Roger Gunkel

Sorry for delay been away, (PMd back to you tonight) Our Aquarius is the WM A58 6kg drum 1400rpm spin model. with the rotary dials rather than the digital controller. Roger

My insurance is with CRAFTINSURE who are an online insurance company. I have been with them for two and a half years and have found them very helpful and informative right from the start. My boat was a sailaway plus when I bought it and they advised me to insure it with them at the purchase price initially and to enter the value on my internet account and premiums would be automatically assessed. It is deducted by direct debit and is automatically amended if I increase the valuation. As I fitted it out I could simply upgrade the insurance value to what I felt it was worth or my own independant valuation if I preferred. When I queried this, they explained that in the event of any claim, underwriters would carry out their own assessment, and their estimated valuation at the time of claim would be what the settlement is based on whatever the insured valuation. I believe this is the practice with all insurance claims. Any under insurance on my part, would mean that I could only claim up to the maximum for which I was paying, so in the event of a total loss, I would lose out. If I over estimated the value, then my premiums would simply be higher than neccessary. The onus therefore is on me to be sensible in my own interest. Seems very logical to me and I am very happy with it. I can see no reason why the insurance company would want you to pay for a seperate valuation apart from earning extra money if you do it through them. There is no guarantee that a loss adjuster for any claim in a few moths time would agree with that assessment as far as I can see. There have certainly been many cases of people claiming for the loss of a new car, only to find that they are only being paid for the value at the time of claim, which certainly doesn't come near the price they are going to have to pay to replace it. I am certainly no expert on insurance and would be interested to know if my understanding is incorrect. Roger

Hi Messy, Been reading this thread with interest. It always interests me that people feel their own way is the best way, but then I suppose to them it is. You can choose to live whatever way you wish with a bit of research and patience. Some will tell you that living on a boat in a marina is the same as living in a house in a village. No its not, the people are different and their philosophy on life is different. Thats one of the first things you will find if you live on board. Don't believe that you will be tied to or dependant on shore hookups in a marina either, thats the whole point of a boat you can change over to on board power and go off for as long as you want, knowing you have a secure mooring to return to. Our 'Marina' mooring is actually on the river that runs past the marina so we have the beauty of an open river view with no feeling of being hemmed in at all, plus the benefit of supplied utilities and a permanent address. It takes us less than two minutes to slip our moorings and go. We also have friends who pay £10 per week for a mooring on a backwater with no facilities, which they love, but when discussing power, we worked out the cost of fuelling his generator for 12 months, and it worked out to about £1200. Add that on to his mooring cost and its not much different to ours. I am a techno freak and also love the comforts of a modern home, bath, fridge freezer, TV, broadband, warmth, carpets, hi fi, 3 piece suite full double bed, washing machine etc. We have all of that and still go off up the river when we feel like it. I also run 2 tower PC systems and a laptop all with a total of 1000gb for my video production business which I run from the boat. I'm not sure about your 32" screen, I found that a 17" screen 10ft away gives the same apparent size as a 32" 20ft away. Anyway, listen to all the advice but choose the lifestyle that you want and enjoy it. Roger

Forgive me if I am stating the obvious here, but I am speaking from personal experience. A few months ago I noticed a considerable shortening of the running time on batteries although they were only two years old. After trying various things out, I thought I would buy a hygrometer and test each cell. It immediately became obvious what was wrong when I could find hardly any water in the batteries. Although I checked the levels only 3 months previously, they had dropped in level to about 50%. I was staggered to say the least, but I have since been told that this is common on batteries that are on constant charge with regular useage. I now check them every month and also added some tablets called 'BAT-AID'. My batteries have steadily improved and are now back to normal. Coincidentally the guy on the boat next to ours had the same problem and has also cured it. The engine starter battery which is the same size and age as the domestics, has never needed topping up at all. Roger

My names Fred Fish, and I live in the sea with the vast majority of the rest of the worlds living organisms. I've just found this waterproof wifi laptop floating in the sea off the Devon coast. Having switched it on, I found my way by amazing coincidence to this forum. Iwas grossly insulted to read such twaddle about you lot having all the intelligence. Under normal circumstances, me and my mates wouldn't bother to communicate with you inferior lower forms of life, but the comment about our lot having no intelligence or we would have let you know of our concerns, really had me shedding my scales with laughter. My Uncle Herbert the Turbut said keep your mouth shut son or they'll find out! I just had to tell you though, the more junk you chuck into the atmosphere and the more the earth heats up -what happens? Grind...click.whirrr... Oh you got it at last....the ice melts, water levels rise...you drown.....game over!!!! You intelligent- You're having a laugh!!!! Bye

Thought I'd jump into this thread, having been off line and out of touch for nearly 3 months. We've been running a Hotpoint Aquarius for over 2 years with no problems at all, despite a wildly fluctating mains supply from the Marina. We always run it on 40 degrees wash, but always make sure that we have hot water in the tank, to save it heating its own. We use it 3 times a week on average and find it reasonable on water and power. For us it certainly beats a 12 mile round journey to the nearest launderette, not to mention the time saved. Roger

As Martin says, in the cupboard where the hot water tank is at the highest point. Normally looks like a tupperware box with a filler cap and a pipe out of the bottom. The water in it will probably be blue as it should have anti freeze already in it. Roger

Hi Rigmech, I noticed that you had just joined the forum so hello! You will probably find that the large number of people that use this forum are boat owners and users who welcome the opportunity to share ideas, ask advice and generally chat about boats and boat related things. You may find that your request for information could be seen as a sales opportunity. Why not read through the various threads, get a feel for the forum and the people, get involved and you will probably pick up most of the information you are looking for and perhaps be able to offer advice from your technical background and experience. I'm sure it would be greatly welcomed. Regards, Roger

Everybody is out here Andrew, what else would you like to know? Roger

As we have had the bank holiday, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, I will give both Isuzu and NBC until Wednesday to confirm a date to come out, after that it will be time to get heavier. I'll announce the outcome when I get one. I do think that the more people know about these sort on faulures in after sales services, the better they can make up their own minds on which suppliers and manufacturers to use. Hopefully the trade are also reading these sort of comments and realising that they will lose customers if they don't get their fingers out! Roger

You are probably aware of my Eberspacher problems, however Eberspecher reccommend Fuelset and I think it is the only additive that they do reccommend. Having said that, it didn't stop my Eber dying frequently. I still use the Fuelset, but for me the jury is still out. Roger

I would like to thank Howard for the time he has spent on our behalf, before a sensible subject was hijacked by a bufoon. I would also suggest that if this site is to continue to the benefit of all, that John should suspend this fools access immediateley so he may live up to his name DOOMED Roger

Like Blackrose, I don't have a problem single handing my 57x10 boat. They can seem daunting at first if you are used to a much smaller boat, but I found I adapted very quickly. Its a bit like driving a bigger vehicle, the principle is the same, just more of it. You seem to quickly become aware of the larger size and weight. Our mooring gap is between two boats with about 3ft either end and I don't have a problem with that. I just take everything gently and smoothly and use the centre rope which I run back to the steering position. One thing I have noticed is that you get more 'respect' from centre of river boaters, when you have a widebeam! Roger

Moorings are in short supply in many areas of the waterways, although less of a problem where we are in the Fens. Not much use to you though! Roger

Hi Paul, I don't want to be too hard on NBC at the moment, as their warranty department has changed personnel a few times and the current guy 'Will' is working on it for me at the moment. Will has confirmed to me that their requests were sent to Isuzu and has copies of the old paperwork. I have no reason to doubt his wish to get this cleared up and I am more concerned by Isuzu's lack of response to both the customer and agent's requests. There are a number of courses open to me, but at this stage I still have patience and trust that NBC will finally get this sorted, particularly as Will is also a liveaboard and hopefully sympathetic. Roger

Hi Silver Gilt I would think very carefully about sea work if you have no experience, as the channel is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world and one of the most dangerous. If it is something that you want to do regularly, then you need a serious sea going boat as well as suitable safety gear, navigation ability, radio licence and some hands on experience. Some dutch barges are capable of limited sea work under some conditions but many which are labelled dutch barges are not. New fully fitted with some sea going capability will probably start at about 3 times your budget. Gary Peacock at Ledgard Bridge Boats is much more knowledgeable on this subject than me. We bought a sailaway 57ft widebeam with engine, water system, 12 and 240v electrics in place, central heating and insulated and lined 2 years ago. The current price for a similar boat is about £49-50K It cost us around £8-10K to fit out with mainly domestic items eg. B&Q kitchen, Hotpoint washing machine, Fridge freezer etc. I am not much of a DIYer but its all straight forward and there is plenty of help for the bits you aren't sure of. So it cost us less than £60K and it has been valued over £80k, so a good investment. There would also be enough left out of your budget for a nice little sea going boat for your adventures, which is exactly what we did, buying a 25ft sea going motor sailer. Anything is possible, just depends on how you want to do it. Good luck, Roger

Have you got your mind set on living at one Marina in particular, because they don't all require that you buy from them. We couldn't afford a new fully fitted boat, so we bought a sailaway from New Boat Co and had it delivered to the marina where we fitted it out and now live. Roger

I seem to be Mr Moan after my Eberspacher debacle, however, I bought my new Boston Widebeam from New Boat Co in Sept 2004 with an Isuzu engine fitted. Around Nov 2004 the engine stop button failed to stop the engine, which was rather embarassing as at that time I new less about diesels than I do now. After about 30 minutes, I found a lever on the engine which finally stopped it. I reported this to NBC and waited. Meanwhile I attached a piece of string to the lever and used that as a temporary stop. After a couple of weeks, NBCs trouble shooter came to look at my heating and I mentioned the stop button while he was there. He hadn't been told about it and couldn't do anything with it. I mentioned this to NBC who said they would get Isuzu to send someone out. As I was able to stop the engine with the string, I did't mention it again until about Feb 05 when I again reminded NBC who said they would again contact Isuzu. By May 05, still no progress, so I contacted NBC once more. The sent a written request to Isuzu for tyhe job to be done. They replied that as it was a bit out of the way, they would get there engineer to drop in when he was in the area in the next couple of weeks. I thought that a bit odd as there is a main dealer at Buckden about 30 minutes away. By April of this year, despite reminders, I decided they were 'having a laugh', so when a NBC man appeared on the next boat to me, I collared him. He very kindly looked, but couldn't find the problem and concluded it was the solenoid in the engine. He rang directly to Isuzu while he was here, who said they would get someone out. In June I again rang NBC who said they would get on it straight away. I then received a call back from them to say that Isuzu would send a new stop button for me to fit myself! Bloody cheek! It duly arrived, and after a month of no time to do it, I finally fitted the new one last week. Needless to say it made no diference. I rang NBC once more, who rang Isuzu again. They then started to mention guarantee etc and it was pointed about by NBC that the thing had failed back in 2004. Isuzu then offered to send me a new solenoid to fit myself!! I pointed out that not only had I no idea where a diesel engine stop solenoid should go, apart from up someones rear end, I thought that they had a bloody cheek taking six grand off me then failing to correct a fault on their engine. NBC then came back to me once more to tell me that Isuzu would contact me to arrange a suitable time. I'm still waiting. The engine itself has been excellent so far, but I wonder whether I would have had the same lack of interest on a camshaft or similar failure. Is it because I live on a boat and am in a minority market? Have others encountered similar problems with Isuzu? I would certainly think very hard before using any more of their products either personally or within my business if this is a common attitude. Roger

While having no axe to grind either way, I think it would be fair to look at the other side of the coin, which is to consider whether it is fair to expect a small boat builder to invest a great deal of his own money on materials and labour to build what is possibly a one off styled boat to a particular customers requirements, when that customer is only prepared to put down a small percentage as a deposit. If the customer backs out, he way well demand his deposit backand also leave the boat builder with a big financial commitment and no easy way to recover his costs. I bet there are many boatbuilders out there who have had disappearing clients. Staged payments where the customer is paying for the materials involved and has ownership rights to them, could well be the only safe way to go for both sides Roger

What made us take the Plunge? I was divorced a few years ago and went from owning a house to renting a flat. After Claire and I met and found that we both enjoyed boats, we bought a small motorsailer and it gave us an escape that we loved. I had no intention of being burdened with a motgage again and we both disliked the idea of throwing away more and more money renting someone elses property. Claire suggested the idea of living afloat so we started to see what was available. Although I had a fair experience of boats, we knew nothing about living aboard permanently. We felt that for a serious home, we would want all of the modern civilised comforts that you would expect from a house including space. We found that narrowboats were very claustrophobic from our point of view, all of those we looked at were very 'boaty'- dark wood, small windows, and little floor space. Very nice but not a home for us. We wanted domestic washing machine, dining table and chairs, fridge freezer, bath, central heating - you know the sort of thing. We were beginning to think we were expecting too much, when we discovered that we could get a sailaway widebeam with all the basic electrical, mechanical and lining done for no more than a good second hand narrow boat. We didn't want to cruise the canal system, so the wide beam was perfect for the waterways we might want to cruise on. We'd spent part of what I retained from my divorce on the motorsailer and didn't want to sell that, so took out a small loan from the bank to cover the difference and two years from taking delivery we have no doubt that we made the right decision. I have grown up children, so there is just the 2 of us on the boat, but we have taken into consideration that that may change and can easily turn our office into another bedroom if needed. I cannot imagine a better environment to bring children up in. There are several small children living here in the marina and our neighbours have just had a new baby to join their 3 year old. We chose to pay for a marina mooring for securityand main services and for us the peace of mind is well worth it. It is difficult to explain to non liveaboards the difference it can make to your life, but we immediately felt an absence of the stress of conventional life. No constant drone of traffic, late night thump of car sound systems, a total lack of keeping up with the Jones's or a need to conform. Most of all we feel totally involved in whats going on around us, the changing wildlife, weather, plant life, seasons and the willingness of everybody to talk to you and quietly keep an eye on things if you are not there. I bet you don't even know most of the neighbours where you live now! After two years neither of us miss a house at all, in fact we can't wait to get home if we stay with freinds. At the end of the day it won't suit everybody, but for us it is a great improvement to life. Roger

Well that sound a little different from what was understood from your earlier post. It sounds as though your gravity drain is the same as everyone elses, namely a pump out. Thanks for clearing that one up, thought I was hallucinating! Roger

John, even if your waste outlets are only 3" above the waterline, surely the outlet on the shower tray must be below the waterline unless you have it mounted a couple of feet off the floor! Presumably then you would have to sit down to shower unless you are only 4 feet tall. Assuming your shower tray is on the floor, then I would expect it to start filling through your 3" above the waterline outlet everytime a boat passes. Or am I missing something? There seem to be some odd boats in your neck of the woods. When I was cutting the outlets into the hull of my widebeam, I looked at many other boats on the moorings here and without exception they were all 8-10" AWL. The only exceptions that I could see were sea going boats which were all fitted wth sea cocks. Our kitchen sink is the only gravity feed, with the washing machine on its own pump out and skin fitting, the bath and handbasin emtying into a small sump box with water activated pump to another skin fitting. Roger