frahkn

You will find full (perhaps too much) detail in my original post about this, don't have time to find the link at the moment.

What do you imagine? I have a composting bin in a locker on the boat and then (when we go home) I add it to our compost heap. After a year or so the contents of the compost heap go on the garden. What else would you expect I do with it? It's compost for god's sake.

It is a bit irritating that having a composting loo is so often equated with dumping human waste. We compost our waste and have never dumped anything. It was one of the things which I considered before spending a thousand pounds on the toilet in the first place

I do.

Yes, I use my boat for about half the year, the rest of the time it is on shore-power. It "starts and goes, provides adequate lighting and power, all with a simple engine/alternator/battery and solar input set up" and I don't even know what ancillaries or set-up it has. But I had to replace my batteries in January this year (they were boiling) so maybe I should learn more about the subject. I wouldn't want to replace them every year but if it were every two years (say) then I would do this rather than get obsessed about the details. I completely understand that many on the forum would disagree with my approach, I'm a bit conflicted about it myself!

My hatch had cork tiles when I bought the boat but they were in a poor condition, as was the steel underneath. I scraped them off, sanded and vactaned the steel and then glued a sheet of oak-faced ply in their place. I didn't have the clearance for much insulation so just used 3mm polystyrene between the steel and the oak. It has been 4 years now and so far, no problems.

I can envisage a system where fresh-water tanks had a bladder which allowed the same volume to be occupied with grey water as the fresh was used. In such a case, the grey water could be pumped into the drain which is found below most fresh water outlets, as new fresh was filled. This assumes that they are 'drains' and not just sumps of course.

See post 2. John Rawson's model of my boat was a commission and was accurate. Of course if you know he is no longer active then fair enough but you didn't say so.

That is just silly. I've taken narrowboats on the Severn, the Avon, the Thames, the Trent, the Weaver etc and all of them were enjoyable experiences.

Think happy! Concentrate on sides five and six.

Possibly Joe Bourke, LadyG, Chagall and Dor could start a new thread to establish who they are, when they originally upset each other and so on. Then appropriate apologies or further abuse could continue without the distraction of galvanised buckets?

A chap built a fine model of my boat but that was 7 years ago - I will try to check if I still have his details. It turns out that my guy was John Rawson. I have (7 year old) contact details for him - will PM you if you want to try them.

Strangely, my dog "doesn't make a lot of noise and annoy my neighbours and doesn't shit everywhere" either. These are not inevitable attributes of a dog, merely indications of an incompetent dog owner. She is a golden retriever so sheds a bit (a lot, actually) but otherwise is little trouble. Having been on the boat (6 months out of 12) since she was three months old, she is well trained so usually does not need to be on a lead, is comfortable around locks etc. Admittedly she is far from cheap to run - but so is the boat - both are worth it IMHO. So, my preference is to have a dog, your is different (which, of course, is fine) but don't blame the dog. Sueb - I'm sorry, she doesn't have "sticky up pointed ears" but she's beautiful all the same.

Brilliant, thanks very much.

Common on boats - door handles like upside down ash trays. What are they correctly called? I can't find a source. Thanks.

Dunchurch pools (I assume this is the one you mention) have always seemed good to me, but you shouldn't conflate a poor initial attitude with a later poor performance. One marina I stayed in, I would have left on the first day had I not paid in advance, but it turned out to be a good un in the end. Have you tried Rugby Boat Sales? They are good as brokers go and don't hide that they act for the seller. Admittedly £50k would be towards the bottom of their range.