Questions, Advice and Discussio boating Adventure.

[Chewbacka]

It's good to have dreams, and even better if you can make them reality.  It'll be interesting to see where you end up........

[rusty69]

11 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

It's good to have dreams, and even better if you can make them reality.  It'll be interesting to see where you end up........

If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true...... 

Edited July 8, 2017 by rusty69

[Peter X]

Despite the worrying sounds coming from the engine, I enjoyed our little jaunt to Weston Lock and back last month. It's great to hear that things are coming together for you after all the trouble, I hope everything goes well for you on your trip up the T&M, and that this time you get Kathleen home. I'm sure you'll cope well and enjoy living the dream once Paola becomes confident at steering in and out of locks. There's plenty of room in there when your boat's only 20 feet long.

[howardang]

14 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Simply fitting a horn - and using it would not actually comply with the law.

Actually - there is a far simpler way to comply with the laws :

Sound signals 12.

(1) Every power-driven vessel navigating on any canal shall be furnished with an efficient whistle.

(2) When vessels are in sight of one another the master of a power-driven vessel under way in taking any of the courses hereinafter referred to in this Bye-law shall indicate that course by following signals on such whistle, namely : One short blast to mean “I am altering my course to starboard”, two short blasts to mean “I am altering my course to port”, three short blasts to mean “My engines are going astern”, four short blasts to mean “I am about to turn or to turn round”.  This signal shall be followed after a short interval by one short blast if turning to starboard or two short blasts if turning to port and shall be repeated to any approaching vessel, whereupon such approaching vessel shall take action to avoid collision.

Thank you for quoting the Bye Law but I disagree with your first line. A horn is fully compliant - especially for the BW/CRT Bye Laws - as is a trombone, a bugle etc. You might like to look at the definition of a whistle in the preamble to the Bye Laws. In fact anything which can make a noise capable of sounding the long and short blasts necessary complies. For sea going vessels there are similar but more stringent requirements for audibility which I am sure you will be familiar with.

Howard

Edited July 8, 2017 by howardang

[Nicktheplumber]

7 hours ago, rusty69 said:

If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true...... 

How very Sensible of you Rusty .

[rusty69]

2 hours ago, Nicktheplumber said:

How very Sensible of you Rusty .

Captain's perogative. 

 

 

[Naughty Cal]

15 hours ago, Calranthe said:

This is a what if post please take it as such.

If both myself and Paola end up loving this life through many canal excursion and then once experience is learnt River exploration if we found that we loved the traveling more than staying put and once again I am talking IF everything worked out Years in the future then one option is getting a boat that is viable for coastal cruising.

One of the reasons we decided on Kathleen is that she is a basic inexpensive test bed, a place to explore all our options and without too many expenses including an inboard diesel and thus develops core boating skills that can go in the direction of live aboard or travel.

It should go without saying but I will anyway that if we took it in that direction in the coming years I would take all the relevant boating courses including VHF and basic seamanship.

Kathleen is the start of our journey, who knows we may end up falling in love with the canal's and sticking to them or go much further.

And yes waiting for that call tomorrow from the engineer has me a little antsy.

 

This is essentially how our dream started out. Only in the end the 20ft river cruiser we set out to buy (and I do mean literally we were in the car to go out and place an order on a new Viking 20) became a 5 year old 25ft sea boat we had never heard of at the blink of an eye!

Our dream changed somewhat that day but we have never regretted it.

[Calranthe]

12 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

This is essentially how our dream started out. Only in the end the 20ft river cruiser we set out to buy (and I do mean literally we were in the car to go out and place an order on a new Viking 20) became a 5 year old 25ft sea boat we had never heard of at the blink of an eye!

Our dream changed somewhat that day but we have never regretted it.

That is why we are open to any suggestions especially from people who have done this kind of thing themselves over and over we hear from people on this forum how people go out with preconceived goals and A boat finds them.

Am I right in thinking your Sealine S23 all depending on the experience of the pilot can do Rivers, coastal and could go down the french coast to Spain and beyond, also that for its size it has an amazing amount of storage.

[Naughty Cal]

5 minutes ago, Calranthe said:

That is why we are open to any suggestions especially from people who have done this kind of thing themselves over and over we hear from people on this forum how people go out with preconceived goals and A boat finds them.

Am I right in thinking your Sealine S23 all depending on the experience of the pilot can do Rivers, coastal and could go down the french coast to Spain and beyond, also that for its size it has an amazing amount of storage.

Yes. She is a surprisingly versatile boat. Can do wider canal cruising, is happy on rivers and estuaries and most at home coast hopping her way along the coastline. 

Crossing the channel would be no problem given the right experience of the crew.

There is a lot of storage and accommodation for the hull length. We had some yacht owners onboard last night and they were amazed what was wedged into such a small hull space.

[Calranthe]

1 minute ago, Naughty Cal said:

Yes. She is a surprisingly versatile boat. Can do wider canal cruising, is happy on rivers and estuaries and most at home coast hopping her way along the coastline. 

Crossing the channel would be no problem given the right experience of the crew.

There is a lot of storage and accommodation for the hull length. We had some yacht owners onboard last night and they were amazed what was wedged into such a small hull space.

Kathleen has okay storage for the size of boat she is (actually very good, I keep adding bags of items and they just seem to disappear into the boat, I know that she is quite powerful as well she has been under propped I think it was called so that she was not too fast for canal's but I am not looking at it with rose coloured tint, if Paola handles the boat life as well as I hope and being the type of people we are (We are always exploring new places on the wheelchair, it is very rare we take the same path or revisit a part of the town) we may in a couple of years find we need something where the world is open to you.

Also nice to see how well your current trip is going  

[Alan de Enfield]

35 minutes ago, Calranthe said:

we may in a couple of years find we need something where the world is open

 

We 'started' on the sea with a 8' 'roof topper' and a 4hp outboard, as time went by we got gradually bigger and bigger 'trailer boats', 15 footer, 16 foot, 17 foot, 18 footer, 21 footer (a foot increase in length does not sound a lot but the whole boat get bigger - wider and higher - picture to show the difference between out 16 foot Bayliner and the 17 foot Ombrine)

Eventually got to 'big boats' ( a 30 foot Fairline Corniche) and the 'open sea' cruising began.

Most (If not all) boats will have greater sea-keeping qualities than their crew but I would hesitate to go 'ocean sailing' on anything less than 30 foot +.

My current 'GRP Cruiser' has 2700 litre fuel tanks and is built on an 'Offshore Trawler' hull - with a range of about 2000 miles it is a go-anywhere boat.

Last year we brought our new 'Cat' from Croatia to Hull a trip of 3100 nautical miles, in 28 days - including a couple of days where we had to turn back to the last port due to extreme weather conditions.

Have a year or two exploring the canals then, if 'happy' look to getting a 'coastal cruiser' there is a huge difference between 'ditch crawling' and open (lumpy) water boating and the sea 'takes no prisoners'. Build up experience and progress slowly - I you want it, you will get there in the end.

 

 

[Calranthe]

Just wanted to point out something,  Paola can walk and unless she is having a bad day can navigate both houses and garden with a cane, on a good day she does not even need the cane, the biggest problem is walking tires her out a lot, if we were to walk to the local shop about 200 yards and her walk it with me holding her hand and her using the cane she would need a day to recover in bed.

She will be able to walk up a Jetty, the wheelchair like the boat in the future has just allowed us to go a lot further no matter how her legs are feeling.

This is why we do not need a wheelchair ramp into a boat, the plan is IF the engineer says all is okay today then early tomorrow we go down to Sawley, Paola stays in the car while while I get the keys and new certificate from the brokers, we move all the stuff on to the boat, run the engine, fuel the boat (still have 5L in the can) then go refill the can so we have the 40L +10L spare, grab something to eat in the Bistro (they do a wonderful all day breakfast) then toilet break and throwing away of any rubbish, then last of all take Paola and her wheelchair to the Jetty, switch to cane and with both me and Trevor get her to the boat then, I get in the boat, Trevor stays on the Jetty he holds the boat steady and helps her on to the boat ledge, I help her in and then once she is steady and feels okay (at any point in time during this she can say she does not want to and go home with Trevor). After all the original and still plan is once we get to Aston we add a collapsible ramp an steps.

Fold the wheelchair and bring it on board.

At that point we spend some time getting everything stowed and sorted, show her how to pilot the boat and organise the best place for her to sit, and once all is done all is ready we set off.

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

We 'started' on the sea with a 8' 'roof topper' and a 4hp outboard, as time went by we got gradually bigger and bigger 'trailer boats', 15 footer, 16 foot, 17 foot, 18 footer, 21 footer (a foot increase in length does not sound a lot but the whole boat get bigger - wider and higher - picture to show the difference between out 16 foot Bayliner and the 17 foot Ombrine)

Eventually got to 'big boats' ( a 30 foot Fairline Corniche) and the 'open sea' cruising began.

Most (If not all) boats will have greater sea-keeping qualities than their crew but I would hesitate to go 'ocean sailing' on anything less than 30 foot +.

My current 'GRP Cruiser' has 2700 litre fuel tanks and is built on an 'Offshore Trawler' hull - with a range of about 2000 miles it is a go-anywhere boat.

Last year we brought our new 'Cat' from Croatia to Hull a trip of 3100 nautical miles, in 28 days - including a couple of days where we had to turn back to the last port due to extreme weather conditions.

Have a year or two exploring the canals then, if 'happy' look to getting a 'coastal cruiser' there is a huge difference between 'ditch crawling' and open (lumpy) water boating and the sea 'takes no prisoners'. Build up experience and progress slowly - I you want it, you will get there in the end.

 

 

 

Yes not going to rush any of it and rely on a lot of advice from people along the journey, I love the look of the corvette 320 and 32 not just the looks, they are amazing seaworthy and live aboard vessels those two are our dream boats of the future

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Have a year or two exploring the canals then, if 'happy' look to getting a 'coastal cruiser' there is a huge difference between 'ditch crawling' and open (lumpy) water boating and the sea 'takes no prisoners'. Build up experience and progress slowly - I you want it, you will get there in the end.

Good advice here. Its a world of difference. You need to understand tides/weather /navigation to undertake a coastal trip, to name a few. 

But the world is your lobster, so anythings possible. 

[Calranthe]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Good advice here. Its a world of difference. You need to understand tides/weather /navigation to undertake a coastal trip, to name a few. 

But the world is your lobster, so anythings possible. 

I have no doubt of that and its good to have a goal but are not going to let that take away from the Journey  so looking forward to going out tomorrow if the Engineer is happy, if something else needs work then we go later in the week but hoping for Monday.

[Alan de Enfield]

10 minutes ago, Calranthe said:

Yes not going to rush any of it and rely on a lot of advice from people along the journey, I love the look of the corvette 320 and 32 not just the looks, they are amazing seaworthy and live aboard vessels those two are our dream boats of the future

Change the dream - they were one of our 'dream boats', but no longer.

Looked at one a couple of years ago and it is Sooooooo tiny inside - the dining area, Kitchen ad lounge are in in one small area (in the saloon). My current 36 foot Cruiser has separate dining room, kitchen and lounge - there is no comparison.

The only trawler yachts worth looking at are 40+ feet

[Calranthe]

Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Change the dream - they were one of our 'dream boats', but no longer.

Looked at one a couple of years ago and it is Sooooooo tiny inside - the dining area, Kitchen ad lounge are in in one small area (in the saloon). My current 36 foot Cruiser has separate dining room, kitchen and lounge - there is no comparison.

The only trawler yachts worth looking at are 40+ feet

Interesting it is a long way off anyway and something like that seems a world away, hopefully if we get to that stage we can bother and pester people like you.

[cuthound]

Hope you and Paola have a great trip today. 

Please keep us posted of your progress.  

[WotEver]

14 hours ago, rusty69 said:

If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true...... 

Ahh, happy talk

[MtB]

On 09/07/2017 at 11:28, WotEver said:

Ahh, happy talk

A Damned irritating song, I always thought...

[WotEver]

4 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

A Damned irritating song, I always thought...

It fitted the musical well. 

As for that 80's version... let's pretend we never heard it. 

[Calranthe]

Not going tomorrow, When he fired up the boat to do the test run there was a slight leak from the fuel pump, he is taking it back to the business that reconditioned it tomorrow.

 

[Mike Hurley]

On 7/8/2017 at 22:07, rusty69 said:

If you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true...... 

If your dream comes true, what do you dream about then?

[rusty69]

1 hour ago, Mike Hurley said:

If your dream comes true, what do you dream about then?

The next one on the list. 

[Naughty Cal]

5 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

The next one on the list. 

Exactly this.

We skipped our first dream and got to our second one instead. 

We now have another goal. Which we will reach in time. But in the meantime we can have some fun exploring with our current boat. 

[Calranthe]

So it looks like the trip is postponed for a few days, while the fuel pump is rechecked, talking to the engineer today to see if this extra down time could be used to Fix the RPM, Fix the Throttle direction and fix the horn.