NB Willawaw

Somebody I know in a marina has received a council tax bill for over £800. Personally, I'd keep your head down but budget for this possibility.

Is a doubling plate the same as overplating ??

Keith/Voltmaster is a Mastervolt dealer in Hinckley..

Its a side slip - the boat is floated on to supports and then winched up a steep incline. They do a full range of shipyard work there - they were blacking a boat when I was there. I was amazed at the amount of equipment lying around - in the UK, it would all get pinched. 750 Euro could be about right in the Netherlands assuming you are talking about a 15-25m boat - its dearer than the UK I find. ETA I don't know if they will cut out and replace plating - there is a lot of residential boats and apartments around, not to mention a very nice bar opposite that serves Duval and takes international credit cards (quite unusual in Holland).

Yes - see my earlier post.

This might be useful to you: Oudehaven is shown in the banner photo. http://vereeniging.blogspot.co.uk/

We have an all electric boat and have a 5KVA diesel generator. We have only had one change of batteries since the launch in 2003 but now use 2V traction cells.

Hi Peter There is a pretty good ambience in Rotterdam in barge circles - people seem very friendly. The Dutch are a pretty laid back lot by and large. There are a lot of barges around that area and people are pretty happy to talk about them. The museum is pretty interesting as well with a lot of working craft. The wheelhouses of the true commercial barges are more like yachts in terms of their finish and its always interesting to watch the skippers tie up at night and crane their cars off the roof of their home.

I was over there recently looking at Dutch barges and there is a side slip at Koningspoort in the Oudehaven right next to the Erasmus Bridge. Its quite touristy there and it appears to be more of an historic attraction, but they do work on boats. It might also be worth you getting in touch with the Dutch Barge Association here in the UK as they have a lot of specialist advice and I believe they have a forum for members.

Yes thats what I suspected might be behind it. I won't supply them to boaters - if they want to buy one themselves, then its up to them. I'm more concerned about fires with the high current shunts.

It always puzzles me why nobody in the UK buys these in volume and sells them. There are always lots of companies in China and Hong Kong selling them, but nobody seems to want to act as their UK agent. There is a big price gap if you need a high current digital ammeter between these and the next UK supported equivalent which is over £100.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love one. I just can't sell it to myself as we are talking about £144,000 as I would have to pay the VAT, I don't want to go to the continent and I know it would end up as more of a houseboat. I much prefer their looks to narrowboats as they are more sea-like - one day perhaps.

I love Dutch Barges and this is a great looking little boat. The problem I have is where they can be used in the UK. Its too small to take to sea except on very calm days. It's too high for the canal network and they cost an absolute fortune to build.

A true perfectionist painter probably would want to do it all themselves..just a thought

Nathan I was born near the Thames at Barking and had generations of family brought up by the Rushing Waters as it was known. The creek has a tidal barrier (not the big one at the entrance off the Thames) and this should keep the basin in water at low tide. The River Roding which feeds it does largely dry out at low tide. Its not a big deal - main worries are the boat (is it reliable; do you have an anchor etc), tide times, the Woolwich Ferries (don't get in their way) and make sure there is somewhere to moor before setting off. I would also carry VHF for talking to London VTS and negotiating the Thames Barrier. Why do you want to go there - Mount Everest principle (because its there) ??

They are already out there. I have it as an option on my GSM Boat Communicator - just needs the optional GPS and no monthly charges - does it all by text message.

I make them up using proper crimps and heatshrink, but there are some silly prices on Ebay - in fact I don't know how they do it for the price as the cable itself is not cheap.

I re-transmitted this on Facebook. Apparently the owner is now being informed and has been looking for her.

When is it ?? - mind that road at Roydon. Guy and his dog nearly got run down there the other night.

http://www.odyautomation.co.uk/blog/2012/01/20/mobile-marine-engineering/ He is in Oxford, so should save on travelling costs. Plenty of good boat sparks around, but it gets expensive if they have to drive for hours to get to you.

Also made our own on the computer as we didn't find anything ready made that suited us. We like paper so just print it out as a PDF and keep it in a special A4 hard cover binder onboard. Have now been keeping it for 9 years.

I was up at Wapping for the event and took about 300 photos including the Avenue of Sail in the Upper Pool there. Many of these including most of the narrowboat squadron pics have been uploaded on to the Just Canals Facebook Group.

I've got a two-way GSM switch for alarms and switching stuff on, on Willawaw and it just needs a text once every three months to keep the PAYG SIM alive. I tend to check battery voltage once every week or two to see how the solar panels are doing when we are not onboard, so that does it.