agg221

I certainly wouldn't be worrying that the engine is completely shot and in need of changing at this stage. Water is not good in precision parts, so a thorough investigation would be in order to understand the extend of what needs doing. Does the engine currently run? If so, it's likely you can get away with the damage. Solid thumpers like this often gradually lose performance rather than stop dead. If it doesn't run then clearly some cleaning/refurbishment/potential new parts are needed. If it comes to it, it appears that aftermarket injectors are available at £90 each which won't break the bank. Beyond that, there is a series of checks, all fairly basic, which should establish what if anything wants doing and on what sort of timeframe. Probably to be considered more as a negotiation point on price - the urgent or near-term ones either the owner gets them done or adjusts the price accordingly. If you need an engineer to take a look at it, I can point you at @tom_c who troubleshoots a number of vintage engines for people and has a very high success rate in getting them going again! Alec

Yes. OEM parts seem to be pretty much gone for the service and wear items but they last a long time and the aftermarket parts seem to be satisfactory. It certainly doesn't seem to be an engine where you need to have a spare engine to hand in case of failures (unlike our Kelvin!) Alec

Which parts have started to go rotten? If the iroko runners are still sound and it's just the top which is going, could they be re-used? I would echo the advice about painting with epoxy. An even more thorough job can be done by tacking canvas over the whole outside before painting, and then applying enough paint to completely fill the weave. You are effectively making a composite skin. The only alternative to iroko I can suggest if you can find it is robinia. It's a minor timber so not always very available, but it is incredibly durable. Alec

It depends when the conversion was done. Oates was commercial, but ceased to be in 1974. RCR therefore does not apply. My Dutch boat became a pleasure craft around 1980 so the same applies. If this Dutch barge was converted to residential use prior to the invention of the RCD/RCR the same applies. Alec

Did you manage to resolve things with PLA? It does occur to me that one option would be to have it craned aboard a ship, then craned off in the UK and towed to its mooring. That could overcome some of the road transport issues. In my (very limited) experience, so long as the boat is already no longer commercial at the point when you bring it in, you don't have too many problems with RCR/RCD, and since they are accepting it as residential that would appear to tick that one off. Alec

I think it depends on whether you regard them as services for boaters, or services for those arriving by boat, which is not necessarily the same thing. If we arrive back at our linear mooring after a trip out, we generally want to leave the toilet empty as it could be a while before we are back. The services we use are 20mins boating away, which is fine, but if we boat up, use them and boat back but want to leave the boat pointing the direction we originally arrived then we have a 40min run the other direction to wind, so all round it's a 2hr+ trip to empty the toilet. Taking it up by car is a 15min trip all-in. I could probably wheel it up and back on the towpath in around 40mins. The contents was produced by the same people, boating in the same way (and probably at the same place and time) and the facilities are being used as part of the same licence fee, so I'm not sure that obliging the boat itself to be there to empty the Elsan is entirely justified? Alec

I think you can go significantly lighter weight on your bed sides. 18mm ply would be structural on its own, so if you are adding a 38/63mm frame the ply becomes largely for the facing and you could go down to 10mm with no problems. I found it easier to use frame and facing construction than to try and use frameless designs as it isn't quite thick enough to carry fixings and there was no point stepping up to 25mm. What is the maximum unsupported span on the top? That should define how thick you want the 'fingers'. You don't want lightweight and flimsy but equally there is no advantage to going excessively thick. We span 2ft with 12mm ply and it doesn't flex, but that is as a continuous sheet. Adding a sheet above the 'fingers' to allow easier sliding without rubbing on the underside of the mattress sounds useful, particularly for putting it away, but you need to avoid forming a step in the bed. It isn't under any load so could be much thinner than 12mm. 3mm would probably be plenty. If your woodworking skills are up to it then ramps on the back ends of the pull out fingers could raise them level as they exit the bed onto the side rail that they rest on. This would allow it to be truly level. Boat carpentry always takes way longer than it should, but it isn't difficult, just awkward shapes and a cramped working environment. I am slowly rebuilding the end of my daughter's bed so that the stove hearth is incorporated. Outside chance I will get the end section made up this week, except I left part of it on the boat which is 3hrs drive away! Alec

Any comment on the concentration of the original spill? Alec

You would like to think someone has dropped in a lot of stop planks to compartmentalise the damage.

I was thinking they were now ready for next year's BCN Challenge...! Alec

I think you may have run across some of the discussion about liveaboards and continuous cruising and perhaps got the impression that most moorings only allow you to be there for up to 14days. This is true of mooring in locations which you don't pay for - the general rule is a maximum of 14 days unless signposted for shorter than this. This is the type of mooring you would be using on a trip out for an overnight stay - essentially you can moor anywhere you like on the towpath. However, when you pay for a mooring, it's for your use only and almost all moorings that you pay for can have the boat left on it for as much of the time as you like. Think of it like renting a parking space for your car - you can leave it there as much as you like but when you go out, you expect it to be there waiting for you when you come back. There is a lot of fun to be had from a boat used for weekends and getaways - the four of us have a 38ft boat which works fine for up to a couple of weeks as we aren't looking for luxury. Alec

You can't be sure, but it can help build a picture. GDPR is often misunderstood (including by people in the insurance industry) but it relates to personal data. 'Is this boat insured by you?' is not personal data, and neither is 'has it been insured through you since XX/XX/XXXX?' The company may choose not to answer, but I have currently had a 50/50 success outcome on asking. If you are shown a copy of a comprehensive insurance policy and the insurer confirms that they have insured the boat since a particular date then it is supportive rather than definitive, ie another reason to head towards having a survey (or not if you are so inclined) rather than walking away. Alec

One occasional exception to the 'don't trust the seller's survey' general rule is when the survey is a year or two old and was needed to obtain comprehensive insurance. If you can see the policy and check with the insurer that everything is in order then the fact that the survey was not for the purposes of selling the boat can give a level of reassurance. Another one is when the survey was undertaken by one of a small handful of very respected surveyors. For example, ours is being surveyed by Mike Carter next week, because it is coming up to due for the five year insurance survey and we would rather address any issues while it is out and get a management plan in place. Hypothetically if it was for sale in a couple of years I would imagine anyone familiar with Mike's work would be reassured by this, even if they then had their own survey done. I know I would be if the situation was reversed. Alec

I know why this won't be done (inability to control it if things go wrong and no confidence in the strength of the balance beam) but given that it is a pivoting action where there is also a turning moment by pushing downwards, I wonder whether if you could rustle up say ten people and put five down each side of the balance beam to pull backwards and lean downwards it might move it back into place? I suspect that is the type of approach which would have been applied in the past. Alec

Enjoy the unusual view of our boat as you pass Industry (just over the A5 aqueduct past Brewood). Alec

A top quality inward sprung bit of mooring by us in 2023:

Since you changed your user ID its not so easy to identify your boat…

I think @tom_c has. Alec

If the Shropshire Union near Market Drayton would suit then the farm moorings at Brownhills Farm could be an option. No facilities but a decent offside linear mooring. It's where we keep our boat, when we actually make it back there! Alec

We are out at the moment for a bit of hull work and a survey. Oates has already been epoxied, so whilst everything else is being done they will be blasting inside the counter and giving it epoxy too. There is nothing cosmetic about in there so I thought I might as well just get the lot done. Alec

37”, but normally only need to reach the prop and can get away with only reaching the centre line of the prop so more like 20” below the water. Our counter deck to waterline height is comparable to yours which helps in reaching from the top but would make it near impossible to reach in from the cabin. We do not have a rear diesel tank so everything inside the counter needs to be accessed for painting, which we couldn’t do with a chute. I also tend to let it drift while clearing the prop. We do pick up a fair number of builders’ bags, fishing keep nets and heavy jackets which aren’t coming off easily with a sharp thing on a pole, but we tend to stay in the channel and if we do skew or run aground it is easy enough to pole the stern back into the channel and reverse before setting off - certainly easier than trying to find somewhere deep enough to get alongside. Alec

Apologies, but in the context of the previous “sour as a lemon” comments your typo amused me. Little things…🙂 Alec

That would be the first time ever that Oates has been defined as a wide beam…

The picture is deceptive then - note my daughter's head and shoulders are entirely under deck level. You can get your shoulders down about nine inches below deck level which helps a lot. If you really need to, you can get your shoulder below water level, but I have not needed to do that and can't think of a reason I would need to. I can reach the whole of the prop from top to bottom but my daughter probably can't, although she can easily reach the whole of the prop boss, both in front and behind it. A practical advantage - painting in there is pretty easy, apart from the upper surface. Not sure how you would paint and maintain the outer surface of the chute and the rudder tube? Alec

Same picture as previous thread. Bear in mind the draft on ours, the fact that my daughter can get down it to clear the prop and so can I is pretty useful. The other thing I really like about ours is that the counter is sealed from the boat, so in the event of failure we shouldn't sink! Alec