PeterF

The bottom of the base plate on the weedhatch should fit level with the bottom of the boats base plate (uxter plate) to give the smoothest flow and least turbulence. See the linked sketch showing this, not perfectly level but close. https://images.cm.archant.co.uk/service/social-media-image/3844940/6242846/1/6217232-2/5tech-2.jpg

The hire boat companies should adhere to the hire boat code and CRT also have a role in this. If you wish to complain you can contact CRT's business licensing manager for the appropriate region https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/business-and-trade/boating-business/business-boating-team-contacts. You can also complain to British Marine if they are a member https://britishmarine.co.uk/Contact-us

It is hard to imagine the impact that this would have had on holiday makers during the peak time of the year, 40 southbound passages through Harecastle with nowhere to go, hire boats with only 5 days to do the four counties.

Came down the Mac this morning, stopped at the Lidl at Hardings Wood junction to buy a desk fan to get a bit of air movement in the boat. Never considered putting 8 hours of desk fan use on the power audit. Luckily it is only 45 Watt and the solar kept it going for most of the afternoon.

The water flow will vary in direction, velocity and turbulence with changing water depth and if you have a flow induced resonance then it occurs at a very specific frequency which requires a specific water velocity or turbulence. Therefore, the amount of resonance changes with water depth. The fact that it changes with water depth suggests that it is not a mechanically driven resonance from the engine rpm. Have you checked that the anti cavitation plate sits level with the baseplate. If it sits too high or too low then you may get unexpected turbulence in that area.

Some builders are quoting mid 2023 for their next slots, and that is for the start of the fit out not completion. We bought a second hand boat and had a lot of good years on that before buying the current boat new so we had experience of exactly what we wanted before we committed to a new build.

The symptom of being stuck was the batteries not full and able to accept say 15A from the 300W array at a voltage somewhere in the region of 14V, full sunshine, no shadows, early afternoon but the controller output was 13.2V and 1A. The breaker between the panels and the batteries was cycled and when the controller came back on it was delivering 15A at 14.0V. If it was an intermittently cloudy day it would drop power output and sometimes come back to full power, sometimes it would stick at low power seemingly at random. I have no idea if it got back to the maximum power point on its own with time, I watched it for 15 mins once and it did not. No idea how much charge was lost like this. Others on the forum have reported the same. I have no idea if this was addressed with more recent firmware, my Tracer BN was 2018 version or if all Epever models experience it. Understand completely about wanting to remain compatible.

I had a Tracer BN with the MT50 on my last boat on my self installed solar system, it worked reasonably well but often got stuck in full sun at a low power output, say cloud passed over and it moved to one point on the power curve, when sun returned it would not move to the increased maximum power point or take ages to respond. If I switched off the solar panel to controller breaker and turned back on it would immediately lock onto the proper maximum power point. Other than this glitch it worked well. On the new boat I have a Victron smart solar with Bluetooth and concur with the positive experience reported in an earlier post. Easy to configure from the phone, easy to monitor and I have not seen it get stuck on the wrong power point once since getting it in late April and I am pleased that I went for this compared to another Tracer BN. see Replacement MPPT controller

Senior politician taking a boat trip perhaps, hence the need to close the canal the night before to check for custard pie and egg throwers and erect the barriers.

We had 2 single beds like that on our old boat when we bought it. Rather than reworking them we made a board that sat over the walk way between the beds so we could pull the mattresses together to make a 5ft width double. An elasticated sheet kept the two mattresses together. A little hassle making and unmaking the bed but it worked for 14 years before we sold it for a new boat.

FRP = fibre reinforced plastic = glass fibre & resin

I thought it was a quick blast on your horn at a blind bridge to evade a collision.

When I added my bathroom radiator after the calorifier I fitted a bypass pipe and valve from the radiator inlet to the outlet so on those odd infrequent 25degC summer days I could open the bypass around the radiator and close the radiator valve.

Somewhere in your documentation (assuming you have some) or on a plate somewhere in the boat the builder should have listed the official figures for maximum number of people and weight of belongings. The posts about give some pragmatic approaches to working this out.

I had a Tracer on my last boat on my self installed solar, it worked reasonably well but often got stuck, say cloud passed over and it moved to one point on the power curve, when sun returned it would not move to the increased maximum power point. On the new boat I have a Victron smart solar with Bluetooth and concur with the positive experience given above. Easy to configure from the phone, easy to monitor and I have not seen it get stuck on the wrong power point once since getting it in late April and I am pleased that I went for this compared to the Tracer.

What about if you use an eye splice on the end of the rope over and through the ring on the roof to save your paintwork.

Turn your face away from the garish light of day, Turn your face away from cold, unfeeling light - and listen to the music of the night...

I t used to be 240V +/-6% but when we harmonised to nominal 230V with Europe, the spec was widened so nothing really needed to change.

I have measured 250V inlet where I moor, 9% higher than the nominal 230V. 250V is within specification, 253V max is permissible. That will result in nominally 9% more current and 18% more power so my nominal 1000W element is probably providing 1180W. In the UK, the declared voltage and tolerance for an electricity supply is 230 volts -6%, +10%.

Moored up there in May, wet day but towpath was OK for boaters needs. Went into town and did our shopping because it is so convenient. As far as i am concerned, the work is not required for boaters so why inconvenience us so much at what are very good and extremely useful moorings.

Plus one for Victron SmartSolar, fitted one my new boat and works well, you load the Victron Connect app onto your phone to monitor it and adjust settings via Bluetooth as required.

The only things I would add to the above is when the meths is lit, keep your hand behind the lid and do not look down as you toss the match in and when the meths is lit do not close the lid too soon because the system needs to warm up a bit before it will draw fresh air in and holding the lid open allows extra air in until some warmth has built up. We recently got our new boat with one of these installed, the guy who did the handover suggested that until we got used to lighting it that we should put a small piece of fire lighter into the burner pot with the 50p of diesel and the meths and then when this is mastered swap to meths only. He said the firelighter helps to keep it alight if you close the lid too soon and provides more heat direct into the floor of the burner pot. Another tip he gave us was as the meths was dying down and getting the burner pot warm enough, the 50p of diesel starts boiling and sounds like bacon frying and spitting and when you hear that you know that the diesel will start burning OK so that is when you press the red button the second time. There are some videos on Youtube. Lit ours first time using a small piece of firelighter and used the firelighter for the next 5 or 6 times and then swapped to meths, the firelighter certainly made it more tolerant of poor technique. Also if the stove is still warm, lighting it with meths is not a good idea as the meths will flash to vapour quickly and when you throw the match in you can get a large flame shooting out.

The OP sates that they will have 4 x 325 Watts panels giving theoretical max of 1300 Watts or about 90 Amp at 14.6V. The Victron 100/30 is rated for max charging power of 440 Watts (30 Amp at 14.65 Volt). The installed panel power is 3 times the rated duty of the controller, in this case I would consider the 100/50 version which is rated at 50A charging current. On a sunny day with this set up you would be able to fully power the 500W inverter during the daytime and have power left over to charge the batteries at the same time.

The cabinets they make may well be chipboard, but the shaker doors we had are solid wood, not sure if all are solid and you can order doors only as long as they are standard sizes. See Linwood Oak

Boat builder on my new boat used DIY Kitchens, real wood doors. https://www.diy-kitchens.com