AlanH

Mine last month was £130

The original post had the description "Bw are on the ball!" implying that BW had failed to register C&RT with the Charities Commission and this was typical of their actions. It turns out that C&RT does not yet exist and so could not register. What the hell this has to do with BW I don't know. The OP is not on the ball at all! I agree with Carl. Phrases like "Boat owners feel" and "We also feel" definitely imply that all boat owners agree with him. If he had said "Some boat owners" instead then your argument would be valid. I am a boat owner and I refuse to bash C&RT until I have experienced their control of the waterways for a reasonable time. I sincerely hope that it works well but there wil be those who will pick up on any minor problem and whinge about it.

Neither am I. What gives the OP the idea that he can speak for all boat owners? He was just looking for something to bash BW/C&RT with and has been proved to be jumping the gun. The sarcastic topic description of "BW are on the ball!" applies more to him in this case.

01484 is correct. He has been there for donkey's years a I expect he has never bothered to change it.

What do you havee to carry? We have enough stuff on the boat for a weekend. Obviously we have to stock up on things like dog food/tea/sugar now and again and we have to carry clean clothes/washing but that is all in one small bag along with the milk.

I know Malcolm Bergin. He is a nice guy and a pretty good guitarist as well. I can't comment on the quality of his shells.

Another disadventage is that you can't keep loads of your personal stuff on the boat. If we go to the boat for a weekend we take some milk and that is all. We don't have to pack clothes, food, towels, dog food, tools, etc. This is a minor inconvenience but should be considered.

We pay 14p per unit and 25p per day for connection.

Thanks.

I haven't read the previous threads on this subject so perhaps you could help me. What effect would a voltage drop of 1.5v have on the actual charging of the battery? Would it not charge at all? Would it take longer? Would it only partly charge it? Would it damage the battery? I genuinely don't know and as you seem to have the knowledge and are capable of posting without insults I'd be grateful for the help.

More stupid sarcasm! Why do you have to be insulting?

If you are charging from an running alternator the voltage at that end will be some 14v. You would need a very long length of say 5mm cable to lose 2v. I'd agree that reasonably thick cable should be used but it does not need to be as thick as jump leads.

OK There may well be some voltage drop in long cables but for instance the run from my battery to the fridge is some 25ft. The cable running this length is about 3mm thick to compensate for this not the 12mm dia of my jump leads. What I am saying is that there is no need for proprietry jump leads but thinner cable would do the job. The reason that Jump leads are so thick is not to compensate for voltage drop but to take the high currents encountered when strarting an engine. I have a pair of jump leads at home which are 12mm thick and only 6 feet long. Are you saying that the reason for this thickness is to compensate for voltage drop? That distance is less than the distance to the reversing sensors on the car from the battery and they have tiny leads.

Why the stupid sarcasm? My battery charger has leads that are less than 3mm thick. They are capable of charging at 20 amps. OK they are shorter but losses due to cable length are not that great.

Surely you wouldn't need anything as thick as jump leads? They are designed to take engine starting currents not charging ones.

The Website does say this: "Our new C and L Value battery charger is an intelligent 3 stage 20A leisure battery charger and is suitable for both Gel and lead acid batteries." However, the data sheet Mentions lead acid only. What is the difference?

Just got one of these and it seems to work fine. Less than half the price of a Victron 20A charger.

I'd go along with that. Had no trouble at all in five years with our dump through.

You can't use them whilst travelling around our way anyhow. They won't go under the bridges and you can't see out of them to steer when it is raining because they have no solid screen/wipers. I suppose they are OK if you rarely travel and need the covered space.

If it has an oil level indicator then it must have an oil level therefore it is highly likely to be four stroke.

Thanks for the replies. What I can't understand is that if there is a fault then why doesn't the RCD trip out immediately instead of taking more than a day?

We've just got shore power on our moorings. I bought a cable, a battery charger and a GI and plugged it in. Nothing happened. I discovered that the input socket on the boat had been disconnected. I wondered why but thought that I would re-connect it and see what happened. All seemed to work fine. All the sockets worked. I left the boat plugged in but when I came back to it the following weekend the boat (Not the shoreline) trip switch had tripped. I then left the boat connected with nothing plugged in and the same thing happened. This was after a day with a lamp plugged in and working. In my view it is unlikely that there is a wiring fault as the trip would fail immediately if there was a short circuit etc. What could be the problem?

And you sleep over millions of gallons of dirty ditch water Weils disease and all. No doubt you enjoy carrying and slopping poo to a disgusting Elsan point. Each to his own I suppose.

According to my car computer my average speed is more like 22mph which would give a figure of 132,000 miles. Not an awful lot for a modern engine. Most diesel car engines are good for at least 200,000 miles and, as you say, they sre not engineered for the amount of work expected from an industrial engine.