doratheexplorer

My first thought was, the water has all leaked out! Blonde moment!

I was expecting more water, not less. It's been quite rainy. I don't have an automatic bilge pump. The bilge pump stays in a plastic tub under the stern gland and I turn it on when the drips start filling the tub.

With the boards down?

Ok riddle me this forum peeps: I have a cruiser stern boat. As is typical, when it rains a lot some gets into my engine bilge. As is also typical (for me) I'm too lazy to get the water out often. A couple of weeks ago there was, I estimate nearly an inch of water in the bilge. I've been moored for a couple of weeks and haven't once lifted the engine boards in that time nor have I run the engine. Today I had the boards up and nearly all the water is gone, just a bit damp down there. Where has the water gone? Possibilities: 1. A phantom bilge pumper? 2. I've been hallucinating. 3. Something to do with David Icke? 4. Other

The business needs to be registered at an address

Mobile food vendors are subject to pretty much the same inspections as fixed ones. There is no 'way' round'.

Seek and Destroy would be a better name.

I think it's still for sale. Good name for the right buyer. Didn't have the paint job to go with it though. What would put me off more is when the names of the owners or the whole family are painted on the side.

That still sounds high to me but a lot less than 1.6 gallons an hour. At 1.6 gallons an hour, you'd have less than 3hr30mins before your fuel runs out. I would not risk that. The pontoon at Dunham is your only safe option. You also have the Witham Navigable Drains and the Sleaford Navigation. IMO your boat and set up is not suitable for a tidal river journey.

Then you seem to have a real gas guzzler! Legally you cannot store more than 30 litres of petrol on a boat in containers. So your insurance will be invalid and you would be open to prosecution should anything bad happen. Also, storing that amount of petrol is highly dangerous. Reading between the lines of your post, my opinion is that you are not ready for a trip on a tidal river. Given the other difficulties relating to your boat, I would not do the trip, or if you must, transport it by road.

Are you sure your figures are right? 1.6 gallons an hour from a 20hp outboard sounds awfully high. Do you mean 1.6 litres an hour? If your tank is 5.5 gallons, that's 25 litres and at 1.6 litres an hours you'd have about 16 hours of cruising before filling up. Is your outboard petrol or diesel? If petrol, you really shouldn't be storing 80 litres on board. There is also a pontoon at Dunham where you can stop and refuel. Get a copy of the Sissons chart for the Trent. https://hnbc.org.uk/sites/default/files/trent_leaflet.pdf