blackrose

There seems to be a spate of leaky windows recently. Is it all people who've bought boats and have just discovered the leaks now it's raining after a relatively dry spring, summer and autumn?

If you do buy Fogstar drift don't use the big terminals that they supply (separately) with the batteries. They screw in with M8 studs on the underside but because they are 20mm AF the studs are very easy to snap off unless you're using a decent torque wrench set to no more than 8Nm. If you do use them do not tighten them with a spanner! Guess how I found out! Yes I've snapped 2 of them. Instead just take the short M8 bolts off the top of the terminals and use those bolts with the captive washers direct into the batteries. The length of those bolts is about 12mm and I had a few too many ring terminals on two of my connections so I bought a couple of M8 x 16mm stainless bolts from eBay and they were fine and didn't bottom out in the batteries. I bought a small 1/4" drive calibrated bicycle torque wrench from Amazon for about £25 which goes down to 5Nm.

I bought 2 x 280ah Fogstars. They've got some good deals on at the moment. The other thing about them is the after sales service is good. You can call them and talk to them if you have any questions. I'm not sure if Renogy do that and Victron are possibly too big to talk to customers. Have a look at the frogspawn website. You want the drift, not the eco models. https://www.fogstar.co.uk/collections/lithium-leisure-battery?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18718600300&gbraid=0AAAAADdkPQNUJIpsZFF2su5ZNa7zMG1ur&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_8TJBhDNARIsAPX5qxTEjEmnfgc3ImMgOJuKIMDQ-8EN7yMqSUgi4uaLvqSP_S891ejwuFMaAuz6EALw_wcB I bought a Victron Orion xs50 b2b charger. Alternator goes to LA battery (potentially start battery), b2b charger, then Fogstars, with correct dia and length cables, fuses, etc. The instructions with the charger are pretty good. This is the cheaper way to do it (about £230 for the b2b) but considered a bodge by the purists who spend £800 on a proper wakespeed lithium compatible alternator controller.

Fish & chips? That would be the Portuguese. Sorry, it's much less British than most Brits realise.

It does matter what sort of load it pulls over what sort of timeframe as that defines the total energy use. That was my point. 3 kWh seems like a lot to me. I don't think my solar panels have ever generated that much in a day, meaning it's more likely I'd need to run the cycle with the engine or generator running. You said "who cares on a boat". I'm just saying I care about energy usage, as do most sensible boaters.

I think I might care. 3 - 6 hours pulling what sort of load? I ran my washing machine today on the strength of the batteries and solar panels which were producing 30A in the sunshine this afternoon. I gave the system a helping hand by pouring a kettle full of hot water into the detergent drawer on startup. The peak power draw of 1.6kW only lasts for a short part of the full 40 min wash cycle. I'd never run my small 1.1kW dryer in the middle of winter even on a sunny day without running the engine or generator because that power demand is continuous until the clothes are dry.

Agreed. Plus a first time boat owner never gets it right first time. After a year or two you'll wish you'd had it built differently. Do yourself a favour and buy a decent used boat. I've never owned one but I intuitively wondered whether a combined washer/dryer is actually any good at either job. I have a small 3kg load Zanussi washer (1.6kW) and a small White Knight tumble dryer (1.1 kW) but I don't use the dryer very much, only for bed sheets and duvet covers. Everything else gets hung up to dry in my widebeam, but I appreciate most narrowboats may not have the space to do this.

You will be walking around locks, there's no alternative to that I'm afraid - but you shouldn't be dashing except in an emergency. Running around leads to trips & slips and also at our age sometimes pulled muscles! That happened to me a few years ago when I stupidly started running around a lock to close a gate on the opposite side because some anglers were fishing on the lock landing and I didn't want to disrupt them any longer than necessary. Then I was hobbling in pain and suddenly the boat became a liability. In retrospect I should have taken my time and disrupted them for as long as I needed to. I'm 63 and I work my widebeam through locks single-handed, but unlike a narrowboat going through broad locks I have to open and close all 4 gates. Remote control definitely isn't "a must".

I think big old AGM batteries would be perfect as ballast. My understanding is that they're fairly leak-proof. When I switched to lithium I took out 3 x 39kg lead/acid batteries and installed 2 x 26kg lithium, so the difference was minimal and I'm on a widebeam anyway so I didn't have to do anything. Your AGMs are 63kg each? Wow, what Ah capacity are they? I hope access is good and you get some help if you have to remove any of them. Also it sounds to me like you might need some more ballast at the bow to get a bit more control in the wind. Why not try putting one or two of those AGMs at the bow? Just make sure the terminals are well covered.

The other thing I don't like is all that rigid copper pipework and joints. With all the vibration in the area I'd rather have flexible car heater hose. It's less susceptable to cracking and failing.

Conversely, I can't make sense of the lining and can't think what is purpose would be? Presumably the skin tank is in the engine space below the waterline. Why would anyone line that area in wood? How are you supposed to bleed the skin tank for example if it's all hidden behind plywood?

I think it's a good idea to run Webastos for an hour a couple of times over summer. If you leave them too long without starting it can't help. I start my petrol generator and outboard occasionally for the same reason just to keep them maintained.

That's fine, if that's your thing. It's not mine. I'd rather be in the present and look forward than wallow in the past. That's how it feels to me.