Thames Bhaji

I think if an inverter has a 13a socket then a) this would be the only way to connect to it and b) its output would be limited to 13a anyway (or a multiple of 13a depending on how many sockets in it).

Hi @Blu Marlin - I’ve just sent you a message.

Yes. It may well make it too expensive for me although I could take nearly 1000l at a time. I’ll wait to see how the fuel cost compares to boxes when the time comes. I’d pay a bit more for bulk delivery because it would save the bother / waste of processing all the box packaging.

A year ago it was £35 per box (for 24 boxes) inc vat, so around £1.73 per litre. They said “…an indicative HVO price is 1.75 per litre plus VAT, our call out fee is usually circa 100 pounds. Our vehicles have a petrol pump style nozzle and a 20m hose so as long we can get within that range we should be ok.”

I have been having 20l boxes of red HVO delivered by New Era as the only viable option I could find, and because I wanted to try it. It didn’t seem that much more expensive than other ways of getting HVO to be honest. It’s been great in the engine and pressure jet boiler. Recently I came across ‘Shell Tapup’ who say they will deliver bulk red HVO into a boat tank. I plan to put it to the test when possible. They have a £100 call out charge, so I’d want both tanks to be damn near empty!

I might have missed something here, but it looks like the boat is in the water and if you remove those 2 bolts to let the leg drop into the tube there’s nothing keeping the water out anymore is there? You should be able to remove the prop from the leg through that hatch using a Philips screwdriver - it’s tricky but can be done. I’ve done mine at full arms-length while in the water so via that hatch would be luxurious! If you can do that you’d be able to tell whether the gears in the leg have gone, or whether the prop is free-spinning on its spindle for some reason. If it’s like the one in the photo then I don’t think the pin would shear as it’s steel. It might shred the plastic of the propeller until it spins freely, or if the prop has been able to come forward from its proper position then I think the pin wouldn’t be engaged anymore.

I replaced the controls on both my Tecmas because I wanted to have more control, as others have said. Initially just 2 buttons as above, water and pump. But while that worked for me, guests often pumped without enough water leaving things high and dry (as it were), which is the reason for the original control of course. I now have one button just for water fill, while the second button does water at the same time as pulsing the macerator approx 1/2 second on, 1/2 second off. I find this covers all bases - the rate of water flow matches the speed of ‘taking away’, keeping everything moving nicely and without using more water than necessary. I used a mix of 24v timer relay, normal 24v relay for the solenoid valve, and high current solid-state dc relay for the macerator.

I have a pair of PSS on Lyra. Just a couple of things to add… - Although the carbon is kind of self-lubricating, they definitely need to be wet. You need to make sure there is a good enough supply of water behind them to prevent overheating. - I have always released the stainless rotor and slid it along when I’ve needed to pull the shaft back or forwards. It’s easy enough, and if it has stuck after many years I think a few taps with a wooden block would get it moving.

I hope it goes well. We chose Reeves in 2006 to build a Dutch barge style widebeam to our own design. It wasn’t something they had done before and there were a few frustrations along the way for both sides… but they did a brilliant job and we are still delighted with the result. I’m not sure which of the brothers are still involved in the company now.

I like that. Wish I’d thought of it 17 years ago.

I’m sure they will put something in motion at their convenience.

Yes, I’ve realised in the 17 years since that some frown on the nail gun method. The saving grace might be that since it was quick I put in twice as many nails as I would screws, and if a couple go then floor still isn’t going anywhere. We’ll see, no problems so far.

Morning. When I did ours I hired a nail gun for the day which saves a lot of drilling steel. The type of gun with explosive caps on the nails… it was quite fun!

Have you looked at a Victron GX device (such as cerbo)? It’s probably overkill if this is all you need to do, but I love mine for everything it gives me.

I’m doing something similar at the moment. The higher DC currents involved would likely kill the thermostat on a mains heater. I’m planning to switch mine with a solid state DC relay which can handle the current (and hopefully the repeated switching).

OK, so power = V squared over R. If you halve the voltage, you’ll have quarter the power.

There’s a bit more to the calculation to find what power you will get at different voltages. First find the fixed resistance of the heater (ohms) which is the existing voltage divided the current at that voltage (the current being power divided by voltage). Then find the current you would get with a new voltage, using ‘new voltage’ divided by the resistance from above. Once you know the current, you can multiply it by ‘new voltage’ to give the new power output you will get at that voltage. I think I’ve stated that right?

This all makes me think of push-bikes on roads. It’s very easy to mince a cyclist with a car, and it often happens. And some people do stupid and dangerous things on bikes (and post it on YouTube I’m sure). There are also some car drivers who aren’t as considerate to cyclists as they could be. In my experience the great majority of boaters and paddleboarders (many of whom do both) have a good understanding of each other and share waterways very cordially. Although my experience is limited to the Thames admittedly…

That would be the perfect place for my map of Thames made to look like a tube map…

Just for balance… we’ve now got a total of 5 paddle boards on our boat which we use on the Thames every summer. They’re all inflatable but once inflated very similar to rigid (as has been mentioned). I always just call them SUPs. We also have kayaks, but we all much prefer being out on SUPs now - nothing about looking cool, there’s just something nice about standing up. It’s a bit like going for a long walk but on the river, using different muscles, and using a bit of skill (its actually very easy). I never really saw the attraction until I tried it.

Victron (and probably others) give a recommended minimum battery capacity for each of the their inverters. You can find this in the installation guides which are all on their website. Along with sufficiently sized cables, this is in part to minimise DC ripple when higher loads are applied, which I believe inverters don’t like very much.

I hope the OP doesn’t mind me asking a related question, since we have an ex refrigeration engineer in the room 😊 Given X% of compressor ‘on’ time, is it more efficient for it to run for longer or shorter spells? Eg 5 mins on / 15 mins off, or 15 mins on / 45 mins off? I’ve been playing with replacement temperature controls on my basic 230v fridge on the boat and will be able to make the hysteresis whatever I want. Obviously I don’t want the food temperature to swing too wildly, or for it to be switching every minute, but have been wondering whether there is a sweet spot for efficiency.

Indeed, I was mainly being flippant. It depends what you enjoy most. I’m someone with a design engineering background who doesn’t work in design engineering anymore, and aside from the joy of boating itself, my boat is an outlet for my penchant for trying new things / re-engineering stuff / modifying things to see if I can make them better.

I like this… if the criticism of bow thrusters is that they are expensive, need maintaining, go wrong and you can do without them, that nicely sums up a boat 😊

You have the same volume of water being pushed down either one or two pipes at a time - if it’s going down one it will be going twice as fast.