nick.pritchard

Interesting thought! I usually get told off by ‘er indoors for having such thoughts though. I suppose the zealots in the BSS may find a reason for a fail which stands the test in their own eyes but I honestly don’t know! That said I’ll try to remember to have a look at my BSS training material. I suppose if someone generously filled your waste tank with fuel then the thought of a diesel enema…….. no, stop the visualisation!

It is a ‘fail’ not to have the fuel type marked up! ’Check’ 2.1.2R “Is the fuel in use correctly and clearly marked on, or adjacent to, the fuel filling point“

Could be, i don’t actually know when Vetus stopped using the K4. Try asking Vetus or even Diamond Diesels who may be able to help if you give them the engine serial which is stamped on the block around where the fuel enters the injector pump.

Can’t recall tbh, 1990 or 91 possibly - look on the casting under the injector pump. I’m pretty sure Vetus would have changed build too.it’s cast into the block there. There may be a square plate which carries the manual stop lever if fitted and it’s below that.

Alan, I commented on this a week or so ago. I had one owner who emailed me saying he wouldn’t use me because ‘all I want is a superficial examination of 2hours and a certificate at the end.‘ and ‘last examiner, all I had to do was send him a photo of the corrected item and I received my certificate in the post’. I’ve sent his communications to the BSS! Unfortunately BSS examiners are being seen as one genetic mutation removed from Inland Revenue or VAT inspectors! It’s unfortunate that the new level of checks that have to be worked through should take at least 4 hours and well over an hour to enter to the database. Don’t forget the travel costs and time for that too or owners expecting a free retest. I’ve spent nearly £9,000 to get the registration and that slowly has to be recouped too. I am struggling to get work offering below £200 per examination - which is below the recommended level and to be honest by the time the cost of the BSS certificate, £60, is knocked off that you have to ask if it’s worth it! No business is going to survive long term by the time fuel prices and other overheads such as insurance and annual BSS registration fees (around £650 pa), not forgetting income tax, are taken into account . The temptation for some examiners will be to shorten exams and hope the examination isn’t audited by the BSS & CRT. Perhaps I’m fortunate that I’m trying to build the business while I still have a main income from elsewhere.

Hi Simon, nice to hear from you. Originally I bought hoses from motor factors, they were RH919 & RH1426 made by Quinton Hazell (off the top of my head! So I may be wrong! I can’t remember 5 minutes ago but 25 years is a cinch!) I had my own thermostat housings cast which only required a 90 degree hose but I also had silicon hoses made in South Wales which fitted the standard Mitsubishi stat housing. That may be mixed up actually, it may have been the QH which fitted the Mitsubishi housing.

nick.pritchard@boatserve.co.uk if anyone wants any info on the engines I’ll dredge my memory and try to help

The Boatserve dipstick was taken from a Ford Sierra with the metal section showing the markings removed and a piece of 1/8th nylon fitted with a flat filed on it. the diameter was reduced to wind it into the flexible section. Sorry, I’ve only just come back to ‘canals’ to do BSS exams and resurrect Boatserve after many years in the Oil &Gas industry and saw this by chance. I’d love to hear from owners of any Boatserve FMK engines. FMK stood for Floyd Mitsubishi K series after my dog!

I was told that one of the major reasons the BSS was created was due to a fatality or fatalities aboard a hire boat caused by carbon monoxide. CO can accumulate in a boat not just from appliances within the boat but from neighbouring boats! (CO poisoning is the fifth top cause of boating fatalities in the US) However, to quote the examiner’s training: “ The remit of the BSS is only related to the condition, equipment and use of boats” “The BSS must identify, monitor and develop the minimum safety legal requirements” ”To assist owners to identify and control the risks for which they have responsibility including Carbon monoxide poisoning and electrocution” ”Since 2005 the BSS has adopted a risk based approach and the requirements are driven by incident data” Theres a lot on the BSS site www.boatsafetyscheme.org/stay-safe-advice page

Depends if you are on a river with weirs alongside locks?

Surely if a marina doesn’t require a BSS or insurance and a fire were to break out, I’ve seen the results, then they are being negligent with regard to the ongoing safety of other boats and anybody living aboard in the proximity? They would surely be opening themselves up to litigation in the event of fire or explosion?

Interesting! So legally a marina’s waters must be private and not bound by the rules applying to the canal hence no need for a boat licence or the BSS needed to acquire one?

Spot on MtB. I was being a little conservative on the timings to be honest. A BSS examiner will never get wealthy. I regularly spent 5 or 6 hours examining practice boats before the final examination to become an examiner, that wasn’t because I was a trainee but because of the time required to do the job properly. Yes you can get simple boats without many systems but that isn’t the way the market is going. I’ve heard of guys spending an hour at the boat and asking £100 or so, you take the cost of the certificate off that and it’s not surprising they only want to spend an hour on the boat! On the other hand examining boats for the BSS can generate work for a boatyard to correct faults. The system seems to be tightening up which is why so many ‘old hands’ are giving up, they need to spend time and money being trained on the new checks and the they are finding their existing customers don’t want to pay increased fees.

BSS fees do seem to be a contentious issue! Newly qualified examiners will have studied an extended set of checks which are to be applied to boats. It will have cost nearly £10,000 pounds to get to the point of carrying out their first examination for a customer including the training materials, attended courses which require 5 or 6 nights hotel or other lodgings. Public liability and Indemnity insurances add several hundred to the annual cost of maintaining registration. An examination can easily take four hours or more to carry out on site plus administration time entering the results onto the BSS web site which costs the examiner a further £60 which has to be added to costs. if someone is doing BSS examinations for £170 including the registration of the pass while spending a total of perhaps 4 hours needed to carry out a full exam correctly, maybe an hour to write up the reports plus perhaps an hour (or two) making a return trip plus fuel costs then perhaps they feel that they are busy fools and are quite right to feel it is not a viable operation.

Boaters like Captain Jacks was one of the reasons I got out of the ‘leisure industry’ - expect you to go out on a Sunday morning, lug a battery down the towpath to get the engine started then expect you to accept their profound thanks, a cup of tea and a slice of fruit cake. 1 it isn’t my leisure time 2 I can’t afford a boat