Mad Harold

I have done that too. Driven over half of the country to view a boat that had impressive looking pictures and the owner assuring me "it"s straight out of the box mate" only to find that the pictures were long out of date and the boat should have been in a box (of bits)! Regarding Kingfisher engines.I once heard a visiting boat with a very unusual sounding engine.It sounded very busy even at tickover and reminded me of the second movement of Tchaikovsky's symphony no4, with very rapid pizzicato strings.Asked the owner what the engine was and was told it was a Chinese Kingfisher.

The broker in this case acted professionaly.Many do not. If everyone refused to deal with brokers who use this non returnable deposit nonsense, it would soon stop.

Have seen a few narrowboats with air cooled (usually a Lister) engines, and noticed some have the air intake (I believe they are called jacuzis or something like that) frighteningly close to the waterline.These have been older boats and have probably got heavier with junk stowed aboard or have been overplated. It would I think be safer to have these air intakes on the cabin side above the gunwale, or perhaps a ship's periscope type air inlet mounted on the aft deck.

But it will still float with 1/2 mm of steel left, but give it a good kick.....

Hope you find one who isn't wearing a three cornered hat and sporting a brace of pistols.😜

You can use a spirit cooker. Best ones are Origo, but seem to be unavailable new. There are some used ones for sale on the web. The heat output is not great, not as good as gas, and are rather fumey things.If you don't do fancy cooking they are adequate.

There are a few good old boats around,but it is difficult to know which is good and which is bad.A survey definately helps to say which is which, but for various reasons can't be taken as gospel.Best to buy the youngest boat in your budget and commission your own survey.There are many parts of a boat that are hidden or inaccesible without removing trim or flooring and any horrors may come to light some time after you have bought the boat. It's a bit like taking up with a new woman, in that you don't know what you've really got untill you live with her for a year. I am giving a rather pessimistic view, but I have been 'done' a couple of times. (Both boats and women) 😢

Yes 1/3 of the boat length from the bow (60ft boat, 20ft in) Apart from the odd curmudgeon,boaters are a friendly gregarious lot, and will always help a fellow boater if they can.

Bowhauling is not so hard.I once bowhauled my old narrowboat four miles and once moving it takes little effort to keep it moving. The line should be about a third of the boat from the bow, otherwise you will keep pulling it into the bank. A passing boat seeing you bowhauling will most likely offer a tow.

I fitted a 5W solar panel to my boat. The advice I was given was that such a small panel would only keep up with the natural discharge rate of the battery,so no need for a charge controller. This advice proved wrong! Going to the boat after a couple of days of sun, the co alarm was going off. Putting my multimeter on the battery it indicated 16.6 volts. Fitted a cheapie e bay charge controller and no further problems.

Were you celebrating getting home a bit too soon? Look on the bright side, you may boat for another thirty years before falling in again. 😜

Had a thought. Some years ago I was a member of an amateur orchestra (The Slaithwaite Philharmonic) which promoted itself as The Symphony Orchestra of the Colne Valley. It was a registered charity, and as such standard tax paying members could covenant their subscriptions, making them worth 20% more. Could CRT do this with their licence fees? Anybody know?

Thanks Arthur. Got up this morning feeling gloomy with the news; Israel/Hamas/Ukrain, political crap speeches.(Are they all ex Royal Artillery? they are gunna do this and gunna do that) With Arthur's summation of the future of the canals (which I can't help agreeing with) I'm now feeling quite suicidal. 😭

The stoppages on the Northern canals are spreading!😭

Not trying to be clever Ian, but my last boat had a new Tohatsu petrol outboard with 'through the prop exhaust' and from the helm all you could hear was the water splashing, and that was by turning your head sideways.

Or ramming lock gates open?

Scratching your new boat is a bit like finding out your wife has been unfaithful. It only really hurts the first time. 😜