfortable seat height. The Airhead is a particularly tall toilet and so the previous owner had to install a step to stop one's feet dangling during all toilet operations. Read Paul Smith's newsletter of how he knows when his Airhead needs emptying and how he describes that chore. https://livingonanarrowboat.co.uk/newsletter-archive/2016-06-05-newsletter-an-analysis-of-a-well-specified-live-aboard-narrowboat-part-2/ The 165 Porta Potti has a 21 l holding tank but still only lasts 2 adults 2 days. It is then heavy to empty and still too high for comfort when it is mounted on the additional height of the holding tank. Hence buying the 10l holding tank 335 Porta Potti. The mathematicians out there will realise that the same two adults are having to empty this every day. So this particular boat owner is going back to a dump through and paying somebody else £15 or so to deal with the end product. The largest tank for a cassette appears slightly smaller than 21 l so will be emptied sooner. At least the O/P is removing the original tank so will not have the dangling feet problem. This does mean of course that I will eventually have an Airhead Composting Toilet and Porta Pottis for sale when I have cleaned them up.

Maybe, but that wasn't my experience. Craig positively encourages you to be present.

I can highly recommend Craig Allen. http://craig-allen-marine.co.uk/ Whoever you appoint, talk to them and make sure they understand your requirements. Ideally go along with them on survey day and pick their brains.

I'm sure that GL would like a summary. I and I suspect others, would also benefit, so if you could post it when you have summarised I would be very grateful.

In that case you need to run the engine until the amp reading is less than 4 amps. At that point if you could note how long the engine has been running (charging), the voltage and the SOC. You will then (hopefully) have fully charged batteries and will realise how long it takes and will be able to judge if your batteries perform any better whilst discharging. Hire boats with no gauging usually recommend that their clients run the engine for 5 hours daily!!

Is it safe to assume that the reading was obtained with your engine running?

Can you elaborate please Tony? The Exide website shows the most basic leisure battery as the Exide Dual which doesn't appear to have filler caps. The Tayna price for Exide Dual is competitive until delivery at £37.99 is added. Does Tayna use the delivery charge to make up for a low price.? The Varta LFD90 is only £9.18 delvery.

I was on the canal section yesterday through Loughborough, as far downstream just past Bishop Meadow lock where the River Soar rejoins. I turned around here and the current from the Soar was normal or possibly less than normal. The gauges indicate normal and there is no navigation restriction from CRT. In fact the only problem that I encountered was the inflatable with 3 gentlemen travelling at about 20 knots busy emptying the canal onto the towpath!! Just received email from CRT confirming that the Soar is now out of flood. Edit: to add CRT Notice

MW is not great on my boat which has a 'rubber ducky' aerial about 8 inches long. VHF (FM) is fine. I think the problem is that such a short aerial is OK for the higher frequencies but just too much of a compromise on MW which has a lot lower frequency.

I hired a cabin cruiser on the Gt Ouse and to my surprise it had a sea toilet where the contents is pumped overboard. The hire company told me that this was allowed as the river was open water. Does this apply to all rivers or just EA rivers?

Not looking good judging by the number of hard hats, hi viz vests and life jackets in evidence today. There was also a brand new Hi Lux pickup that had never carried more than shopping from the supermarket. Lots of workers on mobiles. Seriously though apart from the failures which looked worse to me than described there is an awful lot of silt and rubbish on the canal bed. Even saw an engine block!