Froggy

This is all getting very silly! There should be an 'eating popcorn' greenie. This emoticon will have to do instead:

Maybe before the CRT look at penalising continuous cruisers they should take into account whether the demand for 'home moorings' exceeds the supply.

That's interesting because we've never had problems with water ingress from the side hatch - whereas many of the windows allow some ingress in an irregular fashion, largely depending on the strength of the rain and the direction of the wind.

Thanks, that's a serious bit of kit, I'll take a closer look at this option.

Thanks for the photo. Yeah, that might work, at least as a partial solution along with a heavy duty bar across the two hatches or something. It looks as if these fasteners do the same job as a slide bolt but without having to drill a bolt hole in the frame. This might be preferable in fact to bolts because the holes would have to be drilled at an angle into the frame. possible compromising the frame if you drill too deep. It looks like you have replaced a previously fitted bolt yourself, so did you find the sash fastener more effective?

That might work on ours, even though we don't have a lid..... am tempted to visit the local Screwfix to have a closer look since the price is very reasonable.

Are you talking of something along the lines of this: https://shop.rivercanalrescue.co.uk/shop/ShowProduct.aspx?Id=104160 or this: https://shop.rivercanalrescue.co.uk/shop/ShowProduct.aspx?Id=104164 EDIT: on closer inspection i don't think either of those would work.....

Thanks Jen, these suggestions are well worth looking into. I'm not at the boat atm but from memory the steel frame extends all around the wood panel. The overlapping lip is only on the left door. This does suggest that the original idea was to secure the door something along the lines of what you suggest, but i can't see any evidence of earlier fixings. Fixing a slide bolt(s) through the metal where the doors meet wouldn't stop the doors bowing out when pulled/pushed as per our existing setup, but fixing bolts through the metal frames at the bottom and top of the left (overlapping) door might work, which is what i was considering but hadn't thought of running the bolts through the metal frame. This could be further reinforced by either additional bolts between the doors, or a metal bar that stretches across the width of the doors as previously suggested by someone else. EDIT: oops, no, it was you Jen! Thanks, i can see that this could provide a very secure fitting. I still can't work out how our hatch doors were meant to be secured when the boat was originally fitted out though..... It seems obvious from the replies to this thread that there are no standardised ways of securing side hatches, which rather surprises me.

* desperately reaches for the logout button, just in case!..... You're being very naughty and have post-edited your post, i now wish i'd taken a screenshot as proof! Btw, i come from Cheshire, so have nothing but praise!

Uh, I hope so!..... No, PLEEAAASE, i'm about to turn in and fancy a restful sleep!

I sure wouldn't want to meet that guy on a dark night along the cut!

Just as an aside, we've had no trouble in the five months or so we've so far spent on the cut, but i have heard a few scary stories. I'm assuming that break-ins to boats is a relatively rare event? I'm not sure what you mean by flipover lids? That surely qualifies as cruelty to swans and other assorted wildfowl!

I echo these sentiments, and yes, if somebody really wants to get in they can simply kick a window through or something, but i guess you have to make some effort to deter them, and if you didn't there would no doubt be a problem when making an insurance claim. It's possible that some of the products advertised on this page might do the job, but without seeing them first-hand i'm not sure: https://shop.rivercanalrescue.co.uk/shop/ShowProductMasters.aspx?Id=5105 What's the thinking on the hatch fasteners and toggle fasteners shown on that page? Would either of them offer more security than a couple of bolts into the frame fixed to the door on the left? The trouble i envisage with bolts is that the holes would have to be drilled through the frame at an angle, so limiting the depth of the holes without compromising the integrity of the wood.

This is interesting. As it stands, the bolt fits through the left door and then the hole in the right-hand door, as visible in the second photograph, and we've had to bend the bolt on the left door so that it mates with the hole on the right door as they are closed (as you can see, there's a hexagonal nut on the bolt on the inside of the left door to prevent it simply being removed from the outside. However, i have suspected that the little plate was part of the original securing method since, if i remember it correctly, we found it lying on the floor shortly after we'd forced the door. Your suggestion that it might fit into the space between the doors is not something we've explored. I'm assuming that you mean on the inside of the left door with the L overlap and on the outside of the right door as they mate together, rather than in the small space between the two doors when they are closed? This latter would not work now although the original hole (now filled) though the L in the left door would have allowed a straight bolt (as opposed to our bent bodged one!) to pass through the left door and into the cabin without any direct contact with the right door. I'm not able to explore these suggestions hands-on right now because i'm not currently on the boat.

We don't have a welding kit so that would be an additional (and unwelcome, due to other forthcoming work with the boat) expense, but nevertheless your suggestion seems to be very workable so i'll definitely be bearing it in mind.

Btw, it's possiblie that the small plate shown in the second photograph was part of the original securing method, since we found it in the boat.

I guess that would work up to a point, Jen, although the vulnerability here would be the short screws fixing the handles to the doors. I accept what you're saying about a crowbar attack, but we'd like to make it a bit more difficult to get in than it is at present by ensuring that the doors remain firmly shut to anything other than brute force. I'm not sure of your meaning, Mike. The boat is, overall, well built, so i'm guessing that the doors were reasonably secure when it was originally fitted out.

First and foremost, be careful what you post in this thread, and please don't compromise the security of your boat, but notwithstanding this any advice would be appreciated. This is our first boat, and shortly after we took possession back in November 2016 we struggled to open the side hatch (even though the vendor had done so when we'd viewed). Later that day whilst i was elsewhere in the boat my other half managed to force it open somehow, but consequently neither of us could work out how it had been secured. We bodged something together with a bolt, a small plate, and a wing-nut, using a pre-existing hole in the overlap of the left door, as shown in the photographs. However, this allows the door to bow open by a few inches when pushed (or pulled from the outside), so the door could easily be forced open. Before venturing back out on the cut again we are keen to improve the security on this hatch. The obvious solution is to drill a couple of holes and screw in a couple of bolts, but we've scratched our heads over the ensuing months trying to work out how the original fitters (JD Narrowboats of Gailey) secured this hatch, since there are no signs of bolt holes in the frame or screw holes in the doors. Can anybody provide any clues or make any suggestions? It's not clear from the photographs but there was a slightly larger hole than the one we are using that somewhere along the way has been filled.

We haven't decided which product to go for yet (no point until we have our next pumpout, which is imminent), but i will certainly try your suggestion. Since we have a separate tank for flush water we could probably also add a bio product directly to this tank.

This seems like both a lot of work and expense, Mike. It's maybe something for the future..... but unless we can diagnose another, simpler to resolve, issue with the oven we are, for the time being, going to accept it's only useful for warming things up, and enjoy the many delicious meals that can be cooked merely using the hob.

On further research, Stoves are no longer operating. Replacement thermostats are still available but are around £130. I think this is a non-starter for us given that we can't even be certain it's the thermostat at fault. I followed your very useful advice, colinnorth, and removed the plate and thoroughly cleaned the area. I found about seven matchsticks in the void in front of the burner - who knows how many years they had been lying there, as we don't use them! - as well as plenty of grease. Unfortunately none of my cleaning efforts made any difference. However, i'm going to have another look in view of Tracet's comment.

Thanks for this. It looks relatively harmless, but i'm no expert..... I think though, having reconsidered, it would make sense seeking out some bio rim cleaner if we are going to change over to a bio tank treatment.

Hi Mike. Our cooker is just over 20 years old, but given that the hob and grill work fine I'm doubtful about the tar issue. The thermostat is presumably the rod that clips to the top of the oven at the front? If so, is it easy to remove the side plate to get at the connection?

Thanks for the continued feedback. One boatyard reckoned Toilet Duck would be ok since it was water based, but I'll see what bio alternatives are available in the supermarket.

As an aside, although I appreciate it could upset the bacteria balance with bio holding tank treatments, I assume it's otherwise safe to use supermarket bowl cleaners such as Toilet Duck? If not, what do people recommend? Can such products harm the rubber seals etc?