RD1

Ours used to be 3 1/2 hours away, we moved it to within 12 minutes from our daughter' house, we babysit every week so now very convenient. We were so worried when it was 200 miles away, first frost, first snow... is it ok? We went to check it every 3 months in the winter, heart in mouth incase the windows leaked, as they did once and destroyed 4 sleeping bags, 4 pillows, and the only thing I could do was double tarp it, tape the window seals and plan another visit to reseal the window at a time it was going to be dry for 48 hours. Now I start a job, prototype or pattern it, progress it over the next few days at home with a workshop full of tools, then return to the boat a few days after to do first fix..etc. Better than trying to bodge it on the boat with a screwdriver as a chisel, and the wrong size drill bit, or the wrong size screws. Nothing worse that knowing you have the right tool for the job at home, but it is 7 hours return trip away. I have bought hole saws locally to complete a job, knowing I have the same item at home virtually new in a box doh. Now, I can shelve the job, knowing 6 days later "I'll be back"...

With non feed back systems there is no confirmation on switching, if you get a marketing call, or wrong number, any device you have could be switched on without your knowledge, so great care if this is heating. The unit I have, you send it a text, it is only expecting texts from programmed numbers, it responds with a text with the status of the device, on/off if timer control set or temperature control set and also the temperature inside the cabin. If there is a power cut, it texts you, and when it is restored. I programme it to switch the dehumidifier on during certain hours, and you can set a thermostat, so the dehumidifier doesn't switch on if the temperature is below say 5C I have had two outages so far, one I put down to my neighbour test tripping the post, as power was restored 20 seconds later. There is a bit of controversy at the moment regarding pay as you go sim cards, for some companies it is against their terms and conditions to use a sim card for auto texting, like when I interrogate it for auto replies. doh.. Same with some burglar alarm systems, when the alarm is triggered, a text could be automatically sent to several participants. Same potential problem with with GPS car tracking devices using sim cards, loose the car, so you text the no. it responds with GPs position, some have an app and puts the car on a map. Track your salesmen lol... I think the company involved is probably after business people taking advantage of free texting when available, that send out 1000 free texts as marketing calls, rather than one guy on a boat, switching something on and off once a week. BUT we will see. I am not keeping my account topped up with more than £10, as they could disable the number, and you can possibly loose the credit. My SMS texts are not free, they cost 5p a text, so at least this particular company are benefitting from my account.

If you are moored next to armco barriers, just earth clamp to that, or use mole grips on the connection to the barrier. You could always earth clamp to your 2' steel mooring pin, must be better than nothing.

In my opinion not good practice, for this reason...If something on the return is electrically noisy, for example a faulty electric motor, with worn brushes, then this will superimpose noise or voltage drops and spikes on the return and this can affect sensitive electronics, tv's, radios, depth sounders etc

Often peak voltages on speaker systems can reach quite high voltages, but since you do not have a spec for the cable, personally I wouldn't be happy having it hidden for years quietly carrying the current, the insulation might not me suitable in a marine environment, oil, diesel grey water. There are plenty of flexible cables red/black with an outer protective sheath, eg 2mm2 cable that will carry 17 amps or more. ebay have plenty. No doubt you will need to wire in some sockets, so buy more than you need. Tip, when you consider cable runs and voltage drops, don't forget the return run is twice as long as the cable length, the black return will drop just as much voltage as the red supply.

Hi Chas, to me it makes perfect sense, if you always wanted it... go for it. Life really is too short. Richard

I see you already have a 27' highbridge crusader, these are really tough boats and with a canopy fore and aft can give you a great child friendly boat. The highbridges normally had the Yamaha 10 high thrust petrol outboards, I just wonder why you want to go for a traditional look and spend time and money, when you have a boat that some might think better suited. For us having spent 20+ years on the narrow canals with a GRP viking 23 we have always considered that steel was better than any GRP hull on the canals, although we admired the build quality and strength of the Highbridge. Far tougher than Norman, Atlanta and Viking hulls in my opinion. Dawncraft, who built the Highbridge built some tough traditional cruisers too. In the 70's there were companies that hired these out to first timers. Just my thoughts. Richard

You might want to simply square off the stern, here is a pic of a squared off stern. You might also want to fit a stern canopy. Clearly the pics are simply generic, but might give you a way of making more room. There are resin based sheets of material that you can buy, that are very weatherproof and very strong, sorry can't recall the brand. Good luck, apologies for thinking it was steel. Richard

I have never known GRP to rust, look where the top touches the deck just below the round porthole. Time for the OP to do some basic physics, take a magnet to it.

Good idea, help to keep the bilge fresh too. but not good if the bilge has grey water from the shower, spilt oil or fuel.

From post 2, £4k was suggested we don't know the length.. so if maximum boat size for the narrow canals is 70' could cost a bit more, a few score extra may be lol. I love this speculation, prices quoted from under £500 to over £4k I would be fairly confident that we have the ball park price now. Should cover most of the boats on the Mon. & Brecon. We really need to know the boat length.

For efficiency, you need to cool the condenser coils, as if they work in a warm environment, the fridge will work harder as mentioned. You might want to consider a small old 12 volt computer fan to bring air in via a cooler source. Maybe only during and for a short time after the oven has been used.

A lot of speculation here as to the size and type of boat. Maybe it's only a Norman 18. If so, price will be less than £500 as boat could be transported by trailer, from a suitable slipway. I do wish people would put more information in their first post. If it's a 70 footer, weighing 28 tonne then maybe more than £4k

Depending on age, you could have 3/8" pipe or 10 mm pipe, fittings are not compatible.Other sizes imperial or metric used too.

In quite agree, I have worked on projects with switch gear for 400kV power generation and distribution systems, and in electrical terms 240 volts is indeed classed as low voltage. I think the layman probably has the attitude that if you can grab it and it doesn't hurt, it must be low voltage, 9 volts, 12 volts and with dry hands, even 24 volts dc, but when you get to 48 volts and grab things with wet hands then things start to tingle. We have all tested a 9 volt battery on the tongue, and it fizzles a bit, but just increase that to 12 volts... boy oh boy, you will be thinking of the film the "Green Mile" before you know it lol. The industrial 110 volt ac yellow transformers convert 234/240 V ac to 110V ac, but centre tapped to earth, so if you grab one of the connections with one hand, and have your other hand on an earthed object, you get a shock of 55 volts ac, not 110 volts ac, so uncomfortable, but less chance of killing you. Don't forget, it's not necessarily the voltage that kills you, but the current, a few mA say 30mA or more can kill, it's just that you need a high voltage to overcome the normal resistance of the human body. If you have intravenous appliances in your body, a small voltage across the devices can kill, this is why medical equipment is tested to have the lowest leakage currents than domestic equipment.

Now that must be the Tip of the day lol, infact, Tip of the year.

The biggest load our 800 watt inverter (1000 watt peak), takes is driving my variable speed black and Decker drill, rated at 400 watts max. I have used this drill at home to start a 6 hp outboard, using a 1/2" drive socket on the flywheel. Just hope I never want to take the flywheel off ever again lol. I had a 4" hole cutter to drill 10 mm ply to fit the hot air vents. It tripped the inverter several times when I was over enthusiastic with trying to cut the holes quickly. A series wound motor is quite inductive, but it goes to show, don't buy an inverter based on your maximum load, we doubled our requirements, and still tripped it. Normally the inverter only gets used for my wife's hair curlers. It always gets switched off when not required, as the standby current is quite high.

I can understand washing machine on boats, with eco friendly cleaning solutions of course, a few degrees list and they will continue to work, and probably not overfill or leak. However, a dishwasher is another story, it's like carrying a full tray of water, the slightest movement, and water will cascade over the edge. On our home Bosch dishwasher the water level is probably a cm or so below the lip by the door, I would guess any wash from passing boats, or even stepping on and off the boat, could set up a small wave in the dishwasher and slop over the edge and into the boat area, unless provision is made to collect and dispose of it. Generally dishwasher tablets tend to be alkaline, you wouldn't really want that water sloshing around in the bilge lol. With more liveaboards, and continuous cruisers, should we be really discharging chemical waste into our rivers and canals? As occasional boaters, we still use washing up liquid and shower gel, but we are not on the boat 24/7 but every bit is adding to pollution. Ok, I hope someone will advise otherwise on the practicalities of a dishwasher on a boat, clearly the bigger the boat the better, being moored up tight will help too. I was just curious. Richard

I had though about using an Arduino to do a similar battery monitoring process, I bought the basic board, in fact it is still wrapped up. unused... I decided to go the digital panel meter route, 2 digital voltmeters, 2 digital ammeters with shunts. The voltmeters were fine to connect and set up, but, the ammeters needed a seperate and isolated supply of 12 volts, otherwise you get all sorts of circulating currents and odd readings. The isolated 12v dc to 12v dc modules were very cheap of ebay, and were fitted within the housing of the ammeters. I also didn't like the backlights on all the meters, so I disconnected the back light supply and made a circuit via opto isolators to remote select the backlights. As long as one of the two batteries is on line, then all the displays are active, and I can monitor the voltage of the off line one as well. I can see the charge going into the batteries from shore power, The shunts are quite capable of taking the starter motor current for the outboard, which shows up at about 100 amps peak. It also takes the 800 watt inverter current too. As the signals were very small, especially the voltage generated at the shunt, I used screened cables. Commoning up earth wires was not an option, as it interfered with the other meters, earth loops and all that. For those interested, the shunts only loose a few mV when under full load, so the battery supply to the boat is virtually unaffected. At this moment in time, since we are on shore power, I have removed the solar panels, the feed went through a solar panel voltage controller, I am not happy how this regulates the supply, as I have seen close to 15 volts on the batteries, when it should have been limited to 13.9 so that has to go. I decided I will design my own controller. Just need some sunshine to test it out at home lol... With all this battery monitoring, and having fully charged batteries, I have highlighted a small problem. The charge coil of the outboard is unregulated, so when we set off, it tries to charge the batteries even more, so I still have to sort that, in the mean time, I shunt the excess power through the 3 way fridge, 12 v dc, 240 v ac or gas. Saves on gas lol. Now some of you will notice... gas fridge on petrol powered outboard, how can that meet the BSS ? Luckily our fridge was the only model of fridge that could be modified by the addition of a flame trap and a sort of balanced flue.

Thanks Neil, I think I will accept it as 8 mm then.Thanks. Richard

Thanks for that, I might carefully trim the pipe on the other side of the crimped hose clamp, and see if I can get my vernier in. I too think it's 8 mm though. Richard

Could you buy an identical hull, and call it a catamaran lol. or tow it as a butty?

For the boat to let in water from this drain, it would have to raise above the top of the sink before it overflowed into the boat.

Hi, the fuel line on my Honda 15 outboard, square top version needs a new fuel hose with primer bulb. Does anyone know the id, internal diameter ? options are 6mm 8mm or 10mm. To me it looks like 8mm, but I am unsure. I don't want to strip the current line down just yet, as it is still serviceable with no leaks. Many thanks, Richard

With reference to tapered threads, on my 4x4 gearbox and diffs, ( Nissan Terrano lol) I always add some thread sealant, I used to use "Calor tite" or "Gas tite" as it never fully hardens, no plug ever leaked, but the advantage was, it sealed the thread, and no water and salt can get in to corrode the threads and sieze the plug. Several years on, and the plugs come out with a standard 1/2" ratchet set, some meths to clean up the threads after removal, sorted. Calor tite is not available now, it is frowned upon to rely on it on gas joints, this has been a swinging door, to seal or not to seal for a number of years according to various BSS inspectors but there is a red hematite type equivilent, that does a similar job on threaded plugs on my vehicle. For tapered threads, I apply the sealant to the threads in the last third of the thread so none should get into the gearbox or diff. I can see the point about ptfe blocking oilways, if used on the oil pressure switch, since this is after the oil pump, the next stop for the oil are the big ends, bearings or rockers etc.