IainW

cheers Ronnie, please stay in touch. There is a specific survey for Scottish boaters where you can put in your preference of land near Glasgow - we are listening! https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/cmsboat A boater also recently contacted me about land near Glasgow, feel free to send a private message about that.

Hi Ronnie, i tried to delete spam messages but there were sooo many. If i turn on comment filtering, what does that do? We will lease land from Scottish Canals and other landowners. Scottish Canals often own strips of land along the canal. The pilot site is Narrowboat Farm which i bought from an existing farm. So we can use the land adjoining Scottish Canal's strip of land. The idea would be to develop a model that would be attractive to farmers and other landowners with land by the canal. edit - i've just turned off commenting, seems easier

Hi folks, We have a project up in Scotland to establish a network of moorings independent of Scottish Canals. We want busier canals and more choice for where to moor. Check out www.communitymoorings.com if you're interested. We are doing some research to help us understand the pleasures and challenges of various alternative lifestyles, so not just boating, to get ourselves into the mindset of our potential customers. So we have a survey which we would really appreciate 5 minutes of your time to fill out: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CMSlifestyler Thanks in advance! Feel free to ask any questions about the project here too...

Hi Eastcoastfisher, there will be new leisure boat moorings available at NBF if we eventually get something signed off with Scottish Canals. That is taking considerable time but heading in the right direction. Thanks Iain S for mentioning them. Have you been for a wander around the moorings and chatted to boaters? You'll discover boats with signs in the windows 'for sale' and boaters who know of boats for sale. If you are ever near NBF, you'd be welcome to get in touch and drop by for a chat. It seems not as many advertise online their boats for sale. In terms of size, there are folk with bigger, wider boats who don't use the Union because of problems with depth/height/width. But just recently there have been new boaters getting bigger boats on the Union and they don't seem too phased by it, just expect to be slow. If you intend to cruise all the time, there may be an argument for it being easier/more enjoyable on a NB but if i was you i would just try both and see. There are trip boats that are wide and narrow, you could organise a trip and get the feel for it.

ah oops haha, building more locks all by ourselves was a bitch! Erm 17-20!!!

we were trained to do locks 17-40. We alone did it more that 10 times. Some times we would want to do it ourselves and SC would turn up and not let us do it ourselves. Much nicer doing it ourselves, take our time, stop between locks and not get rushed through with the white water rafting treatment sometimes. Otherwise i wouldn't have any complaints about any SC ground staff, super people.

so far so good, i cleaned the faces and re-tightened with just the supplied O-ring (and maybe a smattering of PTFE tape on the threads but i'll not admit to that). No leaks as yet and we have hot water :-) one unintended plus side is that i've scraped away enough insulation that any water that leaks through the threads will spill over the side rather than gathering in the electrics and frying it, not that i'm hoping for leaks... thanks again for the sage advice folks...

You big bunch of beautiful boaters - she's free!!!!!!

Haha but it works! Until any maintenance is required :-) Too late, my pet canary just took one for the team :-(

i tried that, but not by cutting a notch, i hit an indent just inboard of the nut side. I even took a small breaker chisel to it with terrifying results...

I have probably hit the thing approximately 1000 times with a hammer over the past week. But with a wobbly box spanner and about 3 inches of back swing....

cheers folks, its only a 11" element in there, i think they originally fitted a 27" and then put the calorifier in. No way i could do that now, but i got a 14" which should be fine to get in. It seems a shame to only have the element working in the top half of the calorifier. I like the idea of turning the calorifier instead of the wrench, but it'd be easier to attache the wrench to the bank and turn the boat :-) If i scrape away the insulation on the top i'll have another shot with the blow torch, less chance it will set on fire again (did i mention that haha) if i scrape it clean...

the new spanner arrived thanks to amazon drone or something! now to chip away the insulation and remove the plumbing... thanks again for the advice, i feel like i may just get there...

i am very novice at plumbing, i have no idea why that plumbing is good or bad! If i turn off the water pump and remove the pipes from being in the way at the top, will it spill a lot of water or just a wee bit? I don't mind a litre or so, but don't fancy a lot more... I presume i use spanners to do the copper stuff, and just release the pressure to do the plastic stuff?

only a few, the reason i don't think a flat one will work is that the immersion in sunk into the boiler by a few cms, this may just be insulation that i could scrape away but that would be a massive pain. Also, the plumbing looks like it would get in the way. Check out the photos above if you're interested...

thanks folks, I'll try the different spanner before i go too caveman on her :-) I don't think a totally flat one will work, but the one with a deep section will. I'll photograph it later to help you see my space restraints... Many thanks for your useful advice thus far...

the other option i saw was to cut a notch in the outside of the immersion and use a hammer drill chisel to knock it round ooft

Yeah I've tried hammers, tried tightening. I haven't tried doing it when the water is hot, will try that next. I don't think the there type of spanner will fit due to space constraints and likewise i can't get the calorifier out without removing the shower :-( my next option is to drill a hole in the top then use a grinder or saw to cut it out, don't fancy that option much!

Hello! The immersion has died in my calorifier and i can't get it out! The one before died because it kept on leaking around the threads and shorting the electrics. So i may have gone a little OTT with sealing the replacement and now i can't get it out! I put PTFE tape on the threads and a bead of silicon to seal it. I have the correct box spanner but access is really restricted to get any leverage on it. I have tapped it with a hammer but no joy. I have tried to heat it with a blow torch but the insulation on the calorifier keeps on going up in flames! I have used silicon removal paste to eat up the bead, i have used plus-gas and WD40 but it probably isnt getting into the seals. HELP!!!!!

I had my solar charger set to open batteries on my gel ones, it was giving them 15v+, they are now goosed after a year :-(

hello! I sit on top of my trad stern NB when i'm cruisingand i'd like to be able to steer by hand via the tiller. I used to stick a windlass in the tiller which worked a treat until...plop aaaargh. Can anyone share a solution so i can extend from the tiller and swivel in both axes ideally?

that's interesting. Our best guess is that we've lost 10-20l of diesel and the slick covered a 2 mile long stretch of canal at about 20ft wide. It certainly took a long time to spread dispersant along the area. The wind and rain are picking up tomorrow so i'm hoping that will get rid of any remnants. Not a nice episode of our canal lives at all...

Thanks for all your replies. Alas I'm gutted to say I think you may all be right about a leaky rudder tube. We set up a sorbent boom around the back today and drained the diesel tank. Water and gunk in the bottom of it :-( At least no more diesel can get out until we get her into the dry dock. We pulled out 125l of diesel, mostly ok-looking and working back from how full she was pre-slick we haven't lost that much diesel. It's crazy how big a slick comes from a small leak. Gutted. I used some ecover detergent in the area but after some googling it was dubious whether it is a good idea to use washing up liquid or not. Unfortunately it is meant to be very still the next few days so I don't think it will dissipate so quick.

OK i'm getting worried about this slick now. When i waggle the tiller little bubbles of diesel seem to come up. Has anyone experienced this? Does that mean the diesel tank is leaking where the rudder is?? Help????