Francis Herne

A bit surprising and disappointing - I've had quite a good impression of Rothens as a maintenance contractor; knowing a few of their employees they clearly make an effort to hire people who care about the canals and doing the job properly, unlike some other firms... I guess that doesn't necessarily extend to being good at dealing with individual consumers. Kat (not the same one?) the new Jules Fuels lady, her partner and her dog are all long-time Rothen crew and the Rothens themselves are clearly keen on seeing historic boats carrying, so I'm not sure supporting them implies anything beyond that.

Wobbly step boards, missing anti-slip on them, and missing bricks in tail stairs. All of those are pretty quick/simple repairs with an obvious safety impact that still get left for years, even when there's a stoppage and the next lock in the flight is being worked on. Yes, locks are an inherently hazardous historic environment. I don't see that as an excuse to make them more so than they need to be.

I know very well. The water point is a pain there though, have to run a very long hose across the access road.

Besides Fazeley the other recent CRT screwup is Blowers Green. They sold the building off, subject to a 99-year leaseback on the service section... but didn't write in any enforceable obligation to supply utilities, so the new owners have turned off electricity and water and the services are closed indefinitely. They're about to do exactly the same at Wolverhampton. The most glaring hole in service provision in my experience is around Middlewich -- there's no CRT rubbish or Elsan disposal between Grindley Brook (or Nantwich or Calveley) and Anderton (or Wheelock) - more than 16 hours cruising on what's probably the busiest canal on the network. The council tip covered for it to a degree but that closed last summer. Some of the marinas have Elsans but charge a few quid per cassette.

Poured concrete ballast will make it impossible to inspect the hull from inside and make welded repairs very awkward if needed in future, which on a 1986 project boat seems likely. There's also the risk of trapping moisture between the concrete and steel - even a small patch of fresh rust will expand and push the concrete away allowing more water to get in.

Is the tunnel itself a hull width constraint? I thought that was more about Uppermill lock which must stand some chance of needing a rebuild eventually.

I take it you never change your engine oil before something catastrophically fails then? A lot of these end up being much more expensive to fix after total failure than they would have to maintain or repair at an earlier stage. And CRT have enough infrastructure at various stages of lifecycle that this short-termism doesn't even save them money in the short term over a period of a year or two. The issue isn't condition-based vs. time-based maintenance, it's that they fail to repair known faults, that they know (or a competent engineer would know) are guaranteed to deteriorate further over time with the repair cost only increasing. It might just barely work if they fixed stuff when total failure was seen to be imminent, but with the 6-month delay for anything to trickle through management the repairs eventually get scheduled for a few months after the failure.

For once I agree with this. I'm sick of seeing small problems, reporting them to CRT, and coming around six months or a year later to find they've become bigger and more expensive problems that still haven't been addressed. Ditto widely-known faults in the spring and summer, no attention during winter stoppages, sudden peak-season closure or failure. Hack Green last year was the top example - dozens of people had reported it throughout 2023.

My standard answer for these threads: lithium is a no-brainer if you live on board, or you're regularly using the batteries for more than a night or two. Fast tail charging, sulphation when left part-discharged and ~no self-discharge allow far more efficient use of the capacity, and the lifetime cost is now lower. That said the 'drop-in' batteries really aren't a direct replacement, there are various options but just wiring it straight across the alternator isn't a wise one. I would be a bit careful about this -- internal resistance of lithium cells is quite low, which overall is a good thing, but means very small differences in cable and connection resistance will cause an unequal current split. 400A could end up being, say, 110/105/95/90 on each pack, so you need to leave some extra margin (or very carefully match all your cable lengths and connections and then hope it stays that way).

The mooring rights on that wall were bought a couple of years ago by 'The Merchants of Venice' who now say they want £12.50 per night. Perhaps enforcement is lax but I heard of some people being asked to pay last summer. https://www.themov.co.uk/mooring-terms ANT had an agreement with the previous owner to collect mooring fees which lapsed before it was sold. They did bid on it but didn't get the rights. Unless it's all changed again since the last time I asked.

Assuming you mean Saturday 5th it shouldn't matter, the Sharpness tide forecast predicts the last tide high enough to go over the weir to be Thursday night. Best to phone the Gloucester lock keeper to check, they're the experts. In any case you should call before heading downstream from Lower Lode; the parting can be obstructed by trees washed down the river and now Ashleworth has gone it's a long way without a reliable mooring. Then again at the parting to have the lock gates ready. (the following is very much amateur/secondhand advice and you should check with someone else): When I went down on a tide it was fairly early on the ebb at Haw Bridge, still flowing out fast through the parting on arrival. Advice was to stay well out of the parting at change of tide as the flow over weirs at both ends causes very confused currents. You wouldn't want to stem the tide in either direction for any distance in a narrowboat.

I can't find it now, but someone posted on Facebook yesterday that they'd bought it.

Also, how are you measuring the RPM? The tacho isn't necessarily accurate, particularly if the alternator has been changed. Mine (albeit not a BMC) overreads by about 15% at the moment.

Oh, now I see where you mean - turn off at Ryders Green, far end of the Wednesbury Old Canal up to Swan Bridge. I failed to think of that in context as it's far from a new closure - for all practical purposes that route closed when British Waterways allowed the Spine Road to cut off the Ridgacre Branch in 1992 (before I was even born!) which I've always seen as the last of the gradual closure of BCN branches beginning ~1930, peaking ~1955-1970 and then trailing off again through the 70s and 80s. The (hand-written and since vanished) 'no entry' sign went up in 2009, but long before that the remaining few hundred yards were a redundant, overgrown stub to nowhere in particular. Better examples in my opinion would be the several illegally closed EA waterways in the Fens and Lincolnshire. Welches Dam 2008, upper Ancholme 2012, Welland 2022.

Ryders Green isn't closed, you can come up the Tame Valley just fine. It's actually in the best condition for years as they've dredged most of the flight over the winter - last year we were getting stuck on the bottom of 7 & 8. I don't know where you meant.

Conway was at the Lymm transport festival in June 2024.

My own boat is a small and somewhat scruffy-looking one in need of quite a bit of work (paint, interior, electrics, gearbox). I'll never put someone down on here by telling them their own boat isn't ideal (unless they're asking what's wrong with it!) What I don't see the problem with is advising someone who's buying a boat about one they haven't committed to yet, and that while on brokerage is hardly someone else's pride and joy at the moment. In an ideal world the seller would disclose any issues they know about. If not, I don't think there's anything wrong in someone else pointing them out - or suggesting to look for ones that are likely to exist given the type of boat/engine/whatever. The alternative is pretty much fraud.

Maybe for a great big catamaran! Last year I spent ~£500 each on diesel and coal, ~£100 on gas while travelling about 1k lock-miles. Admittedly it's a smallish boat and I don't run the engine all day for power like a few people seem to. --- Neither factual statements nor opinions that could be held by a reasonable person based on public information are libel. I'm pretty sure everything I've said here is one or the other.

I'd run from the original one, no question. Even at £10k that would be too much of a nightmare to be worth looking at. There are decent steel boats available for ~£25k if you're careful and make the right tradeoffs. I wouldn't consider a typical GRP boat to live on board in that price range, the layout/cabin space just aren't good for it and making it suitable will add cost without increasing the value of the boat. In the ~£10-15k range they're still not ideal but a better bet than paper-hulled unmaintained Springers and the like.

That's definitely an overestimate, unless you're the sort of person who pays marina prices to change a lightbulb. Maybe half that, or a bit more if you're counting fuel. Do get a survey as suggested (if you're not both very familiar with boats and in a position to take £000 risks, neither of which seem to be true). I don't agree with the conclusion of Alan's post. For £25-30k you can definitely get a reasonable boat. You do need a budget put aside for survey, licensing, the problems you'll inevitably find in the first few weeks, future maintenance and contingencies. He does have a point, there's a fairly sharp cut-off where the quality:price curve plummets from "dated but sound" into "not a chance unless you're desperate" and your budget is really skirting that. Certainly at £20-25k I can't see any 45ft boats that are the right side of it at a quick look. Better to buy something shorter and maintainable/resellable than a basket case that will constantly swallow money just to keep it running.

At a quick look, this is a much nicer boat being sold by a good brokerage for very little more: https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/dartline-40-semi-trad-for-sale/766746 Frankly I'd see this at half the price as a better prospect than the one you mention. Shorter but the trad stern makes up for a few feet of that, newer steel-cabined boat that I doubt needs any more work once you start digging into it. Also David Ray is a very decent guy. https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/narrow-boats-traditional-for-sale/790159

Looks like a plywood cabin - can be very hard to prevent leaks where it joins the gunwale, especially if the upstand behind has rusted. The covering felt? stretched a bit sloppily across the roof, and the sagginess of it, make suspect previous water ingress up there too. I would expect the listing to at least mention that, but it just says 'Constructed in Steel'. Either I'm very mistaken or the ad is lying even about the most fundamental characteristics. Not a boat I'd consider for that money.

That must be one of the most convenient moorings for shopping - Tesco, Morrisons and now Aldi all a very short walk from one bridge. Not that it was very far previously. I wonder what it'll do for the aquatic trolley population! Had a couple out each visit, usually fresh.

Brain-o, I meant the ones just left of the speed wheel on a traditional cabin. I definitely hang things to dry on those. The fiddle rail would be a bit precarious! I have occasionally dried socks on it as the range warmed up, under very very close supervision...

Yes, the better for drying them! Nothing has caught fire to date. To be honest my curtains are not very much further and I should probably do something about those. I do wonder how people are running their stoves. My fear with the original image would be the risk of items falling on the stove if not pegged on securely. Enough radiant heat to be a fire hazard at that distance would make my cabin unbearably hot within 15-20 minutes. I wouldn't leave anything on there unattended for any length of time.