Clodi

The idea of using a ladder coupled with a plank or ply is an excellent one as the 'ladder' side can be used to assist anyone who has fallen in to easily exit the canal or river. At the moment we're on the K&A and have two 8' scaffold planks. Be sure to drill a hole to attach a length of rope to easily retrieve them and keep them attached to the boat.

Thank You for your clear explanation. Funnily enough I am just about to do a similar job, two tanks under the guest bed 1 of them diesel for the Heritage Stove 1 extra water. All our Kids are over 6' tall so the extra length of the Ikea beds +a shelf will do the trick.

May I ask a question on the plumbing side of things? I take it the bottom hose fitting/take-off you mentioned wasn't used in case of leakage, the three pipes being filler, breather & take off + 2 tank-level senders. Do the filling pipes join into a single filler & do you draw off separately (tank1, tank2) etc or are they combined. Great job BTW

We have a 2015 Castle Boat. It's beautifully made with excellent attention to detail & I would definitely recommend their shells. Ours is undergoing an interior re-fit as the original owners happily lived onboard full-time with only very basic fittings, a woodburner, portapotti and a foot-pump cold-water tap.

If anyone was foolish enough to stick an outboard on it would it even be possible to 'steer' the thing in any semblance of order?

I too am fitting a Heritage stove (Uno+) & investigated this very situation. As already mentioned try to avoid unnecessary joints and make sure all joints can be inspected. Also I was advised to take photos of the installation so you can easily answer any questions the examiner may have. As it happens I ended up installing a separate Diesel tank under the spare bed.

Our problem is the vast majority of our elected politicians see it as a job for life with a bigfat pension at the end of it. The EU is run by unelected elites and throughout the EU discontent is rising. Germany is in recession, the Greeks & Italians view the EU as an occupying force, the Euro is in serious trouble & Poland and the Eastern Europeans have very different views than the current Elite plus the EU elections are coming up very soon.

I have owned boats with bow thrusters fitted and must admit they come in very hand in tight situations, but I come from the school of thought where the fewer holes in the hull below (or near) the waterline the better. Its my experience that seacocks etc usually fail where 'Sods Law' applies and you're miles from the nearest haul-out. A few years ago I was at a boat show where a salesman gave an impressive presentation where the thruster and tube were constructed from a 'Plastic' or resin and the complete tube could be fitted to steel, wooden or glass fiber vessels. I think it was either a Dutch or Scandinavian company. Struck me as a good idea. My current mooring is just up from a very simple, sheltered lock & I'm always amused by the annoying whirring noise of overworked bow thrusters being employed. It strikes me that they are eroding the need for simple steering skills in the same way that Tomtom has replaced map-reading skills.

If you have google assistant you can just ask 'Google' to set a reminder for anytime, either an alarm or an entry into google calendar, reminder to remember someones birthday/ pay bills etc

Cars are getting bigger because people are so fat now. My neighbour has a classic mini 850 & the average couple around here wouldn't be able to squeeze inside, even if they managed to they wouldn't be able to reach down between them to press the starter button, as for getting up hills..............

Can you elaborate please? I have a Honda engined Stephill 2kw petrol genny. I've told my insurer, who was more concerned that it is kept locked away out of sight when the boat is unattended.

I'm in process of rewiring the boat & one of the excellent ideas on here is to install a mid-point fuesbox to facilitate any future installations etc. I want to do this using 30' of cable x2 but also using thick enough cable to cove installing a 12v fridge in the future. Basically I don't yet know what equipment will be run from here yet but does using 10m2 cable like THIS make sense?

As above, I have a hobbit stove which comes with a stainless stove-top for cooking etc and a rear entry flue which attaches to a Tee section of flue.

I must say I cannot blame my actual Financial Advisor, he has taken it really badly, attempted suicide and total breakdown, I'm pretty resilient but unfortunately disabled so work options are pretty resilient, I don't know about the other members of our 'Fund' but it really does ruin lives.

Please everyone be very very careful around everything to do with your pensions. My private pension pot was invested successfully via my fully accredited financial advisor for many years, Unfortunately he was 'stung' by a very sophisticated company and lost over 25 million. Despite the Fraud office being involved the Banks have closed ranks and it it very unlikely we shall ever see any worthwhile refund. It only rubs salt into the wound to find out my wife will not be receiving her pension when she was due to.