Freyja goes back into the water & the water goes back into Freyja!

We took Glenda's son Nick to Uni in Telford then went up to the boats, the marina said our boats were booked to go into the water that day, a week early.

 

The guys at Aqueduct marina punting Freyja to the service pontoon

 We agreed that Freyja could go back in, so we could test the motor under load and service it.
So they put her back in the water, but she wouldn't start. I, later, managed to get her running and she sounded OK.

  

Freyja back in the water, but, unknown to us, taking on water ;o(

Next morning when the mechanic came to service it we found out the engine bay was full of oily water ;o(
So we pumped it out and, once serviced, she did not want to start due to an airlock in the diesel.

Not a nice sight, Freyja's engine compartment filled with a heady mix of water and oil.

We had to leave, as we are moving house this weekend so we left, still not knowing if the problems will be solved in time for me to start moving them on Monday. Eeeek!

A narrowboat licensing nightmare! ;o(

We were about to pay Canals and Rivers Trust, for our canals and rivers license, we were relieved that, as our butty is over 50 foot, it qualified for a half price license :-

Freyja 55 foot motor    £769.21 p.a.
Christina 53 foot butty £369 p.a.
              Total               £1138.21

We were sure we'd seen that this covered the river Nen(e), while looking for an abloy key ( to operate EA locks) we realised that we needed an EA license for our river Nen(e) marina moorings. Should we get a gold license? A gold license would be £1004 per boat (no butty discount) so would cost a whopping £2008 and would expire in December! So could we get a temporary CaRT license to get us down through the canal system to the Nen(e) and then get an EA license for a year?

Having rung CaRT, I have found three options :-

30 day rover (We'd need a current EA license and the 30 days can be used anytime over a year) :-

Freyja 55 foot motor £168.67
Christina 53 foot butty £162.90 (butty discount not applicable)
Total £331.57

One month temporary pass (We'd need a current EA license and it lasts one calendar month)

Freyja £125.41
Christina £121.07 (butty discount not applicable)
Total £246.48

3 month long term (Needed if we didn't have a current EA license)

Freyja £369.23
Christina £177.38 (butty discount applies)
Total £546.61
Plus keys £11.00

So that's our three options to get us down to the river Nen(e), for which we need an EA license, back to the phone, watch this space..........

Phew, I phoned the Environment Agency and found that the costs were as follows :-

For Freyja £788.97 p.a. but as the EA licence runs April - March and 6 months have gone, there's a 50% discount so :-
£394.49 for the remainder of the season

Christina caused much scratching of heads, no-one knew how much it should be, as she doesn't fall into any of their categories.
Eventually, Stuart Gingell, a licensing expert was consulted and he said that she qualified for a 50% discount for an un-powered butty so :-
£394.49 but as 6 months have past a further 50% discount
£197.25 until March 2013
Total to EA £591.74
Plus CaRT £146.48
Plus CaRt keys £11
Plus EA key £10

Grand Total £759.22  to get our pair down through the canal system and license them both  for Environment Agency waters until the end of March 2013

We have been told that as an unpowered craft we could pay category 12 for the butty, a mere £32 p.a.! But EA say that they are aware that people have been allowed to do this in the past, 'due to a mistake' but that they have been telling people that they have to pay 50% of the normal fee.

So we are are paying as a tender, bear in mind, that the EA definition of a tender is a powered craft carried on, or towed behind the registered vessel. So not the definition of our butty. Quote :-

Tenders
A 50% discount is available for a tender, when registered at
the same time as the ‘parent’ vessel. Tenders are subject to the
appropriate navigation charges, but the registration number
issued will be the same as the ‘parent’ vessel. We define a
tender as a small powered boat or dinghy, towed or carried by
another vessel.

There is also a cheaper category for a a boat over 5m long, powered by an engine of no more than 4hp, this is category 31 and costs £130.54 p.a.
We have an outboard in our butty, and next year we will use this category to bring our costs down a bit.
 

Why we DIDN'T need a rope ladder! LOL!

I have just ordered a 6 rung rope ladder on e-bay at a cost of £4.98 + £4.98 post

In the event of one of us falling overboard in deeper water, we will be able to use it to haul ourselves out, otherwise it is very difficult to lift someone out when their clothing is saturated, adding to their weight.

A figure of eight loop of rope would achieve the same thing.
Well, apparently, rope ladders are not ideal, for one thing wooden rungs float! DOH! Also it swings under the boat making it difficult to climb in wet clothing.
The improved plan is to get an aluminium ladder for each boat, then fit a clip-on board so they can be used as gangplanks.
It's a learning curve (usually downwards!)

1st time buying narrowboat, what you should know.

It has amazed us that, after deciding to pay a deposit on Freyja and Christina, after, we thought, working our finances out to the last penny, several unexpected and fairly expensive extras surprised us.

We had read that surveys cost around £140, this is the cost of a safety survey, not the price of a hull or full pre-buying survey, we ended up with the prospect of paying £800 per boat, £1600 for the pair.

We decided to do a hull only survey on the butty at £530 and told the surveyor that if the hull needed serious over-plating we would call it a day, and not proceed with Freyja's survey. As Christina's survey showed her to have a sound hull we decided to go ahead with a hull survey on Freyja at £530, this turned up a problem with the bow, it had rusted from inside, due to a leak on the water filler pipe, and needed re-plating, but it was within the £1000 we were prepared to add for any repairs.

So now we told the surveyor to go ahead with the full survey this added £270, bringing the total to £1330, and turned up a few other things that needed sorting, and added more to the repair bill.
Unfortunately, we allowed the marina to choose the surveyor (Small Boat Surveys) NEVER DO THIS!!!! 
We have since found many serious faults missed by the surveyor, four that almost resulted in Freyja sinking! The survey was made out in the name of Nick the salesman at Aqueduct Marina, even though we were the ones who paid for it. The small print says that only the person named has any redress. We were taken advantage of, as we were first time buyers.

Now we were told that once our offer was accepted we would have one week's grace and then have to pay for the hardstanding or for moorings at £81 per week.

Also we learnt that it would cost £105+vat to have each boat put into the water, another £252. Then the marina dropped Freyja back into the water earlier than they said they would, we weren't there, they did not grease the stern gland and water had come up over the starter motor!

Once paid for, insurance has to be in place, as our newly acquired boats were not covered by the brokerage insurance, this cost £153

We'll have to pay our licenses £769.21 for 55 foot motor Freyja & £369 for Christina ( half the normal price for a butty over 50 foot) a total of £1138.21 before they go back into the water.

We searched for moorings, the nearest to Essex were either on the rivers Lee & Stort, Roydon marina quoted £6700 linear or £4600 breasted on a widebeam mooring, these moorings are within easy reach of London so carry a premium.

We looked at the river Ouse, but it would mean a longer trip though the drains to get onto the canal system.

Then we looked at the river Nene, Billing looked good and on the way home we visited Willy Watts marina in Ringstead, but were too late to ask prices, I rang the next day and we were offered moorings on their new Blackthorn Lake Marina for £2500.

We now owned our boats and decided that we wanted to black them ourselves, this cost us about £200 as the boats were already out of the water, so we did not need to pay to have them lifted out.

The surveyor was not qualified to test the gas (As Freyja is fitted with a modern 'Bubble Tester' he should have been able to test it and sign it off Grrrr!) or the electrical systems, and advised that the wiring needed upgrading 'to modern standards', so our insurance will not cover any claims made due to electrical or gas problems, until we can prove we've improved the electrics and had it all tested and had the gas tested.

The next big expense was moving them from Church Minshull near Crewe to Ringstead, near Northampton. We did this by leap-frogging a car, asking the pubs we ate in, if we could park for a day or two.

The prices quoted are the ones we encountered and would vary according to the length of boat (and would obviously be less for only one boat)
Also prices at brokerages and marinas vary greatly.

Chicken coup in Christina's bow

 

Christina's chicken coup is in her bow, here seen through the door from her greenhouse.

The central ramp up from the run can be pulled up and secured to keep the chickens in, while the top is lifted off, so it can be moved to the canal bank, the lower chickenwire run can then be carried out separately and re-assembled. To the left is the end door panel which has feeders built in.

A panoramic shot of Freyja & Christina on hardstanding

A lovely, moody panoramic shot of the hardstanding at Aqueduct marina, taken as the well timed rainclouds moved in as we finished blacking them ;o)

Freyja & Christina are in the centre, somewhere on the left is Zayna and Phil's blue narrowboat Cheeky B, allegedly! LOL!

I'm the guy with the bitumen quiff!

We are just back from our blacking expedition, and we are both completely knackered!

I've also managed black my hair, hence the bitumen quiff.

Nice to meet Zayna & Phil (NB Cheeky B?)
(Who we've spoken to on the Canalworld Forum)

 First job was to wash the grease spots left when the surveyor measured the steel thickness, we used white spirit.

 

 A new set of sacrificial anodes was fitted to Freyja

 Glenda, sitting down on the job

 So, she got her own back by catching me lying down on the job!

If you paint under the stern before you paint the stern sides and stern tube, you too will get a 'bitumen quiff'!!!! HoHum, another valuable lesson learned!

Christina's stern looking nice and shiny

Here's a good tip, scrape and paint the weed hatch BEFORE you black  around the stern tube, so you don't get a load of rust chips sticking to your newly applied blacking! DOH!

De-rusted and blacked (but don't black the top and handles if you want to paint it later)

 Horrible black sticky stuff that gets everywhere

 The contraption that Aqueduct marina used to haul our boats out and back in again

How good were my estimates?

So, we bought 27.5 litres of bitumen and found we needed approximately 5 litres per coat for each boat (55 & 53 foot)
The B&Q tungsten scraper was excellent for digging the rust flakes and bubbles out of the pitted areas, but don't be tempted to tap them with the scraper, as the blades are very brittle and expensive at £7.18 each! Use a small hammer to chip flakes and bubbles.
The paper overalls were great, worn over old clothes, as the bitumen can soak through. But watch out for the sizes, which were on the small side, large being more like medium.
I used my safety glasses when scraping and when lying underneath painting under the stern.
 But we didn't use the pair I bought for Glenda.
We didn't use the rollers at all.
The B&Q 5" flat shed & fence brushes were great for the sides and cheap
The B&Q 5" flat masonry brush was great for dusting off after scraping.
The best buy was the B&Q round masonry brush which was worth it's weight in gold, great for cutting in around the tunnel bands and for working black into little nooks and crannies.

You'll need a lot of latex gloves, workshop tissues, old towels or rags and white spirit. And, apparently, Baby oil! As this is the best thing to get bituminastic paints off!

We have almost 10 litres of bitumen left.