MRBear

hi all i thought i would update you all regards the sale of my boat. when i purchased my boat brand new it came with all the usual legal paperwork including a certificate of conformity which is valid for it's 1st 4 years. i'm presuming this is the initial builders certification that is basically its initial BSS certificate. as you can probably imagine that when i had to sell my beautiful boat because of a breakdown of a relationship after owning it for just over 2 years i was somewhat shocked and horrified that the potential buyers surveyor picked up on the "outs" being too close to the water. thankfully the builder has realized that they could be on a very sticky wicket if it was proven that they had sold a boat with a legal certificate of safety which was indeed not to the regulatory requirement and have made good the problem by removing ballast from the rear of the boat and have also provided a written affidavit that they will attend to raising the exhaust outlet in the new year for the new owners. my boat is now in the loving arms of it's new owners with all issues sorted. my warning from hindsight is this. No matter what age of a boat you intend to buy, even if it's brand new off the production line, get it fully surveyed. thank you all for all of the usual fantastic advice and support you have given me over the past few years, may i wish you all a wonderful Christmas and new year. i have loved being part of this amazing community and i will miss it for the rest of my life,, god bless you all,,, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

hi sorry, yes i do mean RCR, thanks

thanks guys. i'm finding your comments really reassuring generally. i'll be forwarding your comments on to my broker in due course

Hi Guys I am selling my beautiful boat which is just over 2 years old ( i bought it brand new), it still has a valid RCD conformity certificate, however, the potential buyers surveyor has highlighted that the "outs" are too low to the water, i presume he's referring to the exhaust outlet which sits virtually on the water line but has a swan neck internally. My question is, What recourse do i have against the builders of my boat or the RCD issuing body themselves if my buyers pull out and i loose the sale because of this?. I did query these "outs" levels before i purchased my boat, which i can prove in an email trail.

thank you tony

Thanks tony, I'm just worried that the moment i open that little valve there will be a huge jet of water coming into the bilge.

can this greasing be done while i'm afloat or does it have to be when i'm out of the water?

Thanks "Cuthound" for the simple non scary advice

Hi Tony. no, i was told they were maintenance free. my boat is only 18months old. How do i lubricate it?

Hi Guys Yet again i'm seeking to tap into your experience and expertise. I have a Vetus drip less shaft seal, my question is, after being moored for about 2 weeks, after I've initially engaged the prop then gone back to neutral there is a loudish squeal/humming as the shaft stops turning. is this normal because the seal is dry from standing?. it doesn't last long, just a few back and forth spins of the shaft and it stops.

hi IanD. We work away from Monday early morning to Friday evening. we do have a wall mounted electric heater in the saloon that is set to 7c, we drain the stainless steel fresh water tank, close the stop cock and leave the sink, washbasin and shower valves open. we are new to living on a boat so this is all new to us hence so many question. we are going to install a greenhouse tube heater in the engine bay to protect that area and we are also going to install a small tube heater beneath the bow step where the stop cock is. i know this may be overkill, but i'd sooner play safe than face water inside the boat. as always, all of the responses have been invaluable and we appreciate every one of them

from now on i will be doing a full fresh water tank drain, turning off the tank tap, leaving my taps and shower open, and I've now set my wall mounted electric heater to frost mode(7c). the greenhouse heater is next to get for the engine bay. as always, thanks guys, your advice is invaluable to us newbies, happy new year

thanks guys. i was talking about my fresh water tank, its in the bow. its stainless steel and there is foam on the front section thats under the bow door step but i'm not sure if its insulated between the hull and the tank where i cant see it . it was brim filled then had about 10 litres drawn off, so, i'm hoping that has created enough space for expansion.

Hi Guys Odd question but, i am away from my boat for a few days and i have left my water tank full, i have left an electric heater on in the saloon set at 22 degrees and have put a small greenhouse tube heater in the step where the tank tap is. do i need to worry about my tank freezing if it goes down to -2?. my tank is stainless steel and my boat is only 18 months old. appreciate all advice given thanks

that was not referencing an escaping pet, ref the escaping pet I said I wasn't sure if that situation contravened a breach of the rules but that if it was a regular occurrence then measures to prevent the pet escaping continuously would be a reasonable request by the marina operators the 1 warning refers to general breach of rules, eg, refuelling on berth, you are taking things out of context I'm afraid.

I did not say twice, I said very very frequently. it is not unreasonable to expect the owners of any pet to be responsible for that pets care and behaviour.

your situation seems similar in the approach of some residents, ie , the rules are not applicable to them. ultimately, you have to blame the marina operators who are very happy to take your mooring fees without doing what they should. what they fail to realise is that high standards attract those with high standards and vice versa. in our marina we are seeing a distinct downward slide of standards and people such as us are leaving . In fairness to the the marina staff, it must be difficult to deal with large numbers of aggressive, entitled slobs but, if they don't remove the shite they will only have the shite left. we are moving to a marina that supposedly has and maintains high standards with a very hands on manager who has no qualms about chucking rule breakers off the marina. we live in hope

We are moving to a new marina as soon as all the restrictions are lifted. totally agree with you

agreed

I'm not sure that a dog escaping would contravene any rules, unless the incident was very very frequent, in which case the marina might rightly expect that the dogs owner made alterations and adjustments to minimise the dogs ability to escape. when you pay your mooring fees to the marina, by default, you are agreeing to abide by their rules, it is entirely up to the marina to police the rules and enforce them if and when necessary, it is certainly not up to any other marina users to become vigilantes and enforce their interpretation. Personal interpretation of rules often leads to conflict, especially when those wishing to have rules applied to 1 section of the community with their own section being exempt. Surely, if you are moored in a marina and you do not like the rules your best option is to leave that marina and find a more suitable mooring that fits with your own ideals and standards. "Rules are established to protect the weaker class in the society since they are at a disadvantage if such regulations are broken. When rules are properly set and followed, they provide a stable environment and human co-existence in a community, resulting in peace and order"

we pride ourselves on being more than considerate to all other boaters and we believe that the rules of the marina are very important to maintain a healthy environment for all to have a peaceful time on their boats. refuelling on berth is not allowed on most marinas so the boater with his petrol can was breaking the rules and endangering all other marina users. he deserved to be evicted from the marina, we believe that rule breakers, whether residential or leisure should be warned once then evicted to allow decent people to live in peace

I hope you're right about their intentions, as we're new to narrowboating and as its took us so long to save up with a lot of scrimping and saving plus all the sacrifices we've had to make to buy our boat, this has concerned us a great deal. so we're very much hoping that this is just a glitch, but thanks so much for your support

sometimes there are more issues in marinas, especially if you expect the residents to follow the rules. we're currently experiencing threats of drilling holes on our boat and having rocks put on it simple because we complained about the jetty security gates being propped open by the aforesaid residents. from what we've been told, instances like these are not uncommon when a leisure moorer challenges the authority of residential moorers, but we're hoping that its just our particular marina

Hi All, here we are again asking for your advice and tapping into your wealth of experience. We are looking at putting a camera security system on the boat. We don't have access to wi-fi, so camera would just be for evidence gathering, and the audible alarm just a scare away and to attract attention. We don't want big gop off cameras, we would prefer covert type, and the system ideally battery operated as we are not good at wiring and the wires can be cut. Does anyone have any recommendations or links?