captain flint

Yes, I've heard of this issue arising, and heard that fixes don't tend to last that long! I will be putting the new pump in a tray with a water alarm. I always turn the pump off when I leave the boat (there's a switch on the fuse board). The bloody stove is broken and I'm waiting for a replacement to be installed (it never rains...) . But I have central heating and it gets the boat uncomfortably warm. When the new stove is in place I will be able to get it like a bloody oven! This sounds right. I can see this is going to be a fairly long process! Bah. Still, grounds for optimism

It is not a DIY fitout! But it's the first fit out that the company did. And I know they look back and think they should have used better materials! Thanks for the tips, Alan. Don't think I'm likely to be able to make a through draft all the time when on board, though. I don't think condensation is the main cause, to be honest, as it was always dry in the past. But that's not to say it won't be an issue in the future!

It was bone dry until the leak, for the five years I've had it, and looked like it hadn't been damp when I bought it, in which case, dry since 2008. So whilst lack of ventilation might have increased the build up and might be an issue when it comes to drying it out, but it doesn't seem to have been the cause. NB I was planning on creating a through draft with fans as said in the op...

I've had a water pump leak. I'm in the process of drying out the substrate - OSB board, sadly. Although the inspection hatch into the bilge was dry two months ago, it's distinctly damp now, so I drilled a 4cm wide hole in the bow end of the substrate, with a plan to blow air in under the floor at the back of the boat, and a fan drawing air out at the front. But I had a little sniff through the hole after cutting it, and it smells distinctly mushroomy. I have an endoscope camera attachment for my phone, but haven't yet been able to see - the light on it is too dim, so I'm going to get a little extra light down there and have a look. But I'm pretty sure I'll see plenty of mould. To add to the annoyance, I've been experiencing physical symptoms that seem to go away when I'm off the boat for any good length of time (1 week +) and come back when I'm on board, and it's just about conceivable that the mould is causing them. Do all boats have mouldy substrates? Any tips about what to do? I'm certainly not going to rip the floor out. Although I appreciate that's the only surefire method! I'm thinking just dry it out as well as I can (I also have a dehumidifier and may rig use a bin liner attached to its intake to connect it to the cabin bilge), and see if my symptoms go away, and if they don't, I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it. But any ideas are welcome!

Good plan, though tbh I was just planning on something even easier (and messier) and just screwing through the bottom of whatever I use as a drip tray, then putting some sealant (maybe sikaflex) over each screw hole. Obviously it would be mildly annoying when it comes to changing the pump in the future, but I can live with that.

True, it's just the whole damp/moldy osb3 board thing i would like to avoid, but nice to avoid if possible. This time I think I spotted the leak in time, but that was pure luck!

What kind of alarm is it? Does the whole unit sit in the bottom of the tray, or is it the kind you mount nearby with a sensor (on a cable) that sits in the tray? I see various cheap ones on amazon, but most that have a good number of reviews have some comments saying they don't work/alarm stops after 5 secs etc. The best rated one I've found sits in the tray, but I'm wondering if it would stop working if submerged... Though that seems a bit unlikely, I guess. Obviously there are lots of very reliable professional ones for 100+ quid but I'm thinking that would be overkill!

Now that's a really good idea! Thanks.

It absorbs more from contact than from the air, I'm sure, and I was going to hoover it up, but you might be right, as I guess hoovering it *all* up might not be feasible. Thanks for the observation.

Thanks. I have now. It has considerably slowed the leak, but it's still there so I'll be getting a new pump Thanks It's OB3 board. I don't think it's gone right through, it hasn't even spread to the edge of the board, and I have already checked the inspection hatch* at the lowest point in the bilge, expecting the worst but thankfully it's bone dry. OK, so, "hatch" is a bit of a stretch. It's just a square bit of floor you can lift out under the steps into the galley from the rear deck, but you know what I mean I think what I'll do is replace the pump, get the OB3 board as dry as I can, and monitor it to see if it dries eventually. If not then I'll have to do something about it. Regarding getting it as dry as possible, I'm thinking using towels/nappies, then I was considering covering it in salt then hoovering that up before using hairdryer and dehumidifier. The salt stage is the one I'm not sure about, might it be a bad idea around the pump, corroding metal etc? I would have thought it would be OK as the nuts and other metal bits are brass (or, I guess, "yellow metal"), but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

I've just discovered my water pump is leaking (weeping plastic seam when the pump runs) Obviously I need a new one. Question: could this have been caused by the pump now receiving more like 13V from my new LiFePO4 battery system? And if so am I likely to have the same issue with a new pump? Since having the new battery system installed, the pump has sounded like it's got more power going through it, higher revs type sound, and a faster flow out of the taps. I don't want to get a new one and find the same problem recurs. Also, the floor around the pump is sodden and mouldy. I have a dehumidifier I can run and hopefully dry it out but is that going to work or do I need to think about chopping it out and replacing it (if that's even possible)? Not my favourite day on my boat I must confess. Perhaps more likely is that it's just wear and tear on a fairly old pump and any decent new 12v pump should be OK? 🤞

This is a pretty depressing state of affairs, but I guess it is what it is. None of this applies to me personally, but it's stuff I think is important

so true

Thanks, I did not know this, makes sense and good to know.. You also said: "People who are too disorganised to get involved in claims for state assistance when they are eligible should not be living on boats in the first [...]. This type of person should be looked after by the state rather than being the responsibility of the navigation authority. I do not disagree with this but I think I am right in saying that people suffering ADHD do not qualify for disability allowance, so there might be a question mark over whether that actually happens in reality. Really acute sufferers can really struggle, although it may be that the right diagnosis and meds can help them, enough, I don't know

So many opinions! Obviously engines, gennies, etc aren't supposed to be running outside 8am-8pm. So it seems reasonable to object when people break that rule (pretty often), if it bothers you. But as for leaving a "good gap" when you are mooring up in the middle of nowhere, well it depends what you mean by "good gap". Personally, I feel fine moored all on my lonesome, but I know some who feel more secure if they are moored reasonably near other boats. I get that. It's nice to be considerate to those around you and we all have the right to be annoyed by whatever we choose. But I do come across some complaints where my first thought is, if you don't like [insert common river/canal issue here] then maybe don't choose to live on a boat! Sometimes the behaviour of neighbours or towpath users now makes noise I don't like at times I don't want, but I tend to think I made my bed when I chose to live (CCing) on the cut, so I have to sleep in it. I try to make like a duck with water on its back. These things are usually pretty short lived, or I could always move on somewhere else. I can see it would be different if you are paying for a permanent mooring and neighbours are antisocial.

DIfferent one! Amazing that there are two (or more?)

I think it probably depends a bit from region to region. I don't pretend to know what is "right" here. But speaking as a Londoner who CC's around the South East and has been looking for a mooring for ages, they're really scarce here and when they do come up, incredibly expensive. 3-4K for a leisure mooring is good, and 5-6k far from unheard of, and I'm not talking inside the M25 here (or only just inside if you're talking the GU up watford way). And those are leisure mooring prices! (Most mooring owners and operators - including the CRT - say you should spend enough nights off your boat and then everything else is fine and that they don't really check in any case. So there are plenty of people who, in effect, live on their leisure moorings, while the owners and authorities, in effect, turn a blind eye). For better or worse, like it or not, in London and the SE living on a boat can represent a more financially achievable way of living. That is not the main reason I chose to live on a boat - it's just something I longed to do ever since boat-sitting for a friend 20+ years ago, but it is for many. I'm very glad after 5 years CCing (which I have enjoyed) I have (just) got myself a mooring, but there are loads of CCers around London who would struggle to afford one. CRT is not a housing association of course, and shouldn't be held accountable for housing issues. But, taking a broader perspective, whilst of course boaters in general and CCers in particular represent a tiny proportion of people needing housing in London & SE, it is still a significant number. And I know lots of CCers who have very little money. Without going into whether or not they should have a "right" to this that and the other, the fact is that the housing situation in London is poor. It is conceivable that , in the bigger picture, raising licence fees for CCers might be hitting the hardest off the most, down here in London, and contribute to the housing picture further deteriorating. Hard to say for sure, and this whole debate leaves me scratching my head a bit. But I wouldn't discount that possibility too quickly, and if that is the case, it doesn't seem the smartest from a broader policy perspective. Maybe it's wrong to think in terms of policy, in that CRT is a NGO not a govt department. I don't know. I guess it'll be easier to say more as we see how things unfold with the new pricing structures, but I don't find it hard to see why people are making the noises that they are.

Marginally off topic but there is (or was) a pedal powered narrowboat here on the Lee Navigation for a while. First time I saw it, it was going past where I was moored up. I saw the guy pedaling away and assumed it was a way of charging his batteries. I asked, and he replied, nope, it's making the thing go, there's no engine. I said I thought it was brilliant. He replied that it isn't brilliant at all it's utterly rubbish. And then I paid heed to the fact his legs were working really hard, he was drenched in sweat, and his boat was going maybe half a knot. All stands to reason really. He had rigged it up so that turning the handlebars operated the rudder, all, er, mod cons.

Hi, I came across this thread a few years after it was posted. I have an eberspacher hydronic d5wsc with a 701 controller. I asked an eberspacher engineer I know about it, and received the following reply: "My understanding is gsm signals don't work any more due to the phone networks turning off 2g; autoterm and webasto have just had to completely redesign their systems" Any comment? Thanks

Thanks, David. It's a professional fit out, and not at all bad, but by no means perfect. I'm not aware of any way of accessing them, but I might well be missing something. I'll get someone more clued up than me to have a look. The question of size and colour had occurred to me and I can't see cables the same colour coming out of the fuse box, so I'm unclear what's going on there. I had assumed they ran round the cabin, beneath the gunnels, but there's an obvious place in that run where they'd be visible and I can't see them there. So it's hard to say, really... but maybe they're under the roof. I guess an option would be to get a new fridge having discussed the returns policy with the vendor, on the basis that I can return it if it doesn't work, though the shipping costs I'd incur would not be ideal. At 6mm2 I'm guessing there's a chance I'll run into voltage drop problems, but not much risk of it being dangerous. Since I've moved over to LiFePO4 batteries, which, I'm told, have a slightly higher voltage output, I may be OK...(?) Right. Of course. That makes sense. Thanks for setting me straight, Iain

I know there's no way of telling me for sure, but if cables disappear into the cabin linings on one side of the boat, and reappear on the other, am I right to assume that most fitter-outers (professional) would run them round the cabin sides, or might they be run the shorter route direct across the floor or through the top side of the cabin lining? I guess the answer might be to actually measure the voltage drop at the fridge end. I'll do some googling to find out how to do that, but maybe it's just a question of detaching the wire from the fridge and sticking a voltmeter on... Seems kind of obvious but with the massive caveat that I'm totally ignorant...

My new inverter allows me to specify the minimum draw on its autosave function. Which is nice. Now all I have to do is find out how to switch it onto auto save function. And how to access the auto save function menu... 😂

Everyone who hasn't come across any of my other posts I guess 😂 I used to have that, sadly my old inverter wasn't compatible with the new battery system. Why can't they have both?!

very funny But yes, I'm trying to work my way through it, and I'm very grateful to everyone for taking the time to give me their input

I've got the same inverter and I'm trying to work out how to bloody turn search mode on! It's nowhere in my Cerbo menu that I can see. Maybe I need to set up a VRM thingy I actually tried to delete this crappy post out of existence but you can't edit it down to nothing so here it remains. Aaaanyway. As you were.