g-man

Of course but this paints it all a bit black and white, not all people put 100% of the proceeds of their house sale into their boat and a good secondhand boat is a lot less to buy than a house. The option I chose was to use about 50% of my capital and invest the rest on the stock market for an income and future growth. It's fine to point out the downside of costs but weigh it up also against the cost of repaying a mortgage and home ownership. Personally I've found living aboard very rewarding, it more than makes up for the planning and energy involved.

Pfft! That's a new one on me as I've never experienced such "problems" reaching the controls, but maybe those cruisers sterns you see struggling contain a higher than average percentage of hire boats?

Yes it's certainly worth a speculative bid should a new vacancy arise. Under the old tender system I was paying £1825 but I've just won a mooring in the same area with £1079! Even with having to pay the two months notice its a big saving. It's funny thay no one else bid this time around as last summer there was about 5 people bidding for the same spot. One wonders where all the others were, is it the recession, people cheesed off with the auction system or simply the time of year? Whatever, I'm a happy man.

From my experience a 1KW generator will just about charge 5 batteries whilst running an inverter with a few lights on etc. However if you can afford it get at least 2KW as it'll be more comfortable running equipment like a washing machine and vacuum cleaner. I tend to think of my gennie more as backup to the engine, OK the gennie uses less fuel maybe 1/2 to 3/4L per hour against 1.4L per hour but red diesel is also cheaper than petrol and the engine heats up the water as a bonus. Swings and roundabouts

Changing the toilet isn't really a bad job as I have "proper" one a cassette! Cleaning out the years of water and rust from the engine bilge and repainting was pretty rough as I had to become a contortionist to do it and it coincided with the hottest days of the year. I guess the worst routine job I have to do is checking the batteries as they are pretty inaccessable and again I have to crawl around in the engine bay plus disconnect all the wires in order to just top them up.

Oh I agree, in the summer months 1000w would be very useful on most days. My warning about installing panels now is that the OP would find they are not enough for their needs over the next 6 months, they'll just be sitting on the roof gathering dust.

Just double check it really is coal!

I'd advise saving your money and waiting till spring before installing them. You'll get minimal useful charge from 200w panels at this time of year. Personally I've found them very good during the summer for trickle charging over a week when I'm away but now autumns arrived they barely register a charge. If your heart is set on buying them then get as many as you can afford possibly upwards of 1000w but still expect to have to use a genny to charge the batteries most days. Using the practical knowledge I've aquired If I could afford a decent sized solar array I still wouldn't buy... I'd put the money in stocks and shares and spend the interest earned on petrol or diesel.

Thieving's not a modern phenomenon, my old mum in her 80's thinks I'm mad leaving wood, coal, petrol and assorted kit around my boat. But, as i say to her until proved otherwise I'll trust my fellow boaters around me. Of course if I ever caught some scrote nicking stuff I'd skin em alive, the irony would be I'd probably give a fellow boater the odd gallon of petrol if they were short...

I'd agree with the first part but glass definetely keeps cleaner and there's less tar with smokeless coal.

We've had cats, now dogs. What about hamsters? I'm rather partial to them myself.

And mighty proud of it we are! But, of course it's nonsense everyone knows the scum live in Treacle Town (Nuneaton) Edited to add smiley

I'm currently re-tiling mine too. Based on what i've read on this forum I've always had concerns about potential problems as my tiles were stuck directly on to the end of the MDF kitchen unit by the previous owner. This week I removed the old tiles so as to add an additional layer of fireboard between tiles, kitchen unit and side ply. I have the same observation, absolutely no sign of any overheating but I'm glad I have done the job as it's put my mind at rest

Did you misread my original post perchance? I was talking about using solar lights as an alternative to using battery power for lighting the INSIDE of the boat. And no I'm not scared of the dark but a couple of solar LED's just adds a bit more illumination when I'm scrabbling my way to the loo.

For some low level *mood* lighting I use solar LED garden lights. I bought them for lighting up the mooring pins so I could see them when stumbling home from the pub but found they are really useful placed inside the boat to give some extra illumination rather than than use the main lights. Put them outside to charge during the day and they'll last well into the early hours. I bought the small stick style ones and place them in holders just like candles. You can pick them up 4 for a tenner from places like Wilkinsons.

Agreed, the last 3 times I have purchased red, I have declared 100% heating without any arguments from the supplier. Most of this seems to be how much a jobsworth\tax collector the individual wishes to be.

Sad really, the guy is possibly suffering mental health or addiction problems outside the remit or training of a BW official?

I went up as far as Bosworth just over a week ago no problems at all. Enjoy your trip!

I haven't had any problems with fumes, I keep the hood up to protect from the rain but open both side flaps, I place the genny close towards one of the open sides with the exhaust pointing towards the outside world. On a dry day I'd also run it off the boat but only to keep the noise as far away as possible.

Very useful, as others have said one can drop the hood easily when cruising - takes a couple of minutes. The extra dry space is invaluable for storage, keeping the bilge dry, working on the engine and with the sides open for ventilation you can run a generator "outside" protected from the rain. Buy one you won't regret it!

Also the long stroke of a vintage style engine means increased piston speed in the bores against shorter stroke modern engine which is why they have to have a lower rev limit. But the upshot is both vintage and modern engines will last a long time if serviced properly the choice boils down to looks and sound V practicality (e.g twin alternators) and cost. I notice according to Beta the tug engine uses more fuel too compared to their smaller engines with similar performance? Not to be ignored with diesel costs increasing.

It's well worth a detour, the scenery around Hartshill/Mancetter is excellent, Nuneaton's not so bad and the natives are mostly friendly. There's a nice quiet mooring just before the winding hole after Hartshill BW yard that has views of the wooded hill on the one side and the valley on the other.

I fitted one of these from Maplins 60W with controller and free delivery, £200 http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223250

I recently connected up a 60w array and so far so good it gives me some useful top up charge while I'm away from the boat during the day. However the instructions were a bit vague and I simply connected the wires from the controller to the centre battery of my bank of 5. However I notice that my Mastervolt battery monitor doesn't register the positive amps when the solar is connected even at peak times. It's working fine because the overall battery voltage increases so I'm presuming maybe I need to wire the controller to battery wire differently?