London Boaters

The NBTA is an open organisation which aims to defend and improve our community’s way of life.

"The NBTA London is campaigning for the rights of boat dwellers and are fundraising to cover basic costs such as awareness-raising, printing, meetings and importantly, helping other boaters. Please help us to continue our work. The NBTA's website explains why here.

We adapted our old 12-volt strip light unit to instead use an array of 12-volt LEDs, to benefit from considerably lower power consumption and more importantly never needing to buy or replace a bulb ever again! As an electronics hobbyist who is not a professional but who already does their own boat DC electrics, projects like this are totally achievable but are still best left to someone who has a proficiency and understanding of 12-volt electrics. MAINS ELECTRICS IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MATTER AND SHOULD NEVER BE INTERFERED WITH EXCEPT BY A PROFESSIONAL!

Get free smoke detectors and CO (Carbon Monoxide) alarms !!!

The London Fire Brigade are great! Rang them this morning and within an hour they had met us on the towpath with free carbon monoxide and smoke alarms! Theirs are the proper, decent ones too (the good ones in the upper photo, not the other kind in the video). Pop into a fire station and ask, or text this number and they’ll meet you too 07496 061926.

If you would like to support the fire brigade, you can donate to www.firefighterscharity.org.uk

Do you have a solid fuel stove? When did you last sweep your flue or check your burner? There were two bad fires on boats last winter - both boats completely burned out. The cause has not been specified BUT it does tend to be burners that cause fires on boats. If you haven't swept your flue this winter - do it now. Signs that your flue needs sweeping - no draw, smokey fire, glass gets dirty quickly, fire is more smelly than usual. If you burn mostly wood you should be sweeping every few weeks at the very least. Useful links below (please add any more useful links if you find them).