Sea Dog

To stem the flow of water overnight, you could try a clingfilm wrap held in place under pressure by a bandage. It'll clearly need to come off before you move, but it could buy you time and get you some sleep! Good luck!

Well that's different. Still a lot of faff, but at least you're not likely to come to any grief. I don't know about you though, but I've always found space on boats to be limited without carting 'experimental' stuff like this around. I take it you've tried it and found the resting angle unacceptable? (Remember to account for your steering gear and prop before grounding). Otherwise, what he said above is more conventional though less the DIY route than you're having fun with. Edited to account for previous post arriving during the drafting.

Now you're adding a load of drag, undesireable in itself, plus adding too much ballast which is likely to make her 'stiff' and an uncomfortable place to be in any seaway. Hullform is of paramount importance in boat design and small errors can make the vessel a dog. Big errors produce dangerous dogs! Back to the drawing board I'm afraid. Fun to mess about with boats though, isn't it.

Too late by then. You can't add bouyancy below the metacentric height without ill effects on stability, So I'm afraid it's a daft idea on this occasion, but don't despair - park it and think of another! In the meantime, if you really must have a boat to beach and your current one is unsuitable, you're gonna need another boat.

And I'm not sure I get the logic behing attaching a cheapo 10a controller to what's probably quite a significant investment of 10 flexi panels? ETA: I'm wondering rather than criticising - there may be an excellent reason!

Hmm, so it's not just me either. We were there a couple of months back, spent copious amounts in the Fiddle and Bone after having to moor somewhere less desireable (where we were cast off in the night to boot), then when we came alongside just to top off the water tank we were clearly unwelcome. We moved on, but not before the missus had banged her head on their sign to add injury to insult.

You pays your money and you takes your choice. I went for the Victron because I wanted the Ammeter functionality and all that brings. Charge and discharge current being valuable in itself, but also it's a short stretch from there to display Amp Hours in or out. I don't believe the percentage bit or the hours to go, but it's good to see what AH you've used since you moored up and you can see whether you were fully charged at that point from the V and A display. The Victron beat the NASA for me because it has a 500a shunt versus the 200a max on the NASA to supply the potential max draw from my inverter. NASA has the nicest display, Victron is neat, SG looks like something off Thunderbirds or an old pinball machine!

Paul, I take it from your first statement that this boat is new to you. Assuming that, either you bought it with a defect or your doing something wrong with unfamiliar kit. Can you resolve that by asking the previous owner or broker? Next, these things tend to switch themselves off if the batteries get low. Can you check the resting battery voltage or do you have a gauge to confirm their state? Your batteries should be charged by the charger when on 240v landlines and by the alternator when the engine is running. If you don't have charged batteries, you need to sort that first before you look at the inverter. If you do have fully charged batteries, that's the time to move on to fault finding the inverter. Hope that helps.

Especially if the washing is still on the line! Probably a little less worrying than the woods drying out too much though. With you guys having no ill effects, it seems I'm being over-cautious and ought to leave one aboard. Just perhaps not in the shower

They wait and wait til you're least expecting it, and then..... Bloop! Not a trace.

Ooh, do they keep ok? I've always been a bit worried about the changing temperature when we're not aboard and the humidity when we are - or combinations thereof. I have a little Yamaha Guitalele I carry back and forth to the boat, but it'd be nice to have a resident 6 string!

Apparently, about 1 in 100 don't have a conscience. Thanks to MtB who provided that snippet earlier, I'm hoping I am now much better equipped to ride out such annoyances.

Have you thought about approaching the local day boat hiring company? It's not in their interest for their boats to go faster than essential as it uses more of their fuel, puts them at greater risk from accidents and hacks off their neighbours (eg you). I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were happy to limit the throttle travel a bit if asked nicely.

I hadn't heard that before - assuming it's correct, it explains a lot! Actually, the more I think about it, the more it explains. That's little short of a revelation!

As quoted above in various places: Jonathan Ludford (CRT press office) "............ Regarding who is in charge, as above, the (VLK) role is advisory. So the boater is in charge of their lock and the VLK should check with them that are ready for paddles to be opened etc." I would have thought that pretty much resolves any confusion.

In duplicate, with a footnote amendment - you really are a lawyer!

Floating corkscrew and a multi-tool in the place you used to keep the large magnet. Don't forget to transfer the lanyard to the multi-tool!

A fair few chandlers carry switches of the size and type you're looking for. I can personally recall seeing them in Midland Chandlers and at Lyons.

I can see why you might be pleased with that!

Not sure how it works out as a percentage, but I thought the recommended clearance was a mattress plus half an inch.

Tempting fate, I know, but I'd be unpleasantly surprised if my bilge wasn't 100% dry! The Volvo water lubricated stern seal was not on my list of requirements when I bought my boat, but it has been a very welcome bonus. Now I've posted that, I await the horror stories and hope I haven't hexxed myself!

Hi dpaws, I'm skeptical about your idea, mainly because I think it's based on some flawed assumptions, but I like the idea that you're having the idea and sharing it here. I don't think you deserve grief for that, although some robust answers are inevitable, so I hope that you weather the storm. There's been a bunch of similar ideas challenging the conventional wisdom in narrowboat propulsion, none of which (in my opinion) come close to challenging it in reality usually because (again in my opinion) the implementation costs hugely outweigh the benefits. Nevertheless, I love the ideas. There are some actually out on the water, and 'NB Ampere' springs to mind as one. Not as unconventional as your idea, just a recent generation (sorry) of electric propulsion, but still unconventional at present. It's a beautiful boat to my own eyes and the systems are elegant from what I've read, but I'd be surprised if anyone would suggest it's really serious challenge as a mainstream power plant - yet. Possibly it's a folly, possibly it's a step in the right direction, but either way it's a welcome step in my view. Lest we forget, horses were the conventional power plant until someone came up with an idea to challenge that conventional wisdom. I don't think your idea will frighten the horses, but please don't let that put you off either thinking about it or sharing it with us! Best wishes

Fair enough. If you're really on a budget, I also have one of these I used for presentations on a laptop. You'd be amazed by the sound! You can also join two together for stereo and even more volume as suggested above. Other similar units are available - the thing is, you can charge them when you're running so power consumption isn't an issue. There's bound to be something similar within your budget that gives you these advantages without resorting to something designed for home use where power budget isn't a key concern. I'd recommend exploring the concept, even if you go back to your first thoughts in the end. Best wishes.