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Just out of interest, has anyone had a boat blacked recently (by a yard, not themselves) ? I'm comparing blacking quotes - 40 footer, two coats 2 pac.

hi does anybody have a idea how much the strip of land behind a Industrial Estate would be worth alongside canal approximately 90 foot long mooring rights are there already. lots of junk on there at the moment and only access is off canal? We're new to boating so not sure how much such places are worth .

Hello all, I would like some opinions and experiences of the longevity of diesel. It’s a little long winded but please bare with me. Last summer I was having issues with the engine getting fuel starved. Had the diesel polished, replaced the lift pump, added loads of marine 16, etc. In September I finally snapped after the 12th breakdown and installed a fuel inspection hatch where I found a plastic end from a mop handle. Great I thought, that would block the intake pipe. I also took the opportunity to clean the bottom of the tank and dispose of the crappy diesel before filling up for the winter. I filled up Jerry cans and topped off the tank late September. I added some marine 16 preventative additive (the tea coloured liquid, not the shock treatment). In mid October I topped off the tank using the Jerry cans. In Mid December I took a sample of diesel from the water trap of the primary filter - picture 1 and 2 shows its nice and clean diesel. At this point the tank is about 3/4 full. Today with the tank a little less than half full I’m horrified to see loads of water in the water trap and emulsified cloudy diesel coming out (picture 3 and 4). I know about keeping tanks full or nearly full but unfortunately where I winter there is no fuel boats or canal side red diesel to keep the tank topped up (although there is a petrol station selling derv). I’m just after opinions and experience from others in this subject - does your diesel go cloudy like this over the winter when the tank isn’t filled? Is diesel now really that hydroscopic that it cannot last 6 months over winter in a tank? I’m I overthinking the state of the diesel? Is it a case of just putting in some fresh diesel, regularly draining the water trap and it will get better again over the summer? I can only think it’s tank condensation, if it was a hatch and/or filler cap leak then there would be signs of water in December. Many thanks!

Is all the stuff sold on canals red diesel or does it vary? Are you allowed to put it in jerry cans in order to keep an emergency supply for the boat, should you get low? Is it an unspoken thing that some canal folk may have put it in their road vehicle?

I have a quote for the long overdue renewal of the external paintwork on my 50x10 boat. It's for a real pro to do a premium job in a covered dock, and the job will require a fair old bit of prep - so unsurprisingly it has a premium price attached. £10k more or less. I knew it would be a lot, although I had hoped it might be a bit less than that! That said, I'm not interested in whether anyone thinks the price is wrong or anything, I trust the guy and the quality of his work and I doubt I could get a similar quality job done in the area for a wildly different price. That said, I'm sure I could get the boat painted worse for less, so I 'm just trying to get my head around exactly what a premium job gets you, beyond being shiny, which honestly I'm not that bothered about. Tidy, yes, shiny, meh. I might even ask him to give it a matte finish. My assumption has been that if I can stump up for it, it will be good for the boat in the longer term, and be more durable, requiring less maintenance. Does that sound right? In general, I feel with craftsmen/engineers etc you get what you pay for, but I'm certainly not averse to saving money if it's just for shininess. I think this is may be a stupid question but hey, it won't be the first (or last) I ask, and I just wanted to ask on here before committing to such a huge expenditure.

So with the extortionate diesel prices, what difference would it make to put ordinary white diesel in the boat, especially when grindley brook can sell at £1.40

Evening all. I am looking for some advice/guidnace. I am planning on updating the old/tired interior and would like to do something with the hoorible looking heating. I currentoy have a Morso Squirrel with back boiler, feeding 1 radiator at the back of the boat. It may be slow to get up to temperature but definitely works and it does get rather warm in here some days. My question is.......... Do the 28mm copper pipes need to slowly slope up the full length of the boat (looks horrible) or can i tuck the feed pipe up under the gunwales and T down to the rad, the T down to the return pipe and run that as low as possible. I think i remember reading a "How To" where thats what the person did but could be mistaken as i cant find it again. I will try and add some pics later as the ones i have appear to be too big to attach. Thanks, kris

What other ways are there for hot water on a boat apart from a calorific. Thanks

I'm at the top of the Figure of Three Locks heading to the Rochdale canal. Where's the next stop for diesel? (Stanley Ferry have non till April) Thank you!!

Could someone tell me what we’ve got on our shell multi fuel or wood burner thanks.

Hi All, I am putting together the sped list for a fit out and want to have a programmable/remote controlled heating system installed as well as the traditional burner. Does anyone have any recommendations on suitable systems suitable for a 57ft nb?/ Thanks,

Hi all I have a 57ft by 10ft widebeam with a boatman stove in the corner at the bow. It really doesn’t heat the space. The stove is very small. I am wondering whether replacing it with a bigger one would make a difference or whether I need to move it. I am trying to avoid this as there is nowhere obvious for it to go.. thank you, caroline

We filled up with red diesel at Stockton Top Marina last Tuesday. The chap there told us that they have a fixed charge for diesel - they don't do the tax split that most places do. He said their diesel cost a set price of ninety-something-pence per unit and he said that was the upper price (eg. propulsion fuel price) - if we wanted a split price he said we should go to Calcutt. We weighed up the pro's and cons of filling up elsewhere, but decided that we'd just pay the fixed price since we were getting other services at that marina anyway and we didn't think we needed a huge amount of diesel. However, after I'd paid for it all, he told me I had to write my boat-number down and sign a piece of paper. That piece of paper showed a cost split for the diesel - the total for which was a lot less than I had paid him. I asked him why that was on the paper and he said it's something they just have to do for the regulations. I was unsure, but he was insistent that they have to do this paperwork, so I signed the piece of paper. I then noticed it had small print that said I had confirmed that I would used the fuel in a 60% / 40% split for heating and propulsion. Again I questioned this, because having one fixed upper price, I could use 100% on propulsion if I wanted to. He agreed and said yes I could use it all on propulsion if I wanted to, then he hastily took the piece of paper out of my hand and told me as he'd already told me I could have gone to Calcutt for the fuel and that I had chosen not to, I had to accept that they needed this paperwork and that-was-that. He made it quite clear that the conversation would end there! After Kev and I left, I felt increasingly uncomforatble about this and the more I thought about it the more I wondered whether this boatyard is operating a tax scam on the regulators/governement (purely my opinion and speculation, I hasten to add). Otherwise why be so insistent that I sign a piece of paper which, the more I think about it, is clearly falsifying information? Do they get to pay just the split-rate tax percentage to the government bods who regulate the system, and pocket the rest they've charged us? And if so, how many other punters have they done this to aswell? We chose to pay the higher rate for our fuel, that's fine. But what I'm concerned about is that I'm not sure they're being honest with the regulators about what they're charging us. Or do you guys think I've got this all wrong and there's a legitimate reason for me having to sign a piece of paper that says I paid a lot less than I really did for my fuel? What do people think about this? Are there other boatyards doing this? (Incidentally the chap at Stockton Top Marina told us that Kate Boats in Warwick do the same thing (but they're run by the same people) - so there's at least two boatyards doing this as standard practise. I'm just curious as to everyone's thoughts about it...?

I’ve been searching and am surprised not to find anything on this topic. Has anyone done a proper cost analysis of coal vs wood? It strikes me that coal is significantly cheaper but that seems to be counter intuitive. For instance if I burn 5kg of coal a day and let’s say £20 a bag to make the numbers nice. That’s £4 a day. Meanwhile a bag of logs seems to be around £8 and probably won’t last more than a day and a half if that’s the only fuel source. Does anyone have any thoughts better than my rough calculations in my head? I’d much prefer to only use wood but I imagine it doesn’t work cost wise. Any cheap sources of kiln dried logs? Thanks!

Hi all, I want to fit a wifi switch to a Hurricane heating system on a friend NB. I have searched everywhere and cant find any info on how the controller switches the unit on. I have look on the back of the controller and it has a phone type plug and lead which I am guessing is not where I need to tap into. Anyone ever done this? Anyone know where and what wire I could tap into if its possible ?. Thanks.

Hi! I'll soon be needing to replace the hoses between my engine (Isuzu 4LB 33) and skin tank, and was thinking about adding a plate heat exchanger to see if I can get a bit of heat to the radiators when cruising in winter. I know a few people on here have done this, but I'm not sure about a few things. This is the plate heat exchanger I'm looking at getting: Ebay link, does anyone have any suggestions what size I should get? Also, am I going to have issues finding converters for the 3/4" threads with this? The engine hoses are 35mm and the central heating side is 22mm push fit plastic pipe. I think I will need to add another central heating pump to the radiator circuit as I don't think I can run my eberspacher (HS3 D4E) pump by itself. Would I need to put the heat exchanger and pump in parallel with the eberspacher (with shut off valves to divert?) or can I put it in series, which would mean pumping through the eberspacher with it turned off? Many thanks for taking a look!

We've had some experience over the years of overwintering mistakes, so now asking for some counsel on thermostat settings. We are going to leave the boat until March. Obvs, usual overwintering prep re water etc. It's moored on a shoreline power. Ever since many years ago leaving her without heat, I prefer to avoid a complete freeze internally and in the engine room. Protects the fabric of the boat as well as the pipes. I have used greenhouse tube warmers. Also oil heaters, but that's an expensive wasteful option I think. But I'd like to avoid wasting heat so this year have some thermostat switches for the greenhouse warmers. One for the engine, one for the back and one for the front. Aim is to keep just above a freeze, no more. Question is, to others who have used the same approach - what temperatures do you set for the heaters? I was going to go for on at 2C, off at 4C but then I wondered if I'd missed the impact of dropping temperature and the weak heat output of the warmers. Advice?

Back at the end of last year my license renewed automatically as a gold. While checking my account a few days later it dawned on me that I didn’t need a gold license this year so I rang and arranged a downgrade to a craft license, all well and good but recently my “non important”mail caught up with me and among the letters were two invoices from crt. The gold one when the EA portion is stripped out came to £1161 in round figures The craft one came to £1071 The question is, why is there £90 extra on the crt portion for a gold ? Without the EA portion it’s the same isn’t it?

We have a pro build Boat . At some stage the heating pump has been changed and a pump with 15 mm connectors. Has been installed The original pump was 22 or 28 mm What would be the best replacement pump to help with the flow rate and an diesel stove on it also has a clarifier on the system . We. Don't like the idea of a back boiler in 28 mm copper to 15 mm though a pump then back to 28 mm copper tube. Can any body help. Kind Regards NB wild kitten. Tracey &Steve

I have three heat sources all in the stern of my boat: My keel cooled Beta 38 engine An eberspacher D4WSC hydronic rated at 4.3kW A 4.2kW Villager Puffin stove with a back boiler (something like this) These heat sources need to drive: A twin coil calorifier 3x or 4x radiators (which I still need to buy). At the moment only the engine is plumbed into the calorifier. The eber used to drive two rads which I removed due to leaking, the pipes are still in place but I need to add at least one more rad to them. My neighbour plumbed his engine circuit into his rads so the engine heats the boat which seems like a great idea! First prize would be if I could use all three sources for heating the boat but I read this topic and the Eber pump might be a problem, though it is on an open vented system. What's the best way to connect this system? I'm thinking of using 3x 1362W rads and 1x 401W towel rail which makes 4487W. I have heard it is better to drive the Eber hard and if I did connect the back boiler I think that it would do well to suck out more heat from my Puffin which is in a rather small room. Is this too much to expect my system to drive?

Looking for some advice on best action to take with potentially dirty fuel / water in fuel We're leisure boaters and we're out the other weekend and the engine almost cut out on us but essentially no more power than tixk over when on full throttle. Made it back to safety. Have had engine serviced, all OK but recommend getting a fuel polish Share all things equal with a fuel polish and will it help me? I've had quotes from around £250 by someone local (Diesel Dave) upwards. Not asked tankbusters yet but understand they are significantly more But once we have the fuel sorted how do we stop it reoccurring? We used plenty of additive and keep tank full in winter. Could the filler cap be leaking water in? Anything else we can check / do to minimise reoccurrence? Thanks

The charity that maintains more than 2,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers in the UK says it is counting the cost of the recent barrage of storms on the nation’s waterways. The Canal & River Trust said it is braced for a mammoth clear-up operation as floodwater levels begin to recede. Waterways charity braced for huge clean-up after storms (msn.com) At Naburn Locks, near York, the entire complex has been submerged for weeks.

Hey all, New here so please be patient with me. Looking to identify an engine fitted in a friends narrow boat. I've never seen this type of engine before and Internet searches with the available info are yielding very little. It is a 2 cylinder diesel engine with "coventry diesel" written on top. There is no other data or data plate to get any info from. I googled it and all I get is info coventry climax and coventry Victor with I don't think is what I'm looking at in the boat. Any help is much appreciated. I had other pictures but the files are too big to upload.