Dave_P
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Posts posted by Dave_P
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40 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
She already can, I have had one
Maybe it's 2 posts now?
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More questions: who is running it? Will the BCNS be a bit more involved this year? Will there be entry and scoring options for walking/cycling?
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I've split this off into a new thread.
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I'm moored in the centre of Birmingham at the moment. You're welcome to come and film my boat. (She's been on telly before and quite liked it).
Kate - once you've made 5 posts on the forum you can send private messages to other members. This will help with arranging things.
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26 minutes ago, bizzard said:
I need one of the those plug into the mains USB chargers to charge my 3 Wi-Fi dongle's battery as my old laptops double USB port is now faulty. It has three but I don't want to use the third one because I use it for downloadung from my camera and what not. The laptop is working fine wirelessly from the dongle but of course its not charging it at the same time and I have to use my windows 10 notebook to charge it. The question is are all the plug in USB chargers the same and won't bugger up or blow up my 3 wi-fi dongle.
No they are not all the same. In simple terms, if you go to Argos, Tesco, Currys etc and get a branded charger it will cost you upwards of £10 and should be fine. If you go on ebay (or to a car boot) and buy an unbranded charger for about £1.50, it's likely to be junk and may well damage your gear.
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Post which led this thread astray have been hidden. I’ll say again - if you want to discuss your political views then this forum has a place for you to do it.
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Please note: I put this in the general boating section and not the political section. This thread is about a website designed to encourage CCers to vote, and to discuss the lack of voters in that group, and why. This is not a thread to discuss reasons for voting a certain way. There's another section for that.
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9 minutes ago, NB Caelmiri said:
I may have to invest in a third panel. I think my controller should handle it. Planning on building a roof box so that could be the ideal opportunity to get a third. Where I tend to moor up on the L&L is pretty quiet anyway, rarely see another boat.
How many amps is your controller rated for?
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3 minutes ago, NB Caelmiri said:
As a liveaboard with two sizeable panels, come the summer my engine runs once a fortnight only, for when I leave my visitor mooring to go elsewhere. Or less than once a fortnight if I choose to leave sooner. I'm usually good for this from around April until almost October, so basically 6 months of not running the engine to charge up the batteries.
Same here except I have 3 big panels so I manage around 8 months of not needing to run engine for battery charging. Currently I'm still getting a reasonable amount from my panels but not enough to manage entirely on. I'd say I have an 8 month 'solar season', 2 month 'shoulder season', and 2 month 'engine running season'. During those darkest 2 months, it's not difficult to find a mooring away from other boats, since the canals are pretty quiet from 21st November - 21st January.
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On 04/11/2019 at 17:45, Arthur Marshall said:
It was there when I bought mine, too. But then, we all had 12v TVs, a couple of fluorescent lights, gas water heater, solid fuel stove and washed stuff by hand in the sink. The difference now, when most people seem to run the engine to power their TV screen, microwave or washing machine, is vast. And, in one case on an otherwise peaceful day at Tixall wide, when I asked the bloke next door if he was going to run his engine all day (after three hours of it) so he could run his business in Australia from the computers on his boat. Yes, he said, why, is there a problem. No, I said politely (because it was between 8 and 8), and buggered off. What used to be a really nice place to stop for a day is now more or less unbearable.
So yes, we deal with it. But it's ruined the cut as a quiet place, and very hard now to find anywhere to moor where the sight of another boat tying up doesn't fill you (some of us anyway) with dread. I can see why houses along the canal complain to councils about noise and pollution and why mooring places are cut back. There are more liveaboards with more facilities, more hire boats with the same who don't know or care about the guidelines.
There are perfectly good reasons for it (and for the newcomers, of course, it's the norm) and I'm glad everyone is having a nice time. But I'm not so much any more - for me, after thirty years of it, the endless noise pollution is mostly what will force me to kick the boating habit. And you usually can't avoid it just by moving, because mooring places are not that frequent any more, and on virtually every one is someone with a perfectly good reason for running their engine or genny.
Strange. This isn't my experience at all. In fact, my experience is that it's gone the other way in the last 10 years. There seem to be more boats about overall but the proliferation of solar panels makes for far less engine running than I remember.
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On 04/11/2019 at 13:21, Alway Swilby said:
I'm sorry it didn't work for you. Maybe the bollard is faulty or things have changed since we were there in spring 2018. This all sounds very frustrating.
As you say, you are trying to keep down pollution. For this reason I think CRT should install lots more electric bollards at visitor moorings, maybe with an easier payment system such as an account number and pin topped up on line. But I suspect CRT think more along the lines of "Don't make the moorings too popular, people will only overstay".
This is what I've said in my email to CRT. I'd disagree with your comment about overstaying. At the moment, having only a very few electric points on visitor moorings makes those extremely desirable and therefore likely to encourage overstaying. But if it were the norm on VMs around the country, there really would be little extra incentive to stay if you knew you'd probably have electric at your next mooring place.
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14 minutes ago, sirweste said:
This would be me, usually if I'm moving then the batteries will have been run down on the couple of days preceding; either because I wasn't home between 8-8 or because I didn't want to annoy whoever was moored locally.
Upon arriving at the new mooring I will often leave the engine running or get the genny out. However I do feel guilty about causing a noise for my new neighbours. Unfortunately it's necessary for these pesky Pb batteries.
In effect the move I've done is unlikely to be sufficient to fully charge the batteries so some running upon cruise end is required
Me too. I'll frequently move my boat on for an hour or so after work. Set off about 5. Moor about 6. Turn off engine about 8.
With regards to the OP, I'll wager the 8-8 rule was in place when you got your boat. That's the rule - deal with it. The marvelous thing about boats, is you can move them if you don't like it where you are.
For me personally, when I know I'm going to run my genny, I look for a place with some existing background noise (by a main road for example), or a place completely away from everyone. That's just trying to be reasonable. Sometimes such a place is hard to find though.
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1 minute ago, Richard Fairhurst said:
The Diglis berths work on the Rolec system. You put the card in (as purchased at the little chandlery) and it credits the bollard with all the money. The cards say "Electricity Credit Token - 5" on them, then "Insert card quickly & firmly in direction of arrows". So I doubt they'll work at Stourport from what it says above.
(I believe BWML are replacing the current system with a new "Quantum Bollard" which you can top up online, which will be a massive improvement.)
Yes, I'm now aware of that. The cards don't look like the CRT ones at all.
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Further info: Following my annoyance at Cambrian Wharf being shut yesterday, I got an email from them this first thing this morning saying they don't even stock the cards. So changed my plans again and went for the option of buying a 25 unit pump-out card from Limekiln. In spite of what Alway Swilby has said, it didn't work in either slot. It was the last pump out card at the chandlers so the possible reasons would be: the card is faulty; the bollard is faulty; Alway Swilby is wrong; the bollard has been changed in some way. I then wrote an annoyed email to various senior people at CRT, detailing another, all too familiar tale of CRT cock ups. Finally, about half an hour ago, I got another email from CRT saying they do stock the cards at Cambrian. But I'm now a broken man. I'm not returning to Birmingham for the third day running if there's any chance that the bollard is faulty. I just don't think I could take any more disappointment. So I'll be unnecessarily polluting the area around the basin for the next few days. Sorry folks. I'll let you know if you I get any reply from Julie Sharman etc.
16 hours ago, pearley said:Had to climb over. Not do easy when your in your 70s with arthritis!
Would be easy if they put a standard CRT padlock on the gate.
When you get back to Hawne say hello to Chris and Tania on Heilan Dram.
Did you try lifting off the last railing? It always used to be removable.
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3 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:
18 months ago we were stuck at Stourport waiting for the river to go down. I used a 25 unit pump out card in that very bollard. I bought the card at the chandlers who were pretty vague about the whole thing and said that they didn't think it would work. They also complained that they made no money from selling these cards and thought they might stop doing so. It did work, and there was an eject button and I've used the same card subsequently on the River Trent at Newark and at Cromwell Lock as well as on the Sheffield & South Yorkshire navigation at Eastwood Lock. In fact I think we've still got the card, waiting for the next similar bollard that we come across. There should be more of these bollards IMHO.
This is useful info. The guy in the shop said they had pumpout cards but seemed to think they were different to the electric cards. If I get one of those, I'm wondering where else I can use it? Is there a VM in Diglis which has a bollard which takes them? I plugged in in Gloucester Docks a few years back but I honestly can't remember if I used a card?
More info, the cards which they had in the shop at Diglis are definitely not the same. Maybe they've changed the bollards for the marina there?
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5 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:
We are moored there at the moment, going to fill with water shortly and then down the flight.
I saw you earlier turning in front of the top lock. You looked busy and I was arguing with the CRT fundraiser who had just told me that Cambrian Wharf Office was shut, even though it's supposed to be open 10-2 on a sunday. Wasted trip!!
7 hours ago, pearley said:We have moored opposite you at Hockley a few times although haven't been back to Brum got a couple of years now. Just one huge building site.
Yes, I used to moor sort of opposite the VM. My mooring is at Hawne Basin now. One question - was it possible to lift off the last railing at the Hockley Port VM, to get out, or did you have to climb over the fence?
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On 02/11/2019 at 00:44, dragon'squest said:
boat now re floated thanks to solar Pete's help an putty found out two holes been drilled into her at the water line thankfully no diesel leeched out and no oil was in the engine as i was in process of replacing the engine so watch out all other boater by there as some one is damaging boats for fun
have told canal and river trust
When you say Solar Pete, do you mean Pete on the boat Solar Kingfisher?
On 30/10/2019 at 19:14, TheBiscuits said:Two ways - quick and slow.
The quick way usually happens on rivers - the boat is tied to fixed rings and the water level rises rapidly higher than the mooring lines let the boat float, and it fills with water. We get reports of this happening quite often when we have a very rapid rise in river levels.
The slow way can happen on canals too - lots of rain, a flat battery and/or a broken bilge pump. Many cruiser stern boats don't have enough drainage for the deckboards so either they can't cope or the drain gets blocked with leaves, and the engine bay slowly fills with rainwater. Eventually the engine breather holes get submerged and then the boat very rapidly sinks. This is quite common too, but usually only on boats that are left unchecked for months or years.
Other fairly easy ways to sink a boat:
Weedhatch not screwed back on properly just before entering a very long tunnel. On emerging from the other end, the exhaust outlet is almost underwater. I did this!
Forgetting to tighten drippy stern gland after mooring and then leaving the boat for a few days. I worry about this.
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On 01/11/2019 at 19:01, pearley said:
I would say the one on the left too. The display says Insert Card, the Rolec one would say how much electric was remaining, even if it was £0.00.
The Westwood one looks like a Rolec but personalized.
So the one from Diglis should work.
You're the DaveP from Hockley Port?
Formerly of Hockley Port, yes. I'm popping into Cambrian Wharf today, it's supposed to be open between 10.00-2.00 and they're supposed to sell the cards.
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Just seen this online. I’m now convinced the card on the left of your pic is the one I need. They sell them in the little shop in Diglis?
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That card on the left looks just how I remember the Stourport cards looking. But the shop here insists the pump out cards they sell are different.
This is is the reader/card slot.
This is a card I have that I tried earlier. The reader just spat it back out without me needing to press a button.
Ive spoken to Maria at CRT. She didn’t even know there was a bollard and neither did the West Midlands Customer Services team who are apparently supposed to be responsible for such things. Gawd knows where the chandlery used to get the cards from???
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Left a message with Maria Osborne, moorings coordinator for the area.
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Just spoken to Diglis and they say no. The have them but they think they'll only work on their own bollards.
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12 minutes ago, pearley said:
We've bought them in the past from the small shop/chandlers at Worcester.
However, bear in mind there are at least 3 different types of card. I think the ones at Worcester are Digicard. The card reader should have an eject button.
Alternatively, of course, it might not have a card reader at all but be a MeterMacs because that's what the ones on the permanent moorings will be.
It's not a metermacs (I wish it was). This card reader doesn't seem to have an eject button. It seems quite a fancy one which pulls the card in and scans it somehow. Which chandlers at worcester do you mean? The little one behind the pub at Diglis?
You're right that the permanent moorings have been upgraded to metermacs, which is why I presume the chandlery doesn't bother stocking the cards any more. I heard a whisper that it may be closing soon, but I don't know if that's true.
BCN Challenge 2020
in General Boating
Posted
I may cycle it again this year and try and beat my mileage from last year. If I'm clever I can strategically moor my boat for the saturday night to sleep on, start from one of the railway stations and try and do most of the BCN over the 2 days, then finish at.... hang on, where's the finish?