September 2003
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
		Nov »
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Archive for September 2003

There’s a big bit missing here!

30/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

OK so what happened between 23/09/03 and 19/11/03?

D-Day

23/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Telephoned Nick Fazey (BW Mooring Manager) to confirm that everything was still OK for me to take the temporary mooring at Ocker Hill In the morning, Bev and I drove to Blisworth (BMW) to take ownership of Tastoma! Although the CHAPS transfer from Tonner to our account was successfully completed yesterday, although we visited the Barclay’s Killay branch later in the afternoon to authorise the CHAPS payment to Canal Craft, this was too late to get the CHAPS instruction to London for their cut-off time. However, we had been assured that London would pick up the request first thing in the morning and complete the transaction. Whilst en-route to Blisworth, a number of phone calls to Barclays indicated that approaching lunch-time, the payment had not gone through. Then, with less than ten miles to go before getting to Blisworth, we received a phone call from Canal Craft to say that they had received payment (phew!).

We arrived at Canal Craft at around midday where we completed the paperwork and a bunch of keys was handed over.

A few minutes spent unloading a very full car of bits and pieces (including the Morso stove!) and we were ready for the hand-over.

Although the engine fired up immediately, it quite quickly died, and then refused to start. Not a very promising start to our journey, but we were assured by the proprietor of Canal Craft that it was likely to be an air lock in the fuel lines. A few minutes later, he kindly bled the system, and the engine fired up beautifully. We decided to leave the engine running while we took on fuel and gas (propane). We also took the time to empty the remaining water from the tank before filling with fresh. We then picked up a few basic provisions (Elsan Blue) and got the boat ready for the off. A brief handover from the proprietor (gas, water, electrics, engine etc), then we were helped by one of the ladies from Canal Craft who set off with us to show us how to handle the boat for about 5 minutes. Then it was all up to us.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2, Moving to Moorings | No Comments »

1st insurance

22/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Insured Tastoma with Haven Knox Johnson - £172.55 (£183.04 inc tax)

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Remortgage the house

22/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Back at home, we had been working on completing the re-mortgage of our house.

Today, we met with our Solicitor – Heather Daniel of Tonner & Johns, and completed the paperwork. We agreed that to ensure the funds were available to us quickly we would pay the additional cost to have the monies transferred to our account by CHAPS. We were assured that for as long as the instruction reached London by 16:00, cleared funds would be immediately available.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Survey - review and put in an offer

21/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Although I read through part of the Survey last night, I decided to read it thoroughly this morning. The report, of 13 pages, was much longer and detailed than I had expected. The format of the report, being explained in the preface, highlighted ‘Recommendations’ and ‘Suggestion’. Both of which were split into ‘BSS Mandatory’, ‘BSS Advisory’ and ‘Other’. In summary, there were 13 Recommendations (7 BSS Mandatory, 4 BSS Advisory and 2 others) and 26 Suggestions (11 BSS Mandatory and 15 others). These figures seemed to be very high, but as none were too serious, many of which I could address myself over the coming months, with others investigated by ‘professionals’ (e.g. Corgi gas fitters etc), we were still happy to proceed with the purchase. Later in the morning I telephoned Richard at Canal Craft to discuss the issues raised in the Survey, and agreed that although many were cosmetic and some were as a result of changes in BSS guidelines since the boat was built, the Hurth gearbox was cause for concern, and would like to revise our offer price.

A short while later, Richard called back and said that our revised offer had been accepted.

We then discussed the handover, including passing bank details to enable CHAPS payments to be made, recommendations for insurance companies, pick-up date etc.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Squirrels

19/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Although I already had an Alde central heating boiler (and a suspect gas wall heater), I also wanted to install a solid fuel stove. Again, after doing some research, I had decided on the Morso Squirrel. As there are already a number of radiators powered from the Alde, I decided on a Morso without a back boiler.

Finding a good local chandlery was going to be important, so I decided to buy the stove from Linekiln in Compton (nr Wolverhampton). They also had a special offer on at the time whereby the stove and fitting kit - cost £360 + £80 for the kit.

With difficulty, I managed to get the stove in the boot of the BMW – which not surprisingly, Bev was not overjoyed with! It is only when you come to move the stove do you realise how much it weighs. However, after removing the packaging, including the wooden pallet, the weight was easily reduced by removing the fire bricks from inside the stove.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Survey - initial feedback

18/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

As agreed, I contacted the Surveyor for an initial report. He confirmed that for its age (10 years), the boat was in excellent condition. There were a few things he picked up, and these would be detailed in his report which he hoped to complete by the weekend. Of some of the things he found at fault were the incorrect type of fuel line (a potential BSS failure), and the mediocre amateur fit-out.

These facts, together with a number of other findings, he believed would give me ammunition to revise the offer price.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Survey - report

18/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

On checking my email, I have received an electronic copy of the Surveyor’s report (in MS Publisher format). Of the many MS packages I have installed on my PC, this was one I was missing. Out with the Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS) disks and install it on the notebook.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

Fingers crossed…

17/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

… today is the day of the survey.

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »

I have the power!

16/09/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

What service – the generator arrived!

Posted in Boat Purchase - Take #2 | No Comments »