p6rob

I'm terrible at reversing but manage most of the time and seem to have less mishaps than people who rely on the bow thruster, especially when they find they've drained the BT battery before completing their manoeuvre and then have no clue how to recover the situation. One of the few places I need to wind and reverse is Cambrian Wharf. Sometimes things go really well and I seamlessly manage to wind the boat on a sixpence and reverse into one of the spaces without touching the sides, other boats or pontoon and step off, rope in hand like a pro. Other times the boat seems to curve all over the place, I miss the winding hole, have to fend off the boats and generally make a pigs ear of it. I've been intending to do a boat handling course for the last 7 years, Maybe next year it'll actually happen. Rob

If the batteries are fully charged, it sounds like voltage drop through too thin cables, or a high resistance connection. As a test, try running an extra pair of positive and negative cables from the battery to the heater. If it then runs, either make the new cables part of the install, with an inline fuse, or replace the existing ones with thicker cables. Rob

As soon as I found out about them, I've only used goat chains or rings, except when we randomly tried tying up before the start of the 2018 BCN challenge somewhere with no rings or armco. I found my stakes, unused since 2011 but not the hammer which I hid sometime ago because my son had an annoying habit of hitting things with it. Peter X and I knocked the stakes in as best as possible with a 1" spanner iirc, so pretty badly, however they held all night with some passing traffic. Would mud weights be of any extra benefit if you have to use stakes? Rob

There's been a few boats moored for longer than overnight recently, just above the top lock. Don't think they came to any harm. I moved from Birmingham to Knowle over the weekend. The elsan was in a terrible state, mainly because it's been blocked up and seeping sewage into the bin area. Spent three hours on Saturday trying to clear it up, then reported it to CRT and they're getting in touch with the contractors to fix it. Apart from that, it's quite a nice place. My work backs onto the canal about 600 yards up from the top lock.

Hi Stefan, Not specific to matt black paint but generally speaking you should stick to the same manufacturer for the primer, undercoat and top coat. I'm using Craftmaster rust treatment, primer, undercoat and top coat on my cabin bilge at the moment. Not sure if they sell matt black off the shelf but I had them mix me a small pot of a specific RAL colour in their signwriting paint for an old car I own, which arrived next day so presumably matt black wouldn't be an issue. They're very helpful both online using their contact form and over the phone. craftmasterpaints.co.uk Rob

Thanks everyone. Mind back at ease now. I do have a wet and dry vac but not one I want to chuck, however, there does seem to be quite a few on ebay to choose from, around the price of a pump out, so that could well be a viable alternative. Rob

Hi, As part of refitting my boat, I'm removing the unused pump out tank. Before my ownership, the boat had a dump though toilet which had long since been removed and the porta potti sat on top of the tank with a plate over the dump through hole. I've now discovered the tank is about 1/3 full of at least six year old bodily fluids and is a bit too heavy to maneuvre without risking spillage. If I reconnected the pipes, would it pump out successfully or will the hole where the toilet should be cause an issue? In my head, pump outs require vacuum to work but now I'm wondering if it's just a suction pump pulling the liquids up but then how do they cope with solids. The tank sits low in the boat, so not sure how I could successfully siphon it into portable containers for elsan disposal. Also, if anyone wants a stainless steel dump through tank there's one available very soon, currently in Cambrian Wharf with or without existing contents. 🤢 Thanks in advance Rob

I'm guessing I've missed some excitement! The floor still isn't sorted that's for sure. I've got all the boards and joists but it's been an experience cutting to fit, finding the board wouldn't fit through the door. Taking it back to my mother's to cut, returning again finding it would fit through the door but needed a bit more shaving off, etc. Replacing the floor without removing the side panels is proving to be an endurance feat with at least a few more weeks to complete. Rob

It's a job to tell and unfortunately those are the most rotten joists and literally fall apart when you touch them but from what I can make out, the extra bits are the full height of the joist. I don't think so. The amount of work that would have gone into fitting them at that stage wouldn't have made any sense.

It has been proving quite difficult. The most frustrating thing is my boat is in Lapworth, right by Curtiss' timber yard and pass it everyday going to work. I can see the stuff I want, neatly stacked at the side of the road but they are shut. Realistically, I can just wait a bit longer to order the wood and spend longer cleaning, prepping and painting the metal.

Thanks for the replies. There were four reasons for the standing water. A long term leak from the hose to the bathroom sink taps, which I fixed when I bought the boat six or seven years ago. The shower tray having a crack, which will be replaced as part of the refit, the pipework to the carolifier, which I'm not convinced is fully cured at the moment but as it'll all need to be disconnected to fit the new floor, will be. Oh and a partial sinking when the base plate had a hole in it, that one has definitely been fixed! I'm attempting to buy the wooden joists today. Rob

I'm stripping out the interior of my boat to replace rotten floors and joists. The joists are 75mm x75mm what type of wood should I use? Are fence posts adequate? Also on some of the transverse beams it looks like 12mm x 75mm pieces had been screwed to both sides, why would that would be? Would it be better to get 100x75mm posts to replace them? The boat has had a lot of standing water in the cabin bilge for some time, so a few of the joists have been squidgy enough to pull apart by hand. It's a job that I've been wanting to do for a couple of years but a frozen shoulder has prevented it until now. Thanks in advance. Rob

Thanks. I suspect I'll just keep replacing the batteries every couple of years until li-ion controllers become affordable but might take these ones into work and use their fancy charger to see if that perks them up a bit first. The isn't much electrical stuff in use. If all the lights are on they draw under 3 amps and the lights might be on for six hours per day in winter, The water pumps run for about 15 minutes a day in total. Phone charges overnight but the internet dongle is always plugged in. On the rare occasions I use the TV, the engine tends to be running, same with vacuum. Only really use the laptop on its battery. The diesel heater gets used about 30 times a year when the weather is chilly but not worth having the stove going. Fridge and water heater are both gas.

Sorry. It's a battery question. Since moving on the boat about 6 years ago, I've had to replace the batteries every two years. Up until the last set, I always bought sealed maintenance free lead acid as I didn't think I'd be regimented enough to keep an eye on acid levels, two of the three batteries are difficult to peer into the filler holes. Getting on for two years ago, I thought I might be better at maintenance, so bought 3X 110 batteries. Initially I was fairly good at checking the levels but as they never needed topping, that soon slipped to 3 or 4 months between checks. Yesterday I checked them for the first time in probably six months and they still don't need any water adding. They have however lost a bit of power. This isn't a major issue as I don't really consume much, the lights are LED, I occasionally run a vacuum from the generator but the engine is usually running at the same time. Whenever I've fitted new batteries the Smart Gauge tends to show 13.2 volts at rest and after about two years this drops to about 12.8v. What I've noticed is at night, when there's no solar the diesel heater won't start because of low voltage. When it's doing it's start up sequence the Smart Gauge shows volts are around 12.3v. The heater is not a marine one, so I understand why it won't run. When the batteries are tired if it's a bit nippy but not worth getting the stove going, I'll run the engine while the heater starts up to keep the volts high enough. Once the startup has completed, the engine gets turned off and the heater will run for several hours quite happily. Getting to the point. During winter I charge the batteries from the engine at about 1200rpm for an hour or two every few nights and about six hours at the weekend. During the sunny season, the two solar panels do the charging through an outback mmpt controller. Is there a setting I should change to make the charging more aggressive and if so, with proper maintenance, would that make the batteries last longer than two years? I don't necessarily think replacing batteries every two years is bad but when I hear of people getting 5+ years, Having never had to top up these batteries makes me wonder what they do differently. Cheers Rob