richardf

An original oil aga in a domestic environment will consume 40 litres of oil per week (60 if it does water as well) - the conversions tend to be a lot more thirsty than that! In some parts of the country fuel oil recently reached 75p per litre (has probably dropped a bit now) - so not a cheap option!

But if you are using a solid fuel Rayburn, then you will need to plan for your departure, probably the night before in order to let it cool down - and when you moor up, you have to light it again - and they can take a while to warm up. It's not as easy as just taking down the flue extension - I think that would risk products coming back into the cabin. The Heritage stove is designed to work on narrowboats and hence has presumably got over the flueing issues.

Are you sure that you will be able to get enough height of flue above the Rayburn it order that it will pull correctly - you don't want the products of combustion coming back down into the cabin. I think other people have used fans to assist this process

Someone followed me through the Harecastle a few years ago and played the sax for the whole trip - amazing!

Princess was converted with an inspection launch style cabin - last time I heard of it it was on the River Wey. All the below water parts were overplated - not an easy job when it was round bottomed!

Caldon canal? Wey Navigation

I always used garage floor paint - comes in a variety of colours

I had a Springer years ago with a pump out loo right at the front. One day on the Thames we stopped for a pump out and the suction pulled the bottom of the tank in. When I ran the bilge pump it came out blue! Lifting the floorboards and cleaning up is not a happy memory.......

I received this from the Cotswold Canal Trust this morning - I cannot for the life of me understand why they have decided to do this - if 'Bridgy' is having to work the bridge, why not the traffic lights as well! For those of you visiting the Saul Festival by boat this year you may like to be aware of a change of policy by British Waterways in relation to the day to day operation of the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal. Once upon a time the bridge keepers used their traffic lights to indicate to you, the boater that it was safe to proceed. Not any more! For reasons best known to themselves BW have instructed the bridge guys n gals not to use the lights on a regular basis. I share the view of a BW employee who said to me, when I asked him what he thought, "Sheer madness. A corporate manslaughter charge waiting to happen". I'll leave you to judge the position for yourselves, it may be that you would like to express your views on this situation. In Ian Jarvis' absence John Ward is your man; john.ward@britishwaterways.co.uk <mailto:john.ward@britishwaterways.co.uk> Meanwhile if you are sat there waiting for a green light then you may be there for some time...

I just spoke to Honda Power who told me it's simply a loading problem because the startup load of the motor might be 3 times the stated 1.6kw. That really surprised me because I thought a 3kw generator would easily cope with the washing machine load. 3 times 1.6KW is 4.8KW - I thought you could only get 3KW through a 13A plug at 240V - in which case, would the fuse not blow? Or is this a constant load rather than a quick surge?

A properly prepared (Vee-ed out) weld on a base plate with full penetration should be adequate That's how steel pipelines are built - so it should be!

One of them had a BW winter mooring at Bradford on Avon and HATED it. He was surrounded by "pikies" and found them insular, with a huge persecution complex and a derisive dislike of legit boaters I'm not going to use the pikey term, but the group that surrounded me at Bradford on Avon pretty much matched the above description - a stupid argument about a dog escalated quickly to me being threatened with assault. They had no respect for anyone, it was without a doubt the worst incident I have seen on the towpath in 20 odd years

It's crazy isn't it - a few years ago you paid your percentage to a broker primarily as you knew they would put a picture in Waterways World - and that's where the buying public would go initially. Now all that has changed and most people (I think) would go to apolloduck or something like that. You would think they knew they would have to work a bit harder. I have had several PMs this morning from folk who have had a really bad experience when selling from Whilton - if I was selling my boat with them I would be really concerned about their attitude.

If this was the saturday boy I would have understood it - but this appeared to be a top down attiude. If I was a first time buyer, faced with a boat with lots of complcated kit on board, it would have been very confusing. I have had some experience of the customer service at Calcutt and would recommend them to anyone. With the boat market apparently quite flat, it is (hopefully) the companies that will go the extra mile that will succeed.

On Saturday we made a 2 hour trip to a major brokerage outfit (maybe the biggest) to view a boat. I had phoned during the week and was told that they weren't that familiar with it but it was definitely available to view. On arrival my details were taken and I was simply handed the keys - this was fine by me as I have had several boats before and welcomed the chance to have a nose about on my own. I was surprised that there was no attempt to find out what I was actually interested in, a chance perhaps to 'up sell' me to another boat - but basically the keys were just fine. There were lots of notices around asking viewers not to start engines - fair enough - a trip back to the office and the whole experience started to turn sour. 'Are you actually keen on making an offer before we start the engine?' OK, you will have to wait until we have someone available. 'How long?' - 'Could be half and hour could be two hours!' The whole tone was just - can't be a***ed - maybe because the boat was in the £20Ks and not £70Ks - but £20K is still a helluva lot of money to most folk. Eventually a really surly guy came and started the engine and without making any other comment waited a while and wandered off - no sales patter at all. When I went to return the keys, I asked whether it would be better to arrange a test run in the week when it was quieter. I was told that this could only be arranged once an offer had been made and accepted!! When I questioned this, I was told that it was to stop them going out on endless pleasure trips - I can understand the principle, but the tone was all wrong. As I drove away I thought of my customer experience and reflected that most owners when they come to sell their boat (is it still 6% + VAT) - that they wll have no idea of how potential buyers are treated - my advice would be to go in as a buyer before committing and check just how YOUR buyer might be treated - it could be very enlightening! Is this typical of most establishments?

I think I know an early owner of Morning Mist - does it have a 'pointy' bow? If so I can put you in touch with him

I used to moor at Dennis Coopers yard - Canal Transport Services - he gave really good talks about the Cannock Extension Canal - and mentioned the boats that were left and ultimately backfilled when they abandoned the length after the A5. It would be worth talking to him about photos - he has retired now, but I believe Matthew (his son) now runs the business. Dennis is a wealth of knowledge on this canal

When leaving the Kennet & Avon late in the afternoon, I always used to ask Lockie if I could slip through without buying a licence - which you can buy at the first Thames Lock you come too. That means that you can get an early start on The Thames - if you are on day licences this might help. They always used to be happy to do this - but that's about 5 years ago. Don't forget that going against the current back to Oxford might take you longer than it did coming down - its always a great feeling when you turn left out of the Oxford and you get some depth of water and a current pushing you along!

The guy who owned it was, in my opinion, the most obnoxious person I ever mer in 20 years on the canal ..............

My tester pushed the rubber tube onto the test point, watched the manometer plummet and declared that we had a massive leak and that would have to condemn the system. I did admit that it is always possible that there was a slight weep somewhere, but not a huge leak. I asked if he would soap test the point where his rubber tube joined the test point - bingo. And did he ever have a red face then.....

I'm glad you like it - I can claim that one when I owned 'Sarni' in the early nineties. She was only about 4' 6'' beam so I can't imagine her being used as anything else than a fun boat for kids - which is what we used her for. Standing on the gunnel was a scary experience as you felt she might turn over! I sold her to a guy on the River Wey - always wondered where she ended up. For those still racking their brains - 'sarni' - a very small butty!