Bargebuilder

That's certainly a possibility. I'm so glad that I've lived in an age of cheap, plentiful fuel, cheap foreign holidays and travel in general. I wonder if, in not so many years time, buying an inexpensive boat and pushing off for a couple of months and a few hundred miles of cheap cruising will be a thing of the past. Owning or even the hiring of boats will be the preserve of the very few, even fewer than now!

Indeed you would, and waterside pub charging points would help, but make no real impact on the total numbers required.

I agree totally, but given such restrictions for privately owned boats, such charging stations could only be viewed as a bonus if available, rather than relied upon as part of a planned cruise.

I too would think that, but I am always surprised how many waterside pubs and restaurants don't even supply a place to moor. Many have rotting, once used but never maintained dangerous moorings and some even have 'No Mooring' signs. I can only conclude that mooring infrastructure costs, let alone charging point costs, can't be justified by additional meal and drinks income generated. There are exceptions of course that presumably do work well for hospitality businesses. Possibly, but I suspect that most, if not all private boaters would prefer to charge at night and travel by day too.

How would a priority system work? I can't see first to book, first served working. When a privately owned boat tries to book, how could the 'system' know if a hirer with priority was about to try to book the same time slot? Hire companies couldn't afford to irritate their hirers by selling their valuable charging slots to 'outsiders' to make a bit of extra cash.

I can certainly see, where a number of hire companies ply their trade near to each other, that they would forge an agreement to share charging points amongst all of their customers. I can also see that several hire companies could join forces to dot charging points around their locality for the benefit of their customers and the mutual benefit of their businesses. What I struggle to see happening, is that such a valuable business asset would be shared with private boaters to the detriment of their own hirers.

You are right there, I had no idea that there was such a range of prices. I suppose the relevant point is, how much could a commercial company earn from a NB charge point in a year? I think the consensus is that 'slow chargers' are likely to be the best we could hope for. There will never be too many charge points, so we could assume that each would enjoy at best one overnight (3pm to 9am) and one daytime charge each 24 hrs, at least for 3 months. For another 6 months at perhaps an average of one charge each day and for 3 months almost zero charges. How much profit could be made in a year and how many years would it take for a commercial company to reap any reward?

You don't think that hire companies would prefer to keep their charging points clear for when their own vessels pass and need charging? Does the electric NB company in Wales let non-hirers use its charging points; I'm guessing not. If like them, other hire companies dot charging points around the cut to service their own fleet, are they really likely to want them hogged by privately owned NBs, especially if they are 'slow charge' points?

Do you think so? A lot of hire bases, although they have bulk diesel, won't even sell that to passing boats. Others don't even allow mooring on their limited canal side space. They will only bother if they can make a substantial return on the electricity sold. How much more does car charging electricity at commercially operated stations cost, compared to that that we buy for our domestic properties?

Use Marine 16 instead then. 😁

Very effective: they used one on the HMS Sheffield and that has never had diesel bug since.

We too live in a rural village with no mains gas. We don't currently use propane, but the house opposite has a propane bulk cylinder buried under the front lawn, so the delivery driver lifts a small plastic hatch cover and fills it from there; very discreet.

That's 14p per kWh: I might bin my electric stove at home and cook on propane.

You have astonishingly missed the point I was making; it was such a simple point too!

So true, but looking at it from the point of view of the boat with a crew member, they can't win either. Either they do all the work whilst watching the single hander do nothing, or they suffer taking longer to pass through locks if the single hander helps. Unless the single hander is agile, proficient and practiced of course.

My wife helms our little NB through locks, we never tie to anything, even in double locks, unless forced to do so by a lock keeper. I always open all paddles fully straight away and my wife, with no drama, keeps the boat central with little effort. Anything single handed or extra long may well struggle.

My experience of volockies, is not that they act dangerously, but quite the opposite, they can be too cautious. They discourage walking across gates, make you open both gates before entering a double lock, lift the paddles half way etc. Sharing with single handers can also be slow and frustrating if you are in a hurry, as they have a lot more to be careful about and seem in general to be creep along and pass through locks really slowly.

We all speak about these upgrades to the canal network as if there is the will and finance to achieve them. There are many waterways, the Kennet & Avon for instance, where one can cruise all day without finding a suitable place to moor for the night, the banks being thick with weeds and reeds, mile after mile. If a simple official mooring for overnight stops can't be achieved, then making one plus installing the hugely more difficult and expensive charging infrastructure to go on it is likely to be a problem.

Shower panels are excellent, but the planking product is cheaper and it's much easier to fit individual planks than large sheets, particularly when there are curves and uneven shapes to be covered. With either product, there is no grouting, silica or otherwise, so nothing to attract black mould, so both look shiny and fresh many years after installation. The cellular structure of the pvc planks also have an insulation effect - like polycarbonate roofing sheets - which is an added bonus. Perhaps not for a high end live-aboard fit-out, but for a holiday narrowboat or grp cruiser, arguably a better choice than ceramic tiles.

I've used tile adhesive with no problems at all on ceramic tiles on marine ply in a boats shower room. Perhaps technique and the right choice of product is key. I've also used silicone to grout tiles and that works pretty well, although it's more time consuming and fiddly to do really nicely than old fashioned grout. The only problem with silicone and similar mastics, even those advertising mould resistance, is that when they do go black, and they will eventually, the stuff is an absolute pig to remove completely.

This was a uPVC interlocking 'plank' system, so very quick and easy to cut to difficult shapes and fit. The planks are about 8ft long and 9" wide and the joins totally waterproof when installed properly. This picture is of an installation that has been in place and used for 6 years and in my opinion looks pretty good.

Wel..... I agree with you when you say that Dutch Barges are the most beautiful boats.

You are right there, but I've seen 10 year old Thomas 50s for £140k with oak cladding and furniture and granite kitchen worktops, so not so different from a NB of similar volume, but much nicer to live in.

But if the boat owner isn't required to keep paperwork, then an inspector couldn't prove that the fuel in the tank hadn't been purchased fully duty paid from another supplier or forecourt.

The Thomas is a more recent design, an improvement on the Katherine with a 'V' hull profile, sweeter lines and designed to be able to achieve Cat B, so a more capable and comfortable seagoing vessel. Have a word with Nick and he might adapt the design to make it less beamy, but that would undoubtedly reduce the RCD rating dramatically.