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Jackofalltrades

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Everything posted by Jackofalltrades

  1. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  2. The HS3 D4E looks interesting, and a better proposition than the Webasto Thermo Top because heat output is stepless all the way down to 1.3KW but it still uses an evaporator plate not a pressure jet, unlike the Hurricane (which is twice the price). The question I have is, can the HS3 D4E withstand the rigour of full time liveaboard use?
  3. I'll look forward to hearing more about it in due course. At present the first and only thing I've heard about this is here.
  4. I'd be very interested if that is the case as the only marine pressure jet water heater I'm aware of is the Hurricane. My experience of the Webasto Thermo Top water heater is it works very well as along as attention is paid to the air inlet and exhaust. Too long and/or too many bends and it causes problems such as incomplete burn and faster soot build up. Don't ask me how I know. However, the jet engine noise the damn thing makes is something I'll never get used to.
  5. A reasonable response. But I thought the kangaroo court idea would be more fun.
  6. Ooo, maybe a bit harsh? Dish the dirt and we'll form a kangaroo court.
  7. Just imagine the size of the poo bag hanging from a tree.
  8. If a float switch activates the bilge pump to remove water that shouldn't be there then I'd take the risk of flat batteries or a wrecked pump because the other alternative might be a sunk boat. But the risk of of a float switch getting stuck on is, I suggest, minimal, and can be mitigated by regularly checking it is operating correctly and nothing can foul it. During these checks it's more likely that a corroded wire or dodgy connection will be found. I check stuff like this regularly on the lumpy water boat. I expect I'll do the same on the narrowboat. All part & parcel of the preventative maintenance checks that come with having a boat. Some people don't bother. Some get lucky. Others... well we've all seen the results. I prefer to stack the odds in my favour.
  9. We think the best solution, which is the consensus here - born out of experience - is to attach fender lines at roof level either via brackets attached to the cabin side near the handrail or via separate standalone brackets that simply hook over the handrail, which gives more flexibility as they can be located anywhere along the cabin roof. This is now our preferred way forward. Will we get money knocked off the final bill for the non-supply & fitting of fender islets when we take delivery? Place your bets ?
  10. The builder appears to fit fender islets as standard (as do several other builders that we looked at) which is also what we originally wanted and asked for. Fortunately we thought about the pitfalls before they have been fitted so fitted they will not be.
  11. Into the roof? Do you have a picture of your welded substantial eyes(!) by any chance?
  12. So a strong consensus against fender islets and overall a strong preference for fenders attached at roof level. I shall tell the builder not to install the fender islets. Thanks all ?
  13. The quote for our narrowboat shell includes several fender islets - large round holes cut into the sides of the hull and round inserts fitted with an integral horizontal bar onto which fenders can be tied. But I increasingly think these are not such a good idea for the following reasons: - They are a potential source of leaks in the future. - The chrome will wear away leaving rust behind, the screws (more holes!) might corrode (so use stainless screws into mild steel hull = potentially more corrosion). - They intrude into the interior of the hull and therefore there will be less spray foam insulation over them, potentially causing cold spots where condensation might find a home. - They look fugly (I think). So my question to you all is, if you were having a new narrowboat shell built, would you go for fender islets or some other solution to attach fenders?
  14. On our other boat (lumpy water catamaran) we have a total of nine bilge pumps: In each hull there's a Whale gulper connected to a downward facing strainer that (slowly) pumps out water to within a few mm. This is wired via an on/off/auto switch. In auto mode a float switch operates the pump. This low capacity pump is backed up by a 3000 Gph impeller pump wired via an on/off/auto switch. In auto mode a water sensing switch operates the pump. Each engine room has the same setup as above except instead of the Whale gulper a small capacity impeller pump is fitted instead (plus a 3000 Gph backup pump). There's also a manual lever operated (frightened man) bilge pump located in the cockpit with a roving hose long enough to reach each hull or engine room. With regard to people being concerned about inoperative float switches, either do as I have done and fit separate pumps & switches/sensors (but our boat is designed to sail offshore) or wire two float switches in parallel to a single bilge pump - a much cheaper solution. The pump would then operate in the event of either float switch being triggered. Edited to add: when I said "our other boat" - we don't yet have our other boat. We have been told that the build of our narrowboat shell has been delayed by a month due to Covid.
  15. OK, but as they are connected to land by a cable on the seabed why couldn't power be supplied via the same cable from land in the event of not enough wind to turn the turbines? Seems like a fundamental design failure! ...Corrected in the latest ones.
  16. That's news to me. Why do wind turbines have a diesel generator onboard?
  17. I've sailed past offshore windfarms when they've not been running. I now know that if demand if low the windfarms are paid to stop producing energy. Seems crazy but there you go. I suppose this is why the battery storage companies have sprung up. It makes sense, although why the wind farms couldn't do it themselves I don't know. On a slightly different note, I was filling up with diesel in Ramsgate harbour the year before last and the number of large power catamaran workboats based there is a sight to behold. Their role is to take engineers out to nearby windfarms. The guy on the diesel pontoon said he'd sold 240,000 litres of diesel to them last week. He laughed about how green that was. I think he had a point.
  18. What some may find interesting is that there are currently two companies (that I know of) that take cheap/plentiful renewable electricity (solar/wind/hydro/bio) from the national grid, store it in batteries and then sell it back to the national grid when power demand is high (+ several other reasons such as helping to stabilise the required 50Hz frequency). The supplied electricity is still classed as renewable, even at night when there's no wind. The companies are: Gore Street Energy Storage Fund PLC (LSE ticker: GRID) https://www.gsenergystoragefund.com/content/about/fund Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC (LSE ticker: GSF) https://greshamhouse.com/real-assets/new-energy-sustainable-infrastructure/gresham-house-energy-storage-fund-plc/ Both companies have target dividends of 7p for 2021 so at current share prices they are paying annual dividend yields of well over 6%. There is lots of interesting info on the above two company websites and somewhere or other there is an investor presentation video that details the multiple ways they make money. Disclosure: my shrunken wad of a pension pot holds shares in the above companies. Edited to add: I don't know if anyone has posted a link to GridWatch before https://gridwatch.co.uk/ It's cold, wet and miserable here in MK today but Gridwatch is showing that 33% of demand is currently being met by renewable energy, of which 28% is from wind. The UK is doing its bit to reduce its carbon footprint.
  19. I'm going to pour myself a second drink and read that again more slowly.
  20. Thanks for the replies. We've decided on a direct drive, brushless motor as there are less moving parts so less maintenance - they are pretty much fit and forget (or as near to as it's possible to get), and as they run slower they should in theory be quieter. I'd read the Plug Boats comparison a while ago and although there seem to be some interesting motors available many of them come from companies I'd never heard of and/or they're a long way away to deal with. So on the shortlist is the new Vetus E-Line 100 and the more powerful Waterworld motor. The Vetus motor is watercooled (albeit also with a fan on the end) and looks like it is based on an industrial pump motor - not necessarily an issue AFAIK as many pumps are V heavy duty and go on for years without missing a beat. It also has the controller mounted on top of the motor itself so it's just one unit to install. It looks like the first one has been installed in a UK narrowboat only recently - Old Nick - and although I've read through the Sumpner's website, information is scarce - mainly I think due to the lockdown we're all in. The Waterworld motor is air-cooled. Simpler, in theory, but does this make it less durable long term when having to cope with the one hot summer's day we get in the UK per year? It's another all-in-one unit like the Vetus. Have any been installed in UK narrowboats so far? It's available in a 10KW version, like the Vetus (9.5 contiunous) + a 15KW version. Is 10KW enough? Is watercooling best? Difficult to find any real-life owner experiences out there for either (apart from the Sumpner's blog). Had a quote from Fisher Panda for a Bellmarine 15KW watercooled motor. It might be a very good motor (or it might not) but it's a rip-off price compared to the others. They'd need to offer a 50% discount to be competitive. Thoughts would be appreciated. The shell build slot is late February and although we are definitely going for electric propulsion we still haven't committed to buying one - mainly due to the lack of info available from owners. I don't really want to go down the custom-putting-it-all-together-myself route but I don't want to be a guinea pig for a manufacturer either. Help!
  21. Does anyone have any experience of the Vetus electric motor? https://www.vetus.com/en/e-line-inboard-propulsion-motor-10kw.html?___from_store=nl Direct drive brushless motor, 1,500 RPM, water-cooled, complete package (c/w controller etc).
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