The end

Sadly, at October 2019, time has passed, we moved an hours' drive away from the mooring in 2013 and we haven't been able to get to use the boat as we had hoped.

In the hopes of getting to make proper use of it again, we had the boat repainted two years ago, where the boatyard achieved a gloss we don't think it had ever had in its life before! But the process left the batteries without solar maintenance during the repaint, and one unit in particular (at 12 years old - 2 over the stated expected lifetime) at last was failing to hold charge properly - so we fitted new batteries - again with hopes we'd be back going on glorious further trips....

Not to be, though - mild ill healths and older age meant we realised we simply weren't using the boat. To put the lid on it, the BSS came due and revealed the gas cooker and water heater could no longer pass - we'd actually not used either for about at least 5 years.. and to cap it all the gas box base had rusted a hole in its base.

So, to pass the BSS, I've stripped things to make the gas system unuseable. In fact the central heating boiler (with re-fitted supply) would probably still be OK, but the boat would need a new cooker and a new water heating system. The fridge would still work on the 240V supply I wired some time back - but the existing gas pipe had to be made unusable.

And the boat has to go up for sale. We're going to try eBay, but if you're reading this and would like to make an offer, by all means leave a comment - the diesel-electric drive system is fine (and with new batteries!) The boat is moored in Oxford on the canal on a private mooring where the next owner would have to negotiate with the CRT and the private landlord to keep this.

I remain delighted we tried the experiment of the conversion - it worked far better than I had dared hope - pretty much ideally - and would again for a new owner - although they would have to invest a bit in domestic arrangements.

I'm still hoping to create a new blog simply explains the facts we discovered from our conversion to help anybody else aiming to fit this kind of drive. It was expensive compared to conventional drive - but what price can one put on all-but silent gliding up a canal or on a river with absolutely no lack of power compared to conventional drive - and, in fact, greater brief thrust for the tricky moments?!

So, the end of this blog.