Robbie Barr

Thanks for all your very helpful replies, pretty much summing up what i thought. I'm taking no responsibility for this, it's only been in for a week if that (has just under 7 hours on it). Just like to do some research of my own. It's being looked at on monday, I did notice the thin plastic pipe from the pressure cap has melted where it sat against the engine block, this may be the first problem.

Just had a new engine installed (Canaline 38) and it's a beaut. It is a great engine, however within a few days or running it (yet to cruise) at about the 3 hour mark of idling, the pipe (i'm assuming from) the skin tank came off pissing coolant in to my bilges and causing the poor engine to run dry, overheat and cut out. I assumed that when it was installed the jubilee clip wasn't tight enough and re fitted the pipe (rubber hose on to a metal outlet pipe) put the hose on as far as possible so that it was past the flange and tightened the jubilee clip as far as it would go. I couldn't even try ripping it off. I refilled the engine with coolant as per the engines instruction manual and ran it, she was fine (thankfully no head gasket damage) and I let her run again checking every ten minutes in the engine bay. Again at the 3 hour mark roughly this pipe ripped itself off and all the coolant spilled out. Does anyone with a better knowledge of engines than me know exactly what it is that's causing this amount of pressure to built up? Thanks!

Since overplating my boat sits considerably lower in the water. My survey recommended removing ballast, however as an old Hancock & Lane it has a poured concrete ballast. Does anyone on here have any experience with messing with this? If so some advice would be great on how best to tackle it.

That's really interesting Bowten. Thanks for the advice.

It is believed that the Shanks was in some way warped and ate itself to pieces over time. Interestingly about two months after the three year guarantee expired. Barrus were possibly the rudest people I have ever spoke to on the phone about it, no interest whatsoever. The Canaline is based on either a Mitsubishi or an Isuzu based on size.

My BA15S/D have come from Bedazzled or Baddie. Both are great. however Baddie is a boat based outfit so I can only recommend them more!

Thanks for the reply re: the bacteria I shall be bleaching tomorrow fiercely I had a dead mouse in the wall once in the insulation. Messy, smelly. Awful. Got in through the mushroom vent. Nasty.

I spent a month or so away from Peg for work and to my horror discovered someone had undone her cratch (which doesn't have drain holes). There was awful water up to the door, luckily it never breached. However now it's drained. The steel floor is a lot rustier than it was and the smell is truly awful. No amount of cleaning or airing out is shifting it. Can anyone recommend a solution?

After six months of finding out why my awful Shanks engine had blown up it's finally new engine time. This week my new Canaline 36 goes in. Very excited! To anyone looking for a new engine, I can't recommend a Shanks ever but I will let you know my experiences with this new company.

Hey all. Currently moored up on The Oxford in Jericho. Between 3-6pm today my Honda genny was stolen off the deck of my boat. If anyone is offered one can they let me know by emailing robbiebarr at me dot com thanks.

Thanks for all the help on here. Just an update, I re-cabled today and it's working flawlessly. In case anyone is interested, the unit is an 18.5in Logik unit from Comet I got for £110. It consumes 23w at 3a. The unit is tip-positive. Cheers!

I thought the same, the telly is small!

Normally I expect cabling to be two core, but coming off the DC side of the adaptor the cable had a white core then a bare cable next to it. Is white neutral?

Thanks for the replies. The TV is 12DC at 5A. Is it indicative of anything if, when I wire it the other way and the breaker doesn't trip BUT nothing happens at the TV end except for a small spart at the dc plug terminal?

Hey y'all. I did a whole bunch of reading up on people who have just chopped off the ACDC step down on their 240v LCD TV's and figured I'd give it a go. Wired about 20ft of cable to a spare outlet on the distro, wired TV into that. Put a 5A breaker over it and plugged TV in. Nothing happened, just the fuse blew. Am I missing something? I have no way of checking if the TV still works on 240 until tomorrow. Advice?

Perfect, thanks Alex!

Hey there y'all. Wondering if anyone can shed some light on this for me. My boat has a 240v ring installed with RCD that is fed from my rubbish inverter that was terribly installed right behind my flue pipe so it's just there to suck power and overheat whilst providing nasty modified-sine power. The RCD seems to plug in straight to the 13a out socket of the inverter. I have a lovely EU20 that I use for all my 240 needs but it's messy having the cables trailing from the deck. What I'd love to do is 1) install a weatherproof 16a socket to the exterior of my boat 2) get rid of the inverter and wire the input of the RCD to the 16a socket I've just installed instead of the inverter 3) assume that by doing the above i can then just cable the genny or shore power to the 16 and have that feeding my 240 circuit. Is it really that simple? It seems too simple haha.

Thanks for all the suggestions! It was the 90CM depth that has been putting me off but that small ikea one at that ridiculous price is perfect!

I'm looking at getting a sofa for my little boat from Nabru. Does anyone have any experience with these or can someone recommend me an alternative?

That's great, thanks for the info and link! How do you find it's working out for you, are your batteries staying nicely topped up. What about in the winter?

Aha yes I apologise again for newbie questions. I have come into two Sharp 12v 250w Solar panels. I am looking at using them to keep my domestic battery bank charged. I'm figuring that one panel into this http://www.stecasolar.com/index.php?Steca_PR_10_30_en to the battery bank (and apparently to a load. I assume this can be a nightlight). Is as simple as it gets. Now I was wondering if I want two panels up and i connect them together, do I then get double the voltage, double the amps or double the watts. I think I know how this works I just want a second opinion.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. It's a shame that those switched downlights are so ugly (and not in brass haha). But it seems like they are currently my main option. Appreciate everything, what a great forum.

You know what. I am 23 and living on the canal. I have a very nice, tidy and clean boat, a great job, I look respectable and keep myself to myself. The most disappointing thing about moving on to the canals is the attitude I get from snooty Daily Mail reading boaters who view me with suspicion because of my age and looks (I have a baby face). Funnily enough the only trouble I have ever had on the canals wasn't from the scallies but has come from the angry older boaters who go too fast, feel like they own the place, act like I don't know what I'm doing, crash into my boat then blame me and leave their dogs cr*p in bags on the towpath. Not to mention overstaying on 48 hour visitor moorings for weeks in their 70ft beast. Plus I would like to point out that sinking that boat took a lot of effort. And in my experience petty vandals are really, really lazy. This leads me to feel that this is probably revenge.

Thanks for all the useful info. I agree with posters above who point out that my boat is my pride and joy. I don't mind spending £20 on a switch when I am only looking to buy one switch for the main cabin lights initially! I will follow my initial question with another. I want to wire the cabin light switch in to the panel in front of my distro and fuses. The 10a Fuse on the left takes out all my lights. I've worked out some of the other fuses but none of the lights go out individually. Does this mean that all the boats lights are wired in one circuit. If so (excuse my novice questions) is it going to be a nightmare to get some lights on a different circuit so I don't have to have all on or all off? Does that make any sense?

I am about to change my boat over to LED down-lights from incandescent bulbs in the old brass dome fittings with their own switch. As I need to install a switch for this set up I was wondering how 12v lighting was wired. Can I just use a standard light switch?