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Yes I would wait. I know very little about anything and I’m in the pub,which is always a dangerous place to give advice from.

I always find it funny how precious narrowboatists are about their blacking.

Blacking comes off all by itself, through normal wear and tear, so relax on that front and worry about other stuff. Like where the next pub is and how muddy is the towpath. As others have said, in another thread, there are ways to touch up the waterline.

Beets me!

I suppose there can be no argument there !! (very little sunshine in tunnels)

Watch out for split charging though...?

Creep into a supermarket with it and bury it under a load of ice cream or something in one of their freezers and retrieve it the next day.

Just some practical experience. I have a cheapo modified sine wave 600W inverter as a backup for the Victron when it went wrong. This struggled to start the fridge compressor sometimes. 1000W or more should be safe though. Will depend on fridge, inverter, phase of the moon and colour of socks of course. Jen

In the late 90s I took my 5mm sided narrow boat from Lapworth down to the Cape of Good Hope, while there was about 2” of ice in the cut. It was so cold that for the first and only time, as I threw a wet mooring line ashore it froze solid. Anyway, I boated through the ice, bouncing along till it got just too unpleasant, moored overnight, then down to the Cape next morning. Every bit of blacking came off, but the hull sides were still 5mm about ten years later when I sold the boat. Relax, and enjoy some winter boating, there is pleasure in hearing that fine tinkling sound as thin ice breaks up as you push through it, and in seeing slightly thicker stuff moving around in great big sheets as you open up a trail for others.

Although you no longer appear to need to have an answer to your topic heading, the calculation is simple - divide the watts by the volts to get the amps. So using your figures, 628 watts divided by 12 volts is 52 amps. Depending upon the distance between your inverter and fridge, you could need a very fat cable for that.

You are wrong? The fridge’s rated wattage is its steady state consumption. However when the compressor motor starts up, there will be a much higher short term “surge” demand, which could overload and trip an inverter rated at the fridges rating. How big the surge, how tolerant the inverter is of short term overloads, are variables that are type specific and therefore hard to anticipate. So either add a healthy chunk of extra inverter power, or risk a trial and error process.

Inverters are generally measured/sold by watts aren’t they? Therefore do you just need a wattage above the 600 odd measurement you have? 1,000 watt inverter? Somebody will be along to tell me why I’m wrong I bet.

Its nowt. I bought a boat from a bloke a few years back built with 6 mil sides and bottom. I got it VERY cheap as in his eighteen years of ownership he stated he had never had it out of the water or blacked. I had it out and docked and checked and the worst bit was around 5.7 mil. A bit of paint missing on the waterline is nowt to worry about anyway, just be sensible and whack some back on in the summer or next year. Its all part of the cheap liveaboard lifestyle or hobby lol.

Roll your spliff a little tighter to reduce the chance of this happening again!???

If it is not too late - It is better to NOT use 'stick-down solar panels. They don't like the heat (from hot tin roofs) and the performance is degraded. Solar is inefficient enough without adding in avoidable reductions in output. Far better to use 'solid' ones and mount then a couple of inches above the roof to get an air flow under them. As a matter of interest the maximum output of panels is usually on a bright frosty winters day (assuming you have Sun) It may seem counter-intuitive, but solar panel efficiency is affected negatively by temperature increases. Photovoltaic modules are tested at a temperature of 25 degrees C (STC) – about 77 degrees F., and depending on their installed location, heat can reduce output efficiency by 10-25%. As the temperature of the solar panel increases, its output current increases exponentially, while the voltage output is reduced linearly. In fact, the voltage reduction is so predictable, that it can be used to accurately measure temperature. As a result, heat can severely reduce the solar panel’s production of power. In the built environment, there are a number of ways to deal with this phenomenon. How to Reduce the Effects of Heat After the module technology is selected for an installation, there are several ways to minimize the negative effects of high temperatures: • Install panels a few inches above the roof to allow convective air flow to cool the panels down. • Ensure that panels are constructed with light-coloured materials, to reduce heat absorption. • Move components like inverters and combiners into the shaded area behind the array. Another source of similar information : https://solarcalculator.com.au/solar-panel-temperature/

Come on admit it ………… you just want the MG badge don't you?

Your wish is my..

This is a friendly forum where folks try to help each other - and my post was intended to be helpful - especially as new folks coming on here have a mix of experience and knowledge. .

??? Eh - no!

For some that is the point, to use the equipment as efficiently as possible.

"How do you clean cratch covers?" "What size prop do I need?" "What size engine do I need?" "Cruiser / Trad / Semi-Trad: pros and cons" "Cassette vs. Pump-out: pros and cons"

here's an FAQ. How does a topic get so far off-topic so quickly and how do you get it back on-topic, without you appearing to be the rude one?