George Kennedy

could you post the link please?

I heard that the future of solar panels is pv-t. Apparently solar pv panels lose efficiency as they heat up, cool them and they maintain maximum efficiency. Cool them with water and use the heated water to produce domestic hot water and you get the best of both worlds, efficient generation of electricity and hot water, pv-t meaning photovoltaic - thermal. Any thoughts???

Athy said that he hadn't suspected the presence of furry rodents in his computer. No mouse Athy???

We have a boatman stove and although we burn various mixes of wood, coal & turf during the day, only use coal for overnight. It doesn't seem to matter which brand as long as it's not house coal of course. We normally rake the fire and fill the grate with a couple of layers and let the coal catch about 20 minutes before bedtime. Once it has caught we close the air vent comletely and then turn it back half a turn. 7 or 8 hours later and it usually just needs a bit of a rake and some more coal as well as opening the vent up again and it's away. The trial and error comes with the fine adjustment of the vent but once you find the sweet spot, it's easy.

It's a tricky one but here's my tuppence worth. Buy through a broker but 'interview' the owner. The boat that you want to buy was someone's dream once and you will usually find that they are surprisingly honest. If they seem a bit evasive or you just don't like them, don't trust them and move on. It might not seem very scientific but I think that it's as good an approach as any.

Smith & Jones went into administration on Thursday.

I agree with nicknorman, the led indicator will tell you about any fault but consult their website for more info. http://www.mikuniheating.com/Marine.cfm I have found them to be very helpful with spares and they also do a service whereby you disconnect and send your unit to them and they will service it and return it to you.

Better hurry up before you have no fingers left to type the letter or dial the number

I've had this one http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4062116.htm for about five years and it cost me £50 from Argos then. I bought it for exactly the same reason as you and it works a treat. The wheels are loose packed in the box for self assembly which is perfect because you should leave them off otherwise the vac has a tendency to roll around which is not good with the deck boards up!!! If memory serves me right, it has a 1200 watt motor.

At £2.19 delivered, it looks like a worthwhile purchase to me. All you need to do is to understand the relationship between the display and the voltage across the battery bank. Ten minutes with a voltmeter connected to your domestic battery bank would verify the difference, if any, between the voltmeter reading and the reading on this device when 1. the engine isn't running, 2. the engine is running at tickover speed, 3. the engine is running fast enough to let the alternator push out its maximum voltage. The worst that can happen is that there is no useful correlation between the two, in which case you have wasted £2.19 and ten minutes of your life. Less than the price of and the time it takes to drink a pint, something that most of us have done on more than one occasion and not really regretted it. Buy one and let the rest of us know how you get on. hear hear, well said Jeff.

The antenna is here http://www.co-star.co.uk/prod/3517/panel-mount-base-and-cellular-antenna-whip.html and the connector that you need for the same dongle that I use is here http://www.co-star.co.uk/prod/2910/fme-male-crc9-male-antenna-adaptor.html. Let me know how you get on with it. George

Interesting to see the wide variety of broadband packages available. One of benefits of the setup that I put together is that a sim from any provider will work without having to change any settings. If you have an unlocked dongle or mifi, that isn't always the case. It's always worth having a backup sim from a different provider for areas where reception is poor or non existent on the main provider's network. The beauty of this system is that changing provider takes just a few seconds with no setting changes since the interface is on the router and not on the dongle.

Each provider has many packages, just check their websites for the deal that suits you best.

We have a two year contract with "3", £15.98 per month for 15GB.

I know that the whole mobile broadband on board has been done to death on here but I thought I would share the details of my own setup which includes an antenna and a router for just under £100. If you are interested, I have published an article on my blog which you can read about here. http://www.applebeesfarm.co.uk/?p=733 Feel free to ask about any aspect of the project.

Why have a cake if you can't eat it? Great thread, a topic that is close to many of us.

Our boat has a curved roof. I bought the Maplin kit about five years ago and after a bit of frustration with the various fixings in the box, I bought three magnets that are the same size as the suckers from ebay. The magnets are ring shaped inside a stainless steel cup type cover and that cover has a hole drilled in it. All I had to do was to remove the suckers, drill out the hole that they plugged into and then bolt the magnets to the mount. I've only had it blow off the roof once since then and that was in winds so high that it was impossible to get a picture anyway. This ebay ad is the same sort but I can't remember if it's the same seller. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ferrite-Low-Cost-Pot-magnet-50mm-x-10mm-c-w-8mm-Hole-18k-39-Lbs-Pull-2-99-/230886963630?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35c1ef79ae

As this is the 'Waterways holidays' forum, it's probably safe to say that most people would be making plans to travel from A to B. Unless of course the trip is on a Welsh canal where the plan would be to travel from A to double L

Hi Ange, fortunately we don't have the complication of being liveaboards. We do, however, plan to float off in about four years when I retire and although our boat could work for us, at 52' it's probably too short. A bigger, newer boat would be preferable but we would want to sort everything out well in advance while we still have a base on land. A big thanks to everyone who has responded, it's clear that the best course of action is to secure the funding, find the next boat and then when that has happened,get Phoenix III up for sale.

That's what made me wonder if there was some sort of way that the brokers had devised to facilitate buying and selling. The simplest way of course is to have the funds to buy the replacement boat, even if it means borrowing the difference between the value of the old and new until the old boat is sold. A bridging loan if you like.

hi, I have a question regarding the process of buying a boat. It might be a bit of a stupid question and it may have been covered before so apologies in advance. We have a boat and have started thinking about buying a bigger one to replace it. We have a budget but we would be relying on money from the sale of the current boat. It seems wrong to make an offer on a boat without having all of the money in place but waiting to sell our own boat could mean missing out on that "ideal" boat that might appear on brokerage somewhere. At this stage the question is hypothetical, our boat is not up for sale and we haven't found our "ideal" replacement, I just want to know what the usual protocal would be. Thanks in advance for any advice.

If you look at this document http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/drafts/pp-craft-tiin.pdf everything is explained. HMRC are prepared to allow marked diesel to be used in pleasure craft as long as full duty is paid on the propulsion part, that is the split that the purchaser declares and as we all know they have left that in the hands of the purchaser to declare. They have also, after consultation, come to the conclusion that a 60:40 split is acceptable to them. The EU don't have a problem with the split, they have a problem with the use of marked diesel which normally means rebated fuel. The correct solution is for waterside retailers to sell only 'white' diesel and this satisfies EU rules. The issue then is that HMRC have to decide on whether to allow boaters to declare a split as at present and run the risk that the 'white' diesel finds its way into motor vehicles or more likely to allow purchasers to pay full duty and then claim a rebate for the fuel used for domestic purposes, creating an administrative burden for themselves along the way. My own preference is that HMRC take full duty for white diesel, calculate their preferred 60:40 split and give the difference to CaRT and yes I know that is opening up a whole new can of worms but why not? The EU would be satisfied, it would be easier for the retailers, HMRC would be happy and CaRT get extra revenue and in some cases from people who don't normally contribute.

It's about keeping a low profile really.

If you buy red diesel at a filling station you buy it 'as is' with reduced duty, ideal for the winter time when one is static. In summer the diesel is for propulsion mainly anyway so if filling at a waterside location and one has to pay full duty, it makes it about right. As for a 20 litre can going far enough, you're right but then there's no restriction on how many you can buy however I would advise against buying more than 80 litres of red diesel at a time from any location if you are paying reduced rate.