Crazy Scheme

Actually, the last time I was down at Springfield getting diesel, there was a great big sign from BW on the notice board announcing the arrival of a lighter for everyone to dump their cr*p in

We reblacked the hull ourselves with bitumastic paint. Cost: About £60 for the pressure washing, £75 for the bitumen, then about another tenner for the rollers and brushes and three days of our graft including preparation. The boatyard sold us the bitumen and a friend lent us other tools. It's really not a skilled job, as long as you are careful to remove all the bits of rust - like painting and decorating it's all about prep. It's just bloody hard work, no wonder most people pay some other poor sod to do it. We were in the fortunate position of already having got the boat out ofr the water for a survey - the crane-out was about £250, there was no further charge for hardstanding while we did the work. As John says, I don't rate the super expensive type. Our boat had been painted with it, the pressure washing fetched the whole lot off! This happened to a Friend of a friend. The full length NB they bought would not fit in any locks as it had warped. Oops!

Ours have been horriffic this summer - but it's more to do with Haringey Council and their constant binmen strikes. My partner counted 11 rats there a few weeks ago (our dog thinks it's fantastic though!). I don't think the bin situation is helped by some boaters dumping all their old boat line out stuff (after refitting) there though - it's daft, there are some skip boats near us where that kind of thing should go.

We use poo cassettes. With two of us onboard all day long they have to be emptied about every third day, depending on the amount of tea consumed. We have three spare ones. It's worth having more than one spare if your mates like to booze as much as ours do when they stay onboard. Our poo cassettes, (lined up on the bow after a big night) have been photographed by many a tourist at Camden Lock as we make our way through! After about a fortnight of living aboard, it became a routine thing to change them, don'teven think about it anymore, we got used to it.

Hi Ben, We've lived aboard since last June. We have a mooring but no shore power. We have never used an invertor. Regarding washing - we use the launderette, space is limited on a boat, we'd rather have an extra cupboard in the kitchen. As regards hassle - how much are you prepared for - if you want an easy life, living aboard may not be for you. I schlep my laundry to the launderette 25 mins walk away, but I've a huge granny style shopping trolley for this purpose so it's no bother to me. In the winter you'll have to get everything bone dry in the dryers - wet washing on a boat never seems to dry and is a bad idea. Launderette driers are more effective than domestic ones - I can't imagine the amount of electricty you'd need to get washing dry in a domestic machine on a boat, I dread to think. We have 3 solar panels (2 fixed and one portable) and a wind genny - we run our laptop off the 12v system - you can get an adaptor from Maplin. There are lots of things you can run off 12v - for music we use rechargeable batteries in a radio, we charge them (and the mobiles) off one of the solar panels which we dangle out of the window. (do a google for sunlinq). It has a 12v socket attachment. The next laptop we will buy is a Vaio with 12 hours battery life. The current one I have will run for nearly four hours if I have the screen on a powersave setting. Shop around. We had to adapt - we don't like to run the engine that often for power - if we need 240 volts we use a petrol generator but we use it only occasionally - mainly to use the computer printer (we are self employed and work onboard), but I'm planning to buy a 12v printer soon. I don't iron or use a hairdrier. If you research it, there is a whole host of things you can get to run on 12v - check out the Roadpro website for ideas. If you get solar panels, be careful to get the ones that work in cloudy weather. Our neighbours ones don't work between October and March, whearas our still give out a few amps at this time of year on lousy days like today. As regards security and ccing - there are quite a few boaters doing this in London - some of the things I've observed are - portholes or windows with slide over lockable metal panels. Chains and padlocks to chain yourself to the pilings (cannot be untied like ropes). Altohugh we plan to be away for several months this year, I think ccing could be quite hard work LikeBlackrose, i don't look down on those who choose to do it - I have kind of an admiration for them. Regarding a car - have you thought of getting a tug style boat and bunging a motorbike on the front deck (I've seen a few boaters do it - infact the guy we bought our tug style boat off did it too. Or just cycle? The railways system runs really close to the canal in most places - get a folding bike and take advantage of it. Re. Blackrose comment about 9-5 I tend to agree - although I have a mooring, I'm not sure how I'd get on with boat dwelling if I worked 9-5. There are about 25 people on my mooring and only about 2 of them work fulltime, away from their boats. I think I'd find it difficult in winter, the days are short and theres always stuff you need to do outside, so you plan around that - chop wood, empty the loo, general maintenance. We tend to do that in the daytime then work when it's dark. For me that is the hardest thing about living aboard in the winter, not the cold because we haven't been cold at all! A defining moment for me was when we'd been away for the weekend and got back when it was dark at about 5pm, the dog had been ill in the car and I was washing dog sick off a blanket in the river whilst holding a torch in my mouth whilst wondering how the hell I was going to dry the blanket! (''Has it come to this?'' I thought to myself.)

I find I have to burn wood to get my radiators hot - I can't achieve it with coal. All I can say is thank goodness there are fly tippers dumping dozens of pallets constantly on the industrial estate near our mooring - it only takes us an hour to go up there and load up the boat every month or so - I thought winter would be expensive, but not here it isn't!

Hi, we have parquet floor laid onto marine ply. This was done by the first owner of the boat five years ago. I'ts wearing really well, but if anything does go wrong, he left us some spare blocks and glue - all you have to do is prise the old ones up, I guess. I'm so pleased we don't have carpet - I don't know how we'd cope, we have a dog and are moored on a muddy marsh. I have to have two sets of rugs, so I can have one set being used and one set in the wash as they get filthy so quickly - even though we don't wear our boots in the boat and we wipe the dogs paws when he comes in!

They certainly don't 'get away with it' round here on the River Lee. I saw them reposses and tow away at least six boats this summer. They are always always checking, the patrol boat is often here and you only have to moor your boat somewhere other than you're supposed to and you get a phonecall sharpish. Anyway, if no-one paid, I'm sure we'd soon all be grounded in a very very long narrow puddle

Well, I'm becoming an expert on store cupboard stodge for those who cruise to places where there are few shops...... One of our faves is 'Space Breakfast' so named because theres not much space on a vanette to do a trad cooked breakfast. It can also be varied to suit tinned or fresh food, depending on what you have. It's a breakfast hash, basically. Prepare the following: Slice some new potatoes or tinned ones if you don't have fresh. If they're fresh, boil them til just tender then drain. Chop an onion and some mushrooms (you can use tinned mushrooms if you don't have fresh) I've even used pickled onions when its got a bit desperate on the fresh ingredients front. Chop some sausages up, or a whole packet of bacon, or if there are lots of you, use both. If you don't have fresh sausages, use tinned hotdogs, or those German cured ones in packets (Lidl sells them), you can also use, dare I say it - Spam. Stir Fry potatoes, onions, mushrooms and whatever meat you chose in a big pan in veg oil (wok is ideal). You want to burn it a bit, make it a bit crispy. In a seperate small pan, cook some eggs, I usually beat one or two eggs per person, then fry in a pan. Add this to the main pan, when cooked and break up a bit and serve. We vary this sometimes and make Spanish space breakfast, using tin or jar olives, green or black and a chopped clove of garlic.

The marsh flooded yesterday. Despite BW coming to open all the paddles on Friday, letting over two foot of water out of our pound and bottoming us out, this morning the marsh had become one with the river and it was starting to flood the bankside at our mooring. Water has been coming over the top of the lock gates like a waterfall. BW are here again with all the paddles open on the lock. I'm still not taking any chances - I'm emptying my shed and moving the contents to my van which is higher up the bankside. I've heard we have more rain to come!

My other halfs first narrowboat was also the first electric narrowboat (do a google for Silver Sail), we still have the old log books. It was a bit experimental to say the least. As well as breaking down constantly they used to have to bribe pub landlords to let them plug in and charge up overnight. It took them 3 months to get from the Regents Canal to Coventry! BUT - he still says he'd go back to electric.

This is all really good advice folks, food for thought - we'll let you know how we get on!

I know, we have to adjust it EVERY time we run the engine. We buy the belt recommended for our engine from French Marine (Yanmar dealer). We will go down Halfords and see whats on offer. When we had the engine serviced we got one new pulley as the engineer seemed to think that was the problem. It was an improvement on what we had before (yes it really was that bad!). I don't think we are overheating, but will check. Also will consider a slightly wider belt - we do seem to wear the teeth out quickly.

Ha! When we bought our boat the drive belt was in EXACTLY the same condition We thought the same as you! After only about 5 hours running, it starts to slip, which is pretty bad. According to our log book, the last belt lasted for 56 hours, about half of that we were cruising, the rest in neutral. It's still usable, but we took it off, the teeth wore off and we were burning diesel and getting hardly any battery charge, so we've put a new one on. Before the engine service, we could wear all the teeth off a drive belt in about 10 hours! I also remember comnig back from central London to North London barely over tickover, which was as fast as we could go without the drive belt slipping! It took us 11 hours! It is such a pain in the ar*e, but at least I know what we can do now, I'm gonna get our engineer to read this thread and we will make a decision on what to change. On the other hand now cruising season is over and people actually have the time to talk to you, I might call the enigne people and see what they say. Hmm.

Ours has one belt, two alternators and four pulleys, like Tony mentioned.

Your comments are really interesting, I think you might be the first person to shed some light on our situation. Thanks! After all, we had the engine serviced and they couldn't find anything wrong, in that nothing was misaligned. Regarding these drive belts, do you have any pointers on how/where we'd be able to get an industrial quality v belt? Where does one start, what does one ask for? <scratches head>

My partner owned the first electric narrowboat. Do a google for silver sail, she still exists. Its the charging that's a nightmare! They used to have to bribe landlords of canalside pubs to 'plug her in.' Would he go back to electric? If it was practical- yes!

We have a yanmar barrus shire (just 5 y.o), had the engine serviced recently, but the last drive belts teeth lasted very little time. Had the boat 5 months and we are on our third drive belt! Haven't had the engine looked at again yet, it was impossible during the cruising season as everyone was too busy!

I've had the 3G data card for about 18 months. Only in the last 3 have I started getting a 3G signal from anywhere, we've had quite a strong signal on our mooring (North London) for a couple of months now, so I'm guessing there must be a new mast. We're also on a river, not in a cut, we are quite exposed (as in my wind generator actually gets enough of a wind to work!).Does make a difference when you get it though, GPRS is excruciatingly slow. We're on Vodafone.

We've a stove which feeds two rads (bathroom and bedroom), an eco fan and also an Alde, which can be used to heat the back cabin rad, plus all the others. Have never used the Alde because we're too tight to buy many gas bottles. the stove does the job fine, the boat is toasty all the way through. Agreed it can be nippy in the morning - depends what your comfort level is though? A cup of tea and an energetic walk with the dog first thing does the job for me. There was a frost this morning but I've still sat here with the doors open and no stove on all day. If you're the sort of person that prefers to have the heating cranked up to 'care home' levels, then get more than just a stove, coz you'll need it.

I've got a semi trad - I like the extra space at the back - I dry my washing there when we are cruising. I plan to get a pram hood made as I think it might be an extra handy bit of space when we are moored. I do think it's a personal choice though. Heres what I've found, having owned a semi-trad and cruised the other types (IMO of course) Trad: Pros: lovely warm engine room - easy access to engine whilst not getting rained on, handy place to store tools, in cold weather you can stand in the doorway to warm your legs as you cruise. More cabin space indoors. Best for winter. Cons: Not very social unless everyone sits on the roof. Semi Trad: Safe haven for kids and pets away from the tiller. Social. Somewhere to store bikes and other junk. Cons: You have to sacrifice some cabin space. The engine can be a bugger to get to. Cruiser: Very social, especially great in the summer, engine access better than semi trad. Cons: Although social, you could take out all your mates on tight bends if they don't get out of the way. Not as safe as a semi trad for kids and pets.

I'd like BW to provide PROPER waste disposal - as in recycling. I have to save all mine up and take it to the recycling depot as they don't provide this service to us, unlike just about every borough in London.

Nearly all the waterside pubs have closed down where we live. So I'd welcome a bit of BW interference, TBH