Tigerr

Its worth it for the extra space to hang wet gear etc, and to dry the engine bilge. If you fit one I suggest you have the windows all round removeable - including the front - as when its raining its almost impossible to see out of the vinyl, and a canopy does the job you want. That only applies if you intend to drive with the roof up, which I don't do as it catches on branches etc. You will be unlikely to get much below the sort of price you've been quoted though.

Signals are a pest but apparently their numbers are increased by catching them. A key part of adult crayfish diet is baby crayfish. When you take out the big ones to eat then the small ones numbers increase. The small ones predate everythiung else, before eating each other, which damages local crayfish and fry, larvae etc. They also carry a nasty virus that is spread by nets & pots if they are not sterilised. Hence the restrictions on netting and potting. Thats what I've been told anyway. My friend catches his at night since its not allowed.

Thats a good catch rate. I have 2 pots and the haul is variable. My friend got about 40 in 24 hrs on the upper Thames last year which was the best yet. I am on the Thames next 3 wks and looking forward to free dinner if I can have it. Along with Bramble crumble.

Thanks. Dinner sorted.

Yes, I know how to do that - but there's no need to do all that business leaving them in water - is that what you are saying - just strip the vein out when you eat them?

If caught in a river, are they edible straight away or is 'cleaning/purging' required. Last year my friend had a good load of them which he tried to 'clean' in the shower on the boat by leaving them in fresh water for 24 hrs. A lot died presumably of suffocation, and he didnt eat them. Id like to know if they really need to be purged or if they can be popped straight into the boilpot and served. I am sure someone here has direct experience of this.

Assuming you are on a canal, the answer is you can get loads of people 'on' because you can have them walking alongside and helping at locks etc. That way you can have dogs too which adds to the fun. What you want is somewhere to moor up for a BBQ about 3 miles from base. Gazebo and chairs and bar & BBQ travel on the boat, with kitchen and precook etc - with any that cant walk - all the rest on foot. It works a treat. The walk back gives a chance to work off the excess burgers.

The Tescos in Reading is dead convenient for a supply stop, and you will reach it PM on day 2, just as you get onto the river. Moor at Sonning after, its pretty and there's a lovely pub. Should be a great trip with this weather.

On a lot of holes, you are 'bonkers' (as we say) to put the prop and rudder (or backend as we say) into the 'hole' because its shallow and full of stuff ('crap' as we say)_, so you would be anti-winding (or thrashing about in the shit as we say), if you wanted to 'turn' your boat the wrong way. Turning point seems to be a better description for the points where on can turn ones boat for the last 100 years.

I used Danish Oil - which I am hoping will recondition the rather faded hexdeck material at the same time.

I am pleased with this tip. My boat has semi trad back with lockers and hexboard covers. I have noticed that if I am out in heavy rain, rainfall drains from the hexboard into the lockers, where the engine heat creates a supermoist environment to corrode anything in there. The lockers are sealed and soundproofed. As I have batts in one thats not so good. My solution has been to buy a cheap router and rout out a drain channel in the hexboard - about half an inch all round and gullied out to the edge on the front, so rainwater drains out to the main deck with its own built in drain system. It seems to work a treat and should keep the lockers a lot drier. Result!

How appalling. £114 per week for moorings. That's madness.

I got caught this year - late cold snap after I had dewinterised resulted in a popped joint between tank and pump - emptied the whole tank slowly into the bilge. It took about a month to dry it out but it seems dry now. Unfortunately it soaked into some floor & bulkhead timber and I am still waiting to see what the longterm effect of that will be. Lesson - empty the tank in the winter and don't refil until either you are on board again or certain the freeze is over. And check your pipe joints when to do refil. I don't want that to happen again.

I think the thing that might enable your search is money. This sounds like a corporate entertainment brief, in which case I expect there's a generous budget and you may be able to persuade someone to vacate their boat and rent it out to your client. Its unlikely to be cheap though. You might do worse than go down to Paddington and put the word out that you have a big cheque for someoene.

OT is aluminium and if scratched it oxides into the surface quickly, softening and eroding, and increasingly if scratched again. Alumiunium is also more brittle than steel if hit hard. An aluminum hull must therefore be protected much more than steel, from scratch,rub and shock. Also the paintwork on the OT is a fancy glaze that wont look so good with a bit of sloppy retouching.

I bought from Bedazzled and his service was excellent - friendly, helpful and replaced broken LEDs immediately. 2 yrs in and no failures, lovely bright lights. He has every type of bulb replacement with LED you can imagine. No relationship to his business I just thought he was good.

I think its generally true that restaurants and boats are two mutually exclusive ideas - that don't work when combined. Certainly in the UK. Its pretty much guaranteed that the catering on any boat 'cruise' will be of the lowest possible level consistent with trades descriptions. Worst meal I can recall was a very expensive dinner cruise on the Thames in London. We would have been better off eating in an Aberdeen steak house. I think the reason is that no chef would intentionally put his kitchen on a boat. From there all else flows.

I am sorry to hear that Molly went - that must have been just after we met you at aldermaston. Your dogs are/were great characters. Sorry for the OP too - it does take a long time and another dog seems to be the best solution.

Thank for the insight.

Taking the boat onto the Thames in a couple of weeks, with the intention of it being used by a relay of family over the summer, between Sonning & Lechlade. There will be some weeks though when the boat will need to be moored up alone. Previous trips I have noticed the Thames is a bit scant on moorings and many have severe restrictions. What do others do with this sort of challenge? Do I need to secure a base on the river - Caversham? (shocking cost!) How about mooring up in Oxford and leaving the boat for a week or so - is that an OK thing to do? Thanks.

I have used the stuff from the OP and its quite good. A can of spray evostik works wonders for the fixing, as long as you ensure you have degreased and cleaned off the surface. I found that it doesnt take much of a gap to undemine the effect though - you need to clad the bulkhead, the deckboards and the bits under the decking. If you can do the other side of the bulkhead it really cuts down noise in the back cabin too. Get the thicker stuff it works a lot better but its expensive. They sell edging tape which is good to finish it up.

Yes - that thought had occured to me too - along with the risk of 'catching' on another boat if it powered out of a narrow lock first with fenders down. But I think a deliberate 'weak-link' in the rope, and careful shaping of the tail end ought to make it work. The ones on Blackrose boat look pretty safe to me.

Update - advised by excellent Blackrose I got in touch with Walker Rubber - http://www.walker-rubber.co.uk, who make fender extrusions in all sorts of sizes. Today they delivered a few metres of heavy rubber tube which can be threaded with rope and thus create what looks to me like a very good enhanced bow rubbing strake. Just the job. Looks to me like one could use the same people to make your own pipe-fenders at less than half the price of the chandlers too. Thanks to Blackrose for the advice.

Its almost certainly your hoses leaching. Rip them out and put high quality new ones in. The sooner you do it the better. Its likely the smell will have impregnated varnish and wood wherever the piperun went - its very pervasive and endures for years. (3 years in and I ma still fighting the remnants of pipe-leached stink in the back cabin). Strip, white spirit, revarnish. Line any cabinets or pipeboxing with activated charcoal blankets if the smell lingers, and as a final resort apply self adhesive foil to all the surfaces to block the stink. Good luck.

No - its about how crap some people think the coverage was. People who take boats seriously, or like content. The point is the BBC planned this for a long time and the coverage was intentionally 'crap' by design. In which case it isn't really crap its a different type of product form the one you wanted. They had access to all the content but they know that's not what the audience wants - they want what you think is crap. Its like trying to complain about 'The Voice' because its crap if you enjoy proper singing.