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Single woman buys narrowboat to get on property ladder


David Mack

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On 01/02/2023 at 19:43, LadyG said:

I know, fortunately it's not a regular occurrence. Tank was pretty low and now it's pretty full, and padlocked!

 

I wonder if I could ask a favour? I have wondered in the past about whether it's worth fitting a padlock on the fuel filler cap. 

If you happen to have your phone handy on the stern, I wonder if you might take a few photos of your lock/padlock arrangement and post them here?  

If diesel prices start going up significantly, it could become something that local scrotes (or even boaters) think is worth nicking. 

 

 

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Just now, Tony1 said:

 

I wonder if I could ask a favour? I have wondered in the past about whether it's worth fitting a padlock on the fuel filler cap. 

If you happen to have your phone handy on the stern, I wonder if you might take a few photos of your lock/padlock arrangement and post them here?  

If diesel prices start going up significantly, it could become something that local scrotes (or even boaters) think is worth nicking. 

 

 

 

I think virtually all of the proprietary locking or syphon-blocking setups can be dealt with using a 4lb hammer. 

 

A better approach may be to simply disguise the location of the filler. Perhaps get a calor 4.5 bottle, fill it with concrete, stick an eyebolt in place of the valve and place it over the diesel filler. Rope attached. It's a mud weight. Could draw attention away from location of the diesel filler cap. 

 

Maybe. 

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3 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

I wonder if I could ask a favour? I have wondered in the past about whether it's worth fitting a padlock on the fuel filler cap. 

If you happen to have your phone handy on the stern, I wonder if you might take a few photos of your lock/padlock arrangement and post them here?  

If diesel prices start going up significantly, it could become something that local scrotes (or even boaters) think is worth nicking. 

 

 

 

 

Here is mine :

 

 

 

Fuel Cap Lock.jpg

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1 minute ago, magnetman said:

 

I think virtually all of the proprietary locking or syphon-blocking setups can be dealt with using a 4lb hammer. 

 

A better approach may be to simply disguise the location of the filler. Perhaps get a calor 4.5 bottle, fill it with concrete, stick an eyebolt in place of the valve and place it over the diesel filler. Rope attached. It's a mud weight. Could draw attention away from location of the diesel filler cap. 

 

Maybe. 

 

The thing is if I did fit a lock, I wouldn't expect it to stop a serious attempt at fuel theft as such- it would be more of a deterrent. The noise of a hammer would probably wake me up if it happened at night, and if a theft was attempted during the day, passers by or nearby boaters might pay attention to what was going on. 

I'm a lazy bugger so I wouldn't want to go to too much trouble, eg creating an ingenious solution involving a dummy gas bottle. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Here is mine :

 

 

 

Fuel Cap Lock.jpg

 

 

Cheers, that looks a nice neat deterrent, and no faff to get it on and off

 

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1 minute ago, Tony1 said:

 

The thing is if I did fit a lock, I wouldn't expect it to stop a serious attempt at fuel theft as such- it would be more of a deterrent. The noise of a hammer would probably wake me up if it happened at night, and if a theft was attempted during the day, passers by or nearby boaters might pay attention to what was going on. 

I'm a lazy bugger so I wouldn't want to go to too much trouble, eg creating an ingenious solution involving a dummy gas bottle. 

 

 

Swop your diesel and pump out caps over then anyone syphoning gets a mouth of shyte. 
 

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12 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Swop your diesel and pump out caps over then anyone syphoning gets a mouth of shyte. 
 

The only thing is that you will get some useless summer hand at a boatyard one day filling your shit tank with expensive diesel. 

 

Labels for the tanks are best left in the right place unless you can be 100% certain that it will always be you interacting with the filling/emptying. 

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26 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

 

I wonder if I could ask a favour? I have wondered in the past about whether it's worth fitting a padlock on the fuel filler cap. 

If you happen to have your phone handy on the stern, I wonder if you might take a few photos of your lock/padlock arrangement and post them here?  

If diesel prices start going up significantly, it could become something that local scrotes (or even boaters) think is worth nicking. 

 

 

Could you put a label on your poo tank saying  Diesel, and one on your fuel tank saying Sewage. 

Only you of course will know which is which.  😜

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One approach I have used for diesel thieves is to deliberately have a plastic can of really rough diesel full of rubbish and water (oil floats) on the boat somewhere. They see it, think it is diesel, smell it and nick it then you can have happy thoughts about what happened when they put it in their tanks assuming it was clean diesel. 

 

Similar for the motorbike scrotes nicking petrol. Give them what they think they want. 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Could you put a label on your poo tank saying  Diesel, and one on your fuel tank saying Sewage. 

Only you of course will know which is which.  😜

 

If it is other boaters nicking the diesel they will probably know where the tank is likely to be located. 

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52 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

Can you not see that social problems like that will just get worse and worse as housing costs go up?  

 

Housing is a basic need. You really can't do much without it. Some people are suggesting that ownership of property you do not need is some sort of good deed by the landlord. No it isn't. All it is is hoarding of a basic need. 

 

You can't do this. It is a basic problem for a society if this happens. 

 

I know you hate the smackhead mother with 5 kids but have you considered why she exists in the first place? 

 

Do you think this is something which somebody would actually choose ? 

 

The whole thing is screwed and yes I do live on another planet. It is B-612 as shown in my profile. 

 

 

We have many basic needs, but the providers of these needs are not expected to provide them for free if someone doesn't have the means to pay. Your suggestion would have food. heat, clothing, (fags, sky TV etc.... ;) ), provided for free by the suppliers - as you well know, it aint gonna happen is it!?

 

This is why we have a welfare state, where people of lesser means are provided for out of taxes.

 

Back to property: Of course, if private landlords were required to provide their properties for free, for life, there would be no landlords, and you would get your wish that we all only own one property. However, this leads back to there being nowhere for those needing/wanting to rent to live..... unless government provides all of the property required by the rental market, which is something you can wish for, but is not gonna happen. 

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7 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

 

However, this leads back to there being nowhere for those needing/wanting to rent to live..... unless government provides all of the property required by the rental market, which is something you can wish for, but is not gonna happen. 

 

 

I only did economics at school for a couple of months but it doesn't take a huge leap of understanding to work out what would happen. 

 

Value of property would drop enormously because the market would not be skewed by multiple ownership. 

 

I'm not talking about things being free I am talking about a non biased market. 

 

Food and certain other essentials are subjected to certain controls like avoiding monopolies happening. 

 

Nobody wants their house value to go down so this sort of policy would never be introduced.

 

You would find if houses were half as much as they are to buy and you could only have one of them that far more people would be able to get involved in the scheme of paying to eventually own rather than being forced to pay someone else's mortgage for a house they don't even need. 

 

It's basic economics. Supply and demand. 

 

Don't worry I'm a nobody and my ideas will never be relevant but endless increase in price of property, while it might look good to you if you own property, is a basic negative influence on society. It can never be a positive influence other than in the minds of the short sighted people who think that having more money is the be all and end all of life. 

 

 

 

 

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33 minutes ago, magnetman said:

One approach I have used for diesel thieves is to deliberately have a plastic can of really rough diesel full of rubbish and water (oil floats) on the boat somewhere. They see it, think it is diesel, smell it and nick it then you can have happy thoughts about what happened when they put it in their tanks assuming it was clean diesel. 

 

 

I admire the machiavellian thinking, I really do. But one imagines that people looking to nick diesel are going to go straight for the fuel filler- for a start they could get maybe 150 litres, and not just 20 from a container. 

Perhaps an anti personnel mine could be placed so that it goes off when the cover is lifted.....

Or - my best idea so far -  a tank full of sharks suspended 10 feet above the stern, that will automatically open and come piling down onto the thieves if the fuel cap cover is even touched. 

 I'm not claiming its 100% risk free, but we live in desperate times. 

 

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13 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I only did economics at school for a couple of months but it doesn't take a huge leap of understanding to work out what would happen. 

 

Value of property would drop enormously because the market would not be skewed by multiple ownership. 

 

 

You should have done it for longer and you'd have learned how elastic a good accommodation really is. when it gets cheaper, people buy more of it.

 

Imagine my two bed hovel. It's worth about £5,000 I reckon, and the four bed palace next door is worth £10,000. If house prices halve as you wish, what's gonna happen? 

 

Yes I can now afford to buy the four bed palace and live in it myself and that will reduce the supply of accommodation available in the marketplace, not increase it.

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tony1 said:

 

I wonder if I could ask a favour? I have wondered in the past about whether it's worth fitting a padlock on the fuel filler cap. 

If you happen to have your phone handy on the stern, I wonder if you might take a few photos of your lock/padlock arrangement and post them here?  

If diesel prices start going up significantly, it could become something that local scrotes (or even boaters) think is worth nicking. 

 

 

I had a tank full nicked about 15 years ago, so its not just the price going up.

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13 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

You should have done it for longer and you'd have learned how elastic a good accommodation really is. when it gets cheaper, people buy more of it.

 

Imagine my two bed hovel. It's worth about £5,000 I reckon, and the four bed palace next door is worth £10,000. If house prices halve as you wish, what's gonna happen? 

 

Yes I can now afford to buy the four bed palace and live in it myself and that will reduce the supply of accommodation available in the marketplace, not increase it.

 

So you are saying that all the 4 bedroom houses would be bought by single people? Why would they do that? 

 

Most people who live by themselves will surely look for smaller houses generally because it is more sensible.

 

Obviously there will be some people who have some unreasonable greed issues like that but I think it will be a pretty significant minority. 

 

Equally there would be people who can live perfectly happily with a family of 5 in a 2 up 2 down terraced house. 

 

If house prices were halved, or more appropriately knocked down to 1/3 of what they are now and multiple ownership was not allowed people would be housed naturally because in general people are able to gain employment and pay back modest loans. 

 

Paying back a loan is always going to be better than paying someone else's mortgage. 

 

I'm not bothered personally as have no intention of owning anything other than boats and have no issues paying mooring fees to a corporation like the CRT. I would not pay a private landlord though. That won't happen. 

 

The kids will do what they do. Fortunately supported by enormously incomparable family wealth which means investment is unnecessary. There is so much cash there we don't bother with the hassle of trying to generate more of it. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Which would defeat pretty much any form of security on a tin-boat.

 

The idea is to be more hassle to the crim than the next boat.

This is normally a sensible and pragmatic approach. One which works well against the random opportunist thief.

 

But I think diesel theft is a special case. In order to steal a significant amount of diesel, the thief must come prepared - bring containers or even their boat. A crowbar or angle grinder won't be much extra burden and the need will have been anticipated.

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It is quite a good approach if the person who originally builds the boat has the foresight to weld a steel pipe with an elbow on it just below the filler.

 

You can get fuel in but it is a bugger to get it back out. 

 

Not something anyone would do when building a narrow boat. 

One could retrofit this by removing the existing filler cap assembly then welding in a BSP tube with elbow on end and finishing the top of it with a BSP pipe cap. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, magnetman said:

It is quite a good approach if the person who originally builds the boat has the foresight to weld a steel pipe with an elbow on it just below the filler.

 

You can get fuel in but it is a bugger to get it back out. 

 

Not something anyone would do when building a narrow boat. 

One could retrofit this by removing the existing filler cap assembly then welding in a BSP tube with elbow on end and finishing the top of it with a BSP pipe cap. 

 

 

 

One of mine has a 1.5" lever valve fitted into the filler pipe, on the inside of the boat. 

 

Much more effective than mucking about with locks on the outside. 

 

 

Embarrassing if you forget to open it at the fuel pontoon though, before the bod tries to fill it up. 

 

 

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