Bristolfashion

Thanks Tonka - having sold our little, 45 year old yacht, we were missing engine problems, blocked heads, frightening weather, inscrutable electrics and mysterious leaks. 😀 As to whether we're yet boat owners, watch this space!

Just to complete this thread - and in case anyone else is looking for the same thing, we used Darrell Broscomb (dbmarinesurveyco.uk) and he was excellent. Darrell is based in Oxfordshire.

We're just moving onto a narrow boat to do a few years of genuine, full-time cruising after doing similar on yachts. As part of the process, we've checked out all the rules, costs and options. It's not really that hard.

Hi all, well, it's getting exciting - having sold the yacht, we've now made an offer on a narrow boat. We now need a surveyor. The suggested list from the marina is, Wilkinson Marine Surveys - Paul Wilkinson DB Marine Survey - Darrell Brosomb Butcher Marine Surveys - Nick Butcher Aft To Bow Marine Surveys - Tony Nother I'd love to know if any forum members have used any of these surveyors (or any other surveyor covering this South of London area) and would recommend them. As ever, thank you very much in advance for any advice given. Cheers and, hopefully, see you on the water soon!

I noticed the comment above that poor boat handling was one of the prime causes of sinking. In Australia, to use a powered boat, I had to pass my boat licence - a basic theory test checking knowledge of the rules and then a short on water test. Perhaps it's time to introduce a basic boat licence for the inland waterways? To avoid the inevitable squeaking, I'd suggest a "grandfathering" process. Current boaters simply fill in a form outlining experience, qualifications and training and, unless they have none of the above, get a licence. New boaters have to pass the qualifications in order to be in control of a boat so, over time, standards should improve. Licence holders would be able to supervise new boaters. Of course, the UK has traditionally resisted any training requirements in these areas - to take our yacht around Britain & Ireland required precisely no qualifications!

Er, I think I was rubbish at explaining what I meant - 3.6.1 requires isolators, 3.6.2 makes certain exceptions, allowing direct connection to the battery, where a suitable fuse or circuit breaker must be fitted. D'oh! 3.5.3 requires that battery charging devices connected directly to the battery are fuse / circuit breaker protected. Excludes engine driven alternators. Fortunately, my wiring up appears to be better than my writing as I've just had an installation inspected against this standard without any changes required - except that one piece of equipment was marked as non operational by the examiner. I wasn't there at the time, but when the purchaser queried this with me, I pointed out & then engaged the large, clearly marked circuit breaker on the obvious switchboard and, bingo, the equipment is now operational (this piece of equipment was defined by the manufacturer as requiring direct battery connection I was also just wondering whether going "above & beyond" would be ok. I was thinking of a situation where family, hirers or friends borrowing the boat were rubbish at ever turning off the isolators - would fitting a suitably sized fuse to a supply even though going through an isolator, provide extra protection & be BSS acceptable - I can't see why not? I know some yachties do this.

It is my understanding that every wire coming from the positive terminal of the battery bank should have a fuse rated to protect the wire (except a heavy duty connection to crank an engine). This fuse should be as close as practical to the battery. If there is a change to a lower rated wire at some point in the circuit, then a lower rated fuse may be needed. Every device should have a fuse rated to protect that device (invariably specified by the manufacturer) either in a switch board / panel or in the wire. For lighting circuits & similar a load calculation and installation of a fuse slightly higher than normal load (but still low enough to protect the wire) would be used.

The pontoons are quite short - our local online magazine suggested that they are designed for boats up to 10m, which rules out a lot of canal boats. I'd assumed that this was for navigation reasons (they stick out into the harbour) - and, possibly, they were going to have a shuffle around to optimise mooring around the harbour. Anyway, getting a few more moorings into the harbour is a good idea - let's hope the boats are used a bit to add to the life of the place - I watched a narrow boat & a wide beam chugging up the harbour the other day and a bit of boat movement adds some colour to the place.

Yes, a good point, thank you. I would, have, thought, however, that a plate that was advertised at 10mm, but is approaching 4mm would be adequate to withdraw (yes, I know all the broker caveats about their "details"), but I'll make sure I'm fully across the contractual details.

I've worked on nature reserves carrying out tree / woodland management and it's rewarding and popular - especially if you can tie it in with providing materials for woodland crafts / charcoal burning / bean poles / firewood / hedging materials etc. However, it can be dangerous, requires some skilled supervision and would be more difficult due to the water nearby & constant public access. It wouldn't be impossible, but a well organised & trained volunteer group would be needed.

We are embarking upon our first narrow boat purchase (the yacht is sold, so we are in a watery worry free zone for the first time in years!). We'll be looking for a boat in decent condition, not a project (the project is to go boating!) Now, broker's details often quote the steel thickness as 10/6/4 or 10/6/5/4, but this is presumably just the original manufacturer's specification. I appreciate that one should have a good old poke about to spot obvious problems, but there's no way of being sure about thicknesses in water and without a survey. A survey will probably come up with some other, lower numbers. My question is what are your ranges for, 1. That's fine, 2. That's very minor, but is worth a few quid off 3. That's minor, but some work needs to be done by the vendor (or an equivalent cash reduction) before purchase. 4. Run away - and give me my deposit back. I'm aware of the 4mm for insurance issue. I'd have thought that a surveyors recommendation to overplate (on a decent boat) would be option 4. As ever, thank you for reading and for any advice given. I hope not to disprove the adage, "there's no such thing as a stupid question" during this process.