Sailor seeks work on the Canals.

[canalboat]

PM sent to SaraCanal

[Boaty Jo]

Do you have to be in the UK? 

There is more commercial boating on the continent.

[DandV]

I don't know about carting bulk coffee around the canals, but I suspect there could be an opening for a paint system inspector and specifier.

Painting firms issue tight specifications for their paint systems, covering everything thing from surface preparation, application methods and limitations, minimum dry film thicknesses etc etc. But one thing so often missing between the purchaser of a paint system and the finished job, is a robust inspection regime.

Was the blasting to SA 2 1/2 or whatever, Were the right coats of paint applied within time, at the right surface temperature, and were the correct dry film thicknesses achieved.

Paint is expensive, surface preparation is expensive, correct application is expensive, but without inspection, the money can be spent without getting the expected result.

But when all these things come together a good surface coating system properly applied on a new build is a good investment. Rust is a bugger.

And good luck. 

[Tracy D'arth]

Though you are British, if you have been out of the UK for an extended period, you may have to satisfy an Habitual Residency Test before you can reconnect with the UK tax, benefit, employment and health systems.

 

I know this from the experience of others who have returned home expecting to just walk in and be welcomed back.

[Tam & Di]

16 hours ago, SaraCanal said:

a narrow boat can carry 55 tons (roughly) ad a widebean can carry twice that whereas a HGV can only carry 44.

 

I'm afraid your numbers are seriously astray. 55 tons is more than you can load on a pair of boats, even on a relatively deep canal like the bottom end of the Grand Union - we used to load 50 tons about 40 years ago, 23 on the motor and 27 on the butty.

 

The locks on the Kennet & Avon are too narrow to take a pair - you'd have to work them through one at a time - and I can't even begin to imagine working a loaded wide boat on the K&A. The official depth there is something like 3' 6" as I recall, but I suspect the reality is far less than that.

 

I don't like to rain on your parade; much of my life has been involved in serious inland boating, but you do have to do more in-depth research. Bulk carriage will only really work if the loading and more importantly the discharge points are where to commodity is required. If it has to be taken further by road transport the double handling makes it uneconomical.

 

Tam

[Ray T]

@SaraCanal

 

Tam & Di are very experienced inland commercial waterway boaters, both with narrowboats in the UK and widebeams on the continent.

What they don't know isn't worth knowing. 

They talk a lot of sense.

 

ETA., to avoid any doubt I am not on their payroll, neither am I related to them. 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Ray T