mutleee

Does anyone know if the river levels on the soar below Zouch to the Trent at Shardlow are OK for cruising at the moment. I was hoping to take my boat from Zouch to Shardlow tomorrow.

Thanks for your replies. it is general small spots of corrosion across all the hull, the anodes look like they are working, there's still life in them but I'm going to have new ones fitted. I believe they are magnesium. Yes there are lots of spots that are "rust coloured", which then expose a shiny surface when pressure washed, I was just surprised how bad it looks compared to what it was like two years ago (ie no signs of any corossion). The boatyard that's doing the work was also surprised and asked if I was permanantly attached to a landline. The only thing I could think of was that when it was last blacked it was out and back in in a coue of days and the boat might not have been fully dry before the blacking went on.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on my issue. I bought my narrowboat 2 years ago, it's a 2008, when I had it out of the water for a survey the hull was like new, I had it blacked at the time. Now I've just had it pulled out again for blacking and there is lots of corrossion. I moor at a marina and only have a landline connected when I'm there, which is not often as I'm usually out cruising. The boat has a galvanic isolator fitted. Also for the first 5 years of it's life it was a livaboard with the landline permantly connected. I thought galvanic corrosion only happened if you were connected to a landline and didn't have a galvanic isolator. The only changes that have been made to the electric syste is the addition of solar panels with an mppt controller. Does anyone have any idea of what might be causing the accelerated corrosion?

there's a 24hr one in the car park next to the bar at Beeston Marina, I saw it when we were there the other week, it looks like a large bus shelter with washing machines in it.

Castle Marina is closed on Tuesday, which may be why they didn't answer the phone. Have you tried them on their mobiles? David's is 07721 382619, and Chris ( I think he looks after the narrowboat side of the business) is 07799 316 704.

Nottingham Boat sales moved from Castle marina at the end of last year, to Meadow Lane where they build the boats. Dave Mawby who's been selling GRP cruisers for many years has taken over the narrowboat brokerage as well at castle marina now. When I went down the other day lots of the boats, both grp and narrowboats were under offer so I guess he's doing something right. He also does hull blacking, when I was down in Newark last week I met a guy who'd just had his boat blacked looked like a great job. I'd certainly recommend them.

I just serviced my Barrus Shire 40 using this oil, it's the same spec as Barrus recommends so I can't see a problem. . I purchased a case of 4 from them £51.84 including delivery, so I've got enough for 2 services (engine uses 7.5 Litres and the PRM150 gearbox 1.4 litres). Works out a lot cheaper than buying 2 at a time. Arrived the next day. I also got the filters from inlinefilters.co.uk, loads cheaper than the Barrus ones. The only Barrus filter I had to get was the air filter as I couldn't find an equivalent one.

Hi Lily May. I've only just noticed your post. I have been boating on cruisers since the age of 10 (nearly forty years) Initially on my parents 19' Dawncraft Dandy with an outboard engine and their Creigton Inlander 32 with an inboard engine and shaft drive. I took the plunge and bought a Viking 26 11 years ago with an outboard engine, which I moored at Shardlow Marina, I replaced that after 5 years with a 28ft Dawcraft with inboard engine and outdrive. All these four boats have had very different handling characteristics. Last year I was lucky enough to upgrade to a 57ft narrowboat, which is a completely different kettle of fish compared to a tupperware boats. The cruisers being more manoeuvrable but very prone to the slightest bit of wind, which normally means you need to go a bit quicker in windy conditions to maintain your course. I live about 20 mins from Sawley marina and would be happy to come and help you master the Nauticus.

Thank you all for getting back to me with your views. I see both NB Ellissiana and Detling have Tracer controllers and are happy with them. Is that the same as the EP Solar Tracer MPPT Controllers that are available here? http://www.sunstore.co.uk/EP-Solar-Tracer-MPPT-Charge-Controller-12v-24v-40A.html. If so I think at that price (£165 for a 40a MPPT) I may take the plunge. The other ones I was looking at (MorningStar, Outback etc) are over £400!. So I was assuming that one at £165 must be a bit cheap n cheerful. At least then if I wanted to add another panel at a later date it would cope. That controller has a maximum PV Open Circuit Voltage of 100VDC, as each of my 100w panels have a Max Open Circuit Voltage of 21.84v, should I wire them all up in series (21.84 x 4 = 87.36v) or is it more efficient as 2 lots of 2 x 100w in series. then parallel the 2 together?

I'm in the process of fitting a solar system to my narrowboat. I have 4 x 100w mono panels and want to connect them through a MPPT Charge controller to my leisure batteries. (12v system) I have 2 questions:- 1. What size mppt charge controller do I need, 30amp or 40amp? all the 30amp controllers I've seen have a max PV Wattage of 390w so that would suggest I need a 40amp controller, but I've seen places advertising 400/420w packages which come with a 30amp controller. 2. Does anyone have any recommendations for a brand of controller? There seem to be the expensive ones MorningStar, Outback, Soltronic etc and the cheaper Chinese/Taiwanese brands, EP Solar being one that I've noticed. I've also read lots of stories of people buying a Chinese brand only to find it's not an MPPT but a PWM one labelled up as an MPPT.