Degobah Schooner

Thanks all - - this is all very useful. Plan thsu far, be honest, yet minimise any unecessary info.

I hear you. Banks are hyper risk adverse and have their boxes to tick. As I understand it - saying to the bank you are planing on purchasing a boat to live aboard, will instantly rule you out of a personal loan, they can't finance residancy through such instruments. I also researched - borrowing the same amount for 'home improvements' is totally viable with the bank. Does any one have experiences of the best 'line' or narrative, with the bank to quell any red flags?

Solid info! Thank you 🙏 -- we will research loans and make sure credit score is neet before approaching!

Hello! thanks both for those brilliant answers. A boat Mortgage is as Alen mentioned a minefield full of hoops and currently for us, not best fit, given the scale and turnaround we are after. Personal loan unsecured is the way we will go. I too am a big fan of Martin Lewis and will take a look at the options he currently recommends, good idea. May I ask @BlueStringPudding, what bank did you borrow with? - - We are just getting another first hand recommendation (of bank) from friends, we just discovered took an unsecured personal loan to finance their boat also. They mentioned to be careful when applying for loans as if you apply for too many, it can result in your credit score dropping, and then compromise your favoured application. It affected it enough that it resulted in one of the two borrowers needing a guarantor to finally approve their loan. Thanks again both! - - If anyone else has experiences of getting personal unsecured loans, to purchase a boat, any info would be much obliged.

Good qu Alan - - we are open to find out about all. But the most likely and initial assumption was to go for a 'personal loan' (where you are the guarantor). Interested to hear about a 'marine mortgage' (where the boat is the security for the loan - like a house) also. Or any other ways to faciliate it.

Hello everyone, I appreciate there are some threads on this - - any general info is of course very useful but thought it worth starting a new one; with current experienes prioritised or say not too much older than 3 years if poss/say anything after 2020. We are looking to approach the bank for a loan to buy a boat very soon, a widebeam. Hence this post! As far as I understand it - - it's best to apply for the sum you need but not that you are planning on spending on purchasing a boat to live on. Any general advice, first hand experience or examples? - - thanks once, again anyone and everyone contributing!

Thanks for the further info everyone. In review: It was likely last blacked 3-4 years ago and has been lived on, in the same marina since then. Our primary concern is confirming as best we can the historic upkeep and estimating current quality of the blacking and thus hull. Paperwork: Seemingly has been lost, that’s ok (for us as buyers) - we have patched a history together from searches online. It’s first owners who had maintained it for most of its existence were meticulous and fluent in boat maintenance. So it has been a live aboard in the same marina for this 3-4 years with the current owner. Likely with new anodes at the same time as this last blacking (I will try and check the anodes with an arm in the water or dipping in, in trunks!). Assessing this period for risk, does any one have suggestions? - anodes have fully decade and there has been galvanic corrosion, is the only thing I can think of and not sure how to look for this!

Very aware that we may well have to take a punt, I'm casting the net here - - to see if there are any unusal or outlandish ideas and recomendations. As they may be worth trying and/or fun! I think if we can get a look at the anodes they may give an impression of things, also getting to the water line to see if there is visible decay of the blacking or corrosion visible on bare metal. thanks for the responces everyone, it is a flat bottomed wide beam

Thanks Paul, that's what I'm after; pragmatic ideas that can offer up a glimpse, or best possible impression given it's largely submerged. Obviously nothing recomended can compare to a full out of water survey!

Hello One and All, Qu: Any suggestions or advice, on assessing hull quality when a boat is in the water? It looks like we will have no paper work or previous surveys to go from. Not afraid of getting wet, snorkelling and jumping in if needed. This boat is a steel hull, last blacked 2020, DOB: 2004. Has not travelled far, spent most of its life in the same marina. Any and all suggestions welcome. Thank you

Hello all, thanks for the suggestions! Great stuff! In review. 🤓 Non return valves after each pump; not recommended by many, unless built into pump such as ‘Little Whale’ Supersub Pumps Pumps in circuit; second pump rerouted to pump out into first pumps reservoir which is then pumped out to waste outlet. Pump 1 & 2 pump out into a bucket containing a third pump going straight to the waste outlet. Advised to fit higher than the outlet, acting like a hopper tank, draining out by gravity. Cut/refit skin fitting for pump 2 on the opposing side. Expand the current skin fitting so there is room for pump two’s pipe alongside one’s original. YES to mostly clean water coming in and not a lot of water in the bilge in the first place. It’s not my boat so working to other's preference, which may need reviewing and adapting to, after all these options are mulled over. I think I'm going to suggest a second skin fitting, being added to accommodate pump two as it’s own separate installation. It seems the most pragmatic and functional - in the long run. Yet I do love the circuit option as a quick pragmatic fix for now. Hypothetically and irrespective of the current problematic T situations, would a thinner pipe truly make no difference to how much fluid can travel up a pipe? - given that there would be less water being pumped and thus give the pump more power/capacity, which presumably would allow for a higher quantity of fluid to be pushed up. 🤔

Thanks Tracy, yes I was thinking of something like that, like a washing machine waste. Will give it a go but don't want to isolate each pump - so still going to puzzle this; as would like to try to have both pumps on auto, can run at the same time or singly and out of the same waste outlet.

Thanks for all the responces! No non-return valves fitted - Did not know they were available for such waste pipes, could be good. Will research, but any one used before/know where/name? Both pumps operate/are planned to be on auto setting at the same time all the time. One pump when operating, running down to the other pump - this is my worry hence, the adjustment of T suggestion on drawing. Each pump to have its own skin fitting outlet suggestion - too invasive, don't want to cut another hole. Could it be there is not enough water ? YES, but want to keep it relatively shallow and the amount of water needed to get the rise is too much. Disconnect one of the pumps from the T and connect it directly to the skin fitting - does that work. - YES this works. Why 2 pumps - Requested and the two sides are largely seperated, and fill at different rates, hence pump installed for each side. Seems like there's many ways to go about this, any thoughts on the skinnier pipe to increase suction?

Hello everyone, Wishing you well. Got a question with pictures! I installed 2x bilge pumps on either side of an engine bay, connected to a T JUNCTION going to the waste OUT. 25mm internal diameter on pipe, classic transparent PVC Flex reinforced, matching the old original waste pipe size. All fittings snug with jubilee clips. Original single pump worked OK. Yet now both pumps can't get the waste water up to the top of the pipe, never mind out the waste. What would anyone recommend? Thinking - simply, get narrower pipe? (Available in 5mm interior diameter - 51mm so can defo get thinnner). Also thinking when it can draw to the top, the T-JUNTION likely won't work as one pipe may drain to the other descent to other pump at the T and miss the outlet, so may switch position of TJUNCTION before OUT. SEE PIC for Ref. Thanks in advance one and all!

Hey there Canal World, Wishing everyone a happy and safe Christmas. In the off chance some somebody knows here - I'm trying to identify the inlet (filter) attached to this Jabsco par-max 1.9 water pump. It's not done yet, but I'm looking to find and purchase a spare, as soon as identify the brand name and model. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

We just moored up the other night in the dark, North of Nantwich just before the Llangollen Junction. Not in a sign posted mooring site ... thus we met the shelf! Did a night with nothing special and we didn’t sink, did some reading as Storm Francis came in. (40+ mph gusts.) The shelf is pretty obvious when you moor in the area (off of the marked mooring areas) as an underwater ledge that prevents you mooring snug against the towpath side. It bangs and grates your boat with the wind and wakes. Apparently the actual canal is shallow on the towpath side in these parts anyway, we have apretty standard liverpool boat draught.. In RECAP of the previous posts found here, the other entry I found on canalworld about the shelf and a quick fix we found worked, read on: - Most folks, get prepped pre-Shropshire canal visit and get wheelbarrow wheels or go-kart wheels, hung from the boat, like fenders, but floating on the surface sideways, allowing the boat to clear the sill and bump against the nice soft rubber of the wheels instead. - Some folks don't do anything about the shelf, moor up and weather the knocking sound in the night. I've seen a bunch of boats that haven't done anything special. - I read an entry where on describing taking boats out and looking at the hull post shelf times and they noted it can damage the boat, at the least the blacking, worst it'll take a go at the metal. Which makes sense to me given your boats side is resting against largely old, uneven concrete mass, with the repetitive wind or wakes washing you up against it. Hence the horrible sounds. Also someone said they were unlucky and the shelf damaged their propeller. Given this we erred on the side of caution - especially with the storm, so we went for a QUICK FIX: See the pictures, but what we've gone for is taking some pieces of wood, little planks essentially, the slats from a single bed and wedging them into the bottom of the canal between the boat and the ledge. We used 3x for the bow, stern and middle, where you keep the fenders and pushed them into the canal bottom by hand then with sledge hammer to fix them at a 45 ish degree angle and then pulled the boat onto them, instead of the ledge. The idea came from someone recommending using their poles to do this, ours were too big or a bad fit. Essentially you could use any wood or similar thing to wedge between you and the ledge. Old fence posts, windblow branches, sheets of wood etc.. IT WORKED ! I suspect this won’t work everywhere but it did manage to stop us banging, clanging and scraping even with the storm. Best of luck.