MikeV

We looked at about 20 new boats at Crick in 2006 and short-listed four builders. We went to see one builder to discuss my proposed layout which I was unsure would work in practice, so sought his advice. He said that before we build it we'll layout it out on the workshop floor in masking tape and then we'll let you know if it works! We then decided that perhaps a second hand boat would be better where we could see what we are getting before we bought it and gain some experience in what works for us. We looked at one boat before seeing and buying Whych Way which we have now owned for 5 years. It was 7 years old when we bought it and was built buy our top choice from what we saw at Crick, but a new boat from this builder at the time would have been beyond our budget.

This kind of generator needs to run at a constant RPM to generate the 50Hz of a mains voltage so would not be suitable for connection to an engine while cruising unless the Sterling Combi is insensitive to the mains frequency. I'm guessing that engines designed for connecting to a generator like this this would have a governor which would maintain constant revs as the load changes. I'm sure others will know.

Just to be clear, are you referring to a Travel Power system? i.e. essentially a high voltage alternator and a box of tricks that delivers 240V with 3kW capacity? If so, my main reservation would be it is more complex and expensive than a simple alternator and, if it fails, it is more difficult and more expensive to get it repaired. As for charging the batteries via the Sterling Combi, it would do a good job. Also, even though you say you won't be running the engine when stationary, it does give you mains power for other appliances without hammering your batteries.

There is usually quite a lot of floating rubbish and you'll probably go over a few underwater speed bumps but, TBH, I've never had worse than a few carrier bags round the prop although I've been through Burnley and Blackburn many times. In fact the worst prop fouling I've had on the L&L was between Bank Newton and Barnoldswick (the prettiest section) when I got a thick plastic agricultural sack round the prop.

Do you have an ammeter and voltmeter? The first thing would be to know what current the batteries initially charge at when you turn the engine on, and then what the final charging voltage is? It does sound that the alternator is small compared to the battery capacity but making major alterations may not buy you that much as the current taken by the batteries rapidly falls as you charge. I assume your objective is to reduce the overall charging time?

We did it at the end of April from east to west. We thought it was much improved on the east side compared to when we last did it in 2009, albeit going in the other direction. Despite having several days where we were locking in torrential rain and suffered from the vicious by-washes, there were only a few paddles so stiff my wife couldn't do them, and no problems with leaking gates and low pounds like last time. There were a few shallow pounds however, despite the levels being high. The west side however was has probably slightly deteriorated since 2009. Even after the recent heavy rains there were low pounds and several very stiff paddles. The worst problem was shallow pounds where, when passing another boat, both of us virtually came to a dead stop even though there was only a foot between us and we were in the centre of the channel. Getting a carpet wrapped around the prop which took 45 minutes to cut off whilst on a low pound didn't help either. We also had to pull the boat through a bridge hole as it kept getting stuck on fallen masonry and I didn't fancy attempting a high speed passage with potential damage to the prop. Standedge tunnel staff were great as ever and I thoroughly enjoyed the passage through doing it in a leisurely 1h40m. A boat a few days earlier had apparently done it in 1h15m, but TBH, I enjoy the experience - who wants to rush it! If the west side were upgraded like the east, the pounds dredged and more places created where you can more at the edge instead of 2-4ft out from the bank, I think more people would use the canal. The scenery is fantastic!!

I was on oilstoves.co.uk website the other day and in their 'Tech Manuals' section they have installation manuals for various stoves some of which are specifically for marine installations. You might need to look at a few different manuals to find one that covers your situation, but IIRC the one I was looking at was quite comprehensive and covered the various materials and spacings.

I wonder if there will soon be a source of second hand Li-ion batteries, and if they will have any useful life left for us boaters? Around 6-7 years ago a company I worked with was supplying Li-ion batteries to mobile phone companies for backup power supplies in remote transmitter sites. The higher initial cost of the batteries, compared to lead-acid, was justified on cost of labour to replace them at the end of their useful lives. The expected life of these batteries was supposedly about 7 years vs. 4 years for lead acid. They must be just coming up for replacement!

Yesterday my crew were having to cross streams flowing across the towpath into the canal. The by-washes were really vicious and I got one completely wrong and bounced into the lock off both sides. My Tilly hat, which keeps the rain off my glasses, reached saturation point during one of the torrential downpours in the afternoon and rain started dripping down my neck. Overall though, once I'd peeled of the waterproofs, the rest of my clothes were reasonably dry underneath. Still, only 27 more locks to go up to Marsden then we'll have a nice long tunnel to keep us dry!

I stand corrected! The river is "in the red" on the level board and the sign says "Do not proceed" in these conditions. It's now only an inch into the red so it has dropped a bit since yesterday. But, with more rain forecast for tomorrow, if we don't get away today I think we could be stuck for a few more days. The boat in front of us has already spent two nights staring at closed flood gates. As for insurance, the only relevant clause I can find in my policy says the insurance will not pay out for "wilful misconduct or acts of recklessness". I assume they would argue that proceeding while the river is "in the red" was reckless! Ho hum - time to polish some more brass I suppose!!!

We've done two river sections in the last couple of day where the river was on yellow/orange boards (Proceed with Caution) as we left the canal section onto the river and we proceeded with no problems at all only to find at the next lock, before we came off the river, the level was in the red section. In both cases I would describe the conditions as perfectly benign with only about a 1mph flow on the river. We're now stuck behind a flood gate which is closed against the river ahead. The level is about 2 inches into the red but we can't open the gate against the water level on the other side. The other pair of lock gates are chained into the open position so we can't lock up onto the river. I guess we'll just have to wait until the river drops and makes a level with the cut. I've watched odd bits of debris floating past and I'd say the flow is no more than 1-2mph and it's not even that far to the next lock off into a cut. Whilst there is obviously a river level at which boating becomes more perilous the current levels, which are definitely nowhere near flood conditions, seem to be very conservative.

There are quite strict safety requirements covered by the Boat Safety Scheme on the installation of gas appliances. Wherever possible gas appliances should use air from outside the boat and return the exhaust gases outside the boat and be sealed from the interior. Obviously gas hobs and ovens are an exception. Diesel heating is much more common on boats with Webasto, Eberspacher and Mikuni, among others, other being popular heaters. Best of all, however, is a stove which can burn wood or coal, although diesels versions of these are also available if you don't like the hassle of cleaning them out.

So long as you gave Beta Marine the engine/Woc number their records should tell them what driveplate you have fitted. If you've got the DS15 that is good. I talked to a guy from Centa at a trade show and he thought a DS15 would have been more suitable for my setup. My feeling is the DS10 isn't stiff enough.

Mine is similar, but only 4 buttons (corks?). I have the earlier BV1903 (43HP) engine and PRM150 with a DS10 drive plate. Search for Centa DS10 and you should find the CF-DS-10 pdf. The picture on the PDF shows the general layout and the four "corks" round the square centre section. They take the initial turning movement before the outer lugs hit the buffer rubbers. It is a failsafe system and so it is probably just the four "corks" that need replacing. As for replacement, my engine configuration is a pig and it's never taken less than 4 hours to replace the driveplate by a marine engineer.

Likewise I'm planning a (return) trip along the HN this year. I downloaded the Boater's Guide from Waterscape and it said the canal would re-open April 1st.

Check out the RBOA. They have a book called book called Living Afloat which would be a sound investment.

Do the IWA know how many of their members are boaters? I doubt they do. I certainly know a number of active IWA members that don't own boats. I'm also surprised by the low number of total voters. I expect this is why the IWA did so well. Those IWA members that do own boats would have been more aware of the the election and more motivated to vote. It would seem there are a lot boaters that don't take much interest in how the waterways are run, or perhaps they just don't care!

Perhaps it's heating the skin tank? Helps keep the canal around the boat ice free at this time of year!

IMHO, provided your domestic alternator is reasonably sized and matched t your battery bank size, combining alternators has little effect. I have a 90 amp Prestolite alternator for 440Ah of domestic batteries and a 70 amp alternator for the starter battery and bow thruster battery. I can combine them but unless the domestics have been heavily discharged down near to 50% state-of-charge I see very little benefit. On a typical morning after perhaps using 60-70Ah of energy overnight I'll see an initial charging current of around 50-60amps but this drops rapidly to perhaps 40 amps after an 30 minutes, to 30 amps after an hour, and perhaps down to 10 amps after 3-4 hours. Unless you have a bigger battery bank, smaller alternator or your batteries are more deeply discharged then adding the second alternator will make little or no difference. What you really need is visibility of what is going on. For me a Smartgauge + an ammeter are essential. If you have a 3Kw inverter your ammeter should be rated at 300 amps minimum, but a digital ammeter that accurately reads down to a few amps is also essential to monitor individual loads.

Looking at the picture I'd say the fin rads don't have mush chance of providing heat as I can't see any no cutouts at the bottom. This picture from the build blog of Syncopation shows a better installation with cutouts at the bottom and top. Mine are the old style with a slotted metal cover which is open at the bottom although I fancy boxing them in at some point as I think it looks much nicer.

OpenStreetMap? You can download SVG or, if you're really nerdy, you can down load the OSM files and draw your own maps. Here's one I did earlier...

Now he's gone can I mention my new laser drill that can make perfectly round holes in bits of steel. Ideal for boaters needing to screw on additional bits of equipment. Unfortunately it needs a very skilled operator so you'll have to bring the boat to us for any holes that you need. The accuracy is far greater than anything you can achieve with a standard drill and the holes are perfectly round to an precision of 3 picometres. Who'd like to test it? First rule of marketing: understand your customer's need!

It sounds like you may have two problems. Firstly my Webasto gets the radiators too hot to touch, so if yours is only getting the pipes warm maybe your circulation pump is not working? Is the Webasto continuing to run, or is it shutting down after say, 5-10 minutes running? Secondly, how many metres of fin rads have you got? I've got 5.6 metres which according to me are only providing 1880 watts of heating. My fin rads are supplemented by 3 other radiators, two double panel and one single. That gives me a total heating capacity of 5343 watts. This is on a 55ft boat, but even so it takes a couple of hours to bring the whole boat up to 20 degC on days like these when the boat is cold and has been sitting at, or around zero degC.

Try Cox Automotive (www.coxautomotive.co.uk) at Atherstone. They looked at a Mastervolt inverter for me but deemed it beyond economic repair. They have repaired my Electrolux/Dometic generator twice.