Chris Lingwood

I've just been crained out and jet washed, and now my hull looks like this. I think the redness is some kind of algae, and I'm not sure what the whiteness is but it appears to be the bitumen. The bitumen which is left is very bumpy, should I just whack some more over the top? Or try to get it off (I'd rather not because I'm lazy ). Also whats the best thing to do where its gone through and has rusted a little. Just wire brush off the worse of it? Theres not a huge amount of it. Very strangly though the boat has mill scale on its extension.....and it was alledgedly lengthened in the 80s...ODD

you sir.....are a star!

ah I see what you mean. Hmmm...its better than it is at the moment.....as you say not quite killer. I thought you meant something like this

That is the magic automatic corner foldy outy doohicky mentioned at the top. I'm just not sure that the space is worth £130! A carousel wouldn't really work...the cooker is in the way. I think I might just be forced to resort to manual baskets with no clever mechanism for now. It probably is the most sensible solution anyway

They are already elsewhere...plus its in the middle of the boat and the batteries, pumps and whatnot are at either end. Bit late for removable worktops too, its very much built. And we really need the storage in the kitchen.

Hmmm unfortunatly there is another cupboard on the otherside of the bulkhead so I would have to loose that storage too! I thought I saw a slide out thing in IKEA too but you are right its not on the website. I might have to make a trip down there...shame its 50 miles away I'm not sure the draws would work...we really need that bit of cupboard to If all goes badly it might have to be just a few boxes that you have to pull out. They just might get a bit heavy when they are full of stuff. John as far as I can see from the fancy automatic pull out ones you need quite a heavy duty and complicated looking hinge to support the rack I don't think its really plausable for my feeble fabricating skills. The simplest I've seen is by hafele (who I can't find a stockist nearby for). The front basket pulls out then slides over. Then the corner baskets just slide into the space left. Its not a complicated mechanism...in fact apart from the pull out then slide over its just normal draws. Can i find a stockist or even a price...nope. Heres a picture of the problem. Its the cupboard closest to the cooker http://83.67.106.99/barge/24687_12.jpg (appologies for the speed, its hosted at home) the far cupboard under the breakfast bar is now a freezer

I've got a sterling 50amp prodigital...i bought it a little in a rush because my engine wasnt charging the batteries and my fridge, lights and water were being threatened. But apart from the fact I could probably have got away with a 30amp version I'm quite happy. Occasionaly it gets stuck on charge rather than power pack (orange light rather than green) but a reset soon fixes that and in this weather its getting a little fan happy. But then agian I put it in a cupboard exactly like it tells you not to

I've got a blind corner cupoard in my boat...which is a pain as I've only got 3 cupboards. The extra space in the corner has got general stuff in it but its not as usefull as being able to get in there properly. The blind face has got the cooker in front of it which also complicates matters. Idealy I would have a magic corner unit, the ones that automaticaly pull out and slide and turn and whatnot. Fancy but, rolling in at £130, a bit too pricy. I'd be quite content with just some non automatic have to pull baskets out myself on a rack doohicky but I can't find them. I suppose a 1/2 carrosel would do the job...but then it wastes probably as much space as I would gain! Any one got any clever ideas as to how I might be able to solve this problem?

How long do you expect it to last? I struggle to believe that its any different stuff but I've never done it before so I don't know even how much to be expecting to pay from the marina. But then again since I'm paying about £350-400 for the lifting i'd rather not have to pay to get it out AGAIN because all the blackings dropped off.

fair enough! If it won't work then its not worth putting on. Its just with some of these things they just write marine on the tub and up the price 20% for the privilege.

I don't think this has been asked before...but is wickes bitumen suitable for slapping all over my boat? Is bitumen just bitumen? Also is £25 for 25l a good price? or should I just buy some through the marina (which goes against everything I hold dear)? Plus this should be in maintenance

is this drunk....or over the limit?

If they even think about only cleaning it once a week I certainly won't be the only one to complain. Especialy if that happens and the price goes up. Unacceptable barely covers it. I think they are doing it a few times a week rather than once a day at the moment. I'll see how it pans out before making noises though. I can't see demand for the sealock disappearing...but I can see it deminishing quite markedly. It depends weather this migration is as total as it might be. The office is still manned daily because we have a chandlery, which I'm told is set for expansion rather than being closed. Plus we have the rest of the staff who have been kept on. I can't say I would be impressed with 10-12 monday to thursday!

Depending on your engine; engine mounts;your shaft; stern tube; fuel pipes and exhaust it probably already is. Its fairly standard for the engine block to be used as the 0v return for the 12v so if you (like me) have solid metal engine mounts it already is. In cars there is an earth strap to make sure the return path for the starter motor doesnt go through something unpleasant like the gearbox, transmission or throttle cable (I've heard of all of these happening) which bypasses the rubber engine mounts. Its debatable weather you NEED your 12v bonded to the hull...probably not, but electricaly isolating the engine block from the hull isn't really something you do by accident I wouldn't have thought. What you definitly musn't do (as mentioned above) is connect a black 0v wire to the hull anywhere else. I found it quite strange to connect the earth of the 240v to the hull and so to the 0v but it makes sense.

Honestly I don't know who owns it, who ever it is doesn't appear to look after them very well. I'm in the marina myself rather than the arm and you're right it is the mix of boats and people which makes it special. There is the posibility that they are/were owned by the marina...I know she owned the mooring buoys in the lune. The plan i believe is 150 new moorings either from the other bank (!) or on finger jetties (although I'm not sure what they are like). Apparently the yatchs were all talking about going to barrow before the sale and may have inadvertantly greased the wheels. The marina used to organise a joint licence for the basin included in the £90-£100 a meter mooring charge (discount if you didnt use it). But that (to my knowledge) has been now been discontinued so the yatchs will all need to pay an extra £300-£400 on a licence for all the inland waterways which they can use all of 300 foot of...they will leave. Things have already started slipping though. Under the old management the toilets and showers were cleaned every day without fail. I know because I watched her do it. They havn't been cleaned for a couple of days now...

Yup my nice friendly relaxed and most importantly fairly sparsly populated (due to the satisfying gap between all the jetties) has been sold to BW. Most concerningly there are rumours of 150 new moorings going in....150! There are only 2 places these can go...in the basin, destroying a habitat for water birds and quite frankly a nice lake and turning it into a multi story car park of the boating world. OR they will be squeezing them into the gaps between the existing jetties...which will make getting in and out (which is already nigh on impossible sometimes because of the high winds) even harder! In fairness there is talk of lower electricity prices and better facilities and an improved chandlery for narrowboats (rather than yacht) but there is also talk of higher mooring prices ....and to be honest the facilities are fine and the prices fair. If the abomination that is galgate marina is anything to go by I might as well start making my plans now. I didn't buy a narrow boat to look out of my side windows through the windows of three or four other boats before I can actually see any water. Yes I can go cruising but time isn't always on my side as far as that is concerned. I'm reserving judgement as best I can, but I can't see it going well. BW will be undoubtedly unable to resist the profit from completly covering this basin with boats. Theres quite a waiting list on the Lancaster and theres quite some space. The fact they now own the branch, basin, marina, opposite 'warf', opposite bank, sea locks, a house and adjacent fields gives them quite an opportunity. We shall see...who knows...they might not have the impact I'm expecting....but they might. In other news the glasson branch was shut for maintenance and a lock replaced....but not the one which drained a stretch and is still leaking as much as it was.

I saw that and thought it was a little harsh...although in fairness some of those boats have been there for a lot longer than the rally (if my memory serves me). You will be pleased to know that the worst has happened and glasson marina has been sold....to BW Marinas of all people...brace yourself for the rabid comercialisation of what was a pleasant basin.

Good lord that was lucky!!! What are the chances of that happening. If thats the way they operate no wonder they have lots of cats with no homes. You would think it would be in their interests to try and get cats back to their original homes to save themselves time.....although [cynical]they don't get a donation if they do that[/cynical]

Remarkably simply in fact. Things like skype and msn use predefined ports. They can very very easily either block these ports or monitor their use. You can get round it in various ways (for instance using an encrypted tunnel) but due to their relativly low data throughput they might be able to spot that on exists although they might not know what its for. It would also be reasonably straight forward to only allow normal http trafic (webpages and whatnot). You could always use webbased instant messaging clients (such as webmessenger) but they could monitor/block this too. Its amazing what you can do with this new fangled technology

In about a month I'm adopting a lovly 7 month old kitten. At the moment she lives in town and I think she will love the marina. I'mm not sure about cruising. I'm going to have to stay fairly local untill she settles in. Which is a shame as I've been waiting for some better weather to go for a trundle. Will be nice to have some company though...even if it is company that likes to gnaw your hands!

Makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunatly TMobile's main buisness is phone calls and "instant" messaging. Along with the rest of the network operators they are worried about becoming a data pipeline along with its comparativly terible margins. Think about it...you get one of these cards and use skype to talk all the time. It costs them a fortune in bandwidth and network maintenance for £19 a month. Compare that to the costs of using their existing pricing model and you can see their point! Rubish..true...unavoidable....probably!

maybe good in combination with one of those worktop washers?

splendid! I shall have a 'shining' boat once again! Unfortunalty I'll feel obliged to paint the rusty bits then

At 34 years old I doubt its mill scale Another thing is that the metal underneath doesn't appear to have rusted at all...it looks galavanised...which seams strange. The whole roof needs repainting anyway so its not a huge hardship. Its got lots of chips on it where I think a chain got dropped on it while it was being lifted. And its faded quite badly too.

A strange thing has happened on my boat. The roof pain has started peeling off. Only in a few patches but it needs sorting. It looks like the top coat has adhered to the red oxide but they have both just peeled up, it looks a bit like orange peel. I didn't paint it but I'll probably just sand the area down a bit and repaint it with the stuff they used (got some left over) so it would be good to know where they went wrong!