captain flint
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Posts posted by captain flint
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11 hours ago, MtB said:
Even if your symptoms are psychosomatic, getting rid of the mould ought to fix them.
Ha! Funnily enough I have had the exact same thought. Oddly, my GP thinks it's unlikely they're psychosomatic. But also thinks it's unlikely that the mould is the culprit. Go figure. But anyway, this is not a medical forum!
When it comes to the mould, the only thing that bugs me is that if I get the bilge and substrate dried out, the mould will be inactive, in a dormant state, as opposed to actually dying*. That's how it works. If it were to get damp again, it would 'wake up'. And what with it being OSB board that's a slight worry.
Then again, probably one I can live with, especially as I'll have previously proved it possible to dry out the offending area
* I think the only way to eradicate it it would be to remove the affected areas completely. Maybe I'll do that if I find a spare £20k(?) to rip out and replace an otherwise very serviceable fit out. I'm joking.
20 minutes ago, nealeST said:How common is that? And are they prone to letting water pour in? That was a sobering read. I generally assume quality builds in recent times to be the best available….think again?
It was a horrible read!
Stern glands can let water in, of course. But you knew that. I'm not sure about pouring in. I guess it could come in quite quickly under the right circumstances, but I imagine it would have been deteriorating to the extent that it should have been noticed for quite time before it got that bad...? I certainly hope so!
My cousin's narrow boat sank after his failed. It had recently been (negligently) repacked. But I don't think it failed suddenly. I think he'd been away, had no automated bilge pump, and I suspect he didn't keep an eye on things. It's a long time ago though, I don't really remember all the details.
I've always assumed that with my automated bilge pump, and keeping a general eye on my engine hole, that I'd get ample warning of stern gland problems, as opposed to one minute everything's fine and the next your stern gland has failed and the boat's sunk.
But that's all basically guesswork on my part, and I'm no expert. I certainly hope it's right!
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2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:
I don't think this has been sufficiently addressed. Yes is the answer. Lots in the news recently after a child died in social housing after repeated pleas to sort the recurring mould problem. Lots of info on line about the health effects of (any level) of mould in the home. Don't ignore it.
Thanks.
No I'm not ignoring it! And am in consultation with my GP about it. That said, they're not at all convinced the mould is the culprit, and they may well be right. But I'm keeping an open mind as - as you say - it can be a menace.
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11 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Solid fuel stoves are good at drying Boats out. If there is one then keep it alight and turn it up so that the inside becomes too warm for comfort then open the doors.
Keep doing that for a while and the drying effect will be noticeable.
Then when you refit the water pump either put it in a sump with a water alarm or higher than the top of the tank with a drip bucket under it. I prefer the second approach because a leak on the tank side, which could go unnoticed for ages, will simply admit air to the pump and a leak from the pressure side will be noticed because the pump will cycle when it isn't supposed to. It is also good to have a switch for the pump somewhere handy and just get into the habit of turning it orf when nobody is there. Like locking the door when you leave.
Pumps, in particular the Shurflo variety, will always start to leak at some stage. There is no gasket between the two halves of the pump body. I have recently fixed one by splitting and putting PU sealant in the gap then bolting back together. Don't know how long the fix will last.
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!
Just now, David Mack said:If it was dry until the recent leak, it should be dry in future. But if the osb has got sodden it will take a while to dry out - at this time of year the drying will be very slow. With the leak fixed and some additional through ventilation it will probably sort itself out once we get into the warmer months.
This sounds right. I can see this is going to be a fairly long process! Bah. Still, grounds for optimism
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10 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
No.
Unfrtunately having OSB board as a floor (I presume it is a DIY fit out) you are going to have continuing problems - OSB is like a sponge and sucks up moisture out of the air.
All I can suggest is that you have a fan at one end and an extractor at the other end and have a dehumidifier running 24/7 everytime you are on board.
If you are not onboard and the boat is unheated then it should not be generating much (if) any condensation.
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!
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37 minutes ago, Tonka said:
Not enough ventilation. A dehumidifier would help but is not a fix
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...
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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!
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17 minutes ago, magnetman said:
sticking suitable pieces of wood to the bottom with sikaflex then screwing the pump to the pieces of wood.
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.
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10 minutes ago, magnetman said:
A bath alarm seems an interesting option.
Maybe just a float switch in the bowl wired through the pump 12v supply to an indicator light in a suitable location where you will notice it.
One of my boats has a nice little orange dashboard indicator light to show if the light in the lavatory/shower compartment has been left on inadvertently. Its very conspicuous as a lamp also very easy to install just needs a 12mm hole or whatever for it to slide into.
A leaking pump does not appear to me to be an alarm situation its more that would would just 'like to know' if a problem is occurring.
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!
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20 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:
Well it did its job last night, leak on the suction strainer, I had loosened the lid to let air in when I drained the system last month, for some reason it didn't seal when I retightened it, so when I refilled the system yesterday afternoon it started weeping., about a cup full in 6 or 7 hours
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!
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On 10/12/2023 at 18:36, ditchcrawler said:
My pump sits in a plastic tray with a water alarm so I know when it starts to leak, I think this is the fourth in 22 years.
Now that's a really good idea! Thanks.
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21 minutes ago, Peanut said:
I would avoid using salt, it is hygroscopic, and the area will stay damp forever and a day.
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.
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15 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
Have you tried gently tightening the screws that hold the two parts together.
Thanks. I have now. It has considerably slowed the leak, but it's still there so I'll be getting a new pump
13 minutes ago, BEngo said:Try the dehumidifier. You are more likely to need to replace the floor as the water tends to destroy the glue in plywood, and.even waterproof ply over time. MDF just turns to Weetabix.
You also will want to look for where the leaked water went after it soaked the floor. Probably to the back of the cabin, under the floor. Bale it out with a wet vac and disposable nappies for the last drops.
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?
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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? 🤞
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38 minutes ago, Barneyp said:
They don't make it easy which is why about 70% of people who appeal win.
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
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Just now, magnetman said:
The really mad one is when people object that a boat is coming past theirs while they are tied up and it makes the boat wobble a bit.
so true
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12 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Important to note that IF you live on the boat and IF you can demonstrate impecuniosity the DwP WILL pay your housing costs which includes a mooring and the boat licence. This is a FACT. IF you can not demonstrate impecuniosity then by definition you can afford your own housing costs.
If the CRT were to triple the cost of a boat licence then people with no money would get it paid for by the DwP. It how the system works.
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.
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23 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
It used to belond to a lady and her child (cub) who were 'forced off the waterway by the evil C&RT
Full details can be seen here :
DIfferent one! Amazing that there are two (or more?)
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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.
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On 08/12/2014 at 16:43, NMEA said:
Yes, fitted quite a number of these and the Webasto Thermo Call 3 units over the past year and they are simple to fit and use, Some see them as a gimmick, and in fairness they probably are to those people, but for those that will actually use them due to their lifestyle and unpredictable movements they are a sensible and usefull control method.
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
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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...(?)
On 04/11/2023 at 11:50, Iain_S said:Even measuring with the fridge connected and running, the result will be on the low side; it's the volt drop when the compressor is starting that is the important one.
Right. Of course. That makes sense. Thanks for setting me straight, Iain
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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...
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38 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:
And also need to have sufficient draw to wake up any auto saving function on the inverter. We found that the hard way with a TV - newly bought and we assumed it was not working!
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... 😂
Mould under cabin substrate
in General Boating
Posted
So, the hole I drilled in the fore section of the substrate was a good fit for a hoover hose. I attached the hose and left the hoover itself out on the front deck. I put my dehumidifier under the steps entering the galley at the aft end, which is right where the inspection hatch is. It made a nice pocket of warm, dry air. Assuming (!) the inspection hatch is the only other major ingress/egress from beneath the substrate, I figured the fan blowing in is a bit redundant. The air is being sucked out so more will have to enter. That said, I can't be sure the inspection hatch is the only ventilation point. I've never seen any others, and I expect it is, but I can't be sure.
Apart from possibly adding in a fan, the thing I'm trying to work out is whether using an electric fan heater placed in the bilge will be better (as I think it would be hotter), or does the fact that there's cold metal which is in contact with the water mesh that condensation will increase in some areas. Will I be better off with cold air? If it wasn't for the cold metal with river water on the other side of it, I'm pretty confident more heat will be good. As it is, I'm scratching my head!