tosher
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Posts posted by tosher
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Thanks chaps for all your informative comments, much appreciated. When my boat was lifted just over two years ago I was surprised and disappointed by the amount of galvanic activity on the hull, I replaced the anodes and re blacked it myself doing a thorough job with three coats of Rylards Rytex. I mentioned this to the staff when I returned to my marina and they carried out a check of the shore side wiring and said everything was ok. When my boat was lifted again last month I found the hull was showing the same signs of galvanic activity as before. I do have a galvanic isolator fitted as do the other boats on adjacent pontoons. I have previously left the boat plugged in to the marina supply over winter so this winter I want to try something different hence my OP. The heaters I want to use are earthed and I sent details and a photo of them to my insurance company and they said it's fine to leave them switched on with the boat unattended over winter as long as they are firmly secured (as suggested in post 6). Thanks again for your advice.
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Hi all. I want to leave 2 x 120 watt tubular heaters (green house type) on my boat over winter but to avoid any possibility of galvanic corrosion I don't want to connect the boat to the marina shore power in the normal way. So I am thinking of plugging a lead into the shore power bollard and taking it direct into the boat, fitting two 13amp sockets on the end of it and plugging the heaters into these sockets. This will keep the boat electrics completely isolated from the marina system. This sounds ok but are there any down sides to doing this??? The boat will not be occupied over winter. Any advice much appreciated. Many thanks.
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Mine have been bolted on for 13 years, no problems at all. Easy to replace with no labour costs. Work just as well as welded on ones.
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If anyone is interested --- I have two engine driven alternators 110A & 75A charging my 3 x Elecsol 270AH batteries via a Sterling Alternator-to-Battery charger. All fitted when the boat was built 12 years ago. We are out in the boat for about 4 or 5 months throughout the year and normally cruise for about 3 or 4 hours per day moving most days with the occasional day off. The batteries usually fall to about to 90% after an overnight stop and maybe down to 80% after a day without running the engine. These values have reduced considerably in recent months and the volts drop under load as the batteries die. Most days when cruising the batteries are recharged to 100%.
When we are not cruising the boat is left unattended in a marina with all electrics switched off. In the summer months I leave the shore power lead unplugged to prevent any chance of galvanic corrosion but in the winter months I plug in the shore power and leave a battery charger on. I have a Smart Gauge which I think is the main reason for my batteries lasting so long as it gives a very good indication of the state of charge of the batteries. I always try to keep them as near to 100% charged as possible but other than that I just keep them clean, well watered with the odd bit of maintenance. At present the engine running hours are approaching 5000hrs.
Sorry if I have bored you!!!!
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Thanks for all your replies and the answer to my question, I feel more comfortable about the Varta batteries now and will probably go down that route. Thanks again.
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Hi all. I am looking to replace my dying 12 year old services batteries with 3 new Varta LFD 230AH sealed lead acid batteries. The spec for these seems ok but shows the max number of cycles down to 50% state of discharge as 200 which seems a little low. My question is ------ In our normal cruising mode the batteries never fall below 75% so does that mean that the number of cycles would increase to 400? My reason for choosing the Varta ones is that they are a direct replacement size wise for my old Elecsols so no alterations to wiring or fittings will be required. Many thanks.
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I was moored in Salt House Dock that day and watched it all unfold. The video doesn't really get across the seriousness of it, There were many non swimmers and young children on board the Duck and hearing their screams for help will live with me forever. The narrow boat crews were absolute heroes and saved many lives that day. Look at the timings on the video and see how long it is before other help arrived, a fire engine & ambulance and it was about 20 minutes before the first rescue craft arrived. If it wasn't for the narrow boats they would have been recovering bodies.
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We have a Leesan manual pump out kit as a standby, not used it many times but the manual pump works well & emptied the tank with no bother. The pump out connection is on our cabin roof so lifting about 7 or 8 feet with no trouble.
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32 minutes ago, LiveAndLetLive said:
The engine is an Isuzu 42. I haven't got the filter number with me right now. Fingers crossed DMR that we haven't done any damage!
The old filter came off really easily. I was surprised because oil changes on cars in the past have always involved a real struggle.
I have an Isuzu 42 and the oil filter number I use is --- Isuzu 5-87610008-0. Not cheap but the genuine article.
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6 hours ago, Matt&Jo said:
Out of interest where did you get the vactan?
Bought it on Ebay as cuthound posted, no problem at all.
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Thanks everyone for your replies. I have gone down the route of wire brushing/scraping the rust off, then Vactan on the area and finally blacking. Looks a nice waterproof job. Thanks again.
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Advice please.-------- I want to paint the inside of my combined Gas/bow locker. The floor is very rusty due to the constant inflow of water through the gas vent holes at each side of the locker at it's lowest point. These holes are quite close to the water line and whenever the boat is moving a small amount of water is always present on the locker floor. The gas bottles stand on rubber mats clear of the floor. What is the best paint to use for this job please? I wondered about using blacking?
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The clicking noise is much more rapid then on mine, probably about 2 or 3 times quicker. Mine is the original pump that came new with the engine and although it looks similar to yours something about it looks different so I suspect yours may not be original.
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Yes my Isuzu 42 fuel pump click click clicks all the time whenever the ignition is switched on. You can't hear it of coarse once the engine is running.
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What about the use of mobile speed bumps???? CART could issue a pair of such things to every licenced boat along with a couple of warning signs. The mobile bumps to be installed across the tow path at the bow & stern of your boat and secured in place with a mooring pin at either end and the signs to warn cyclists and walkers alike. They could have luminous strips on them that glow in the dark. Just a thought
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On 30/09/2017 at 23:16, RichLech said:
We've had one made for our semi-trad. Wouldn't be without it. Gives us an extra room when we moor up for the night and with two dogs that is important.
Couple of things that we specified to make it convenient. Firstly, front screen can be completely zipped out so that with side screens removed as well, it just provides a canopy for shade or shelter from showers. On wet days on the Thames (where bridges are higher) we can cruise with the canopy up.
Secondly, to ensure that the stainless steel hoops do not obstruct access to the boat, the hoops are on sliding rails on the sides of the semi-trad. Hence when the canopy is laid down the hoops slide forward, keeping the whole thing clear of the access hatch.
Ours in canvas. more flexible for folding down.
When we moor I can have the whole thing up, screen and sides fitted and water-tight in about 5 minutes.
Ours was made by Tim at AM Marine Trim, based at Windsor Marina.
Couldn't agree more, ours sounds like the same design with the sliding rails and we use it as you describe. The best thing we ever bought for the boat, just replaced the cover after 10 years service. Ours was made to give me standing headroom (6ft) so we had it made a little bit longer to keep the proportions right.
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Well said mayalld I agree entirely. I always slow down for fishermen and try to engage with them but sadly most just totally blank me. If they do not acknowledge me (just a nod would be nice) by the time I am level with them then it's full throttle and up yours I'm afraid.
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12 hours ago, MHS said:
When you measured the battery voltage, what was it? It doesn't take much of a voltage drop to cause problems.
Yes indeed. These things draw around 350 amps so anything less than a fully charged healthy battery will cause problems.
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You should be able to put your hand on the motor coupling, it should turn quite easily in both directions. This is a good indication the prop is not fouled.
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Thanks Mike & WotEver. Mine stabilse at about 12 amps. They were 810a/h when new but I recon they are down to about 400a/h now so the tail current is in the right ball park.
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A quick question please --- Am I right in thinking that the tail current of a fully charged battery should be approx 1 to 2 percent of the current capacity of the battery and not the capacity of the battery when new??
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Anybody fancy sharing crossing the Wash (Boston to Kings Lynn) towards the end of May 2017?
Giving that trip some thought myself, sounds interesting.
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I tend to be a 'bit over cautious', but years of sea-going boats has taught me that if it can go wrong, it probably will do.
Take a jerry can of clean diesel (from another source to your main tank - petrol station if necessary) and sort out a way of running a pipe from it to your engine (after the filters) so if the worst happens you can jury-rig something to give you another 10 + hours to get out of trouble.
You can buy jerry-can fittings that have pipe running from them down into the can, and another that runs outwards from the can to enable easy (no-spill) siphoning.
If you make this outlet pipe the same size as you engine fuel pipe you can attach it / slide it over and clamp it with a jubilee clip.
It may not meet BSS requirements but they don't apply on the sea anyway.
Hi Alan, hope you don't mind me adding a bit to your post with a little story-----------
In a former life I used to deliver yachts all over the place on the salty stuff and I too always carried several cans of clean diesel and an asortment of pipes "just in case". Well the "just in case" happened one dark night on passage through the Straights of Bonifacio. We had been under sail all day in blustery conditions and the fuel in the main tank had been shaken around quite a bit. As darkness fell the wind died and the sea became flat calm so being in a busy shipping lane I started the engine to clear the Straights. After a few minutes motoring the engine died and would not restart. Looking at the fuel filter and inside the main tank the cause was very obvious, fuel bug everywhere and the main tank full of the stuff so I decided to rig up one of the clean fuel cans (20 ltrs) and connected a pipe from the can to the filter inlet after fitting a new filter. The engine started fine and off we went. Twenty minutes later the engine stopped again but this time the filter was clean but I discovered the 20 ltr can was empty and also noticed that the contaminated main fuel tank level had increased by about 20 ltrs. Then the penny dropped. In a diesel engine most of the fuel going to the injectors is used for cooling them and then passes back to the main tank, only a small portion is actually injected into the engine and thats where my 20 ltrs had gone. I connected a second 20 ltr can as before but ALSO diverted the injector return pipe into the SAME can and bingo, ran all night like that till the wind picked up next morning and only used about 5 or 6 litrs of fuel. Sorry if I bored you all with the story but I enjoyed re-living it.
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Recently after 9 years in service I thought it about time I did something with the antifreeze in my engine and central heating. I decided to replace the lot with like for like blue glycol. I drained 30 Ltrs from the engine cooling system and 12 Ltrs central heating. Having mixed the new antifreeze to refill the systems I compared it with the old I had removed and could not tell the slightest difference between them. The colour and clarity were just the same. The old mixture had passed the freezer test earlier with no problem so I think next time I will just add new inhibitor & save a lot of work.
Mini oil radiator on timer
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
I sent an email complete with a photo and details of the green house type heaters I would be using to my insurers and they confirmed they are safe to use would not invalidate my policy.