becki

thanks very much. so simple!!

Hello there. My inverter is using so much battery power I would love to charge my laptop through a 12v adapter, but all I can find online are car adapters, which plug into cigar lighters. Not having a cigar lighter on the boat, I look to you for solutions...!?

Hello there, our water tank is very rusty. We have heard that you can get plastic bags to put inside water tanks. Does anyone know where we might be able to get such things?

hi i was wondering if some one could give me a quick breakdown of how to change the oil and oil filter on our list petter? thanks

Can any one offer me good advice on making a cratch for the front of our narrow boat? thanks

here here!

thanks jo, yes, all the best with yours. have a great time! thanks all for your replies - will check out that link in a bit...

thanks richard, the boat will be out from friday morning til monday morning. you don't think this is enough time?

Hi there, next weekend we're getting a 2nd hand boat we plan to buy taken out of the water for a hull inspection and held out over the weekend to be blacked. I have been told by plenty of boaters that we can black the boat ourselves, but I wonder if anyone here has any tips on technique/equipment? Cheers, Becki

we have been looking at second hand boats and have one that is really nice. it has a pump out toilet which we would like to change to a cassette. can any one tell us if we could simply remove the toilet cap of the tank (after cleaning) and put in a cassette or is it more complicated? many thanks becky

I have been looking at secondhand narrowboats to buy. All but one (which was dry as a bone) have had lots of water in the bilge. I've been told that this is fine and it is just a matter of pumping this water out, although a boater friend said to me yesterday that (although her boat currently has water in the bilge of her boat) I shouldn't touch a boat with water in the bilge "with a bargepole". What do you think of a boat that has been left standing for some time with water in the bilge?

Does anyone know anything about these builders? Looking at buying a 45' all steel narrowboat built by them in 1991. Thanks!

yes, smaller prettier hands than you used to have in your acting days. i'm glad their not your breasts, anyway, that would have been really weird

thanks. yoda, you have bigger breasts than i remember...

have been through apolloduck really thoroughly and am going to see boats. now starting on other sites too. re. previous question i'm not sure about the ventilation - going to look at boat tomorrow. the other two are all steel you'll be pleased to know

What do you think about fibreglass cabin, steel hull boats to livaboard?

cheers all for your advice. i have trawled all narrow boat related pages of apolloduck in the hopes of finding something good 2nd hand. now for ebay...........

hmm. thanks for your thoughts

!!

thanks everyone for your advice. it's a sailaway (with insulation, battening, basic floor) and engine that we'd ordered. we were hoping to have a month to work solidly on it before studying when we would have to work on it more gradually. we did go up to meet dave and see his boats. it has been lack of contact from him, pushing back dates and a reluctance to sign any kind of contract that has made us worry. i think his boats are good, that's what i've read elsewhere. i also think he's probably a fine builder for someone with a more normal time scale. i know we were asking a lot - but this is what he verbally promised was possible in july, so we were going with what he said.

thanks for that i did just email the owner!

thanks for your advice. we're on a crappy budget of only 15k though i've thought to look for slightly dearer boats in the hope that the sellers might be interested in a bit less in cash! it's not an ideal position to be in, i know. you see we were hoping to get something new we could sell on in a few years and then buy something a bit bigger. we were looking at the new boat as an investment. we are in a pickle with time limit now though, as we both start full time courses at the end of september. (we were hoping to get the boat at the beginning to give us a bit of time on it beforehand.) any thoughts, anyone?

well thanks for pointing it out. tell you what, this forum is so good! it is so active and such a relief to be able to hear from people who are genuinely interested and experienced. this is a bit of a sticky patch in terms of getting somewhere to live and can feel pretty lonely so it's really good to have a community at your finger tips!

at the moment we share a modest bedsit room so for us it is an upscale!! we have stayed on boats and and friends have boats they live on so we ahve a bit of experience. we are going to be very conscious of space when fitting out. the cabin is also going to be extended right to the front so this will give us some more inside footage.