Dave_P
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Posts posted by Dave_P
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Currently on sale. Ends today. More expensive but PSW and well regarded.
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3 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:
It can run a hair dryer happily.
Which is also a resistive load. However, see post #9 for experience of a Silverline 2000w on an inductive load.
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I have a 2000w Silverline bought on Amazon years ago for just over £100, probably a bit more now. It served me very well for many years running vacuum cleaners of both wet and dry varieties.
I now keep it as a back up for a Mastervolt PSW.
I would recommend.
I also have a mega cheapo ebay 2000w MSW and it's junk. Bought for about £30. It's very small, very light, tiny thing cable coming off it, going straight to a built in cigarette lighter plug.
I would not recommend. I wouldn't trust it to run anything more than a laptop.
All cheap inverters are not the same.
Edited to add:
Dry vac - 1400w
Wet vac - 1200w
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31 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:
Moor against the flow so you don't risk clattering into the downstream moored boat.
That wasn't the point being made, I refer you back to my previous comments.
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8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
No. I wasn't single handed, but I do single hand at times.
I would use the bow rope.
I have a very clever device that holds your line, hooks onto rings and feeds the line thru and back to the boat.
Draw along side the ring you want to tie up to, 'hook-it' keep hold of the line and slowly drop back, tie off the line to a stern cleat when the bow is aligned with the mooring ring and it is moored without leaving the boat. You can now get off & sort out the lines 'properly'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zhPsTtLy4c
Go on - admit you want one !!
And if there's only enough mooring space for one boat?
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16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
By approaching bow into the flow, you can hold the boat motionless against the flow.
You're advocating leaving the boat in forward gear while abandoning the controls to tie your lines? Which line would you try to tie first? The stern? - then you risk the bow being whipped round while you're trying to secure your line. The centre or bow? Then you're leaving the helm unattended by some distance while you scamper up the side to tie. Either way, you run a genuine risk of losing the boat, which, remember, you have just left in forward gear with no one at the helm! I love to know what an insurance company would make of that!
Your other option, would be to hold the boat motionless against the flow, grab the stern line, then go into neutral, and quickly tie the stern on, and run up to the bow end to tie there. On a fast river, this just wouldn't work - the boat would be carried downstream as you tried to tie it.
It's clear from your post that your Trent experience was not while single handing.
I'm not trying to whip up an argument, but can you explain how to safely moor, facing upstream, when single handing?
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I can only speak for my boat which goes pretty much the same speed in forwards and reverse. I would suggest that if the river is running fast enough to prevent your reverse gear from being effective, then you shouldn't be moving, because that would mean you have no way to stop the boat when travelling downstream (like being on a runaway train). So we're kind of agreeing. However, if your reverse gear is sufficient to stop the boat, then I stand by what I said: when single-handing it's easier, and safer, to moor up facing downstream.
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12 hours ago, nb Innisfree said:
So to summarize:
Travelling forward upstream - step ashore with bow line.
Travelling forward downstream - step ashore with stern line.
Travelling in reverse upstream - step ashore with stern line.
Travelling in reverse downstream - step ashore with bow line.
Or:
Step ashore with line from the upstream end.
This is good advice. The standard advice is to moor facing upstream. I would question that advice for single handers (such as in this case). If you're a single hander and you try and moor pointing upstream on a fast river, you'll step of the stern with a choice of stern or centre line in your hand. Neither of these are ideal, especially if the current pushes your bow back out into the river. It sounds like this it what happened in the OPs description.
Much better to come alongside the mooring facing downstream and come to a halt using reverse gear. In many cases you can loop a stern line over a bollard and tie off at the stern without even stepping off the boat. Then you have all the time in the world as the boat is going nowhere. Even if you have to get off the boat, you can quickly get your line round a bollard/ring/cleat and make things secure. Then you can tie your bow at your leisure.
If you have crew, then things are so much easier as you can ensure that the skipper stays on board.
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1 hour ago, Rob-M said:
Have you not noticed the date...?
Don't ruin it!!!
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If it stops some of the reckless steering of some day hire crews then it’s a good thing, surely?
More info here:
http://waterway-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/hire-companies-to-introduce-driverless.html
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21 hours ago, Wittenham said:
the inside of the dartline was built out by someone with very little skill. It has a car engine in it, paving stones for ballast, rusted out gauges, a little bit of polystyrene insulation, no 12V system, and 'interesting' levels of workmanship and finishing. The sliding top doesn't, making for an interesting experience in case of fire. I would expect to gut the interior and start over again. If the hull is sound [and I can understand what the right price is for the mooring].
My boat has a van engine in it, polystyrene insulation and paving slabs for ballast. Thankfully it has a 12v system too- phew.
Seriously, what kind of engine did you expect on a 30 something year old narrowboat, and what type of ballast?
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21 hours ago, Jerra said:
I wasn't going to bite because anybody who truly believes teachers, hours are cushy is basing it on the mid 1950s or early 60s at the very best!
Most (probably all) teachers will work longer in a year than somebody on minimum legal holidays (5.6 weeks) and 40 hours per week.
However Mrsmelly does appear to want to be in the mid 50s with everything measurement, being out of Europe so I shouldn't be surprised he thinks it is the mid 50s.
This is quite correct. Around ten years ago I looked into doing a PGCE with a view to teaching science at secondary school. I was advised to spend some time in a school as a kind of work experience placement/classroom assistant thing. I was truly shocked by how hard the teachers had to work, how many hours they worked - until late in the evening and weekends routinely. Basically, they were all suffering symptoms of stress and had little in the way of a social life or outside interests, they simply didn't have time and were too tired. I didn't become a teacher but I have utmost respect for those who have, it's hard and largely thankless work and to be on the receiving end of such derogatory and ill-informed comments must be absolutely gutting.
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I've only ever gone down the lock. Sharing with another boat and having the lockie do the work made it a very relaxing experience.
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9 hours ago, widebeamdream said:
planning the boat to address water/toilet/power in a way to replicate as close as possible life not on the river is the idea i have of covinving her and myself lol
The methods you use to convince her are not relevant. The fact that you need to convince her is the problem. Please think very hard about this. You seem keen on a boat. She doesn't. This situation usually ends badly, as most of us boaters have seen it happen time and time again. No matter what you do to try and address things, a boat will always be a boat. You are making things even more 'boaty' by not taking a mooring. A far better option would be to take a serviced mooring (electric, water) and then try some extended cruising while knowing you have your mooring to return to.
9 hours ago, widebeamdream said:planning the boat to address water/toilet/power in a way to replicate as close as possible life not on the river is the idea i have of covinving her and myself lol
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In your first post you wrote: "i am convincing the other half...."
This is your problem, right there. All other issues can be addressed, but if one of you needs "convincing" then it's likely to end in tears. Liveaboard continuous cruisers should love it, and I mean really, really, really love it. You should both dream of boats in your sleep, be excited if you see a narrowboat or canal on TV. Otherwise, you'll never be able to deal with all the downsides. The constancy of things breaking, running out of gas in the middle of the night, lugging coal around in the pissing rain, dragging toilet cassettes to the elsan (or that day when your pump-out tank starts leaking), being stuck together in a small metal tube - the list really is endless. Those of us here who are liveaboards, do so because we absolutely love it and all the damn nuisances which come with it are totally outweighed by the sheer delight of being on a boat. If one of you doesn't share that sheer delight, don't do it.
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What makes you think the owner is in any way interested in selling? If you're paying a fair bit in rent, why would they want to sell for 3-4k? Until, you've even found out if the boat is for sale, then this is all moot.
That said: If the mooring is in Bristol then that could be a rare and valuable thing if it transfers with the boat. The boat itself is a different matter, it sounds like the condition is so poor that it's actually making you ill by living in it. Look at it this way, say you were offered this mooring with no boat and then you went looking for a boat to buy. Would you be interested in this one? If not then, try and buy the boat with the mooring, then save as hard as you can before selling the boat and buying something more suitable for living on, and before you sink many thousands of pounds rectifying the issues with this boat.
A friend of mine bought a boat with a transferable mooring in South Dock, London. They had no interest in the boat at all and promptly sold it. They bought a boat they actually wanted in Cheshire (they sell cheaper up north) and had it brought to London on a truck for them.
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19 hours ago, Sea Dog said:
Good find! There were moments when it looked as though some of the points might not really apply to narrowboats, but they all did in reality!
Mods: perhaps this ought to be a "sticky"?
I'm not sure they all did. I have as much clothes storage as I did before. I find my boat slightly easier to keep clean than a house. I still shower daily. The main similarities were around things breaking and costs.
9 hours ago, mrsmelly said:And still people dont believe us when we tell them its cheaper to live in a house............boring yes but cheaper.
Possibly, but the boat is a lot cheaper to buy.
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Where can I buy these magical 'Vince Batteries' now?
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23 hours ago, Halsey said:
All good many thanks - any solutions to summer outdoor drying and mounting rotary driers??
I have a t-shaped tube section which fits over the end of the swan's neck. The rotary washing line slots right through it and stands on the deck boards (cruiser stern). Works fine.
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I was paying £30ish a month to EE for 50GB. I was out of contract to I rang up to see what they could offer. The 'helpful' lady said that 50GB was £60 a month now but they could reward my loyalty by reducing it to £41 per month. I said, but I'm only currently paying £30. There was a long silence. I put her out of her misery by saying "thank you, I'll go back to Three then". I've now done that and got my price down to £21 per month including unlimited Netflix!
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2 minutes ago, Halsey said:
So that's where CRT's skeleton staff have got to.....................
A truly rib-tickling response.
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Just now, tree monkey said:
Same in Cov.
it's not MrSmellys fault it's that chap Nightwatch, his ecofan has broke down and it's no longer moving all that hot air
Nightwatch's broken fan is simply another symptom of the jinx caused by MrSmelly.
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A good covering here in central Brum. I still blame MrSmelly for all this.
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12 hours ago, dmr said:
You have now discovered the two major disadvantages with non slip surfaces; they get dirty, they are not easy to clean.
.............Dave
I go for the alternative arrangement, normal surfaces and extra grippy shoes.
Which el cheapo inverter?
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
I'm afraid to say that this looks like one of the junk ones. I may be wrong though. I'd advise scraping your pennies together for the Sunshine Solar one. A far better product.