lockedout

There's a few flocks of Parakeets on the Surrey part of the Thames...

Phew... (wipes brow) Two threads next to each other... # 1 - Jugs # 2 - Baby Oil I thought I had strayed into the murkier corners of t'internet.

Correct. (Commercially Endorsed Yachtmaster - does that make me a real sailor??)

I guess the OP has solved his problem without my offer of help... If anyone wants any spares for an old style Vetus Macerator, let me know. Not interested in money, just collect or cover my costs for delivery and it is yours.

Snap!! I once had a deckhand on a dredger (don't ask) spend about a month trying to teach me how to splice wire. We had all the right kit on board, work bench, vice, serious fids, cutters etc etc but I just couldn't do it. I ended up admitting defeat and haven't tried again for 35 years!

Clifford Ashley is the God of knots, and a personal hero of mine (I know, I need to get out more) I can read his Book of Knots like a John Grisham novel, and it is even better with a short length of 6 mm Marlow Doublebraid in my hand.

The Ashley Book of Knots. That's what you need - ok, it won't fit on your mobile device. But if you lose your lump hammer overboard you can always use it to bang your pins in!!

Further to the above, now I have more time. From recent experience, you won't be able to get spares from Vetus - the whole unit has changed and they don't do the old one. I decided to replace the whole unit on mine - I was pretty sure it was the PCB that had gone, but the PCB itself is pretty expensive, so I decided to bite the bullet and replace the whole unit. Knowing my luck, I would have replaced the PCB and then something else would have failed. My motor is fine - I put 12v across it and it spins really sweetly, no noise, rattles or over heating, so I think it is fine. If you need to speak to someone at Vetus who really knows his stuff - you need to speak to Paul Cleverley at Vitesse Marine - http://www.vitessemarine.co.uk/ - he is a really helpful guy and knows his macerators. Please feel free to contact me offline if you think I can help.

Roger, Give me a shout offline - I have just replaced an old one with a new one. The old one broke because the PCB was knackered - the motor spins fine. Nigel

We were returning to the marina a few weekends ago going at a reasonable pace - wake just reaching the bank. A boat came steaming up behind us at such a speed that I had a quick look behind to see if he was towing a water skier! We then got a long blast on the horn and a little bit of arm waving. There aren't many overtaking opportunities on that stretch, so I pulled over and let him steam on past, he shouted something about getting to the marina because he was low on fuel (not surprising really, I thought). Anywho... as we got to the marina he was blocking the entrance as the fuel berth was occupied, I made a polite request (honest) for him to get out of my way which he did with a lot of noise and revs allowing me to get in to the marina. I swung the boat round, reversed into out berth while Mrs 'Er indoors tidied up down below. I got us tied up, curtains drawn, power off, doors locked, covers on, dogs off, car loaded, and Mr Speedy Bo**ox was still waiting at the fuel berth. I allowed myself a little chuckle and reminded myself of a fable told by a certain Mr Aesop involving a tortoise and a hare.

Having spent many years sailing very expensive pieces of shiny plastic (mainly other people's) before we bought 20 tons of steel I absolutely hate hitting anything else while I am on the water. It will take me a few more years of narrowboat ownership before I fully subscribe to the "Blacking is a sacrificial coat" point of view.

Should be a clean job tomorrow - I took the old one out a few weeks ago, so just a brand new one to fit. There are always a few smaller SOs for sale at Pyrford since they took over the dealership. Quite a few owned ones in the marina now as well, it looked like they were selling quite well...

I don't think it is at Pyrford, unless it has appeared in the last couple of weeks, or unless it is hiding somewhere - I will have a look tomorrow (in between fitting a new macerator pump to our toilet)

The Sea Otter dealership was relatively recently taken on by Tingdene, and I thought they were exhibiting at Crick, but there was nothing there. We are up at Pyrford tomorrow, if I get a chance I will see if Pete or Steve know anything of interest.

Nope - nowhere in Emsworth called Bentley's. I have lived here pretty much all my life and don't ever remember a Bentley's. There used to be a Spencers - but it closed about 6 months ago.

Only slightly off-topic... We had all sorts of aerial based problems - bought a mid-range DAB car radio, stuck the aerial to the window (mostly hidden by the curtain) and it works brilliantly! SO pleased with it - all those channels, everything from 6Radio to Al-Jazeera (sp?).

In order that gravity can do its stuff, your tank must be quite low profile, is it the same size in plan as the bed? It must also drop into the bilges and sit on the base plate??

It actually sounds like a pretty good system, following the KISS principle. I think there would be too many structural changes needed to retro fit one to our boat. How big is the holding tank? Not as big as the tank on ours I guess? Having spent many years on yachts racing offshore I am used to getting "involved" with marine toilets and it never ceases to amaze me - no matter how much instruction you give, people still get it wrong and either can't work the things properly or put stuff down the pan that really shouldn't be there (and then deny all knowledge...)

Ahhhhh - ok. Sorry, I am hard of reading... How does that work then? Is it gravity driven, or is there some form of pump? Do you find it more difficult to pump out? Just that, if we have to replace the whole macerator unit I might as well consider all the alternatives.

You know what? When I posted this, I thought I bet this thread turns into a cassette Vs. pump out argument. It took 12 posts, but here we are!

Two ropes, fairleads and several years in the circus developing a Cowboy themed rope twirling and lasso act.

We were wondering about using some kind of acid - Mrs 'Er Indoors is a pharmacist so she knows these things (allegedly), we are wondering how to make the best use of some sort of acid based solution without it becoming too dilute by having flushing water added. Mrs 'Er Indoors scares me by saying putting any kind of acid down may end up in a chemical based disaster of Torrey Canyon proportions!! We may subscribe to the little and often philosophy. Definitely gonna look at Water Softeners though... Paul - The boat is moored at Pyrford on the Wey Navigation, we live down on the coast, near Chichester. (you're not a stalker are you??????)

We live Darn Sarf and our water is dead hard, so we always get problems with calcification. We just fill the tank from the tap. I think I might look into fitting a water softener. Some people recommend vinegar as being a good thing to flush down every now and then, when I either get it working or get a replacement I will strip it down every couple of years and clean it out - probs when we get re-blacked so I don't forget...

Ok - so how do you spell FRUSTRATED!! Put it all back together this morning - really pleased with myself for getting it done on deck before the rain started - lugged it down the steps refitted it, replacing some of the jubilee clips, turned it on and.... The macerator spun twice then stopped again. Present state - - still broken. The whole shooting match obviously hasn't been touched since the boat was built about 10 years ago, the inside of the chamber was an absolute mess, looks like previous owners were used to flushing some strange items! The whole system is/was very badly calcified. My best guess is that the 'gunge' in the chamber has put too much strain on the motor and caused issues somewhere, possibly bearings, possibly brushes. I know have to decide whether to get the motor out and strip it down to see if it something simple to replace, or to replace with new. I tend to think that once these things start to go wrong, they will continue to cause problems until they eventually die completely, so I will probably replace the macerator unit. Going forward, I need to work out how to stop this happening again. Water softener maybe??

Plus one for Junior. Blacking is one of the obvious maintenance jobs, difficult to ignore - if they have managed to ignore this... what else?? If there is no engine, at least there are no maintenance issues there. The anode issue worries me as well, you might end up having to re-plate the thing.