cuthound

Just seen a boat go past my mooring called Dick Terrapin ? Wouldn't really have noticed him (I was browsing the forum) but he used his bow thruster to navigate through the bridge on a straight bit of canal. This is the second time in less than a week I have seen using a bow thruster to navigate in a straight line ???. On Sunday as I was coming up the two Glascote Locks a replica Small Northwich was using his to steer between the two locks ???

RIP Laurence. I never met you but have enjoyed many of your DVD's and posts on here.

Indeed, we once bought two kittens which my wife names "Bubble" and "Squeak". They never got lost together, and I felt a right fool calling out into the night "Bubble, Bubble" or even worse "Squeak, Squeak" ?

I find things pick me rather than the other way round ?

Perhaps sirweste originates from the Fens? ?

I have yet to find anything round a prop that bolt cutters, a hacksaw and a pruning knife haven't been able to get off (used singly or in combination).

Yes the battery will not quite get fully charged during the winter and might begin to sulphate. However, as the charger will get the battery almost fully charged, I don't think that the sulphation would harden to the point of being irreversible, so a good equalisation charge in the spring would probably restore the majority of the lost capacity.

The test emoji in the above posthe is yellow. Perhaps you are suffering from intermittent colour blindness? ?

Easily resolved at most venues by charging for attendance rather than parking, but the Braunston show is at a very public location. Would charity collection boxes along the towpath raise more money?

Lead acid batteries need the charge voltage lowered at higher temperatures and raised at lower temperatures. The attached chart shows the amount required for various voltage batteries. However if your boat is left unused on a landline, then the ambient temperature will level out at various heights, for example the temperature at the waterline will be the same along the length of the boat. Are your batteries and their charger at the same height? Obviously this will not be the case if the boat is heated though.

I only use the glow plugs when the weather is really cold (well below freezing). A Beta 43 will start within a couple of seconds of cranking without them.

Welcome to the wonderful world of boat ownership. We need photo's ?

Perhaps ours are jaundiced? ?

There you go. This thread gives you an overview of the correct setting for a BMV.

I much prefer analogue instruments. You can twist the gauges so that the pointers are upright when everything is normal, so you don't have to even read them, just glance at them to check that everything is OK. With digital readouts you need to actually read each one to understand what is happening, which takes much longer.

Yes, they are traction batteries, so happy to be almost fully discharged and still give 1000's of cycles use. When we had our last shareboat, a co-owner was telling me about a boat he had seen which had four clift batteries, which apparently were the bees knees. Took me a while to realise that he had misheard ?

It is an experience not to be missed - the nearest you will get to flying in a boat ?

There must be several engine/alternator/pulley configurations, because the Mitsubishi AVX 6415 belts I have used are marginally too long with the adjustment bracket at its maximum on my 2007 Beta 43.

Where I live there are many canalside houses, but only a handful with sufficient canal frontage to accommodate decent length narrowboat. These houses command a significant premium over similar houses with limited or no canal frontage when they come up for sale.

Coolth is the expression I used to use.

These are the type of batteries i cut my teeth on. Came in a range of capacities from 100Ah to 600Ah Only after charging the battery can you see if its sulphated. With a fully charged healthy battery the positive plate is a chocolate brown cour and the negative plate is grey. If it is heavily sulphated charged battery or healthy flat battery, both plates are grey. The main advantage of glass or clear polycarbonate cases is you can see the amount of material shed from the plates, or "trees" (caused by impurities in the topping up water) bridging plates and causing shorts. The really large cells were in open topped, wooden boxes, where a dealing stick could be pushed between the plates to remove trees, and individual plates could be cut out and new ones lead welded back in.

Indeed, many moons ago when I first became a project manager I was asked to specify a generator set. I knew about the electrical side and how petrol engines worked in cars, but not diesel engines, so explained this to my boss. He gave me a pile of old specifications to read and told me to get on with it. My little knowledge proved a dangerous thing when I duly specified "explosion proof crankcase doors" on a genset utilising a modern 50 litre engine more commonly used to power trucks and trains, rather than the more traditional marine based engines ?

I've ordered a cheap AVX 13 x 1075 off eBay to see if that is the correct length. I'll also order a replacement from Beta. That way I'll know the generic type and lengthy as well as the Beta original part number.