LadyG

Some idiot boater is removing the hoselock type fittings on the taps up here on the aire and calder. What is wrong with people. I now carry one in my pocket, but make sure I dont leave it on the tap. I can understand forgetting after filling the water tank, but not from the elsan hose, which was then left on the ground, nice.

I've had all my batteries replaced or removed in the four years of cc off grid. We did find another battery gassing H2S, which was still connected even after all the batteries were supposed to have been replaced. Obviously it has now been removed. It was hidden well up in the bow, and required considerable effort to remove it, it was huge, probably twenty years old! I am not a person who gets headaches, so if I ever feel one coming on i open all doors and windows to make sure the air is changed.

I dont know about that, the cruiser near me has so much clutter on his bow that it will never level out . He's moored one hosepipe length from the waterpoint.

Unless your existing knowledge is pretty much zero, I would question the value of a standard RYA course to a boat owner who wants to learn about maintaining his own engine. The cost is what i would expect, assuming its a day course rather than a two hour clinic. I think that paying someone to come to your own boat, discussing the installation and servicing it would be more useful. Thats likely to cost more than £155, but you get an experienced eye looking at your boat. I can change the oil and filters, but that is my limit. I don't have anywhere to dispose of waste, so that I've had several people service my engjne, and as far as I am aware only the last one was well qualified, so the boat got a 500 hour service, as laid down in the manual! As well as oil, the coolant was drawn, visually inspected and topped up again. That's never happened previously.

I'm sure we've had the discssion regarding the difficulty of making NB lighting comply with Colregs. Compliance is important when sailing, or boating at night on open waters, including rivers. I would not take a nb on commercial waters at night, and I doubt many leisure boaters would have sufficient knowledge of lights to mix it with commercial traffic, which could include large vessels, towing vessels etc. Im pretty sure the specifications for lights will relate to the length of the vessel, so a nb is not required to have the same light as a cruise ship, Insurance Is another aspect.

Nail varnish

Air is a fluid, so the tank is full of fluid, try a filter funnel with a long spout, and pour the water in slowly.

I would think that adding two inches on the bearers plus three inches of scaffolding would reduce the effective height by five inches! Regarding ballast, when I moved on my narrowboat it was a bit "tippy', a bit high in the water, by the time I got all my books, clothes, tools, coal, water, and diesel, loaded up it settled in nicely.

I have to say that carbon monoxide is a deadly and insidious gas. My boat has plenty of ventilation, the standard vents in doors, mushroom vents, and in addition I have the rear sliding hatch cracked open, there is also a side window which is cracked open. However the other day when the stove was struggling to ignite new coals, it was a windless day. I cracked the door open, and I also had opened it a few times to empty ashes etc, both alarms went off, i had to put them outside to stop them, and open all doors and windows to change the air. I think that carbon monoxide is most likely when the coals are glowing red rather than when the fire is being lit with kindling etc.

We don't know that is the boat, I assume someone saw it on Ebay or suchlike and the engines matched the OP s description. He has not denied it, maybe moved on .....

No one has mentioned a grp cruiser, not as suitable as a steel boat for a year round liveaboard, but much cheaper, and possibly simpler, it would give them an idea of whether they would be suited to the lifestyle. I would urge the OP not to buy this boat, because : 1) It is too small to live on. 2) it is a money pit Yes, after two years they will have picked up some usefull skills and knowledge, but the boat will still be too small and they will be two years older.

No one has mentioned a grp cruiser, not as suitable as a steel boat for a year round liveaboard, but much cheaper, and possibly simpler, it would give them an idea of whether they would be suited to the lifestyle.

I agree that one should know how to change the engine oil, and the gear oil if appropriate, however when i try to get the filter off, I sometimes end up having to find someone with more strength, ( I do have a patent gadget, but it does not always co operate). I like to have the gear fluid changed annually, but I can't reach it, in fact I think only one bod (out of four), has ever removed the magnetic sump plug. I have come to the conclusion that once I've found a good engineer, I should get the work done, no matter that it costs a bit, it means I can phone him if something goes wrong, and hopefully he will come and sort it, a bit like having an RCR contract, just cheaper!

So your partition walls are determined by the location of the bearers, so if they are six feet apart your bathroom is either six foot wide or twelve foot wide. I give up.

My saloon is 10ft along one side, twelve feet on the other and maybe 6 ft 6 inches wide, if I ever needed to lift it I'd be in big trouble.

I don't know about washers, but what I'd do is to strip off as much as can be cleaned ashore, particularly canvas, ropes etc. Give the boat a power wash or hose, then use brushes of all sorts and sizes with a bucket of a suitable detergent, warm. The standard chemicals are likely to be very hazardous to fish, which is one reason to be very careful. Depending in the gel coat or paint finish I'd use a bristle deck brush, and hand brushes to get in to nooks and crannies plus old toothbrushes The autogleam products get a good review, but again, use as little as possible. Obviously depends on the the boat, but I dont think you'll save a great deal of time with a washer, you still have to finish by hand. PS if planning on power washing in the marina, move the boat to an isolated area.

I can't imagine why anyone would have individual floors in each room. If, for example I wanted to build the galley floor, with the dining floor adjacent, where would the join be that would allow you to lift the galley floor, and the dining floor. Would it be under the partition wall? Do you remove all the cabinets first. Surely you don't expect to ever lift the floor, a few inspection hatches may be needed, but if the floors need to be removed, something has gone wrong. The use of laminate flooring, carpet, vinyl, engineered wood etc are the wearing surfaces, surely they sit on top of the flooring boards in most cases. I think there are some things on these boats which are tried and tested, once you've lined the walls with ply, you won't want to take it down every few years.

Can you please stop swearing, it's offensive, here or on the street.

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Hi there, welcome to the forum, I think if I was in need of crew, I'd detail my own skippering experience and expectations Personally I would not offer to crew for a complete newby who has bought something untested and now wants it moved, but if I was young and fit and had no experience and was wanting some, it might appeal. I know folks are surprised that crew is hard to come by, but when I asked at the local yacht club for crew for a nice delivery trip from the South Coast, I got one applicant (a dinghy sailor) and he burst in to tears at Dartmouth, on day 1, apparently his girlfriend had objected. He stayed the course.

Surely not , its only 38 foot, hardly big enough for a two week summer holiday....

As others have indicated, without a lot of experience of narrowboating it's best to forget a project like that, buy something with all the basics, good basics, and then decide what you want to change. Carpentry is only one of the skills required, and whatever you want, it may not be possible to tick all your boxes, it's about acceptable compromises I have a fitter who has a floating workshop, a boat, a van, and a workshop. He needed all these resources just to fit out my galley! A twenty year old boat will be a twenty five year old boat in five years time, so the money that you put in to the upgrade may be recovered, but the hours that you put in to it will likely not. Please hire a boat for a few weeks and see how you get on, it's not all roses and castles.