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Hi, below are photos of pitting discovered on a hull survey on a 57 ft narrowboat built in 2007. The survey report says there is a small amount of deep pitting on the side plates and some other pitting measuring upto 0.9mm, and the deep pits require back filling with weld. The photos are of both the deep and upto 0.9mm pitting after the hull has been jet sprayed. The hull readings taken are all ok and there's only been minor diminution of plate thickness. I'm trying to get opinions on the severity of the pitting if possible based on the photos. Unfortunately it won't let me upload the individual photos because they're above the maximum allowed size limit so I've had to take a screenshot of all 14 images. Not sure if they will be clear enough. Thanks.

Apologies for the long post but we have a real head scratcher. So we have a 93’ harboro boat. We have done a series of modifications including fitting a Victron multiplus 2 with 7 batteries and a new calorifier (75lt) with a 1kw immersion. We have also removed a very light bench style sofa and replaced with a sofa bed barn sofa all of this fitted to the port side of the boat. We noticed a slight list and so planned to remove a small amount of ballast. On the weekend we noticed that the bilge pump was kicking in and when we investigated it the engine bilge did have sufficient water around the sides of the engine (not under the engine pan). At first we thought that the calorifier had leaked as the pipes leading from the engine to the calorifier were empty - we called RCR who we paid to swap the calorifier and the engineer thought the water in the engine bay (was yellow) was coolant but he couldn’t locate a leak and opted to send another engineer at a different time. The second engineer came and checked the pressure on the water system which remained at 6bar although we couldn’t see any water in the header tank (we could still see water in the header tank when the first engineer came and we haven’t run the engine) anyway the second engineer cleared the water system and said that the water was sitting on the port side swim (uxter) and running down into the bilge and that he felt it was a slight leak on a weld or rust letting water through the uxter plate or through the side. we had the boat out of the water in May and blacked it and we didn’t see anything worrying. We replaced all of the stern gear and had to cut a sufficient amount of steel from the back and this was noticeably thick and well preserved much to the shock of our welder who thought it would be thinner. We have booked to get out of the water to investigate but I suddenly thought of something else. When we run the immersion heater and the victron is running the temp is c32 degrees and higher in the heat that we have had the last few days. Could we be creating crazy amounts of condensation in the bilge (all the heat stays in that area) the cooling tanks are directly located in the same area on each side of the boat Some additional points we do get rain in the bay as the gutters are poorly designed could this increase the amount of condensation? we also painted the bilges and cleaned everything in April again didn’t notice anything untoward, the boat had a survey a couple of years ago and the chines were worn so the previous owner paid to have a full over plate of the base in 6mm steel this was pressure tested and we have the receipts and could see the work when we had the boat out of the water in May we have removed the ballast and no longer list slightly but still creating very small amounts of water from the same place the temp is currently 26 degrees according to the victron and the outside temp is 18

Hi there, new to boating and am looking to buy firs boat, I am looking at 2 particular boats and wondered if anyone could give any advice experience or recommendations. Boat 1. 45' Trad - French & Peel 1991 with 3 cylinder Lister LPW Engine This boat has had a recent survey showing steel is in good condition Boat 2. 43' Trad - Colecraft 1980 with BMC 1.8 Both boats are pretty ideal in terms of layout, will be a bit of project boat, (the French and Peel needs a gas water heater and the colecraft needs a multi fuel burner) Mostly looking for thoughts on both hull and engine. The French and peel is also considerably cheaper. Many thanks

I have just found that my base plate has deteriorated by 2.5mm over 12 months. I have the right number of anodes, but the Marina where I'm based is stilted up to the max. Does anyone know if silt would help erode the base plate please, and can I do anything about it legally?