Wanted:Bluewater high powered Narrowboat

[GILow]

Originally Posted by weavis

Solid fuels. Wood, charcoal and coal Stove with or without back boiler..... or diesel-fired, drip stove or separate heating boiler. Eberspacher being the most popular.

That solid fuel makes sense. I saw lots of boats with a good stack of firewood on the roof.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Pete7

One of those boats with a large 2 cylinder diesel engine went passed us going chug, chug about once a second. What a lovely sound ticking over at about 400 revs.

It is part of our heritage and history the sound of one or two cylinder diesels...

Lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5deIvEbA4A

[weavis]

Originally Posted by GILow

That solid fuel makes sense. I saw lots of boats with a good stack of firewood on the roof.

during summer, many people pick up wood that has been cut and left on the side of the canals... Its dry. Throw in front of boat, cover and wait till winter..

[weavis]

I have not lost my love for sailing. I just cant justify the cost any more. I think I spent about £20K in the last 7 months and only went out for maybe 34 hours in total.

By "out" I mean also on the boat fixing stuff...

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by weavis

I have not lost my love for sailing. I just cant justify the cost any more. I think I spent about £20K in the last 7 months and only went out for maybe 34 hours in total.

EEK, in three years that would pay for a super canal boat.

Are you doing B&B too? you will need volunteers to practice on, hint

[weavis]

No B&B

but if you miss opening locks.............

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

What is interesting to me is the heating systems I keep seeing, for instance there are I believe four radiators in the picture with the folding tables, exactly like our house in Germany had, except we usually had one for each room.
There the system was fired with gas, but there was an electric water pump to pump the water around and each radiator had a simple thermostat. Similar to the old US steam radiators, just hot water and not steam.
Thinking you will need a significant amount of propane, not little 10lb bottles, and significant source of electrical power to run that water pump?

Nothing is simpler than a drip Diesel heater, but the ones I’m familiar with are only stoves, no way of distributing heat like the radiators.

Well, that's called hydronic heat, and more than half the world is heated that way.



See: https://www.hydronicheating.net/


The Eberspacher, Webasto, Planar and other hydronic systems are made exactly for that application, and you can heat a boat, a caravan, or anything really with them. The circulation pump is built in. Just add radiators and/or fan coils. They burn diesel, not gas, and electrical power for the pump is pretty minimal.


If it were my canal boat, I might be tempted to put in a separate tank and buy light heating oil, which is like kerosene/paraffin, and much healthier for the furnace than red diesel. Cheaper too as it's tax-free. But in any case, for sure, I would be heating with liquid hydrocarbons of one sort or the other, and not gas.


I have fan coils on my boat but only because there is no space for radiators. On a canal boat, radiators are a no-brainer.

I guess 90% of UK canal boats are heated with Eberspacher (or increasingly, Planar) hydronic units and radiators.


The solid fuel heater is usually for atmosphere and/or supplementary heat, and that's how I would use it.


If you insulate the thing well, shouldn't be hard to keep it cosy. Southern England it never gets really cold anyway; it's much warmer than Germany.




As to living aboard however on a permanent basis -- that would be a bit tight for me -- too much like living in a caravan. YMMV.

[a64pilot]

What do these draw? I assume quite shallow draft, maybe only a couple of feet?
Average depth of a canal? I know that varies of course but at what depth are they considered navigable. By an average Canal boat?

[a64pilot]

John Deere many years ago built a series of 2 cyl tractors, they were horizontal cylinders and were often huge, pistons the size of coffee cans, first time I saw a cylinder block I thought it was a water pump or something.
They were known as “popping john’s” or “Johnny poppers” you really knew they were beginning to work when that popping sound got rather strong, the engine would hit with a lot of power then stop and hit again with the next cylinder.
This was discovered to really increase the pulling power over a modern engine that was smooth, theory being that the tires would set between each pulse, an old Popping John with the same weight and tires would easily out pull a modern turbo diesel tractor.

Forward time decades later, the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers discovered that engines that produce strong power pulses made a faster racing bike over a screamer engine that made power like a turbine.
One of the reason why Ducati’s do so well.
https://www.motorcyclesports.net/fea...uestion-honda/

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

What do these draw? I assume quite shallow draft, maybe only a couple of feet?
Average depth of a canal? I know that varies of course but at what depth are they considered navigable. By an average Canal boat?

Couple of feet tops, just enough to submerge the prop which was surprisingly big, perhaps 18" on a 35ft boat. Boat weighed in at 15 tonnes btw.

Depths of the canals and navigable rivers varies enormously. Leeds and Liverpool canal for wide beamed boats was deep enough I couldn't touch the bottom when swimming in it in my youth.

Llangollen canal, I could stand up in it as a 10 year old. It is so shallow and narrow that the boat sucks water from the bank going along and actually slows down going through bridges as the boat needs to push the water forwards not out to the side, taking much more force.

[a64pilot]

I would expect as big a prop as can be fitted, rather large heavy boats and slow speed mean almost tug like props, I’d assume deep pitch and low RPM too.
Lots of walk?

[weavis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0okgDe4gWEQ

[a64pilot]

Weed box was interesting, I assume it’s an easy way to access the prop for cleaning weed off?
Looked like a water chest at first.

[CruiserDerrick]

Hi.....if you are going to single hand.....and have a narrow boat over 50 ft and you are looking...try to find one WITH a Bow thruster......some of the turns are right angle and more and its difficult to do without a "hand" on the bow.

most mooring do NOT have power available....so you rely on your engine to charge batteries.....so look for solar panelled boats that will help with your battery limitations.

most narrow boats have a solid fuel stove...which you will want to use on those wonderful dreary English summer nights...lol...…

the pubs are great...but it plays hell with your cruising budget.....they are not cheap...…

big question is cassette toilet, which you can empty at the frequent L-San stations or holding tank....which you have to pay for pumpouts usually at marinas.....holding tank is cleaner and better, but cassette is more available.

Summer cruising....from May to October is sometimes difficult to find moorings at the " best " spots...so be prepared to do some hiking to that pub or to that Tesco store....so bring a good backpack or trundle cart for shopping.

good luck

[GILow]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Weed box was interesting, I assume it’s an easy way to access the prop for cleaning weed off?
Looked like a water chest at first.

Yes, see my post about long, strong gloves. We never had to remove any weeds from the prop but we did have to remove a LOT of shopping bags, random plastic, old rope and, in two instances, a dead duck. 🤮