Withywindle

I’m going back well over 10 years. I was working for BW for the summer at the time. We picked up a workboat near the Black Country Museum and headed back to our base on the Staffs Worcester at Stourton. We were clearing out some of the accumulated floating debris as we went along and I remember a lot of Roach and Perch and we also saw a big Pike that day.

A lot of fish too as I recall. Just shows how canals in heavily industrialised places can recover.

But I had a clear view of today’s date at 9 o’clock this morning. 😊😉

On balance this is perhaps a ‘foolish’ idea of mine. 😉 Think I’ll stick to my usual pastimes of lock snorkelling and body surfing in bywashes - less risky. 😊

I’m considering a modification to my narrowboat which many of you will be familiar with from your holidays in the med. Glass bottomed boats are commonplace there and it strikes me that the same unique feature might work on a narrowboat. It would be great to sit quietly on a summer evening with a beer and watch the shoals of Bream, Perch and Gudgeon feeding beneath my boat. I would of course need to add underwater lighting but I can’t see that this should be too much of a problem. Before I get too carried away can anyone see any major engineering challenges I’d face installing the glass panel and do people think I’d need to inform CRT?

They do.

You are correct Tracy, I meant cross sectional area but seem to have started world war three. 🙄😂

Sorry about that Tony, I’ll try to be clearer next time. ☺️

Ok I’ve checked my cable sizes as per your list @David Mack (thanks for that btw). The domestic battery isolator cabling is at least 10mm sq and probably 16mm sq, the starter isolator is 25mm sq and the cable to the inverter is 50mm sq and probably 60mm sq - the size was in between on the table. The thickness of the insulation clearly has a bearing and obviously varies for different brands of cable. @Alan de Enfield The inverter continues to work with the domestic isolator off as does my Webasto incidentally, so both are connected direct to the domestic battery bank not via the isolator. So the only equipment connected via the domestic isolator as I see it is - my lighting, water pump, shower pump and the radio, pretty much the items specifically mentioned in the BSS guidelines as ok, minus the fridge which is on the 240v circuit. On that basis I reckon I’m fine. Hopefully the examiner will reach the same conclusion!

I’ll check that too thanks Alan.

Yes I do have an inverter but I’m 90% sure it’s just the isolator cabling that is undersized. I will double check, but that’s my understanding. It was actually mentioned in our survey before we bought the boat and the surveyor thought everything else was ok, but I will have a look to be sure. Update: I think the penny has just dropped thanks to your reply @Tracy D'arth - I reckon I’m ok. There’s a caveat in the regulations which I’ve highlighted. It obviously just applies to 12v appliances not the 240v supply as that comes via the inverter/travepower. As all of my 12v equipment is low power as described, I’m ok. I just need to confirm that the supply to the inverter is big enough - I’m sure it will be.

We’ve had our boat for almost three years and our first BSS is coming up later this year. I’ve gone through the BSS requirements (which are truly wonderful bedtime reading) and I’m as confident as I can be of everything apart from one thing - the domestic battery isolator cabling. This is not 25mm, I would estimate it at 16mm so on the face of it I probably should get it upgraded. All other battery cabling is at least 25mm and the interconnects between the batteries themselves is even thicker so no worries there. As for the boat itself, it’s a 2003 Colecraft with a Beta 38 and unusually it has a Dometic travel power generator which Beta offered as an option at that time. As for high drain appliances we have a washing machine which we’ve never yet used, a 240v fridge and the usual immersion heater for use when plugged in on the Marina. There was originally a tumble drier on board too (no I’m not joking), we had never used that either, but I finally got rid of it this week as I needed the space for more important things! Reading the BSS it looks like I should be upgrading the domestic isolator cable to 25mm but on the other hand the boat has sailed through every previous BSS so if was an issue why would that be? Furthermore the previous owner was a Marine Engineer who was very meticulous about maintenance and kept everything on the boat pretty much 100% so I’d be surprised if he wouldn’t have upgraded the cabling if he thought it was necessary. Am I missing something?

Just back from Daventry Non Ferrous Metals. Nice people and a very slick operation. My batteries were duly weighed and I got 44p a kilo (current rate is £440 per tonne) in my case that was £32 odd in total for my three 110amp batteries. Needed to show my driving licence and gave my bank details, they gave me an official ‘duty of care’ transfer note as a receipt. They promised the money would be in my account within the hour and it was. A bit of a bonus was that I had an old tumble drier in the boot that I was taking to the tip and I just casually said ‘I don’t suppose you can take this thing can you’? They did and gave me £1.90 for that too - best of all it saved me a trip to the tip!

I’ll let you know how I get on in Daventry next week but it does like he might have a ‘side hussle’ going on there. 🤔

Thanks they look ideal and only 20 minutes from my mooring. 👍