whammy

Hi Gary, you can add one other to your list, we are true continuous cruisers and have been for just over a year now, we started off on the Birmingham/Worcester canal and have travelled around the system a fair bit including summer up and down the Kennet and Avon via the Oxford, river Thames, then back down the Thames onto the Grand Union at Brentford and then have made our way up the Shroppie onto our present location on the Llangollen. We are doing the Llangollen in the winter as it has been reported that it gets a tad busy in the summer. After that its planned to do the Lancaster in the spring and then who knows. I truly believe it is a great privelige to be able to live this life style and I am not sure if many people would be able to do so because of various commitments etc. Neither my wife or I work so we dont have the problem of having to find a mooring near to work, very few family commitments, a reasonable income from a works pension etc etc. On our travels we have only come accross a few other boats that would seem to be c.c. but I am sure there are far more, It was only yesterday I was wondering if we are a rare breed, I have no problems with so called bridge hoppers and I am sure there is still room for us all, we have allways been able to find a suitable mooring where ever we have been, in saying that we tend to prefer to moor out in the country and we dont like nose to tailing in any situation, I know that may seem slightly anti social but we do like the peace and quiet.

Thanks Ricardo, we'll check out The Waggoners. You might want to ring first, we tried today at 12.15 and it was all locked up and no opening times displayed

Done.

Added my signature - great way to do it

Can I at this point thank everybody for the contributions to my original question particularily from the boaters that have this piece of equipment fitted, I know I asked for replies to be kept simple for me but I can now see that I have opened a right can of worms, why oh why cant things in life be simple for simple folk like me, I have spoken to other boaters re this matter since posting this question and to be honest I am as confused now as I was at the start. I tried downloading the instruction manual from the Sterling website but the download fails half way through it, I dont think its a fault on my side so I emailed sterling but had no reply to date. Does anyone know how complicated the wiring in of this unit is.

Once again thanks very much for you taking time to answer my question, I am not sure about having a boat load of drunken scotsmen onboard and drunken women tend to frighten me I just wonder if there is a local branch of the womens institute who could come along each carrying a home made cake and pot of jam for extra weight I am not keen of tunnels of any description, height or length but if I am to do the whole system they are a necessary evil but if nothing else a tribute to the original builders and engineers. Once again thanks -- Whammy

We recently had to travel from the south to the north on the system and our original plan was to go up the Trent and Mersey through the Harecastle Tunnel. We got as far as Braunston and I was casually glancing through the Nicholsons guide when I noticed with some dismay that the tunnels heigh limit was 5 foot 9 inches. We have a Aqualine Manhattan and our manual showed our height as 6 foot, we got the tape measure out and sure enough from waterline to top of the chimney stub is 6 foot. I rang BW to confirm things and they said I was a definate no no for going through. So we had a desperate re think and made a alternative plan and route which meant a mad dash via the shroppie to get through Audlem before the stoppage on the 6 Nov (which they have now put back to poss the end of Nov by the way). I know they have a guage at the entrance to the tunnel but I did not have the time this year to go to the entrance and measure things up against my boat. Anyway since then I have been speaking to various folk including boat owners of boats that look no smaller than me who say they have had no problems getting through - I had the new boat company engineer out yesterday and he was suprised about it when I spoke to him. Sorry to rabbit on - any comments from you good people ?????????? And yes I have heard the one about letting air out the tyres

THANKS TONY. The reason why I am looking at the domestic side is that my boat was fitted with a 240v fridge when it was built as a standard fitment. I find that with my other electric items I have found that demand outsrips supply at times, not too bad now with winter approaching and fridge can be left off to help things, dont get me wrong I dont think we are too bad with what we do run, just tv, lights, freeview box, nothing like heaters or electric kettles.

Thanks for all your advice guys, I am interested in the option of fitting a bigger output alternator for the domestic side as the starter battery side of things is not an issue, I have a Isuzu 42 engine fitted, I was just wondering how this would affect any warranty issues. Another things is would I have to do something to the victron inverter/charger to stop this unit charging the batteries as if I fit the sterling unit this would be charging the batteries and I assume you would not have two seperate things charging the system, as you can tell I am all at sea re electrics, can anyone reccomend a website/publication that would explain boat electrics for dummies like me.

I have been living onboard for about a year now and want to see if I can improve my battery charging system. I have been looking at the Sterling alternator to battery charging system which claims to charge your batteries faster and puts more power into them. Has anyone got one of these fitted as a added extra, has anyone fitted one, how difficult is it (I have no idea about electrics), How would this fit into my present electrics (listed below), they are quite expensive so I dont want to take the plunge without trying to get a bit more info on them. Please try and make any replies as simple as possible - thanks System - 4 x 110a leisure batts, 1 x 110a starter batt, 2 x 80a alternators, victron phoenix multi plus charger/inverter 2500va 120amp. thanks again.

British Waterways automated pump out ???????? now there is a rare animal, we bought half a dozen cards from the shop in Devizes in the summer on the K and A, we still have one left and we pump out about every 2 weeks. Yes there are a few on the K and A but you try and find one on the Grand Union.

I know there has been many a post on this subject so I did a search and found no reference to what I am about to reccomend. If you are looking for a satellite receiver you could do no better than get a receiver from TECHNOMATE they do several models - the cheaper ones range from 60 to 100 pounds. They have the advantage of not just being able to receive sky on the astra sat. at 28.2e. Depending on the size of your dish you can pick up various other satellites including the Hotbird sat at 13e. The only disadvantage is that you wont get channel 4 or 5 on astra - some may say this is an advantage ???????. The menu/set up on the technomate also has a handy signal metre which will mean you wont need a sat finder when trying to find the required satellite, setting up takes me about 30 seconds once everything is plugged in. I use a kerstan mini dish which is first class. If you put the word Technomate into a Ebay search it will show you what can be achieved with these receivers and get some good prices. Also have a look at a web site called alsat they have a technomate discussion forum which is spot on. And no I dont work for Technomate. I dont work !!!!!

Hi, I have been using the T mobile data card for the last 2 months, I was a bit dubious that coverage would be not up to scratch when out in the sticks but I have travelled from London to Coventry in that time and have allways been able to get on line, mostly on GPRS but have been UMTS and that really flies. When you consider that we surf from inside a steel box its very clever. Long may it continue