starman

Starwoman is a novice scumbler. Though she's had a lot of success sometimes her work suffers from the problem that the scumble coat does not dry properly and can be easily rubbed off the base coat with a finger (this is before any varnish is applied). Any ideas why? Could it be because she has over-diluted the scumble with white spirit and, if so, is it possible to mix a larger amount of the correct dilution and keep it stored rather than mix a fresh quantity for each job? As a follow-on; she has scumbling combs but not the rubbers - any ideas where she can get them from? Thanks.

As I said earlier, we finally got ours to burn with a proper flame by keeping it at the lowest setting until the 'mesh' tube in the centre of the stove had got good and hot -- glowing red in fact. Only then did we turn it up to about setting 2 or 3. If you need it hotter, just make small adjustments and wait for the stove to heat through before turning up further. Turning it up too high immediately after lighting resulted in a yellow flame which you couldn't get rid of. And then the whole thing staryed sooting up and eventually it would never run properly.

Should we be most concerned about the fact that - to judge by the ads in the waterways mags - the great majority of boatbuilders (or boatfitters, to be precise) don't appear to be members of the Canalboat Builders Association. What does that say about the CBA that it can't do a decent membership drive to get them in? Surely we can't be supposed to assume that all the ones without a CBA logo in their ads are in some way 'dodgy'?

In the same boat too regards cookers -- we have a small galley that has worktops under 600mm wide and want to fit hob and inset oven (plus a new sink) but all the caravan derived stuff - like Spinflo, Smev etc - seems so tinny. (Apologies to everyone who has them!). Has anyone found any other solid, modern, attractive stuff?

I can't see how it's the magazines' fault - these big expensive boats are all commissioned by people with big, expensive tastes precisely because they want something unique/flashy/new etc. Inevitably they will take a tumble in price -- it's the same in every market: houses, cars, furniture, clothes: high fashion bespoke one-offs very rarely hold their value because if you've got lots of money to spend you want to reflect your taste (or lack of) not someone else's. (The really big problem with the £200k boat was that it was a speculative build. Now that was a bad business move by the builder - at least the builders of the other boats got their money.) Magazines write about these boats because maybe a few of the ideas they show off could filter down into other, cheaper boats -- just as those bizarre catwalk fashion items end up in a different form in M & S

We had loads of problems with ours until we cleaned it out -- there are lots of small air intake holes around the inside. A wire brushing usually suffices. Also, I discovered there's a knack to getting it going - the main thing being don't turn it up too quickly. If you do it just burns yellow and the whole thing soon soots up again I light ours with a couple of capfulls of meths (a small bit of firelighter will do) and bung a match down. Only then do I turn the regulator to its lowest setting (otherwise it floods the firelighter or meths) then I leave everything alone -- assuming it's lit and it sometimes takes a couple of goes - until the mesh cylinder (forget it's proper name) is glowing red and the stove is warming up. Then turn it up to about No 3 and just leave it. Ours was a right pain -- so much so that we were going to rip it out -- but now with a good cleaning and some experimentation with lighting techniques it's running well. I was told early on that a decent flue is essential -- ours sits about 18 inches above the roof and terminates in that cowl. Also once it's on, leave it running steadily; it's not a switch on and off device. Hope that helps

We have a Lockgate stove and after a good clean out (and I mean a really good scrape out of the sides and bottom) it works very well -- even in the high winds that have just been blowing across the Fens. We do have a proper Lockgate cowl device on the top of the flue which I should think is essential to stop blow-outs. The burner pot should contain any non-burnt oil and I imagine if it does reach a certain level inside the float valve in the regulator would close (though it's never happened to us.)

I have absolutely no idea -- sounds bonkers to me. The makers say the paint comprises thousands of tiny hollow spheres each of which therefore has its own airspace. Plus all the usual blather about being used on oil rigs, military vessels etc etc. I was tempted to give it a go because we have an uninsulated (and uninsultable) area at the stern from which condensation is running into the rear of the boatman's cabin causing some dampness behind the woodwork. Snag is that the paint is quite costly – if it doesn't work.

Well, most of the time I won't be on shore power, and there is no local 240v wiring and I only have a small, manually switched on inverter so if I can light it manually I shall be quite happy to do so. I'll have to check that the FFDs are thermocouples, though, and not some sort of A~C gizmos. Thanks for the info.

Apparently the latest regs say that any gas appliance fitted into a flat must have flame failure devices fitted so new domestic hobs are generally ok now.

I want to install a new gas hob on my boat. Many domestic hobs seem to be cheaper than 'boat' hobs and come with flame failure devices as standard and lpg jets. Snag for me is that many also have 240v ignition. Can I disconnect this and light the burners manually? Is anyone aware of any other snags in simply going to Ikea and buying a cheap hob there (apart from the queues, that is.)

Most surveyors are happy to travel around -- our nb was surveyed by Balliol Fowden from Rugby Tel: 1788 541020, 07831 232823 and he was very thorough and helpful with follow-up explanations and advice (including his thoughts on the price we were paying). He's the only nb surveyor I've used so I can't compare but I'd use him again if I needed to. Put it this way, we bought the boat and haven't had any nasty shocks!

We used to have a beautiful 1930s mahogany on oak Broads cruiser that attracted admiring glances everywhere. Unfortunately it also demanded constant attention to try and keep it in half-decent nick. Varnish it one season and by the next the first cracks would show; the bilges always leaked and I've lost count of the number of bottles of Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure we used to try and stem drips (usually onto our bed at night!). Yes, you can 'bodge up' a wooden boat relatively easily but if you want to keep it sound - or restore it - it will be a Forth Bridge Painting enterprise. I still miss our boat (and don't tell the missus but if I had the time and money I'd have another) but our steel narrowboat is relaxing bliss by contrast and DIY jobs are a pleasure not a necessity.

Well...there's a sort of auto-defrost system - a little collecting vessel at the rear of the fridge is connected to a rubber tube which goes up into the fluepipe so that water which collects there can evapourate out. The rubber tube decayed; rainwater dripped in instead, down onto the area where the gas flame and igniter are and started leaking into the burner chamber. Result, burner chamber full of cr*p, igniter and gas nozzle rusty. It still worked but only occasionally and sometimes gave loud backfires because of unburnt gas sitting there when trying to re-light. It ought to be chucked away I guess but a new thermocouple, gas jet and igniter would probably fix it and the rest of the fridge is ok. (And a new fridge is £400 odd) Well you did ask! (And thanks for doing so)

Thanks for the tips: unfortunately ours got rusted up around the area of the gas burner and thermocouple (rain water got in) so it needs more than a good shake - mind you I felt like giving it one when I saw the state of it.

As I can't locate a replacement for my 3 way gas fridge (see For Sale section) I need to try to get the old one fixed. Does anyone know a repairer - ideally in the Cambridge/Ely/Peterborough/Bishops Stortford general areas? (And before anyone asks, it's the proper room-sealed sort venting out through the roof). Ta

Thanks for all the advice. I took the stove out, stripped it down and scraped all the burnt-on carbon out of the inside of it (there are lots of small air inlet holes round the burner pot which get blocked easily). Put it back in the boat and -- though it's still a bit iffy to light -- it runs like a dream; glows red, blue flame, loads of heat etc. Trick of running ours seems to be leaving it on pilot until well warmed up then turning up very gradually. Turn it up too much too soon and there's not enough air to completely burn oil so it burns yellow, starts coking up and we're on the way to trouble again.

Just heard on the radio that DEFRA has spent £800,000 over the past five years researching wild rabbits. Did I hear someone say they were hard up?

I road tested cars for 30 years for magazines - from Lamborghinis to Ladas but have only 'driven' narrowboats for 30 months. I reckon that if I had another 30 years practice I might get ok. They are way, way different but some of the things that make a good car driver make a good boat handler too -- thinking ahead, being observant, understanding how and why your vehicle/craft behaves as it does, judging gaps and distances, hand-eye co-ordination. The thing I found hardest to get used to is that boats pivot so readily around the centre so as the nose goes one way, the tail goes the other. Clipped a few banks before I got the hang of that. You have to be lpretty un-subtle with the controls at times, too. Boats don't stop as quickly either! But other canal boaters aren't hanging six inches off your stern fender, flashing their lights and talking on a mobile.

No I'm a canal man though I've looked and the query seems similar -- it's the yellow flame that concerns me, though there is a good clean flue etc and the stove appears installed to maker's spec. It's just very. very senstive to settings especially before warmed up -- and even then turning down one 'click' can start the thing going slowly out. How do others find them in use?

Anyone have any experience with setting these up or tips on lighting? Ours has been fiddled with by a previous owner and has never run very well. Seems very sensitive to adjustments on regulator. How should it look when running well - yellow flame or blue? How much heat would you expect from it? Done all the usual stripping and cleaning out stuff.

Take a look at Tony Brooks very thorough article on bio-fuels in the latest (November) issue of Canal Boat magazine

Chris Smith 07814 176654 01733 576946 (home) christopher.smith123@btinternt.com I happen to have his card!