AndyV

I lived on a boat for about 12 years until 2002. I haven't done much boating since, though I still owned a boat until 2 years ago, I am now planning retirement on a boat in a few years time, but posts like this bother me. I don't recall more than two or three "awkward discussions" or examples of snobbery etc in all the time I was on a boat (cruisers on the the Thames and fishermen aside). Everyone on a boat was almost automatically a friend. Conversations at locks were always friendly (in fact my favourite part of boating) and no one seemed to care whether you had a just afloat old boat of the latest shiny. I will be somewhat disappointed if the lifestyle that I have been looking forward to getting back to doesn't exist any more.

Mike. I believe that to be Oak? If so I am glad it's ended up with someone who appreciates the Kelvin. I was the first owner.

AB Tuckey have moved 4 boats for me, including 2 at once on one occasion, one of which weighed 23 tonnes. Couldn't find a thing to fault on any occasion and if ever I need a boat moved again I wouldn't consider anywhere else. i did check prices every time and they weren't expensive. I am sure you could get cheaper by organising cranes etc yourself but I'd rather use a company that obviously know what they are doing.

I normally really like the look of Allen Boats and they are undoubtedly in the list of boats that command a premium because of the reputation of the builder. This particular one though looks just slightly "wrong" to my eye. i think the issue is twofold. One is that its not so much a tug deck as a long, very shallow well deck. The second is that the "step" in the line at the front of the deck, always quite pronounced on Allens, is emphasised by this. its all subjective of course and often photographs can give a slightly different impression than viewing "in the flesh" but this, for what it's worth is my view. The stern, like every Allen, to my eye is spot on.

An aluminium ladder with thin ply fixed over the rungs is lighter than a scaffold plank.

Does anyone know of a 3L3 installed in a narrowboat? Common sense would suggest that it would be ridiculously big for the purpose but there are plenty of Kelvin Ks about for which the same could be said (my last boat had a K2). Was there a 2L3? It would be nice if it ever existed, but I think it didn't?

I was involved in the installation of a huge generator like this onto a roof of an office building in London years ago. It was the middle of Winter with deep snow and ice everywhere. We did the 24 hour load tests with the load banks (in effect very big fan heaters) along the edge of the roof. The tower crane driver on the building site the opposite side of the road spent the day working in a T shirt.

Then I completely agree with you. currently, your current lifestyle and cruising pattern are perfectly OK because you have a mooring. if you gave up your mooring and cruised full time you would definitely be a CCer. if, however, you were to give up your mooring but my maintain your current pattern of cruising for a third of the year then you would not be. CCEr for two thirds of the year. As others have said, if you have to spend any time working out whether you meet the rules then whether or not you meet the letter of them you don't meet the intention of them or the "spirit" of them.

So, if you have a mooring then no one could have any issue with what you are doing. If however you gave up the mooring you would be "bending the rules" for the two thirds of the year that you are not cruising. And I use the word "rules" loosely. What I really mean is the intent and what we really all know is continuous cruising.

There are many posts and many thousands of words on here about this subject when really the situation is very simple. if you are fortunate enough to be without any commitments and with the time to be able to continuously cruise then you will not be in any way concerned with the "rules" because you will travel further and more often than you will need to to comply with them. if you have anything that you are committed to that has to happen in one place (kids at school, job etc) then you CANNOT be a continuous cruiser. You need a permanent place to live. Everybody knows and understands the above. There are some who try to avoid a mooring cost by pretending not to. Clearly the "rules" attempt to set parameters that prevent people who need to be in one place from living in one place whilst pretending that they don't. It is always the case that defining precise "rules" to impose common sense is difficult. the fact that there are areas with too few moorings and ridiculous property prices is another problem and may need resolving. But trying to "bend" what should be simple rules is not the answer. I can't afford to live in, for example, central London. Why should I expect that to be different if I were to do it on a boat.

The petition doesn't even make sense really. The"rules" don't prevent children who live on boats going to school, only children of boaters who continuously cruise. It might as well petition for Continuous Cruisers to be allowed to stay in one place. i am not saying that I agree or don't agree with the current rules for continuous cruising, just that the petition is daft. Plainly, if you have kids of school age, and you want them to go to school, you could never also meet the criterion "in spirit" of being a continuous cruiser.

An aluminium ladder of the right length just needs a strip of ply cut to fit between the rails. Since the rungs are quite close together the ply doesn't need to be very thick. To keep the weight down you don't even need to fix the ply to the ladder, so you have two lighter items to lift into position.

I think the "dropped gunwhale" Napton boats look pretty ugly but, of course, that's just to my eye and the visibility from the lounge may be more important to you. I don't think there is any doubt though that it would be much more easy to slip off while walking down the side of one of these boats. If the lounge is going to be at the front would an "under cloth" type of all glass roofline be right for the type of boat you are designing. This gives much more glass extending much lower down. Again, the look would either be to your taste or not though. It would probably only really suit quite a traditional looking boat.

That would be a very difficult ball of string to unravel. It's common (very very common) for manufacturers to sell to each other. Every type of business I have worked in, and these have been quite diverse, considers it normal practice. Domestic appliance brands are often collections of rebranded items sourced from many factories. Bosch make (or made when I worked in the Kitchen industry) washing machines for many brands. All the manufactures and brands swap,with each other. We have a Toyota car that is identical and made in the same factory as a Citroen and a Peugeot. In my current industry (flooring) "toll manufacturing" is common and the best toll manufacturers usually are very secretive about who they manufacture for. The list of such examples would be endless. I think it is important to judge any purchase based on the item itself, not where it is made. Brands thrive or fail on reputation so high quality products must be high quality, wherever they are made. The real risk is with brands that trade on historical reputation to sell in volume at reduced price and allow quality to fall to compensated. All in all, caveat emptor