Tony1

Apologies if this method has already been mentioned (I think it has but I dont understand electrical jargon, so not sure): In my case the immersion heater element is powered as a normal 240v load, so its power comes from the batteries via the inverter, rather than directly from the MPPTs. It's a simpler thing to set up, but if I understand it correctly (which is by no means certain), this method has the disadvantage that because all of the water heating energy is being taken from the batteries, I am cycling maybe 50% more energy through my (lithium) batteries than would otherwise be the case. And that will probably reduce their longevity correspondingly, from say 15 years down to maybe 10 years. You also have to manually switch on the immersion heater, but tbh that's no hassle really. If for example I want to wash some clothes, I would rather do that in the morning, to give them more daylight hours to dry- so with my setup I can heat up the immersion early doors, knowing that the charge I've used will be replaced as the day goes on. From my 1400 watts of panels I can get a tank of water that is hot enough to wash in for maybe 5 or 6 months of the year. With fewer panels, that window of solar hot water will shrink- to a point where, if you have say 600 watts of panels, you might only get hot water for maybe 2 months, and even that on the sunnier of the summer days.

There are probably lots of risks that I don't plan or mitigate for, but because like you I was put in this situation (or rather, a near-miss), I do take emergency rope cutting seriously. In my case it was a helpful but inexperienced person who wrapped my stern line 4 or 5 times around a bollard in a lock, and even though I'd only been cruising for two days, I just knew it didnt look right, and that it would hang up the stern. The worrying thing is that in the stress of the moment as the rope began to tighten, the rope cutter in my back pocket was totally forgotten, and I focused on wrenching the rope back around the bollard before it got too tightly bound. Statistically, it'll probably never happen again, and it was partly caused by my total inexperience, and a large gaggle of onlookers and helpers, such that I had very little idea of what was going on. But luckily I was stood close to this helper. If I'd been advised to hold the bow line, I might not have seen what she was doing until it was too late. I can only hope that if the boat ever gets badly hung up, I'll have the presence of mind to act correctly and instantly.

I hope the OP will forgive another slight aside, but I am curious about this sailing malarkey- if I ever get bored of canals (or have to flog the boat off because of a future ban on IC engines, say). I've watched several youtube videos so I'm now something of an expert on the whole thing, and I must say it looks like jolly hard work. Very little sleep (when on a passage), even less water than on a narrowboat (so very few showers to be had even in very hot weather), you get bounced around like clothes in a washing machine and sometimes seasick, you pay lots of money to be allowed to tie onto a mooring buoy a bounce around for one single night, everything costs an arm and a leg, and everything is constantly being strained and broken by the often severe forces involved. And if you haven't set your anchor properly, the boat could drift off onto some rocks whilst you're asleep, and be smashed to bits. So why on earth did you pack it in? Admittedly I might have gotten a skewed impression about this from watching too many videos of one dashing young youtuber - called Shackleton, I believe. Terrible taste in knitwear but seems a smashing fellow. Likes ice, I gather. Ah, my dear Mr Enfield - you've made the understandable mistake of confusing my very pleasant head with the very unpleasant head that resides in the bathroom. Attaching any sort of grinder to that head would seem a rash project. Every call of nature would become a perilous undertaking. Not to mention, one imagines there will be a BSS clause forbidding the attachment of grinders to the toilet. Unless properly earthed, of course.

The angle grinder could easily be attached to the head mounted within a small aluminium frame, ready to deploy at the first sign of trouble (although admittedly one might encounter trouble of a different sort walking about with a head-mounted ginder). I was intending to put an update in that thread of yours when the epoxy's done, as I knew you'd be interested in the outcome, but I can say so far so good. The pressure washer did a pretty good job- it was helped by the fact that its not been blacked for over 3 years, so lots of places had almost no bitumen left anyway below the waterline, so the post-wash surface looked to be about 60% exposed metal, and the remainder was very thin bitumen. If you do the same pressure washing with blacking that's only two years old, you might see less of the exposed metal at the end of it, but it certainly removed any loose rust. I was concerned about some significant patches of rust I'd seen below the waterline when I was in clearer water, but the chap here says the hull looks pretty good, and he has no concerns about its state, so I might get 5 years of decent protection- although I'll probably haul out after 3 just to check. Primer went on yesterday, and hopefully first epoxy coat today, but we'll see- weather forecast is so changeable its ridiculous. The front 2/3 of the boat are sheltered by a huge railway viaduct over the drydock, but of course its still no use if the rear third is soaked by rain. Lovely spot to spend a week though, and the guy is brilliant- like many others, I'd highly recommend them from what I've seen so far. I reckon you're set up more for a zombie apocalypse than a rope cutting scenario Mr M. If it does happen, I'll probably head for your vessel. Then again, all those southerner zombies would be a right pain.

Alas no. As amusing as it would doubtless be to watch some old duffer splashing away in pursuit of his trad (and I say that as somewhat of an old duffer myself), the more civilised option is to experiment using a bit of one of those old coils of rope that we all have hanging about somewhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that there isn't a boater in the world who doesn't have at least one old coil of rope lurking about somewhere. I think the serrated edge on that will be really helpful, although I imagine a dedicated emergency rope cutter is possibly the best option- and the safest, because the blade is mostly surrounded by plastic to stop you cutting yourself in your extremity of haste (e.g. if the blade slipped down the rope and hit your hand, etc). The thing about cutting a rope in an emergency is that thankfully, very few of us have to do it in anger, e.g. with a boat hung up by mooring rope. And most people won't have tried to practice their intended technique with their cutting tool. For example, I found out in my trials of the rope cutter that very rapid and short jerking back and forth are the most effective, and if the blade drifted from the original cutting location, it slowed the job down as you would imagine. You have to get a really good grip on the rope, remembering in your blind panic not to grip the rope at a point that will remain attached to the boat, otherwise you will end up on the roof or in the drink, and possibly injured. In some of those situations eg being hung up in a lock) I imagine that literally every second matters, and cutting a rope in 1 second as opposed to 5 seconds might save the boat. But despite my cunning plan, the sad truth is that if ever happened to me (again), its more than likely that I would panic and forget all about the rope cutter.

I use a rolling hitch on a short centre line that has a mooring nappy pin on it. I can hook it onto some armco and its a great help with holding the boat still in windy weather, until I get the stern and bow ropes tied. But I do find it can bind up if left for a while, and I've sometimes had the devil of a job freeing it up when I needed to shorten or lengthen the length of the rope. Now it must be added I am a rank amateur with almost no experience, so it could be I'm tying it wrong in some way. But at the moment anyway, I would not want to reply on having to free up a rolling hitch under great strain in an emergency. If the water level really had dropped and you only realised when the boat was already hanging up and under strain, Magnetman's solution of an emergency rope cutter would solve the problem most quickly. In fact they would work even better with a very taut rope. Out of interest, I tested my rope cutter and it severed a 12mm mooring line (that was not under strain) in a couple of seconds. I think people who are relying on knives or axes to cut ropes in an emergency should test out their blade several times on a thick mooring line, before adopting it permanently.

If you're only staying a day or two, there is a pontoon next the Odeon cinema that you'll see on the left as you approach the town- that is really convenient and locked access too. Usually full, but worth a look if you're early arriving. But a few yards further on there is a high walled bank on which you can moor on bollards, although you have to step onto the bank from your roof, so not ideal for a bike. But there's always a spot there if you're desperate. But a bit further on, under the first bridge and on the right (opposite Northwich Quay Marina), there are some 14 day moorings next to some apartments, and those are pretty quiet. There isnt an awful lot of boat traffic either which is nice. Cracking place to visit, you definitely wont regret it. I've heard the northern reaches and devil's garden are really nice, but not been up there yet.

Heading much further south than Northwich is a problem as the Vale Royal locks are out of action, but tbh Northwich is a nice little town to visit anyway, and well worth the 15-20 minute cruise from the boat lift, and there are a decent range of mooring spots within a couple of hundred yards of the town centre and a couple of nice pubs.

I don't have a list myself- I'm using open canal map to find spots on the weaver, although it doesnt seem to give an 'official' name for each mooring

I'm not seeing the moorings on the Weaver marked with a symbol, or Northwich Quay Marina.

Now you're just showing off! 😀 But if you want to be a twisted firestarter (even if you dont have the Prodigy hairstyle), make sure you don't forget to bring those long matches, and suitable fuel for you preferred method of starting the fire. Many people use wood kindling, but I find that a brace of dried voles works really well in getting the fire up and running in adverse conditions. (Other rodents are available).

I did a major rearranging of my 12v electrics (installing two MPPTs and two B2Bs, plus many associated bits) and I used one of those hammer-driven crimping tools. There is the slight hassle of stepping aside to find a place to put it whilst banging the hammer down on it, but I found it worked really well. I appreciate that as a Morlock you probably prefer to involve a more violent tool like a hammer. But as a peace loving Eloi, I bought myself one of those cheap hydraulic crimpers for about £40, and I'm not at all happy with the results. In fairness, being an eloi means I'm probably not using it properly, but for me the hammer crimp made a really secure fixing of the lugs, and I've gone back to using it for my latest project of tidying up the cable runs in the electric cupboard. Also OP, you'll need a small hot air gun thingy to apply the shrink wrap insulating covers around the lug-cable joint. There are a few cheap heat guns on Amazon, and my cheap one works ok. Sometimes the insulating shrink wrap comes with the lugs, but if not you'll need a decent range of sizes. (Although if you disconnect the battery and remove a couple of cables, you won't have any power to run the heat gun, so maybe also get some adhesive insulating tape you can wrap around the lug ends). A cheap Amazon clamp-meter is great to let you know how much current (if any) is passing through your newly installed cables. And the lug sizes are a pain. I've got a decent selection now, but you don't want the job to be held up for a day or two because you need to order more lugs to fit a 35mm sq cable to an M8 post, and you've just used the last one- so its worth doing a full rundown of all the various lug sizes you think will be needed, and adding a few extra. Sometimes you find odd ones- like I found that my BEP switch has 12mm posts, and 12mm lugs were not as quick or easy to order on Amazon as were the more common sizes like 35mm cable to M8 post. Also, a cheap cable-cutting tool can be found on Amazon that will do a tidy cutting job. I did also buy one of those crimpers that seals a square ended lug around the end of a cable, for when you want to insert the cable into say, an MPPT. Another random one, but some P clips might be handy if you need to secure any loose cables onto a wooden wall. Its very contemporary for me, because I've got my BSS in December and I'm now trying to tidy up all the crazy cable runs, joints and uninsulated lugs that I hastily threw together when I first did the installation.

This is not so much a route issue, more a seasonal one, and my apologies if you've already covered it off- but will the boat have a solid fuel stove, or diesel CH? I didnt have a SF stove at first, but I found the diesel CH was ok up to about mid October - although by early November, I was often running it for up to 7 or 8 hours a day to stay comfortable, and that used a lot of diesel. But once you get into November, and especially if its a cold one, most boaters would tell you that a solid fuel stove will be much the better option.

Its possible there might be a couple of postal address tips in this thread as well:

I agree with D Hutch's suggestion- I reckon the Cheshire area is pretty good for what you want. Its not lock free, but there are seldom more than a few locks to do in a given day. The big plus is that there are so many waterways and nice places you can reach within a few days' cruise. If you prioritise the lock-free thing too highly, you might miss out on some really good options, and maybe get bored doing the same cruises time after time. I was recently on the Bridgwater and often saw the same boats thundering up and down the cut. You don't say if budget is a major issue, and if its not, then Aqueduct and Venetian marinas might be suitable. If you base your boat on the Middlewich branch, you can get up to Anderton via half a dozen or so locks (and there are often volunteers at the three Middlewich locks), and then get onto the Bridgewater and visit Manchester, and then go beyond into north Lancashire, and even Liverpool, with very few locks. Or you can go down the lift and onto the Weaver. You can also go down to Nantwich and a few miles further south before hitting a major flight, and if you have more time you can go into Chester. My way of doing it as a solo boater is to go from Barbridge to Tattenhall in one day (there are about 5 locks but its a nice cruise) , and then on the next day you can do the 5 Cheshire locks. The staircase locks will be done by volunteers if you go on the right day. On the right day there will also be volunteers at Hurlstone, so you can easily get onto the Llangollen for a while. For me, this area offers a great compromise. No huge lock flights, and loads of variety and interesting waterways. If you are ok with doing say half a dozen locks in a day, it has a lot to offer.

You've probably heard about this, but just in case: If an online mooring of some sort looks feasible and parking is the only snag, there is a parking website that I used to use when I still kept the car. https://www.yourparkingspace.co.uk/ It works by people basically renting out their driveways or other parking locations, and you pay the rent charge for however long you need the space. Some places are a rip off, but many are in pretty safe rural locations, and the charges aren't usually horrific. I even found a parking place near Swanley Bridge (although the first one 'disappeared' the day before I was due to leave the car there, due to some kind of admin cockup). They are common enough that you'll usually find a space that you can reach by bike, so no problem dropping the car off at the parking spot and riding back to the boat.

A local boater told me about an inexpensive mooring place near Acton Bridge- think he said it was called a cruising club. If all else fails, you could try Northwich Quay marina on the Weaver. Its a lovely place, right in the middle of town but secure access, etc. What would scare me off is the risk of floods in winter. A local told me things got very hairy indeed a few years back during a severe flood, with the pontoons raised right to the top of their support pillars, and boaters asked to evacuate their boats. Still, maybe worth a thought, if only to tide you over till Park Farm have a spot. ETA- are Nantwich/Barbridge too far as a temp spot? Nantwich looks pretty nice, and handy for lots of waterways. As a last resort you could even buy an online mooring spot from CRT, again for a while. No security, but it would only be for a month or two hopefully.

My dear fellow, I make a point of never loitering, especially not on the Llangollen. One encounters the most dreadful riff raff during the summer months. The glorious Weaver is my waterway du jour, and jolly nice it is too, although one never feels 100% certain the lift will still be open when its time to leave....

I'll have you helicoptered in!

Thanks a lot, its very kind of you to give an update, and I'm really sorry to hear about the snags- and I must say I've run into some snags myself. I'm booked into have a high pressure wash on 15th July, followed by the 2 pack treatment. But I was in an area with much clearer water recently, and I could see significant patches of visible rust below the waterline. The boat is about 7 years old so I'm hoping the rust isn't too deep, but with just 4 weeks to go, I'm now in a bit of a jam. I'm reluctant to cancel my slot, as I don't know if I'll find another (at a decent place) before the cooler weather arrives. On the other hand, I dont want them to just slap 2 pack on over a rusting surface. All I can think of the moment is to wait until the pressure wash is done, and then to spend the rest of that day going over the whole hull (below the waterline) with a grinder (and a flap disc), in the hope of removing as much surface rust as possible before they start the primer etc. I wish now that I'd booked a 2 week haul out and had thus allowed plenty of time to remove any rust from the hull, but now I'm going to be really up against it, with at most 8-10 hours after the pressure wash to do whatever I can in terms of preparing the surface. I feel like this should really have been a grit blast treatment to do it properly, but their tight 1-week schedule will not allow for any third parties to turn up and spend 2 days blasting. So I'm going to have to revisit the whole thing in another 2 years, instead of maybe 5 years as I was hoping.

If there was a lithium battery within 1000 yards of the inferno, this time tomorrow I will be being chased by a mob of angry BSS inspectors with pitchforks, in very much the same way that the mob of villagers used to chase that poor monster in Frankenstein. Fair play though, those villagers had some stamina.

I'd be disappointed if had newish lithiums with that kind of spread between the cells, especially as it is causing some complications with managing the charging. I'd be wondering if there might be a warranty issue. But one approach I take, which I didnt mention earlier, is that for the day to day management of the charging, I use a third BMV712 which specifically monitors the SoC. I use the 'Low SoC' function on the BMV712 (but I use it in reverse, so to speak), and I set the relay in the BMV to switch at 80 or 90% SoC depending on circumstances. The tiny control wire runs from the BMV to the 'remote BMS' input port that is present on my MPPTS and my B2Bs. If its a Sterling B2B you have, it will have a BMS input port. So you can use that control wire from the BMV712 to remotely switch off the B2B when the batteries reach a set SoC, and to switch it back on again when the SoC falls to the set level. Someone was asking about this SoC monitor setup in a thread a while back, and with Nicks help I was able to explain how I had it set up.

Apologies, I skim read and misunderstood the issue. I wonder if it might be worth trying to balance the cells?

I always have an emergency rope cutter tool in my back pocket on a day when I'm going to be doing locks. The real question is whether I'd have the presence of mind to remember it was there, if the worst actually happened. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beaver-Sports-Trigger-Cutter-Orange/dp/B07BH42329/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=emergency+rope+cutter&qid=1685622915&sr=8-18

I do vary things a bit, so that I dont get the batteries to the same SoC every day, as I've seen that memory effect come into play. I also try to let them run down to at least 30% or lower once a week, again to avoid too much memory effect. Now I'm no expert on these matters, I must say that, but it does seem odd that the battery's internal BMS is coming into play on an almost daily basis (I think you said it disconnects the batteries when they get up to 15volts? ) If you've set the MPPTs bulk charging voltage at 14.2v, surely they should be going into float (or stopping their charge) before the voltage gets up to the 15v that triggers the BMS? My MPPTs and B2Bs both go into float at about 14.6 or 14.7v, with a bulk charge setting of 14.4v. (And I realised that float is not appropriate for lithiums, but many charger units still insist that you put in a float value when you set up a custom charging profile- so I set mine to float at 12.7v, which means they effectively stop any charging when they go into float) The issue I can see with relying on the internal BMS disconnect as a day-to-day voltage limit/control is that when the BMS kicks in and disconnects, it also disconnects the loads, right? So does that mean you lose all power from the batteries? And if so, how long does it take before the internal BMS reconnects the batteries, and what do you do for power in the meantime?