Vlog 253: That Sinking Feeling
Visit Jenny’s website at www.FloatMyBoatDesigns.co.uk
This is the terrible tale of how a woman who’d always dreamed of living aboard a narrowboat on the canals has had her dreams – and almost the boat – sunk because, she says, she was mislead by the professional surveyor on whose advice she bought the boat.
Mr Johns,
OK David, What do you have against me?
Yours sincerely
G. Dean
??
I tend to keep my replies to information that may be of interest to David or the viewers in connection to a vlog of his. Here is an instance below.
When looking to perchess a second hand boat please do follow advice as stated else where. But also make the effort to look below the floor, particualy just infront of the engine bay (boats without rear boatmans cabin) under the floor or steps. This area may be blocked off so removal of parts may be nessercery, (how much are they aking for this boat!) this is particualy worthwhile on an old boat were much corrosion could be found. More than on the outside.
NEW BOATS.
Some brand new boats are built with no regards to the mill scale on the steel that needs gritblasting off not even applying any paint at all before sprayfoaming the bare steel. Wanting more information ? Go to Canal Boat, May – June 2021. Brush with the Lore (correct spelling) by Nigel Clegg. David advertised an app. that you can get many magazines to read and access to the above article. Maybe he could put a link here. Did you know boat spray foam does not stop rust forming, it does the opersite. And the only paint to stop rust inside a steel hull that will last more than a year or two is two pack epoxy paint, with appropreate preperation.
How much was spent on that boat or any before it sank! Don’t leave to chance.
David, Nigel Clegg has on his web site an awfully lot of information that would help the work you need to do on your GRP boat. I sent you this by email. I don’t know if you read it or you spam bin anything with a link or attachment. You did not reply, was month ago or more. Or I can send it to you.
First you need to get your boat dry. That means get it out of the water for many months, can’t remember off hand how many. You may be pleased there is a paint to totaly waterproof your hull, Gel Coat is not waterproof.
Nigel Clegg has more then 40 years on paint for commercal ships and GRP, and as under LLoyd’s paint insurance regulations.
David, You may wish to edit this slightly.
Regards
Gary
PS it amases me how many people just don’t think what nasty stuff could be hiding in the bilge of a boat, turning a blind eye to it as if not carring, too much trubble.
Cheers. I didn’t see an email, it may well have been dumped by Google which has very aggressive spam filters which seem to get it wrong quite often.
Why cant the chine plate & hull sides in narrowboat construction be created from STAINLESS STEEL.. or heavier anounts of chromium, manganese, vanadium in the steel makeup to help create a more oxidising resistant final
fabrication?
Cindy k
Because it’s much more expensive, it’s more complex to weld and as soon as you scratch the surface off the stainless it starts to corrode.
Like all things it sedms. Its about making the maximum profit for the cheapest materials (for businesses) available..
I think of it like a kitchen sink/drainer..They dont rust.
I feel so sorry for that poor woman having her life dream ruined for corporate greed
I feel so sorry for her. She obviously enjoyed living aboard. Our boat is due for blacking in the Spring so I think I might get our bottom checked out just to be safe. Can I ask, aren’t the majority of rusting problems on the base plates to be more likely caused by water leaks from inside the boat which aren’t noticed? I have an inspection panel in the floor boards which I always lift to check for any leaking pipes etc.
As usual David, a very good vlog.
It’s both, I think. You certainly can get rusting from inside if there’s water and insufficient ventilation.
Hi David:
What percentage of recent increases in the price of Narrowboats and number of full-time cruisers would you estimate to be due to additional demand created by the popularity of your blog? You could correlate your youtube subscriber numbers with the pricing data to get an idea, although Covid would be a confounding variable so you might have to stick to pre-covid data. Perhaps some statisticians out there could help you figure it out if you’re curious. I’m guessing it might be significant!
Hi. I’ve absolutely no idea but there are now many, many more video blogs than just mine so it wouldn’t be feasible to calculate, I don’t think.
Please see “narrow boat that James built” episode 198 as he had the same problem, a rusty bottom which was going to cost yes £20,000 to have it over plated.
He set up a crowd funding and managed to secure the funding in no time at all.
Jennie would do very well I’m sure.
Cheers, she has a GoFundMe page as well as her shop and it’s going pretty well so far!
How she maintains such a lovely smile after all this, amazes me.
Cheers Peter
You’re a proper gent David.
Thanks!