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Grassman

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Posts posted by Grassman

  1. My multifuel stove has come to end of it's life and I'm considering not replacing it and just using our Webasto, because I'm getting to the age when humping about bags of coal is becomming difficult, even with the smaller bags. This would mean during really cold spells it might be running it for around 20 hours a day. I'm a liveaboard (60ft boat) and it's a 5kw Thermotop with 4 rads plus the towel rad.

     

    But I've been told that it's not good to run them for those lengths of time on a regular basis, and that it can cause the burner or heat exchanger to bust (or other components to fail).

     

    Might this be true or should it be able to cope with that sort of regular use?

  2. Thanks all for your helpful replies, I was thinking along the same lines so it's good that you've confirmed my suspicions and saved me 50 quid, even though I'm sure I'd have found a cheaper one 🙂.

     

    I've had a conventional stove top type one for about 12 years and although I believe it helps a bit, I think the difference is negligable, but was hoping that not having the galley worktop side blocking the air flow might have improved it.

     

    As some have mentioned, the best thing about one is when the fan stops, and although the fire is still quite hot I think it does at least warn you that the stove will need some attention albeit not necessarily straight away.

  3.  

    I know opinions on the effectiveness of ecofans are somewhat divided, and mine is that they are able to move the warm air down the boat, but the difference they make is minimal.

    Having said this, my stove is next to my galley worktop, so any wafting of air must struggle to get over the top of that. I’ve seen on the internet those fans with a collar which can be attached to anywhere on the flue pipe, and I was wondering if one of those might make a difference because of being able to mount it above the worktop.

    My concern is that because the flue is cooler than the top of the stove, would there be enough heat to ‘power’ the fan fast enough to move the air properly, especially as mine would need to be attached fairly high up on it where the flue gets cooler? In other words how do they compare with the stove mounted version?

    I don’t really want this post to turn into cassette versus pump out type argument about ecofans general effectiveness or not, but just hear from anyone who has the flue pipe mounted one, do they work, and your opinion of them as to whether or not they’re worth shelling out £50 for.

    Here’s the one I’ve been looking at

    https://simplyvaliant.co.uk/products/remora

  4. Thanks to both of you who corrected me regarding the cottage at Lifford Guillotine lock. I moved away from the area not long after the cottage was demolished and had presumed (wrongly) that the road bridge was widened just after that.

  5. On 06/01/2025 at 14:33, IanD said:

    1963 was similar -- at least it was in Yorkshire...

     

    I used to live in Kings Norton near the Stratford Canal, in the days when it was a nice area unlike these days 🙂. In the 'big freeze' of 1963 the ice on the canal was so thick that we local kids built a bonfire on the ice about 50 yards along from the guillotine lock to see if it would melt. The lock keeper reckoned the ice was about 3 feet thick. The lock keeper and his cottage are of course no longer there, the cottage having been demolished when they widened to bridge for road traffic.

  6. Theres a Nb that's been moored near Bridge 55 on the T&M just along from Kings Bromley Marina for over 3 years. It has a licence number so it's identifiable but appears to be getting away with it. They are liveaboards and were thrown out of the marina after a row with the then management, so they've so far saved a tidy sum of money, over £10,000 in mooring fees.

     

    Whatever reason they've given to CRT surely shouldn't justify being there that length of time? She works locally doing cleaning jobs and when out walking or cruising past in my boat I've often seen her carrying things up and down the towpath, but I don't know about her partner as I never see him.

  7. I can see businesses either introducing a separate waste disposal surcharge or merely covering the extra costs by increasing their fees accordingly.

    In the case of CRT, they would probably make that a higher surcharge for boaters without a home mooring on the basis they’d be using their facilities much more than others, which would be kind of understanable, but another kick in the teeth for the genuine CC'ers.

    • Greenie 1
  8. On 16/12/2024 at 08:41, Creaking Gate said:

    So in short, the price represents good value and AV are not 'ripping' anyone off, nor 'Squeezing every penny' but are in fact, providing a good service at a reasonable cost.   I think this thread says a whole lot about boater expectations. 

     

    My 'squeezing every penny' comment was merely referring to what the moorers here and at other Aquavista marinas had told me, hence my OP asking about electricity charges, which after reading the comments on here I've now realised are actually quite competitve. But in the short time I've been here I've discovered that their charges for other goods and services are comparitively quite high and that's why I had assumed (wrongly as it transpires) that their electric charges were as well.

     

    Thanks everyone for your helpful replies.

    • Greenie 1
  9. Thanks for your helpful replies so far.

     

    I suppose their 31p doesn't look too bad then. Their charge for connection to the post is £6.50 a month which seems quite steep though.

     

    It's the first Aquavista owned marina I've stayed at and I've been told by others that they're very good at squeezing every penny they can out of their moorers. 

    Allegedly of course 😉

  10. Back in the days when I lived in a house, a neighbour up the road used to let his dog out every morning and it would do a dump on my front lawn. After several abortive requests for him to stop doing it (the neighbour not the dog), I waited until the dog’s dump was a particularly sloppy one, scooped it up with a shovel and knocked on the neighbour’s front door.

     

    As he opened the door (still in his pyjamas) I dumped the contents of the shovel on his doorstep, made a suitable comment and walked away.

     

    It never happened again.
  11. What about the Daniel Adamson which does regular trips on the River Weaver and the Manchester Ship Canal? It would accommodate more people than most trip boats. There's also 2 trip boats which do the Manchester Ship Canal, one of which is an ex Mersey Ferry I believe.

    • Greenie 1
  12. We're on Googe Streetview going through Common Lock at Fradley. I didn't notice the streetview car at the time but a friend told me we were on it.

     

    I don't watch many of those Vloggers on YouTube but apparently we are on a few of those too. But there is one we're on that I know about, and that was when we were following Foxes Afloat emerging from Savick Brook into the Ribble Estuary. After they'd messed it up it up they then filmed me following them and making a perfect turn into the estuary 😀.

  13. 12 hours ago, haggis said:

     Almost as bad as letting the dog off at a bridge to run along side the boat and do it's business anywhere then let it back on board at another bridge. 

    I can understand why some folk have a poor opinion of boaters !

     

     

    Then there's the joggers and cyclists who have their dogs trotting/running along behind them, often a fair way back. They're so intent on their activity they never look back to see what the dog is doing, and probably if they do notice they won't bother to go back and pick it up for fear of interrupting their rhythm. Also you often see a poor elderly dog really struggling to keep up with them which always saddens me.

  14. On 04/12/2024 at 16:45, Mac of Cygnet said:

     

     

    Edited to say that ditchcrawler's link is to Phil Duerden's site.  Phil was the honest second-in-command at OwnerShips until it folded.  If you Google him you will find a fascinating account of the goings-on at OwnerShips.

     

    Do you have a link to this please, as I cannot find anything? We bought a part share in Nb Cropredy 6 months before Ownerships went bust. I know the basics of what happened with them but would be interested to find out more.

    On 04/12/2024 at 10:21, BilgePump said:

    That's a big psychological difference. When we had a NB you could leave your own books on the shelves, clothes in the wardrobe, duvet on the bed, toothbrushes on the sink, food in the cupboard, put your own pictures on the wall etc. It becomes a second home.

     

    Our part ownership was the opposite to this. All of us had to take all our stuff away with us after each use, the thought being that what might be useful or nice to one owner wouldn't necessarily be so for anyone else.

  15. I'm not sure if the OP means whether he/she wants to blacklist a marina or if the OP fears that they will be blacklisted themself. But if it's the latter then most marinas can throw you out without giving a good reason and the fact that you've made a complaint can sometimes prompt them to do so, as I know of a few marinas who have done this including the one I'm at. Some can be that petty.

     

    Some might well inform the other marinas in their group about you, meaning you could be blacklisted from those too, but I doubt they would inform the marinas owned by other companies.

  16. We tell friends and family not to bother sending us cards because we've nowehere practical in the boat to mount or hang them. That means that because they don't send us any cards then we don't have to send them either.

     

    It saves us a fortune and everybody's happy and knows where they stand 🙂

  17. Like a lot of people have, we've done it in 3 stages

     

    1. Hiring nearly every year

    - expensive but lots of choice for cruising areas.

    - no restrictions

     

    2. Boat sharing for 5 years

    - more weeks a year and a fraction of the cost of hiring

    - only having to pay a 12th of the maintenance and other cost

    - restrictions - you don't always get your own way regarding choices

     

    3. Boat owning

    - unlimited amount of cruising

    - 100% own choice of where to base it, what to spend on it etc

    - 100% of the maintenance and other costs to pay

    - being able to live aboard full time

     

    Having now lived aboard for the last 12 years the only thing I miss about hiring or sharing is not having my pre-booked week(s) to look forward to anymore 😀.

  18. 19 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

     a shame people don’t have the same sentimentality towards the canals as they do cats and dogs. Every now and again we hear of some crazy who left all their millions to the cats home. And the money that pours into Battersea Dogs Home always surprises me. 
     

     

     

    The TV series featuring Battersea Dogs Home must have brought in a lot of extra support and funds for them. They should get that Canal Boat Diaries fellow to mention in his programmes the funding issues and deterioration of the network.

     

    After all, he benefits financially from broadcasting his life on the canals and so do the TV companies, so it's time he did something in return.

     

    • Greenie 2
  19. I had this issue last year. My 30 year old BMC 1.8 (my boats original engine) expired and quotes for repairs or reconditioning were around the £3k to 4k mark but with only a short guarantee obviously. While most reconditions turn out to be a good solution I have heard of a fair amount of instances when they don't work out, even when done by reputable company.

     

    So I decided to go for a new engine costing £10k including installation. I was planning to keep the boat and continue to do some extensive cruising for the foreseeable future (health permitting at my age 🙁), but if circumstances meant I'd have to sell the boat sooner that planned, at least the new engine would add some value to the boat. Obviously not £10k but hopefuly half of that, or at a very minimum at least it should make the boat more sellable, especially as it's recent hull survey (30 year insurance stipulation) revealed it was in excelent condition. And if I were to get that £5k extra when selling the boat , then my net cost of £5k wouldn't be much more than I would have paid for a recon.

     

    I suppose it's a bit like with a house say for example you have a new kitchen or an extension, you never recoup the full cost but it does usually add some value.

     

     

     

     

     

     

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