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. 👍

Just seen this post. Glad you’re sorted. I have the exact same model on my boat so it’s good to see there are still a few around. It took me quite a while to get my head around how mine worked and its relationship with the Victron and other electronics. In my case I switch to the travel power setting on the selector switch when cruising and it charges my leisure batteries via the Victron in the same sort of way as if I was plugged into a shoreline. It’s an odd setup on my boat which took me a long while to figure out. Historically, my travel power unit failed, according to the previous owner and was repaired by Cox’s. The telltale sign is the rivets on the box. Cox’s drill these out to open the unit and then replace them with self tappers once they’re done. Yours still has the rivets intact I notice - so it hasn’t needed any attention yet. Keep your fingers crossed! I endorse what people are saying about Ed Shiers. He gave me a lot of free advice over the phone when I first got the boat. He’s excellent.

I’m going to be swapping out my three leisure batteries at the weekend and was going to take the old ones to the council recycling centre, however I wondered if I might get a few quid for them if I took them to a scrap dealer instead? My boat is moored close to Wigrams Turn on the Grand Union so Rugby / Daventry / Leamington area. Can anyone recommend anyone in the area who would take them.

I know this is an oldish post but I thought I’d provide an update… I was able to get Beta Marine to provide me with the impeller size in the end, however there was some confusion, the parts people told me it was 60mm and technical support guys said 69mm! In the end they had a discussion amongst themselves and agreed upon 60mm. I bought the 60mm pump from Tracpartz a big agricultural/construction parts dealer in The Netherlands, but despite the best intentions didn’t replace it until today. Off came the old pump but guess what, it was the 69mm one! Thankfully I was on our Marina so it wasn’t a complete disaster. We’ve recently moved the boat to the Midlands and Bryco the Kubota engine dealer in Daventry is very close by, so I was able to source the correct pump from them immediately and fitted it without any issues. It was a genuine Kubota pump so the sting in the tail was the price, £150 (ouch), which was still cheaper than Beta Marine but only just. I was however impressed with the excellent quality - the pump was made by BTK the exact same one as the original, if it lasts as long it’ll be a good investment. The aftermarket one (probably Chinese) that I would have fitted looked somewhat inferior by comparison. So that’s all done. The Kubota part number is 16251 73034 and 16239 73430 for the gasket.

Yes the antenna aren’t great, having said that they are tucked away at the top and in the case of the machine at Anderton it would have been very difficult to hit them with the pump out hose. My biggest issue is, if this is supposed to be a trial CRT could have presented it a little better. By that I mean amending the old instruction plate to reflect the new card reader and perhaps putting a notice in the cabinet explaining that it was an evaluation and perhaps providing and email address so people could give their feedback.

The latest CRT boater update announced the trial of contactless payment pump out on a handful of machines in the North West which if successful would be rolled out nationally. I came across one today at Anderton Services. Initially it had me confused, mainly down to CRT failing to update the already outdated instructions on the machine or explain what the new gadget was. I have to say, however, I thought it was a vast improvement. It will accept and contactless payment card and you can also use your phone, as I did, if you have it set up for contactless. It worked flawlessly. My only worry is what will happen if I don’t manage to use the old style cards I still have before the old machines are phased out. Will I get a refund or credit from CRT I wonder? I hope they’ll think of that one.

Will do 👍

Thank you everyone. You’ve convinced me. I should really get this changed ASAP. Jem Engines will accept returns for 14 days so I think I’ll order both versions and return one of them.

The water pump on my 2005 Beta 38 (keel cooled) is starting to leak, only slightly at the moment, but I want to carry a spare on board in case it suddenly fails There are two different pumps available for the Kubota V1505 engine the difference being the integral impeller size which is either 60 or 69 mm. Ideally I’d rather order the pump rather than removing the pump to measure the impeller then having to wait for the new pump to arrive. I’m looking at Jem Engines in Falkirk who seem to offer good quality aftermarket Kubota parts, £75 in this case including a new gasket which I think is pretty reasonable. I asked Beta Marine but they weren’t very forthcoming with the impeller size but predictably were very keen to sell me one of their pumps at their usual ‘premium’ price. Can anyone advise on the normal impeller size for the Beta 38?

Yes it was good and hot and all the connections seemed dry.

Thanks Tony, That’s a good suggestion. I’ve just been and had another good look paying particular attention to the water pump area. It’s bone dry. The previous owner was a marine engineer and always kept a container under the pump so he could spot any leaks early. A practice I’ve continued and that’s dry and clean. I’m currently running the engine up to temperature again to double check all’s still ok today. I spoke to a chap on our Marina today who has a fair amount of experience and he immediately said ‘air in the system’ which was my thought. Odd that it should show up now though, I hardly had to top up last season.