Mad Harold

I would love a boat like that.The sound of a big lazy engine is wonderful.I heard the sound of Capn' Birdseye's engine on the Peak Forest once and loved it.(He lent me a pair of pliers) However,a couple of points about the advertised boat I would be concerned about. It is old,a hull survey as you point out is essential.With a overplated base and a steel top,it may be rather deep in the water.70ft is rather long,and may limit the canals you can cruise. It is rather expensive,certainly beyond my pocket,but love is blind. Best of luck.

Fitted a tv to my little cruiser.Took a little time to decide where to put it,and fit a retractable mount,fit the ariel,wire everything up,fit an isolation switch. Feeling quite pleased with myself,opened a tin of beer and packet of nuts,and settled down to watch. Tried 24hr news,Covid,Covid,and Covid.Couldn't find anything interesting so watched a bit of Transformers and found it childish.The film about the skater Tonia Harding was mildly interesting,but there was hardly any dialogue without f-ing in it.I can f- and blind with the best of them,especially when hitting my thumb with a hammer,but this film was way over the top. Switched off and read a Clive Cussler novel. Should have saved my money and a load of work!

Experience is certainly the best teacher,but the tuition fees can be rather high sometimes.

Enjoyed watching that more than Tim and Pru.

Lots of grp cruisers'rubbing strip at gunwale height sticks out further than slimmer inflatable fenders (mine included) so I leave them down.

I have to admit to being a dunce with leccy and solar,but a fellow moorer here has solar panels that you can walk on. They fit flat to the top of the boat and have a rough surface. Worth researching?

He used an ultrasound thing,on the hull,but he also rattled a hammer (not hitting the hull with the end) but rattling both ends of the hammer around the waterline and on the baseplate. He also gave me a nice folder with a photo of my boat and other photos of various parts of the hull with the thickness chalked on.

Ricky Tropman,based in Chesterfield but will travel. Had an insurance survey on a 30ft narrowboat 3 years ago. Found him very approachable,and although I only paid for a hull survey,he verbally pointed out a couple of other items. The cost if I remember correctly was £350 plus dry dock charge.

Had a 30ft narrowboat with a crossways bed which had to be made up every night. It was a pain! 30ft was too small for a liveaboard even for one person.I used to spend weekends and sometimes a week on it and found there was not enough room for storing a week's clothes or grub and beer.With toolbox,spare parts,spare ropes and other bits and bats it was soon full. I think 40ft is the minimum size of narrowboat for a single person to live on (45ft would be better) and for two people bigger.

And some dutifully bag their dog's poo (when there is someone around ) then chuck it in the canal! Once had a bag of dog poo around my prop. Most unpleasant!

Check the ariel connections are tight. If the signal has been interrupted,the tv may have lost it's memory. Try re-tuning from the menu.

Try cleaning all the joints on your fuel system with WD40 or similar,then wrap kitchen roll around every joint,run your engine and check the kitchen roll for diesel stains. Not a foolproof method because sometimes air can still get into the fuel lines without fuel coming out,but you will know if there is a major breach.

Perhaps it's to keep riff raff out!

Found the fault.It was a bad connection at the junction box,causing a large voltage drop. Have taken onboard the comments about cigar lighter sockets. Many thanks to all who replied.

Lots of water and a soft cloth.

Thanks for the reply.The cable is two core so the length from battery to socket and back will be 8m. Checked the voltage at the junction box,the connection from the junction box,the connection to the socket and also the switch terminals. All read 12.8v. Hence my head scratching. Will undo all connections tomorrow to check for bad connection.

The cable is two core (red and black) length from the battery is about 4m,so total cable length from battery to socket and back will be 8m. The vac is a Halfords car vac and it does have about 2- 3 m of cable after the socket.

Fitted a socket (12v) in the cabin for my vacuum cleaner,phone charger and television.Used 2.5 sq mm 29 amp twin core cable.Length is about 4m. When I plugged the vacuum cleaner in,it ran at about half speed,the tv didn't do anything. Checked the voltage at the battery 12.8v,the junction box12.8v,and the socket again 12.8v. I find it rather strange that the voltage is ok,but stuff doesn't work. I hope this isn't a daft question,but is there such a thing as amperage drop?? I am finding it difficult to think of anything else. Look forward to enlightenment.

Like buying a used car,I would go for a newer one. Less time for it to corrode. BUT there are well maintained older boats around that are worth considering. Main problem is corrosion and thinning of the hull.It can of course be overplated,opinions vary as to the effectiveness of this,but I personally wouldn't buy a boat that had been overplated.

Just paint your boatai n the new year.

There are very few 30ft narrowboats around now.Loads of 50+ footers,so finding a 30 footer might be difficult.I have recently sold my 30ft narrowboat which took me nearly a year to find when I bought it. The smaller narrow boats were more popular in the 70s and 80s,but with more people wanting to live aboard few builders are bothering with them now. When you find a 30 footer it is likely to be pretty old.Mine was built in 1978. A survey will be essential (even on a newer boat) so be careful. There are plenty of Springers around but they were mostly built of thinner steel than modern boats,and any you find will most likely have been overplated.If it has been done properly then it's not a problem.Only a survey can establish this.

Just a wave of the hand and a smile.Can't hear because of engine noise.

My grp boat is 6'-10" at the gunwale,and tapers a bit to the waterline.The thin inflatable fenders I leave down as they stick out less than the gunwale which has a rubbing strip. it is (was) ok on the HNC locks as now lock 1 is chained up because wait for it lack of water! It is now necessary to give 24 hours notice for a CRT person to run some water down and unlock. Spoiled my lunchtime run to a pub up the Narrow. Ringing to book going up and then ringing again a couple of hours later to come down would I think very quickly make me lose my popularity!?

Aw,that's lovely! I'd like to run up and give the horse a carrot.