Inner_Northerner

And for any devious types out there considering coming to London to replicate the above and nick in to steal my pirate hot water bottle and sell it on the blackmarket, I have now fixed that loose top bolt. So it won't work again. Spare key with a land dwelling friend seems the best backup.

In the end the solution was a vent at the bottom of the front doors leading into the cratch area in the bow. Clamber down outside, duck under cratch cover. Front doors here are bolted internally top and bottom. Remember in the cold the top bolt often slips down easily. Shake door. Feel it slide down. Just the bottom bolt to go. Spot small vent in bottom of door. Feel hope in your heart. Remember screwdriver set usefully stored in bow lockers. Remove panel using this. Discover there is still an internal grill in the way. Do not be deterred. Go find nearby random friendly boater. Persuade him you are not a burglar. Borrow coat hanger. Untwist and insert through internal grill to lift up bottom bolt and open door. Put kettle on... Life is good! Total cost - zero. Thankyou all for the useful advice. Actually very pleased by how impregnable my boat turned out to be. Although kudos to whoever suggested just unscrewing the hopper windows from the outside. Looked like that would have worked too. But top of my side hatch has a lip to prevent crowbars. (And, presumably, rain.) And front door has a sturdy frame jutting out preventing credit card trick. (Thankyou for the PMs re this - feel like I have learned useful life skills today!) Thanks all - hope you all have great days. Mike

I'm in!!!! Guys I'm humbled by how much useful advice, and moral boosting humour, I received in just two hours from complete strangers. Thankyou all.

Yep the £378 bill is exactly what am trying to avoid. All the windows are closed but am wondering now whether sliding something in to turn the slide locks and then lifting the frame out as you say might be an option. They are the hopper type ones

Yep - just looks to me like an ordinary front door yale lock that locks automatically when you pull it closed. Quite small. And just spotted another typo. My "boat" is (sadly) impregnable. Being of the male gender, I don't really have a bust. Although last night's emergency chips are definitely beginning to contribute to potential development of one.

And with the lack of an "edit" post option and typing in haste can I just add that I had of course intended to write "locked" myself out of my boat. Kicking myself out at 2am sub zero would just be cruel. But does make for an amusing typo. Any boat advice urgently and greatly appreciated.

So I know I'm essentially asking you all for possibly damaging advice in terms of boat security. But I doubt the hooded youth of London Town peruse this forum that often, so figured it was worth the risk in the hope someone can help... I've kicked myself out of my boat. I'm a liveaboard so this is a bit of an issue. Small round Yale lock with no visible screws. Even worse part of the lick mechanism is covered by the doorframe. Yes I have a spare key. Unfortunately along with the usual key it's also smugly sitting inside the boat. Other entry points are the side hatch and double doors at the front. Both secured with internal bolts top and bottom. Short of taking a crowbar to the glass (Which I tried at 2am last night with no success and much anxiety that nearby well meaning boaters might call the police on me.) Any other suggestions? Failing that I'm guessing the usual land dwelling locksmiths would work? The good news is that my bust is vastly more impregnable than I thought....

Thanks. I know this is particularly numpty-ish but how would I do/know this? And by clean, just with a rag? Edit: back working again now. Seems intermittent so maybe dodgy connector or things getting wet, then drying out is the cause? Also when I press the test switch with the 240v working, it trips out, although correct polarity led stays on. I never actually pressed the test switch before today so no idea if this is normal/was doing it before today's issues

Hi folks, New to all this so please be kind! Had an issue this morning when went to switch on the 240v and it's dead as a dodo. I have an 1800w sterling inverter running from a leisure bank of 3 batteries. The 12v is working fine. At time of trying the 240v I'd just started running the engine to charge up as battery charge had dropped to 12.2v I was watching tv on the 240 either weds or thuds eve and all seemed fine. Switched off and went to bed. Hadn't tried to switch on again till this morning. Normal 240v switch on is to flick on the inverter controller. Then turn the 240v source dial to "2" for inverter/batteries (as opposed to the shoreline option or off). On doing above green power led for inverter comes on as normal. But on switching dial to "2" ordinarily the "power on" and "correct polarity" LEDs would come on on the electrics panel. But just nothing. This is making me guess it is more an issue with the wiring/electrics than the inverter? After switching off and on a good twenty times it did once come on for a second before blinking off again. A few more tries later it came on and stayed on whilst I successfully used microwave for two mins. I switched it off. Twenty more flicks of off/on switch hasn't managed to get it back on since. No smoke/burning smells - no other symptoms at all. The only other thing I can think is that it has been raining a lot recently. I have a cruiser stern and it can accumulate a fair bit of water down there. I ran bilge pumps just now and if pumped out a fair bit of water over five-ten mins. Other than that the electrics have been working fine since got the boat two months back. Any help very much appreciated!