Railay

We are in the same situation. I realised that having the extra living space on a 70ft far outweighed the northern canals that are out of bounds. We live aboard so more internal space is important. I work from home so needed an office on board too. We are based in the mids on the Wyrley and Essington and would have a long way to go before it became a problem. There is a huge network to exhaust first before it becomes an issue. Norman

We have a Lister HRW3 and seem to average about 1.8 ltrs per hour. This sounds high compared to many others but we are pulling a 22 ton 70ft narrowboat which is drawing 2ft 4in. Does this compare with other similar sized boats out there? On the subject of car consumption, I suggest you look at how much fuel you use per hour and then compare this to your boat, could prove very interesting?? Norman.

Bamboo... We have bamboo flooring in our narrowboat and it looks great. Its been down in the saloon for about a year and still looks like new. It will scratch a little easier than say oak, but it is very hard and durable. As for fitting, I would be very careful about nailing as it is very hard and brittle. We screwed each plank with 3 30mm x 4 screws through the tongue. We drilled a hole at 45 degrees so all the screws are invisible. We just butted straight up to the sides with no gap, I figured that any movement would be small in only 6ft width. We didn't use an underlay, just screwed onto the 18mm ply floor. Actually, we used the coffee bamboo on the floor and also vertically on the hull sides. It looks very neat and professional. We also have the pale straw coloured bamboo on the ceiling throughout the entire boat. This looks amazing but took about 2 weeks to fit. I also got a good deal on it at my local DIY, this is what tipped the balance in favour of this eco friendly alternative to hardwood. Best of luck. Norman.

Hi Gilly. Just posted this on page 1 under slightly different heading. Hi all. For some strange reason, most people seem to think you need a generator to run a washing machine on a boat. We live aboard and use both a domestic Miele washing machine and (not at same time) a tumble dryer. We also have a second small electric oven in a combi microwave which we can also use when cruising. We don't have or indeed intend to get a generator. We use these machines through a Mastervolt 3K inverter and they work brilliantly. Most of the time we are hooked up to shore power but when we are out cruising we have more than enough power to run these machines from the batteries. We have a 70 amp (24v) alternator which has enough power to replace what we have taken from the batteries. I did look into a generator in the early stages when we were designing our boat but at the advice of our marine electrician decided to go to a bigger battery bank and inverter. For the record our system is as follows. Batteries: 420 amp/hrs @24volts (yes, we are 24v) Mastervolt Dakar 3000w/24v inverter. 70 amp 24v alternator. There is only one for both engine and domestic batteries. Adverc battery management unit. Halved charging time after fitting this. Split charging unit to charge the 2 battery banks independently. I thought this was a better and more efficient way to go as I didn't want to install a generator, although if I was somewhere that didn't have power then a gen would be useful. Hope this helps, its not the perfect way but it suited our situation and works extremely well. Cheers, Norman.

Hi all. For some strange reason, most people seem to think you need a generator to run a washing machine on a boat. We live aboard and use both a domestic Miele washing machine and (not at same time) a tumble dryer. We also have a second small electric oven in a combi microwave which we can also use when cruising. We don't have or indeed intend to get a generator. We use these machines through a Mastervolt 3K inverter and they work brilliantly. Most of the time we are hooked up to shore power but when we are out cruising we have more than enough power to run these machines from the batteries. We have a 70 amp (24v) alternator which has enough power to replace what we have taken from the batteries. I did look into a generator in the early stages when we were designing our boat but at the advice of our marine electrician decided to go to a bigger battery bank and inverter. For the record our system is as follows. Batteries: 420 amp/hrs @24volts (yes, we are 24v) Mastervolt Dakar 3000w/24v inverter. 70 amp 24v alternator. There is only one for both engine and domestic batteries. Adverc battery management unit. Halved charging time after fitting this. Split charging unit to charge the 2 battery banks independently. I thought this was a better and more efficient way to go as I didn't want to install a generator, although if I was somewhere that didn't have power then a gen would be useful. Hope this helps, its not the perfect way but it suited our situation and works extremely well. Cheers, Norman.

Hi. We have a 70ft Narrowboat, 2ft 3in draught powered by a Lister HRW3 and we seem to be revving quite hard to get upto cruising speed. The prop fittied is a 20"x17" I think. We are doing around 1300-1400 RPM at cruising and I'm told this is a bit high. Speeking to others with similar engines cruise at around 1000 - 1100rpm. Does anyone know if this sounds right? I was thinking of changing or having the prop altered when it comes out of the water for reblacking. Does anyone know a good prop reparers who can do a pitch alterartion? Any thoughts anyone? Cheers. Norman.

Whilst I was planning to have a pumpout installed, I'm not sure if I could face the massive phaffing around it would entail, so have had to broaden my views and look at alternatives. The Lee Sanitation Vacuflush 5000 Series & Cassette Vacuum Toilet System looks like a decent 'mid-ground' and should, by the look of it, be a fairly (!) simple job to install. Any one had experience of them? Given I'll be CC-ing, I know I need a spare cassette, but would I be right in thinking I should get a week/fortnight out of it if I take full advantage of canal side pubs? Hi, we have a vacuum flush toilet, but into a holding tank instead. Because the vacuflush uses so little water, with a quick flush just a thimbleful! then we can go several weeks before pumping out. We don't have a very big tank, but it still lasts about a month with 2 of us using it all the time. (we live on our boat). I would certainly recommend this system over the elec toilets. My neighbour has a elec and a very big holding tank but he still gets less than 2 weeks out of it. The extra cost of a vacuum system will be worth it in the long run. The cassette system is very good, much better than those flimsy plastic cassette toilets you see in camper vans. Norman.

Cheers Sarah.

Yes. I did my own interior layouts and design using Coral Draw on the PC. Its quite good and you can draw any shape or object to scale, lock objects together etc and even select and move entire rooms with all their contents to the exact position. It allowed me to work everything out down to the inch, (close enough on a 70ft narrowboat. We were able to get portholes and windows in the exact position which looked ballanced from the outside and central to rooms on the inside. We must have spent hours at the PC fine tuning the layouts, Coral Draw allowed me to just keep trying different variations and saving them all as extra versions. We could then go back to the prefered design. We then printed off several copies for the boat yard. We had the shell built here at Norton Canes Boatbuilders which we then fitted out ourselves. The owner, Graham Edgson was very helpful and even asked us to come down to the workshop to check the window positions. We live on board now and I'm so glad I spent the extra time to get it right, well as close as possible anyway! Norman.

Hi all. A neighbour is helping to organise day trips at his local church and is trying to arrange a trip boat. It needs to be on the Wyrley and Essington canal or nearby and be able to carry about 30-40 people. Any summer weekend can be arranged and there may even be more than one trip needed. The ideal location would be to pick up people at Brownhills, cruise to Anglesey basin and return to pick up point. If anyone knows of a suitable boat please reply ASAP. He can skipper the boat if neccesary. He has already contacted Walsall Council about their own trip boat based at Walsall but was told it is no longer available for hire. Cheers, Norman

Hi all, We used bamboo flooring, but not on the floor! We actually used it on the hull sides, it just happens to be the perfect length for fitting under the gunwales, (all one length). We used the coffee one on the sides (vertically) and then used the light bamboo for the whole ceiling throughout the boat (running lenthways). I must admit, it took about 10 days to put up but looks just amaizing. it has a beautiful light look and we get wonderful reflections along its length. I'm really quite proud of it, everyone comments on how good it looks. Its already presealed so this saved time afterwards. We were thinking of using it on the floor too, but may opt for something else. Cheers, Norman.

Thanks all for the advice. I feel a lot more confident now in navigating this much loved waterway. I know a few that have been along the Llangollen and they all loved it. Can't wait now. We shall probably go some time in Sept when all the little brats are back at school! We may be going with our neighbours and they are drawing about 2 or 3" less than us. so if we do grind to a halt I'll ask for a tow! Just a quick note, its a new build not an old working boat so width shouldn't be a problem (6'10") Thanks all, I'll post an update as to how it went. Cheers, Norman

Hi all. We are planning a trip up the Llangollen canal later this year. Our boat is a 70ft, 2ft 4ins draught and wanted to check whether we would run aground. Has anyone been this way with a similar draught boat recently. The old Nicholson guide I have suggests there maybe a problem if you are deeper than 2ft. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks, Norman

On the subject of washing machines, we had a few problems running a bosch through our Mastervolt Dakar inverter. It worked perfectly from hook up but would not run properly through inverter, which has ample power (3000w). My electrcian contacted Mastervolt with no solution. We eventually sold it and bought a Miele. This has been absolutely brilliant. A much better machine, amaizingly quiet, works perfectly from the inverter, so we can use it on the move (we don't have a generator). The Miele is very heavy, but its built to last. Its full domestic size. and has 1400 spin, usefull for drying later. Hope this helps. Norman.