Chris Pink

It's alway good to see an expert opinion from a professional in the field.

Start the day agreeing with Nick Norman? What else is going to surprise me?

Well hopefully people will listen more to your opinion than the fatuous self-aggrandisment of Mr Mayall.

I seem to have got a handle on mine. Not completely because boating took preference to engine diagnostics. If left in idle for any length of time (not sure how long) it will take a while to pick up. If it's just briefly in idle (less than a minute or so) then it has no problem roaring. This seems reasonably consistent (except I don't know exactly how long or if that is a consistent length of time). It must be quite a short time because I remember, last year, taking out a wooden post because reverse didn't pick up fast enough when I had been idling in to a mooring. it will stall (always !) if I start the engine, do some stuff then put it into gear without first taking the revs up out of gear. It then seems to pick up slowly when restarted. Which would imply definitely not fuel starvation (there would be plenty available if in idle for a while) but could be a governor fault or 'stickiness'. I will ask my engineer to investigate (in my dreams) I hope this helps Tony.

So what's the standard thing to do with the solid waste. Is is toxic? can you use it as compost? or does it need further rotting?

This is favourite.

Would you like a greenie with that? (I believe though, that the rules say you actually have to be directly rude to me but, a bit like mornington crescent, you'll not get anyone to agree) i don't have to make a mess in your elsan or have a row with my missus to wind you up, all I have to do is write a few words on the internet. Pathetic. And I should try taking your thumb out your mouth and reading the OP again, I don't believe he was trying to wind anyone up, with the possible exception of his wife. (if we are to believe this one-sided story).

Mine has a day tank, right above the fuel filter. But I won't try and confuse your thread any more, I want to really quantify it first and make sure it is the same thing. I know it takes a while to pick up but I don't know how intermittent it is. I just kind of assume it's slow to pick up but then sometimes it surprises me.

I don't know, i'm only just getting to grips with this engine. To me it's almost as if it wants to be in a boat that has an engineer - a lot more complicated than my National or my Lister. I hadn't really thought about it much, it was your post that made me think, "hang on, that's what mine does" I don't think the alternator thing is it. The other odd thing my engine does - it's a steady as a rock all the time but if it's on idle out of gear for a while, every so often (once every couple of minutes) the revs will slowly pick up, not hugely but noticeably, over 2 or 3 seconds and then go back down to normal idle again. It's not been used much for a year so I put this down to "needs a blast" and it seems to be lessening. under load it's absolutely steady. But now you've posted I'm going to see if I quantify this pickup problem a bit more. To be honest I thought that's the way it was and that's it but now you've got me thinking. Though not having instant reverse is a bit disturbing.

I realised early on that trying to communicate over 70 foot of boat and engine involved shouting. And where there's shouting there's the possibility for 'misunderstanding'. So now I'll never shout. I'd rather see my boat hit something than shout at the helmsperson.

Why? Have you moaned about my behaviour somewhere?

Then you're talking to the wrong people (us) you should maybe be talking to the right person (him). I can't clean up your elsan, sorry, much as I'd like to. What would you like me to do?

I get my mother to write them for me.

My 4LW does exactly the same. Intermittently takes ages to pick up other times it roars. I don't think it can be the governor spring (well not fallen off) because if the OP problem is the same as mine it's intermittent.

I don't know what I think of him Mike, I've never met him. I get the feeling he's an alright bloke, if you want my honest opinion. But his post was idiotic and I said so.

Well said Mike. We all have good days and we all have bad days. Some of us have the misfortune to have some keyboard warrior moan about us to the world and its wife.

Well I'm glad you've never had a row with your wife. Or a bad day made worse my being in public with lots of judgemental people about. And Caprifool makes a very good point, perhaps he was made even grumpier by having to wade through someone else's shit to get to the elsan. It's easy to draw conclusions. It's even easier to call people idiots on a public forum without knowing the half of it.

Well if you tried using some of the intelligence you occasionally display you would notice that I was responding to an estimate which started by counting all of a (fictitious) number of so-called cc'rs. My point is you can't count all of those as liveaboards. I know others liveaboard too that have moorings - I am not as stupid as you appear in this instance to be.

you misundertand. I think 15,000 is way too high. And without an authoritative source I'd dispute your 11,000 too. This is not a figure I recognise - source please? And it would be a mistake that to assume that all boats without home moorings are liveaboards

Where does that fantasy figure come from? I would be very surprised if that wasn't 3 to 4 times the number living on the inland waterways.

Now Mr GF, don't be such a petite chatte.

Thank you for taking the trouble to keep us informed. I will let my own imagination decide what LFG stands for ;-)

Interesting. Does this imply that they will try and recover the costs from the new owner?

It's alright Richard, I think we've got a way to go before anyone calls you a petite chatte.

This would appear to be it; http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/finding_a_place_to_live/houseboats Renting a houseboat If you rent a houseboat, make sure that it is being rented to you with a residential mooring. Most residential moorings do not allow houseboats to be rented out, so make sure that your landlord has got permission for you to stay there. Back to top Useful information on houseboats You can find out more about living aboard a houseboat from Canal Junction or the Canal & River Trust. Mind I've just had a look at their website on squatting and that's a joke compared to the real and pertinent information they used to put out in the 70s and 80s. Would it be cynical of me to believe that Shelter has jumped on the housing association / corporate charity cash cow? I wonder how much their chief executive is paid and how long they are, or expect to be, in post.