IanD

Some of those shallow lock ladders are really rather dangerous, especially if wet and slimy -- I've had a foot slip off a rung before now, though I had both hands on the ladder so didn't fall off, others may not be so lucky... 😞 Deepening the recess while the lock is out of service anyway seems a sensible course of action to me, though no doubt the "nanny-state/elf'n'safety/it was good enough for the ODGs" brigade will disagree.. 😉

But the RCR doesn't currently say a fat lot in detail about electric propulsion and LFP battery/system design -- and even if it did, it probably wouldn't have stopped this fire happening, assuming it was a combination of a component problem (battery/BMS/firmware) and a system design/configuration/setup problem (insufficient BMS integration, wring choice of setup for charger). Which is seems is what happened, even though this boat was "professionally" designed and built -- and the builder presumably thought it was fine and safe (though they were mistaken...) and presumably signed it off as compliant. The fundamental problem is that it seems there are only two ways to build a truly safe LFP/BMS system -- the first is to build it entirely from components from a single supplier (e.g. Victron) who have designed all the bits to work together properly and thoroughly tested them and locked down critical settings so users can't mess with them, the second is to rely on the skill of whoever put the system together from disparate components to make sure everything is done correctly and set up properly -- and then on the user not to mess with it, if it's not locked down so they can't do this. The second case can be done by either professionals (e.g.. Finesse) or knowledgeable amateurs (e.g. @nicknorman ), but the problem is that it's pretty much impossible for any BSS inspector/checker to verify that they've done properly this without a deep understanding of all the possible components/programming and a deep dive into system settings. And in that case the real problem is distinguishing systems put together safely by such "experts" from ones put together less safely by YouTube posters -- or possibly the firm who built the ABC boat, given what happened and what has been said about "reconfiguration" making the day boats safe again. Which rather suggests that the way this is going -- probably driven by insurers, and ignoring the fact that this still only happened once and there are thousands of boats out there where this hasn't happened -- is going to be a requirement for either "professional" installation (which is likely to mean some kind of examination/certification process to stop the ABC problem happening again) or a certified inspection regime, also by those qualified to do it. That's the way that ABYC is going in the USA, and presumably ISO/RCR will go here. Even a system from one supplier (e.g. Victron) will need signing off, since there's still nothing to stop it being built with unsuitably-rated components (e.g. cables/fuses) by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Maybe this could be done at a reduced rate compared to a "home-brewed" system which will need much deeper and more time-consuming investigation, but it'll still need doing. All this does seem like a level of overkill for one incident compared to all the other accidents -- some fatal, which this wasn't! -- that have happened on boats over the years, but unfortunately it's the way that insurance companies often react to new technologies -- they only look at the new risk even if this is very small (which it is here) while ignoring the fact that they're happy to insure boats built with old technology which is familiar but far riskier... 😞

And many narrowboats have inspection hatches into the diesel tank, which we're also told are compulsory? None that I've ever seen, though I'm sure there are *some*... 😉 What @David Mack says above summarises the real world situation, as opposed to the ideal one that seems to exist inside the head of @Alan de Enfield -- I doubt that there's a single narrowboat on the UK canals that meets every single clause of the ISO standards, and possibly the same for the RCR. That doesn't mean that there are tens of thousands of terribly dangerous boats out there and that everyone should worry that their boat might sink or explode -- or even both -- so long as the essential requirements that really *do* affect safety are met. For example a dodgy gas installation or lack of CO alarm (on a boat with a stove) really could kill people, a boat lacking a fuel tank inspection hatch or COL regs navigation lights (or without labels on the fuel/water fillers) poses a risk so close to zero as to be unmeasurable. Worry about the important stuff, not the trivial... 🙂

Alan, the authority on all things regulatory... 😉

You're always very quick to accuse boatbuilders of fraud with blanket terms like "many" -- perhaps you could provide names and evidence so either boaters can avoid them or they can sue you for libel, depending on whether what you say is true or not? And before you say that you only post things that are true, I'll just say "patents"... 😉

Maybe ABC should tell them then -- if they know what to change to make the boats safe, they must know what made them unsafe and presumably what happened as a result... 😉

Another useful/interesting titbit -- I was told today that after reconfiguration*** of the boat setup by Victron and the battery supplier, ABC were able to send the electric day boats out again safely. The obvious conclusion is that it was errors in the configuration which allowed the fire to happen unsafely... 😉 *** don't know if this is just different programmed settings (e.g. voltages/alarm setup/BMS settings) or physical changes to the system (e.g. CANbus control/monitoring) or firmware changes (e.g. BMS).

I think the L&L has been more badly hit by closures in recent years than almost any other popular waterway, and it's effectively isolated from the rest of the system for hirers so you don't have any alternative places to go if there's a problem -- so it's not surprising that the hire companies there have been hit harder than elsewhere, where there is usually at least one alternative route from base to choose from. Shire Cruisers are in the same position, except there are no other hire bases anywhere nearby so they're a lone voice in the wilderness if there are problems -- so it would be doubly a shame if Nigel sells up, unless somebody else takes over Shire as a working concern rather than closing it and selling off the assets. Which would unfortunately probably be rather attractive financially compared to carrying on against the odds... 😞 Having said that, all the closures this year must have massively affected the hire business, and given that nobody ever got rich by hiring out canal boats and quite a few of the long-established companies have ageing proprietors it wouldn't be surprising to see more closures soon, maybe even before next season starts... 😞

A nice summary...🙂 I'm not that surprised at the amount of pull from the motor -- it's almost fully loaded so must be drawing something like 3'6" and the canal there isn't very wide, so it'll be pulling a *lot* of water backwards past the hull and then inwards at the stern, with a correspondingly big pull on any boats it passes -- even having slowed down somewhat. On the occasions I've had a similar boat (or pair) pass me -- whether cruising or moored -- I've certainly noticed a much bigger side pull than from normal shallower-draft boats. Presumably this is also why I've seen pins pulled out afterwards from badly-moored boats, leaving them drifting across the canal -- I've had to stop and re-tie them before now... 😉

So do you do gender-neutral calling nowadays? Most callers now do, especially the younger ones... 😉

Nope, I'm saying that somebody is blaming the boater and saying they could have avoided the problem with clever steering when already up against the wall, and they're wrong. That's exactly the subject of the thread, isn't it? The best option would have been to steer on past the motor and butty instead of pulling over, but it's understandable why they didn't try that -- though not, it seems, to those who seem unable to put themselves in somebody else's shoes as opposed to their own perfect-boater ones... 😞 P.S. Before bringing up your "as usual" accusation, perhaps you ought to look back how many times you've had this same little dig at me in the past... 😉