AlanH

You are being a bit pessimistic there. I had nine people interested enough in my Springer Waterbug to visit and I sold it within three weeks of first advertising it on Appollo Duck last Nov. In six years I lost £1,250 on it.

I don't think there is one on the net but I got one from Harefield Marina at a reasonable price. http://www.harefieldmarina.co.uk/

You could try TW marine at Furness vale - only 20 miles or so. They are gearbox experts but I'm not sure that they will cover TMP. http://www.twmarine.co.uk/gearboxe.htm

My 42' boat has the stove at the front, bedroom at the back and no partitions. The only bit that gets really cold is the bathroom where the door is usually shut and the window open but leaving the door open soon warms it up. We don't like warm bedrooms anyway but ours is usually warm enough an hour or so after lighting the fire. Our problem these days is keeping the boat cool enough when the fire is going. Last Sat we were sat with the front doors half open and the fire shut right down. We have a catalytic gas heater (illegal to fit one now I believe) opposite the bed but we have never used it. Ecofan is a waste of money. I've put a joss stick in front of ours and the smoke goes straight up. We had a pipe smoking friend on board and his smoke just hung around with no sign of circulating. I think that those who claim a benefit from them are merely trying to justify the expense of buying one. How on earth can a motor rated at 10mA produce enough power to circulate air throughout a boat?

It is coming from the PRV outlet which is connected to nothing at all. This may well be the cause of the problem. If I can find the appropriate fitting to screw into it I'll fix up a tube to run it to the outside somehow.

I'd like to have a dry bilge but I can't find the source of the water which accumulates in it. I dried the bilge out, left the boat for a week during which it did not rain (cruiser stern) and returned to it to find it still dry. I took the boat out for a couple of hours and when I came back there was about a Pint of water in the bottom. The stern gland doesn't drip when in or out of gear. The weed hatch doesn't leak when in forward or reverse. I'm not losing any engine coolant. The only thing that I can see is the relief valve on the calorifier which seems to drip when the engine has been running for a bit. Is it reasonable to expect a pint or so's expansion from the calorifier in a couple of hours? If so I'll fit a tube to it and run it to a container of some sort. If not I'll have to look at replacing it - not an easy job as it is right against the steps down to the cabin.

Don't know much about Isuzu but I've found Beta Marine to be extremely helpful when seeking advice or ordering spares.

I'd agree that it is unsuitable for lining out. My boat is lined with T&G/Ply but all the bulkheads and furniture is MDF - well i think it is High Density Fibreboard. Still fine after 13 years with no damage from damp etc. I'd agree that it is unsuitable for lining out. My boat is lined with T&G/Ply but all the bulkheads and furniture is MDF - well i think it is High Density Fibreboard. Still fine after 13 years with no damage from damp etc.

Thanks all. A refurbished drive plate from TW Marine seems to have cured it.

Thanks for that all. I hadn't thought about the drive plate. I'll investigate

Thanks for that. I think the clutch plates are OK - I was told by an expert that the time to worry about the Hurth box was when it went into gear without a clunk. Mine clunks well. The gearbox has only done about 1000 hours I think. Maybe it is something I'll have to get used to. I can ignore it if I don't think it is doing any damage.

ATF level is fine. Nothing on the prop or Aquadive that I can find. Engine mountings fine. I've checked the cable and tried jiggling the arm. What confuses me is that it only happens after I've been in gear for a while. I can get the engine warm out of gear and it doesn't happen. If it was the bendix then I'd expect it happen all the time. It is that kind of sound however. The fact that it disappears when in gear tends to make me think it is a gearbox problem but as I said it seems to come from the other end. The timing is gear driven I think but if it was that I can't see why it would stop when a gear was selected.

When I've been cruising for half an hour or so I get a noise that sounds like two gear wheels just touching but not engaging when I'm in neutral. This doesn't happen if I run the engine in neutral for an hour or even two from cold only after It has been in gear for a while. It disappears as soon as I select forward or reverse but returns on selecting neutral. It is not desperately loud but I find it worrying. When I get down near the engine it actually sound to be coming from the other end of the engine from the gearbox but I could be wrong. Hurth 100 gearbox on a Kubota 3cyl engine. Any Ideas?

Take a look at http://www.tb-training.co.uk/10sgear.htm

Surely this will only happen if the flue is blocked. It is much more likely to let air in and thus make the stove less controllable.

have a look at http://www.stove-glass.com/index.html

Ecofan in Canada won't sell spares. I tried to get a new motor when the shaft got bent and they wouldn't sell me one. They would only refurbish it if I sent it back. However I found a suitable motor on the net and put that in. Not that the Ecofan does anything other than entertain me in my opinion.

Must be about 6 or 7 years ago when a boat broke loose from outside your premises (I think before you were there), went over the weir, got jammed under a bridge and sank. Unfortunately the owner had just changed insurers and even though the new insurers had cashed his cheque they would not pay out. The £10,000 he got for the wreck just about paid for the recovery of the boat. I notice that on Radio 4 the river Colne in Huddersfield was said to be in a dasngerous state.

I don't understand how solid fuel stoves can produce CO in the boat. I've read threads about this happening. Particularly one caused by a cracked glass. In a domestic situation one can have ones solid fuel stove doors open or even an open fire and provided the flue is not blocked all is OK. Our stove (God knows what make but cheap looking) has a hole in the glass - about 10x5x5mm in one corner, the door doesn't seal well and it is on a 100mm flue but the CO monitor has never gone off. Can someone explain the circumstances which cause a stove to produce CO in the cabin? A blocked flue or a constant severe down draught when the fire is nearly out I can understand but I would have thought that any leaks in the door/glass would cause an ingress of air due to the pull of the flue rather than an expulsion of CO.

I use one of those small radio transmitters plugged into the headphone socket. It works well. You just tune the radio into the correct frequency. This Kind of thing - http://www.shoppingcentre.net/shop/ipod-tr...CFQJrMAodbnlOAA although mine charges from a cigar lighter. I got mine from Comet. We also use it on the iPod and the laptop

Just had one made by http://www.coverit.co.uk/ - excellent service but possibly a bit far away from the Midlands

OK. What I should have said is that it must be more efficient than using a proprietary inverter to convert 12v DC into 240v AC and then using the laptop's power supply to convert it back to 19v. Anyway I've ordered one

http://info.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?TabID...O&U=Strat15 Just seen this offer from Maplin. Looks like a good buy. It must be more efficient than using an inverter and it seeems cheap enough

Ok, thanks. Maybe it is me. My last boat would go much slower at Idle speeds. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Our local man charges £25. He is excellent but I don't know how far he will travel and how much he charges for travelling time. He has been around for a long time and has no need to advertise as far as I know.