DandV

Shell Oil was two pot epoxy coating the inside of steel pipes and tanks for aviation fuel in New Zealand sometime prior to my involvement starting in 1980. I think a lot of these coating systems were developed for North Sea Oil platform duty in the seventies.

Our folding poo/gas bottle trolley bought a 110Ah starter battery back on a bus from Halfords deep up Edgeware Road when the starter battery chose an ill oportune time to die when we were enjoying 7 days mooring in Paddington basin.

We drank the water from the stainless steel boat tank for years, Didn't miss the plasticisor residues from bottled water

It worked on our boat for years without problems. Did have adjacent dog legs on both intake and discharge. Only ever had one minor leak when the pump came unscrewed from the base so the intake connection became misaligned.

I remember buying a litre bottle of wine at a motor camp in Italy in the mid seventies. The refundable deposit on the bottle was more then the cost of the contents. After a shared litre of the contents, I can't remember the taste, but I can remember the effect.

We had a prv that continually dripped, fortunately it was piped to a skin fitting. No amount of twiddling the red knob fixed it. Replaced with new, the old one did have a scoured brass seat. The drip though was then replaced by a gush every time a tap was opened. I thought I was in for a new pump especially as when I was in a chandlers some one was buying a new flo jet pump because his new shur flo was exhibiting exactly the same symptoms. Fortunately an ABC mechanic showed me the unmarked and undocumented pressure adjustment screw on the end of the pump. Turn it one way the gush was continuous, the other, the bursts disappeared and the new prv was tight. Every thing was still working four years later. Lessons: PRVs have a life. The release pressure of PRVs is fixed, but is not precisely it's rated release pressure,, our new one was softer then the original. Once installed though it maintained it's set pressure. The pump may need it's operating pressure readjusting to match the new prv. Once you have found the adjusting screw under the pump end cap it is not difficult. This is a lot cheaper then buying a new pump, and hoping the new pump is adjusted to match the prv pressure. Piping the PRV to a skin fitting is desirable because it is visable, when it showed signs of a runny nose time to tweak it's red knob.

"when roughly will the usability of a diesel boat come to an end?" Probably far more important is when does the OP think his own usability will come to an end. My guess is a diesel powered narrowboat boat in good condition now, and kept well maintained will outlast the OP in viably boating, both should last for many years though, but not at all if they never get started.

A new diesel engine properly maintained has a service life of 10000-20000 hrs. So for a continuous cruiser who actually cruises say a life of the next 10 -20 years. Diesel will go up in price in that time, but will certainly still be available. What ever replaces that diesel engine will still need a propeller and some sort of motor on the end of the prop shaft in the engine hole on your boat. My bet is the replacement will just be another diesel. Certainly in the lifetime of the existing diesel engines, it is extraordinarily unlikely that the canals will be equipped with a network of either electric charging stations or horse stables. For those thinking that solar powered boats will take over we will have to relocate earth a lot closer to the sun because the limiting factor is the limited power received from the sun per square metre of panel normal to the suns rays. Panels will get more efficient but they cannot pass on more then they receive. Don't let diesel apocalypse get in the way of enjoying boating.

An advantage of this, is that future CRT licences will also be on a 1st Jan renewal date, so each year prior to 1st Jan you just need to decide if your intended next year's cruising includes EA waters, then buy a gold, or otherwise just stick with a standard licence. No refunds or paying for unused EA time involved.

Dam the coffee, where is the beer?

We replaced the gas fridges and a heap of candles with 800w of solar, a Victron combi Inverter and a bog standard 230v 300l fridge freezer and led lighting. Brilliant, but the new fridge was noisier then the gas units. Went from changing a 9kg bottle every ten days to every two months for cooking.