Peter R

Make that two. I think that they're great - you just need to remember that they were originally designed for the automotive / truck market, and the designers never envisaged or intended that they should be left running 24/7. Use them the way they were designed to be used and they will probably be fine. My personal take on this issue is that it comes down to precise specification of need. In other words if I was commissioning a boat as a liveaboard and wanted a diesel fired central heating system as the prime heat source, I would include in the specification something along the lines of 'The system is required to operate 24 hours per day for a continuous period of at least six months'. Peter

I looked at moorings in this area back in 06 as I thought of moving the boat onto the Great Ouse for a bit, as it would be closer to home. At that time the only place I found that actually had any spaces was Hermitage at Earith. However, a quick scan through the imray 'great ouse' guide produced the following list! Great Ouse Littleport Boathaven Ely Cathedral Fish & Duck Marina, Popes Corner Hermitage Marina, Earith Quiet Waters Marina, Earith Westview Marina, Earith Pike & Eel Marina, nr needingworth The boathaven, St Ives Hartford Marina Huntingdon Boathaven Buckden Marina Crosshall Marina, St Neots St Neots Marina River Cam Upware Marina Tiptree marina Shrubbs Wharf, nr swaffham lode

The 'two boat' issue seems to be the problem. I believe 'The Wharf' pub at Bugbrooke has one, as does the chandlery at Whilton Locks http://www.saisons.co.uk/ The latter appears to be a bit bigger than some (32') and will take up to 12 - I guess it depends how many in the party. Peter

Just to throw yet more confusion into the pot..... I have a webasto that I purchased from BK Marine and has been installed for about 18 months. I don't live aboard, and most of my space heating is done by a solid fuel stove, so the webasto is rarely run for more than 1-2 hours at a time and usually only once or twice a day (basically to heat the water and boost the temperature in the back cabin). I only have one fuel tank so the webasto uses the same fuel as the engine (complete with a dose of fuel set in winter), and has no in-line filter. The fuel is usually purchased from my home marina. I only visit the boat about every three weeks or so, but so far ... no problems. However, when I purchased it, virtually the first question I was asked by the person I spoke to at BK Marine (couldn't tell you who it was though) was 'do you live on the boat?' When I said 'no', the response was 'Good, I wouldn't sell you one if you did' Interesting that the same people now say they are OK for liveaboard use! I have no record of the above, as it was a verbal conversation, but I know what I heard. Peter

I went with Craftinsure about 4 years ago on recommendation and so far have no complaints. However, so far (thankfully) I have not had to claim for anything, so can't offer any experience of that side.

Don't know if it would matter, but according to mt wall planner, that weekend is the Thames boat show at Beale Park. Anyway, Yoda and I had a good run back to Gayton despite being on our own through all the locks (Thanks Yoda - With my illness I wouldn't have got there without assistance). Oh, and Yoda now thinks there is a boggit in braunston tunnel. It went like this - no-one was following us up braunston locks, and at the top there were just two boats which were showing no signs of going anywhere. Then someway through the tunnel, we could see what looked like a headlight behind us, BUT nothing came out after us Ooer!

I retrofitted my current boat along these lines without any major problems. I spoke to quite a few people about the different makes, and whilst there was a mixture of positive and negative experiences with all of them Webasto seemed to have more good than bad, so that is what I bought (Thermotop 'E' I think, 4kw). The only 'constraints' that spring to mind from my system :- The exhaust outlet has to be within 1metre of the 'boiler', shouldn't be situated where it would be close to the bank when moored (heat from the exhaust could set fire to bankside grass if dry!), and should be far enough above the water not to let water in! The header tank needs to be higher than the next highest point in the system (as most boats sit slightly bow-up this would usually be the rad nearest the front. The installation took a while, but was otherwise pretty straightforward. One slight change to the plumbing mentioned above is that I used a complete 22mm loop, with all the rads and calorifier teed off, and fitted thermostatic valves to the rads, which is quite useful as I only need to use the front two rads if the stove isn't lit.

Laural When I have been looking for secondhand boats and wanter to look online, my usual approach was to get a copy of one of the canal magazines and go through the adverts looking up all the websites. I have listed a few below that spring to mind. I have bought boats through the first two and sold one through the third, and have no complaints about any of them. The others come from my memory from last time I was looking. http://www.freedomboats.co.uk/ http://www.notts-marina.co.uk/html/index.htm http://www.boatsales-uk.com/boat_sales.htm http://canalboatsales.homestead.com/ http://www.whiltonmarina.co.uk/ http://www.bwml.co.uk/boats.php http://www.theusedboat.co.uk/ http://www.harralbrokerage.co.uk/ Hopefully that will keep you going for a bit! If you want fibreglass cruisers, you will probably be best off looking at marinas on river navigations, as that is where they tend to be most popular. Peter

Gayton Junction to Napton (for the banter, of course) Assuming, that is, that Buckby opens on time. And for those who havn't worked it out yet, Easter is this coming weekend

Rupert By public transport, train to rugby would seem to be the best bet. I believe there are some local buses operating between rugby and crick, but i'm not sure how often or if they would run on sunday or bank holiday. I went by boat last year - as has been said already, it gets crowded. I got there thursday afternoon, and ended up mooring on a slightly dodgy bit of bank about a mile away from the entrance! Camping is possible, but the field can get rather soggy if it rains a lot (but I guess it probably can't get worse than glastonbury!) One further thought - there's a lot going on at the show, and my experience is that you are likely to struggle to get round everything in a day. I was there all three days last year, and I didn't get bored! If you can make a weekend of it, it would probably be worthwhile. Watch this space for further info http://www.crickboatshow.co.uk/ Peter

Laural Regarding the original question about Liverpool boats, I can't give any specifics, but about two years ago when I was looking at secondhand boats I got so fed up with looking at pieces of overpriced c**p that I started looking at the possibility of commissioning a fully fitted budget new-build. I spoke to three boat fitting companies, and without me mentioning any hull builders all three advised me not to consider a Liverpool hull. The fact that three professional fitting companies all said the same without prompting says something to me. But as has already been said, they have made a lot of hulls, and problems with a small minority can create unjustified generalisations. I am sure there are many Liverpool owners who are quite happy. If you plan to fit yourself, i just hope you have plenty of time. A friend of mine is currently fitting a 40' x 10' sailing barge that he bought as a shell. He only works two days a week, but despite theoretically having 5 days a week to work on the boat he is still not finished after two years - It is a LOT of work. Regarding buying secondhand, all I can say is don't give up! Having decided to stick with secondhand, I eventually found a boat that suited me, and was a sensible price, but it took a long time and a lot of miles. Peter

Not quite - you're out by a factor of 10, it's actually 0.596Mbps! The 'k' bit of kbps refers to 'kilo' (x 1000), the 'M' of Mbps refers to Mega (x 1000000), so to convert 'k' to 'M' divide by 1000. If you want a comparison, I have just run the test and my landline broadband is currently reporting 1837kbps download and 238kbps upload. However, it could be much worse - a good landline dial-up connection might reach 56kbps!

I have an old Honda 450 genny that came with the boat when I bought it, but as an 'occaisional cruiser' I figured that I would have more use for it at home, so it lives in my shed. If I am expecting to be on the boat without cruising for more than 48hrs, I may take the genny along, but it would always be refuelled and run on the towpath, NEVER on the rear cruiser deck as vapours could get down in the engine bay. On the subject of gas safety, I found it somewhat ironic that when I had a BSS test last year, the boat was failed on account that I had omitted to put a fuse in the connection between the mains battery charger and battery (reason being that IF the wire had been severed it MIGHT have come into contact with an exposed negative connection and created a short circuit), but the fact that the gas hob had no flame-fail protection didn't even get a mention. I know which I think is more dangerous (must change that hob!). My current thinking on gas-free is that IF I was commissioning a boat from new, AND wanted gas-free, I would seriously consider installing a fixed diesel genny and a decent sized battery bank instead of the normal propulsion engine, and opting for electric propulsion.

Just done it! Just don't get deceived by the 'ghost' tunnel

If they don't open on time, you will find me in the queue as well! (although I probably won't get there until Saturday, as I have to start by driving from Suffolk to Gayton Junction to collect the boat!)

It's not particularly cheap, and I have not yet come across anyone who has used it on a boat, but alde do a heat exchanger which can be used to transfer heat from the engine cooling circuit to a boiler circuit. I think it is designed for the motorhome market, but see no reason why it should not be feasible for a boat. http://www.alde.co.uk/itemdetails.php?itemId=58 This could solve your problem, as the same coil would work for boiler and engine. Peter

In terms of usage capacity, my home broadband gives me 1GB per month inclusive - I probably exceed this about once every three months, in which situation my ISP automatically adds an extra 1GB for that month and charges me an extra £1 for the priviledge. However, as I am paying £10 / month for the fixed broadband, the fact that mobile ones are available for the same price does start to raise some questions..... Peter

It will be interesting to see what the final wording is with regard to enforcement - There would be no point chasing the boats up and down the canals unless there is a legal requirement for the users to maintain records of what fuel they have purchased and at what duty level. Without this requirement on users it will be impossible to prevent people 'aquiring' low duty fuel.

I went off traditional pins having had several occurrences of them working loose, and switched over to the screw in 'ground anchor' type. The ones I have are somewhere in the region of 12-18" long, but once they're screwed in they aren't going anywhere! I got mine from Midland Chandlers in Braunston (about £12 each I think). The guy who served me said he used two of them to moor his boat which was moored 'on-line' on the the Grand Union and they had'nt moved an inch in 6 months. You can also get them from B&Q

Success! I've managed to get the Tuesday and Wednesday off work, so I hope to be there, boat willing!

I am currently on my second secondhand boat, and whilst searching for them I have paid numerous visits to Whilton who have probably the largest collection of boats in one place. However, neither of my boats came from there as I found the prices higher than I thought reasonable for what was on offer. But don't let that put you off a visit - you may find differently. My first boat came through Castle Marina, Nottingham and the second through Freedom Boats, Macclesfield. Best advice I can give is to go through the magazines, look up the websites, have patience, and be prepared to do a lot of travelling looking at boats that looked good in the ads but turn out to be rubbish. It's also worth contacting the hire companies, as they turn over their fleets regularly and often have ex-hire craft for sale. The only other thing I would say is to 'look beyond the surface'. The boat I bought looked very tired externally, but the interior was OK so I bought it - a coat of paint makes a world of difference! Peter

Why? The only source of 230V on my boat is an inverter, and to the best of my knowledge the earth is NOT bonded to the hull. Furthermore I am not aware of any requirement for this to be done, and the BSS inspector who issued me a new ticket recently obviously did not see this as an issue. Peter

My cruiser stern has one-piece longitudinal deckboards that are about 6' long. When I bought the boat (secondhand) it came with a 'security' device for them - a damn great hunk of steel u-girder that was laid transversely across the boards and padlocked in place. Hardly a subtle solution, and a definite trip hazard, which is why it is now in my shed, not on the boat! I work on the basis that the only things down there worth nicking are the engine and batteries. Whilst engine theft is not unknown, someone is hardly going to put it under their arm and walk off with it, and if they have come prepared with all the equipment to remove it, they have probably got more than enough gear to get past whatever locks you have. The batteries are a bit more portable, but they are secured to the side of the boat with a length of chain, so you would still need a pair of good bolt cutters to get them loose. Basically, I don't think it's a high risk, and so far (touch wood) i've been right. Peter