plumbob

Hi Thank you all for your input, i will see wether i get a reasonable offer if not i my have the boat out of the water and weld the pits and epoxy the base plate, I cannot see that welding the pits is any worse than adding a new base plate that is only secured around the edge. If you cut a hole in the new base plate to weld/ secure it to the original in the centre it would be no different to welding the pits.

Hi All Put my boat on the market and immediately had a buyer, they had a hull survey done and the surveyor said there were some deep pits in the baseplate so they pulled out. Question, can i grind out and fill the pits with welding? The sales guy from the marina said the surveyor had said it needed a new base plate. I had the boat out of the water to be repainted and there were very few pits in the base plate and i cannot see why fill welding them would not be ok. The other thing he pointed put was that the outlet from the sink and basin was to low but they are about 10 to 13 inches from the water.They are from when the boat was built in 2004. The boat would have to list about 75 degrees to get any water in them. Not likely. To me that is like surveying a Model T ford car and and degrading it because it has rod brakes and the throttle on the steering wheel. I have the original construction compliance certificate from the boat builder.

I would concur with Patron that is the correct fitting, drill through breaks the regs as that is not how the manufacturer made it. regs say the pipe should be secured within 500mm of a fitting to stop vibration at the joint.

I would concur with Patron that is the correct fitting drill through or cut, regs say the pipe should be secured within 500mm of a fitting, to stop vibration working the joint.

I bought my first narrowboat from Devizes and sailed it to The river Trent at East midlands Airport, having never sailed a narrowboat before. The first thing i had to do was reverse it out of the marina mooring in a tight space and turn it 90 degrees, just took it slow and made a few errors. 140 locks over two weeks and the thames. I would not worry too much about the boat control. My experience was you get used to it and you settle down and the best way to get used to it is to do it. You will bump into things like banks, lock gates, boats but we all do it even very experienced boaters. Look at the Willow Wren videos on you tube very informative. Go out on a day midweek when overcast as there will be less traffic than the weekend, find a clear stretch of canal and practice mooring, steering stopping etc. Take your time and enjoy.

Thank you all for your input it is much appreciated i am going to the boat at the weekend and will play with some dowelling rod and tape to gauge the best setup. Plumbob

Thank you for that i was thinking the same thing heath robinson (whoever that was) trial to see how it works best then purchase some nicer fittings.

Hi Has anyone experience of adding tiller bar extension? To explain i would like to sit on either of the gas boxes right and left that are in front of the tiller when cruising. A freind of mine has an ocean going yacht with flexible tiller extension that allows you to sit to the left or right in front of the tiller, it is fitted to the end of the tiller and folds underneath into a clip when not in use. This set up would only be used when cruising along not at locks or sharp bends etc, but would be better than the current stool supplied with boat, positioned between the tiller and the taff rail.

I would agree the manometer is a long standing almost fail safe drop tester carried by all gas engineers and in my experience is better for long duration drop tests than an electronic one, as they tend to wander off after a time. The home made one is no different to a purchased one. The only thing is the water must be changed before use if not used for a time as any algal growth will affect the mass density of the water and alter the pressure reading.

I am a Gas Safe Registered engineer I would suggest you be very clinical and careful if you are doing this yourself as you know LPG is heavier than air and is a much more fickle gas to deal with than Natural Gas. See Link https://www.installeronline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Testing-procedure.pdf The grease required for sealing dried out gas taps is Molycote grease available from BES If you really want to test your self i usually use the half way system, remove and cap the nearest joint on the cooker end of the system to the pipe coming from the gas cylinder and test at the bubble tester for 2 mins. No bubbles you can rule out the pipe and anything up to the bubble tester, bubbles showing, then you will have to locate and check every joint also spray bubble test fluid around the bubble tester button shaft. If the main pipe is sound then you can reconnect the pipe and work your way along towards cooker. Any smell of gas in the gas locker is RED FLAG leak detection fluid on all joints even the pipe up to and including the bottle connection and the shaft seal on the bottle tap (had those leak on my own boat). One issue with LDF is that a large leak creates a bubble and bursts it quickly so not always easy to find. The electronic leak detector is a good thing have one myself, however do not use it after spraying with any fluid all joints should be dry as the detector will misinterpret the vapour coming from the fluid as gas as they react to many chemicals other than gas and don't try to use it for prolonged periods in the same location as it can acclimatise itself to the environment. Take it outside and reset every five to ten mins. Also don't assume that the shut off valve near the cooker is shutting off, again can be tested by disconnecting down stream and a little LDF on the outlet with the vale turned off. My experience is that the cooker is the most likely source of the leak loads of valves and joints. Having done this sort of thing for years on natural gas it can be time consuming and tedious. One last thing before pursuing the leak turn of all electrical systems on the boat for obvious reasons, gas + spark = at best explaining to wife how you blew up the boat or worse .......... Hope this helps

I removed the rudder with a bearing puller, it was almost at shearing the bolts strain when the swan neck popped of and very nearly took a swim in the marina, just managed to catch it. upon replacement i smeared just a smear of oil on the taper subsequent removal easy and the oil is not enough to allow it to slip but stops corrosion binding. Hi I replaced the top bearing on my boat similar set up to yours, before refitting the rudder i got a rubber sink plunger cut out the handle from the rubber leaving a hole smaller than the shaft then pushed it over the rudder shaft sealed around with a bit of puraflex. I then painted the rubber with the same epoxy paint as is on the boat to stop the sunlight deteriorating the rubber. When it rains no water gets to sit on the top of the bearing. Has been on there a year and is as fitted.

I would agree with Patron that servicing is a bit a bit of a bind as the unit has to be disassembled, i would suggest that if the exhaust becomes clearly visible either black or white smoke or burner drop outs then attention is needed (will produce a little smoke on start up until warm) other wise the old adage "if it aint broke don't fix it" because it will be broke once you have fixed it.

I am a deisel boiler engineer and and the carbon issue is the most likely, i have cleaned my own webasto unit of carbon, not to difficult just fiddly. You can purchase online a USB adaptor that connects your webasto to a windows laptop and with the webasto software that you can find online you can check all the functions of the heater and adjust the CO2% to the correct level (to much co2 and it smokes), but you do need a flue gas analyser to check the co2 value. If this is outside of your comfort zone it will be reasonably expensive as the unit may have to be disconnected from the water system, electrics and deisel and removed to disassemble the combustion chamber for cleaning, plus necessary gaskets. With regards to replacement the newest versions from webasto are better able to vary the output to demand than the earlier ones thus operating at the lowest fuel consumption that will still keep you warm and reduces cycling

Hi I replaced the top bearing on my boat similar set up to yours, before refitting the rudder i got a rubber sink plunger cut out the handle from the rubber leaving a hole smaller than the shaft then pushed it over the rudder shaft sealed around with a bit of puraflex. I then painted the rubber with the same epoxy paint as is on the boat to stop the sunlight deteriorating the rubber. When it rains no water gets to sit on the top of the bearing. Has been on there a year and is as fitted.

Welcome to the world of plumbing, where every small job turns into a s**t storm of complications. An old lady asked me recently to change a tap on a basin, simple you would think. 3 hours later i had cut the top off the tap with an angle grinder and used a hole saw to frill out the stem of the tap as the original installer had glued it in with some sort of solid adhesive. Everything in plumbing gets complicated. I would agree about the valves but the usual cause is someone else who did not fit them turning them of trying to isolate something else