AlanM6

How about removing the bench seating and putting in a sofabed it would give you a lot more room, this one for example is self assembly so I would imagine it should be easy enough to get it on your New boat. http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/sofas+armchairs/avanti-futon-sofabed-brown/invt/p200088/?htxt=PsAGyAqy%2FDSGVBgOHPBfATKVETOKIWHcwqoICuDrG%2FxTcDPfxIrYzUvEu76RzzM6wutKTeo9AOCB%0AtDs76aYYKg%3D%3D

I tend to use canal planner for all of my trips, plan a journey then click on calculate route scroll down click on itinerary and then print. all of the bridge numbers, locks times and distances are there Simples

You could experiment with this, I did a test patch with with varnish and it looked ok. I dont know if it would work with paint. http://www.diy-wood-boat.com/Non_slip.html

back on offer@£4.99

Picked some of this stuff up at Aldi may be ok of the bilges http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_18503.htm?WT.mc_id=2011-04-11-11-23

Lock 4 Weston Lock Wednesday 17 August 2011 until further notice The navigation is currently closed due to a boat being sunk in the lock. Passage will not be possible until we are able to lift the boat out with a crane lift. An update will be provided as soon as possible.

Quite a few forum members use Carftinsure, all done on line in seconds and the cheapest Ive found uptill now http://www.craftinsure.com/ I think I may give them a try this year

Anyone ever used Johnstone,s I called it at my local branch for a nosey. there Trade professional optimum high gloss finish is under a tenner a Ltr seems pretty cheap.

I,m in the process of painting my boat, working on the Bows ,roof and rear deck at the moment, anyway to cut a long story short the bows have been sanded down to bare steel, 1 coat of primer 2 coats of undercoat 3 coats of rylards boat enamel (rubbed down with wet&dry between each coat and finally a 4th coat mixed with 15% owatrol oil. All coats applied with a roller and dry brushed. The finish is pretty good however the guy moored next to me is painting his boat he lightly rubbed down his old paint and gave it one coat of Masons paint applied with a brush and the depth of shine in his one coat is far better than my 4 coats, is there such a difference between Rylards and Masons. Ive searched on line for a masons colour card but cant find one any one help me. Edit Found the colour card

Hi Longport is not a Marina as such more of a warf with very few facilities and to be honest not in the best part of the city. better and safer moorings at festival park Marina Etruria, or just south of the Harecastle tunnel at westport lake.

watched you leaving today, it was quite blustery and the marina is pretty open, my boat wieghs in at 15 tons,I have been blown form my berth right down to the entrance end before I could bring the bows around, your pram hood would act like a sail I would lower it at the first hint of wind. congrats on your maiden voage.The next winding hole is about about 10mins after bridge 82 (salt bridge)in between the moored boats.

Favorite moisturiser swarfiga, favorite hair product cillit bang

it was the fuel pump,picked one up for £60.00 on ebay

I have the same eber and had similar problems, turned out to be a faulty pump replaced it and now it works fine.

Got that wrong its 45min down to the first winding hole and another couple of mins to the first lock at Sandon.

Almost opposite to you in A46. You have a good stretch of canal to practice on, out of the marina turn left 1hour 15mins down to the first winding hole, just after bridge 84.

Are you mooring at the Marina? will look out for your arrival. life jackets essential for youngsters im told that the marina is very deep in places

We have 3 focus in our area, 2 of the stores are virtualy empty. Anything that is left is selling at 90% off marked price the 3rd store is half empty and selling at 50% off marked price.

I need to replace my water filler cap, mine has dissapeared, dont ask me how, Ive seached the engine bay just incase it had worked loose and flirted off with vibration, I can only assume that some poor desperate soul has nicked it. My engine is a beta marine BD1005. I have looked through the operators maunal and the only referece to the filler cap is under the section headed Yachts and launches with heat exchanger cooling and it states that a cap of 13psi should be fitted. Not having a clue about engines and heat exchangers I wouldnt know if I have a heat exchanger does 13psi sound about right. Thanks

After a 6 weeks away I managed to get back out to my boat yesterday and back to my Inverter problem still never got it checked out by a electrician Talking to a guy on the marina and he offered to check it out for me, so away he goes and comes back with his kit.First he checked out the batteries 1 starter and 2 leisure, they seemed to be fine,he checked out the inverter and thinks that its been overloaded at sometime and is Kaput he also checkled out my alternator and was a bit surprised to find that it was only pushing out 0.5v to the batteries and suggested that it may also have been damaged at the same time as the inverter is this feasible. Thanks AM6

Posted by a forum member a while ago I cant remember who! I found it most usefull. I have done my roof thining out with the Owatrol oil the instructions on the can say that you can thin the paint by 30%, I found that 10-15% was fine. I have recently just repainted my NB, the previous owner had just kep plastering paint on top of the old paint and it was in a pretty bad way. So i bought myself a palm sander (really quite quiet too and only cost £25) i decided to flat the paint off to almost bare metal in places, the dust was horrendous (and as i was sanding blue paint off i kept getting around ten comments from passing boaters that i looked like a smurf!!) you will be extremely surprised as to how much dust is created!!. i started off by using the diy store type of sanding pads but at over £20 for a pack of three i resorted to going to a car body shop and bought two boxes of sanding pads (the velcro type) for £13 for a box of 50. i bought them in two grades one was 180 grit for the tough bumpy paint and the other was 400 grit for the light sanding between coats. once all sanded down i used Rylards primer and undercoat, sanded back with 400 grit on the palm sander then wiped down with thinners, once this was done i got myself some dulux trade exterior gloss paint, cut a milk bottle down to use as a paint pod and mixed the paint with Owatrol oil to help the flow, i was painting my boat in mid june/july and it was absolutely baking, the Owatrol did the job but was still hard to apply the paint in the hottest of sun. the method i used was to roll it on with a foam cheapo roller and then "feather" it off with a long bristled brush, lightly passed over the paintwork, then once left to bake on for a few days i buzzed it back with a 400 grit pad, wiped over with thinners and repeated over again until i had built up three coats, it is really important to let the paint bake before trying to put additional coats on. The result now is a great looking paint job (far from professional but looks pretty damn good to me), as all will say its all in the prep work, i have never painted a boat before, infact i have only ever splashed a bit of paint on the walls at home, there is a video of a guy painting a boat on you tube but dont know how to post it on here, i followed this guys technique and it worked really really well a few words of caution that i experienced dont try and paint in the wind/snow/rain/megga hot sun beware of the dust, youll be amazed at how much the sanding creates use Owatrol oil as it was my lifesaver dont use a cheap brush to "feather" off the paint never ever use the diy shops sanding pads as theyll bankrupt you!! go to a car body supplier wear a mask and be prepared to go home very very dirty/sweaty/covered in dust etc etc Any questions PM me and ill try to help, i think my pics are on here somewhere of the before and after, if you cant ind them then just ask and ill send them to you Good luck