hopefulboaterlndn

Yeah my partner deemed the risk of accidental death to be too high

Thanks! We're in London so most of the time will be near people, sure am right now. The plus is that I've moved the boat a few spaces down. No more tree!!

Thanks I have the serial number and I'll do this!

Genious!

*excuse me London commuters, could you please get off the tube and make way for my 100kg of batteries

Or if you have a tablet, I bring mine to work and charge it there. Lasts for days and with no charging on the boat necessary

Thanks! Okay, also need a plan for equalising. The real question here is, why the hell did I moor under a tree!

Thank you. That's beyond my means, I think moving the boat closer to where I work may be a better option for now! We are looking for a mooring in the winter as well, either a permanent or just winter mooring undecided as yet

When you say very expensive, how much is that? Just been on the beta website but they don't publish prices. Need a ball park to work out if this is something I could save up for or not

Gosh wow three months!! Okay that's not an option. We haven't got a generator yet but I've been looking into it, people seem keen on the Honda's but my guess is they'll still make a fair amount of noise

Hmmmm.... interesting...

They can for now, in the late afternoon the sun will drop behind the tree though

On the bright side... we've got sun! *pun intended har har...'

Yes sorry I do realise the solar isn't doing enough I was trying to work out if by how much. Maybe that's not really important, just need to figure out how I'm going to get more juice in the batteries. getting home at 7 only leaves me an hour to run the engine... looks like we'll be moving!

Thanks for all your replies! The MT50 meter tells us the voltage in the batteries as well. This week by the time I get home at 7pm it's usually between 12.6-12.5, down to about 12.3 before bed and when I wake up at 7am it's down to about 11.9/12. But gradually over the week it's been getting lower, so when I get home it was 12.7 on Monday, 12.6 Tuesday, 12.5 today It has been quite cloudy but we are also moored next to a tree so are quite a bit shaded, would this explain why only 0.18kw? I think our batteries are getting discharged enough to need a decent charge. Our engine is 2001 I believe, and your right, from the manual I think it has a 175A for domestics but I haven't checked for sure. Sorry for my ignorance! I'm slowly learning, started off not knowing anything at all i.e I had no idea how a battery works

I wonder if anyone wouldn't mind helping me try and work out how much of a charge my solar panels can give in theory / what they did today. I'm very much a novice! I did a power audit that gives a fairly generous estimate of 95.5 AH a day. We have 500W solar panels and a beta marine 43 engine with (i think) a 45 A alternator. We 4 Trojan 6v T105s wired up to give two 12v batteries each 225A. On this cloudy day my Tracer MT50 unit tells me we got 0.18kwh charge energy. Is there a way I can tell how much charge my solar panels gave the batteries today with these numbers? I've been scratching my head and can't work it out... How can I estimate how much charge the solar panels would give on a sunny day? And on cloudy days can I estimate how long I would need to run the engine for? Sorry for all the questions! I'm not even sure if it's possible to work it out with the numbers I have given but thanks in advance if you read this far

In the end we scraped the rust off and then used a wire brush in a drill to go over it. We painted it with flag rust converter but I'm not sure it's worked properly. Most of it has dried black but there are yellow bits? Should I go over it again? A bit confused because I know it shouldn't be used below 10 degrees but it dried within a few hours, I'd expected it to have stayed wet if the temp was too low.

Thanks a lot! i'll look into this

Hi again everyone! Now the weather is starting to warm up me and my partner are going to have to face de-rusting, cleaning and repainting the bilges on our boat. Both our engine bilge and bilge at the front with water tank are very very rusty. There seems to have been a fresh water leak long ago and the rust left to 'grow'. The drains around the engine hatch need a clean out as rain water keeps getting down there. Also need some ventilation holes cut as there are none at all currently so the condensation is remarkably bad. Also our exhaust has a hole in it and now everything, EVERYTHING, is covered in a thick layer of soot. In our one inspection hole for the cabin bilge I can see orange rust - no flakes, and its damp (not wet). In terms of dealing with this I was thinking of: 1. getting rid of water - wet vac 2.Throw more water down there and wash with soap to get rid of soot, wet vac again 3. remove rust with a wire brush 4. white spirit and cloths to remove grease 5. dry it out thoroughly 6. rust treatment 7. paint Any recommendations to make this job easier? Any products people have found work well - Vactan? Do I need to be concerned about the cabin bilge? how much rust do I need to get off? everything is orange and covered in a thin layer of rust and there are flakes which can be removed with the wire brush but do I need do grind/sand it down or anything? As always thank you in advance for your help! Edit - I should point out that we are getting the exhaust fixed and part of this process will be removing the water so I don't have to ask someone to work with miserable wet feet

Sorry I couldn't get on the website for a while. To be honest I didn't find the exact cause of the leak but several of the joints seemed worn and possible culprits. Will keep the old pump as a spare. Mainly relieved to have it all working without fear of flood

Sorry for the delay in responding, couldn't get on to the website for a while. I've now replaced the water pump with some nice new flexi hose and no more leak Thanks!

Thank you both, yes the pipe are rigid and the pump is coming away a bit from its mounts, there is also a bit of wood floating around in there which seems to have come away from the wall. It sounds like it's worth doing it up properly - the last thing I want to come home to is a flooded floor!

Perfect thank you! Printed and tucked away in my bag for inspection at home

Don't have the manual, that would be great thank! The number on the label is that number: 31395-0292

Primarily only when it is running but I've heard it drip shortly after being used. I will try the kitchen towel I get home tonight!