brich

We've recently purchased NB Hermione, a 21 year old 50' cruiser stern narrowboat whose builder is unknown. We're told - based on her design and build - she might have been built by Floating Homes, who I think are no longer trading. Anyone know if any records of boats they built are available? Thanks Brian

We are in the process of upgrading from a 34' narrowboat to somethng big enough to live aboard (50 - 55') so have looked at a lot of boats this year with a view to buying. As a guideline, I woud consider that your boat would fetch between £20k and £25k if it is in good condition. This doesn't mean that everything has to be shiny and new, rather that it works as expected and looks like it has been looked after. (We came across a boat at a brokerage last week that was £10K less that our budget and about 10 years older that we were considering, but it was so well looked after and full of character that we were going to put an offer in on it - unfortunately someone else got there first!) I'd recommend that you give it a good 'valet' inside and out, and fix all the obvious rattles and missing bits that you can. Don't spend any large sums of money on it, let the buyer decide what they want to do with it - your ideas are unlikely to be the same as theirs anyway. They will base their offer price on what they think it will cost them to 'fix' the boat to their satisfaction. Put it onto Apollo Duck or Boats and Outboards and price it at (say) 5 percent over what you hope to get and see who comes to visit. Gives you some haggling room. You'll know if you're in the right price range depending on the number of enquiries and viewers that you get, and you'll get responses in days rather than in weeks. Do put a full description and plenty of photos on your advert. Boats in this price range will probably take 1 - 2 months to sell in the present market IMHO. HTH Brian

Anyone know anything about this boatbuilder? http://www.soutwestboatbuilders.co.uk Just started advertising new build boats on Apollo Duck. The prices seem very low - e.g. a fully fitted 50 foot cruiser stern narrowboat for £35,000. Seems like they are building to a standard layouts (several choices) much like EastWest boats, but I think the boats must be being built here in the UK, possibly Totnes. Very new as they say I can visit their fabrication shop but don't have any completed boats yet.

I'm rapidly losing confidence in the whole idea of installing an alternator controller at all, as I might be buying the 'wrong one' or using it with the wrong batteries, or perhaps I'm merely being stupid enough not to understand which is 'best'. If the science of alternator controllers is good science, then surely there is a right and a wrong way to do it? If we have to resort to e-mailing the manufacturers to support our position, then I'm just beginning to wonder if this is all about who produces the best snake oil and I'm going to get fleeced whichever one I choose. I wonder if I fitted gas mantles, a gas fridge, gas water heating and get a soss stick I can chuck all this electrical rubbish out except for the starter battery ... then perhaps Vetus offer starting handles and I could get rid of the engine battery too. Now where did I leave that canal mag that talked about horse-drawn boats....?

How do you determine the charging voltage - from the manufacturers spec sheets or do you need to measure it directly under some specific conditions? Also, do you need to be aware of the type of batteries you have when choosing a controller (e.g. open vs sealed lead acid batteries)? Thanks Brian

Sorry, I copied the detail of the RoadPro website spec where it said the average hourly consumption was 19W (1.6A at 12V) and forgot to put the H afterwards. I'm sorry I asked about the alternator controller - didn't mean to stir up an argument! Brian

Thanks Chris and Gibbo - you've confirmed my thoughts that this was not really workable. So for Plan B... A 1500W pure sine inverter - perhaps one that autoswitches betweeen shore and inverted power automatically Two TVs as before - 320 Wh per day I'll dump the microwave - not a problem. I'll dump the domestic fridge freezer and replace with something like the 12V INDEL fridge from Roadpro (rated at 19W per hour, lets say 500 Wh per day) unless I should be looking for a small mains fridge? http://tinyurl.com/q9h9hq To replace the Candy I'll get a Thompson X-11-1 twintub which is rated at 350W wash-motor and 165W spin motor, and hot filled from the calorfier or Morco gas heater. I'm told that these are simple 'traditional' washing machines. 30 minutes washing and 5 minutes spin is 175Wh plus 14Wh, say 200Wh: http://tinyurl.com/qdbjx3 That gives a budget of about 1000 Wh which is about 100Ah - this would almost be within the capacity of the existing batteries. Does this sound right? I think I should still fit the extra engine battery, and extra 110Ah leisure battery and the alternator controller.

Might not be necessary: The Boaters Phone Company provide stick-on velcro aerial connections I believe (http://www.boatersphone.co.uk/adapters.htm#usb_adapters) - no socket required or you can get a long USB lead and attach your USB modem to the outside TV aerial in a sealed plastic box HTH Brian

I've found a nice 50' narrowboat which I'm considering purchasing. It seems to have been used mainly as a live-aboard, spending almost all of it's life (about 12 years) moored up and attched to shore power to run a couple of TVs (at 40W each) , a Microwave at 700W, a small Candy Washing machine about 1500W and a slimline fridge freezer, say 120W. The 12V circuits are completely separate. The engine is a Vetus 3 with a standard 12V 75A alternator. It has two 110Ah batteries which appear to be used to provide power for both leisure and engine start (a bit unusual but probably soluble). I'm intending to cruise rather than moor, so most of the time we would be without shore power. I'm thinking about installing a 2Kw pure sine inverter, with the idea of being able to run the fridge freezer all the time, the TV and Microwave on demand, and the washing machine occasionally (when there are no flat stones about) with the engine running so that the alternator assists when needed. However, I think I need to add some more batteries into the system - I was thinking 4 x 110Ah and a separate 80Ah or similar for engine start. But now I'm not sure that the 75A alternator will be enough to keep this battery load topped up, even if I drop in a battery management system. Can anybody suggest if this set-up is likely to work, or suggest what might be feasible? Thanks Brian

Our narrowboat is a 35' 1970 build steel hull with GRP roof. The previous owner had lined out the roof by sticking approx 8mm polystyrene tiles or sheet to the roof and sides. These sheets have deteriorated over time and I want to replace them, preferably with something that is relatively easy to apply, and won't produce large quantities of toxic fumes in a fire. I've contemplated fixing wood battens to the roof and adding a lining of 6mm faced ply, but this is expensive, will take a lot of time to plan and fit, and may add additional stress to what is an aging plastic material which I can't at the moment afford to replace with steel. I've come across Thermilate paint -, http://www.thermilate.com - which claims to have thermal insulating properties which reduce heat transfer by approx 10% for two coats and 15% for three coats. At £25 per 2.5 litre tin, I reckon I could easily get three coats onto the GRP roof and sides for the price of 4 tins and a bit of DIY preparation and application, which sounds like a bargain if you compare it with relining with ply, or applying Thinsulate fibre cloth, or messing around with sprayfoam. My question is does Thermilate do what it says on the tin? Lots of claims for it, but I can't find anything obviously independent to say yes or no, nor any 'professional' application sheets or instructions. Does anyone have experience of this paint, or can they point to any independent reviews to say how good or bad it is? Thanks Brian

Boats can't be rushed, and I don't think they take kindly to being termed a "ditch crawler". Call it by it's name and it will come when it is ready. Brian NB Otter

This was a brand new fridge, purchased less than two weeks ago, so I think I have a right to expect that it should work in a way that the specification claims. How is the average member of the public going to check this out? If we are saying that it is difficult to measure power to 20% of the actual without expensive industrial equipment, then why do we allow a point value rather than a range for the input power when both input voltage and frequency are stated as a range - viz 220/240V and 50/60Hz? The thing that alarms me is that it seems we can't rely on the information provided by the manufacturer about the fridge as a guideline for it's power consumption, Is all this plating, labeling and CE standards just a load of junk? Brian

No, the meter is measuring watts. It also has a VA setting. I've just checked it again and it is presently showing 92W or 193VA. The power factor is 0.48. I'm just astonished at the significant difference between the plated values and actual measurements. These don't seem like manufacturing tolerances to me. Otter has never had mains power on board before, and I don't plan to install a shore ring circuit. I just need the minimum required to connect the inverter safely to the fridge, so it looks like an RCBO.

I need some advice on running a 240V AC fridge from an inverter (like is it possible...) I've picked up a small tabletop fridge from B&Q for £49 which - if I can get it powered up and running - may well be just the thing to replace the Halfords coolbox with the broken catch which had previously replaced the non-flued gas fridge... OK, so NB Otter was built in 1970 and is getting a bit long in the tooth, but in no way short on pleasure! The fridge is a compressor fridge, plated as 68W at 240V, and is B rated, with an annual consumption of 186KW, or about 0.5KWH per 24 hours. As you might expect, practical measurement shows something a little different - my 'green' power measuring plug gives an actual running power of 85W and a power consumption of about 1.3KWH per 24 hours to keep it running (empty) at +5 degrees C according to my fridge thermometer. Interesting to see just how different the ratings and actuals are! Two questions - I've tried my 300W soft start 12V inverter (Nikkei - cheap and of Asian manufacture) and as anticipated it won't start the fridge - lots of bleeps and error lights but no action. I have heard it suggested that I need an inverter with about 4 times the running power to start the fridge motor, so I'm thinking about a 600W unit. Is this likely to be enough? Do I need to look at a Quasi-sine or sine inverter for this application? Is one of the cheap unregulated units OK, as I assume that bother output voltage and frequency vary under load on these. Secondly, if I can get the inverter to start the compressor, how should I wire up the system on the 240V side? The fridge is obviously metal cased and almost certainly gets it's CE safety marking on the basis it is connected to a PME domestic mains protected by circuit breakers. Should I earth the casing of the inverter to the boat (battery negative is connected to the hull) or should I put an RCD on the inverter 240V output. or neither of these? Any suggestions welcomed Thanks Brian NB Otter

Sorry - I did! OK, so this is what I've done... I've fixed the Morco so the OUTER tube (110mm x 350mm long) remains inside the roof and butted up against it. The inner tube (95mm x 400mm long) protrudes through the roof so it will engage with the flue terminal. Unfortunately it won't engage with the existing flue which had an argument with the bridge under the road as you enter the basin at Kingswood junction... so I think a new one is required, a job for next week. I have ""Silicon Nailed" a rectangle of Aquapanel against the roof to keep any rising heat away from the FRP. I'm also planning to wrap some exhaust pipe insulation material arounf the inner tube where it passes through the roof, just to give the FRP a chance. I'm still disappointed that Morco don't provide more detailed guideleines for retrofitting their units. Even some baics about ALL the items that are needed would be helpful.