booke23

The OP is obviously only interested in doing some sort of Birmingham trip so the following is largely irrelevant but I'll say it anyway. Someone mentioned the Llangollen would be busy in August.....I actually found it was quieter than average the last 2 times I did it in August, but September is a different story, much busier. It would take 8hrs cruising a day to go from Wrenbury to Trevor and back, which for me is a very average days boating. For others that might be a horrendously long day cruising.....horses for courses! ETA: And to answer the OP's question about what the weather might be like.......On average daytime temps (Fahrenheit) in the 70s, although in a hot spell they could get to 100 (rare). Equally it could rain all week and temps not get out of the 60s. Our climate is very variable.

This is a very good point. For the benefit of the OP the Llangollen canal should never suffer from drought as it's used to transport drinking water from the hills of Wales to a reservoir at the end of the Llangollen canal (Hurleston).

Personally neither. The section of the K and A from Semington to Bath is nice until you get to Bradford on Avon whereupon the section to Bath is ruined by slum boats and their owners who never move. That section is also plagued by day boats from Bath with associated poorly behaved crews. Alvechurch to Birmingham stretch quickly becomes quite urban, which is not my favourite. I'd recommend you get a train a bit further north and hire a boat at Wrenbury on the Llangollen canal and head for Trevor....Llangollen if you've got time. It'll be a first Narrowboat trip you'll never forget.

As Tony says, that damaged roof in the galley looks to be coming from what looks like a mushroom vent, with no corresponding hole in the roof lining. If that is the case then the leak should be easy to fix but that whole roof lining section is probably going to need replaced.....I imagine it's been leaking for some time. This arrangement is another clue that work done on the boat is sub standard. Also looks like the engine bilge has had about 6 inches of water in it up until it got sucked out for the photos. But in this price bracket these issues are par for the course, and I imagine more serious issues await below the water line. I love how the advert mentions it was freshly blacked in 2021.....only 4 years ago!

😅 I like the hands on pun.

Exactly. And I'm sure Isambard Kingdom Brunel never knocked in a rivet or did any brick laying.

Quite agree. You should at the very least be dressed like a gentleman if you're going to do that!

Something like this for the switch replacement https://www.force4.co.uk/item/Force-4/Rocker-Switch-Panel-with-Breakers/4F41 I don't think that type of Isuzu panel is available anymore. This looks like this closest available today, but it's a bit pricey!

That is one of the mysteries of the universe. 😅

Celestial bodies are not renowned for their expertise in this area......I'd personally recommend a welder and carpenter!

I meant figuratively. Just like when someone says they built a house, they usually don't dig the foundations lay the bricks etc themselves!

He actually has 13 years of forum participation and I don't think anyone would describe him as an upstart given his experience of designing and building his own boat.

Mr Ho is probably three sheets to the wind. It's a Friday after all!

This has to win the award for the most pointless and disrespectful post (not including political section) for a while.

2 minutes with an angle grinder would improve the situation drastically.

Ouch.

I wonder how NB Rose got sunk? No locks to cill her on. Good to hear the holiday went ok, although unfortunate you had that tree fall. I remember the shallow sides when I cruised on the Lancaster years ago!

I wasn't, that wouldn't be RCD compliant in a 2018 boat. It says in the brochure it's a LPW4S. I was just commenting that it was not that common to see in 2018 boats. To the OP, the early versions of this engine had a 100hr oil change interval but I'm sure this engine will have 250hr intervals, although check the manual.

Exactly! While I'm here I'll give an opinion on this boat. It is the sort of boat that might actually sell for close to it's asking price as it's not that outrageous. Although it isn't to a lot of traditional boaters taste, the fitout seems to be of a very high standard, albeit to the design of a trendy inner city apartment. So I can see the right person falling for it. I find it a bit unusual a boat this age has got a Lister Petter engine.....nothing wrong with them and you find them in quite a few boats up to the early 2000's but they definitely seemed to fall out of favour by 2018 (when this boat was built). If you look at boats built in 2018 I imagine nearly all of them have either a Beta/Barrus Shire/Canal line or Vetus engine. Not a deal breaker though.

You drive a hard bargain!

Funny enough I had a very similar experience going up Caen hill a few years ago. Approaching the lower Foxhanger lock I noticed a hire boat being held on the centre line about a 1/4 mile before the lock so I stopped next to them and we agreed to share the locks going up. As we approached the lock, a moored boat decided they were going to get into the lock before the hire boat and literally went to action stations to untie.....ropes and gangplanks flying everywhere, and their crew running about and jumping to and from the boat. The hire boat crew were very unimpressed and were going to have it out with them at the lock landing, but I advised against it as we would be stuck in close proximity behind the miserable cretins for at least the next 6 hours. But I had a great chat with the hire boat crew and got to know them quite well by the time we got to the top! Turns out they were going to spend the night at the top and turn around and go straight back down the next morning for the experience.

I’ve never understood this superior and nasty attitude from some private owners. Goes to show there are always stupid pratts in all walks of life.

That's just speculation, unless there is actual evidence to show otherwise. 😉 As someone who has been involved in horses my whole life, I can tell you they can most definitely trot and canter (and even gallop). A bigger issue on canals is getting them under bridges etc.

I was wondering if they used a particular type of heavy horse on these high speed packet boats (Shire, Clydesdale etc), but after some digging I can find no information on this. However I did find that the lead horse was 'ridden by a boy' (no doubt to keep weight down!) who would blow a horn to alert other boats the packet boat was approaching.

Given enough energy (shoreline or stove) it'll certainly be possible to heat the boat up in winter. But condensation on cold surfaces could be a real problem, and on a boat with little or no insulation this means the walls and ceiling which would be pretty unpleasant. You won't know until you try it.