Detling

A see through i.e. plastic fuel pipe is almost certainly a BSS fail it has to be the marked ISO 7840, or copper.

Most of the boats moored by the boating club have boards over their windows I guess the local youth like throwing stones.

Universal rule of boating, if you touch another boat, they are always onboard, and the more spectators the worse things get.

Remember that Ebbers/webasto's take 10-15 amps for a minute to start and then about 3 amps continuously while running, on shorepower no problem, if you are not on shorepower where do you get that extra 72 AHrs a day from? A Solid fuel stove with a backboiler ideally provides hot water and some radiators on a thermocycle system using zero power, at worst you can fit a small 12 volt pump taking 1 or 1.5 amps to boost the heat (possibly thermostatically controlled) by increasing the flow rate. Any air heater will require the use of fans which always create noise which you cannot totally muffle and still get the warm air. Several people seem to use soilwarming cables or propagator mats to warm their lithium batteries, waterproof and often 12 volt, so easy via a thermostat.

What about those overhanging trees, I have encountered some really massive branches usually when pushed towards the non towpath side to pass a boat going the other way when already passing 10 or more moored boats.

You cannot use the resistance of a cold relay coil to tell you how much current it will take, just like an old fashioned light bulb the resistance changes when the coil has pulled the relay shut and heated up slightly. An ammeter is the only way but as it is small the chances are your battery monitor won't even register the difference, maybe if you switch 10 on you will cause about a 1 amp change which should register. Is there an opposite to KISS, because here you have several extra lengths of wire and junctions which are all going to cause volt drop and be points of failure.

Flexible grout is available basically I recon it is powdered latex and grout, or maybe of a and grout but it works on my bathroom floor at home which is small tiles and does flex a bit.

Hire boat often have 4 or 6 people who like a shower on the morning, and like to move a long way each day so there won't be much surplus solar power most days even with 1.5 kW of solar which is about all you can easily get on a narrow boat roof and of course this assumes the crew don't want to sunbathe on the roof as you often see. I think there is still a disconnect between peoples desire and the physical reality of thermodynamics. It was mentioned earlier that heat pumps may help but the best I have seen only give a x3 gain so that would be about 1 kW per hour to heat the boat in winter, the extra 2kW comes either from the air via a noisy fan or from the water, nice and quiet but when the double moored boats in London all extract that heat the canal will become a giant ice cube. At least it will prevent them having to move.

Although much has been said about the power required for moving, no mention of hot water for showers and cooking. These can easily be the same as the movements daily power consumption, currently can be supplied by gas but that too is a fossil fuel, add in space heating in winter and you are now using massive amounts of gas. Generating heat is a much bigger use of energy on a boat than moving. even in summer.

But who monitors when the boat is moved off, yes it has been unplugged after charging, but you cannot fit a sensor in the ground to detect if it is still clogging the access. Car sensing is easy so you know when the car has moved away. Without a means of automatic policing and fining for overstay, there are some who will happily spent weeks there, particularily in winter when space heating is requred.

Those LED strips usually take 5 amp per reel on 12 volts but are polarity sesative unlike a car headlight bulb. So although under gunnel strip lights look great they can really soak up the amps.

When they make booking madatory as they have at harecastlewhat order do the boats go in the tunnel, those who booked first at the front or in the order they arrived (assuming same time slot) This would apply at foxton and watford as well. We had great fun a few years back at Foxton, there were several of us waiting at the bottom (we were number 3) booked in with the lockie. As the last boat came out of the down batch, a new arrival steered straight in with a grin, what perfect timing! there was a 5 minute hiatus with the lock keeper and the first boat owner and eventually the new arrival backed out (shame the queue was to big for him that batch). Without a lock keeper, who had flatly refused to let him touch any lock gear, the rule of the jungle would apply.

Although there are lots of wide navigations, not all are equal, you can have luxury in a 12 x 70 foot on some but on others 57 foot is the max length. There are also disconnects, there are 4 main wide areas, the GU Thames and K & A, the Severn is a difficult connection not for the fainthearted. The North and Trent are another area, the Fens and east Anglia are another, again can be linked by a sea passage not to be undertaken lightly. As the early depreciation on a new boat can be 50% in the first 2 years, so beware. Also you need to check up on the Recreational Craft Directive, which affects all new boats, and their saleability. Try if possible I think there are some widebeams available for hire, there are loads of narrow to hire, have a week on each I suspect it will show you the difference.

Interesting posted in Boat Handling, you are obviously lucky to have a boat that you can actually steer at that speed. Most boats find steering difficult below about 1.5 MPH, maybe their rudders are to small or their propellers at tick over produce to much power, it is sometimes impossible to follow a nice slow boat even on a flat calm day. The common name is 'steerage way' the speed at which you control the boat and it doesn't do it's own thing, it does vary between boats, if you have control at a very low speed, please think of the poor bloke following trying hard not to push you or hit the moored boats because he is below his steerage way.

It used to be standard entertainment for drinkers in the pub garden next to the bridge on a Saturday afternoon, when Saturday was changeover day.

Those figures are from panels mounted on a roof at 45 degrees facing due south and with no shading, not seen many boats like that, real world figures fron 12 volt boating group on facebook suggest 10% of rated in Decmber and January is best you can reasonably expect on a boat due to angles and shading at times. But amps for pounds for 9 months of the year solar is better, just the 8 weeks round the winter solstice, when every amp counts.

Should indeed, but rarely do, good circuit diagram if you are lucky.

A lot would be happy with 2 amps for 24 hours a day in winter. Not really enough, but good enough to top up batteries, augmented by febble solar, after a morning engine rumble, while they are out at work.

Where do you get your 2% from, it used to be simple but this year it seems impossible. I remember my dad retiring and saying they were poor pensioners only getting 10% on their savings and I was a struggling farher of two, paying 14% on a mortgage. His disposable income was about 3 times mine even though he was a poor pensioner.

These vessels do not suddenly appear, there is usually ample time to clear their route and take precautions if you are keeping a look out. But you still see cyclists arguing with articulated lorries, so obviously not everone understands the big will always win.

So something like a very tall skinny person swaying about on your boat, there will be vibration loads trying to flex the mounting, presumably the roof , interesting. The idea is great but rather unrealistic for boats, will the resonance frequency be in the audible range rather like a transformer hum, amplified if mounted on a large surface like the roof. I hope they are sucessful as it is not as visually intrusive as the normal windmill, nor will it be as noisy. They have a long way to go though to compete.

Hear hear. Short term thinking is wrecking the britain the Victorians built.

A few years ago the Thames was on red boards for 4 months without a break. Remember usually your insurance will not cover you if you are moving the boat on a river in the red. I don't know the Avon that well, but the Severn can run a 7 knots at times, probably faster than your canal boat flat out, mine can only do 6.5 MPH with a 42 HP engine..

You see a lot of these in China but I have not seen any anywhere else, several were several years old so must do the job, This is in Shanghai in the midst of skyscrapers with very disturbed wind and I understand the smog ruins solar power. They are used for pedestrian crossing lights and other street electrical requirements no idea of power but the UK uses 100 watt solar panels for similar jobs

Wooden balance beams are much nicer to handle, the steel ones on the GU can barely be touched, on the white paint on a sunny summer day, touch the black and it burns.