Jae

Looking specifically for a wet dock for ease of access to the topside. She'd be fine on hard standing, had her in Trevethicks for blacking earlier in the year. For this work, I'm just not looking to be wobbling around on the roof with a 10ft drop onto concrete if I miss haha

I had the same thought but the dry docks I've asked have said no

Cheers for the replies, will have a closer look at the Soar docks Was meaning to commute by train/bus while leaving the boat in situ Mills is also dry dock only, though when I phoned last week they had good availability if that's useful info to anyone

Hi all, I need to do some top maintenance on a standard beam 42ft narrowboat Can anyone recommend a covered floating dock (ie not a dry dock) within a couple hours commuting distance of Nottingham? Haven't found anything suitable near the city and am open to take the boat pretty much anywhere. Cheers in advance, Jae

Hi, Welcome to boats to yourself and your furry lads/ladettes! I liveaboard without shore power with two guinea pigs myself. Guinea pigs can handle a bit of a chill so long as they have plenty of fleece/hay/etc to snuggle up in, what you need to be mindful of is them overheating during the summer. Insulation is 100% the backbone of my temperature strategy. Good insulation means the internal temps will be more stable and will therefore require less active management while you're out. The one big no power thing I do for the pigs in different seasons is make use of the steep temp gradient in a boat. It is always going to be notably cooler at the bottom of the cabin than near the ceiling. In the summer I'll move them onto the floor of the cabin with some usb 5v fans running off of power packs to keep the cooler air moving. Keeping the sun out is another no power help, I use foil car sunshades on the outside of my south facing windows. If you can, tape them to the outside the night before it's due to be hot. Puppy self cooling gel mats are a no freezer alternative to ice bottles, though admittedly not as effective. Hope some of that's useful!

Just wanted to get some second opinions as I have no experience with this type of fire setup. External flue seems solid with no leaks/cracks but internal flue skin is all rust. Chunks rain down when sweeping out the flue. The stove itself is in similar condition. No cracks/leaks apparent externally but interior is caked in rust. Wire brushed the worst out of the stove interior, but is impossible to get into all the nooks & crannies so there will inevitably still be loose rust in there. My next-boat neighbour insists the rust will just sink into the ash pan and won't cause issues. I don't feel great about the condition of the setup but it's about to hit sub-zero and I don't have any other heat sources. Is this safe to use in this condition? Or really, is this safe *enough* to get me through this winter? What possible things could you forsee going wrong and what could I do to mitigate any of these problems? I have a CO alarm and a smoke alarm so if leaks develop I will be alerted. Any insight appreciated, thanks in advance

Hi all, I'm in the midst of restoring a 1970's wooden topped steel narrowboat. I had hoped to be able to just tidy up (reseal and repaint) the existing original wood in order to stop leaks, but this is looking less and less likely an option as work goes on and I am now looking at skinning the cabin top. I wanted to ask if anyone had experience skinning a wooden top, how well this worked, how long it stayed watertight, and what might be best to use (canvas/felt/GRP/etc) In the long term, I'm unfortunately probably going to have to bin the original structure and have the top overplated in steel or otherwise replaced. That's not currently a short-medium term option for me practically or financially however so am looking at making the existing cabin top as liveable as possible in the meantime. Any other ideas or suggestions welcome, thanks in advance