Tortoise

thanks to all, yes, I had a great time. I'm happy for any pictures of me to be public, although they're bound to have my mouth open in. ;-) I haven't developed my 'memory card' myself yet, will see what the results are like before offering to post anywhere. was vaguely thinking of blogging the better ones, perhaps I'll hold fire on that. ;-( If any prove to be worth seeing, I'll forward on to the subjects themselves...

and I said I'd never post again ... I've used a linux EEE with the 3G dongle (E220, the round-end wider white one) very easily, the only problem being picking up the password to log into the site (which is sent as a text message to the units SIM card, and I needed to borrow a PC to use the inbuilt software to get it). The setup was great for blogging the summer's adventures (including sorting out pictures), as well as reading other people's. Shout if I can be of help setting it up. Car adapters as easily obtainable for the computer. I've ended up using it as a main 'sofa' computer for email etc - I'm using it now. It's what Apple should (and could) have made five if not ten years ago...

Note the smiley - I'm all for constructive answers, and added my own, in a constructive manner. I referred to the rather confrontational responses given, as exemplified above. As you yourself admit, there's rarely one right answer, and if that was acknowledged more often in these discussions, it would be a more welcoming place. Being told to 'b*gger off' doesn't really help anyone, not least the person who writes it. I haven't questioned the quality of the answers, or the fact that the question was asked in the first place - did I say it was a 'stupid question', or even infer such a thing? Would I have answered a 'stupid question'? I've no need to justify my education, thanks, although it's well worth justifying. I don't even need to impress by boasting about my daily rate, either. I'm sure everyone here is a great laugh in a pub, friendly at locks and loves their mother. It's a shame it doesn't come across that way. Call me an old hippy, but let's be nice to each other, 'k?

As usual this thread may as well be a proposal for 'electrical discussions on Canalworld forums' to be a demonstration sport in the 2012 Olympics... ;-) One offered rule of thumb (not definite, but what is in this world) is that if it's sold for car/mobile use - especially if it comes with a cigarette lighter adapter - then it should* be able to cope with alternator charging voltages, and if it doesn't at least you've a better chance with the guarantee. If not, then it'll probably work anyway. My little 7" freeview telly did, and is used in conjunction with a car radio/CD player - all I need. There's nothing wrong with voltage regulators/conditioners, by all means get one if you want one. I'm with Blueprince's thoughts, otherwise. ;-) * usual disclaimers apply

Looks like it was a good event there - I'll keep my eyes open for the next one. I'll see how cruising plans work out, but I may do it by bike & tent... ;-) Edit - will keep my eyes open to see who'll be at Little Venice in May?

and the opposite view.. ;-) 12v items are easy enough to get hold of now, for most people a car radio/CD player is fine, and a lot of flat screen tellies have a remote 12v supply on them now anyway*. Plug in a portable DVD player to that if you like that kind of thing. I have a 7" freeview telly that spends more time playing BBC7 radio at me, but when redesigning the boat I made sure there was a good place to hang the guitar... ;-) Keep it simple where possible, there's less to go wrong. * be wary of anything not specifically designed for mobile use - it'll be fine on the 12.6v from a charged battery, but may not like the 14.something from your alternator... but who wants to watch telly when cruising? Personally I've been running a 12v DAB radio on 14v when cruising wirth no problems [yet], and most kit will cope anyway (internal regulators), but some may not.

my whole boat has channel on the roof , sides I had channel on the roof/top of sides, so made small L-shaped brackets out of angle iron (drill the holes before cutting off the main bar!), & riveted one side on to the channel, screwing into the battens (vertical, 90 degrees to channel). Glued as well, but I prefer using screws/bolts if I can rather than relying on the sticky stuff...

Slow progress over the summer; I needed to get Mike to put more steel struts in the roof, but once that was done things were a little more solid. Inside steelwork got nearly as much paint as outside; red primer, 2 coats of grey undercoat and then a layer of domestic gloss. I could then put some battens in - inch and a half for below the gunwhale (matching the depth of the existing strengthening strut) and inch for above, again matching the metalwork. Although I did use grab glue on these, they were all alos held mechanically, screwed in in various ways, some using small homemade L shaped brackets, one arm of which was rivert to the square section metal struts. I've put in lengths of 18mm ply directly under the gunwhales; the sides overlap the gunwhale internally, so the battens could be be screwed into that via 4mm holes in this overlap. I got through a fair few 4mmm drill bits, I must admit. Again with half an eye on future condensation, I used sprayfoam insulation, a DIY kit. It suited me to do it myself, whilst saving myself some money it is was probably 50:50 whether it would have been worth getting a professional in. Anyway, the tanks were warmed up courtesy of Tony on Highlander's bath, and it went in OK, even under the floorboards in the outer thirds of the floor (some of which may need to come out for ballast in time). I wasn't sure how easy it would be to cut out the surplus, but a large panel saw did the job fine, which meant I could really go for it on the second pass. It's made a huge change - the boat is now of course warmer, reatains heat for longer - and also quieter inside. It sounds like other people's boats do, rather than a tin box, which of course it was. I've started on the lining itself, putting in the boards under the gunwhales first. Some of the sheets of ply have got water damaged whilst on the roof (I actually couldn't get them inside until the flimsy front wooden doors were actually taken out completely), so the worst bits have been placed whether they won't be seen when fitted out.

oops - two errors I'm glad no-one else shot me down for - you said 'diameter' and I quoted cable that was 10mm2 (the second error being not correctly quoting my units) - i.e. cross sectional area of ten square millimetres. Should be fine for the cable drops, but do the maths before trusting what anyone says, especially me... ;-)

CPC do 25m reels of 10mm for around £20+VAT. Their website is a nightmare, but order codes are CB09199 for black and CB09201 for red; put those numbers into their search box. I'm not 100% sure about ordering if you don't have an account, but you could do worse than give them a ring. Shame you're not more local to me, but get in touch if you get nowhere with them.