kienik

It sure does have to be one of the unluckiest, it sank in Tattenhall Marina a few months back and is currently for sale on EBay, Such a shame but I never ever leave my boat alone in a lock, im constantly looking out to see what's happening

Afternoon all. Last Thursday whilst in work I slipped on the steps in the kitchen and chipped a bone in my right foot, the resulting injury has put me in a cast and crutches for five to six weeks. Brilliant timing as we are due to move house/pubs in two weeks as well as taking our boat up the Monty in June, looks like the latter may not be happening now. I'm 34 and reasonably fit, I've got the hang of the crutches now and can get on and of the boat (with some caution), its a bit difficult moving around the inside with crutches given the width etc, our boat is a trad so I would have to get a stool to sit inside the rear doors and the OH would have to do all the hopping on and off etc. Has anyone else had the experience of boating in similar circumstances? If so feel free to share them here. Cheers Nik

Myself and my partner run the Old Trooper in Christleton and own our own NB Lizzie Anne 3, we've always loved the Shady Oak, I called in a couple of months ago and met the new tenants. They are turning it into a Carvery but with a separate bar area for drinkers, The new tenant has spent tens of thousands on the place and its looking really good, I went yesterday for a nosey round, they had the landscapers in doing the final touch ups before the grand opening, which I am informed will be around Easter time. The Shady is a fab business and a lovely little quaint pub, here's hoping it will regain this reputation now that it has had the much needed revamp Watch this space

I seem to recall the boat your talking about, and a previous member has posted that it was spotted on a offside mooring on the Llangollen, the location as I remember it as Plum Tree farm, right by Baddilley locks (unsure of the lock number tyo) but pretty easy to find on that stretch. If I'm right it's the one with the caravan and the huge swan pedalo on the backside

On my previous NB I had Sandra do a complete rewire of the entire cabin electrics, she also did a full rewire of the engine and engine bay. Sandra is a very very experienced electrical engineer and certainly knows her stuff, one of the best I've ever had the pleasure to deal with. I'd recommend her and definitely use her again if I ever needed work doing. She used to be independent but I think she is now contracted to kings lock or someone in that area, I would trust Sandra to do any work whatsoever on my boat

Thanks for counting, still no where near the 200 the previous poster quoted

Your are very wrong their are no where near two hundred boats on the moorings, and as you say "now" that makes it sound as though the moorings have grown in size. They have not at all grown in size/length in the ten years I've been their, yes it can get a bit boring going at tickover past the long line of boats but it no different to the stretches around Market Drayton, the end of the cutting at Grub Street etc. Yes it's tedious but surely the six mile stretch you've just come though of countryside must have bored you, now you can go licence spotting along the Nook stretch Forgot to add a little smiley face, tongue firmly in cheek Forgot to add a little smiley face, tongue firmly in cheek Forgot to add a little smiley face, tongue firmly in cheek

Your correct The Old Trooper is the restaurant myself and my partner run, we have been publicans and Narrowboaters for a long time and own our boat as we have done for many years. Yes we are new to this current business but we are experienced boaters and publicans, and our dream was to manage a canalside business, so when the Old Tropper came up we snatched it with both hands, since taking over we have seen business build quite steadily, but when something like this comes up on your doorstep it is somewhat worrying that some folk on the canals can cause this much angst and destruction. This woman has been an absolute menace and had caused many thousands of pounds worth of damage to moored boats, I have no shame in naming her boat and ousting her to the community, the owners of the boats she hit on her drunken rampage will face many hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of bills and in her own words "I nt give a s$¥t, this woman has no respect for other boaters, nor does she care about what she has done. I've said my piece now, their May not be a law against navigating a canal whilst pissed but their sure will be many many civil cases bought against her. Talking to the local CART lads they say her licence maybe revoked. Here's hoping! That's my rant done, I'm off for a bath

I absolutely loved it, as I did the first series, Tim and Pru really love the waterways and enjoy being out traveling along the canals and rivers, The two of them are fantastic presenters, so what if the editing is a bit bad, the overall result is very heartwarming, I liked the fact their son Is interested in the boating world, The programme for me was very informative, well presented, sympathetically done and very very well cast, I mean who else could present a programme like that.......... John Sergeant maybe???????? Seriously tho Tim and Pru have a much loved desire for the warerways and it shows in not only the last series but on this one too, they are real people with a real passion for the waterways and I for one applaud this new series of such a fantastic tv programme, should it be released on DVD I'll pay the highest price for the privilege of owning such fabulous entertainment. (To the boaters whom never hit anything nor touch a lock side or bridge hole, how old are you?, what is your mental state?, how long have you been boating?, are you the perfect boater? Do you understand humour? And finally DO YOU EVER COCK UP?) To end, Tim and Pru love the canals and it shows clearly in this and the previous series, I for one can't wait for the next episodes to be aired and have them on series link and recorded. Finally something about our fantastic canal heritage of interest to watch! I hope the producers of Barging around Britain take note!!! Nik Edited cos my spelling is bloomin awful

I'll name it the Cheshire Cat, she owns the boat, she lives on it in Tattenhall Marina, but spends a lot of time outside the Cat, she has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to various boats and apparently her attitude was couldn't care less! And yes it is the black one with white double glazed UPVC windows, it was on eBay a year or so ago, has something like MDN Shotblasting services on the side of it, very nice and swanky inside fittout as I remember it from Devizes, ironically it is a Eggbridge boat built locally and now moors I. The very local vicinity of where it was first built!!

AW at Bunbury are renowned for dumping their boats three abreast the canal, as you exit the staircase locks going downhill their is a small stretch before the railway bridge and its on an awkward bend, AW continuously block this and it's very tricky to get through at times.

As a canal anorak I was really interested and excited about this program, I found it a bit boring but that's probably because I'm a anorak like most of us on here, if it was intended to raise awareness of the canal network and increase visitors and cash then bring it on! I too noticed that the bow on the first few scenes changed from a boring looking flat shape to a lovely looking sculptured one, then to a black prince boat lol I'm looking forward to the Langollen episode probably because it's local to me In my opinion any tv programmes that give my passion and love of life the airtime and exposure they rightly deserve is fantastic viewing albeit a bit boring and cringeworthy but I can deal with that. Nik

Incidentally I crusied Lizzie Anne back to her home mooring yesterday and noticed that said sunk boat is now out of the marina basin and on hard standing next to the slipway, gawd knows the state of the inside but it's good to see they have raised her and she is getting some attention Nik

Evening All I initially started the topic asking questions regarding old hire companies that are no longer around, particularly in the NW area. I'd been reminiscing about my childhood in the 80s, Some. Kind sole responded to my request in WW magazine and sent a load of pictures from his various hiring experiences with ECC of Wrenbury. I'm glad to say (or a bit sad to admit) that over the years I've acquired a good eye in spotting boats and being able to identify who they were built by! So yes I admit it......... My name is Nik and I'm a boat spotter

Hi I've probably still got the pictures somewhere, having just recently moved house/pub they will no doubt be in a box somewhere! I'll dig them out this evening try and take photos of them, and get them up.oaded on here, Nik

This was her as I bought her This is her now This is the bathroom as I bought her This is the updated shower room complete with wetroom floor made from a chequer plate tray I'm uploading more photos but it takes a while on PB so I'll leave it here for now. I'll pst more later on this evening Once again thanks for the kind comments Nik

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k143/kienik/2472129657f2e37ca31da734e8865fd0_zpsedd14ef3.jpg

She was advertised in Swanley Brokerage at £32,950, I paid £23,500 for her which I feel was a good price, ok I paid for extra bits such as £400 hull survey £600 gritblasting £500 two pack blacking I've spent £1000 on the shower room conversion £1000 on the new kitchen appliances (cooker, hob and fridge, also worktops and tiles £400 on the new Squirrell stove That's about it really, I got her £10k under the asking price as I felt she was a bit dated inside but she has a fantastic hull and stunning lines which was the most important thing to me, some other boaty friends said I should have bought a shell and fitted it out but their is no way I could have afforded a shell that looks as good as she does and certainly the paint job would have been way out of my budget, she has been owned by one person from new and they certainly have loved her and cared for her extremely well. She is powered by a LPWS3 engine and sounds lovely, I've just uploaded some photos of before and after the refit/update, I've got hundres on my facebook profile so if you want to see more add me at Nik Lambert Here's hoping I upload the correct codes on here

Hi all thanks for the comments she is a little stunner, Im currently doing some upgrading work on her inside, (new kitchen, complete new wetroom and taken all of the fixed seating out and making her a bit more comfortable, also taken the Torgem stove out and put a nice Squirrell in, I've then got the curtains etc etc to do. I'll try and get some pics up on here tonight but I seem to have lost PhotoBucket from my IPad, can anyone tell me which picture code I need to use as a direct link to the pictures? Cheers Nik

Evening all, just thought I'd post a few pictures of my new boat (to me) that I bought back in May of 2014, I had an old Eggbridge 38 cruiser, but I really wanted a proper looking trad boat, after a long search I found Lizzie Anne, she in my opinion was over priced and had been on brokerage for approx 9 months so I went in with a very cheeky offer and it was accepted! So I had her hauled out and surveyed, following that I had her grit blasted and two pack epoxy coated, I've updated the bathroom and kitchen and just need to do a bit of Fettling with the curtains etc now and she will be almost complete (if that's possible). I've owned quite a few boats from little Springers and ex hire boats and now have what I feel is the boat ive fell in love with. My reason for posting is that I'm looking for more info on her, I believe the hull was built by MCC (midland canal centre/stenson marine), is this the same place that the Jonathan Wilson served his time at??, she has extremely pleasing lines and swims beautifully and reverses immaculately, the best I've ever had the pleasure to reverse if I dare say that! She was fitted out by Mancunain Narrowboats whilst they were trading from Calveley on the Shroppie, I am in touch with the original and sole previous owner and I do have quite a bit of info on Lizzie Anne, but would like some more info on the shell builders and the fitters, she is powered by a lpws3 engine. Here's some pics if the link works http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k143/kienik/d32fab541e9d836e3200ce7341977182_zpsc11644f2.jpg

I've had exactly the same but not when buying, my situation is I'm a seller, I've got my NB DittyMay on eBay at the moment for sale as I've just ordered a 58ft NB. Within seconds of submitting the advert I received two messages, basically saying the same as you have wrote I.e. I am liking your item and am wanting to very much buy it from you, I am out of town currently but I will have my agent collect it from you as soon as possible, all i need from you is your PayPal address and I will pay the monies into your account. My agent will then arrange to collect the item in good faith and monies will be paid into your PayPal account Please forward your PayPal email account to me and I will put monies in right away. God bless you Mary. I had two of these emails in minutes of each other, the scammer alarm bells rand immediately, I ignored the first two, but by the time the third one arrived I just sent back a very expletive message basically saying f#%k off you scammer I will report you if you contact me again, guess what.......... No more scamming messages. One question tho, if I were to allow one of these scammers to put money in my PayPal account, how do they actually scam me? I mean, how does it work? They see an item listed, they send a message asking for PayPal account details, then they presumably pay money (laundered money???) into my account, then what? What's in it for them? Am I missing something ? Don't get me wrong IM NOT GOING TO GIVE THEM MY DETAILS AS IT IS A CLEAR SCAM! I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS IN THEIR FAVOUR, what can they get from my PayPal details? Nik

Ange, That's terrible that anyone would say that to you. After all we are all on the water for the same reason, WE LOVE IT!!, i hate those bloody shiny brand new boaty brigade sometimes. My boat was built in1985 and after my repaint I think she looks brand new (ish), I would like a new boat but can't justify the cost at present, but I will do it one day. I put my two fingers up to those snobby boaters that look down on us boaters that don't have brand new boats, it's a bit like the hirers vs private owners again. Regarding your paint job, just plan it out and make sure you have all of the items I've costed out to hand, it's a nightmare if you run out of rollers or thinners etc half way through the day Forget the posh dudes on their Gin Palace NBs, I bet most of them are on finance arrangements that they can't afford and are just here to keep up with the neighbours or the jones etc etc

Our farm moorings just outside Chester are pretty basic, we have two cranes per year each lift costs around £100 for each boater, We have hard standing enough for around forty boats, I had a 50 footer on hard standing and the annual charge was £936 this was two years ago but I don't think it has changed that much. Hope it helps

Right as promised here is the process I followed, be warned its pretty comprehensive, and I do tend to babble on a bit, I've put a running cost of the total job at the bottom. Hope this answers all your questions and helps if any of you dare to tackle the job yourselves. The job started three to four weeks ago, i started by sanding off all the old top coat using a spinny orbital sander with 120 grip Velcro pads (not from DIY stores I bought them from a car body shop suppliers they were £25 for 150 pads). Once I had got down to a smooth surface and to bare metal in places I washed the entire boat down with synthetic thinners (not turps). Then I painted the whole boat in a primer bought from Johnstones paint shops, I only put one coat on as their was still plenty of good hard paint left on the boat. I left this to fully dry for three days then sanded it back lightly using a 180 grip pad, bought from the same car body shop supplier. Again wash down using synthetic thinners. Time to start building the coats of paint on now, I went to a small independent paint mixing unit on an industrial estate in Saltney Chester, they. Are called M & P Enterpirses and they specialise in car, bus, and truck paint, they do a matching service so most of the major car manufacturers use their paint, I bought fully synthetic truck paint called RAL ....... The. The colour code, it cost £20 for two litres, which is a reasonable price to me. In total I've bought and almost used four litres of the dark green (RAL 6005) and three litres of the lighter green (RAL 6001). And one litre of the cream for the coach lines (can't think of the co.our code). Anyway back to the job. The first coat of top was applied with a foam mini roller applied in sections of about half a metre at a time, to minimise the risk of lines from the handle side of the roller I always worked from left to right with the handle side of the roller working away from the freshly painted section, once each section was rolled on I used a long bristled good quality brush to lay off the paint (start from the bottom and lightly pull the brush up to the top of the boat, this is the process for the cabin sides, do it very lightly as a feathering process). Once this had hardened over a couple of days I buzzed it back with a 180 grip pad very lightly and washed the whole thing down with synthetic thinners. The second and third coats I didn't bother to flat off with the sander I just kept rolling thawing on and feathering it off with the brush. Then for the lighter green panels, I used a steel rule and a pencil to mark and measure three inches from the top of the cabin all round the boat then applied fine line tape (the blue tape shown in the pictures), I followed the same process of rolling on the lighter green and feathering it off with a brush to get a lovely deep gloss shine). Always ensure you take the tape off as soon as the final coat is on. Next was the cream coachlines, plenty of measuring and re measuring here, I measured 2 1/2 inches from the cabin top and all round the boat and applied the blue fine line tape, then measured four inches from the cabin top and all round the boat and applied the same tape, this gave me a one and a half inch coachline, The fine line tape is only about half an inch wide so I used low tack masking tape as a buffer zone to allow for and over brushing, the masking tape was lightly stuck to the edge of the blue fine line tape so it didn't touch the finished darker green sections, therefore when removing it i wouldn't have the worry of it pulling the paint off as masking tape seems to have the habit of doing. Three coats of cream applied using a brush very quickly as the paint goes off very quickly. As for the circles on the cabin roof it was the same process but using a washing up bowl for marking out then painting the different coloured circles on. The windows were a bit more tricky, lost of masking up and a very sharp Stanley knife blade to trim the masking tape to ensure it was a neat and perfect as possible, I used the Andy Russell Gunwhale black paint applied with a mini foam roller cut down using a glad to about an inch or so wide, very easy to apply but extremely runny so always have the synthetic thinners to hand and a rag to wipe away any splashes. That was basically it. Now for the castings, this might be a bit scary for me as I haven't totalled it up myself yet so here goes £90 approx in synthetic paint £25 in undercoat £50 for two one gallon drums of synthetic thinners £20 for three rolls of fine line tape £15 for fifteen rolls of masking tape £3.00 a roll in B&Q, £1 a roll in car body shop suppliers!!!! £30 for three packs of mini foam rollers (I used thirty mini roller inserts, but that was being lazy and binning them each day) £25 for the Andy Russell Gunwhale paint £40 in brushes (don't use cheap brushes they really rent up to the job) Rags cost nothing as I used old towels from the pub £75 for three boxes of sanding Velcro pads, 150 in each box and each box was a different grade 120 150 and 180 grip £10 in Stanley knife blades £10 in dust masks Total cost excluding my time is................. £420.00 Although that might seem a lot, I still have loads of materials left, tons of paint, rollers, thinners etc etc. The result is brilliant and I'm made up with the finish, it's not a spray job by any means but the shine is lovely and the quality of the paint is very very good. I could have paid upwards of three to four thousand for a professional job but then I wouldn't have had the satisfaction of doing it myself and the tricks and skills I've picked up will help me if I decide to do it again. On that note if and when I do I will pay the extra cost of renting a poly tunnel as it would make the job so much easier due to the weather etc, I looked at Bunbury poly tunnel by the staircase locks and they were charging £150 for five days which is reasonable, it is heated and fully covered etc. I'd obviously not use it for the prep work just for the top coats and fine line work. Hoping that I've not bored you all to sleep, that was basically the job in a nutshell I hope it has been useful and I really appreciate all the comments on here on how she now looks, if anyone would like a hand or even some contact numbers for the suppliers I've used then feel free to drop me a line, also got tons of photos should anyone want them for reference purposes. My email is NikLambert1980@hotmail.co.uk Right time for a wine I think Nik