tosher

Thanks to everyone for your advice, very much appreciated. Hope the fish are as helpful !! tosher.

I have just bought a narrow boat based at Nantwich (Shropshire Union & Llangollen canals) and my 12 year old grandson is keen to start fishing. I would appreciate advice on what licences are required, where to get them and how much they cost. Also some do's & don'ts regarding fishing the canals in general. As a newby all advice will be very helpful. many thanks.

Thanks to everyone for your replies. All very helpful. tosher

An outsiders view on all this -- I have been seriously looking to buy a new or nearly new boat for 6 months now and have at last found one that becomes mine next week hopefully. During that time I have tried to get as much info as possible about narrow boats, particularly info from "the horses mouth" so to speak and have found this forum to be invaluable in that regard. It is very important to people like me to read such threads as this one to counterbalance all the advertising claims from builders in general who all claim to build the best boats. I hope such threads as this are allowed to continue and I hope this one is resolved as quickly as possible. The only down side to such threads is that it has made me scared stiff to buy a boat.

I have used the isotherm units on sea going yachts for some years and found them to be very good. They are really designed for yachts who use there engines very little but whenever the engine is being used, like entering and leaving port, the unit senses the higher voltage from the alternator and automatically switches to the fast freeze mode witch reduces the temperature in the holding plate very quickly. When the engine is stopped the fridge is kept cool by utilising the "cold" built up within the holding plate without the fridge motor running at all. I found that in the warm temperatures of the Med approx 1 hour of engine use would give about 2 hours before the fridge motor started again. the longer the engine use the longer the inactivity of the fridge motor. When selected to shore power the unit behaves as a normal fridge. These units were sea water cooled (through hull skin fitting) due to the high ambient temperatures but they are supplied with an alternative cooling fan for cooler climes but I have no experience of using this type.

Thanks Pie Eater and NB Alnwick for your replies, I have contacted michael Stimpson for a quote (along with a few others).

As a first time buyer I am looking to insure my new boat, could anyone advise me on the best companies to deal with and the companies that should be avoided. many thanks.

Many thanks to everyone for your prompt and very informative replies. I'm happy now with the roof-top connection point. Tosher

Hello all, I am a newby and about to buy my first narrow boat and would be very grateful if anyone could help with the following two questions. The boat I like has a toilet holding tank with the pump out connection mounted on the cabin roof, all the other boats I have looked at seem to have them on the gunnals. Do they work ok on the cabin roof with having such a long suction down to the tank ??? Also I have read on the forum about self pump out kits, is the suction of these pumps fitted into the normal pump out point on the boat or are do they require their own separate connection directly into the holding tank ??? Any info would be very much appreciated. Many thanks.