Mowjo

Asda do that Sharpener for £8, it's called the Any Sharp and they are brilliant, bought back my 30 year old knives to razor sharp,

I'll let her know Bill as it's not for me,,

Thank Quo!

Not actually for me but someone asked me as I'm fitting Propex heating on my boat, I was going to fit a Propex 7 day timer, but the price scared me for such a simple thing £60+, a friend has Eber diesel heating and asked about timers, when I mentiong the price £100 + they said go away or something like that, I read somewhere you can fit any 12v 7 day timer, I've seen them from £20/40 has anyone here used or fitted one??

Have to agree about their paint Peter, used it a few times now topside and hull I can't fault it! Never tried their Varnish on Externals but love it in the cockpit and cabin and had no problems with it! what I like with Withams is if you have a paint sample they will colour match it, Jude insisted the go faster stripes matched the blue decks on the Hampton 25, went to Withams and they made up topcoat and deck paint to match, and as you say a lot cheaper than other Marine paints,,

I'm still in the don't know camp with anti foul! I use my boat most of the year so it dosn't sit around to get a build up apart from a couple of months in the winter, this time I'm going to leave mine four years and see what it looks like, and yes Withams all the way for me even the Varnish, I was going to ask Peter why he didn't like it but Poppy sort of answered, I actually don't like varnish too glossy so Withams works well for me, it's sort of between gloss and satin, I just varnished a couple of small panels using Wilko's gloss yacht varnish, and it's great stuff, did five coats and it's like a mirror,

Nice work keep it up! but I'm going one better than ChrisB on the portable hob from experiance, I used to have a little weekender that had no cooking facility's so bought one of those! and always took the canister out as soon as I finished using it, on one occasion I set it up ready but got distracted and was talking to someone on the bank, when Jude said to me I can smell gas! on checking the cabin was full of gas, after letting it clear for a couple of hours with everything open I checked and although the canister looked like it was seated properly it wasn't and emptied a full canister into the boat, on another occasion I forgot to take the canister out and the same thing happened, both cookers were brand new, result I won't let one anywhere near my boat now, there are many danger warnings about them, BA, BSC and on most forums, these are not meant for boat use, and if the canisters are not propery stored in the gas locker it will fail the BSC, I'm not nit picking it's your life! but be VERY VERY carfull with these cookers,,, BSC dangers

Andy I know H&S play a major part now plus the cost of insurance, but going back wasn't part of the reason petrol went, was part that all the hire yards were diesel, because they were easier to maintain, more reliable and much cheaper on fuel when we had the Red, now most of the boats on the Broads are ex hire boats and diesel because over the years the yards have sold them off, the only petrol ones seems to be those that havn't been on a hire fleet, as for your first part I totally agree and would never advise a first time buyer to buy petrol, I change my two bilge blowers every two years and have very strict maintenance and never start the engines until the blowers have been going a few minutes,

Peter I know diesel is actually banned in many American Marinas, from what bits I can find it seems to be because it's more polluting as diesel floats, gradually clumps then sinks to the bottom affecting marine life, where as Petrol floats but evaporates, as I said I love my petrol engines but the first thing I do when I buy one is fit two bilge blowers and make sure i turn the on a few minutes befor starting up,,

Marshman! I've often wondered how he seems to get away with all his tricks, anyone else would get jumped on! hate to say it but I sometimes wonder who's palms he's crossing,, I think you may be onto something about profit! any other place would be trying their hardest to to get more stars and better ratings if they were in it for the long haul,,

Poppy! one of those articals is from 2008 and the other from 2013, I'm not defending Edward William I just get fed up that every time they are mentioned people start knocking them, in the end it's up to the person who they insure with, there are hundreds on the Broads that use them and there's not an insurance company out there that won't try getting out of a pay out, just read the small print on any of them, I recommend them them because I've been with them years and it's all been good for me, I first contacted the BA after Kfurbank mentioned them a couple of years back, and as I said three times they have confirmed they are fine to use, somewhere I even have an E/mail confirming it, now even my friend who works for one of the leading UK marine insurers has just confirmed they are Ok to use,

Marshman! in my case it has nothing to do with being cheaper, I have had quotes of the same price from other insurers, I use them because I know and trust them and have been with them since 1983, claimed twice and had near instant payouts, unfortunalty Kfurbank seems to have some sort of grudge against Edward William as everytime they are mentioned he go's into overdrive about them, as I said three times I've asked the BA if they were Ok to use, three different people there have told me YES! they are fine to use, I actually mailed a friend who works for a well know marine insurers to ask about Edward William and below is his reply, Hi Frank Thank you for your email ************* has passed your email to me to reply. Firstly let me assure you that your insurance is fully valid in the UK. You may hear the argument that because you are placed with an offshore company that you would not be protected by the Financial Conduct Authorities (financial services compensation scheme). This is true but then despite what you may be told you would not have that protection with a UK insurer either because it does not apply to marine insurance policies. As a consumer with regard to certain insurances including Marine, you are allowed to place your cover with whom so ever you choose be it a UK or an overseas company.

As I've said many times before Kfurbank! it's now three times I spoken to the BA about insurance with Edward William, and every time they have told me it's fine, surely if they breached any bye law BA would not accept my insurance as valid especially as we could be talking life or death situations, I've had claims with them and they have paid out in record time,

It's easy Tony! I keep my 130ltr petrol tank topped up using a Jerry can, I never let it go below 3/4 unless we are out for a few weeks, a full tank last me over three weeks, I actually don't find it a problem popping the the garage to fill the can, I tend to let it go below half towards the end of the season so I can top up with fresh fuel at the start of the season, I really can't see why people are scared of petrol engines, after all most of us drove petrol cars for years, the main difference is maintenance you have to look after petrol engines more carefully, but I don't think thats a bad thing, I know quite a few diesel owners that don't touch their engines untill they go wrong, if pertol was available on the Broads I think we would see a lot more petrol boats, but H&S and insurance cost killed that off,,

This might help! Firefox upped security some time back and some sites won't load, but another thought! have you updated Flash player, I had problems with crashing, hanging pages, and some sites not loading, I was told to go to Tools, Add ons click plug ins, go into Shockwave flash options, and make sure the little box that says Enable Adobe Flash protected mode is un-ticked I did that and havn't had a problem since, the bit below in the link tells you about the security issues with flash player,,, as for it working Ok on your phone! if I'm right Android and IoS don't use flash player so thats why it works on your phone,, https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/07/20/reducing-adobe-flash-usage-in-firefox/

While I think of it! can I get a discount for being a green boater, mine is one of those nice petrol engines, not one of those smelly, dangerous diesel things????

I think part of the problem is hirers expect boats to be home from home! my first and only hire boat back in the early 80's had one catalic heater, a two ring gas cooker, 1x 12v shaving socket, todays boats are power hungry, microwaves, inverters, some electric cookers, TV, CD player in every room, sat TV, plus anything else that can be plugged in, and banks of battery's that can run a small town, so it's no wonder they have to run the engines every day. We made some new friends last season, both are new to boating a both with a big list of must haves, when I pointed out I have no hot water, no heating, no inverter a porta potty loo, they looked at me like I was from the dark ages, the only thing I wouldn't mind is heating so I can use the boat all year round, then the Mrs points out we managed for 35 years, with warm clothes, hot water bottles, boiling the kettle which also warms the boat up, why do we need anything else? the only modern thing on my boat is the 40w solar panel I fitted this year which keeps my battery's nicely topped up so I don't have to do the daily run to top them up,,

We have used Marineweld for quite a few bits like pullpits,pushpits, canopy frames, etc, can't fault their work and not bad on price, but I do know from a visit last week the price of stainless has rocketed, last year I had a footrest made that cost me £25, this year one slightly smaller was going to cost £65, the other place to try Is George at Ludham bridge, he has a few contacts, Marine Weld Fabrication Ltd Tel: 01692 669331 5 Folgate Rd, North Walsham, Norfolk, NR28 0AJ

It's something that bugs a lot of people but I never knew this! seems it's actually an offence to run your engine at anytime on 24hr moorings,, Running engines at moorings during the day or night is a byelaw offence subject to a maximum fine of £1,000 plus costs. It is a particular disturbance between 8pm and 8am

Thanks Jonathan! I had the old cable out and it had a few bends in, straightened it and it worked fine for a while, my problem is I've built a new dash, and the choke will be fitted there and I need an extra foot of cable or the bends will be too tight, I've found a few solid ones but they are stop cables with stop printed on them, I might be able to sand and polish is out though,

Help! I have to change my choke cable on the boat! the one on there has a solid piano wire core, but I've always had trouble with it jamming, could I use one with the twisted inner? I think it's called Bowden cable, my problem is the length, I need it to be around 12 long and have found a 13ft one with the twisted core, I think the fact the one on the boat is solid core, and because it comes from the dash and down the back, then through the bulkhead into the engine bay and loops around to the choke itself is whats causing it to jam, Frank,,,,,

It's true Humour works! Judi is one of those people that flies off the handle, I always tell her to calm down because it's never usually the person she's speaking to's fault, but she always ends up slaming the phone down on them and sending a ranting E/Mail and nothing ever seems to get done, I step in with a humourous phone call or E/mail, and they problem normally gets sorted out very quickly,

Don't know about a Shishi but this one looks fun,, https://youtu.be/5qsHtIO3C9o

The Son in law Keeps Koi Carp and he just nets the pond!

Never thought of that Mark! I never used anti freeze so I wouldn't have noticed, but I do remember the water tasted rank even when boiled, I pressume I'd have been drinking boiled river water for a while! I do know fitting the new calorifier fixed it,, as Karls calorifier sounds really old could it just be the heating coil furred up and restricting the flow, Karl may have anti freeze in the sysyem now but we don't know if the previous owners did, know how hard Norfolk water is, it might be a possibilty,,