Leaderboard

I think you mean your veldt like figure - an area covering about a third of South Africa

Is that anything like Breadxit?

Or there's always the Kayan method.

I use mine loads A Panasonic they are brilliant. I use it to do the mixing and then prove and bake in the oven or I use it as is. The great thing is PROPER fresh bread still hot so you know its real. The huge plus points for me is I can make varied loaves which are simply unavailable in any shop even bespoke bakeries. Mixing differing flours with different gluten levels and yeast to get special loaves keeps it interesting. I use lots of spelt and Rye amongst others and make fabulous Olive loaf with olive oil. egg and oregano yum yum. Being able to adjust the amounts of preservatives such as sugar and salt and how much butter etc goes in makes all the difference. It also helps keep my svelt like figure

Don"t get a narrowboat then!

My advice is buy a used boat. Find a boat you like, use it and almost immediately you'll start finding things about it you want to change. Change them and as your experience grows you'll find more and more things wrong with it and you have the skills to make the alerations in between boating trips. In ten years, I predict you too will be on here advising the newbies who think they know precisely what they want in a boat that they actually don't, and to get some serious boating experience under their belts before designing a newbuild.

Why would you want a 12v toaster when you will have 230v Ac on board anyway ? Our 'mains' toaster, kettle and microwave (also had a deep fat fryer on board until Dr says 'no more') run quite happily on the inverter, we have 6x 230Ah batteries and the engines run for several (5 or 6 hours) most days so put it all back in again, Yes those appliances will draw 100-160a from the batteries but they are normally only on for 5 or 10 minutes - having an electric cooker and doing the 'Sunday roast' for 2 or 3 hours would be a totally different bucket-of-fish. We have a mains immersion heater but I would NEVER consider (on purpose) running that off the batteries (via the inverter). The BIG BIG difference between a house and a boat, is that you are not only an electrical user, but an electrical generator, what you use YOU have to replace, it just doesn't magically appear down the wires. Work out how much you will use (do a power audit) add 10%-20% and then work out how you are going to generate that on a daily basis. If you cannot manage to keep a lap-top battery charged what hope have you of ................... (Just so you know its 'in jest')

Hopefully any cleanup operation or insurance payout after a "Sinkwater Flamingo" incident will come rather cheaper!

Just as well he didn't invite me onboard then

10 AM. He likes wetsuits as posted in the other thread. No wait! That was a wet-look suit.

I don't like Lino.Much prefer solid oak

...agreed but as all of the wonderful advice will point you at.....I had to walk on touch feel, smell and contemplate the boats in person. As I was advised on here, my whole perception of what I wanted compared to what I would buy was constantly moving....I'm a newbie of 6 months but loving it and don't know where I'd be without all of the advice, banter and thought provoking comments on here! These folk are quality.....quite often running off topic on a historical banter trail but it all makes life more amusing and helps the stress levels - MOST of the time

Ice breaking swan

Doh!

And there we go again... reinforcing the two most popular myths amongst some of the more blinkered narrow boaters, that widebeams and hirers both cause chaos wherever they go. I have never caused any chaos on my 12ft widebeam (and I've been around more of the system on it then most narrrow boaters), and I thought that the myth peddled about hirers had been exploded many years ago on this forum, but it appears sadly not. There are plenty of perfectly competent hirers. Indeed, many hirers know more about boats and the waterways and are better at handling craft than some boat owners.

They are not £45k they are more like £5k for the 24KWh pack with the £1k trade in credit. If you only use half your FLA capacity to preserve battery life you get ~ 0.7Kwh per battery so we are looking at about 33 leisure batteries for comparison. So your numbers then look like 33 * £60 = £1980 £5000 / 2000 = 2.5 times The Nissan Leaf battery pack is of course the wrong way to do lithium batteries for a boat, but the pricing isn't quite as crazy as people think. Edit to add: peterboat said he paid £2800 for 8 x 138Ah 12V (1104 Ah) lithium LFP batteries. The £60 110Ah cheapies would then need 10 batteries to get the raw numbers and 20 to only use half the capacity. £1200 for the same useable power, so again 2.5 times as much.

There are a few up on the L&L. Makes Skipton exciting on a busy summer day, with drunk eejits on day boats bombing round the corner to meet a 14' wide boat under a bridge. Fortunately the Boathouse pub has outside seating so you get a great view.

Why did you stop? Incorrectly fitted taps?

Oh and doing them up hand tight is a recipe for a leak. Nip them up good and hard with a spanner. As usual, DAMHIK!

Less than there used to be ...

It's been said but to reiterate, this is as much about learning to gauge what the boats doing in the water and where the front is in relation to other stuff. When approaching locks uphill, ask the crew to leave the gates shut and practice motoring up slowly* until your just touching them, or a foot short if you prefer. When you steer the boat around bends note where the pivot point is - usually just back from the half way point. Use a lifebelt or similar to mark the spot until you're sure you've found it. Between the two you should then be able to build a picture in your minds eye of what the boats up to in relation to the banks, bridges and other boats. All the above is relevant in clear water. The advance course is about learning to notice when the boat tells you you're moving into shallows, cutting the corner too much or going too fast for the available depth: veering away from the shallows / refusing to turn into the corner despite your best efforts, breaking wave going out from the stern on the shallow side(s) or just being an awkward bastard to steer. Get all that about right and you'll be standing pretty much in the same place all the time, reminiscent of being stood in the hatch on a trad back end. * I would hope slowly is obvious but didn't want to be accused of encouraging ramming the gates.

You are correct as far as the API is concerned but Inland boating and canal boating in particular imposes operating conditions very different the majority of vehicles. We very rarely require our engines to produce full power and for most of the time they only produce a few (less than 10) HP. This has implications for piston ring loading and the operating temperature of the cylinder wall. Some research Lister-Petter gave me many years ago suggested that the additive pack in the oil had a bearing on the propensity to cause bore glazing. The exact design of the piston crown also seems to have an effect. Now we are into "best guesses". The low power outputs may (not will) adversely effect the running in process so it is prudent to not use an oil that has significant wear inhibitors but once run in a "better" grade of oil is less likely to cause problems but the low wall temperatures might, especially if they are low enough to "cook" the oil film into varnish and the additive pack seems to be implicated in this so ist probably wise not to move too high up the API table. Making varnish is the cause of bore glazing. It is interesting that Vetus (Mitsubishi based) lay down strict rules for maximum time allowed for running out of gear and told me by phone it was to prevent bore glazing yet Thornycroft (same bas engine) did not. It all comes down to personal decision having taken all you know into account. I know BMC 1.5/1.8s bore glazed badly in Gas board vans when the engineers let them idle for hours on end to keep the cab heaters warm but they did not seem to glaze on the hire fleet. One good thing with the present fashion for huge alternators is that they put more load on the engine at cold start than used to be the case but its probably only afew HP. My take is that it is very important to stick to the specified grade for running in and while under guarantee but then increasing the spec a step or two is less likely to cause problems, especially if you take every responsible chance to give the engine a thrashing. As I said in another topic I am happy with API CE or CF but would not go any higher.

I have seen several on launch and a couple in for service. Far better under the water finish than another yard a mile away which are also throwing widebeams out by the dozen. Oh, and yes, I do have photos to back up my statements.

I invented Lego soled shoes years ago, the article is a post of mine on here in my content. Mine were obviously adjustable, clipping different coloured bricks on as required. Ideal for folk with legs of different length, but the main aim was for walkers and orienteerers that had a habit of walking around the side of hills and mountains, they could easily raise the height of the shoe on the outside or lower the height of the inside one to keep them upright and perpendicular.

Watch yourself using Alibaba , last time I lost over 2 thousand pounds dealing with a trusted gold seller , nothing at all I could do about it , only half what I ordered was sent and even then the quality was very poor , I have never been back.

Are you sure you have the correct magazine. I have not seen WWW for some time so unless they have changed I think you are talking about the other mag.

Something very odd here, if anything its the exact opposite of what I would expect. It might (note might) be a poor electrical connection that expands during the day causing more resistance but when it cools at night contracts enough to make a better contact but that seems a bit far fetched to me. If you have screw type connections and bus bars on the main fuse/MCB board its worth a few minutes to make sure all are tight. Ditto battery terminals. If it is temperature related it might be a failing domestic master switch but the again I would expect that to be lower pressure when cold. I suspect we are probably back to a failing micro-switch in the end of the pump so my usual advice is to fit a remote switch and be done with such problems for tens of years.

Also for peoples info i bought a heap of these 130ah batteries with various cycles on and ive found some with well over 2000 cycles on which still discharge over 110ah And charge to 80% soc in an hour About 2hrs to 100% soc Which shows me they last... The manufacturers claim 5000 cycles plus All these are reasons why ive gone this direction. Be happy Jim.

If you haven't been boating before then you are not the man to plan a new boat please be contnet to rely on tried and tested solutions from reputable builders and go for good used or even "pre-owned!" Make sure you enjoy the journey but don't try to re-invent the wheel

Well im charging with various sources but reliant on solar mainly... i have 2 Morningstar mppts and an outback inverter... Most all stuff goes through the outback with a lvd set at 24v ish... im still not finished with the system... Ive been sort of collecting solar bits and pieces last 20yrs and have a reasonable system still not totally finished but close.. I get 120 amp into the batteries with full sun @24v if i start the gene i get 90 more from the outback and 90 from a victron skylla charger .. Since fitting these batteries 5 months ago ive not needed to run the gene. Literally..and in winter! You can take these right down to 0% and put 70 amp per battery back in... i have a 24v 520ah bank....so as these are 12v they can take around 250amp ish charge current when charging. Good thing is they charge very fast. They have a bms inside each battery which when u have the software is active as they charge. Actually ive experimented and the cell banks hardly change quickly so i think its ok to balance every couple of months. They are supposed to be charged at 14.6 max Im going not near that voltage as experienced folks seem to have found the key to ultra long life is possible by low pressure.. say 13.4...13.6v which is nearly fully charged anyway. I had 20 yuasa gel batteries b4 these 1 bank was 12yr old when i finished with them...they served well but always a worry about soc ...hence the search for some reasonably priced lithium.... These ones are £1500 each new but after a long hunt i took a shot on a batch of second hand ones at less than a fifth of the price. Ive found that they seem to cycle over and over with still 80% or more of original capacity ... More importantly to me....usable capacity. As we have :3kw immersion heater 2kw washing machine Toaster kettle electric cooker etc etc... So ive got 13.6kwh of battery and i can use over 10kwh of power which is great... my diesel overheads are right down ☺

If you think that's embarrassing, wait until that nice Mr Fincher steers his boat into yours and then blames you!

I think you'll find all Kelvin J3s are the same length.