IanD

That's true -- but also 4-20mA sensors have a standard analogue interface without the problems you describe. At least, so long as you get ones with the correct range, 0.1bar suits most tanks (full-scale is around 3' liquid depth).

Yes, it is... 🙂 (though I may well have been exaggerating for the sake of effect...)

Some of us prefer a proper shower like at home, not a feeble dribble like many boats have... 😉

If you raise something up -- via water or cables -- it gains potential energy, and this must come from whatever is doing the lifting e.g. energy supplied into a pump or motor. If you lower something back down then it loses that potential energy -- if you use cables and a brake then the brake gets hot, so if you use water then the water must get hot. So that's where the PE goes...

I wasn't thinking of you... 😉 That was my recollection/suspicion too... 😉

Is that the same one particular member who has form for doing this?

Yes, but it's the topping up the tank that makes the difference, as if you'd pumped the same amount of water from the tap straight into the canal -- where you have the shower has no effect. If you take a shower which uses (for example) 50l of water and pump it out into the canal, the boat gets 50kg lighter and floats higher in the water by displacing 50l less -- but then you put this 50l straight back into the canal, so no net change in water level, total displacement of (boat+water) is the same, all you've done is move 50l of water from inside the boat to outside. That was what Archimedes realised... 😉

Won't make any difference, all you do is move the shower water from inside the boat to outside the boat, so canal water level doesn't change...

Entirely appropriate if you're shovelling large quantities of excrement overboard... 😉

True -- but until then the opposite applies. Though to be realistic, you'd need an *awful* lot of "solids" to make any perceptible difference either way. Do you have several elephants on board?... 😉 (and if so, how did you train them to use the toilet -- or indeed, get into the bathroom...)

All of which is why I got a 10kg Kobra, plenty big enough for a 60' narrowboat on inland waterways and easy to handle -- and a lot cheaper than a Mantus... 🙂

That's not what Mr. Archimedes said... 😉

The (newish) 50A Victron Orion XS is much better than most of (any of?) the older DC-DC units, small and efficient and common-GND. It's capable internally of charging in both directions, but the software doesn't currently allow this -- Victron have said this will be a software update in future, but haven't committed to a date yet.

One of our first boat trips was the opposite, the guy at the tiller -- I won't use the term "steerer" or "helmsman" -- seemed to have a digital approach to the throttle with only two positions, on and off. Lots of noise and smoke, lots of wash, I hate to think how much fuel he burned. And not to any great effect either, we still seemed to hit things quite regularly -- landings, locks, other boats... 😞

And then there's the other review you've often posted which included the Kobra, which came out very well but isn't tested here... 😉 (every review I've found has different conclusion about what is "the best" -- depending what they tested and how) What's clear in every review is that the Danforth comes out badly -- heavy, poor setting, poor holding power. But it's the most common anchor used on canal boats (or often a "Danforth-style" copy which may well be even worse!) because it's cheap and widely available and folds flat. Most of the modern anchors are much better, though the problem with many is that they're *very* expensive -- justifiable for (also often expensive!) yachts which rely on anchors daily in what can be tough offshore conditions (including swinging at anchor), less so for most boats on the inland waterways where the most likely use is stopping on a river after an engine/prop problem or mooring on a river...

Most hire bases charge for fuel used, which after all is the fairest case. A few include it with the hire charge, which is not really fair to the lighter-handed short-cruising-hours hirers who end up paying for the fuel used by the heavy-handed cruise-all-day-every-day-with-a-breaking-wash ones... 😉 Gas is always included, the costs are much lower anyway.

Do you have a daughter, or a son with a GF? 😉 So for you on your own with consistent ablutory habits (and a cassette toilet) gauges aren't really helpful. For others with guests on board they are. Different strokes for different folks... 😉 Needlessly stopping isn't the big problem. Running out of water because you thought there should still have been enough in the tank is worse -- no washing up, no showers, no toilet flushing... 😞 Though it has to be said, not as big a problem as unexpectedly finding your pumpout tank is full to the brim, on a Sunday, on the Rochdale canal, with no boatyard or pumpout anywhere close by... 😞 😞

With a typical narrowboat hull I don't think it's possible that adding more ballast low down (or lowering it) can reduce the metacentric height, especially if the boat doesn't sit lower in the water like in the case described... 😉

Now try that with other people on the boat, who may or may not take much longer showers than you do, and do it more often. Same applies to a black water tank, except not with showers obviously. Fuel tank is the least useful because it needs refilling much less often, but if you're going to have the others you might as well add it.

Lowering the CoG should make the boat more stable and less tender, not the other way round...

You can't see the point of knowing how full all your tanks are? Really? Would you have a car without a fuel gauge? Modern pressure/level sensors don't stick.

That wasn't referring to you (post edited to make this clearer), it was the usual culprits who always think old is good and new is bad, regardless of whether this is actually the case or not... 😉 The sensors on mine are 4-20mA 0.1bar ones, which are reliable and accurate but not cheap. BTW I'd also recommend a Ruuvi tag on the calorifier... 😉

I've got level sensors on diesel, black and fresh water tanks (Cerbo + Tank 140), they all work well and I find them useful. If people want to guess or use a dipstick then go ahead, but that's not a good reason to disparage those who think gauges are better... 😉

Speaking from experience -- no, canal closures don't allow you to cancel a hire boat or ask for any money back... 😞