bargemast

Great job, boss and boat both do look very nice, I wish you lots of fun and joy with them. Peter.

I've owned quite a number of boats and barges over de last 37 years : '73-'79: barge 34m x 6 m '74-'75: small pushertug 5m x 2m 120Hp '75-'83: barge (Big Tjalk) 33m x 5m shortened to her original size 23m x 5m in '76, left for France with her in '79 where I finished the conversion into a hotel-barge '75-'79: small harbour-tug 7m x 2.5m '77-'79: barge 24m x 5m '83-'97: barge 38.50m x 5.10m '84-'87 converted, and operated as day-trip/restaurant barge until '97 '84-'86: barge 23m x 4.20m '86-'06: tankerbarge 38.50m x 5.05m '86-'89: barge 18m x 4.50m '97-'03: tug converted into motoryacht 15m x 3.85m '01- present: small motor-tjalk 9.50 x 3.20m '02- present: cruiser 7.80m x 2.25m '02-'04: wooden motor-yacht (MFV) 18.20m x 4.02m '04- present: trawler yacht "JOY" which is my liveaboard-boat '05-'06: cruiser 9.20m x 3.20m '07-'09: Tankerbarge 21.50m 4.06m which I started to convert into my future liveaboard barge, but sadly enough had to abandon the project due to health reasons Peter.

How about HYDRODYNAMIC. Peter.

Hi Colin, the photographs are looking nice, you're making good progress. About your heating system, even if a pressurised jet burner system is quite a lot more expensive, it may be cheaper and surely make your boat more comfortable in the long run, especially the way fuel prices are going up constantly. Your heating will be controled by a thermostat, and will only come on when needed. A drip feed will be on all the time, which is O.K. if it's freezing cold and it has to be on permanently, but if not it will be to hot at occasions (burning expensive fuel) or when off to cold, so you have to lite the thing and wait for the boat to heat-up. A drip feed (or solid fuel burner) as second source of heating is perfect but if you are planning to live aboard spend more money then planned to buy something made for the job. Good luck with the finishing, Peter.

What a weird thing to say of the narrowboater that he wouldn't stop and certainly wouldn't back out, SH.. ! if the man is informed about the wide-beam in the tunnel, and he's still going, he's asking for trouble. And not wanting to back-out would have the wide-beam to back-out which would surely take much longer then for him to have waited a little while to let this wide-beam get through and leave him a clear passage a bit later. Peter.

Dear Jill, my sincere congratulations with your boat, which looks like a masterpiece of narrowboat building, I'm sure "Cobbett" will be admired wherever she go's and that many people (myself almost included) will be extremely jealous. I wish you lots of success with the finishing touches and happy cruising. Peter.

Don't you think that MEL DAVIS should be on this list too ? I really think that they boats he has built look just the job, with nicely detailed lines all over. Peter.

Hi Julia, mine is a Somy and I don't think that you can find one like that in the U.K., but Kuranda are importing Kabola boilers that are quite simular, the only thing is that they take up a lot more space then something like a Webasto, Eberspächer or Mikuni etc. If you have the space, they are a good choice and should operate many years trouble free, and I think by what I've been reading that Kurande gives good aftersales service. Good luck, Peter.

Personally I don't see why wheelsteering should be less positive and it doesn't necessarely have to be hydraulic either. I suppose that you may compare a laden 38m barge on the smaller French canals where you scrape over the bottom most of the time, with an English narrowboat on the English canals. I've owned and worked several of those barges, and I've always had wheel-steering with chains and sprockets and steering boxes (sometimes made of truck differentials) or with a quadrant on the rudderstock and chains to a steering winch, which all worked very well and responsive too. Nowdays almost all the steering systems on those barges is electric- and/or hydraulic and they often only have a joy-stick and no wheel at all anymore, and they are still able to do tight turns and enter akward positioned locks without damaging their barges or the locks. In 1996 American friends of mine built a narrowboat Dutch barge with wheel-steering, named "Allegheny" they were the winners of the Marion Munk trophee that year, and had an article in W.W. nov.'96. Their steering was made up of recycled motorbike sprockets and chain, and when I drove their boat I was pleasantly surprised by the way she handled with relaxed, light and still positive steering. There is ofcourse nothing easier, cheaper and more direct than tiller-steering, but I think that it's more because of tradition and easiness that you don't see more narrowboats with wheel-steering. Peter.

Don't forget you're talking about your boat which seems to be, apart from your bloody timer, way to small to warm your boat if you can only just get it above freezing in winter. Maybe the previous owners only used it during the summer months and the heating was only there to get the chill of a cold morning or evening. Mine has nothing to do with Mikuni, Eberspacher or Webasto, which are as far as I know not really made to permanently heat a boat, and they are noisy and heavy electicity consumers, mine is a Somy it's more like a domestic boiler very easy controlable with a good thermostatic control and it heats my boat in the middle of the coldest winter with no trouble at all, and I've got big windows everywhere (all double glazing). Burning wood can be much cheaper, I do agree and you can sometimes even find it for free which you never can for fuel, but I can't possibly see that it's easier to heat your boat like that unless you like it as training for your hobby as stoker on a steamtrain. Peter.

It sounds like this "Bubble Stove" was really badly installed if it was leaking like that unnoticed, but that doesn't mean that they are bad heaters to me. The "Reflex" that another poster writes about are extremely reliable heaters aswell, and getting fuel delivered should be at least as easy, if not even easier than solid fuel, as long as you have a tank to store it, it's dust free and if the connections are made by someone serious, leaking problems like your "Bubble Stove" story shouldn't exist. What do you do with your S.F. heating if you have to leave your boat in the middle of the winter for say 1 week ? Do you drain everything to avoid burst pipes ? And how long does it take to get the heat going again to a decent temperature when you're back aboard ? All I do is turn the thermostat up and 30mins later I'm snug. Peter.

Solid fuel burners are very nice, but if you permanently live on your boat (as I've been doing for the last 39 years) it's nice if you don't have to depend entirely on your solid fuel. Sometimes one (or at least I) has to leave for a couple of days/weeks during winter, and you can't keep your fire going if you don't fill it up constantly. I've got a diesel central heating system with a domestic type pressure burner and thermostat control, so if I have to leave, I only turn the thermostat down to about 10°C and don't worry. Ofcourse there's always a possibility that something goes wrong, but in all those years (not on the same boat) it has never happened sofar (touch wood !) Peter.

There are lots of rules and regulations, and it's getting harder all the time, so travelling up and down (of often) the same stretch of water with FRIENDS is not likely to work long enough to become rich. Also as said before with the lenght of there barge they should be prepared to run into a whole lot of extra problems. One thing that dreamers don't seem to understand is that it's not enough to have a beautiful barge to make a business work, it the clients and it takes more then just a few advertisements in de magazines to get them comming, there are already quite a few barges around and long established that know all about the erea etc. things that take a long time to find out. Still I do wish them the best of luck. Peter.

Chaining up may be good on the canals where drunks or nasty youngster are looking for some fun by letting boats adrifft, it won't prevent stealing as nowdays they walk around with battery powered angle grinders that only need a couple of seconds to cut through the chains. If I'm uncertain about the spot, I drop at least 1 anchor, that way if they set the boat adrifft it won't go far and will be easy enough to get back without much effort, I speak out experience as it has happened to me 4 times over a period of 30 years in France of which twice with my 38m barge, in the 10 years before that in Holland it never happened, but it may be the same there now. Peter.

Dear starman, I'm sorry to read that the damage is that serious, but if I would be in your place, I would strip the whole engine down and inspect every bit, also that way you can check the max 7 grams difference, give the valves/guides a check up, if the bores and pistons, crankshaft are still within the limits, just renew the rings and renew all the seals and gaskets, and then you can start again with a reliable engine that you know from A to Z, and that will give you many hours of service as long as you prevend water getting in, so from then on make 100 % sure you cover the exhaust. Good luck with the rebuilding, Peter.

I think I remember this barge from St.Mammes in France, as a shortened 38 metres. Buy the looks of it, they sell it more as a floating house, then as a barge as they haven't bothered to put a few pictures of the outside of the barge in their gallery. Peter.

No, Tony she wasn't moaning about the camara, she said that they had a rough time, and that a guy was almost lost while hanging on the tiller. It became all a bit too much so they decided on a 4 hours rest, and start refreshed again. Merry Christmas to everybody, Peter.

What your recent rapport states, doesn't mean anything as you don't have to searche far to find some other recent rapports that will state the opposite. If you grow your food with poison, traces of it will be in your food. If you feed your cattle with inferior food, hormones, medication etc, traces of this will be in your meat aswell, and all of a sudden all kinds of illnesses that they can't find reasons for appear. I don't mind paying more for food that has been grown without all the modern quick grow stuff in it. Peter.

Just by coincidence looking at youtube I found exactly what you are looking for gives you all the information. Peter.

Almost all the hire craft on the rivers and canals of France are made of GRP, the smaller boats seem to be doing better then the bigger versions in de hands of crew without any experience whatsoever that often need repairs to their hulls during the season, and an almost complete rebuild (mainly of the bows) after the season. In my opinion the best and most resistant hull material for canals and rivers is steel where you often rub along the bottom when tying up along the bank. Peter.

Is this the topic about Narrowboats in France ?????

It's not a very cheap solution, but a very good one, not easy to find second hand, but there are some look at : "SCHOTTEL-NAVIGATOR". A cheaper alternative would be to extend the stern and instal a sail-drive unit. Good luck with your project, Peter.

The age of 80 years shouldn't really have to worry you, as long as it has been maintained and old steel doesn't rust as fast as the new stuff. I used to own a big fat "TJALK" that did the Baltic trade in the days that there was little inland work in Holland, to the Scandinavian countries with salt and back with wood. this tuff lady was built in 1897 and I bought her in 1975 cut-out the 10m that they had lenghtened her in the early 60 ties and made her into an hotel-barge, she has changed owners at least twice since, but is still going strong at the age of 112 now, and trading still as an hotel-barge in the laguna of Venice. So yours of 80 is still only a baby, but maybe not in as sound condition, have a good survey done, so you know what you are getting yourself into, and ENJOY it. Peter.