Gary Peacock

The BSS is not law purely a plaything of the various licencing authorities however the RCD is law and if things head in the direction that the MCA and other voices in Europe would like then self declaration at Cat D will eventually be withdrawn. If you really want to see Mr Nice Honest John the boatbuilder squirm then even at Cat D it is possible to use the "tighter" RCD verification modules involving a notified body if you were to request this. People think that the proverbial "Dutch Barge" certified to Cat C involves the use of a notified body but many builders use another little loop hole to avoid the bother and cost of that too.

True but if your name is on the DoC it is very much in your interest to keep the records. I might have a slight advantage because I both know how to comply with the RCD and also how the RCD is fiddled. But although boatbuilders along with Mr & Mrs Billy Boater don't like it, I would say other than the lack of enforcement in the UK by Trading Standards it is generally a good thing for the consumer. The RCD is a lot more about safety than the BSS and that is worth remembering.

The only time the RCD matters is when Mr & Mrs Billy Boater realise that the bargain boat they bought is a lemon, at that point they often take a big interest in the RCD retrospectively when they realise it is just about the only law in regard to boats that might get them compensation in the courts. It's worth remembering it is a consumer protection directive intended to protect all the Mr & Mrs Billy Boaters from Mr Nice Honest John the boatbuilder!

A boat with a CE mark and no supporting paperwork is very iffy the question is why? The builder is required by law to keep the technical construction file for a minimum of 10 years so if the paperwork is simply missing rather than the craft being fraudulently and illegally CE marked it is relatively easy for the builder to demonstrate compliance and provide replacement documentation. On the five year rule it is the responsibility of the vendor to provide evidence of the date of completion in a legally submittable form in the event of problems, just saying it was "built" five years ago last week is not enough. Boats without RCD documentation are viewed by most finance companies with a great deal of suspicion, if you need to sell the boat later this might become a factor.

The important thing since 2000 on production boats is the HIN or later the CIN these numbers tell the legal date of production and who is legally held responsible if things go wrong. If it sound familiar it's exactly the same type of EU ruling that means the DVLC have an interest in your cars VIN number. It could be a rather effective system of policing boat proof of ownership but unfortunately it is not policed and duplicate HIN and CIN numbers exist. (Or so the story goes! )

Speaking from a little bit of experience other than one Chinese example I haven't seen a bad "foreign" narrowboat but I do see increasing numbers of fairly poor UK built examples even from some of the higher end builders. (Maybe this is just a temporary blip relating to the present economic climate and the need to reduce costs.) What I do pick up on a lot is the wider the boat then the worse the situation seems to become from both a engineering and legal position where some builders very obviously don't do any design calculations prior to commencing the build a 10,6,4,4 steel spec for a 12ft wide boat usually gives you a clue that all they are building is a 12ft wide narrowboat. Now there is nothing wrong with building a "freak show" narrowboat at that beam but to do so correctly involves some changes in steel specification and construction methods to achieve the required legal specification. The basic cost of building a hull correctly will not vary greatly whoever the builder, if one is more expensive than another the only reason to pay more is if the quality of the work reflects this. If another is greatly cheaper then ask the question how do they achieve the saving? (I could let the cat out of the bag on a few common practises but anyone with a small amount of common sense can normally work out these for themselves. )

Have a smell at the hoses if proper sanitation hose is not used the smell can get through or a strange reaction can take place that makes the hose actually start to smell very strange.

Well gas may be simpler but if you move away from ditch crawling skips to proper lumpy water things you will find that they are predominately mains AC based so it must work in that environment. If you can afford the fuel and live with the restrictions on running the generator then it does work. The one thing I do know is that if you build a boat with house style domestic electrical needs is that you will soon run up an alarming number of generator engine hours plus a large fuel bill if moored stationary for any time away from a shore supply. If you work on 12 hours through the night dependent on batteries and inverter then the generator run times especially if charging through a multi stage charger to achieve anything near 100% charge for the following night are quite scary. If you cruise everyday then the balance tips in your favour due to "free" power provided from the alternator. I think we all know that these days many boats rely greatly on the availability of shore power on a day to day basis.

Well I suppose air conditioning falls into the big motor category the last system I did was three separate units and the inverters "in theory" could run it or assist the shore power to run it, but the reality was the startup load was scary and even when settled and running the rate of discharge from a very large battery bank wasn't at all practical. The three way split system however did make it more or less feasible to run a single unit for realistic but short spells from batteries. In reality the inverters were used as a stop gap for a minute or so to power it while the generator was called for and came on line which worked very well.

I have installed quite a few electric cookers and hobs on boats and I was never really impressed with the results, with a shore supply usually restricted to 16A (On a good day) in the ditch crawling world most of these were powered directly from at least 10Kva gen sets. The more complex installations could power share shoreline and inverters or run off the inverters alone (3x2.5Kw) but the load on the batteries was eye watering. I used to preach the Victron sermon for the use of induction hobs when I was selling the kit but after a lot of time wasted adjusting frequencies on gen sets to try and get the things to run at all or stay running I would now recommend staying away from them. Maybe the victron approach of a single ring low powered induction hob does stand up but move onto a four ring high power hob and it's just too heavy and finicky about frequency to make it worthwhile. On a funny note boatbuilders don't get electric cookers I once visited one well known one who had installed a rather splendid ceramic hob and cooker at the customers request, when I asked him how it was powered he looked at me puzzled and said "The shore line of course!" Another one set fire to a customers boat by wiring the cooker into one of those popular cheapo full of choc blocks AC distribution panels that boatbuilders love so much! My advice would be stick to gas or look at diesel cooking with a Heritage Range Cooker http://www.heritagecookers.co.uk/index.htm that not only does the cooking but provides true domestic central heating too.

If the boat did not have gas at the time of the BSS examination then that would be perfectly acceptable.

They aren't hard to get hold of if you can find a tame plumber with a trade account for a supplier that will save you a few bob.

Ignoring the BSS RCD CORGI etc they do make very good boilers.

In all honesty after selling and dealing with lots over the years I would stick with Victron or Mastervolt if you want quality and support. The badged stuff is far better now then in the past but the price of the stickers takes the piss if you know how much the OEM prices are for it. A good test is to see if it's popular in the lumpy water world where customers take quality a lot more serious because if it fails swimming rather than wading can be the direct result.

I think one of the things that jumps out is the increase in the use of filler. Today a show boat will tend not to have visible welds even on the long at one time obvious welds (cabin to hull being the best example) this was where a good welder showed is worth and would laugh at others efforts. These days this weld will often tends to be ground back and filled with filler or car seam sealer the time and effort to do this tells tales on the capability of the welders ability or would it need to be disguised? Polishing out welds can be a sign of quality too but only if the weld is of a method suitable to do this in some cases all it does is simply remove the face weld along with the strength like one example supplied by a well known name I looked at last week.

I think you are near to the point there! What used to be a recreational enthusiasts hobby where those that participated largely had some knowledge of boats and boating for many reasons is moving towards the static caravan/mobile home type market. How many new boats never move? How many continuous cruisers last more than a year? How many that can afford a new boat for recreational use without ever boating before quickly realise the dream and reality are different to the brochures and waterway rags would have them believe. How many super pricey concept boats are on the market for a fraction of cost a few months after the show? Perhaps the new build boaters are changing and the boats changing to suit their expectations?

Now being out of the boatbuilding game well and truly but back having some involvement working with them occasionally I have made an interesting observation. While the general standard of new boat fit outs seems to have increased (Although some say the methods used and quality of materials as changed for the worse) I have noticed that the quality of many hulls seems to have decreased poor design conformity even though a legal requirement seems to very much the acceptable practise, reduced steel plate and section specification along with semi skilled standards of welding and finishing. From talking to a couple of surveyors it seems they have also picked up on this too and was asked why I thought it might be? So my thoughts would be- A change in attitude from the value is in the hull to look at the fitout on this! Builders saving costs on Design, material, labour and build times. Customers having done very little research and been taken in by a shinny paint job and flash fit out. Customers who would buy a skip and still rave about it's qualities to other unsuspecting potential purchases. The decreasing popularity with new build customers to employ a surveyor to over see the build. And of course those builders who just aren't and never have been very good at building except on price and sales patter. This isn't aimed at any particular area of the market just a general observation over the last few months working on quite a price range of new and relatively new builds. Some of the best hulls I have seen surprisingly weren't built in the UK but I suppose that's just the way most industries go in the UK?

Your setup is pretty much normal don't worry about it.

I wonder if that is what LB used to call a tribute boat? It does look to have more than a dash of Ledgard about it! lol Actually it looks fairly good not quite the same steel spec but better than the average fat narrowboat. There might actually be some chance of something "Ledgardish" being available again in the future if a builder in Poland or elsewhere outside the UK can be found that is capable of doing a hull of the required quality at the right price.

Hang it off the back it wont look too pretty but it's easy and ticks the boxes.

Looks pretty normal.

A bigger prop would suit the bigger engine but there you have answered your own question. Your engine suits the prop your friends doesn't and probably would need a compensated one off to get even a slight advantage. Bigger engine in the case of some boats only equates to increased profits for the builder.