Boater Sam

Also consider that you do not know the boat or how well it has been maintained. Doing a tidal river run you need to be absolutely sure that the boat is not going to let you down. The fuel in the tank will get well stirred up, any muck in there will stop your engine just when you need it most.

But can I suggest that you make some provision for levelling the cooker after the initial fit especially if you are fitting out on the hard, . Its really annoying baking cakes that are twice as thick at one side and frying eggs in a sloping frying pan is like trying to push water uphill.

Tough boats these Highbridge, the fronts are reputed to be an inch thick! That one looks to be all there, good with a clear out and a bit of TLC.

Disconnected injector pipes should not drip fuel, they should spurt forcefully. My bet is stop cable stuck short of the run position.

OK, so disconnect the red on the duff batteries and insulate them, then reconnect the main feed cables that you took off. And you are back on with just the !good" ones connected.

On the duff battery/s you want to disconnect, just remove the positive, red, connection and insulate the connection so it doesnt short to anything. Leave the good ones connected.

Almost certainly feeding the cold water into the top instead of the bottom, seen it before. The hot water in the pipe disappears as soon as the cold comes in.

Sugar is good, it dissolves and leaves just its impression in the paint which is what you want. Sand is fine but it needs to be clean washed and graded like kids play sand. Building sand is a no-no.

I think some of the pipes were assembled with longer olives and short reach nuts, don't know why but BMC were a weird company, they made a lot of their own nuts and bolts unlike most engineering companies.

There is no sound reason to suspect that the steel is any different than any bought on any steel market in the world. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cars don't seem to rust or rot any worse than VW, Peugeot/Citroen, Fiat etc. But I couldn't life with the shape of that cabin or those door handles!

But all that electricity out of the batteries, its scandalous! Definitely not allowed on our boat. But then, we are terribly creased ourselves so it doesn't show.

No scrap value at all. In fact significant disposal costs, I saw a ferrocement yacht cut up and skipped, cost a packet.

If there is no ignition lamp, that is maybe why it never charges. Before you go to far, wire the alternator directly and see if it works. You only need to wire the B+ terminal to battery+ and put a 2.2 watt lamp (really whatever you have will do ) between B+ and D+. It will light up. It should then charge when the engine is running and revved.. The lamp should go out when it is charging.

Ironing? What's that? Do boaters iron? Banned ironing the day we got our first boat, refused to allow an ironing board though we have an iron for the one in a thousand times something has to be flat.

To excite an alternator. A brief explanation if anyone is interested. No permanent magnets in an alternator so it will not generate unless the armature is magnetised by passing a DC current through it. That current come from the ignition through the warning lamp to the brushes (via the D+ connection) running on the slip rings on the armature. Once excited and spinning it will self generate a DC voltage and retain magnetism. That is why the warning lamp goes out, it has now got +12v on both connections so no current passes. The Stator now generates 3 phase AC current. Rectified by a diode array and we have our 12v charging current So if its slow to generate, passing a bit more current into the D+ terminal will increase its excitation.

Thanks for coming back, most don't. Glad you solved the problem, that does seem strange. Gremlin at work.

Looking at the alternator you may be able to get a smaller pulley on there which will help considerably.

What pressure is stamped on the top of the pressure release valve that is running water overboard? It is most likely 3 bar which is 45psi ish. I would suspect it is failing, try twisting the knob on top a few time, this opens the valve and washes the seat clean, its this valve that is banging not the calorifier as it partially opens and closes. If it persists, replace it. Check what pressure the accumulator air chamber is at with the pump off and a tap open. It should be around 20 psi at a guess ( ideally just less than the pressure that your pump cuts in at but you may not know this pressure ) Adjust with a bike pump on the schrader valve at the end which is where you check the pressure with a tyre gauge.

"alcohol for general use that has been made unfit for drinking by the addition of about 10 percent methanol and typically also some pyridine and a violet dye." Rubbing alcohol, Vodka etc. are similar. Anyone with an NHS contract or a distillery? Isopropanol alcohol is cheap but does it burn properly? At those prices I'm glad I sold my steam wagon. (Mamod)

I believe that even the common Morso Squirrel should have a much longer flue according to the makers instructions, around 14 feet long?

Is that gone AWOL substantiated or could it be a brush off? Could you have really been speaking to the guy himself? I would serve a CCJ on whoever's head is above the parapet and see what happens. Its easy to do on the internet.

We would be here for you! (Unless its Winter then I'm 8000 miles away) There are a few on here who would rally round and sort you out.

Then there is the large brokerage in Northwich that went under, but the same guy still brokering but out of Nantwich. ( Think my facts are correct, the information is sketchy to say the least )

If the business is indeed going under have you registered as a creditor? You may get lucky and get something back. We had a debtor years ago who was unlikely to pay even though we had a CCJ against him. There was little prospect of the bailiff recovering anything of value so we wrote the debt and the CCJ fees off. A few years later we were approached by the Yorkshire bank I think it was who were going to take the guy for a considerable sum, a property grab possibly. As we had a prior CCJ the bank paid us out to clear it so that they could proceed as the first claimant. So its always worth stitching the debtor up for the small sum that it costs to get a CCJ against them. I have had millionaires who thought that they could ignore their "piffling" debts to us, wrong, we went after them on principle. Its surprising how having a CCJ or a Garnishee order against them concentrates their minds when they find their credit busted and the mortgage company hounding for repayment.

Alde flue is now your high point, shame that they never made them demountable. I too use 2 centre lines though my panel is forward of the cleat as I found it more convenient than for ever flicking it across the roof and hatches.