cuthound

When we bought our house there were 21 conifers planted along the canal edge. I had to apply to CRT for permission to develop an end of garden mooring (accompanied by a letter from the seller giving his permission to apply), as i didnt want to buy and then find i couldnt get permission to moor. 3 months later CRT finally gave permission, stating rather obviously that the conifers must be removed. The only stipulation was that they wanted photographic evidence that the conifers must be removed out of bird nesting season (1st March to end of August). I decided to buy. We moved in on 28th February 2014, fortunately February had 29 days that year so I had arranged for a local tree surgeon to remove them on the 29th and sent the CRT moorings manager the photos as soon as they were down. ?

Rister or Glardner?

Until 4 years ago we lived in Surrey. When I retired I Googled "canalside houses with moorings". There are usually half a dozen reasonably priced ones with moorings capable of taking a 60 foot boat. Sold the Surrey house and bought our present (larger) house in Staffordshire, because of the price differential between the two counties, we bought the boat and paid the moving fees with the proceeds. Also having an end of garden mooring saves around £2000-£2500 per annum in mooring fees, despite having to pay CRT for the privilege. We enjoy a much better quality and I talk to loads more people than I ever did in Surrey. The only downside is we could never afford to move back, not that we would want to.

Reginald sounded very nice when you passed my mooring the other day.

Indeed, since 2010 all diesel sold in the UK has had to be of the ultra low sulphur variety, and "red diesel" (previously properly called gas oil which had a lower cetane rating) is now white diesel with a dye added.

That's the advice my surveyor gave me when I bought the boat, along with not running the Webasto for more than 1 hour in every 2 to prevent it from cycling and also to run it once a month to prevent the diesel from going stale inside it during the summer months. In the 4 years that I have had thee boat it has never been serviced or had a fault. The previous owner used it like domestic central heating, and had to have it repaired or serviced at least once a year at around £150 a go.

Many new boats are fitted with shower panel systems, such as this cheap one from Wickes. Better quality ones are available at a price. https://www.wickes.co.uk/shower-panels

I agree. Otherwise battery manufacturers would recommend charging currents, rather than the charging voltages they actually recommend.

Absolutely correct. At the dawn of my career with BT each flooded lead acid battery was given a "conditioning cycle" every 2 years. First the battery was fully charged and cell voltages & sg's taken (temperature corrected). Then it was discharged at the 10 hour rate, with load current checked and adjusted every 15 minutes as well as voltages & sg's taken. When the first cell reached 1.85 volts, a cadmium electrode was used. Cadmium is electro-negative to the negative plate, so charge distributuon on both plates can be assessed. Finally when the first cell reached 1.75 volts the discharge test was terminated and the battery immediately put on recharge and the capacity calculated. Including fully recharging, the process used to take around 30 hours and generated me and a colleague loads of overtime and a day off in lieu. A 30 hour straight shift wouldnt be allowed these days. Batteries typically lasted 25 years, and were scrapped when capacity dropped to 80% of badged capacity. From 1980 flooded lead acids were replaced with VRSLA's which were permanently on float, never needed topping up and usually lasted 6 years before failing in service. Whole life costs were an order of magnitude less though.

One possibility for the battery post being on a cant, the battery being able to light ignition lights, but not start the engine is group bars corrosion. It is however extremely rareand usually found on sealed batteries. Corrosion occurs between the pure lead group bars (to which the post is welded) and the lead/calcium alloyed plates. The plates either drop off the group bars, for the joints become high resistance. It was pretty common in the early 80's when sealed batteries first came out, but most manufacturers solved the issues by the mid 80's.

Likewise, however I have no experience of an Ebersplutter.

I managed to go from Alvecote to Chasewater and back without having to go down the weedhatch.

Well I've never found anything to laugh at on that site. ?

Well I have been involved numerous multi-million pound projects and we always had to demonstrate compliance to the local DNO's representative. I think the DNO inspects existing installations only when complaints have been made.

When I bought my boat it came with a Proper Protector fitted. It is like a circular saw blade fitted to the shaft ahead of the prop. Intially I was cynical of it, but in the 4 years I have owned the boat I have only been down the weedhatch twice. On that first occasion I had only just got the boat when it picked up something up round the prop. The engine laboured and black smoke poured from the exhaust. I pulled up and went down the weedhatch and found... nothing. The Prop Protector had cleared it and if I hadn't been so quick to check the weedhatch I wouldn't have had to, if you see what I mean. On the second occasion the engine stalled and I found a cratch cover wrapped around the prop. Now that took some pulling to get it through the weedhatch! I would definitely get one fitted to any future boats I own.

Unless it has been rescinded since I stopped working 5 years ago, Engineering Recommendation G5/4-1 limited mains distortion to a maximum of 5% at the customers point of connection to the grid. All industrial sites containing large switched mode power supplies were checked periodically for compliance.

But perhaps the odd wet caller? ?