Jim_UK

I've read the replies to this question with interest. Could I tack on a sub-question. What are the maximum Draft & Air draft for this route? (EG 3' 3" Draft and 9' 0" Air Draft)

I'd suggest you ask the person you bought your new boat off (congratz by the way) to come back and take you through everything. They probably did that when you took it over but little of it made sense/stuck. Now you are motivated to learn and have an awareness for what questions to ask/issues to resolve. If they are half decent, I'm sure they will oblige.

fixed that typo for you :-)

Flexible panels are great for being flexible (and thin), but not as efficient as fixed panels for the solar bit :-) Re: Air gap Their rating is at a specific temperature. As the heat rises they lose efficiency, varies by manufacturer/panel but (for the sake of conversation) it's in the ballpark of 0.4% loss/°C and the base temperature is probably about 25°C. On a hot day I'd guess the panel surface (in the UK) could be 40-50°C so the potential loss is considerable. So having a gap underneath and air circulating really can help squeeze some more out of them (queue ideas of bringing up the raw water cooling circuit and heat exchange contraptions!)

Good point.

OK, perhaps this will help. 12V DC 2.5A 12V appliance. So I'll assume you question is 'What size cable is needed so that voltage loss is < 3%' (a sensible number) 18M distance (9M there, and back again): 6mm2 gives 2.83% loss (0.34V) 9M distance (4.5M per leg): 4mm2 gives 2.17% loss (0.26V)

Sorry, don't follow. Which results are you referring to? Voltage Drop? What are you trying to achieve? Determine the right sized cable?

At the risk of going slightly off topic (sorry), are you anchoring (or planning on the contingency of doing so at least) on Tidal Rivers?

Yeah, counter-intuitive isn't it. That you could physically push a car or pull a boat yet it takes such a 'powerful' Winch to do the same amount of work. Inertia is a bugger but once they get rolling it's easy.

No, but I can see the merit so will watch with interest the replies to this topic :-) Well, a Winch on a boat is pulling at 0 Deg gradient and it is rolling resistance rather than dead weight. Having done a quick google search, the articles say 'multiple by 10 the Rated Load Pull for a rolling resistance on a level surface). IE A 2,000KG RLP Winch will pull a 20t boat (but there are gotchas to how much wire is on the drum etc. So look for the 1st Layer Rated Line Pull figure). Would be sensible to step up the winch rating, perhaps to 4,000KG RLP (of course you could always use a Pulley to half the load). Load of these across the Pond. Looks like the price is £625-£1,500 Ex VAT etc. Bare minimum for a 20t boat (a 2,045KG Winch) seems to be £300-600. Sources: http://www.grainger.com/tps/material_handling_winch_selection_guide.pdf http://www.grainger.com/category/electric-winches/winches/material-handling/ecatalog/N-k16?redirect=winch Poor mans Anchor Windlass? Interesting. What size Anchor, Chain (grade & length), what spec Winch etc. Was just looking at Windlasses and they aren't cheap! Something to explore I think. Edit: Either I missed it or you've edited it to add. 'Lofrans Progress 1' which is a Windlass, guessing that cost around £600 when new? (seems to be discontinued now). A WIndlass is of course great for Anchor duties but wouldn't multi-task for mooring as per the OP's question, whereas a Winch could do both jobs (perhaps badly, but worth debating!)

Can you use a Hydrometer (IE you have a battery type you can access the 'precious bodily fluids')? Edit: I notice you mentioned setting your controller/charger to 'Gel', of course that doesn't necessarily mean you have Gel (but probably does).

No probs. If you're heading off to a local supplier why not take the old belts etc with you. Even if the numbers are missing they ought to be able to sort you out from sight of the old ones.

Can you spot the part numbers you need from http://www.betamarine.co.uk/betamarine/spares_form.html? EG I see for a Beta 50... 6K- 100A, Beta43 from Sept08-Oct09, Beta50 from July07 & Beta60 –Oct09 = 214-92105 So it looks like their lists cover various generations of engines so you ought to be OK. Are the part numbers not printed on the old items (assuming you had original parts of course).

If it proves too tricky or too much hassle to solve, you could always use your laptop to stream from t'internet (assuming you have an unmetered connection of course). So, DAB radio for when laptop not in use and streaming when it is. Of course it would be more satisfactory to solve the interference problem.

Two possibilities, with suggestions to find which it is. 1. Laptop power supply is generating the issue. Electromagnetic Interference (EFI). I get that on my DAB with a cheap Bilge pump, but only under certain circumstances. If you look at the label (might be printed on rather than stuck on) on your laptop power supply. Now see if you can beg, borrow or steal a power supply with the same physical connection AND the same ratings. This could be tricky to do. 2. 'Noise' from the laptop power supply feeding back onto the mains circuit. See if you can borrow one of those Surge/Spike 4 way gang extension cables. Alas the cheap ones may not be very good at smoothing out surges/spikes/noise.

Ah yes, but at what size? As mentioned they are available at 32" or below it is above that size I was wondering about. I've had a quick look on ebay '0 results match your search criteria', plenty smaller TV's of course.

Well, it will be Electrolytic Corrosion that is the issue here aka earth leakage. Galvanic Corrosion is the natural voltage that is naturally generated between two dissimilar metals. Of course both will eat your Sacrificial Anodes (that's what they are for of course, but cost money so you want them to last a long time) and thereafter will start munching on your props & hull etc. Some protection/monitoring is certainly better than none. Given you were given the Aquafax unit James, nice one!

Having had a quick look at the web page, Green means it is measuring less than 1.1V on the Earth. Red is more than 1.1V on the Earth. False confidence if you're getting 1.05V of course as you have an issue but just not above the arbitrary line in the sand they have drawn as being a BIG problem.

Chalky makes a good point about the DC supply - directly connecting sensitive electronics to a supply that could be anywhere between 10.5 and 14.4V (or even 18V+ if there is Solar involved) is to be done with caution. There are solutions to solve that issue of course EG Isolated Buck Converters are cheap and efficient, but not everyone would be comfortable implementing such stuff. I'd also agree that a good AC-DC power supply can be 90% efficient but those ratings are only accurate at a particular load point (say 80%) and fall away to eighty-something otherwise - alas I suspect that outside of the testing lab the typical consumption would mean that indeed they aren't as efficient as we're all led to believe. Life is also too short to go around measuring such stuff :-) I see many of Cello TV's run off DC, but not above 32". I wonder if anyone does larger.

The author of that article, RC Collins, makes his living from stuff like that. He says in this excellent article on 'How to install a Battery Monitor' (read them all!) that he thinks about 90% of all Battery Monitoring installations he sees are wrong. The primary reason why many of the Current Counters are inaccurate. I guess that is good business for him putting them all right! Regardless of whether they have been professionally installed or done by the owner as a DIY job... they are a bit counter-intuitive as to how they actually are best & correctly installed and calibrated, so read this article and take 5 mins to check your own installation. This no doubt explains why so many gripes about battery monitoring solutions.

Noticed this 21.5" HD TV/DVD combo today costing only £119.99 by Aldi, may be of interest to some. Rated as consuming 21W (so an 'A' rating) but that is no doubt as measured when it's running off it's brick power supply (230V AC -> 12V DC). I would guess it's real consumption, if you supplied it with 12V DC directly, would be about 25% or so less (those bricks aren't very efficient), so 15W or circa 1.5A when on 12V DC sounds pretty good. Looks like it consumes a max of 36W (no doubt when playing DVD's) when running off AC, so perhaps down to 27W on DC. User Manual here if you want to pour over the details of it. Just noticed it has DVB-T too, both Standard & High Def (not always present on the cheaper tellies). Also has VGA, HDMI etc inputs so you can connect your PC/Laptop etc. Think I'll nip back and buy one too, I've talked myself into it!

Expert in depth review & analysis of Smart Gauge. Short version, beats everything else for accuracy and simplicity in showing voltages and State of Charge (for 1 or 2 banks). It is so accurate, it measures it's own miniscule consumption and takes that into account too.

If it was side fenders I'd suggest you try your hand at making them, but a bow fender looks to be a magnitude more difficult. (Which is exactly our own thoughts for ourselves)