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Yes - much easier route for me from there so may be doable without professional help. Will have a chat with him if I get cold feet though ? Thanks! I'm thinking to go with ordinary blacking now and just not expect it to last too well. Then can make a decision about epoxy in better weather. Have arranged to have a chat with the boat yard who seem to be pretty knowledgeable.

On the plus side it turns out there is (on Mondays iirc) a crane at Willowtree in Yeading (West London Canal Services) so at least once I make up mind which of the unappealing hull maintenance options is least bad I have a decent hop eof getting boat 'home' in a day ?

Fabulous. So, not just 'takes longer' but also 'doesn't work'... I'm not going to ask about introducing a boat with microbial rust to a tightly packed mooring where current boat has none... Confirms my general life view that leaving Zone 1 is generally a mistake (centrally heated dry dock under cover only here - hence, in only small part, my naivety).

What, if any, concerns are there with bitumen in this weather? - (I love how engineering geeky this forum is - my life is very theoretical and I appreciate those who can probably do their own shoe laces and everything...) Also... are we really concluding that no boat yard should ever do epoxy becasue they won't be specialist enough? The yard the boat is out at have been doing it for 20 yrs and do their own working boats in it but I'm not sure what a 'specialist inspector' would really be in a residential/leisure boating context?

I mean, I think _any_ option (do nothing/bitumen/epoxy) is a bit flawed - but do appreciate thoughts on which is _least_ bad. Edited to add - For various reasons I do not have the option to change the time of year of purchase.

Ah-ha... The existing blacking (bitumen, not epoxy) was a bit of a state to be honest - I've seen much better 2 yr old blacking and I've not looked at that many hulls - and there were some patches of microbial rust I'd quite like off. The yard where she is out has a super-duper ultra high pressure washer rather than a normal one so is OK to take it back to bare metal (or, if just for bitumen, bare/sound coating), which feels like a bonus compared to a 'normal' pressure wash + bitumen option. Plus, as will be on shore power, would like a bunch more anodes done now.

So... You would leave boat as is or put bitumen now? And then take out again in a summer? If it was just for anodes I cd leave family aboard (dry dock near us)... To be out for any kind d of blacking will mean specialist boarding, kennels and hotel. Probably less than 5k. But definitely over 1k by itself without the extra for craning so not insignificant...

High Line have a crane in which can do it every so often - quoted me £385+VAT - and much shorter canal journey which is probably for the best too.

The stuff (interzone 9 something something) is designed for popping onto the feet of oil rigs between tides so, whilst I understand it will take a bit longer/be less ideal than in summer it should still work? Several fluffies are going to live on this thing and putting them all up in a hotel for a week in summer (once other accommodation is gone) could be very tricky... But ordinary blacking when I (boat) has access to facilities to go back to bare seems like a waste?

Ah, bother. Yes, by road. Had not looked at stoppages since original route plan. P&S Marine came up as the nearest place to get a 70' boat off truck and into water but looks like I'll be calling Willow Tree and Iver tomorrow to see what they can do... I may need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(film) as well as the PSB - now there is a combination I never want to see! Very limited transfer at Battlebridge required (few boaty bits and bobs only really as not sure I have sufficient cruising equipment for two boats yet - but I do have a storage unit) and no particular requirements (besides 20 miles, over 10months, etc and so forth) for the old one. Presumably a good idea to have some form of plan (direction anyway) sorted but was imagining finding first available mooring would be enough - not likely to be many free in the vicinity... but handy for when I realise I've forgotten something on the other craft. If I get a better plan sorted @Peter X I may take you up on that (thank you!). I've lived my whole life in the area so am used to all new activities having a substantial audience - and latterly a YouTube presence!

After a false start or two I have a second boat! She is out being epoxy'd when we get a few dry days and then will be coming in to P&S Marine. From there I'm looking to bring her into my central London mooring and swap out my existing boat which will be going onto brokerage (I'll CC it until sold I think but may want a hand every so often). As new boat is a wee bit longer (70ft) and I'll be with only small-ish bits of the menagerie (if I can get time off work in this season at all) I thought to pay someone for a couple of days to bring her down. Not set up for sleeping aboard yet (no mattress/even bed in one cabin) so would be looking for someone who could help me out on a 'day rate' type basis. There isn't any particular kind of qualification/insurance/...? to look out for is there? I mentioned the idea to a friend and they were horrified I couldn't think what 'licence' I'd be checking bedsides the various recommendations on here. Edited to add: both are trad narrowboats (although only the first one is a proper 'engine in the middle' tug style one) - and you can just about see one of them in that Bloomberg/Guardian photo!

Ooh, yes. Boxed-in blinds (save needing to look at the odd cut edges on the cellular blinds) and voiles on top sound good. Can always gradually swap to curtains once the initial 'OMG it'll be like living in a floating greenhouse, what do I do with all this glass?!?' wears off. I'll be down to two portholes, and even they are more dinner plate than saucer sized. They are frosted which is handy (in heads) - so, thinking bungs for those. I'd quite like fancy 'Curtains for' ones but they are way too much. I've seen Farmer Pumpkin on-line but no idea what their prices are like... Cheapo ones off eBay are less than those IKEA blinds so possibly a good bet regardless. I'm definitely prepared to 'blink first' on the looking into each others windows thing - I'm not yet super-confident wandering along my gunnels so tend to look down at my feet - and noticed how good a view I got into neighbours (galley only fortunately) windows!

So, after much deliberation (and, although offer accepted, still subject to survey so not saying too much yet), I think I may have found our 'liveaboard' boat. Merlin No 1 [linky here I hope] is lovely. But for full-time I really needed something more boring so the smaller creatures are less near engines, stoves and so forth. So, anyway, the blinds in Potential New Boat (PNB) are a wee bit mouldy/were white to start with so a bit too good at looking like garibaldis anyway... and so I was thinking to replace with cellular (honeycomb) ones for the extra insulation as there are lots of hopper windows which will be colder than our current portholes. Thing is I really need nets too when we're moored. With curtains (which I'll have where I can afford velvety ones) voiles on wires will be fine. With roller blinds you can get a sort of double-blind holder at the top so, one voile roller/one coloured one, and you're sorted. I'm not sure what to do with cellular ones though... Does anyone have any with nets as well? Do you put the blinds on the inside or outside? Our moorings are side-by-side so both light and privacy/not shocking the neighbours are aims!

Better undies visibility from passing helicopters? Seriously - thought they'd be more pleasant to be in if brighter - less tent-like?

Looking, in a mostly hypothetical way, at semi-trad pram covers I was wondering why the 'roof' parts of them don't seem to be made of the 'window' material very much... they are basically boat conservatories, (no?), so wasn't sure why you'd want to be blocking out that much light given how easy they are to ventilate?

Here we go! Recent snaps of the tug. The lounge and galley are all Farrow and Ball, boatman's cabin much more traditionally cosy. Rather fun combo. Can't believe I don't have any engine pictures yet - those are possibly rather important to proper boaters!

It was tipping it down yesterday and I had family in tow so not yet but will get some soon :-)

Thank you! And yes, different Merlin. This is Merlin No. 1 a 60ft 1986 Braine tug. Edited to add: quite a popular name I think (without the "No 1"bit anyway) so I checked the registered number is the same as Matty40s quoted above.

Yes! Sort of like googling your own name looking up your boat on here. My first boat and all a bit of an adventure :-)

Far too excited to sleep - as of today (technically yesterday) this is my boat! (And yes, the survey etc was good, she is just very sleek looking! We're moored between two other boats and the gunwales are all at about the same height but the appearance is definitely different).

Oh, cheap house alarm sounds much more like the thing then, thank you zenataomm. Hadn't realised they wd be 12V. I'm def not after motion sensors. I've had to disable the alarm in my car for when I leave the dogs inside at a petrol station. So, 5mins/month of jumping/barking/honking and flashing prevented in return for zero car security!

Has anyone used a 12V car alarm type system on their boat? Not looking for anything fancy in terms of remote alerting (I think?). Ideally just something that is noisy when any doors/hatches/(windows?) are opened I guess? More around intrusion than theft (so, unless really useful for smthing I can't think of, probably no need for GPS - narrowboats hardly made for speedy getaways!). Any recommendations/things to look out for? In response to the 'but whys?' - The child has asked for it as their previous home was invaded by a known individual whilst empty. The intended mooring is pretty much as secure as they get around here (not, until they work it out anyway, known to the previous intruder) and there will be quite vocal dogs on board much of the time, certainly when we're there - So, it is only for when left (with child's treasured *stuff*/other pets/etc). I've met the manager/some neighbours and would be happy to leave them a key/remote/whatever the thing is to turn it off if it went off accidentally so hopefully it won't be too annoying but will let child have some peace of mind. There is a hook up on the mooring but thought 12V would make the alarm useful for when moored up cruising too. Edited to add: I thought maybe a solar powered motion-sensitive light (LEDs?) near each door might not be overkill/actually quite useful for when trying to come home in the dark ourselves without loosing the menagerie into the cut? Are any of them reasonably robust?

Hmm... The rubber with studs under was what I was thinking of... A couple of pots at the moment are on wheeled wooden slatted platform things for moving around balcony. Maybe I should just get 'brakes' for those - the wheels are (presumably, will check in daylight) plastic and there is plenty of ventilation under the platform - then scratch the astroturf idea and cut a nice picnic blanket to size that gets popped away after use.

I'm considering how to move a 'balcony garden' (small but we're self-sufficient in at least one or two herbs!) onto a narrowboat... in order to maintain the paintwork on the decks/roof in reasonable condition... Would you avoid putting 'grass' (astroturf type stuff) and plant pots directly onto a boat? Would they be better on top of rubber matting (something like this (but without the edges) to keep puddles from forming: https://www.slip-not.co.uk/productdetail/Rubber-Entrance-Mat-with-Drainage-Holes-A) Or do they really need to be hanging somehow? Edited to add: just found this thread so going to have a read... I guess the question about if rubber matting would make a mini-lawn/pots in bow deck area do-able still stands though ?

I grew up with one myself... For the falling-in aspect of things smaller menagerie members have been kitted out with life vests and made to practice swimming in them!