BEngo

A brace of Tee pieces in the outlet and inlet from the header tank would enable one tank to feed both systems. It's coping with the expansion of the whole system now, and as two systems would not get significantly larger (more water to expand) so there should be enough capacity. N

All good stuff above. No need to drain the domestic hot water out of the calorifier if/when you swop the coil connections. To be really safe switch the water pump off and open a hot tap till the flow stops to de-pressurise the calorifier. N

Nice pictures, thank you. I'd bet that it has been a long time since that much loose loaded coal has been boated Uphill through Stoke Bruerne. N

No. You need to adjust the switch on the pump so that the pump stops at a lower pressure- 30 psi would be fine. To do this usually involves a screw on the front of the pump. Open the taps with the pump off till the water stops. Find the screw on the pump and undo it a little. Close the taps Run the pump till it stops. Measure the accumulator pressure now. if it still above 30 psi repeat the adjustment and measurement till it is somewhere between 29 and 31 psi. N

Red Bit. Sorry, but no they don't. There always is should be a Neutral - Earth bond, but where it is depends on how the power distribution company supply the earth, if they supply one at all. Have a look at the Wikipedia article on earthing systems for an explanation of TN-S, TN-C, TNC-S and TT earthing systems. If the earth wire in the cable is connected to the generator earth and the generator earth is connected to an earth spike, and if the bond is at the generator end your generator lead would actually be an example of TN-S system. N

If the oil is coming from inside the engine and leaking into the lagging on the outside of the exhaust pipes then there must also be a leak in the exhaust pipes, possibly in the flexi parts. If there is no leak in the exhaust pipes the oil must be leaking from the outside of the engine. If there is a leak in the exhaust the first thing to do is fix that, because Carbon Monoxide will also be leaking out into your boat. Inlet Valve guides are not likely to be the source of the oil IMHO because the engine is not smoking. With worn valve guides the oil goes down the inlet valve guide, drawn by the inlet suction, burns in the engine and produces smoke. Oil does not usually go down exhaust valve guides because the exhaust pressure tends push it back out. This blow-by up the exhaust valve guides can combine with blow-by from the pistons into the crankcase to pressurise the internal engine spaces (rocker covers and the like) and so increase the likelihood of oil leaks to the outside. Worth checking that any crankcase breathers are clear and clean. I can't be more specific because I don't know the Coventry Victor engines at all. Once you have fixed the leak replace the oily lagging with some new glass-fibre tape and it won't smoke when the pipes get hot. It might steam a little after a damp night but that will soon dry out. N

The DEFRA grant will either be replaced by 'charitable contributions', principally from non-boaters, or more likely outside Robin Evans' pie-in-the-sky predictions, will have to continue. If the grant is terminated without an adequate charitable income, then CRT will go broke or the trustees will refuse to go on as custodians of the waterways. In either event DEFRA, who still own the nationalised waterways, would have to find a replacement for CRT. That might be a challenge if CRT have just packed it in for lack of money. N

Much of what Simon wrote is in pipe dream territory, or simply does not understand reality. How can CRT 'bat for boaters' when even Simon acknowledges that there is no single view held by 'boaters'? CRT also have a requirement as part of the grant mechanism to promote other things than boating and if pressed DEFRA will claim that casual users of the canals are a large part of . Claiming to 'bat for' any single group would be to invite criticism that CRT was neglecting the other groups it also has to provide for and 'for boaters' would simply invite someone to also claim that other users between them provide more funding than boaters do. Sell the reservoirs but not the water. Who would want a reservoir, with all its liabilities, but not the water which is the reservoir's purpose? The only thing the water companies would really want is the water and they could have that now if they wanted to take it from sump pounds and were prepared to pay a little for it. They don't because it runs (back) into rivers from sump pounds and the water companies either already have abstraction licences or alternative supplies.. Water supply? Water is a heavy and very expensive thing to move around, unless you can get it to run down hill. To shift water over hills is uneconomic. BW used to and CRT still do sell quite a lot of water, but it is mainly from sump pounds or where it can be returned . I could go on, but to me the few nuggets were simply buried by the dross. N

Wonderful device- Easily made by a welder/fabricator. Ours was originally one of a few made by Jim McDonald, way back in the days of the Any Old Boat Club. The blade is made from an old file. Needs an occasional sharpen with an angel grinder after a tough battle. Have the T handle either in line with, or at right angles to the blade and mark the handle so that you can always visualise the orientation of the invisible part. N

No regulatory need for certificates but for real peace of mind check that: There is a proper consumer unit with circuit protection devices. There is an RCD. You could ask for this to be tested with an RCD tester, not just by pushing the button labelled 'Test' which doesn't really. The Boat neutral is bonded to earth. Exact arrangements depend on whether and what sort of inverter is fitted The boat earth is bonded to the hull. Ideally this will be close to the point at which the DC negative is bonded to the hull. Other things to look for- a Galvanic Isolator or Isolation Transformer. N

Note that the discs are charged extra! N

Both mine (a 70 A A127 clone with tractor reg and a standard Bosch 35 A output jobby) will happily self excite at slightly more than Kelvin tickover (about1500 alternator rpm) albeit that is with the main outputs connected to batteries. I have not tried with them electrically isolated. N

Have eight pints of Guinness, three pickled eggs and a vindaloo. You won't notice the diesel smell than. N

They do, but that doesn't matter. In self-excitation the voltage rises slowly (in electronic terms) and the regulator can keep the field and output voltages under control so there is no damage. When a running alternator is open circuited there is an existing excitation current/magnetic flux in the machine which the regulator can't shut down fast enough (not because the regulator is too slow, but because of the inductance in the field circuit and the magnetic characteristics of the machine) so the output voltage goes up very fast and the diodes expire. N

S Sunflowers. N

The main inside ribs on your boat are much more than 50mm apart and it doesn't come to any harm when it is on the bottom of the river. Provided the skin tank outside layer is the same thickness as the hull, 25 mm by 5 mm thick ribs inside the skin tank will transfer any distributed load to the main hull structure. If you were to sit the boat on a sharp spike, such a piece of concrete reinforcing rod sticking up, there might be damage, but I think your existing hull would be damaged anyway in that case. In the worst case the skin tank might leak, but the engine will still be OK I agree with your thoughts on fig 1. Picture 1 is a good way to do it, but an awful lot of work and needs twice as much pipe. Fig 2 is the right way, but in your case with more supports/spacers than in your second picture of boat in the cradle. Space them about 100mm apart if you want to support the boat on them. Make the supports as long for-and-aft as you can get to fit and as short as possible so the pipe is close to the boat but they can still be welded properly. If you can, make sure there is one support on each of the internal frames. We don't often get waves like in your picture on the UK inland waterways! N

I think we do not share a common view of what I mean by thickness. To me that is the space between the hull and the outside sheet of a skin tank. I think that is what you mean by high. If that distance is 20-25mm then to maintain your flow area the inside ribs can be 50mm apart with, say, 100 mm missing at alternate ends for the flow to reverse direction up the next space. even so it will be long flow for the cooling water and you may need an extra pump to help it round. Google 'Keel Cooler'. This will give you a good idea of what I am suggesting as an easier to build alternative to a skin tank. If the tubes are spaced off the hull about 12 mm with a steel spacer they will not be torn off even if you hit a rock and the maximum area of tube is available for cooling. You are right that do not want the tubes to be welded direct to the hull because that reduces the contact area with the water and provides somewhere for weed and fouling to grow. Steel tubes and steel flat bar spacers properly welded will not give any corrosion problems ( assuming you paint them ) . The ones on my hull have now been there over 10 years without any corrosion problems. They have also survived contact with some pretty hard canal furniture ( stone brick and concrete locks). I forgot to say in my last post: Welcome to the forum. You boat looks very interesting and has good underwater lines. Which river do you boat on? N

Can you get at the inside? The skin tank on a canal boat is usually on the inside and can be easier to build like that. Lots of ribs s good and will prevent damage if the boat goes ashore. Space them about 25-30mm apart and allow plenty of space at alternate ends so that the water goes all over the tank. It does not need to be very thick- 20-25 mm will be OK. No benefit from building it any thicker than the hull plates. For 50 HP I think 2.5 sq m is about right and should be OK for long periods of full power. You may need to add an extra pump to the engine to make the water circulate- a loader engine is usually only set up to push its water through a radiator. Another way to do it is to weld steel tubes on the outside with small spacers between the tube and the hull. Tube is easy to bend to the form of the hull and strong enough to be OK as a support but because it's easy to bend can go anywhere out of the way. 50 mm OD tube has a surface area of 0.15 sqm/m. N

Home made concrete blocks are fine. Tkes a lot of carrying from the DIY sheds though if you have no wheels. No real need for chain handles as they won't be moved much. You can do it with melted lead too, if you can get hold of it. N

Makes paint go on easier and it might make it waterproof,.... but might not. Matt topcoat is available- best to use something made for the job. N

Are you sure they are powder coated? Most aluminium is coloured by dying the anodising oxide film before it is hydrolysed. In the case of windows this is normally done to the extruded sections before they are cut and bent to shape If they are powder coated AFAIK they can only be blasted (with the right medium) and then will need to be re-polished and re-anodised. The aluminium will get smaller and the bends are likely to change shape. It will almost certainly be cheaper to buy new ones. If they are dyed anodising they can be de-anodised and re-anodised in a new colour (clear). It would probably be cheaper to buy new ones. N

Non-slip can be hard to keep clean- depend what the builder uses and what you clean it with. I'd want to make sure it was pressure-washer proof. Scrubbing it is very boring! Non-slip can be hard to get off- again, depends on the stuff used. They are all easy to paint over, but that makes them less non-slip as the profile of the 'grit' gets more immersed in paint. N

You don't. Your BSS is valid till the date on the certificate. The examiner is covered because you weren't a liveaboard when he tested it so he was not then in contravention of the Regs explained by MtB. Next time, find a different examiner who isn't re-writing the rules to suit himself. The rules on council tax are complicated. If you are residential talk to the RBOA. You can get a rebate every day you are not on the specific mooring which is liable for Council tax. N

Folks, remember, you can tell a bloke you think his wife/girlfriend/SO is ugly, but don't criticise his boat! N

Not only an ingenious and far sighted man but one who was able to persuade his Board of Directors of the merits of investing in capacity and mechanical handling, to the long term benefit of the shareholders, unlike many canal companies. N