Gary Peacock

Not cheap then! I wonder if in the next century the must have narrowboat will have stick on welds and artificial rust? We will probably have the Historic Liverpool Boat Owners club prancing around with Rosie & Jim dolls and authentic period costume too!

Problem with websites is most boatbuilders have to pay to have them constructed and updated which limits there usefulness, the other option is to do it yourself but metal benders tend to be distinctly Luddite in their approach to computers etc. Websites do sell more boats than magazine adverts though.

Just out of interest how much does one of these things of beauty cost?

It looks like a cross between Captain Nemo's Nautilus and one of them old water tanks you find up in the loft! Oh I do love the I have a replica blah blah brigade.

How did you guess! Actually if he wasn't running the country I could find the man and his colleagues rather amusing! Since my little Gordon Brown Cartoon post nows had over 29,487 views it seems quite a few folk on here find his antic amusing too!

A good starting point is the free CBA handbook "How to buy a boat for canal or river" you can view last years edition online and order the new 2009 edition in printed form HERE.

Stock answer when asked if you had a good shows in public- "Best ever loads of orders and interest!" Stock answer when asked in hotel later- "No it cost a bloody fortune and was a waste of time!" I have never been quite sure if shows are the right place to buy boats, look yes but hand over money I aren't too sure. To make it worth while doing you need to sell boats and from the builders side of the fence that is what the annual Crick feeding frenzy is fueled by. The old faithfuls are there year in year out but some of those if it is beleived don't need to advertise let alone exibit. If the exhibitor fees were reduced along with admissions prices maybe everyone would be happier. It's not just boats I have seen it in various events I have exibited at where the theme is lost amongst the miracle vege peeler, food viilage, real ale how much did that cost tent? and the charge of the catering van brigade to secure the prime location! It used to be said that the beer tent was a very handy place to go and extract a deposit though! (Beer loosens the grip on the wallet)

Pratiquement tous les bateaux de plaisance construits depuis le 16 Juin 1998 et destiné au sport et les loisirs, mai seulement être mis sur le marché de l'EEE ou mis en service au sein de l'EEE si elles satisfont aux exigences essentielles de sécurité énoncées dans la Les bateaux de plaisance Directive - 2003/44/CE. Ces règlements s'appliquent à tous les bateaux de plaisance entre 2,5 et 24 mètres de longueur de coque quel que soit le moyen de propulsion. Ils mai être entièrement ou partiellement construit, construit à l'intérieur, ou importés de l'extérieur de l'EEE. Le constructeur, l'importateur ou le propriétaire ou la personne mise à l'artisanat dans l'EEE service, (la personne responsable) est une obligation légale de veiller à ce que le bateau satisfait aux exigences pertinentes et pour effectuer le marquage CE adéquat. I bet that can stand some correction!

In this neck of the woods it is often the crane out that is the costly problem we don't have that many yard based cranes around so a lot of people try to share crane lifts, we might have a crane here in about a month that would help at this end if no nearer option turns up.

It sounds like the problem could be more related to RF issues with spark generator interfering with the detector heads or control unit rather than noise on the DC supply, you could test this by using a separate 12v battery to power either the hob or detector.

When are you looking at moving it?

Here you go- http://www.rya.org.uk/assets/technical/Web...Edition%203.pdf Just remember the CIN is only a small part of the RCD procedure and can only be used with the appropriate CE marking.

I would suggest with your budget that the used route might be the best option, 95k will buy a good used boat but 95k for a new fully fitted build isn't going to buy that much without the saving is made in either the hull or the fit out. If you are prepared to do some work yourself we could build a ready to go range boat with full RCD compliance and CE marking for about £78K and your remaining budget would complete the fit out if you were careful.

Don't knock it! He does very well out of it, without the costs of R&D and production it's a road to riches and the ditch crawling world would be lost without his products. Mr Stirling is a very clever business man and most of us wouldn't mind being a pound short of his bank ballance.

It's very radical but if Nick Branson designed it you can bet the engineering is a damed site better than your average ditch crawler! I actually like it! It's got a weird kind of attraction it's just so different. At that price you could do a lot worse.

Strangely their UK address is a block of flats maybe they build them in the garage!

Maybe another approach would be how much do you want to pay? That way it is very easy to work out if it's viable to build you a boat or at least work out what is viable for your budget. It is always a good idea to have a specification in mind but I would keep it fairly general and see what you get quoted for, most boatbuilders fit what they know works and it is only at the very bottom of the market where decisions are profits driven. We have a cancellation which would be nice to fill if you are wanting a boat built fairly quickly, we don't build a standard boat so you would need to give me some idea what you fancy to work out a price. With a cancellation it makes sense to use the build so it could be tailored to your budget and spec. You can PM if your interested or need any more info.

Very obviously Polish based and almost certainly will have somone involved who knows a bit about the UK narrowboat game? Nice website.

The Recreational Craft Directive although much disliked by boatbuilders and sailaway owners is very important to you at the time you purchase the boat, although the builder will not be CE marking the boat (That's down to you if you choose) the boat to it's stage of completion when you take delivery must comply to the legal requirements of CE marking. The builder will supply you with a annex IIIa declaration of conformity to the Recreational Craft Directive for a part completed boat. The boatbuilder by law needs to maintain records to prove the conformity and how it was arrived at. Unfortunately the system is widely abused especially where the boat is not CE marked by the builder because problems will only arise at a later date when the boat is completed. I have no idea who your builder is and they will hopefully be up to speed on all this but the mention of the boat being wide makes this RCD thing more important, the annex IIIa in reality will mainly refer to the hull construction and the reality is that even the worst built narrowboat will usually comply (This is to do with the way the calculations work with a narrowboats "strange" proportions) but on a wider boat where the proportions become more "boat like" the engineering practises and material specifications need to change rather than simply building a wider narrowboat. It is worth trawling around the forum for info on the RCD and asking any potential builder a few questions about their levels of compliance and how it is achieved along with asking to view the technical files for any boats in build or completed. The reaction to these kind of requests can be very telling about who you are getting involved with and what you are likely to get for your money. I would also reccomend getting a surveyor involved if you feel at all uneasy.

The BMF don't take too kindly to non members using their paperwork or implying membership so saying they have applied for membership while doing this seems a bit strange? The BMF use a verification system with potential new members including their compliance to the Recreational Craft Directive it might be a good idea to wait until they actually complete this process and become members to avoid any unpleasant surprises. It is also worth noting that while the BMF is the controlling federation in the industry the Canal Boat Builders Association is their representation in the canal market and they operate a Code of Practise for construction of canal boats. The BMF contract itself is rather generic and out of date we use a slightly modified version with revised payment schedule. BMF membership etc isn't the be all and end all but does offer some guarantees and assistance if it goes pear shaped, saying that there have been some disturbing cases where companies have cancelled their membership and gone on to have problems at which point the BMF have shown absolutely no interest.

The original HEP is now Polyplumb if you need a grab ring.

You can get a demounting tool for a few pence. http://www.uk-plumbing.com/hepworth-hep2o-...ool-p-1917.html