Stories about boats and waterways
This is part 4 of my complete transom rebuild. In this thrilling episode, I place reinforcing glass fibre into the inner skin of the transom using vinylester resin. And I get buzzed by a hornet (maybe).
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Having removed all the rotten transom wood (see the prior videos in my ‘Twiggy transom’ playlist, link below), I now needed to patch a couple of holes on the inner fibreglass skin. This video documents that process.
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Although traditional steel narrowboats cost many thousands of pounds, even second-hand, there is a cheaper and easier way to get a foot on the water and that’s with a fibreglass cabin cruiser. In this video, I visit a woman who’s chosen exactly that as her first boat.
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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.
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An episode in which I drill holes in the boat’s transom, to discover if the wood core is rotten. This also necessitates removal of the outboard motor.
Continue readingMetal-hulled boats Modern narrowboats and widebeam ‘barges’ are almost entirely constructed of mild steel. Given that this stuff rusts when exposed to water and air, this might seem like a
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I’ve bought another boat!! Not a traditional steel narrowboat this time but something very cheap and cheerful, just to bob about in at weekends and on short trips.
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I was delighted to be invited to spend a day aboard a wonderfully quirky canal and river cruiser boat by Samantha Rigley whose adventures I follow on Instagram. Join us, in this video!
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An alternative to the tradition steel narrowboat, fibreglass (GRP) cruisers are long-established on British canals and rivers. Often cheaper to buy, both new and used, but with drawbacks such as a more fragile construction and less suitability for living aboard, especially in winter, they are a popular choice particularly on rivers. In this video, I speak to a chap who bought a Viking 26 and absolutely loves it.
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For those on small or disconnected canals, who want a boat that can be taken out of the water easily and moved elsewhere, there is the Wilderness Trailboat; an incredibly cute, fibreglass (GRP) lightweight craft that you can practically put in your pocket!
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