Winging it - Boating On A Budget

09/05/2025

It’s been a while since we posted on here - mainly because winter is BORING and we don’t get much done on the boat… but the suns out now so what will be up to this year???

But before we think of boating I’m off to do a ‘bit of a walk’…

In September 2024 I started work as maintenance officer at Rotherham Hospice… it immediately became obvious what brilliant work all the staff there do providing palative care to patients and supporting their nearest and dearest at the worst time of their lives.
Unfortunately hospices aren’t fully funded by the NHS or Goverment finances so have to raise a LOT of money themselves to provide the care and services they offer…

So I decided to ‘do my bit’. I signed up to do the Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge. This means walking 24.5 miles - with over 5,000 ft of elevation in less than 12 hours.
I’m doing the walk this Sunday, along with a colleague and a team of other people all raising money for Rotherham Hospice.

Therefore I’m asking - if you can - to please sponsor me and help get as much money into Rotherham Hospice as possible. Every penny pledged goes directly to the Hospice.

Simply click the link and donate if you can please…

And please ‘stay tuned’ for this years boating adventures

Thank you
Peter (and Dawn!)

Help Peter Bell raise money to support Rotherham Hospice

05/10/2024

Who would have EVER thought that ‘The Tight Yorkshireman’ would buy, not one, not two, but three VICTRON solar charge controllers!
In the past I’ve always gone for the ‘cheap and cheerful’ controllers available on Amazon or EBay (or bought secondhand)… BUT for our latest , 3 solar panel (1230w) set up even I felt the need to get the ‘expensive Blue stuff’.
Let’s hope the investment pays off with lots of ‘free’ electricity in the future!

25/09/2024

We are currently away having a nice break in Turkey. BUT just before we left for the holiday we FINISHED painting the side of the boat.
So when we get back home there is footage waiting for me to edit to make the final episode of our ‘painting like a pro’ series… probably be out on YouTube NEXT Thursday. 😁

08/09/2024

Honest it is the same boat!

New 1230 watts of solar install almost completed - including building the storage boxes they sit on.

Full repaint all done canal side by us - still the finishing touches to do, including a coach line between the two shades of grey and painting the storage boxes with the top coat (they are just in primer at the moment).

Hoping to get all the external work done in the next couple of weeks - before the winter weather starts to arrive.

18/08/2024

Well it’s been a couple of weeks since we did any work on the paint job - BUT we are now back on our home mooring (our adventure around the canals has come to an end!) so we have been able to crack on… fingers crossed that means there’s a YouTube video out this Thursday . 😁

25/07/2024

It’s here… time to start on the top coat - can we perfect the art of ‘laying off’?

'Laying off' is a technique used by professional boat painters to get a smooth mirror like finish to paint work. It's a combination of putting paint on the b...

25/07/2024

We are on the countdown to 3pm… latest video out then - we’ve been doing more painting, Rose O’Leigh is really starting to SHINE now!

18/07/2024

This weeks video… we carry on prepping the boat for that ‘professional’ paint job.

We continue in our quest for 'professional perfection' as we continue to sand, fill and primer the side of the boat - aiming to get it as smooth and flat as ...

11/07/2024

Sorry to say that due to us being in Liverpool city centre for almost a fortnight and then having wintery weather instead of sunshine we haven’t been able to get any work done on the boat these last few weeks. So that means no video today I’m afraid.
Hopefully videos will return next week (if the weather picks up and we can get some filler / paint on the boat!).

Bad news! Unfortunately there is NO video this week… with spending nearly a fortnight in the centre of Liverpool (not a place to be sanding and painting boat...

04/07/2024

We continue on our quest to paint like the Pro’s…
It’s time to get some primer on the boat.

WE continue with our quest to repaint the side of boat and get a finish 'almost as good as a professional'... Which considering we are amateurs, painting the...

27/06/2024

Can we paint like a pro?
Here’s the second instalment of us TRYING to get the side of our boat painted - by us, whilst the boats still on the canal - to a professional finish.

We continue painting the side of our narrowboat, with the aim of getting it looking as close to a professional finish as possible...In this episode we sand b...