Roger Gunkel

Are you getting a smell of diesel or a smell of exhaust? If the smell is diesel, that would suggest that there is a leak in the fuel supply to the heater and that it is only leaking when the pump is running. The fact that the smell remains for a long time would suggest that diesel is dripping somewhere, whereas exhaust smell should dissipate once the burning has stopped. As regards the gas smell, is there such a thing as 'leak tolerance'? Sounds like builder BS to me unless others know better, as the fact that you can smell gas would suggest a build up. No tolerance of gas leak in a boat is acceptable as it cannot escape and will collect in the same way as water, low down until it reaches a dangerous level. As has been suggested, get an immediate pressure check carried out on your installation. Roger

I think the choice is actually very simple! If you want to do extended canal cruising you will need a narrowboat, if maximum living space and a restricted cruising range is more important, then a widebeam is the obvious choice. We chose a widebeam for the space, we can always hire a narrowboat if we want to holiday on the canals. Roger

The old myth about some canalside outlets disposing of waste oil in their red diesel tanks, is just that- a myth. This is not a dig at Nick though as he is airing a fairly widely held view. When I had my diesel heating problems a few years back, the accusation of using contaminated fuel from dubious canalside outlets was widely used by the manufacturers as a reason for early failure of Webasto and Eberspacher heaters run on red diesel. Disposing of waste oil into the tanks was quoted to me by a senior manager from Eberspacher. My diesel supplier threatened to take legal action against them. I think the whole suggestion of waste oil in the tanks comes from the fact that a number of older engines were able to run on a mix of diesel and waste oil which some owners may well have used in their own tanks., and perhaps with farm storage for agricultural machinery. There may well have been the odd case of owners of boats adding oil, then finding their heaters packed up. I don't think there are any cases of canalside outlets being proven to have followed this practice and why should they? After all, most would also use that fuel in their own boats and wouldn't want to cause themselves expensive problems. Roger

Most of the good advice has already been given, so I will also recommend Crewsaver and Seago as good reliable makes. Auto Inflate and mininimum of 150 n, 175 if you can afford. I would very strongly advise crotch or thigh straps as previously mentioned. There have been some recent cases of people falling overboard, but on attempted rescue their lifejackets have been pulled off of them. Also where a safety line has been connected but no crotch strap, there is a recent well documented case of the lifeline pulling the jacket over their face and holding them under water while still attached to the boat. As also mentioned, a light is very worthwhile as mentioned previously. If you are going to get a life jacket, get a good one, wear it and wear it properly secured, as it is too late when you are in the water to wish you had spent another £20 or had done up the crotch strap instead of leaving it loose! Finally, don't forget that if you fall in, you have to get out, so have a means of getting yourself back on the boat if possible, as it will take probably 3 people to drag you back onboard with no boarding facilities. Roger

Cheap but 96db-- don't moor near me Roger

Let's not forget that the declaration that you make on the heating/propulsion split is purely voluntary and the fuel supplier is collecting the duty that you declare on behalf of HMRC. The supplier has no legal right to demand that you pay any particular percentage and is bound to accept what you say. If a fuel supplier is advertising fuel at a 60/40 split only, then he would appear to be doing that in contradiction to any legal guidelines as far as I can see. You should be within your rights to refuse to pay it, in the same way that you would refuse to pay someone charging you 40% vat on shop bought goods. Happy to be proved wrong though if anyone has evidence to the contrary. If HMRC decide for some remote reason that you are taking the piss, then they will have to show that they have reasonable grounds to suspect this, and would have great difficulty disputing any figures that you supply, due to any number of reasons mentioned in previous posts. If you are stuck in a marina all winter and move nowhere, then declare 0% if you believe that is correct, don't feel guilty as the supplier is probably as pissed off at having to collect it as you are paying it. To the best of my knowledge no case has ever come to court and I can't see on what grounds it would unless there was a clear case of profiteering by selling on or similar circumstances. Roger

Just a thought, but if you are considering running a water cooled permanently installed generator of that size, you could also seriously consider doing away with the need for a diesel propulsion engine and using an Agni or Lynch electric drive instead. With the size of a typical canal boat prop and the revs required, the motor should connect directly to the propshaft. There should be enough electric output to directly power the drive motor from the generator output at cruising speeds, with extra power available from the battery bank if you need greater power for emergency stopping or faster speeds. Most modern canal boat engines spend their lives running at well below optimum speeds, whereas a genny is built to run at optimum continuously, for long life and efficiency. It would also be quieter than the normal drive engine and give the option of silent running from a charged battery bank. You would also qualify for lower licence rates as the boat would be considered to be electrically driven. As I said, just a thought Roger

The UK vehicle numberplate lettering may be a good starting point, as the requirement is for it to be readable from 20 metres within the driving test eyesight requirement. The font size is 79mm high by 50mm wide. Roger

The problem with noise transmission is a very real one, with some wind turbines being horrendously noisy inside and out. Some of the Aerogen models are very noisy. My Rutland 913 makes a quiet rushing sound outside, which is only noticeable from next to it in strong winds. The real problem though is the noise in the boat under the pole, which is not direct noise from the turbine, but resonance from the mounting pole. Mine is mounted on a thick rubber pad, with the guy wires also mounted to rubber pads. This unfortunately only slightly reduces the problem, as the very slight hum from the turbine becomes a roar as it is vastly amplified by the support pole. The sound and vibration seems to travel through the support pad, the wood pad under it and the 1" thick rubber under that. The resonance seems to be airborne between the pole and the boat structure. Various things have been suggested and tried on different forums, with the best result seeming to come from rubber filled poles, although that is not easy to make or buy. Sea going yachts have less of a problem, as the turbines are mounted on the mast, which has sail tracks cut into it, is usually tapered and various other reasons why resonance doesn't develop in the same way. Personally I quite like the sound during the day as it reminds me of the free power I am getting, but at night I tend to turn it off as it can seem louder and louder as other noises disappear and you are trying to get to sleep. Another reason why the 24 hour theory of wind power is not quite t!he same in practice Roger

I have to say that I agree with you there! While the solar panels just sit there producing power and looking bored, the wind gennie is whirring away following the wind direction and looking very important and enviromentally friendly. I think people view them a bit like an old windmill, and they also seem to invoke admiration ' Wow they've got a wind generator, how cool is that'. Roger

I just read the spec on the wind generator mentioned and it says start up speed is 3.5 mps or about 8mph, so nothing at all below that. The rated speed , which I assume means the speed of max output is close to 30mph. There are no figures for lower speeds, so it will be pot luck, but I suspect that they would need a fairly strong wind for a reasonable output as they are 3 bladed units. Although the Rutlands are more expensive, they are very widely used due to reliability, comparatively low wind speed performance, and availability of parts. I'm not trying to promote Rutland to justify my own expenditure, as mine was a £50 second hand chance buy with shot bearings, cheap and straight forward to replace. As a backup and top up gennie it is useful. Roger

The advantage of a wind generator in theory, is that you have the opportunity of generating power 24 hours per day! However, the theory and the practice aren't quite the same. I have a Rutland 913 gennie and 200w of solar and the average output from the solar is much higher than the wind. The prroblem is that whatever the advert might say the maximum output is, you will only get that at high wind speeds, whIch is very rarely. At typical 5-10 mph breezes you will get little useful output, 1-2ah perhaps. Also on the inland waterways, you are usually sheltered from the wind from many directions, or it will swirl around reducing output further. At the moment, the wind here is gusting up to 16mph and it is overcast with light drizzle.The Rutland is outputting up to 3ah on gusts and drops to 1ah or less on the lower steady wind. The solar is giving a steady 4ah And when the sun briefly shows, the Rutland stays the same and the solar goes up to about 9-10ah. On clear sunny Spring to Autumn days I will get up to 14ah from the solar often 80-90ah or more per day A cheap wind generator, controller and fittings is going to cost you at least £400 which is enough to buy you 400watts of solar or 300w plus a controller. The output from that would be much more than I am getting from my solar and many times more than a wind generator. You will also get total reliability, silent power and years of trouble free use. Roger

Sorry didn't make that clear Richard, Hot Spot is a blacking polish that was recommended to us several years ago and we have used it ever since. It comes in tubes or in a tin and is just applied with a rag or sponge direct to the metal as you said. EDITED TO ADD LINK. Hotspot Roger

I would imagine that the vactan is reacting to the heat, taking the blacking off with it. I have neve heard of derusting and priming a stove flue before blacking it. I always wire brush any loose rust then apply hot spot quite thickly, usually a couple of coats, then buff it up with a dry cloth when it has thouroughly dried. It lasts the whole Winter with no problem, but the rust starts to come rhrough after a few weeks with the fire out. Then it's time to redo it. Roger

I sympathise with your findings of cost on running a diesel stove in the depths of winter, but am slightly surprised that you are not getting enough heat. Our cheap Evergreen multi fuel stove has a maximum heat output equivalent to 5-6Kw and maintains a comfortable temperature in our 57ft widebeam whatever the outside temperature. You say that your stove doesn't give as much heat as SF stoves on friends boats, but it may not be as simple as that. Your boat may not be so well insulated, may have large windows where your friends have portholes, so you may not be retaining the heat so well. We have spent time lining cold surfaces in our boat, double glazing all the windows and making sure that there are no uneccessary draughts from badly fitting doors etc.. So my point is that it might be worth looking at better ways to retain the heat you are producing first, rather than jumping into producing more heat. Roger

We've been about the same level for the last couplle of days at Upware, so they're probably using all your water to keep the levels ok here Roger

I have lived for nearly 8 years on my widebeam and have never regretted the choice that we made, both living on a boat and getting a wide beam. You have to decide whether your long term aim is to cruise the whole canal system, in which case you will need a narrowboat, or whether you want as much space as possible but a limited cruising area. I don't know anything about the waterways in the Banbury area, but from the posts of those who do, it sounds like you need a narrowboat there. You have mentioned that you need to stay in the Banbury area, but that sounds as though you want the location convenience of a house but the perceived romance of a boat, so perhaps you are not fully ready for a complete life change yet. If you have no experience of boating, then tying yourself to a very restricted area will deprive you of many of the advantages and experiences. Incidentally if you decide as we did that you need the space of a widebeam, and you can find somewhere locally where you can moor it, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't have it craned out and taken by road wherever you want when you are ready to go to a new cruising area on a more permanent basis. All the doom and gloom about the Winter is interesting, as a number of boat owners seem to have real problems with it. To us, it is just another season and our boat is as comfortable in the Winter as it is in the Summer. It is a matter of knowing what to expect and having a boat that is capable of giving you the comfort and facilities that you want in the Winter months. Hiring though is a good idea to get a feel for living together in a confined space, handling a boat, getting used to a different way of doing things etc. I'm not totally convinced that hire boats are neccessarily geared up for Winter living, but would give an idea of what you could expect and ways to prepare a boat of your own. Roger

You don't qualify Mike, you've got a home and you're not giving phones away Roger

If you account is correct and your friend had not finished paying for the boat, then the verbal contract wasn't completed. It would also seem likely that if you were the deceased man's friend, then you would have no legal right to take possession of the boat and the man owed the money would still be the legal owner. In the absence of any written proof or witnesses to the original deal, then whether it was a rental or a sale would seem to be impossible to prove. It would be essential for anyone buying a boat on this basis, to have the agreement in writing and a receipt for any payments made. I would also suggest that as the deal was not completed, the owner would be entitled to claim rental for the period that the boat was used. In a formal hire purchase agreement, the goods would I believe, remain the property of the finance company until final payment was made. It could be argued that in this case, the boat was being hired until full purchase was made. Not what you want to hear I'm sure, and others will be along to offer a more professional opinion. Roger EDITED to say that there were no replies when I first started replying to this, but have now read the other thread, so will leave my comments as I feel they are relevent to the question, but will not make further posts. Roger

It could be if you don' know where you are in the first place Roger

She said she needed a new phone, so if it is a recent smart phone in good nick, just parcel it up and send it to me, I'm sure she will be very pleased Roger

I did start using Memory Map, but found it a pain to download and install maps, plus the downloads weren't cheap. If you have an iPad, The 'UK Map' app is brilliant at an initial cost of £6.99, but all the OS maps are simple to install and free. You just click on the square you want, click download and that is it! Roger

My wife and I have a 26 year old single female friend who is about 5'5", waist length blonde hair, stunningly good looking with a figure to make any man drool. She is a personal trainer to some well know celebs and has just taken delivery of a custom built 57' luxury narrowboat as her permanent home. Her interests include diy, painting, outdoors lifestyle, physical activities, loves football and is a pretty mean welder. She remarked in passing at the weekend, that men just don't seem to be attracted to her and did we know any recently seperated men, preferably with children, no home and needy. We said we would bear it in mind Roger