KenK

Obviously age is always a consideration, as is the way the boat has been looked after. A newer boat could be in a worse condition than an older one simply because the owner (s) have not looked after it. That said always get a survey especially if you do not know much about boats. As for brokers there are good and bad, remember they are in business to sell boats so their first consideration is not the purchaser of the boat. Good luck and do as much research as you can before committing any money.

Given the "As you like it" and builder who stuck to couples vision comment I guess that it what was requested and delivered. Not my cup of tea and given the lack of windows / portholes it must be very dark inside, unless of course the other side is all glass.

Another word of caution, at the moment you can obtain a French tourist visa for stays of up to six months or a long stay visa for up to a year, this is in addition to the 90 days in every 180 which can be used in the rest of Europe. In 2022 a Europe wide visa ETIAS comes into force and at the moment no one seems to know how this will affect the French visas, DBA keeps asking questions but so far no answers.

Our boat is a replica Luxemotor Dutch barge currently in the Netherlands. To operate a boat of that size in Europe you'll need to hold an ICC (International Certificate of Competence), which means a motor training course and CEVNI test, ICC is issued by RYA. As the boat is over 20 metres you'll need an ES-TRIN which is essentially a survey similar to a BSS in UK but covers a fair bit more. Mooring in France for a boat that size will not be easy, they do exist but most marinas tend to have a maximum of 15 metres or thereabouts. The boat Alan posted earlier is much more suitable for European waterways and much easier to get to Europe. Finally join the DBA loads of information about cruising in Europe.

The canal ends at Eldonian village it used to be possible to moor there but how safe it is I have no idea. Its also quite a long way from the city centre. Having gone all the way to the end it would be a shame not to do the last bit through the link to Salthouse dock. If there are no spaces available on line give the CRT Wigan office a call unless the online system has improved it does not always register cancelations. You can't use the online booking system if crossing the Mersey but the Wigan office sorted us out, very helpful. Ken

Except of course that CRT like BW before them do not have a right in law to set distances because the act which allows CCing was designed to allow boaters who did not need a permanent mooring to boat without the need for one. At the time no one thought that people would buy boats as houses and bring up children on them. Even when canal boats were used to carry commercial goods there were schools for boat people which did not require them to have a permanent mooring. Last year I met a man in the Netherlands who was born on a commercial boat and he was sent to a boarding school as his parents carried out their business, that is still the case today. It would make sense for CRT to talk to the government and attempt to make sensible changes to the 1995 act to deal with the liveaboard issues. Ken

Unfortunately there are stupid people we meet in life. We had two problems with lockkeepers one on the Thames who was not a volunteer and one on the Llangollen who was a volunteer. The lockkeeper on the Thames deliberately tried to cause an accident he positioned our boat next to the side fill outlet despite our being the only boat in the lock, he did not tell us that it was a side fill lock and then he opened the sluices 100%, the boat was swept across the lock despite my wife and I having ropes on the bollards front and back, he judging by the expression on his face thought it was very funny. The volunteer on the Llangollen was just wasting water sending six boats up but not allowing boats down, We did report the idiot on the Thames he also refused to give us his name but an enquiry at the next lock revealed that our experience was not uncommon, it was clearly passed on as at the next side fill lock the lockkeeper was at pains to explain it was a side fill lock and how we should secure the boat, I explained to him if we went flying across this lock he would end up in it, After the most gentle fill I have ever experienced we left that lock thanking the lockie. We now boat in Europe it is rare to find lockkeepers most of the locks are automatic except for some of the French canals but they seem to be very professional and helpful except when they are on strike. Ken

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We travelled on the ship canal in 2017, we had to have a "survey" done by a surveyor recognised by Peel Holdings, which was a joke. He made no mention of requiring navigation lights and our boat did not have them. As we were transiting the Mersey we used a pilot and he also made no mention of navigation lights. I suppose the rules may have changed in the years since we travelled on the MSC but as you can't (couldn't) travelled after dark why the need for navigation lights.

You will find more information about European boating on the Dutch Barge Association web site https://barges.org

Unless your insurance company insists on a pilot you do not really need one. CRT will not let you onto the River Ribble unless the conditions are safe and you will be doing the transit with normally five other boats. It is a straightforward run to the Asland lamp, go past the lamp and turn left into the River Douglas, follow the river until you reach the lock at Tarleton. The worst part of the crossing is from the Lancaster down the link to the Ribble, shallow, narrow and overgrown.

I used an ALDI fan on our Reflex, similar to the Ecofan mentioned above but at a sensible price, it did the job very well. They are currently available in their special buys Workzone Stove Fan £15.99.

I painted the entire interior of our narrow boat from the gunnels up. Two coats of Zinser BIN takes about 45 mins between coats, then I used a Dulux emulsion finish, again two coats. When finished you could still see the grain of the wood through the paint. Still looked great when we sold the boat four years later. I just used cheap small emulsion rollers and a brush for the fiddly bits. Use Frog tape for masking off if you want the ceiling in white as I did.

Probably the worst job on a narrowboat. I scraped the tank back to bare metal then used two coats of Vactan similar to Fertan. Then two coats of bitumen allowing each coat to dry over a couple of days. This took place over a hot week in summer and I still needed to use a heater in the tank to dry the various coats. I have never used Sikgard 62 but if the instructions call for 20 C for drying I suspect you will have problems at this time of the year.

Our Luxemotor is currently in the Netherlands, the various waterways in Europe are certainly not all the same and change is happening all the time. Remotely driven vessels are already being trialled on the Dutch canal river system. Amsterdam has a pollution free system for its city canal network. The European network is very different from the UK and I can see that much of what the article proposes coming to pass.

Rick, You need to understand what the isolator actually does, given that you only have one it should remove all battery power from the domestic bank to the boat, clearly if the lights are staying on it is not working correctly. It should removing the positive pole of the battery not the negative (0V) because as has already been said it is possible to achieve a return via the hull of the boat. The external mains cable 230 V AC needs to be capable of carrying more current than is available from the shore supply, generally a maximum of 16 amps although it could be less, so 2.5 mm per core and ideally flexible cable. Voltage drop of an AC mains supply will be virtually nothing over a short distance, it is the current capacity of the cable which is important. In addition do not coil any excess mains cable that can create an inductance and generate heat. Voltage drop can be an issue with the 12 V DC supply from the batteries, again the size of the cables is important too small and they could overheat.

The Rippon canal only has three locks and it was only the last one which caused the problem, a lady who worked in the local marina told us that when CRT rebuilt the cill they built it straight rather than with a curve which shortened the lock, no problem going up but we could not get the bottom gates open for love or money when going down. We'd still be there but for a very large and strong man who helped us heave the gate the wrong way so we could slide the bow clear and open it. Just took the fenders off for that lock no problem with the others. Same problem on the Five Rise just could not get the gates past the front fenders on either boat despite being hard against the cill. If you do go to Leeds try and moor outside the Royal Armouries in the basin off the river before the first river lock, there is an electricity supply and a free boat taxi to take you back to the end of the canal. Much quieter than mooring next to the railway.

Our narrowboat was 60 ft and we had great fun trying to exit the third lock down on the Bingley five when sharing with another 60 foot boat, so much so that the lock keeper refused to let us share in the three rise. I suspect it will be possible if you remove the fenders as we had to when we did the Rippon canal which is supposed to be 57 foot maximum.

Anyone understand or know why this fairly pointless post has been pinned?

There is a gentleman, Stuart Wood, who will act as a pilot across the Mersey, sorry no longer have any contact details. We did it in 2017, the worst part was organising the MSC but I assume you have done that already. The lock at Eastham is a proper ship lock so long and deep but it emptied slowly and you can stay well back from the gates. Left the lock on an incoming tide. We stayed on the Wirral side just outside the buoyed channel carried on until we were opposite the lock entrance to Brunswick Dock then crossed over to the Liverpool side. That is the worst bit as you are crossing against the tide so the boat rocks and bounces quite a bit, keep an eye out for the buoys and you can see how fast you are moving sideways. Once you are on the Liverpool side turn and run up to the lock entrance. You will have contacted them in advance because you need to book the lock as it only operates at certain tidal levels. A VHF is recommended however we didn't get any reply so we used a mobile phone which worked fine, they had already told us what time the lock would be available, so the call was just to get the gates open so there is no hanging about. You do have to pay to use the lock, in advance as I recall. You also need to book a mooring in Salthouse Dock, you'll need to call the CRT Wigan office as the website doesn't work if you are arriving from that direction. Obviously you need to plan the crossing carefully, weather and tides times are the most important, there is some shipping on the Mersey but not much as the docks are now at the river mouth. As long as you use common sense and plan it you will enjoy the crossing we certainly did.

We took our 60 ft narrowboat to Ripon no problem except the top lock on the return trip has an odd cill which made getting out of the lock interesting, needed a bit of brute force to get the gates open.

Clyde, as you want to do Europe as well as the UK I would suggest forgetting the UK narrow canals and purchase a boat which is suitable for the wider UK canals and rivers. Some of the UK narrow canals are worth a visit but a lot are not worth the effort, just my opinion but I have covered them all. Narrowboats are seriously under powered for the European canals and rivers, so by purchasing one you will compromise your European boating. Unless you have already done so have a look at the DBA website www.barges.org you can't access all of it unless you are a member but there is a lot of useful information about boating in Europe.

Six months in the UK followed by three months in Europe is of course possible for an American however it is not practical for boating. The waterways systems in the UK and Europe operate roughly in the same time frame, spring into early autumn (fall), after that they close down for maintenance, except for the larger commercial waterways. You need no qualifications or experience to boat in the UK but you need an ICC ( International Certificate of Competence ) in Europe, essentially a practical test to ensure you can handle a boat and a written test for the CEVNI regulations, that can be done on line, VHF is not necessary in the UK except for very few larger rivers but you really do need it in Europe, so a licence required. We ran a narrowboat in the UK for fourteen years and contemplated taking it to Europe but they really do not work over there, we now have a Dutch barge currently in the Netherlands. For a boat to work in both the UK and Europe it needs to be less than 15 metres (49 ft) long, moorings in France are limited for anything larger, and assuming you wish to cover all the UK canals it needs to be 6 ft 10 ins wide. A cruiser either steel or plastic with those dimensions would fit the bill, you might want to take a look at boatyards in the Netherlands on the internet, the variety of boats available there is much higher than the UK and the prices tend to be lower.

As an option, avoid Goole, turn up the Trent and go in at Keadby, Stainforth Keadby Canal to the end turn right onto the New Junction Canal, carry on to the end and turn left. Nice easy run plenty of places to stop on the canal and saves dealing with ABP.

I started boating on the UK canal system when I was 19, I'm now nearly 69, in that time the system has improved beyond recognition. It is of course not perfect but be realistic the government which via CRT is now responsible for a network of waterways used by a few 10's of thousands of people. Given the amount of money available to CRT they do a good job and if approached correctly they are always helpful. These days our boat is based in Europe, the Netherlands at the moment, Europe still has working commercial waterways with seriously large boats and they have priority under all circumstances, you could easily spend an hour waiting for a lock or bridge to open because a commercial is approaching. Despite the commercial waterways, which bring in the money, all the rest which are only used by pleasure craft get a reasonable amount of maintenance but not at the expense of the commercials. Even the Netherlands which is a boaters paradise only spends a sensible amount of money on what it regards as a hobby for the fairly well off. I understand that it can be frustrating when things do not work as you would wish but no one on a boat should expect things to work without problems, you are on a boat what is the rush?