jojoknitter

I think I am just going buy my own boat!!!! Cut cut out a landlord completely!

I am now writing a letter....with lots of signatures petition- style, to send off. Well I have done that so many times and to be honest it makes my life easier if I just do it all myself and get him to sign it all!! I cannot express how amazingly sloooow he works

I rent the boat which is owned by my landlord. The mooring is owned by the landlord too. The problem is my landlord as he is as helpful/useful as a chocolate teapot. I rent it all from him and i have a contract. I have told him many times about all of this but he has done nothing. That is why i am trying to sort it. BUt the thing is its not him having to deal with it all on a day to day basis. I could stay in a temp mooring until HE sorts it ( ie..NEVER) or I can do something about it...its a right pain not being able to go anywhere to cruise bacause there is more than likely no where to come back to.... i cant keep moving about as i work full time etc etc...

OK!!!! I may have been vague in my first post that started this but..... Firstly - I will be moving NO boat myself. It HAS been considered by many- but the ' illegal' ( apologies for the perhaps incorrect term...and no you cant get high of it,,ha ha) is attended to every day although not lived on, by a NUTTER. I wont elaborate but he IS a nutter. Secondly- Dont assume I am being 'Slow' or lapse at trying to sort this out...I AM NEW TO IT ALL !!!! Been there 9 months and this all started as I moved on. Due to the lack of information from BW i didnt / dont know the best way to go about things. The boat i live on was put outside the mooring area by the owner when i started renting it. I had no idea about any of the rules/regs whatever...that is why I am asking for opinions. Basically one boat is abandoned and half sunk. The ' illegal' ( sorry again) boat was plonked there in October before I had a chance to get back into the space and has been there ever since. He has chained himself to the side and as I said he is not one I want to mess with. Hence why i contacted BW because that is their JOB to sort these things out. The mooring is paid for by the owner so therfore we should be in it. Quite.

Morning all, I just wondered if I could get some veiws on this; We have a long term mooring, but for 9 months we have been unable to moor in the mooring due to a couple of abandoned and 'illegal' boats taking up space. This has meant we have has to moor in a water point ( NOT good) for the first 5 months and now we are moored in a 14 day spot and have been for 3 months. As you can appreciate this is really not good at this time of year to be moored in visitor spots. I have called/ emailed BW so many times as have others along our bit of the canal - but we are met with until this week a 'wall of silence'. I finally got someone on the phone this week but didnt gain any real info as to what was happeneing with regards to the removal of these boats. I was told 'it was none of my business' to ask!!!!!! SURELY as I cant moor where i am PAYING to moor it makes it my business????!!! Anyway - so we are still in the dark...and to make it so much worse two new shiny boats have arrived with the new 3 year moorings and taken the space of a livaboard boat who has gone off to have work done. When they return they will have to join us in the 'queue' to get back in!! WHY O WHY are BW selling off moorings when they have no ROOM!!!! we have been waiting for 9 months to get back to where we should be. Its really starting to get ridiculous...what are they doing???!!!

I was at Crick on the monday for 15 minutes when we were evacuated....and was told i could have refund via the ticket agent i had got them through. I have sent the tickets off so we will see....but i was told i would get one.

afternoon all... just wondering how high to set the revs when you run the engine to charge the batteries. If i have mine any lower than 800 the engine makes a really clanky banging racket! is this normal? just wondering if this is too high or just the way to do it!? I am also worried about whether higher revs use up that much more fuel? thanks for any advice on the ol' rev count!

It really does depend on the canal.....in my 'how ruuude' incident - I had no choice to slow down what with al the very narrow part of the Oxford...either hit the boat with a thwack or go in the bushes..there was very little water space in between....in any other circumstance I think pootling along moderaltly would have been fine! Also the look on their faces spelt grumpy - and dont mess!

I was in thrupp this weekend and noticed a couple of boats covered in cut grass too....we arrived and moored just after they'd been along....and it really is a right pain to get off the boat.....takes ages.

yup..I regularly yell out the window at 'speeding' boats. They usually go past at a cruicial moment - like when you are just pouring out a lovely cup of very hot tea..... I dont think most really realise how fast they are going or that there really are people living on the boats next to them...they often look so surprised as I politely poke my head out of the window and yell at them to slow down....stag do's are they main culprets...but hey they are having fun.

hello all....just thought i would share this with you.... this weekend we took the boat out for a little cruise - lovely. We were coming out of the lock at Kidlington - very busy of course, lots of boats about this weekend. So we are happily merrily boating along when another boat comes thundering along towards us. We did the honourable thing, slowing down making room to pass etc....all the time thinking ' oh, they'll slow down in a sec...anytime .......' BUT NO! this delightful pair (who both had expressions similar to a dead pike I saw floating earlier),did not slow down - this part of the canal is narrow anyway with all the boats moored- They were going so quickly that they forced us into the bank into a tree - that we realised later left a thick scratch the whole lengthy of our boat. How RUUUDDEE!!! So I shouted 'uh HELLO!!!' but they were off ...and we watched them try to jump the queue at the lock. Lovley folk EH?

yeah! a whole cabbage and red pepper and then a leek sailed past me the othe night....amazing - they hadnt even been touched by the look of things. Oh the wonders of veg spotting.

ok....have stopped worrying. thanks....we are cruising tomorrow anyway woo hoo..! These are the problems we face from renting a boat with no generator and hot water and power coming from running the engine...It was designed really as a cruiser holiday type thing rather than a live-a-board where we have to get 'permission' fROm the owner to cruise...( much easier said than done i may add.... ) as a result we are looking for our own boat to buy so we can do WHAT WE LIKE!!!! anyway, thanks....

Hello all, I run my engine daily for a couple of hours to charge the batteries - but have just been told by an ex- livaboard at the bus stop this morning, that I should have my prop turning so the pistons dont get knackered.....!? Is this true ? I have never been told this before and seen only one boat doing this before. We dont cruise the boat, just live on it (... its not ours) so the prop hasn't turned in 6 months or so . We are however cruising this weekend if that makes any difference!? Am I damaging the engine????!

This may be a daft question but....... Why is there no dial on the boat that tells you how full the tanks are - ie fuel and water tank?? Or do other people have them and I dont? I always catch myself out with fuel etc - ....perhap its something you get to 'know'..?

The pump seems to be back to its former self but I am not overly convinced as yet. The water fow is fine at both tap points and the whirring stops when it should. I am going to moniter how much water we are using and see what happens now. I think what may have happened is I didnt realise how much water weused over the last few days....washing machine etc...and it empties the tank and the pipe was picking up air. Now it is full it is behaving. But I am still unsure if thats it solved....

I am loving this whole boat life too.....nothing better than opening the window and there is WATER and ducks and pheasants and moorhens and greenery etc etc.... It didnt phase me last night as a returned from my posh- ish day job to don a greasy old t shirt and clean out the diesel stove...looking hot I may add covered in black oily muck....!? headtorch and all - the male in my life looking on adoringly ( or not...). No pretty hands with manicured nails on this boat. I feel so chuffed to have decided to go for it - most people think I am mad but I wouldnt go back to a house now...not with all those white envelopes coming through the door ...!? I have learnt more and been happier since living on the water than in a long while. wooohooo!!x

Well.....I turned off the water supply at main tap, disconnected pipe friom water pump under the kitchen area, put a length of hose in it - turned on the water supply and blew down the hose, and pipe until the blockage flew out and I was blowing air into the water in the tank! I hope that makes sense!? It was the pipe that comes from the tank to the pump.... By the way - I could find no leak - so have filled up the tank FULL and will see how quickly it dissapears - the bilge was fine etc...no water puddles anywhere but I am confused as to where all that water went from the other day ..... I will see what happens - cheers for all advice. Dont know what Id do without this site!!

Sorry - dont know what this page is doing sorry if a am repeting quotes etc.... The pump makes a whirring noise, I filled the tank on Thurs pm . It is a refurbed boat that I rent - no idea how old the tank is.... How do I check the tank outlet?? ( sorry dafty question - am new!!) where is it? Cant check stuff now am at work but can look when I get home. Is it possible that a short programme in the washing machine and a couple of sahowers could empty the tank??!! Never happened before! Thanks!!

Hi everyone... My water pump is making weird noises. When I use the taps in the bathroom the water flow is spluttery - and the hot water tank is 'bubbing' and the other day I noticed that there was a noise like a heavy 'trickle' of water in the hot water tank area... never heard that noise before. The shower gave up on me (mid shampoo I might add... ) last night and since then the pump and hot water tank are making noises. I have turned the water pump off on the main panel thing as it is the only way to make it be quiet. After using the taps the pump keeps purring for ages - it doesnt stop until I turn off the main pump switch. But it only seems to be the supply to the bathroom, which is furthest from the main water tank. I recently had to clear the pipe from the tank to the kitchen taps by blowing down it to dislodge a bit of grit or something and that was quite simple to do - I am wondering if something has got stuck in the pipe leading to the bathroom? If so how do I dislodge it? The pipes run the length of the boat under the bed etc - not so easy!! My water tank is half full at the moment, but it sounds as though there is air in the pipes...and I have never heard the hot water tank make a noise beofre as if its struggling to work. Any ideas? I am too nervous to turn it all on again - will it all go bang??!

The boat i live on is bright blue with yellow doors and windows...I love it - it stands out against the navys and greens...and it looks like a giant tonka toy And I can spot it from a long way off...just to make sure its still there. And now that the daffs have come out in my pots it looks like a very happy boat.

That sounds good....how do I go about finding that sort of thing - we are keeping an eye on the BW sites etc but I think around here they are few and far between..!?

I do need to work and its in Oxford so yes constant moving could get difficult. I get the feeling that a lot of boaters plonk themselves anywhere and hope for the best - even though our boat has a mooring we are unable to ''use'' it as the spaces along the stretch of canal designated are full..as there is a boat with no mooring there......and therefore we cant use the mooring we have until they move on. Its not much of a bother at the moment until the BW come along.... Is this how it is everywhere?

Hello to all you wise boaters....! We are thinking of buying a boat of our own to live on - we currently rent one- but the whole mooring thing seems to be difficult and 'political' ! So I have a couple of questions ; 1) Is it possible /viable to live aboard full time with no mooring, and therefore move from place to place - how many people do this? and 2) How hard is it to get a mooring - as far as I am aware its a bit of a bidding war? Would appreciate any advice on this !!