charles123

I have put a video together, its about 12 mins Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Q53SBSzhQ&feature=player_embedded

Spent 3 nights on the Weaver with the Meteor, to relax and catch up on a few jobs, from leaving Dutton lock to the Runcorn end which is about 10 miles, saw no other boat moving and no boats moored either over that time. Video for those who like the Gardner sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxO_He7lMvc Charles

A turnover of £300k is more than adequate to support a healthy profitable business here. The number of boats now sold as I have said appears lower and I doubt the figures in the first place from waterways world as it is likely that Harall would have talked these up for the article and may have included the other marina brokerage sales that were there then. My guess is that he borrowed against this business a couple of years back to do what I don't know, repayments would have increased dramatically in recent times and these costs added to the running costs make a loss, in any event it looks like some external factor added to the demise, but all speculation of course. The winner is the landlord who on the face of it might be seen as the loser as money was owed, but this would be taken into his own accounts to offset his profits on which he would have paid out corporation tax. He has no realistic option but to carry on with the brokerage otherwise he has the depreciation to pay on his crane, and the costs of building its slipway and developing the site for the brokerage and no income from his linear moorings or the hardstanding if it ceased business. He picks up an established business for nothing, can either develop it as it has more potential that Harall could not see, or sell it on where it with become a string to another waterways business. There is of course the new marina at Park Farm about 2 miles away approx. 2 thirds complete. The staff should be ok, I would guess 2 in the office and a couple of part timers in the yard. The losers apart from the owner, are mostly the bank and VAT man Charles

I don't know the figures but Harral attracted a high proportion of less saleable boats of lower value that probably filled the yard but did not turn over much and because of this perpetuated the situation. The craning in and out was not theirs either, though they would have had a cut of this income. The nicer boats went elsewhere (that's not to say they did not have a proportion of nice ones). I had heard that sales were more like 2 per week (or up to 2 per week) and as has already been pointed out probably at a lower average revenue. They should have had some revenue as well from charging for storage or on the water (this should have been substantial, if it was not then that would have been a key factor in the demise). A business like this is very vulnerable to fluctuating revenue, it has a substantial fixed cost base, mostly rental of quite a big plot, canal moorings, borrowings, wage costs and other overheads. The contraction from its other brokerage ventures I am guessing was because they did not need Harral as were perfectly capable of running their own brokerages. Most brokers have other strings to their bows, boat building/caravan storage/marinas/repairs etc and do well as a business because of that, Harral did not that I am aware of. Or where stand alone, are at one end of the spectrum internet based therefore low cost to operate and at the other end attracting the highest value boats giving much higher revenue per unit. Harral seemed to be stuck with the same unchanged and dated business plan an an uninspiring and dated web site. Thats my two penny worth anyway Charles

Anything over £1k spend gets 15% off at Midland Chandlers, or wait for freaky friday and get 20% off Charles

I have one of these. I am repeating myself when this came up some time ago but vastly superior to the diesel heaters. Low power draw, near silent, built in immersion so when on shore line heats the water for heating rads and washing. Very functional control unit. I have the heat exchanger from engine as well so when engine is hot turn on the Alde and it pumps round hot water and uses no gas. In particularly I like the feature that allows a rapid heat up to very hot water, ie not in the calorifier but the Alde itself, does this in very few minutes so you can use this feature to supplement the calorifier water if its not hot enough, use for a shower (when blended with cold) and first thing in the morning when again your tank is probably not very hot. Dors point about the control unit is valid, mines in the engine room which gets warmer when the engine running so can give a false impression of the temp in other rooms, however the control unit has thought of this and you can compensate for in the settings by adjusting it down so for example temp in engine room 25 degrees, everywhere else 20, so reset the unit to 20 degrees even though its sensing 25, will show 20 on the read out, water will be heated to 23, or whatever temp you need and set Dont know how economical it is but appears to be low on gas consumption (there are figures on their site) Charles

There is another ex Dunkirk on the duck at present but how about this one instead? interesting read http://motorboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=195757 Charles

Because indications are that the engine is running cool, the stat should only open to the keel tank when the engine is hot

I have 17 hrs on my 2LW newly installed, and a similar problem. I have contacted Gardner Enthusiast by email attaching a photo of my thermostat housing to see whether the one they sell will fit, no reply as yet. The calorifier is in the bypass circuit, but the water does not get as hot as I would expect, and takes over one hr to get hot, (but not as hot as I would expect) the engine does not feel particularly hot either but others with similar engines would know better. The pipe to the keel tank does get warm suggesting hot water is getting sent that way as well as via the bypass circuit which I would not expect but the return back to the engine is cold. The engine is not worked particularly hard, more in the range of tickover to (I would estimate) half throttle, because thats all the speed I need out of it cruising or stationary charging Thanks Charles

There is no dig in, 20 tons by the crane drivers dial, rock steady. Charles

This has lovely lines in my opinion, first time I have seen a Roger Fuller in this style of bow. Looks like an odd cabin layout though, big back cabin and engine room as the side doors are well down the boat, not much room for galley/bathroom/saloon though http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/image.phtml?id=202027ℑ=5 Charles

Its a lovely boat and a credit to those involved in building her. Don't be put off by comments such as these Charles

I took the starter off then put it back on with one spring washer per bolt to offset it by the thickness of the washer. This has now solved the problem and it turns over each turn of the key. Thanks to all contributors to the topic Charles

starter motor

Thank you, I already have double starter batteries, its not a battery issue Charles Thank you, its a new starter and the ring gear is new too. I will check the clearance Charles

Would it help if I greased the ring gear/starter pinion? Charles

It sounds exactly like this engine video on youtube (not my engine of course) Charles

Thank you Tony I can easily take the starter off to do this, hopefully the engineers on here will comment Charles

Would appreciate a bit of help/experiences of the following problem. My engine is now fully installed and was started up for the first time this week. All is well except that sometimes when I turn the key I get a single click (in fact more often than not from cold, although its only been started about 10 times from installation. I have asked a member on here via email and he kindly came back along the lines as follows. He said "What’s happening is that the clearances between the ring gear and the starter pinion are still very tight, the bearing on the pinion is probably still tight and the edges are still sharp. So if they teeth on the two line up exactly just by accident when the engine stops the pinion is blocked. Sometimes trying it a couple more times will get it into mesh and sometimes just turning the engine slightly will do it" I have turned the key on and off up to a dozen times and sometimes it starts after 2 or 3 turns of key. While there is no pulley guard on, I can indeed move the pulley a little to turn the engine and this fixes it but I wont be able to get at the pulley once the guard is installed. Anything I can do? Thanks Charles

This is a question I have often wondered about where someone has ordered a boat, perhaps waited 2 years for delivery and in a year later its up for sale. I have heard a number of stories about ill health and that's understandable given that its likely that predominantly older people will be commissioning new boats. I also think that once on the water, there is realisation of the cost of ownership, and the loss of interest on the purchase price and loss of what else they could use the money for if not tied up in the boat. Other reasons of course but these are the two I favour as prevailing Charles

Boat mans cabin is a commonly used description, nothing wrong with using that term abbreviated that I can see even if not correct (if it is incorrect that is. Its like calling former working narrowboats "historic" which they commonly are called, but whats historic about them? Charles