booke23

I should have mentioned, my boat is a cruiser stern so the engine bay does get very cold compared to a trad. I'm sure some sort of insulated box would help, although it would need some experimentation....for instance if I boxed it in completely then my trick of starting the engine to warm the engine bay wouldn't work so well, so I'd probably need to incorporate a heat pad.

I have a Victron Lithium Iron Phosphate battery in my engine bay, and the BMS won't allow charging below 5c. You can change this setting in the app but it warns of permanent damage and void warranties if you do this. Some winters it can be a pain...but I'm a leisure boater. Sometimes I'm only at the boat once every fortnight. On one cold snap last winter the BMS wouldn't allow solar charging for at least 10 days as the battery never got above 5c. However starting the engine does bring the temp up in the engine bay after about an hour of running. Obviously if you were living on the boat I imagine it wouldn't get so cold soaked.

That's the beauty of the Llangollen, there isn't a bad mooring anywhere along it as there are no urban areas. Most of it is piled with armco so you don't even have to bang in pins if you don't want to! One of our hires was a 10am pickup at Beeston......by the time you get your luggage loaded and do handover you won't be leaving Beeston until lunchtime, but that's fine....we were still able to get up the Hurleston flight and moor in the countryside on the Llangollen a few miles west of Hurleston on the first night. There are lots of interesting places to visit as already suggested. But to make it to Llangollen and back in a week, you're not going to have a huge amount of time for sightseeing away from the Canal.....maybe a day.

This works if you have a laptop/tablet that you use separately to the phone. Not, if like me, the phone is the only device I'm using on the boat! The wifi means I can sit in my chair inside the boat and get good internet. Without wifi, the faraday cage effect of the boat completely blocks all mobile signal to my phone when I'm sat down. If anyone is considering this route, remember some mobile contracts don't allow you to use your phone as a hotspot.

Yes, Especially if the OP is planning 1.2kw of solar. In this situation a solar dump would supply a great deal of hot water for 6 months of the year.

I don’t think such a thing exists. However you could ask on here for opinions on any boats you find. You’ll get plenty of advice from very experienced boaters for free.

You’ve basically got three options of expense/performance. £ - Is a mifi device hung in a window. Performs quite well, is simple and inexpensive. ££ - 4g modem with external antenna. This is what I use….A Huawei B535 and a Poynting 4g external antenna on a short magnetic mount pole. Total cost around £200 and it performs well. Like all line of sight transmissions, performance would improve the higher you can get the antenna. £££ - A 5g modem compatible external antenna. Still quite expensive and probably not worth it at the moment as 5g is generally only available in citys.

Yes it is busy in August, however I did it in mid September a few years back and that was the busiest trip out of the three times I've done it. I found the only real pinch points were the Grindley brook staircase locks and New Marton locks. In both August trips we got up Grindley brook pretty much right away, but had maybe an hour wait when coming back down, and the same at New Marton. It's tempting to just go over the aquaduct, turn and come straight back over. But definitely make the effort to do the last few miles up to Llangollen.....it's spectacular. Remember the trip back is quicker as there is about a 1 mph flow from Llangollen to Hurleston, so don't be disheartened by how long it takes to get to Llangollen. We cruised for about 8 hours a day and very easily did it in a week.

Beeston on the Shropshire union? If so, without question the Llangollen canal. It’s beautiful, rural, and spectacular. The kids will never forget going over the Pont-thingy aquaduct. I’ve done it a total of three times from Beeston with the kids and it never gets old. Two of these trips were in August and congestion wasn’t really a problem. You can do Beeston to Llangollen basin and back in a week quite easily. Oh and apart from the few hours cruising from Beeston to Hurleston junction, all the locks are narrow so the kids can operate them much easier!

I don't know. Some don't display an index number so presumably at least some are not.

Deleted duplicate post.

His previous posts seem to indicate he has a Thornycroft 1.8, so a BMC.

Indeed. It’s also quite difficult to lay the boot in so hard on an online forum when you’ve actually met the people on the receiving end…..this might stop others from attending.

Oh the irony!

Thanks, working for me too on canalplan.org.uk. But didn't work when I search for it on Google....they're linking it to canalplan.uk. Guess the url must have changed recently.

Anyone else having trouble accessing canalplan? Hasn't been working for me today.

You could be right, I can't quite tell. And for the avoidance of doubt for anyone reading, when I refer to CMers in my earlier post, I was referring to the K & A variety who actually properly CM, for months at a time on the towpath or even on 48hr visitor moorings.

Ah ok. I was thinking it was 'Boats with a home mooring' Careful using the term CCers....you might get told off by @Steilsteven 😅

What does that stand for?

Down my way, a truck knocked about 3 cap stones and 3 sandstone blocks off an original bridge in April 2022. By the time CRT did their arguing and sourced stonemasons to actually fix it, very nearly a year had passed.

On the face of it this is a pretty serious incident and should be reported to police. I wouldn't class it as a minor incident, after all this young lady nearly got jailed for tipping an elsan over the statue of Sir Tom Moore https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63389935

Yes the number of stoppages on the K&A is getting beyond a joke. For those that don't know the summit at Crofton has basically been closed since last autumn, firstly for a planned winter stoppage that then significantly overran, then after briefly opening a series of unfortunate events have kept it closed......pump failures, lock gate failures etc. Of course the CMers are loving it.....there are few better excuses for not fulfilling the annual cruising requirements than CRT stoppages!

Thread drift innit!

Point of order......below -42c propane also stops working. So don't take a propane stove with you on your next Antarctic expedition!

Indeed. In fact James Milsop of Rugby boats mentions they will refund deposits in exceptional circumstances in this interview:-