jocave

I do try and avoid the floating stuff, hoping its not a regular occurance as it could well get tiresome pretty quickly .

Just wondering if prop fouling is a normal thing ?, as a relative new boater ,only been out and about for a couple of months my days seem to be spoiled by getting tangled up in various discarded crap or just various floating vegetation, maybe it just the Lancaster that has this problem , I should point out that I have an outboard powered boat so untangling stuff is not a major problem but due to the design of the boat I am unable to tilt the engine totally out of the water, on Thursday we went up to the boat with the intention of a short one hour cruise to visit a pub for lunch , five mins in we are getting shouts and pointing from the tow path ,wife checks behind and says we a dragging half a tree around, five minutes later all sorted and on our way again , no sooner as I had settled down again the engine slowed reved up again and finally stalled, half an hour later the remains of what looked like a fertiliser bag was removed from the prop, reaching our mooring I was manovering into position when the boat started shaking and the outboard was jumping up and down ,looking behind a large reed/weed thing was tangled up in the rudder, on our journey home we encountered three more tangles that were solved with a burst of reverse, back at the marina I lifted the engine again to find various bits of blue rope tangled around the rudder and prop, now this is spoiling my boating up to now so I'm hoping this is not the norm and I've just been unlucky..

It slides over the transom clamps and stops them from being undone, I had to remove mine with an angle grinder as the lock was rusted up, its been replaced with a cheaper one from my local chandlers but its far better made than the Honda one ..

Great stuff ,guess you have purchased Cloudy Bay then.....

Is a vee berth not suitable as a bed for Paola even if it is just for rest time during the day ? It takes two minutes to put in the insert and plonk the cushion on top..when we stay on our 23 if its just the two of us we mostly use the dinette berth as the wife finds it easier to get in and out of it , again its a two minute job to drop the table and rearrange the cushions.

A 295 also

I was just thinking for ease of access, no point having a 32ft boat if Paola can't get on it.

https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/Motorboats/viking-255/68804 They do a bigger 255

Would something like a 215 with the rear door and bathing platform be any easier for the wife to get on and off??

Sounds like a plan to me, been more than happy with our outboard powered Viking, its nice to cruise around in near silence, a tank of fuel lasts me two or three days and its easy enough to get to a petrol station for me not that I have ever needed to, just go for it

We did that last weekend, and yep we bought a whole heap of meat , very very good , the Hand and dagger is another on our must do lists. Tried to Moor there the other day but only tow path moorings avaliable and after checking it out the wife couldn't manage the steps so that's one to try again when its a bit quieter. Lancaster is our aim next week so will keep these in mind, thanks

Currently just north of Bilsborough enjoying the view

Are there any pubs, eating establishments worth visiting on the Lancaster, so far only found Guys and the Roebuck in Bilsborough, hoping to venture a bit further this weekend, we did visit Garstang last week but due to the wife being in a wheelchair we didn't manage to find anything within easy pushing distance..

http://www.wayfordmarineservices.co.uk/product/fairline-mirage-29/

There is a 26 for sale in our marina its been for sale since we bought ours

Yep certainly got the bug, the Viking will do us for a year or two, only slight downside is the narrow beam ,no real need for anything so narrow where we are moored ,its fine for the two of us but when we have friends and family on board it quickly becomes a hassle, only problem is finding something with a wider beam that has all the things we need , would love a Freeman or a Seamaster but not seen one with a shower so far, apart from one but that had a disease all ,sorry a diesel engine which is a no no for us..

We are more than happy with our Viking, it was one of the lowest easy to board boats that we looked at , a small plastic step makes it easier for the wife to get on and off, there is plenty of room in the cockpit for her wheelchair, enough room in the shower for her, I do have to stoop a little as head room is less than six foot, its toasty warm with the eberspacher and the gas heater is great for on demand hot water only thing that may not work for you is the petrol outboard but for us on the Lancaster its easier to get petrol than it is diesel plus its nice to cruise around in near silence, best thing we have ever done we are on it every chance we get ...

Next to the middle lane which is next to the slow lane

Can't help with Peakland boats but there is or was one of those moored up in the marina where I keep my boat on the Lancaster.

I agree its their decision so we should all respect that , I was in a similar position a couple of months ago, we did a similar thing ,bought a boat to see if it suited us or not, my wife is also disabled so boat choice was key , we ended up with a viking 23 and although it has everything we wanted, heating,hot water,shower,solar etc ,after using it for a few months we have realised the narrow beam is a major issue for us, its a struggle for a weekend so how people manage to live on things this wide is beyond me, we will be selling this to buy a wider beam boat as soon as we can afford it, nine foot wide would be far more suitable

Probably right there, shame they can't get somebody to come out and take a look at it, it might be a quick cheap fix, from what I have read they are pretty straightforward and easy to work on .

Oh dear just spotted its back up for sale on bmwl, hope they find a buyer for it soon and you can move on with the next step in your boating journey..

Won't this option use far more power,,how much does the invertor use

No invertor hence the need for 12v

Because I would rather use the space for storage as we are a bit lacking in that department, its only for a one or two night stay so wanted something a lot smaller and cheaper