Johny London

Another in favour of your proposed layout - it's exactly as mine is though I don't have an accumulator. Just make sure you have a thermostatic shower mixer (why wouldn't you?).

Go for the mushroom vent option - saves making any new holes and your cables will go up into them (into the natural gap they have) before heading downward. I got my cables all the way through the boat ceiling by going from one vent to the next at a time, using a rod first then pulling the cable through with it. The way the ceiling batons are should allow for this though it takes a little bit of "finding" sometimes.

Surprised to see a few in favour of metcheck here - it's the one I have been using for a long time because I like the layout of the information - but I find it very inaccurate, in particular it is rather pessimistic and on plenty of occasions I have not done things that I could have, due to poor forecasts that didn't materialise. Was reading this thread with hope of a better alternative but looks like it's all much of a muchness.

Just been into the three shop and upgraded - or rather got the new deal and cancelled the old. I did have 40gb for £17 so now will have unlimited for £20. But I clawed £4 back on my phone sim - was £13 now £9 for unlimited minutes (and 4gb). I cant wait to try the phone into the router trick... did we establish whether it then benefits from the external aerial? I do hope so as I had rotten phone reception with three coming west but now with a big mimo(?) aerial on a pole the broadband always cuts through. Presumably any router with phone socket will work (other than the already stated three one that specifically doesn't). Previously I had my eye on one of these.. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-MR6400-4G-LTE-Router-Wireless-or-Wired/293060245268?hash=item443bc07714:g:1DwAAOSwRW9cvfPe or these... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/D-LINK-DWR-921-4G-3G-LTE-Sim-Slot-Unlocked-WiFi-Mobile-Broadband-Router-4-Port/391054824279?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Dce280c1ed6e6404a8b60e1e1282e9946%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D293060245268%26itm%3D391054824279&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 I'd prefer to avoid anything Huwaei, what with all the stories about them.

I've seen a few encampments/fairy woodland grotos along this stretch - but invariably they are rather nicely done. Seem to be quite nice people about - chilled but not slackers? I digress. I like the second picture (of the man cruising in the green shed!). Shed it might be but he's not gonna overstay his two weeks - even without an engine.

Why not use the gas locker bit right at the front? It must be pretty deep so wouldn't be too bad on capacity (not perhaps as much as your two planned side tanks). Or for a bit extra capacity move the gas locker bulkhead 6" to the rear. Then just relocate the gas elsewhere, you'll have lower centre of gravity for the water then. And a usable well deck. No need for the lid to be slash watertight - unless that is a measure of water force that can be withstood?

Oh! All this time I thought read meant no mooring! Duh. Even better - I can now see there are two spots at Hanham!

Thanks for that - I won't necessarily need to get off or leave the boat, I'll get provisions before I go - just don't want to have to go there and back in a day! Unfortunately google isn't quite detailed enough!

I'm hoping to do the Avon between Bath and Hanham this week. No one has mentioned if there is the possibility to moor just west of lock 1 (according to the crt map there is the last little bit of crt water after this lock and google shows a couple of boats hanging on). It would be ideal to "complete" this stretch by doing lock 1, over nighting then heading back. Also I would like to stop half way ish in each direction, Mead Lane looking favourite. Wanderer Vagabonds good mooring spot by the railway path (in the google image above) is down on crt map as no mooring? I find the lack of mooring quite worrying.

Well done Peter! Saving the planet and boating - it's the way forward. When you say 5 hours cruising - is that including when stationary at locks etc? You said something about turning the motor off? I presume that the great thing about having electric drive is that in actual fact, when the time is spent doing locks etc, you aren't using any power. Put me down for one

I was interested in that Tankguard dw some time ago when I wanted to turn my bow locker into an extra water tank - it's quite expensive but I would be interested to see if anyone uses it - my project is on the back burner for now.

I had not heard of the swelling phenomena before. I don't have the batteries or anything yet, so want to build somewhere to put them at the same time building the steps for the stern. One thing at a time... or rather two in this case, the steps and the battery storage.

Thanks, I'll build my boxes to suit typical dimension batteries with as much wiggle room as I can manage. If I can build somewhere to put lithiums then at least I can go onto the next step...

I see there are battery boxes available for a few quid, to keep batteries safely covered up - but what are the rules (as far as not voiding your insurance presumably by failing to observe bss and so on?). I'm making stern steps next and intend to have batteries inside - so nothing at all would be exposed, unless I was purposely accessing them. Would I need to allow space to have the batteries in the plastic boxes or should I just have them within the plywood structure? There would likely be bus bars/fuses and so on in the same enclosure. ta

I actually think its an old site hut put on oil drums, with other garnishings - not necessarily the case that someone is living in it though. I still can't believe it could get a licence - there's bits sticking out everywhere, aside from anything else.

Thought I'd get the ball rolling wit this little treasure. I can't believe crt would ever give something like this a license. "That's Amaaaaazing" as George Clark would say.

A bit more progress, steps now edged, covered and hinged. I should add some pegs to the backs so they lock together when in place without any risk of toppling, though they have my car jack and spanners in and are weighted down nicely... Was very pleased with the look of the "penny coin" covering, and in the end I used kitchen cabinet hinges - the lids stay up unaided. Just to decide on a finish for the ply which will either be black or white.

That's very interesting about the buck converters. Sounds like it would be economical to have one for each piece of equipment. I wondered if all that quiescent/standby current would add up to more than a little inverter but doesn't sound like it. Presumably same for a converter operating down to say 5 or 6v for items that require that?

Interesting test - thanks for sharing the results. Another consideration is what these devices use if you don't disconnect them from the 12v when not in use. I bought a little (300w) inverter recently for running tv/box/etc rather than having the main one on and that is a big saving on power too. It's "standby" current of 300ma seems about typical for the "small" modified sine inverter (the one I bought has several in the range, from 150w - 600w and they are all specified at 300 ma) but I'm not sure if that means it's quiescent or what it consumes when it is switched off at its on/off switch but still connected to the 12v. Not sure what the running losses are either. The 12v regulators/power stabilisers (is it called a buck converter?) interest me too - running anything directly off 12v seems to need one of these and I wonder how much do they use in standby and self consumption. If only there was some way of using the technology found in laptop batteries, in the domestic bank

This is getting interesting, seems that telemetry is what I'm after. The Victron sounds like it works well - though surprised they haven't got their own gadget and that a pi is needed. I suppose having the data on their website is handy because then you don't have to be able to access your own network from away (DDNS) which is just another thing to have to set up. Is it even possible to do anything these days without being a software expert?

No I don't know any programming - though I do use Ubuntu on my laptop. I looked at a few vids from Adam Welch - he had one where he got the wireless box to work with ones existing network rather than its own - but apparently that broke it in the end. Another video he tried a couple of off the shelf wifi boxes but ended up building one. Why are things so complicated? I suppose I was hoping to add a box so that I could just look on my phone from wherever I happened to be, to see what was going on. Obviously asking far too much! Does the Victron stuff do that or is it just local over bluetooth or something?

Brilliant, thanks - I think that must have been the chap. Sill find all those different modules a tad confusing.

Unavailability of swatches is rather annoying - of course you can pick them up easy as anything for home paints (if you are after using Dulux as some have) but otherwise it is a problem. Here is a spanner in the works though: The op mentioned oils or two pack, but there is an in between paint - Xylene based, which is basically like standard rattle can car paint, in so much as it goes off fast. I have been using Jotun (from SML paints online). There is a huge range from Jotun but the Xylene ones are "conceal" (a thick, semi gloss finish with amazing coverage, as in it practically does in one coat) or they do a thinner, top coat. You cannot brush after rolling with this stuff - it goes off too fast - but that's the beauty of it. Roller the side of a boat, it's ready for the next coat! And no mucking around trying to keep doors/hatches pried open while drying over nite. Also limited open time = less bugs and dust in the finish. Do a thinned out last coat, or put several coats on then cut back. It is safe over oils too but you'll need to rub the old oils down well first. Once you are coated in Xylene based, future coats are a breeze - just ensure surface is clean and put the paint on - the old paint kind of re melts and it all bonds together!

I'd like to monitor what the Tracer mppt controller is doing, and be able to change settings too. Having a google around I have found these different options... 1. The well known MT50 remote 2. A USB adaptor cable to plug straight into a pc. 3. eBOX-BLE-01 (Seems to be for connecting to a phone app via blue tooth) 4. eLOG01 (Seems to be a box that records performance data) 5. eBOX-TCP-01 (RS232 and RS485 to ethernet) 6. eBOX-TCP-02 (serial device server, not sure) 7. eBOX-WIFI-01 (seems to be its own dedicated wifi connection) I did find a good article about this the other week (might have been via a link on here but who knows!). I'm thinking option 5 or 6 might be the one for me. Would anyone have any experience with this? I would imagine it connects to the existing wifi network on the boat (but I'd need a wifi box with ethernet connections) and then I could see what was going on both from on the boat and also from far away? Via an app on the phone I guess. Unless they have software for linux.