mattcyp

Yep, the price is high, to put it mildly! I got a discount voucher of ~£200/250 for chatting to them about it at Crick in 2013, so perhaps there is some wiggle room there.

Whilst this isn't quite on topic, I was on the verge of buying a Webasto when I stumbled upone someone discussing Huricanes on here and have never looked back since! http://www.calcuttboats.com/hurricane.html Apart from (so far!) being as tough as can be, the nice thing about pressure jet burners (like huricanes) is that they can short cycle an awful lot without any issues, which makes them great for heating a calorifier in summer without having to dump any other heat through radiators.

Thanks. That is re-assuring. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the info from? Nice picture of East Marton there!

Thanks, that's interesting. I'll look out to see what it looks like after they've done it on the L&L.

Thanks for the input all. Yes, it does seem reasonable that if I can't take the boat back to its mooring, it should be ok to leave it somewhere for more than 14 days. I don't imagine that will be a tough bridge to cross, should I come to it. Thanks, that has prompted me to re-read the notice. To "ash up the gates" is to insert strips of ash into the joins to minimise leakage? My hope would be that their plan is as you say, and the canal becomes a linear duck pond, instead of a half filled ditch. Re. the two comments about imagining they would tell moorers (multi-qouting eludes me!). The chap I spoke to seemed a bit put out that I wanted to know what was going to happen, and had no idea himself.

As a boat owner with a mooring on the section of the L&L that is due to close, what happens to moored boats in these sections? Do CRT maintain levels even though no boats can move through the locks, or are the boats expected to sit on the bottom? CRT moorings manager for the area I'm in doesn't have a clue, but has promised to try and find out. His only suggestion was that if I can't get the boat back to its mooring before they close the locks, I'll have to keep moving it every 2 weeks until they re-open the canal.

Ah, Morningstar MPPT charge controller. It doesn't get much better than those! Getting a lower powered 230v immersion heater shouldn't be too hard - Vetus do a nice low power one (link). Steve Timebeck (I think) at Denham Yacht Station might be worth chatting to if you're looking for an electrician near London.

Hi Matt, A rough rule of thumb is that a 1Kw load on a 12v boat will be drawing 100a. If angled at 90' to the sun, 500w of pannels might just about get to the 40a that the mttp controller you mention is rated at. So, it looks like you'd be drawing 60a (100a - 40a) from the batteries, and if you have 150ah of effective capacity (though it's likely to be lower), you might get about 2.5 hours from the system before the batteries have been drawn down to 50% state of charge. This is probably a best case scenario though! Something that I've done is to replace the 1Kw immersion heater with a 500w one (e.g. a vetus one). Mine draws 44a using a 2.5kw sterling inverter so is fine for my 60a mppt controller to keep up with on a sunny day. If you switched to the 500w immersion heater with your current setup, you'd be drawing a tiny 4a from the batteries so could generate hot water with a tiny impact on your batteries. The hot water will take twice as long to warm up with the smaller immersion heater, but if it's hardly drawing from your battery bank then it being on for a good few hours shouldn't be a problem. Once the tank is hot the summer evenings would give plenty of time for the solar to put back the slight discharge the batteries experienced when you were making hot water. A further option is that you can then turn the immersion heater on and off depending on how sunny it is with something like this: link.

I've "matted" the bow, stern, and gas locker of my boat with these rubber mats: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rubber-Matting-With-Drainage-Holes-Wet-Areas-Decking-Pool-Side-Patios/263196467912?epid=2194312571&hash=item3d47bb62c8:m:mct737nOuF6mHnsoy4Q_VRA As they're raised by the little rubber feet water doesn't seem to be able to get stuck under them, and 3 years later the paint under them is still looking pretty good.

Something like a Sterling alternator to battery charger is a quick (but not cheap) way of achieving that. I've a canaline 38 which doen'st have the biggest 2nd alternator (90a) so getting something from the 50a primary alternator is useful. The other big benefit is a decent charging profile that a cheap alternator regulator probably won't provide - the sterling unit can be set to do an absorbtion charge at 14.7v before eventually dropping to a float charge. Sterling website

Thanks for the inputs. I might try and catch Ian to see what he has to say. It's a shame the spare parts aren't available in the same way that a127s are though. The Lucas Industries wikipedia page did turn up this though: " With a monopoly in place, Lucas proceeded to supply electrical equipment that was commonly cited as the best reason not to buy a British car ". Sir Nibble, thanks. I've sent you a PM

Thanks for the reply. I'm surprised that it's not a prestolite - the one I picuted is identical in every external way to the one on my boat. I'm near Skipton on the L&L so if you do know any local specialists, that would be great.

Thanks for the input all. A blown field diode sounds plausible. Bulding on Pearley's suggstion of fitting a new diode assembly sounds worth a try. Does anyone know where I can source them from? There are plenty of units on ebay (e.g. link), but plenty of results for Lucas a127 that don't look the same as my alternator (e.g. the picture below), so I'm concerned it won't fit (and trying not to dismantle the unit as it's getting a fair bit of use at this time of year). Thanks again. Ps Tony - I think it's only done 300 or 400 hours so I'm keen to keep it going. An exchange alternator is on my mind though. Edited to add (and tidy up), a bit more googling suggests it's the alternator below, which I haven't had much luck looking for parts for (ebay link). Prestolite 66021590M:

Hi all, The title is the short version - My auxillary alternator warning light is staying on despite the alternator pushing out it's usual current (I think - it's at least pretty much the same) and a quick investigation with a mulitmeter found 10.5v at the d+ stud. From my understanding of how warning lights work, one side is supplied with +12 (or more likely 13 - 14.7 when cruising) and before the alternator is excited the other is at 0v, causing the bulb to light. When running normally the d+ terminal would see roughly the same as the b+ terminal and so with no potential difference across it, the bulb goes out. In my case, I think the 2 or 3 volts across the bulb is keeping it on. This isn't such an immediate problem at this time of year as when sailing the alternator just pushes out max currenty all the time, but once the batteries get near to absorption charge (14.7v for me) there is minimal drop in current and the alterntor will just keep charging until the batteries reach a high voltage (it got to 15.5v ish before I noticed). Probably foolishly, I replaced the regulator (it was only £10 on ebay) but this has made no change. Does anyone have a suggestion for what to try next? Here's a pictuer of the alternator, though I can go back for more. It's the 90a auxillary fitted on a canlaine 38.

For anyone who ever stumbles on this, Lower Park marina in Barnoldswick has a basket of individual hatch sliders. Not sure if they'd post, but they might.