Category: Engineering

A man leans into the end of a large iron cylinder, using an angle-grinder to cut away at small metal tubes inside.

Vlog 387: Hot Stuff

Posted on January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 by David Johns

In 2025, over a period of some months, two steam narrowboats, called Tixall and Emily Anne, had their boilers removed and their pipes taken out for replacement. This is the story of that epic job!

Vlog 378: Wood it fit?

Posted on September 9, 2025September 9, 2025 by David Johns

In this episode I make a template for the new wood core of my boat’s transom and then cut it out of two sheets of marine plywood (and also explain why in the end I went with marine ply). The question is, having made a template that fits beautifully, will that mean the wood version will fit? Well, this is DIY…

Vlog 377: Mind the Gap

Posted on August 30, 2025August 30, 2025 by David Johns

Having not been able to do any restoration work on my cabin cruiser Twiggy for a while, I finally got back to the boatyard to do final preparation before fitting the new transom core. This involved a bit more fibreglass work as well as mixing up thickened resin to seal the join between the top and bottom halves of the hull, which were coming apart.

Vlog 370: Stranded

Posted on May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 by David Johns

After a long period where it seemed that all I did was make holes in my fibreglass cabin cruiser, “Twiggy”, I have at least started to repair them.

Vlog 368: Prop Forward

Posted on May 10, 2025May 10, 2025 by David Johns

Although lots of technical data about narrowboat propellers exists already, it largely relates to the traditional diesel engine. With electrically-propelled canal boats now becoming more commonplace, boat-builder Ortomarine held a practical trials day to see if changing prop made for a better or worse experience when your narrowboat has an electric motor.

Vlog 365: Wireloose Technology

Posted on April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 by David Johns

With the weather nearly warm enough to be working at the boatyard on my Microplus 600 cabin cruiser, Twiggy, again, I decided to get a ‘straightforward’ (?!) job out of the way and remove the old and rather odd leisure battery setup. This had for some reason been installed under the sink and comprised three batteries of two different sizes but there was a surprise or two as I took them out.

Vlog 362a: Full Throttle

Posted on March 19, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

This is a “bonus” video, extra content that might be of interest to some viewers who like technical stuff. I recorded myself diagnosing and fix the throttle linkage issue on my narrowboat.

Vlog 361: Seeing the Light

Posted on February 28, 2025 by David Johns

I did my first proper check on my fibreglass cabin cruiser “Twiggy” since I left it for winter and although it was too full of condensation to do any sanding, I set about taking off some soggy wood from the roof with the multitool. Inevitably, chaos followed.

Vlog 346: Cutting Corners

Posted on October 1, 2024October 1, 2024 by David Johns

As described in the prior videos about the refurbishment of Twiggy, my 48-year-old fibreglass cabin cruiser, I needed to cut the back off the boat in order to replace the rotten wood in the transom. Unfortunately, things didn’t go entirely to plan.

Vlog 345: Gifts of the Gabs

Posted on September 22, 2024 by David Johns

About three months ago I visited Gabs Heneghan who’d bought a widebeam boat and was about to refurbish it. Mid-way through the process, I’ve been back to see how she’s getting on.

Canal Life