Leaderboard

OK, so move complete... no wind this morning but a lovely bit of rain ? I think I was overthinking it! Got it off nicely, managed to avoid any use of a pole and got up and onto the trailer with reasonable ease (wasn’t expecting to be doing that bit either). Even left myself enough time to have a little potter up the river and back, first U-turn was fine, second I may have ended up with a few low hanging branches getting a light trim ? It’s quite amazing how just a few mins have enough of a feel. Slow makes you feel safe but it definitely doesn’t steer as well. Feel like I got a good feel for the power needed to have control. Definitely did back heavy to the right in reverse too. Thanks again for all the advice. Turns out I’ve got a bit of work to do on the underneath ? no doubt I’ll be posting more for help on that too.

OK I will put my oar in, but others may have other ideas. Typically, those bolts go right through the hull, head upwards and once the keel is fitted the heads are glassed over. I am confident that if you look inside the boat you will see the GRP "domes" covering the bolt heads. Although with a bit of luck the glass will secure the bolt head I would not do it that way. The keel itself is drilled and then the bottom is counter bored to fit the nuts inside the keel. In some cases the bottom then had steel D section screwed over it to minimise wear but I would not bother. You may have to remove the engine, then with the boat out of the water and properly secured/chocked high enough to drop the keel off. Using an old plane iron or old wide chisel cut all the GRP domes off the inside of the hull and clean and abrade all around the arae ready to take new GRP. Undo the nuts and drop the keel off. Use the keel as a pattern to cut a new one. Typically, they seemed to be soft wood. Jack the new keel into position and drill down through the bolt holes in the hull and the remove the keel and counter bore the bottom. At this stage you may wish to prime and paint the new keel. If you wish to apply sealer to the top of the keel, jack back up using a couple of bolts dropped through widely spaced holes as guides. Fit NEW keel boats and nuts and tighten. Bronze of brass might be a good idea but I am sure iron or steel would do for this application. Degrease the inside of the hull using acetone and the re-glass over the nuts taking care to pack the GRP close to bolt heads to maximise your chances of undoing the nuts in the future. Hope that helps.

Get yourself a proper 3 stage battery charger. My alternators are both supposed to be 70amp which is already low output. But I've never seen more than 44 amps on my battery monitor from the one that charges the domestic bank and that's with an external battery regulator. Without it the output is even less. In contrast, with my 70amp battery charger I get a maximum of the full 70 amps

If you are full time liveaboard then 2 years is good, and as you say you are not fully recharging often then 2 years is really good. Just carry on as you are and replace them every two years, and get the cheapest you can find. Have you got room for any more? A separate engine starter battery is a very good idea and will last for many years. Most low cost batteries are rated for only about 300 cycles so getting 3 years is going to be difficult. You could run the engine more, or get a little genny, but would likely still only get two years out of the batteries so just carry on as you are. .............Dave

Based on the limited information then yes, almost certainly over discharging and under charging, especially in winter. Over discharging uses up cyclic life so you get internal shorts while under charging causes loss of capacity because of sulphation. On no account rely on any sort of state of charge meter on a solar controller. Its fine to use the battery voltage reading when rested and off load to assess state of charge. A larger capacity will not help and paying more for a possibly higher cyclic life will do you no good unless you can get your batteries 80% fully charged every day and all but 100% charged once a week. So buy cheap duel purpose batteries and use the money you save to address battery monitoring and getting them fully charged.

The yard will be all set up for putting the epoxy on and might even have a lower paid less skilled worker to do it. If you DIY you will need to supply your brushes, paint kettles and maybe a power stirrer etc etc. You might need to get a friend in to help and need to feed and beer them as a reward. You are also getting them to do half the job (shot blast) and you doing the other half which can lead to "misunderstandings". However its good if you can be present during the work to keep an eye on things. Find a proper coverred dry dock, some yards work outdoors and say that the surface tolerant epoxy primers are ok with a bit of rain, but I reckon that is very much a second best approach. ...............Dave

Just a quick post to encourage anyone exploring the River Witham to definitely make the trip up the Sleaford Navigation to South Kyme! Currently relatively free of weed and decent enough depth until the moorings in South Kyme. Moorings are good and although it is narrower and slower progress from here to the first winding hole still well worth the trip! If you can get the stern into the winding hole the current takes the bows round fairly easily, although it is getting a bit silted up. South Kyme is a pretty village and locals welcoming. Apparently the local vicar is a waterways chaplain and does services aimed at boaters if that's your thing. Also one of the few places residents have said to me they want to see more boats visit, and been offered a fill up with water from a house here too! Just needs more boats to keep the channel clear etc

Cutting the bearer like that is a bit crude. It would have been better to have shortened or moved the skin tank,or angled the end to miss the bearer. But in structural terms it is just insignificant. The angled inlet (not outlet) is unusual, but I can't see any problem with it.

Using Vactan as a primer for blacking is not standard practice, maybe its not a good idea? If it was a good idea it would be standard??? The boat has pitted due to the limitations of blacking, so if the blacking is just replaced then the pitting will continue. It is generally believed that epoxy stops the pitting dead. There is some debate about the economics of shot blast and epoxy, but if the boat has a lot of pitting there is no debate....epoxy is the way to go ? .................Dave

The lead sulphate that is produced during discharge can be readily converted back to spongy lead and lead oxide if recharging is carried out promptly. If not, the amorphous lead sulphate becomes progressively converted to a hard crystalline form that is very difficult to convert back as it is essentially non-conductive, and the longer it it left, the worse it becomes. Batteries are available that can cope with being left in a discharged state (Nickle Iron and Nickel Cadmium for example) but they are not cheap, are normally more bulky than a lead acid battery of the same Ah capacity, and their cost means it would probably be more economical to buy new ordinary batteries every few years. In the mid 1980's I did investigate getting a NiCd battery for our motor home, but found that one with the same Ah capacity as the existing lead one cost ten times as much, so not a viable option.

Good thing I realised this was a joke, else I'd have got all bent out of shape. Middle, middle, aisle of Lidl

Well unless you improve your charging regime all you are going to do is kill more expensive batteries. The solution is to conduct a power audit and once you know how much you use you can plan your recharge capability to cover it. You probably (typically) need to run your engine 3 or 4 hours per day and 6-8 hours each day on a weekend. Other options : Take a mooring with a shore line electric supply Buy a generator In the shorterm it may be cheaper to scarap your batteries every couple of years, but longer term having the correct recharging systems will save you money. Option 4 :

I have researched this in the past, and there was quite a bit of commercial traffic on the Avon between Christchurch and Salisbury up to about 1730. It was navigable by 25 ton barges. There were believed to be 10 navigation cuts made and three locks dating from the early 1700's. Only one or two of these cuts are visible today. Essentially, as the navigation was abandoned in 1730 it's doubtful these locks would still be in operation in the early 1900's. After 1730 the course of the river was altered by man made water meadows, but small pleasure boats continued operating along it's length up to at least 1907. There was even an annual regatta in Fordingbridge that ran from 1889 to 1928. After 1907 fishing rights and landowners stopped boats operating in the lower part of the river at Ringwood. Today much of the river is 'reserved' by fishing clubs, however the original 1664 act of navigation has never been repealed. So in theory you are allowed to navigate it. Occasionally a local kayaker/canoeist will paddle it's length. A number of portages are required due to weirs, and usually much abuse is received by local landowners and fishermen with threats to call the police etc!