Theo
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Posts posted by Theo
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I installed the panels yesterday in the dark. I wired them in parallel (2 64w uni-solar triple-junction panels) to my 12v system via a Steca charge controller (the pretty one with the LCD).
An overcast day today but I nipped home at lunchtime, checked the output at the panels and at the controller and it measured 10.45v. The controller was showing an error code that, according to the manual, means that it hasn't detected a panel connection. Very odd. I followed the instructions to the letter. I'm concerned. help?!
Is that the kind of voltage you'd expect?
Don't apologise. I am most interested to hear how you get on.
Nick
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Better still, you could have a model railway under the floor boards with weighted rolling stock and just shunt and marshal the trains to your hearts content. And, having it as a model of the London Underground - all out of site - would really confound the rivit-counting critics . . .
I particulary like this idea because you can drive the trains fore and aft too to correct trim. The actual location of the trains and the setting of points could lead to problems but I am sure that a transparent floor or a proper electronic map would solve this one.
Relating to another of my threads, you could probable modify the train both to scrape the bottom and to spray the waxoyl as it goes around.
I must get about cutting spaces in the frames so that I can set it all up. I imagine that the boat is over engineered anyway so a bit of lost strength won't matter.
Nick
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The parts you cannot get to will be helped by spraying with waxoyl. it is a bit messy to do but with a flexible pipe you can oftern aim the Waxoyl into any cavity that is inaccessible and do your best to ensure that it is all coated. Although you will not have been able to remove the rust so it is not 100% ideal it will form a coating which will certainly slow any corrosion down.
A word of warning, any that is applied fairly thickly will set nicely but as soon as we get a hot summesr day and it warmes up it will start to run and if it can ooze through gaps in panelling it will do and make a horrible mess. For that reason use sparingly on vertical surfaces!
That's useful to know! What sort of sprayer do you advise?
Nick
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Theodora is enjoying her new home at Thurmaston. One of the early items on my to do list has been the scraping of the bottom on the inside. This will require lifting the floorboards and setting to with scraper, wire brush and waxoyl. I will not be able to get to all parts, though, because I am unwilling to remove the bulkheads.
The question is: Is all that necessary and will it prolong the dear boat's life?
TIA
Nick
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Theo, there's hope for you yet. You've admitted you're addicted. Now you can seek help.
Janet
The problem is that I don't want help.
N
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Definately not fair. I put the best picture up twice, but didn't win
(The above is true......but must NOT be taken seriously
)It just goes to show that Supermalc can sometimes be wrong. My pictures were obviously best. The fact that they didn't win shows that the voters have no taste.
Nick
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On the gallery, in a comment in reply to one of mine, Moley wrote that it was normal for each submitter of a photo to give him/herself a vote of five. Looking at the scores I don't think that this is happening and photographers re doing themselves down. Perhaps there needs to be an instruction in the Help texts which might help to standardise voting practices.
IMHO, of course!
Nick
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I'm so sad, I have a spreadsheet on the computer at work that shows me exactly how many days, hours, minutes and seconds there are until I log off the phones and finish work to go on our boat in May!
Janet
117 Days, 21 Hours, 37 Minutes, 47 Seconds to go!!!!
I have exactly the same for when I finish teaching Physics. 26 weeks, 6 days, 4 hrs, 58 mins, 48s (or 188 days). In my case I keep the SS on my PDA for frequent consultation!
Nick
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No idea of the cost of transporting a boat up to Scotland but people who have done it, have cruised as far north as they could to reduce the road miles. No idea what difference this makes though. You can have a boat craned an at Auchenstarry and the Falkirk wheel. Theerb are other palces but these are the two best ones, I think. If you are thinking of coming up, speak to BW Scotland .
Re moorings. There are a couple of places where it is not advised to moor. In the Wester Hailes area of Edinburgh and in the Lambhill/Maryhill areas of Glasgow. Re boats being used as diving boards at Edinburgh Quay, I had heard about this! The local yoofs probably do it as there are times when one of the BW hospitality boats is moored there for a while and the yoofs, knowing they are unattended make use of them. As far as I know, they don't do any damage; just use them to jump off into the canal.
The Lowland canals are really quiet and there is a certain attraction to having the canal to yourself.
If I can help with specific info, just ask.
In our case the yoofs did a little damage. The lifebuoy was cast into the cut as was the centre line. I retrieved the lifebuoy. It had only drifted a little way down, but I did not notice the centre line until it tangled around the prop. I had to use the bread knife to cut it free. :-(
Nick
One thing that I found strange is that you do not work any of the locks for yourself. They are big and fast and the BW boys do it all for you. This is good or bad according to your taste. You do have to phone to warn them when you will be arriving at the locks, though, which takes some of the spontaneity out of things.
Nick
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Here's an email I had from "Wilsons of Kinver". I just ordered a hardwood cratch, cratch cover, stern cover and dodger (the bit round the back rail of a cruiser stern). I am still thinking about a pram cover and am undecided. They didn't even want a deposit and delivery is about 4-5 weeks.
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Here is a run down of the prices
Non Divided Cratch £520.00
Divided Light Cratch board £600.00
Opening Windows on Cratch £750.00
Cratch cover £431.23 (PVC) £480.58(Acrylic) £480.58(Hard Wearing Acrylic)
Zips £ 35.25 each
Windows £ 28.20 each
2 part Stern cover £737.91(PVC) £829.55(Acrylic) £829.55(HW Acrylic)
Pram Stern cover £1243.15(PVC) £1405.30(Acrylic) £1405.30(HW Acrylic)
These prices are VAT inclusive and fitting to your boat.
*****************************************************
They recommended that PVC is the toughest material and that it is the easiest to keep clean although it will look more plasticcy when compared to Acrylic.
If you have the pram cover, clearly you wouldn't need the stern cover as well and the pram cover price includes the dodger.
Chris
Isn't the variation of opinion in humans fascinating? Although I can see some useful aspects of pram covers I fear that I loathe and detest them! Fortunately SWMBO is of the same mind. This variation is particulalry pleasing in the case of the canals. They would be very crowded if everyone liked them!
Hoping not to have given offence. I support everyone's right to like what he or she likes!
Nick
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Welcome!
You will find everything from lunacy to amazing erudition. I have benefitted from lots and lots of ideas. I fact I am totally addicted to the forum!
Nick
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Will be a huge problem if you intend to do any cruising up in the North - the Leeds/Liverpool cetrtainly has a 58ft limit, and there may be others.
A recent article in WW said that the L&L could cope with 60' quite happily.
Nick
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Does anyone have any good links to web sites for photographs of canal scenes, as one of my hobbies is watercolour painting, and canal boats make excellent subjects, I have tried google searches but usually end up with web sites for boat hirers, most of their photos do not reproduce to any great standard.
Thanks
Brian
You have browsed the gallery, I suppose?
Nick
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I can't find the link to read the comments that have been made. I suppose that I am having a senior moment but it seems to be a very long moment!
Nick
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Nick,
You must have psychic powers - I was about to ask exactly the same question!
I've just got a commission to write an article for British Steam Railways about the railways around Edinburgh and in the course of my research I have dug up lots of stuff on the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals - which were subsequently absorbed into competing railways. The subject is quite fascinating both from an historical point of view and seeing what has been achieved in recent years. When you see how much money the Scottish Parliament has invested restoring 66 miles of derelict canal - just think what could be done if we had the same attitude in England!
It also looks as if there are moves afoot to reopen the River Leven to navigation which would connect Loch Lomond with the Clyde . . .
I am sure there are people on this forum who can provide a decent guesstimate of the likely cost of transporting a boat to Scotland - the only thing I am not so sure about is mooring near Glasgow - I have seen what the locals do to the railways there and it isn't something I would like to see happen to 'Alnwick'.
Quite close to the "limit of navigation" there are secure moorings. We hired from Alvechurch a coule of years ago and had no problems. The only bit of trouble that we had was at the Edinburgh end. Some chaps leaped aboard at ten in the evening singing "Rosie and Jim" and we amazed when I popped out and protested. The seemed more than a little non plussed to think that there was someone sleeping on the boat!
Nick
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Considering the high cost of hiring these days I was wondering if it would be cheaper to crane out, transport up and crane in again rather than to hire. Anyone know off the top of his/her head how much that would cost?
Nick
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well I dont know whether my leg was being pulled, but I was told, its so the fish can't see them...
feel free to laugh at Min~~~~ I can take it!!
LOL
but your right, you cn't see em submerged in bushes etc...then you feel awful when you dont see em and don't adjust acordingly or even take a line with you....this happens a lot on the Avon....tight and twisty with a current... what can u do :/
As regards the fishes eye view. Total internal reflection means that the fish can see nothig above the surface which is more that about 43degrees from the vertical so the camouflage is largely redundant.
Nick
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A subsidiary question. Can you install an inverter on its end. ie with its side up?
Nick
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Perhaps we should email a link to this topic to AW!
Nick
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Oh God! That's just triggered a flashback! My companion on the cruise instisted on weariing shorts at every available opportunity, complete with goose bumps, blue knees bordering on hypothermia and an insistence every time I asked after his well-being that "No, I'm not cold".
I'm not convinced. I saw the goosebumps! Why do you men insist on wearing shorts when it's several degrees below normal comfort level? Is it just a man thing?
Janet
PS. I wore trousers, over leggings, over tights, and I was still bloody cold!
I can quite understand his motives. I really don't feel the cold on my legs and once yo have been out of longs for a day they seem very restricting.
Nick
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I think it is most likely to be a problem of potential damage to the inverter, or else the system not working because of the inverter shutting down to protect itself. I would imagine that simply using a larger, pure sine wave inverter would get you round the problem.
Another reason that many inverters have in running a fridge, is that most 240v fridges have quite a high startup current every time the motor kicks in. It's not a big problem when they are installed in a house, but on a boat it means you have to select an inverter which is big enough to supply this increased load for a short time (ie it has a high "surge" rating). I don't have any actual surge figures for real fridges unfortunately.
I presume you already have the fridge? If you are getting a new fridge, and an inverter just to power it, a 12 volt fridge may be a better option. The fridges are expensive but they are (according to the manufacturers' figures) more efficient and you save the cost of the inverter
Allan
I have neither at the moment but 230V fridges are cheap and I will need to get an inverter anyway so I thought that this would be the cheapest way.
Nick
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Good point!
And, having fallen in more than once I can vouch that the stuff on the bottom of the canal is firstly not very far down, and secondly, not very nice!
We usually keep our anchor in the bottom of the chain locker when on the canals and it only come out on rivers and tidal waters. But on rivers, a mud weight would be a very useful alternative or supplement to the anchor.
This is one of the nice things about this forum - lots of good ideas and sensible practices get aired that might never be learned when we are boating on our own . . .
I do agree. A thoroughly nice place to be!
N
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If anyone was ever to considering anchoring their boat in a canal then a mudweight would be the only option. Anchors will dig into the canal bed and damage the puddle lining.
Good thought!
N
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Just a thought, since noone has mentioned it. Any given weight will have the maximum effect if it is placed as far from the centre line as possible.
No a diversion to consider the list corrector for the narrowboater who has everything. the device is a wheeled weight on a track which runs across the boat. It has an electric motor driven screw which can move it across the boat at the flick of a switch. Better than that, the motor circuitry is connected to a clinometer arrangement which detects any list and moves the weight across automatically to correct it.
Don't forget that I suggested it first and want a cut of any profits!
Nick
Scraping the inside!
in General Boating
Posted
On reading the other contributions I thank that a pan full of water on the cooker and the waxoyl container in that would be a good safe heating arrangement.
By the way, is waxoyl like the chain lubricant that I used on my old Honda 90?
Nick