MarkH2159

Last time I checked it was February 2021 so none of this applies...yet.

Good info thanks @Tony Brooks I know of a few 'farm based' moorings where the farmers do the same, making a few pence on a litre. Technically I am owed about £300 at mates rates from this guy, but he has offered me up to 1000 litres of Red instead - not a bad price !!

Oh yes, contacting HMRC is an excellent idea ???? Perhaps they would like to know more about the income tax that I have not paid since 1987, even if it is all legal and above board.

Therein lies the ambiguity... "...cannot use this fuel in a propulsion engine...." It would not be used in the 'engine' per se as the boat is not going anywhere. I understand that a seperate tank makes things a whole lot more workable, but I will likely not have one. However because of not cruising, my tank would only be used for diesel fired heating.

I am aware of all the levels of duty but how would one actually go about 'paying' the extra duty on it?

Apologies if this is actualy covered in some way elsewhere in the forum but I believe my case me be somewhat different. I have recently done some work for a 'friend' who has declared himself to be somewhat cash strapped and so, knowing I am in the process of acquiring a narrowboat, he has offered to pay me in agricultural Red Diesel of which he has copious amounts in storage. I am aware of the usual 60/40 general rule that is applied when purchasing fuel for canal boats. I believe this is somewhat discriminatory for those of us who may be 'tied to the bank' long term and only have one fuel tank for heating and propulsion, also for boats that have diesel stoves etc running from the same tank as propulsion diesel when not actually cruising. I have also seen some criminal prices in marinas recently with one offering red diesel at £0.89 for heating and £1.23 for propulsion - I can get fully taxed 'road' diesel for my car cheaper than that. I have been in the refined fuel business for over 40 years and am aware of the way diesel is marked for road use or otherwise. It is quite obvious that there is absolutely no difference between boat propulsion and heating red diesel which comes out of the same storage tank/hose and goes into the same tank on the boat. Anyway, before I accept his offer of payment in several hundred litres of red diesel I need to know if I can actually use it in my boat without getting caught up in some legal wrangle with the team working for Her Majesty. The logistics are not really an issue - van, mobile tank, drums, pump etc. Cheers, MH

Tidal or not, does it matter? Colregs Rule 1 - Application. (a) These Rules shall apply to all vessels upon the high seas and in all waters connected therewith navigable by seagoing vessels. So, simply put, the rules apply in all waters connected to the sea that are navigable by any seagoing vessel.

My last 3 androids along with several flights I have been on recently all refer to it as "Flight Mode" which is of course correct and not at all American.

I can highly recommend an App called WePhone which I have been using for the past 6 years without any problem. Basically it uses any wifi or 4G signal data to make regular type calls via internet calling protocols. You can call any number from anywhere in the world, landlines, mobiles etc and it can show the caller ID as any number you wish - I have it set to show my regular UK mobile number. I can even use it to call my bank and they recognise the number as me calling from within UK yet I could be anywhere. Best of all is the charges - So cheap as to be unbelievable. I have regularly called my mother in UK on her mobile whilst I was in Philippines and an 8 minute call cost less than 50p. It has a full call history and lists of charges with basic and premium line access. I will use my UK sim card calling minutes in UK as normal but for times when i am outside of coverage or out of country I use WePhone through any available wifi. It is also good for calling premium numbers whre inclusive minutes do not apply. Another bonus is that the same account can be used on any device - it just needs an authorisation code. You can even share your account with others to use for calling.

I became a regular watcher of certain Narrowboat Vlogs, using them mostly for information and 'good ideas' that some of the Vloggers have. Everyone will have different reasons for watching or not watching and different Vlogs may appeal in different ways, but I must say that some appear to me as truly awful. I watched 'Cruising the Cut' from day one of his 'productions' right through to early 2020 and found the videos to be a great source of information, most of it well explained. I also liked the explanation of the various shops and places along the canals where one can get 'stocked up' within walking distance. As with all Vlogs it would appear that things have become somewhat boring now and I have had enough of him moaning about road and rail traffic along with other things while he cruises for a couple of hours in between cheese sandwiches. I started to watch 'Minimal List' which in the early days was also a good source of information, particularly of the lesser known parts of the system such as the Basingstoke etc. Now that the Vlog has degenerated into a few minutes of time lapse video, followed by several minutes of both faces in the camera moaning about the day they had, I have given up on them. Next for me came 'Journey with Jono' which I thought was going to be a more informative series about self fit out of a sailaway, but even that failed to materialise and the Vlog went IMHO down the proverbial pan. So now I am on the hunt for a more interesting vlog with good information and without having to sit watching too much of presenters in front of their fancy cameras. I will also avoid anything that contains 'clickbait' dramatic titles detailing events that do not actually happen, also those with squeaky excited 'pretending to be dumb' presenters. So a surfing we will go.....

No doubt the BBC is paying them well. I am just glad I am not a subscriber as I have no interest in financing 'borrowers' at all.

This thread has caused me some concern....actually raised a few questions.... I would like to know if there are any owners out there who use their narrowboats, in what ever way they wish, and have no real worries about batteries. I refer to the people who start engines, switch on lights and other equipment and do not suffer endless problems with power storage or consumption. Reason for the question is that having read many threads I find that as soon as Batteries or more specifically, charging thereof, is mentioned, then the 'posse' fly into action with all manner of 'recommendations' as to what is best. I understand that there are always many ways of doing things and some may suit more than others, similarly there is always room for improvement where necessary. However, I am a firm believer in the 'if it aint broke....' theory. The OP asked a fairly simple question, albeit with added criteria, but it seems he was interested in information as to the viability of improving his set up. It would appear that three pages later, not only was his question and the way he asked it wrong, in fact his entire set up was in question. So back to my question, is there anyone who has a boat that starts and goes, provides adequate lighting and power, all with a simple engine/alternator/battery and maybe solar input set up, all without having to know things like voltages to two decimal places at all stages ?

So...when you exchange/replace your gas bottles do you specify ones that have not had much use of the on/off valve, furthermore, how can you tell that the sup[plier is giving you what you need ? As for the OP electrical issue, problem identified by Tony and others is a faulty Master Switch. There can be no 'tripping' due to any fault of the electrical system when using these 'red key' type of master switches. Whether you choose to leave it on or off is also not the problem - Basically you need a new Master Switch.

Nice idea and description, but I foresee issues with the spot welding of all those cells. Not only were the instructions not clear as to the exact layout and connections, but should one cell fail there would be serious issues in finding the 'dead' one and replacing it. Furthermore, it would be a double loss to go up from12V to 240v then back down to the charge voltage required. Although often unavoidable, it would be beneficial to use items that have a 12v charge supply and cut out the inverter where possible.

IMHO as said by others a 1mm loss over this amount of time doesn't seem too much to worry about. Now if you get it for 30K cash and spend 3K patching up and epoxy coating the hull, you might have yourself a nice boat. My only concern would be staring at the toilet all day.

For those of us who do not subscribe to the BBC and its iPlayer 'thing' There is always good old YouTube - All of the legendary Freds Videos are there for free ? Wonderful watching they are too !

For years on ships we never had any of these fancy non slip deck paints - A bucket of coarse sand worked just as well, sprinkle on and roll in evenly.

Unfortunately we cannot have any more toast as our toaster is now put to other uses.

Do the RYA actually know anything about diesel anyway?

That is where I decided to be kind of 'lost' despite being in the refined and not so refined fuel/energy business since 1975. My son has successfully run the Eberspacher in his old van on a used cooking oil mixture for years - carefully Filtered of course. In fact he has often run the van on it mixed 50:50 with red diesel when things were a bit tight. Apart from getting a bit smoky and needing cleaning a bit more often, the constant smell of bacon and eggs made us feel hungry most of the time. Back to the OP, I suspect that the Bio bit of the diesel used in the boats has resulted in gummed up pump valves more than anything else, just like ethanol builds up a waxy deposit in petrol tanks if not used regularly. An additive would help if the diesel is to stand in the boats unused for a long time. Better still if it is a Hire Fleet, empty the tanks and refill with fresh fuel immediately prior to use.

From your pics, I would suggest this is not 'kids' or petty thieves who had the heavy steel away instead of the easier to nick and possibly more useful wood planks. They would have been more 'fun' to throw in the canal or build a boat with. More likely a stolen to order or 'we need some steel plate' kind of theft maybe?? You could build a deep pit type of trap by covering the exisiting hole with tarp and leaves so they fall in when they come back to nick the second one ? Better still wire it up live to 240v instead.