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musicman

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Everything posted by musicman

  1. If running costs is an issue, then I think that solar thermal would provide an abundance of piping hot water. The downside is that this option is only viable from April to Sept!! We have solar thermal at home and it is fantastic. Many, many deep baths provided courtesy of the sunshine. Cheap to install evacuated tubes and pumping station - just need a coil to run it through a storage cylinder to heat the water. Simples.
  2. I agree - my windows let more light in than portholes, but they are not so aesthetically pleasing
  3. I attended your course Tony about ten years ago - excellent weekend and I still have my annotated handbook to refer to. Invaluable source of information. Thank you!
  4. Just posted a question in Cruising - as we are due to come through this section later this week. Any chance you know how long the section is likely to be closed? Philip
  5. Hi I received a notice from CRT about the river section of the Trent and Mersey at Alrewas being closed until further notice. Can anyone tell me what is the chance of this being opened again later this week? I am working my way up the Trent and Mersey this week from Shardlow. Thanks Philip
  6. I got one this morning! Thanks for clarifying what it is
  7. I put a Smartgague in our boat three years ago and have never looked back - it does what it says on the tin. Never once has it let me down and we have NEVER run the batteries down too low and been without power. It has my vote every time! Simple to install, simple to read, and simply great!
  8. A sump type shower emptying thingy-majig. You know the sort that has a float switch at the bottom that always gets stuck and a small bilge type pump that never empties the tray fast enough - so inevitably it overflows into the bilge because the lid is not sealed and you spend half an hour to an hour bailing out the lowest point into a bucket (or three). Definitely don't want one of them ever again. Give me a gulper every time!
  9. I did this job about ten years ago - identical bearing. And yes, I did need a puller and a very heavy lump hammer! The tiller collar was tapered on mine and no amount of hitting/shocking it would shift it. I shall be eternally grateful to another boater who moored near us who had far more patience and tenacity than I had. We eventually had to cut the old bearing off the rudder with an angle grinder. Removal - difficult. Fitting a new one was simples by comparison. Philip
  10. Hi Traveller I used http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/ Git a great deal including a reasonably priced MPPT controller (EMPO-NI) at 99 pounds. We just use solar to keep the leisure batteries charged and cruise just a few weeks a year. Philip
  11. If you can, isolate the valves at each end of the radiator. Then, with a shallow bowl ready to collect any water they contain, undo the union coupling (the big nut nearest the radiator body). Water will come out - but only the contents of the radiator itself. Once empty, lift the radiator off it's brackets and take outside. You need a fair amount of water pressure, but hold the rad so it is upside down and fill from the rad coupling at one end until the rad is full. Then watch what comes out the other end - usually lots of very thick black water! One it runs clean, turn the rad the right way up, allow to drain empty and do the exercise again. Once this rad is re-fitted, proceed to the next one in line and repeat the process.
  12. I am wading in behind the Bose Sounddock as well. I've had mine years and the sound quality is awesome. A really great piece of kit - I am not sure how Bose get that kind of quality out of such a small unit as this - but as a musician that is VERY picky about the way my music sounds, this is quite simply the best. Although I agree that the dock change is an issue, mine allows you to plug in any device through a mini jack plug, so you're not just stuck with one particular iPod or phone - lots of other sources can be attached, including my aged Sony Mini Disk player!
  13. I don't understand the comment made to you about your Alde heater. I have an MPPT controller and run a Smartguage alongside it. I have all the information I need.
  14. Quite a number of years ago now I made a generous box to encase the engine and lined it with foil-backed soundproof sheets. The sheets had a heavy membrane as part of their construction. It wasn't cheap, but the difference was incredible. I found that at the tiller, what had been a noisy boat was now much, much quieter. Long cruising sessions were a much better experience as a result. The exhaust on my boat is still fitted with a normal silencer - I guess the next step to an even quieter engine would be to fit a hospital silencer.
  15. We have four brass portholes from Procast - excellent finish and as others have said - very solid
  16. Still on track for 16 May according to Julian in the office yesterday. Hoping to get a crane on site next week to life the gates back in, providing the concrete has cured sufficiently. The there will be work to do on the cills before the piling is removed. All this is "weather permitting"
  17. Needed to get underway before I could source the new sender unit. Now here's the thing - I spotted that the loose male spade was attached with what looked like a rivet head. Took a small hammer, tapped it a few times until the male spade was tight, reconnected the cable and "Hay Presto" the temp gauge works perfectly again. As my Father-in-law (a mining fitter) always used to say - "If in doubt, give it a wallop with a hammer"!!
  18. Fired up the engine yesterday to visit the tap for a top up now Spring is here. The temperature gauge was flickering wildly, so once the hosepipe was running, I came astern to investigate. It turned out to be the wire connected to the temperature sensor at the front of the head (close to the fan belt). The spade terminal on the sensor was dirty, so I cleaned it. Then I realised that it felt quite loose too. Once I reconnected the wire, I fired the engine up again and discovered that the "looseness" of the terminal seemed to be the problem, not the poor/dirty spade connector. I am assuming that I will need to replace this item sooner rather than later. Is it just a screw thread into the head? Is there a specification for the replacement that is common to all BMC's or different for the 1.8? Thanks for any advice. Philip
  19. Hi. I had vibration in the rudder when underway and it became necessary to replace the bearing that sat on top of the back deck to cure the problem. It turned out easy to find a replacement bearing - they were (are) common in the mining industry. Getting the old one off proved much more difficult than I had thought - I ended up using a grinder to cut through the side of the bearing. Fitting the new one, however, was a piece of cake. And my problem was sorted. Took a long afternoon to do the job with boat in the water. Philip
  20. If the problem is a summer problem, then why not think about solar thermal panel as an option? We have oooodles of hot water from a solar thermal panel on our roof at home - though you would need a spare coil in your calorifier to connect it to. I seem to remember someone on here rigged one up as a DIY project a couple of years ago. Just seemed to me to be a different way of solving your problem without resorting to either using diesel or electric to raise the temperature of cold water. The sun does it for free (once you have paid for and installed the new equipment required)
  21. Starter has been stripped and requires serious attention. Actually, I think it will be cheaper to just buy a new one. Thanks for all your comments
  22. Thanks. I know you're right about the logic - the engine DOES run well - whether cold or hot. It must be electrical - I'll get the spanners out and take a look at those connections this weekend.
  23. Hi I've been pondering what to do about a problem that surfaced this summer whilst we were cruising. It is a BMC 1.8 that starts from cold OK after 20 seconds or so on the glow plugs. The starter battery is a year old and well charged. On more than one occasion this summer, we stopped for lunch (as you do) and when I came to re-start the engine, it was like the engine was really tight. The starter sounded like there was no power in the battery. The engine turned slowly and didn't want to fire up. More than once, I was thinking that I might need a push start!! or a tow!! Voltage on the starter battery consistently above 12.5v. I was thinking about removing the starter motor and taking it to someone for inspection - but the more I think about it, this seems an unlikely problem, since the engine always starts from cold with no issues. Any thoughts/suggestions?
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