casper ghost

Thanks everyone, as an update, my brother wasted no time and has bought a reconditioned PRM gearbox which works in either rotation. Now just to fit it. Just to keep you all busy, now the gearbox works in either rotation, does that mean we can fit a right hand prop and run the gearbox the other way? Also can anyone tell me what size propeller is needed. I see there are a few second hand ones for sale which are 20 square and 22 square.

Do all PRM gearboxs run in both rotations, i've found a few for sale. The prm 100, 120, 150 etc.

That is great, we could fit it just like yours. PRM 160's are readily available and reasonably priced. Got to be better than our original idea of hydraulic drive. Thanks for advice/photo.

I like your photo. I could get a prm 160 fairly easily, would i have problems with the rotation.

Hello. We're actually going to build the boat arround the engine so we'll allow as much space as is needed. I normally build boats with a separate engine room at the very back with a solid bulk head between that and the rest of the boat. You have an idea then?

Thanks for response. You're right the governor does need word as it is fixed at 1200 revs, got to fix a throttle, though i'm told this is fairly straight forward and parts are all easy to get. I thought that rather than make a bell housing I could make an adaptor to fit the gearbox straight onto the shaft from the clutch which the engine has now. There's an LH150 for sale on ebay, would that do?

My brother has bought a Lister HR2 from a farm, it has been reconditioned and is currently fitted with a lister clutch but no gearbox. He wants to fit it into a narrowboat. We are considering fitting a hydraulic drive as these are cheap from scrap farm machinery but a 'proper' marine gearbox would be better, perhaps. There seem to be alot of Hurth gearboxes for sale, which we would hope to fit onto the shaft from the clutch but I believe the HR2 rotates the wrong way, though we could run it via belts to reverse rotation. Would a hurth 150 handle the power from an HR2? Does anyone have any ideas for us? We don't really want to spend a fortune on a blackstone gearbox.

I saw a hire boat on the Llangollen that had a ship's cannon on the roof! No effort to hide it. I think the hirers were German too judging by their accents.

A chap i know who has lost his full set of side fenders, has anyone had their scissors out?

If you include the D section, my boat is probably over that! I built it 6 foot 10 wide and then put D section on top of that... oops, i'm not telling anyone.

71.25 inches, that's not even 6 foot, must be a calculation error, else BW are really screwing us all, again....

I don't feel hitting continuous cruisers is the answer, they need to tackle the many boaters who simply never move, yet have no mooring, no licence, often no name or number. We all know of examples and where they are so BW should do something before going for the easy target. I know of boats that heven't moved for 5 years and BW doesn't bother them, I moored 2 days too long on a 14 day mooring and got a sticker, i'm suprised they didn't take me to court..misery.

The fact that quite a lot of moorings did get bids but didn't reach the reserve shows that BW wasn't serious about letting the market find it's value, just about getting more money from us. No one seems to have mentioned that once they get the average mooring price to go up they will use that to increase the mooring permits for everyone on that canal, as I beleive they use average prices to set mooring permit rates. So we all pay more.

It would certainly be a good idea to stand up against the way BW trample all over us boaters, sucking hard earned money from our bank accounts. But ultimately I suspect any organisation would not get the hard lined support it would need to change anything. There are too many people who just don't like to rock the boat!