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2015 10 25 Newsletter – Engine Cooling Modification

After another run of uneventful cruises along unusually wind and rain free waterways I finished my last discovery day on Monday at 6pm at the head of the Calcutt flight. There’s a good mooring spot next to a straight section of towpath long enough for a single boat at the end of the lock landing. The alternative is a curved section of concrete next to loose and stony ground which is difficult to secure a pin in so I use it as a last resort. As there was already a boat moored on the straight section and as I had two free days before my next training day, I turned the boat in the unofficial winding hole next to the top lock, waved farewell to my day’s guests and then dropped down the Calcutt light in the fading light.

Forty minutes later aided by my tunnel light I cautiously nosed through the marina entrance and for the first time in six months moored against the rusty dump barge which used to be my permanent mooring before I set off on my travels in April.

It’s a beautiful mooring on a very quiet north western section of Calcutt Boats’ Locks marina close to the marina entrance. I have an open view of the marina to my left and the Grand Union canal beneath the lock flight on the far side of the grassy marina bank to my right. At this time of the year there’s very little traffic on the canal so there’s no sudden rush of water from an emptying lock to disturb the tranquility. I love mooring there but not as much as I enjoy the thrill of finding new peaceful moorings throughout the canal and river network miles from traffic and noise.

A marina mooring may not be as tranquil or offer the wide views afforded by many river and canal-side spots but there are certainly some advantages. I dusted off my shore line and plugged in to the national grid and then relaxed happy in the knowledge that my batteries and my hot water supply would be constantly topped up without me having to remember to run my engine.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pottering days filled with nothing other than gentle relaxation. The only work I did on the boat was to dig out the covers I had made for my side hatches and fix them in place.

The guys who over plated my original wooden cabin did a very good job generally, but the side hatches aren’t a very good fit. A freezing and lively breeze used to blow through them in the winter quickly chilling an otherwise warm and cosy cabin. I had covers made for both sets of side doors and the hatches above them and for the rear doors and hatch. The three covers have made a huge difference to the cabin temperature. The £110 I paid for them was money very well spent.

I’m not very good at sitting about doing very little though so by Wednesday afternoon I was itching to move again. I had a discovery day booked for Thursday so I spent forty minutes tackling the three lock flight once more before mooring on my thankfully free favourite spot opposite Napton reservoir.

I spent a very pleasant day with my discovery day siblings; a sister hoping to leave a well-paid but stressful job and a brother along for moral support and a bit of a jolly. In fact, we had such a pleasant day that by the time we had negotiated our sixth lock the light was fading, as was any serious intention of me taking the boat back down three locks into the marina ready for my much anticipated engine cooling modification the following day.

At the crack of dawn, 7am at this time of the year, I dropped down through the Calcutt flight and into the marina. I moored on the water point next to the slipway so I could top up my tank ready for the possibility of a few days out of the water or in the water but away from a water point.

By 9am my boat was high and dry and Slipway Stuart, Calcutt Boats boat blacker, was busy scraping away ten square feet of the four coats of Miogard and bitumen Sally and I carefully applied in April. The paint had to be removed ready for engineer Ian to weld my new skin tank in place.

I had expected a pre-fabricated tank to be hoisted into position and welded in place. In hindsight – what a wonderful gift that is – I realised that getting a prefabricated tank to fit the curved and uneven swim of a forty year old boat would have been quite a challenge.

Constructing a tank from scratch in half a day from sheets and strips of steel was also a challenge, but one which Ian rose to admirably. I helped him a little, either by leaning against the steel so he could heat and shape it, or by simply watching.

Watching was actually a very important job. I hadn’t realised quite how disruptive and potentially dangerous welding a tank onto the exterior of the boat could prove to the inside of the engine room. As Ian welded each strip in place a line of blistering and furiously smoking paint appeared on the opposite side of the hull inside the engine room.

I had to make sure that all wiring was held away from the area he was welding and wedge wooden battens under the five batteries in my leisure and starter battery banks to keep them away from excessive heat.

I was warned to be particularly vigilant when Ian used his gas axe to cut a hole through the hull for the skin tank’s return. Ian warned me to watch out for flying sparks so I was perfectly positioned to watch them fly into the only space in the bilge I don’t – can’t – keep spotlessly clean.

What little space there is under the engine is almost completely filled with steel ballast bars. A dozen or more gold ingot sized bars protected a wad of oily rag which has been there unseen and unreachable for longer than I’ve owned the boat.

There was a brief but intense shower of sparks, some thick smoke and then flames bright enough to illuminate both the engine room and the look of blind panic on my face. I think it was the ladylike shriek which alerted Ian. He quickly climbed a ladder six feet to the stern where I was wildly gesturing into the bilge’s flickering flames.

“Quick Stuart! Bring me a bucket of water,” Ian shouted. Stuart calmly walked to his slipway shed to look for a suitable empty receptacle, found an old bitumen tin and then, I suspect out of respect for my nice clean engine room, carefully began to attach a hose to the tap he uses for his pressure washer to fill the paint tin with clean water. “Just dip the f****g thing in the cut!” Ian commanded as the flames danced prettily around the bottom of the engine.

Two carefully tipped buckets later and the fire was out. No damage done other than to my underpants, my heart and my life expectancy, so I resumed my lookout duties as Ian finished the last of his cutting and welding.

He asked me not to write about the engine room fire in my newsletter but he has nothing to worry about. He did everything right. He told me to ensure that anything flammable was moved away from the side where he was working, he asked me to keep an eye out for any problems while he was working on the hull, and he quickly resolved what could have been a serious problem. The oily rag laying in the impossible to reach section of bilge under the engine certainly wasn’t his fault.

After Ian finished the tank he asked Stuart to paint the bare steel with Owatrol rust protector. Thick bitumen paint isn’t a good idea on skin tanks. Too many layers insulate the tank and can cause overheating problems. I’m spending a substantial amount of money trying to cure one overheating problem. I don’t want to create another.

The current exhaust outlet had to go. It was too low to work with my new hospital silencer so the opening was welded shut. The work made a mess of my red tunnel flash so Stuart found me some red paint and a brush. I cleaned, lightly sanded and repainted the flash as daylight faded then climbed a set of steps to my home in the sky.

Living on a boat suspended six feet on the ground is an odd and often chilly experience. The water surrounding the boat in its normal environment acts as an insulator. The boat was noticeably cooler than normal on Friday night but the bird’s eye view of my surroundings more than made up for it.

Saturday was a very wet day but thankfully not for the half hour I needed to be out in it.

With an out of commission engine the boat had to be manhandled from the slipway to the engineering workshop 100’ feet away. Ian gently pushed the trolley holding the boat down the slipway into the marina. Slipway Stuart held on to a long rope attached to my bow. I stood on the back deck with my long pole.

Once the boat floated free of the trolley I “punted” the twenty tonne boat over to its new mooring next to the workshop. It was wonderful exercise but I have much more respect now for the barge horses which use to pull fully laden working boats all day long. Ten minutes was more than enough for me.

All Ian had to do to finish the job was remove a fitting from my thirty eight year old heat exchanger, fit a flexi coupling between the heat exchanger and my new super quiet hospital silencer and manufacture brackets to fit the large silencer out of the way so that any essential engine maintenance could still be done reasonably easily.

After a great deal of huffing, puffing and manly straining, a little lost knuckle skin and many colourful expletives, the old heat exchanger fitting was off. Of course the new flexi coupling wouldn’t fit my old engine so Ian had to make one.

With the flexi coupling and hospital silencer in place but not secured all that was left to do was manufacture the silencer brackets, lag he pipes either side of the silencer and cut a new hole for the exhaust.

Rain and the impending start of the South Africa/New Zealand rugby world cup semi-final halted work at 12.30pm. The remaining welding and cutting couldn’t be done in the wet. I spent a leisurely afternoon watching the brutal and exhilarating rugby match and an evening indulging my guilty pleasure, X Factor, before retiring for the night in a bedroom gently lit by the site’s orange sodium lights.

I was hoping that Ian would be in today to finish the installation. He suggested that he might come in to work for a few hours but it’s his day off so I can understand why he hasn’t appeared.

Hopefully tomorrow the work will be done and I can take my new super quiet stealth boat for a spin. I’m looking forward to some quiet cruising and not having to answer endless questions about the unusual noise coming from the back of my boat. The most common of them is whether the boat is steam powered. I’ve started to tell enquirers that it’s a prototype jet propulsion system for the new breed of faster inland waterways craft often purchased by highly stressed boating enthusiasts with far too little time to cruise at the normal slower pace usually seen on the waterways. Sadly because of the noise I haven’t been able to hear their follow up questions but I can tell from the bemused looks that they either don’t believe me or they don’t think it’s a particularly good idea.

I’m going to spend a couple of hours now cleaning the engine room and removing Friday’s fire water before the 4pm kick off for the Australia/Argentina match. I’m going to turn up the volume very loud to try and drown out the annoying drone of an electric sander being enthusiastically wielded in the paint tent next to my boat.

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Discovery Day And Narrowboat Helmsmanship Training

If you’re new to this site you might not know about the service I launched in June 2014. I host narrowboat experience days on board my own 62′ long narrowboat James No 194. The ten hour days are a combination of discussion about the pros and cons of living on board, narrowboat designs and the best equipment for live aboard boaters, and a six to eight hour helmsmanship training cruise along the Oxford and/or Grand Union Canals.

I run my discovery days roughly on the first ten days or so of April, June August, October and December. As winter approaches more and more site users are booking the relatively few discovery days still available. There are just six dates remaining this year. If you are interested in joining me for a fun and information packed discovery day please check the diary before it’s too late. ou may want to stay locally the night before, the night after or both, in which case I highly recommend this B & B. It’s a five minute stroll from the mooring where I begin my discovery days.

In the meantime, meet recent discovery day attendee Peter Martin who kindly produced a short video of his discovery day experience for me to use on my site. The video is below followed by his comments.

“With two and half years before I can pick up my work pension, a break up of my marriage, kids now independent and need for downsizing, now seems like the time to plan what I’ve often dreamed about over the years.

Living on the cut seems to fit in very well with my lifestyle. I like the outdoors, love boating, independence and getting back to nature.

Having not spent any length of time with live aboard boaters, the Discovery Day was was really just an opportunity to pick up the vibes that go with life on the inland waterways. I needed to do this before committing myself further in the discovery process. Easier to nip things in the bud now if it didn’t appeal before my imagination runs away with itself!

It was a very enjoyable day. I particularly enjoyed the warm welcome of coming in out of the cold to sit in the heat of a toasty, warm cabin. That sold me the lifestyle straight away. It also confirmed that I definitely need a solid fuel stove as primary heat. I know it means hard work lugging coal etc., but what better way to get some outdoor exercise.  I’m also now sold on composting toilets! I never imagined I’d spend the following  week viewing endless YouTube videos of people’s loos!

The helming and boat handling were great experience. By the end of the day I had got over the intimidation of  controlling  60 feet and 20 tons of metal.  A very worthwhile 10 hours and it has confirmed that I’ll continue along this pathway.

The hard work now begins in downsizing, straightening out the finances and then the enjoyable part of finding the right boat.”

You can find out more about my discovery days and availability here.

I Need Some Help!

Each time I write a newsletter, I tick another subject off the list of things which those new to boating have told me that they want to read about. The hardest part of the process isn’t the writing itself, it’s constantly thinking of new content for each issue. The trouble is, I don’t know what you want to read. I think I keep the newsletters reasonably interesting but I don’t know for sure. That’s where I need your help.

Can you let me know what you would like to read in the future? Are there any areas of narrowboat life you don’t think I’ve covered enough or areas which I’ve missed completely? Please let me know what you want to read about. Thanks for your help.

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2015 10 18 Newsletter – Engine Running and Electricity Generation Costs

What is it with Sundays? I suffered a little more damage to my beloved boat on my Sunday discovery day last weekend. I wasn’t steering but I was in charge so the loss was entirely my fault.

On the route to Braunston on the combined Oxford and Grand Union canals, the waterway twists and turns through bridges, around tight bends and along a mile long stretch where the offside willows hang far over the canal.

My guest for the day was taking his helmsmanship very seriously so handled my floating home with great care. At this time of the year the number of boats using the waterway reduces significantly so we had only passed one or two boats since leaving the head of the Calcutt flight.

He moved close to the low hanging willows to allow a rare oncoming boat to pass. Because I was daydreaming I didn’t notice a particularly low and heavy branch reaching menacingly for my precious stainless steel chimney.

The chimney leaped from its normally secure perch on the rooftop collar, rolled erratically across the cabin roof and then came to a sudden stop when it reached the roof’s box section rail. I breathed a sigh of relief, but too soon. The bayonet fitting holding cap to chimney came adrift and thirty pounds worth of beautifully engineered stainless steel cap tumbled over the side and into the murky depths.

Every cloud has a silver lining. I lost just the cap. I could have easily lost the lot. I’ve ordered another which should be at the beginning of next week. Fortunately there’s no rain forecast before then to cascade down my capless flue onto the stove’s glowing coals.

On Monday I donned my smart blue and far too clean overalls to look the part while I messed about in the engine room.

As you probably know, I’ve had a few problems with my engine’s raw water cooling system. My original water lock, a moulded plastic box fitted into the exhaust to prevent water expelled from the engine from running back into the engine when it stops, vibrated free from its mounting and lodged next to the gearbox coupling. The rapidly revolving coupling quickly wore a hole through the plastic allowing much of the water drawn in from the canal to cool the engine to fill my bilge rather than return, slightly warmer than when it arrived, back into the canal.

I managed to limp to Streethay Wharf where they found and fitted a second hand water lock and manufactured a steel basket to sit it in so I wouldn’t have the same problem again.

Three months later a hole blew through a weakness in the second hand water lock so I was back to square one. Streethay Wharf brought me a new Vetus water lock – £140 – to me at my temporary mooring in the middle of Rugby.

All was well for a couple of weeks until a worn impeller resulted in a very much reduced water flow through my heat exchanger and much increased pressure which blew the water lock off my exhaust again resulting in an engine bay filled with canal water.

I managed to get back from Braunston to Calcutt Boats where the impeller was replaced and normal service was resumed, or so I thought.

The exhaust is making quite a racket. Calcutt Boats owner Roger Preen suggested that the new water lock may have been fitted the wrong way around so I decided to check it out on Monday.

Once I removed the box from the bowels of the engine bay I could see markings clearly stamped in the plastic indicating the right direction. It was positioned correctly so that wasn’t the cause of the noise.

While I had the box off, I noticed something which certainly isn’t going to help supress the noise. The reduced water flow because of the damaged impeller resulted in much increased exhaust heat which partially melted the water lock where the exhaust hose is attached. The water lock is still holding water but I don’t know how much has melted inside it and what effect that might have had on the water lock’s efficiency.

I just need it to do its job for another couple of weeks. I’m hoping to have the conversion from raw water to keel cooling done before I head down to Uxbridge on 7^th November in time to meet Cynthia’s flight into Heathrow on Friday 13^th. Fortunately I’m not superstitious so I’ll be breaking mirrors with black cats on my way to meet her.

As part of the conversion I’m going to have a hospital silencer fitted to reduce the engine noise to the faintest whisper, or as faint a whisper as it’s possible to achieve with a thirty eight year old Mercedes. I’ve been told that a hospital silencer is so named because it is wrapped in a blanket just like a hospital patient. I’m not sure that I believe it, but I hope it’s true.

Unfortunately a hospital silencer isn’t much smaller than a blanket wrapped patient. The one I want to fit needs a space three feet long to fit the 12” diameter cylinder. I borrowed one from Calcutt Boats’ chandlery to see if it would fit, but after carrying the heavy silencer over the lock gates and along to my boat, I realised it was too heavy and bulky to lower into the engine bay on my own to check for the required amount of space.

As ever, I’ll leave it to the experts to work out. If that won’t fit, I’ll go for the slightly smaller and less quiet version.

One other small but important job to do while the boat is out of the water having the new skin tank fitted is to replace my rather worn rudder cup.

The heavy rudder, very heavy in my case, rests in the tight fitting cup at the end of the skeg, the horizontal steel bar running under the propeller from the base of the rudder to the boat’s base plate. Thirty eight years of a weighty rudder pivoting in this cup has produced inevitable wear and tear. So much so that there is now a quarter inch gap between post and cup. If I turn the rudder sharply I can feel the rudder move slightly and hear it scrape noisily across the cup.

The cup will need cutting off and then a new cup made and welded in place to fit the rudder post snuggly. One more item ticked off my now very short refurbishment list.

From Monday to Thursday I enjoyed my first proper rest since I began my manic must-go-everywhere-and-see-and-do-everything cruising regime in April this year.

I moored above Calcutt top lock and stayed there for four days until my next scheduled discovery day on Friday. I didn’t even run my engine for three days which gave me ample opportunity to test my recently purchased Hozelock Porta Shower. I LOVE it!

The 7l Hozelock shower is a joy to use. I was convinced that seven litres would be far too little water for an effective shower so the first time I used it I filled my kettle to the brim, boiled the contents then tipped them into the shower bottle and then boiled my kettle a second time to ensure I had plenty of hot water. I didn’t need the second kettle full.

When using the porta shower you have to adopt the “submarine” technique. You wet yourself, turn off the shower, soap yourself thoroughly and then turn on the shower again to rinse off the soap. The porta shower helps you to shower this way because the spring loaded trigger turns the water spray off as soon as you let go.

Seven litres was actually too much. The boater who told me about the Hozelock shower insisted that he only needed three litres to shower. I didn’t think an effective shower was possible using so little water but he was right. I actually used five litres but only because I didn’t want to waste any of my painstakingly boiled hot water.

I also learned not to pressurise the vessel while standing in the galley unless I want to wash my floor at the same time. There’s a leak at the trigger.

All in all, the Hozelock Porta Shower is a great find. If I manage my power very carefully during bright summer months I can stay for extended periods without having to run my engine for battery charging courtesy of my 300w solar array. Unfortunately I can’t heat water in the same way. Now I don’t need to bother. Ten minute’s gas supply to boil a full kettle does the job very nicely.

During my four day stay on the same mooring I was able to assess my power usage more accurately.

From April this year I’ve been cruising continuously. The longest I’ve stayed in one spot has been two days before cruising for two or more hours the following day. I haven’t needed to conserve my power because the engine’s been running and therefore charging my batteries while I’ve been on the move.

I have four 160ah AGM batteries in my domestic bank. I replaced my old 135ah lead acid batteries in January this year with the larger capacity AGMs because the new batteries should last three times as long as lead acid batteries but only cost twice as much, and because they are maintenance free.

Boat battery banks aren’t always fitted in the easiest of places to reach in an often cramped engine room. Unscrewing the tops and then peering in aided by a torch to check if they need topping up is often difficult to do so the likelihood is that this task will not be done regularly or even at all thereby drastically reducing the battery bank’s life. My fit and forget batteries remove yet another tedious maintenance task.

One of the most useful improvements I’ve made to my boat is to have a Smartgauge battery monitor installed. It’s been fitted in the bulkhead between my bedroom and the engine room facing into the bedroom. At the touch of a button I can see the battery bank’s capacity whenever I want. I usually check two or three times a day.

I have to admit to being a little wasteful with my on board power at the moment. I haven’t really needed to conserve it with the amount of cruising and therefore engine running and battery charging I’ve done this year. I also have a 300w solar array helping to keep my battery bank charged.

My 1600w inverter is turned usually turned on from the time I’m out of bed at 5am until I turn in at 10pm. My laptop is on all day, I watch a couple of hours each night on my 240v television and I blitz the boat for ten minutes each morning with my 1100w Draper vacuum cleaner. My 12v fridge is on all day, every day.

Each day I use roughly 10% of my battery bank’s capacity. I need to run my engine for two hours to top the bank up to 100% again. Over my four days without moving I ran the engine on one day for two hours.

Before I set off on Friday’s discovery day cruise, my battery bank capacity was down to 69%. After seven hours cruising I just reached 100% before I stopped for the day.

My engine uses 1.35 litres of diesel per hour. If I buy my fuel at Calcutt Boats where the current diesel cost is 113p for propulsion and 65p for heating and if I buy it at the default split of 60/40 (sixty per cent propulsion/forty per cent heating) a litre of diesel will cost me 93.8p or £1.27 per engine running hour. My batteries therefore cost roughly £2.50 per day to charge.

I don’t know the difference between my fuel consumption when at rest for battery charging or when I’m actually cruising, but I don’t think it’s much at all. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I have to run my engine on average for two hours each day anyway I might as well use it to cruise and enjoy the variety the inland waterways network has to offer.

I have four more discovery days to do followed by my engine cooling system conversion before I can begin cruising again in earnest. Then I’m heading south towards London on my 174 mile, 180 lock return trip to Heathrow to pick up Cynthia and her two basset hounds Tasha and Bromley. Just for once on my boating cruises my focus will be on my destination rather than my journey.

My apologies for not adding any photo’s this week. Time, or lack of it, defeated me. Here’s one which Cynthia took which I thought you might like. It was taken on 28th September on our mooring at the base of Crack’s Hill near Crick. How’s that for a view out of your kitchen window?

[ratingwidget post_id=29938]

 

Discovery Day And Narrowboat Helmsmanship Training

If you’re new to this site you might not know about the service I launched in June 2014. I host narrowboat experience days on board my own 62′ long narrowboat James No 194. The ten hour days are a combination of discussion about the pros and cons of living on board, narrowboat designs and the best equipment for live aboard boaters, and a six to eight hour helmsmanship training cruise along the Oxford and/or Grand Union Canals.

I run my discovery days roughly on the first ten days or so of April, June August, October and December. As winter approaches more and more site users are booking the relatively few discovery days still available. There are just six dates remaining this year. If you are interested in joining me for a fun and information packed discovery day please check the diary before it’s too late. ou may want to stay locally the night before, the night after or both, in which case I highly recommend this B & B. It’s a five minute stroll from the mooring where I begin my discovery days.

In the meantime, meet recent discovery day attendee Peter Martin who kindly produced a short video of his discovery day experience for me to use on my site. The video is below followed by his comments.

“With two and half years before I can pick up my work pension, a break up of my marriage, kids now independent and need for downsizing, now seems like the time to plan what I’ve often dreamed about over the years.

Living on the cut seems to fit in very well with my lifestyle. I like the outdoors, love boating, independence and getting back to nature.

Having not spent any length of time with live aboard boaters, the Discovery Day was was really just an opportunity to pick up the vibes that go with life on the inland waterways. I needed to do this before committing myself further in the discovery process. Easier to nip things in the bud now if it didn’t appeal before my imagination runs away with itself!

It was a very enjoyable day. I particularly enjoyed the warm welcome of coming in out of the cold to sit in the heat of a toasty, warm cabin. That sold me the lifestyle straight away. It also confirmed that I definitely need a solid fuel stove as primary heat. I know it means hard work lugging coal etc., but what better way to get some outdoor exercise.  I’m also now sold on composting toilets! I never imagined I’d spend the following  week viewing endless YouTube videos of people’s loos!

The helming and boat handling were great experience. By the end of the day I had got over the intimidation of  controlling  60 feet and 20 tons of metal.  A very worthwhile 10 hours and it has confirmed that I’ll continue along this pathway.

The hard work now begins in downsizing, straightening out the finances and then the enjoyable part of finding the right boat.”

You can find out more about my discovery days and availability here.

I Need Some Help!

Each time I write a newsletter, I tick another subject off the list of things which those new to boating have told me that they want to read about. The hardest part of the process isn’t the writing itself, it’s constantly thinking of new content for each issue. The trouble is, I don’t know what you want to read. I think I keep the newsletters reasonably interesting but I don’t know for sure. That’s where I need your help.

Can you let me know what you would like to read in the future? Are there any areas of narrowboat life you don’t think I’ve covered enough or areas which I’ve missed completely? Please let me know what you want to read about. Thanks for your help.

0

2015 10 11 Newsletter – Catastrophic Overheating and Bilge Flooding

Another week has flashed by. Another week of tranquil cruising combined with a day of unusual stress for me. My engine is a little smoky but generally very reliable. However, it’s nearly forty years old so needs a little TLC now and again.

Sunday started well enough. Carl, my single discovery day guest, arrived just before 8am. We chatted over a coffee, spent an hour walking through my boat discussing the pros and cons of my floating home’s design, layout and on board equipment, then started the engine and set off on our gentle cruise towards Braunston six miles away.

I have a pigeon box on the roof two feet forward of my rear hatch. It has three gauges set in it, oil pressure, and engine speed and engine temperature. These gauges are positioned perfectly. On many boats the gauges, if there are any, are often tucked away on a panel out of sight. Having the gauges on the roof in front of me means that I can constantly glance at them while I am cruising.

The oil pressure gauge has never worked but, to tell you the truth, I don’t understand what oil pressure is so it’s not much use to me. I refer to the other two gauges all of the time. I’ve used a walking app on my iPhone to work out my boat’s speed through the water at different engine speeds so I use the tachometer as a reasonably accurate speedometer. The most important gauge to me though is the engine temperature.

My engine temperature is usually spot on seventy degrees but over the last three or four weeks I’ve noticed the engine running ten or fifteen degrees warmer at 1,500rpm, my normal cruising speed.

On Sunday as we moved slowly from my mooring near Calcutt Top lock and then crept past a line of boats on long term moorings close to Napton Junction I noticed the temperature steadily rising. I also noticed that there was far less water than normal being expelled from the exhaust.

By the time we reached the junction the temperature had reached eighty degrees. A mile later it was heading north of ninety degrees. We needed to stop, let the engine cool down and allow me to use my almost non-existent mechanical knowledge to look for a solution.

Looking for a solution didn’t take me long because I didn’t really have any idea what to look for. Increased engine temperature can often be an indicator of a fouled propeller. I decided to check the prop but I didn’t really expect it to be the cause. Increased engine temperature is just one of several indicators. Vibration through the tiller, dark exhaust smoke and loss of power often accompany temperature increase. I hadn’t noticed any of these.

Lifting the rear deck hatch to access the weed hatch beneath I unscrewed the locking bar holding the hatch securely in place, removed the heavy steel hatch then lay down on the back deck so I could reach elbow deep into the murky water for the propeller. I removed a fistful of plastic, but not nearly enough to cause me any problems.

Next on my very short list was to check the mud box. My engine is raw water cooled so water is drawn into the engine from the canal. The cold canal water passes through a heat exchanger before being spat very noisily back into the canal several degrees warmer via the wet exhaust.

Before the canal water reaches the heat exchanger it passes through a mud box which allows any mud and, I dare say, bits of decaying badger and rabbit to fall away. When cruising in murky waterways the mud box can fill and impede the water flow to the heat exchanger.

I loosened the three nuts holding the mud box lid in place, tightened them up quickly as canal water jetted into the bilge, did what I should have done in the first place and closed the sea cock so my boat wouldn’t sink when I removed the mud box lid, undid the nuts again and removed the lid.

Up to my elbows in canal water again I checked for any blockages. The steel cylinder was completely free of any silt deposits so I put everything back together again and scratched my head.

Last on my list was to check the water pump belt to ensure that it hadn’t either snapped or loosened. It did appear to be slightly loose so I did what I always so in situations like this and ignored it.

Because I couldn’t think of anything else to check I turned the engine back on to see if it had fixed itself. Much to my surprise the water flow from the exhaust had increased and the temperature decreased to close to normal.

We carried on with our cruise at a leisurely pace running at a slightly higher but safe temperature until we reached our midway point and a three point turn in the entrance to Braunston marina close to the Gongoozer’s Rest café boat. They do wonderful cheese and onion toasted sandwiches if you’re passing.

Turning the boat means a bit of engine revving in both forward in reverse. It was this which appeared to stop canal water running through the heat exchanger completely.

With the engine temperature ever increasing we managed to find a free mooring opposite the Boat House pub. If you don’t fancy a cheese and onion toastie at the Gongoozler’s Rest, the Boat House has an extensive menu with a permanent two for one offer. They’ve just introduced extra large meals to ensure that you can’t fit through your boat’s narrow doorways.

We had lunch while the engine prepared itself for another six miles of slow cruising. After half and hour’s rest the raw water flowed again but, again, as we moved off the temperature steadily increased as did the breeze which made cruising slowly more of a challenge.

An hour later I was on the phone to Calcutt Boats asking if they would have an engineer handy to tighten my water pump belt. With my extensive engineering knowledge I had convinced myself that this was the problem. Ever obliging, they agreed but before I could finish the call events took a turn for the worse.

Carl had been confidently and competently bringing the boat around a tight bend when the strengthening breeze caught us. If we had been moving a little more quickly through the water we would have been fine but the wind pushed us against the concrete towpath edging and as I put the boat into reverse to stop us and prevent us from grinding against the stone, there was a loud bang followed by a from the engine beneath our feet followed shortly by billowing smoke.

Ever the action hero I quickly turned off the engine and thought seriously about climbing into my warm and comfortable bed, pulling the duvet over my head and crying my eyes out. As I had company I decided against that course of action, lifted the boards over the engine and looked for the cause of both noise and smoke and a possible solution.

Much to my surprise I found both cause and remedy almost immediately.

Both the exhaust gasses and the heated water from the heat exchanger pass through an exhaust hose via a waterlock. The plastic box stops water from flowing back into the engine and damaging it when the engine stops. My recently fitted waterlock, a replacement for its holed predecessor bought second hand from Streethay Wharf five months ago, had blown off the jubilee clip securing it to the exhaust and filled my bilge with canal water and my engine room with acrid smoke.

Fortunately I used to be a boy scout – before I was thrown out for disrupting other boy scouts – so always try to have equipment on board for all kinds of emergencies. In this case the emergency equipment was my little Draper wet and dry vacuum. Within fifteen minutes we had sucked twenty loads of water out of the bilge and reattached the misbehaving waterlock, cast off and continued our slow and painful journey towards salvation at Calcutt Boats.

At Napton Junction ten minutes cruising from the Calcutt flight I called Steven Cox in Calcutt Boats’ office to find that the engineer I was hoping to help me out was just leaving for the day. Fortunately for me my boating guardian angel, Russ Fincham, was still on duty.

Russ has helped me out more times than I care to remember. All consuming problems which have almost reduced me to a gibbering wreck have taken him no time at all to resolve. On my first trip out of the marina the boat broke down at Braunston. He came out to me during his Christmas break, correctly diagnosed a blocked fuel filter, cleaned it, bled the system and wished me bon voyage. He’s also rebuilt a rotten weed hatch, made me a mast for my old WiFi dongle, fitted my shower, television aerial, fitted my new calorifier and ensured that it was fed with gallons of hot water from a reluctant engine, fitted another calorifier when the first one sprung a leak (the manufacturers fault) and last but not least, organised a coat of primer to be added to my cabin when the boat was transported back to the marina by road after having the cabin over plated. Oh, and I nearly forgot, he also likes to show me the testicles he keeps hidden beneath loosely elasticated swimming shorts at the end of Southern Comfort fuelled late night Calcutt Boats summer barbecues. His generosity knows no bounds.

Russ was waiting for me at the water point next to Calcutt top lock carrying a roll of spanners and a look of grim determination. He listened to my half-witted diagnostic, instantly checked and dismissed the water pump belt as a possible cause, asked when I had last changed my impeller then quickly whipped it out. The impeller that is. This wasn’t barbecue night!

At the time I didn’t have a clue when the impeller was last changed but I’ve just checked. It was replaced two and a half years and 1,500 hours ago. I think I’ll keep a spare on board in future.

Here’s my impeller. See the broken fin next to my thumb? That’s all the damage needed to stop the impeller from working. I fetched a new impeller from Calcutt’s well stocked chandlery, Russ swapped it over and five minutes later the usual volume of water was spurting noisily from my exhaust and the engine temperature dropped almost immediately to its normal seventy degrees, so the rest of Carl’s discovery day continued a little later than planned but without an overheating engine.

After Sunday’s challenge I’m now committed to at least resolving the issues with my raw water cooling and eliminating the infernal racket from the wet exhaust.

Calcutt Boats’owner Roger Preen suggested that the exhaust noise might be due to the recently changed waterlock being fitted the wrong way round. He told me that if I equip myself with a magnifying glass and a powerful torch, I should be able to find arrows etched into the waterlock’s plastic indicating the correct positioning. I have a few days free at the beginning of next week so I’ll check it carefully then reposition it if necessary.

Even if I manage to reduce the exhaust noise, the raw water cooling system has to go. The waterlock has now failed twice and blown off the exhaust once, each time filling the bilge with a disturbingly large volume of water which I’ve been fortunate enough to spot before the rising level found its way into the cabin.

Apart from these three failures I’m constantly worried about blockages. Water is drawn into the boat via a fine meshed grill on the swim. There’s a chance of this mesh blocking and impeding or stopping water reaching the heat exchanger. Once through the grill the sometimes silt laden canal water passes through a mud box where the water flow can be further impeded if the box fills with silt. The mud box is difficult to access and a pain to empty unless you’re as slim and lithe as an eel.

The solution is to switch to keel cooling which will simplify and possibly improve engine cooling and remove the exhaust noise, especially if I have a hospital silencer fitted. To convert to keel cooling I need have a slim water tank, a skin tank, fitted on my swim, the tapering section of the hull on the stern close to the propeller.

I understand the conversion itself is pretty straightforward. The skin tank’s manufacture and fitting, taking the boat out of the water for it to be fitted and the other necessary modifications will cost me just over £1,000 but worth every penny if it reduces both noise and worry, and the frequent offers of a tea bag from passing boaters when they hear my exhaust hissing like a boiling kettle.

The rest of the week was problem free. The days are cooler now but still very pleasant despite an occasional drenching from heavy showers. The usual autumn winds have yet to put in an appearance and plague the owners of flat bottomed narrowboats but I’m sure they’ll be along shortly.

On Friday I spent half an hour chatting to the owner of the boat which has been moored in front of me for the last week. The retired Grand Union Leicester Line lock keeper was talking about his solar panels and how they allow him to moor for a week at a time without having to run his engine for battery charging. “But what do you do about hot water?” I asked. There are several options available to off grid boaters including gas powered water heaters and diesel heating systems plumbed in to the boat’s calorifier, but this guy had a simple, low cost and very effective solution.

His face lit up as he dashed into his boat and returned minutes later with one of his favourite boating toys. Here it is…

It’s a Hozelock 4 in 1 Porta Shower. The bottle holds five litres. He assured me that five litres is more than enough for a shower. In fact he claimed that two to three litres does the job.

A large kettle sits permanently on top of his solid fuel stove so he half fills the bottle with near boiling water, adds the required amount of cold water, pumps the handle twenty times to pressurise the vessel – taking care to pump the handle outside his shower cubicle’s frosted glass in case his wife jumps to the wrong conclusion – and then steps into his shower cubicle to clean his dirty body.

The hand held spray head allows you to reach parts not normally accessible to wall mounted showers, saves valuable water when you want to stay of extended periods on idyllic moorings, and saves considerable diesel expense and engine wear and tear.

I ordered one from Amazon immediately. Unfortunately I can’t keep a kettle of hot water on my stove because of its rubbish design but putting the kettle on my gas hob for five minutes will be much quicker and cheaper than running my engine for an hour.

The Porta Shower arrived yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet but I’ll tell you how I fared in next week’s newsletter.

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Cruising Guides

Did you know that the forum has a Cruising guide section? There’s an ever growing volume of very useful information here. Information which you won’t find in the popular Pearson and Nicholson guides. Recent additions are parts one and two of Peter Early’s guide to the Great Ouse and some essential advice from Richardhula if you’re considering taking a longer boat on the short locked Calder & Hebble navigation.

Discovery Day And Narrowboat Helmsmanship Training

If you’re new to this site you might not know about the service I launched in June 2014. I host narrowboat experience days on board my own 62? long narrowboat James No 194. The ten hour days are a combination of discussion about the pros and cons of living on board, narrowboat designs and the best equipment for live aboard boaters, and a six to eight hour helmsmanship training cruise along the Oxford and/or Grand Union Canals.

I’m running the discovery days approximately on the first ten days of August, October and December this year. As summer approaches more and more site users are booking the relatively few discovery days still available. August onwards is still relatively free. If you are interested in joining me for a fun and information packed discovery day please check the diary before it’s too late.

Update 11th October 2015

My Next batch of discovery days are at the beginning of December. The experience days offer you a unique opportunity to experience life on the cut at a cooler but far more peaceful time of the year than in the summer. You may want to stay locally the night before, the night after or both, in which case I highly recommend this B & B. It’s a five minute stroll from the mooring where I begin my discovery days.  If you want to  see the available dates for October onward click here.

In the meantime, meet recent discovery day attendee Ken Sharratt.

“I’ve thought about living on a narrowboat on and off for the last twenty years but through commitments, events and various other things I have never done anything about it until now. Over the last seven or eight months I have started  researching the subject and it has gradually gained momentum, from reading magazines and e-books, the internet and looking round boats to figure out what I wanted.

The first e-book I came across was written by Paul, called “Living on a Narrowboat” (part of the Narrowbudget Gold package of three guides and a bespoke narrowboat budget calculator). I found this invaluable in giving me a realistic view of the life I am aiming for and has definitely added to my growing knowledge. To my surprise I started receiving a newsletter in my inbox which covers all things related to narrowboats from life to composting toilets which I was quite impressed with. I noticed the information about the Discovery day after reading one of these.

I thought, if I’m going to change the direction of my life and spend quite a bit of money doing it, the discovery day sounded like a good way of starting to find out if my expectations matched the reality of everything involved with it.

I wasn’t disappointed. Paul is very easy to get along with. He made us welcome from the start and provided a steady supply of tea throughout the day. It was a very enjoyable and productive day for me. He made me re-evaluate a few things and was remarkably relaxed about sailing off downstream  with his home in Fairly inexperienced hands. He was there at hand though to provide advice, instruction and direction and the odd hands on correction when absolutely necessary.

I would recommend that anyone considering taking to the water should read the book and go on one of these discovery days. They will definitely shorten the time spent on their learner curve and possibly avert a costly or disastrous decision from being made.

I am currently in the process of getting my house ready for sale. The builder should be here in a few weeks, then the decorator and after that the estate agent, so hopefully it’s going to be early next year when it’s sold and I can buy the boat that’s waiting for me out there with my name it.”

You can find out more about my discovery days and availability here.

I Need Some Help!

Each time I write a newsletter, I tick another subject off the list of things which those new to boating have told me that they want to read about. The hardest part of the process isn’t the writing itself, it’s constantly thinking of new content for each issue. The trouble is, I don’t know what you want to read. I think I keep the newsletters reasonably interesting but I don’t know for sure. That’s where I need your help.

Can you let me know what you would like to read in the future? Are there any areas of narrowboat life you don’t think I’ve covered enough or areas which I’ve missed completely? Please let me know what you want to read about. Thanks for your help.

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2015 10 05 Newsletter – A LONG Overdue Central Heating System Installation

Last Sunday after lunch we cast off to do battle with the Sunday crowds at the ever popular destination for leather clad bikers, walkers and families visiting the locks to watch the steady stream of boats ascending or descending the ten lock flight.

Dainty Cynthia strained against Foxton’s swinging two lane highway, then the much lighter swing foot bridge at Foxton Junction. Cynthia held on to the boat on the water point opposite the flight while I struggled through hordes of visitors to find a lock keeper and book myself in to the queue.

Finding the right lock keeper wasn’t easy. The previous day one of the keepers enjoyed an unexpected dip in the pound between the two five lock flights. His radio, one of the two used by keepers on the flight, objected to his dip so, with just one working radio between them, communication from one end of the flight to the other was impossible.

A keeper on the third lock up from the bottom told me that his colleague who was in charge of scheduling was at the top of the flight. I climbed the hill through people and pushchairs to find the wrong keeper. The one I wanted was, of course, at the bottom of the flight.

We were in luck. The last descending boat was nearly through the flight so within ten minutes it passed me heading for Market Harborough while the single boat in front of me started up the flight.

The Foxton flight is a bit of a pig if you need to wait before going up. There’s often a trip boat moored just beneath the flight but, if you’re lucky, you can just squeeze between that and the bottom lock next to Bridge 61, one of the two pubs at the bottom of the flight.

A group of burly bikers stood drinking close to where I waited for the lock to empty. A bearded giant shouted across to me, “Oi, do you think you’ll be here long?” You will? Put the kettle on then!” There’s always a comedian at canal side pubs happy to share his wit with passing boaters.

The flight, especially the bottom five locks, was heaving with people. Twenty or thirty gongoozlers lined each of the lock walls oblivious to the dangers of balance beams from opening lock gates or the often slippery lock sides. I watched in horror as the mother of a toddler tipped his pushchair up on to two wheels so that he could hang by two small restraining straps over the side and look down on to my boat in the empty lock six feet below.

I lifted several children onto my roof so parents could take photo’s then thanked the parents and a steady stream of children who opened and closed the lock gates for me as we swiftly made our way up the flight.

As usual in the UK, once you travel more than a hundred metres from the nearest car park, the crowds disappear. It’s a phenomenon which has always amazed me. I’ve hiked on some of the country’s most beautiful places with hundreds of miles of peaceful paths but I regularly see hordes of tourists enjoying car park picnics complete with the sound of revving engines and the smell of diesel fumes. Within minutes of exiting the top lock we had the countryside to ourselves again. Yippee!

We cruised for an hour and a half past the Laughton Hills, Kicklewell Spinney and through Husbands Bosworth tunnel before stopping briefly at North KIlworth Wharf to by coal, kindling and a Waterways World.

We moored close to Downton Hill waking to a still, cool and mist shrouded day on Tuesday. My first job, as usual at this time of the year, was to light the fire. The routine is usually the same; I empty the ash pan, clean the cold stove glass, place a couple of fire lighters on the empty grate, light them and then add a dozen bone dry pieces of kindling and then another dozen coal briquettes. I leave the bottom plate off to allow maximum draught and wait for the firelighters to light the kindling and the kindling to light the coal. The routine doesn’t normally include fighting my way through smoke so thick I could cut it with a knife.

I don’t have an airtight seal between my stove door and the stove. It’s not normally a problem at all. There’s usually enough of a draught to suck any smoke up the flue. The morning was utterly still and the mist hung heavily over the boat so the fire wouldn’t draw at all. Fortunately I have a ceiling mounted 12v fan which I turned on its highest setting after I had opened the front doors wide and rolled up the cratch cover.

It’s at times like this that I wish I had a secondary heating system to fall back on. Fortunately for me, I soon will. I was booked in for half a day on Thursday for the first part of my Webasto diesel central heating system installation.

Once mist began to clear outside, and the even thicker smoke had cleared inside, we headed south along the second half of the Leicester Line’s twenty mile summit pound towards our destination for the day on the last available mooring at the base of Crack’s Hill.

What a gorgeous day. A warm sun shone from a cloudless blue sky. A gentle breeze kept Crick’s half a dozen wind turbine’s turning and provided enough of a draught over my chimney to set the fire blazing and melt the inside of the boat.

We sat on Crack’s Hill’s summit for an hour away from the cabin’s inferno, braved the boat’s heat for a quick lunch then sat on a hillside bench in recently planted Crick Millennium Pocket Park for the rest of the afternoon reading and drinking in the view, trying not to focus on the intrusive 77m high wind turbines which have recently appeared in this area.

I’m normally pretty good when estimating the time needed for a day’s cruise but I made a right royal cock up of Tuesday. I estimated the time we would need to reach Hillmorton locks but then forgot to add the additional time to reach the closest point to Rugby station on the visitor moorings to the north of the town.

After a clear passage through Crick tunnel we reached the head of the manned Watford flight and a little canal-side excitement. Two tree surgeons agile as monkeys climbed confidently through the lofty canopy of an old beech seventy feet above the towpath. Foot thick limbs crashed or were lowered to the ground and then logged and left next to the canal for passing wood burning boaters to use. The owner of the boat ahead of us filled all his available roof space with logs too thick to fit in his stove. I suspected he wouldn’t wait until the logs seasoned before burning them after noticing dark brown tar stains running from his chimney down his cabin side.

With Cynthia now in a familiar lock routine we flew down the seven lock Watford flight then the six lock Braunston flight an hour later before mooring next to a floating greenhouse on the north Oxford half a mile out of Braunston.

At 4pm after a late lunch we continued our journey towards Rugby, leaving the last of the three lock Hillmorton flight as the light dimmed and the day chilled.

As we moved away from the flight we were joined by two middle aged men paddling kayaks. One of them moved close to my stern to “freeboard”, to position himself so that my boat would pull him along without needing to paddle.

He managed as much as half a mile at a time before losing concentration, ploughing in to the offside vegetation and then paddling furiously to move back into position close to me. Twice he miscalculated, moved to close and was sucked against my hull, unable to move away until I slowed down. He was quite content to stay glued to me on the first occasion for half a mile but not so happy the second time when he couldn’t escape as I manoeuvred for a narrow bridge hole. He didn’t feel comfortable being sandwiched between twenty tonnes of steel and an immovable brick bridge arch.

We reached Rubgy’s visitor moorings in the dark. I turned my headlight on for the journey’s last half mile but my tunnel light doesn’t illuminate much out in the open.

After quickly mooring and securing the boat we walked a mile and a half to a well deserved meal at the Romna Indian restaurant in Albert Street close to Rugby’s town centre. If you enjoy a good curry and friendly and attentive service you’ll love this place. After stuffing ourselves senseless we waddled back to the boat for a sound night’s sleep.

At 6.38am on Wednesday I bid Cynthia a temporary farewell on Rugby station’s platform one. She’ll be back in six weeks courtesy of Virgin Airways carrying all she needs for a life on the waterways including her two beloved basset hounds. I’ll pick her up close to the airport. Unfortunately I’ll be picking her up in the boat so the “airport run” will be a round trip of three weeks!

Back on my own again with too much space to rattle around in I moved two hours closer to Braunston and my appointment with Justin Greene the following day.

A month ago I scheduled the date so that Justin could investigate my engine’s overheating problem and the reason for the engine smoking so much. However, after a little research I’ve changed my mind.

Lucy Illiffe, daughter of my boat’s original owner, visited me on my mooring at Calcutt Boats two years ago. She presented me with the boat’s operations manual which her father wrote some time during his twenty year ownership.

Last week I was reading through the engine maintenance part of the manual. He wrote that the only regular engine maintenance needed was the topping up of engine oil every few days and that not more than a litre should be added at any one time. Clearly the engine has always been smoky if such regular top ups where needed.

In addition to excessive diesel fumes the noise from my wet exhaust is driving me mad. Everyone comments on it. The helmsman or woman on every boat I pass turns round to find out what the racket is. The exhaust makes more noise than the engine and the engine envelops me in a cloud of nauseating fumes if there is a following wind.

I could sort out the wet exhaust problem easy enough by having the wet exhaust system removed and have a one or two keel tanks fitted, but that wouldn’t solve the problem I have with unhealthy fumes tainting the fresh air around me as I cruise. The most effective but expensive solution is to replace the engine.

After much research I have come to the conclusion that Beta Marine offer some of the quietest and most reliable engines on the market for inland waterways craft. The model I am considering is a Beta 43 priced at a little under £7,000, plus a further estimated £2,000 for engine fitting and cooling system conversion.

I’m going to have to wait until early next year before I can afford it, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to go ahead with the change. Much as I enjoy a little attention as I cruise the network at the moment it’s for all the wrong reasons.

So, rather than have Justin fiddle around with an engine I won’t have for much longer, I asked him to install the Webasto Thermotop C I purchased eighteen months ago. I was only booked in with him for the morning but in three hours he managed to install the burner in my engine room, drill through the hull for its exhaust and connect the fuel line to my diesel tank.

All I need to do now is buy four radiators from Screwfix before the scheduled fitting date towards the end of November. Justin will remove an expensive to run electric radiator from my bedroom, remove the three existing radiators running from my stove’s back boiler and replace them with the four new and larger capacity radiators.

While Justin toiled I did very little. I wandered along the canal back towards Braunston Junction then strolled up into Braunston village before walking back down to the bridge beneath Braunston bottom lock where I chatted to one of the two lock keepers on duty for half an hour before returning to the boat and a two hour cruise back to the water point above Calcutt top lock.

With very few boats about I washed the boat down for the first time in a month after I filled my tank, then moved on to the towpath to moor for the night and wait for Friday’s two guests.

Sadly, only one arrived. The other suffered an acute and debilitating side effect of curry eating in a motorway service station during his drive to me so had to postpone his day. What a shame as both Friday and Saturday were perfect autumn days; warm sun, a gentle breeze and a flurry of end of season boaters to keep novice helmsmen on their toes.

I planned to send out this newsletter after my discovery day on Sunday but it was a traumatic day with a late finish. I’ll tell you about it next week. My apologies for not adding photo’s this week but I just haven’t had time.

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Discovery Day And Narrowboat Helmsmanship Training

If you’re new to this site you might not know about the service I launched in June 2014. I host narrowboat experience days on board my own 62? long narrowboat James No 194. The ten hour days are a combination of discussion about the pros and cons of living on board, narrowboat designs and the best equipment for live aboard boaters, and a six to eight hour helmsmanship training cruise along the Oxford and/or Grand Union Canals.

I’m running the discovery days approximately on the first ten days of August, October and December this year. As summer approaches more and more site users are booking the relatively few discovery days still available. August onwards is still relatively free. If you are interested in joining me for a fun and information packed discovery day please check the diary before it’s too late.

Update 27th September 2015

There are still three dates available for October so you can join my on the cut for an idyllic autumn cruise. You may want to stay locally the night before, the night after or both, in which case I highly recommend this B & B. It’s a five minute stroll from the mooring where I begin my discovery days.  If you want to  see the available dates for October onward click here.

In the meantime, meet recent discovery day attendee Ken Sharratt.

“I’ve thought about living on a narrowboat on and off for the last twenty years but through commitments, events and various other things I have never done anything about it until now. Over the last seven or eight months I have started  researching the subject and it has gradually gained momentum, from reading magazines and e-books, the internet and looking round boats to figure out what I wanted.

The first e-book I came across was written by Paul, called “Living on a Narrowboat” (part of the Narrowbudget Gold package of three guides and a bespoke narrowboat budget calculator). I found this invaluable in giving me a realistic view of the life I am aiming for and has definitely added to my growing knowledge. To my surprise I started receiving a newsletter in my inbox which covers all things related to narrowboats from life to composting toilets which I was quite impressed with. I noticed the information about the Discovery day after reading one of these.

I thought, if I’m going to change the direction of my life and spend quite a bit of money doing it, the discovery day sounded like a good way of starting to find out if my expectations matched the reality of everything involved with it.

I wasn’t disappointed. Paul is very easy to get along with. He made us welcome from the start and provided a steady supply of tea throughout the day. It was a very enjoyable and productive day for me. He made me re-evaluate a few things and was remarkably relaxed about sailing off downstream  with his home in Fairly inexperienced hands. He was there at hand though to provide advice, instruction and direction and the odd hands on correction when absolutely necessary.

I would recommend that anyone considering taking to the water should read the book and go on one of these discovery days. They will definitely shorten the time spent on their learner curve and possibly avert a costly or disastrous decision from being made.

I am currently in the process of getting my house ready for sale. The builder should be here in a few weeks, then the decorator and after that the estate agent, so hopefully it’s going to be early next year when it’s sold and I can buy the boat that’s waiting for me out there with my name it.”

You can find out more about my discovery days and availability here.

I Need Some Help!

Each time I write a newsletter, I tick another subject off the list of things which those new to boating have told me that they want to read about. The hardest part of the process isn’t the writing itself, it’s constantly thinking of new content for each issue. The trouble is, I don’t know what you want to read. I think I keep the newsletters reasonably interesting but I don’t know for sure. That’s where I need your help.

Can you let me know what you would like to read in the future? Are there any areas of narrowboat life you don’t think I’ve covered enough or areas which I’ve missed completely? Please let me know what you want to read about. Thanks for your help.