Oi, mine's not got a bow thruster or fake rivets. But yeah, it did have at least 20-30k shaved off the price I just found a very similar boat by the same builder as mine, but 3 years older on sale for a whopping 78k, which really makes me wonder how much mine cost to have built
Not at all, jap engines are fine in the right boat, like the shire in the boat Fractionmans bought. Put a close coupled rice grinder in a trad with a stop bar on the roof and it's just silly, add some fake rivets to that (invariably in the wrong place) a fleet number in a painted panel and you just look like a wanker who picked options off a list with no idea what they are.
Two engines doing the work of one - two propellers rotating different directions makes the boat go more straight than one rotating either anti or clockwise.
Close coupled means the engine is at the very back at the boat. On a working boat the engine was forward of the back cabin in an engine room. The break bar on the cabin roof is put on so the boat resembles a working boat with an extension cabin.
bow thruster is a god send when lone cruising on a windy winters day. You do get shit loads of people saying "that's cheating" but if there isn't a shire horse pulling theirs then they can fuck right off. Also thnk Yanmar engines are pretty good too.
I'm still puzzled by your reference to 'rice grinders', as if all Jap boat engines are the same. Were you just spouting bullshit or is there some actual practical reason in your opinion why a Japanese engine is often used in unsuitable applications by canal boat owners/builders?
No, there's no practical reason in fact for most modern shells drawing 18" or so they're better, you can't get a blade big enough under the counter to run a proper engine unless you twat about with a 1:1 box. But then that's what I'm saying, these nobs in their boats with rivets, fleet numbers and the rest of it that's wrong look stupid enough and sound it as well. I'm not saying that boats that don't look like and sound like a working boat are wrong, quite the opposite. Just that the ones that try to and fail by either having proportions all wrong etc built by the likes of Orion or Tim Tyler are almost always owned by stuck up nob heads who know nothing. That said our current boat although it has a close coupled Lister it still has the pigeon box 11'6" from the cabin end, and a cabin chimney on the port side with no port hole
I do know where freddyB is coming from. If you want a really traditional boat then get one. Most modern reproductions are by all reports crap. With fake rivets and suposedly "josher" style bows that are nothing of the sort. People like to roleplay I guess. It's like someone having a model t ford build by rover with a rounded roof and putting a mitsuishi engine in it. I have to say though, I'm only going on what I've been told here, by people with much the same attitude as freddy. I like my boat and I'm glad it's got a shire, but if I was going to pretend I was on the canals 50 years ago I'd just get a 50 year old boat with a 50 year old engine and be done with it. Mine's got reasonable lines but it makes no pretense of being an antique. Until today I thought her reasonably unique, until I moored three boats down from someone with exactly the same shell. doh.
Just procastinating, finishing last of the red lead today as part of total repaint. All work up til I finsh that has felt more like vandalism Still be good when its finished. (the key word being when). First time I've wished I had a smaller boat
All good ideas ^^ How long do you think it's going to take? I've seen people spend months painting their boat. Got any pics?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's nothing wrong with giving a boat a blokes name I'm really enjoying the blog by the way - keep it up!
fitting it in around work, weddings. Trips to see girlfriend etc. Aiming to be finished before end of Oct otherwise I get stuck on the Wey by stoppages and probably a red boarded Thames. Not good, Wey has dirt towpaths (which turn to mud) and a no night navigation rule. Like London in winter - tarmac towpaths and I love moving round the city at night -feels really furtive been really crap at taking pictures of the boat, mates have got loads and reckon the police have some good ones from the 3 hour helicopter chase a few years back that I'd love to get hold of.
