Ex- Member

Thanks for the welcome, I'm only too happy to give tips and advice to members. I was fortunate enough to be quite good with carpentry before embarking on this project, and had spent several years in many aspects of the building trade, so a good start. It was initially my brothers idea to purchase a narrowboat. After talking to him about it at length, Lynn and myself decided to do it also. The great benefit has been that My brother is an ex RAF aircraft technician and fully trained diesel mechanic. So combining our skills has worked well, and Bro's technical knowledge a godsend as the technical side of building a boat is the tricky part IMO Anyway forum looks great, some very interesting reading. I have some photos on photobucket, can i just put the IMG codes into a post to post pics?

Even if a detector van detects a TV they still have to gain access to a property or boat to prove you have a tv, they cannot prosecute without proof. They can prosecute if they believe you have a TV and you refuse them access to prove otherwise. However they will find it difficult to prove this in court anyway as detector vans aren't as clever as the BBC make out, and can't be relied on solely as evidence of having a TV in any said property. Although technically you should have a tv licence if you're a CC the odds on getting caught are probably that of winning the lottery, especially if you are a CC with no address And the easiest get out is that the you can say the offending TV is the property of a family member with a land based TV licence, job done

Came across this site today, wish I had done 3 years ago. Anyway I'm new here, me and partner Lynn are nearing the end of fitting out our 60f/t X 10f/t 6" wide beam canal boat, superbly built by (R&D fabrications) sadly no longer in business due to retirement. Hopefully it'll all be finished by the end of this summer. We've been fitting the boat out for nearly 4 years now, as we can only get to it weekends and only in the summer months. We initially had the boat (steel shell) put in the Water in Keynsham Nr Bristol but after much of the fitting out was completed after 18 months, the need for more space to work effectively was required. So the boat was put on dry land in Devises in Sept 2006 The majority of internal work is done, just a utility room to the rear of the boat adjasent to the engine room to be finished, eand some electrical work in the engine room, and then a full repaint before going back on the water hopefully next April. The boat is solely designed for Lynn & myself and is very open plan design, I will post some photos shortly if it's possible on the forum. I'm currently sorting the charging system, I have twin alternators 90 and 50amp and plan to use both to charge 3 battery banks, one engine battery - 6 main 110amp leisure batteries and a 3 x 110amp battery back up batterty bank. I'm quite taken by the stirling product for doing this split charging, has anyone fitted this system yet??? We have literally constructed the boat from a wind and watertight primed steel shell. We've undertaken all work ourselves even fitting the engine and prop. We knew this was going to be a long project, and it has turned out one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever undertaken. Of course there's been some cockups along the way but on the whole most pleasurable. Anyone endeavouring on this type of project my main 3 pieces of advise would be. Do your research, then do it again, especially with regard to choosing your boat builder. Then make sure you research every possible option for engine and energy & heating requirements. (never believe any salesman) Do your own research Dont set a time limit for completing the work, I can assure you it will take 2 to 3 times longer on average than people initially estimate. Spend a few extra quid on decent power tools, not necessarily the most expensive, but avoid cheap tools, they will cost you dear.