Boot wharf man

There is also a rentable dry dock at charity dock in bedworth, not the neatest of places though.

Honestly, I take one Saturday off and it turns into chaos.

Fetch the hunting rifles and sink it for its own good. BTW. is there a patent on that 70hp engine.

I am surprised that no one on here has mentioned the use of a brass tiller hinge. It basically allows you to lift the front section of the tiller to a verticle position allowing a much narrower swing area. I use one regulary and i find its great if i want to have a quick look down the side of the boat or to let someone up through the doors safely while i'm steering. i also like to fold it up so i can steer on the deck on occasion, particularly in the summer. The hinges are a bit on the pricey side but i think a worthwhile accessary for a trad or semi trad boat. (sorry for any spelling mistakes).

The only difference is the burners, so long as the manufacturer of the domestic cooker have an L.P.G. version or conversion kit, then it makes little difference which one you go for. BUT it will need flame failure or you will not get you safety certificate. This can be a bit restrictive with some manufacturers such as candy who have just started making a dishwasher and oven hob etc. combi ideal for a boat but do not offer it with these features.

I would recommend you steer well clear of the Miogaurd. A few years ago we painted my dad's boats using it and was very alarmed last month at how easily it was removed from the waterline. I work part time at a yard and am involved in a lot of blacking jobs and this was one of the easiest i'd ever done with the jet. Also one of my employers is a proffesional industrial painter by trade and told me that primer of that type is in no way meant for completely submerged use and recommended putting the bitumen on to the bare metal if possible, as we are now doing.

I fully agree with Yoda on that last point. However if a python drive is opted for then it is recommended that it is left a few degrees out of alinement (although i'm not sure exactley how many). This is because the CV joint at the prop end of the unit becomes less flexible with lack of use and this can counter all the advantages of having the unit in the first place. I cannot stress enough that this is only the python drive and in all other cases a perfect engine alinement is essential for smooth and reliable running.

Hi all, Hope you don't mind me adding this here, but i was just curious as to whether anyone has encountered similarly strange behavior from boats they've steered. The boat in question is a 40' springer with a 9mm thick hull below the water line. It goes forwards in a perfectly normal manner but when it comes to stopping it takes 3 boat lengths to stop but then accelerates to full speed in reverse in seconds and steers more easily than a grp cruiser going backwards. It is not underpowered or proped according to the prop sizing charts and has coped with towing a 60' narrowboat. Do you have any experiance with boats with other odd characteristics, I'd like to here about them as well as any unuasual features. Just thought it might be an interesting subject. Many thanks Bootwharfman

I to have tried to replace my weed hatch gasket with a solid sheet of rubber 10mm thick. Back when i tried this my boat did not have a cavitation plate, but was fine with the original gasket (just thought it would make a nicer job of it). This was one solid sheet of rubber with no joins and after a relaxed two hour cruise the bilges were ready to spill into the cabin. Swapped it for the chandlry supplied stuff and all was well. As an aside the addition of the cavitation plate has made the boat much more responsive in reverse giving the boat a much shorter stopping distance. I would recommend one to any who lack one especially if the end of your swim is squared off as opposed to the usual point (springer trait) as it gives one less obstruction to the water flow.

I don't know a lot about diesel heating but my boss (owner of Measham Boats) prefers to fit webasto over ebers purley because of the troubles he has had with reliability. Also a a bloke who sometimes works for him who specialises in servicing diesel heaters in boats agrees fully and finds them much harder to work on.

I have encountered several springers over the years and most of them were only built out of 3mm thick steel built from recycled gas silos. (4-5mm is often an optimistic hope). So 4mm is excellent shape. Am I right in assuming the survey was done with the boat out of the water? If so to not have readings to back up the claim that it is a lot thinner means that he has not performed a proper survey. On the yard I work in I am only a part timer yet using the survey equipment is the easiest and quickest job to do, within ten minutes you can take at least as many accurate readings (obviously I was shown how to properly do this before being let loose at customers boats). I would personally query the bill. Re-plating of springers hull should not need doing unless the hull thickness is less than 3mm as normal pitting is a maximum of 2mm anything bigger should not have time to fully form before the boat is in need of a re-blacking and therefore another visual check. Most surveyors familiar with springers will say that this is fine. Another query I have is the price you were quoted for a full re-plate. At £13k he should be gold plating the hull for you. 3 months ago a boat was bought in to us by a man an a very similar situation to yourself but with a 60ft narrow boat. It had been in the water without maintenance for 25years and was kept afloat by large chunks of mould plugging the 30 or so small holes in the side of the hull. This was fully over plated in 6mm underneath and 12inches up the sides given a similar treatment to the counter and was given a whole new rudder, skeg and tiller assembly as well as other hull patches and the job didn't come to much more than £10k. There is a place at whilton marina, which also uses preformed plates and is highly experienced. Other yards such as the one I work at use a set of 4 long plates overlapping each other to protect the welds between the pieces which should result in a coverage lasting at least a decade or so even if you specify quite thin plate. Even £7,000 should get you a very good quality job, but be sure to shop around. Also to shot blast a boat before a re-plate is pointless excess on most narrow boats especially a Springer. The costs are way too much for the very slight if any difference it will have on the life of the job over standard cleaning methods.

Some excellent pionts there Phil. Probably much more sound advice than mine. The paint the which i referred is a special non-pourous undercoat. I am unsure of the market name though and will try to find it out this weekend. It is very useful stuff though.

If you could get a coat of protective undercoat under the frames before fitting then it might be beneficial but I would not recommend putting on a top coat as when you fit the windows it is almost impossible not to badly scratch the paint around the edges of the frame. If this occurs then water will ingress between the layers of paint resulting in the speeding up of the rusting process, plus if you intend to have a modern very smooth finish then the pain around the frames will need to took back again for a final coat which usually results in the accidental removal of the external frame coating (you're lovely brass or chrome coating). Boat builders do not usually bother painting them in more than primer because when the windows are fitted properly in the correct conditions, so there is no moisture, then the water proof sealant protects the metal for you. It is also important to remember that the top coat is much smoother and therefore the sealant will not adhere to this well at all increasing the likely hood of leaks. My own boat and many others I know to have been done in this method have survived at least a decade without a sign of rust visible round the edges of the frame. To summarize it is my opinion that it is not necessary if your windows are fitted properly. However for peace of mind in case there are flaws in the fitting which are often unavoidable then I recommend you brush round the frames with some protective undercoat. I think international do this and it acts like a waterproof primer and was specially designed for those fitting out there own boats. We have a boat on site where I work exposed to there elements on the bank with 1 coat of this and it has not rusted for over 18months now.

Hi i work for measham boats and we have built both wide beams and dutch barges. I do agree there could be a market for them in France but the main use we have noticed is the much greater interior space they offer for the length. We also chime ours as you suggest and the finished result is a near identicle under water shape to a high class dutch barge resulting in very similar handling characteristics. The only difference is a slightly lower R.C.D. rating as the hull is inherently less rigid.