Byeckerslike

Hi all, I change our NB's engine oil 90 running hours ago, and should be due another change in 10 hours time, but when I examine the dipstick level, it would appear that the oil is still very, very clean. I know that the manual states; change oil and filter every 100 hours, but is this really necessary? I don’t want to appear to be a skinflint, but I only changed the oil 2 months ago. Thanks in anticipation.

Hi Angela, I think the prognosis is the same as I experienced. We bought our boat and noticed that the horn sounded more like an automotive horn than an nautical horn, we too had times when it did sound rather impressive, but in the end, a gnats f**t would sound louder. I replaced the offending item with an Ongaro #304 Stainless Steel jobby. I must admit that when I am up front and Heather sounds the horn the loudness makes me jump out of my skin.

There is only one centre fixing, this is a quick release hatch, the bolt looks about 3/4" Acme thread. I've tried fitting the Hatch Cover / Cavitation Plate Assemly both ways round - and it always leaks in the same area. It sonds more than a plausible fact, I'll remove the gasket and try to determine how much clearance there is betwix the cavitation plate and the nether regions of the boat

How did this happen? My partner was concerned about our weedhatch possibly leaking – it was dryazabone! I released the weedhatch and examined the gasket – it was a mean miserable thin bit of rubber foam, about 1mm thick, but did not leak – I was owed a favour, so I contacted one of my pressure leak test suppliers and got a custom piece of leak test rubber seal material cut to the required dimensions 485 x 280 x 6 mm thick, cut from one piece of sheet - no joins what so-ever! I removed the old seal, sanded down the mating surface, wiped clean and dry, and glued the new one in place. Refitted the hatch, fired up the engine, engaged forward, and revved up, good! No leaks so far, engaged reverse, revved up only to find water being sprayed over onto the upper surfaces of the swim and pouring down into pristine, dry bilge! I had to crawl back to our marina, moor up without using reverse at all costs! and spend an hour mopping out the grand union from the back of the boat!. Either the rubber is of too hard a shure hardness, the wrong type of rubber (Solid Polypropylene – 80 Shure Hardness) or, I am doing something wrong?

Hi All, We are more than a little concerned with the heat output from our little furnace, does anyone out there have any exprience of adding extra fire bricks to the sides and rear of their Squirrel? I believe that in doing so, the fire would be better insulated and have a reduced coal capacity. If, so, where did you purchase the extra fire bricks from? Many thanks, Rob and Heather

We would like to bounce an idea that we have off you all. Would a Canal-side village / town guide that listed shops, post-offices, chemists, banks and pubs be of practical use to any one? We are fairly new to boating, but one thing that we have noticed is that there appears to a lot of canal-side villages, which look very nice from the canalside (i.e. Cosgrove, Nothants), but despite walking round the whole village, the only shop that we could find was an apology for a shop in the middle of a soulless mobile home park, located on the opposite side to the village pub. Cosgrove had nothing in it really! Is this how powerful the big four supermarkets have become? We noticed the same phenomenon in villages along the Ashby Canal too. I am sure that this sad situation is not the same in France! It is a pity that enterprising pubs cannot become the real focal point of the village and become a “superstore” selling newspapers, offering sub-post office facilities etc, and why not? Many pubs are open all day long and they could gain extra much needed custom by offering a whole wide range of services, along with tea and coffee for those would prefer not to imbibe in the pubs alcoholic beverages

Very true, but the thought of those blind bunnies, stumbling into t'cut and drowning slowly is not a nice way to die.

Hi all, during our move from the Ashby to the Grand Union, we were puzzled to witness a fair number of dead rabbits in the canal, especially around Cosgrove, we put it down to an overzealous "sportsman" with an air rifle, but whilst we were out walking, we found the answer, we came across a rabbit which was blind from the effects of myxomatosis. I would like to imagine that The IWA will actually clean up these bloated corpses from the cut, but time will tell!

Oh my! Sorry guys, I would hate to start a heated dispute, I will follow the advice, but I think that my salvation will be found in a new selector switch, I'll find a 300a version, which should be more sericeable. Many thanks, RAB

Hi all, we are getting to grips with our NB Orkeny, and most things have now been sorted. However! On most occasions when I try to start the engine, I select battery 1 (Starter battery), turn on the ignition, the buzzer sounds, the pre-heater (Glow-plugs) light s up and then goes off - indicating the plugs are warmed up, I rotate the ignition switch to start the Lister and nothing...... If I rotate the battery selection switch either way a few times and then back to battery 1, the engine starts fine, other times nothing.... then I select both postion and then the engine will start up fine, once the ignition switch is rotated to the start position. I suspect the the battery delection switch is a duff!

Hi, We are wondering if anyone has information on a boat that we saw on the Ashby 25th August 2007. The boat was called Kingfisher and was very Edwardian and gracefull. I cannot call it a narrowboat, for it had a vertical Prow, with centre cockpit, complete with wheel - not a tiller. The boat was all wooden and painted white. The owners/occupiers informed us that it was built in 1920. They had moored up and were picnicking in style!

Psssst!!!! Have you, perchance tried Ikea?

Hi, We have used Kate Boats from Warwick, but as an observation, the boats that crawl along the Asby seem to be either Canaltime, or Ashby Hire Boats, I must admit that the Ashby boats are always very smart and clean. I guess that this must come down to one thing - Money. But I do think that to sail from Warwick and expecting to do the Ashby and back is too much for one weeks cruising. We can recommend a very, very nice pub at Shakerstone - The Rising Sun!

Hi all, We are BIG radio fans, when we purchased our Narrow Boat; it had a 12V DC mini-hifi, which has auxiliary input. The sound is quite good too, so I was reluctant to change for the sake of it. A bit of googling revealed that Genus used to make a very well regarded DAB adaptor - Genus DU-1, which, sadly are no longer manufactured, but there are plenty of new ones available on e-bay, another perk is that they are 6V DC. I took the plunge and ordered one, together with a regulated voltage reducer, made a quick modification to the boats wiring, connected the whole lot up and surprise, surprise, the genus DU-1 has good reception (using only the rats tail aerial) and found quite a few stations. On the whole, we are more than satisfied with our new DAB radio.[/font]

Hi all, I would personally always prefer to tap a thread than use self tappers, as mentioned else where, self-tappers tend to deform the parent metal than cut a pitch perfect thread. besides, once the thread is cut with a tap, than you have the choice on wheather to use steel, stainless steel (Stainless actually means "Stains Less", not impervious to staining! A general guide to tapping drill sizes for metric coarse threads is Thread Diameter - Pitch, but it does no harm isf the drill size is a little larger than these diameters M4 x 0.7 Pitch - Drill Ø3.30 Max Ø3.30 M5 x 0.8 Pitch - Drill Ø4.20 Max Ø4.30 M6 x 1.0 Pitch - Drill Ø5.00 Max Ø5.10 M8 x 1,25 Pitch - Drill Ø6.80 Max Ø6.90 M10 x 1,50 Pitch - Drill Ø8.50 Max Ø8.60 Regards Rob

Another worry is that the engine appears to be running hot - the temperature gauge reports 90 - 95° C, but the warning buzzer does not sound. What should the normal cruising temperature of a canalstar 36 be? What is the likely casue and how do I fix it?

Hi all, We had our first week-end cruising on our new (to us- 56' 4" Colecraft narrowboat). All would appear to be fine, until I noticed that the boat has ho internal door locks on the side and stern doors. I am a fairly adept handyman, I just need advice on what sort of internal locks / bolts that I need to fit to the side door (hinged hatch and centre opening doors, and to the stern door of a trad stern (sliding hatch and centre opening doors), without loosing too much of the opening distance of the sliding hatch. Any advice on what to ask for and where to fit will be gratefully recieved!

I understand that the EEC is to impose a new price structure for the narrow boaters life blood –Diesel, despite the fact that here in the UK, taxes are way higher than other EEC countries. Diesel that is used to heat the boat will be VAT exempt, whilst the diesel that the engine use will be full rate diesel. Also, the craft must have tank for the heating fuel. What is there, in reality, in stopping ingenious (crafty, tax avoidance folk) simply adding another fuel filler cap that went into the one and only fuel tank via a pipe to the tank. What would the chandler’s assistant make of the order for 20 Litres of Engine Diesel and 180 Litres of heating diesel?

Hi, I'm sure that some of you must have un-biased experiences of these engines, can any of you advise me on their service life and the feasibility of re-conditioning once they are clapped out? We've just bought a NB, which has just over 2,000 hours on the meter, my surveyor suggested that they are only any good for 4,000 hours, which surprised me, because Lister have a good name. Many thanks!

Hi all, We have just bought our first NB and we invited an old friend of ours to give our pride and joy the once over. After many sighs and sucking of teeth etc, he declared our NB to be a fine ship shape vessel, however! being as he could not find the Golden Rivet, he said that he could not pass word or judgment on the NB, until I had found the location of this rivet. He explained that all boat builders and sailors were very superstitious, and as a token of good luck and a happy boat, all were built with at least one Golden Rivet. We have had every covering of our boat, but still we cannot find this elusive rivet! Is he telling the truth, or, is this just a wind-up? Many thanks!

Maybe, his interest is because he used to build NarrowBoats?

In my limited experience, you get what you pay for, but if you are going for Marine Finance and Insurance with a good insurance company, they will both insist on a survey / valuation conducted by a surveyor who has full professional qualifications and indemnity insurance. If you take a peek at ABNB website, and click on the tab, buying a boat, they have a list of recommended surveyors. http://www.abnb.co.uk/submenupages/surveyors.html Besy of luck!

Is that Milled Steel, mild steel, or, even milled mild steel?

We can thoroughly recommend ABNB at Crick, they have a good reputation within the trade and have a good inventory of above average condition Narrow Boats. Good huntin' Rob