"MELISSA JANE"

Model                      :                   Norman 23

Cockpit                   :                   Rear

Year                         :                   1976

Engine & Fuel       :                   Inboard Diesel from BMC Taxi

Capacity                 :                   1500 cc

Stern Drive             :                   Enfield

Toilet                       :                    Portapotti

COMMENTS

After owning the boat for 1 week, we now find it is 4 feet above the normal river level and we cannot get to it now. However, with some work we managed to tidy the boat up before the river rose and in fact it is better than we thought.

Power is supplied by a London Taxi 1500cc diesel engine, which is surprisingly quiet. Handling at the moment is awful, but then I have not attended to the ballast and it was a very windy day when I went out in her. Power to the prop is via a Enfield Z drive. She appears to be able to over rev too easily and I suspect a rather worn or damaged prop, which is also on the agenda. She has a brand new canopy, solar cells and a few other little extras, but no shower or fridge.

So with new ‘glow plugs’ for our BMC Taxi engine and a new porta loo we will be away as soon as the water subsides. I have installed a motor cycle battery charger to sort out the 3 batteries on board because I found that a ‘marine’ one was about £180 but the motorcycle version is £39.99 and has intelligent charging even for Gel batteries.