Radiomariner
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Posts posted by Radiomariner
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I just install what they tell me to install. Recently passed the Boat Safety with 3x2Kg powder (ABC) extinguishers for a 60' trad. Plus fire blanket.
Other markings read - 13A 70B C . ??
Ideal, and commendable but above the minimum requirement. Were you told that is what was necessary?
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Reasonably priced fire extinguishers at BES Link below
The last three all appear to be suitable for boats, in that the certification and ratings, by the write up, seem to be within BSS Requirements.
They are not all Dry Powder.
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I have seen a bed under a tug deck, but it would be pulled out on a rail for sleeping. Under deck area was lined nicely with cupboards each side which protruded into cabin to make bedside cabinets when the bed was pulled out. When pushed in steps were clipped ont foot of bed to meke entrance on to tug deck. Only complaind from owner was onece they did not shut doors properly and they got pillows soaked after a heavy shower. I think they modified the door cill after that
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I agree. Filling too fast rather than too much. Especially with flushing oil which will have a much lower viscosity which like Heinekin reaches parts no other oil reaches!
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To be absolutely pedantic it is "Saxon" not Englishman, and the equivalent of Sassenach.
I think that Sassenach translates to "low-lander" which includes Scots living in the low middle area of Scotland. However, should a Scot living in the lowlands use the term, he means "Englishman" (and generally derogatory)
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When this topic came up before someone suggested turning fridge up to maximum (coldest setting) when engine running and batteries charging or fully charged and turn to a lower setting for when engine stopped. Didn't work for me on account of bad memory. Fridge left on high overnight from 4pm until 10:30am had extremely detrimental effect on batteries over only a couple of days. But, if you get into a routine it could work.
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Yes, Carlt. You are quite right. "Travelling Man"
Senility creeping in here?
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I seem to recall weeks and weeks of cruising and never a lock!
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For doing up batt nuts a plastic handled T-bar with a socket on it might work better than a spanner, easy to slip some tubing over the shaft to insulate it.
cheers, Pete.
~smpt~
Agree, but....
If you keep that tool loose in a toolbag/box with other tools always check that insulating sleeve before using again.
Another warning here. Working on 24V batteries with a spanner I was aware that if spanner slipped it would short circuit a battery, inserted other hand between spanner end and other terminal. Forgot wedding ring. Ring melted, nearly lost finger.
Jewelry of course should be removed, not just fingers rungs and wrist bangles, but dangling chain wear around the neck. Never seen accident this way with electricity but have seen quite a few St Christopher medalion or Crusafix shaped scars from neckwear contacting hot steam or exhaust lines when the worker bends over and comes in contact with flesh when he straightens up.
Ow gawd Alan, shut up I'm beginning to sound like a elvin saftey erk!!!! No more!!!
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Heavily sulphated batteries can act s bit like a capacitor and appear to charge up to charging supply voltage very quickly without adding much if anything to the batteries.
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I paid £1550 for a 12/3000/1209 Victron Combi in August. This was a special price as my 5 year old one was unrepairable. That was from Onboard Energy I didn't but the original from them so they didn't owe me any favours so would assume they didn't sell it at a loss. They didn't keep the old one so there were no spares to salvage. Although, of course, Victron might have chipped in.
Regards
Pete
I think the OP and other readers might be interested to know why your 5 year old one failed and was unrepairable.
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Good advice would be to put insulation over the handle of the spanner. Maplin sell 1000v insulated screwdrivers but for 12 or 24v you could use gaffer tape or the finger off a rubber glove. cover the spanner right to the end. Look in B&Q for an insulated adjustable spanner. When near live contacts cover all rings and remove all jewellery
Good advice, yes, but....
After job done, remove the temproary insulation. I would rather use a tool that I know is not insulated than rely on the insulation of one that is damaged. The next job for the insulated tool may be at much higher voltage!
I say this from experience, a properly insulated electricians pliers rated at 2000V very slightly damaged from being kept in a toolbox along with other tools with sharp edges, gave a real nasty hospitallisation shock to a workmate of mine, many years ago. Since then I always rigorously inspect insulated tools for damage to insulation and throw them out if suspect.
Sometimes the insulation can be removed and the tool still used for non electrical work.
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Didn't you know???? Only the Welsh step on other peoples boats.
The No Entry signs are in English you see
Where as us Scots just don't bother to read at all. And put on a Welsh accent
Yes, I perfected my Welsh accent by living in India for two years! -
I lived in South Wales for 8 years, and visited North Wales plenty of times. Welsh is spoken in the valleys in the South, quite widely, but not as a 'first language' apart from some small villages. My son goes to a Welsh school, but only uses Welsh in school. In the South I have not come across this 'language switch', but on a few occassions I did encounter it 'up north'. But then again, as soon as they realised that I was not a 'sais', they were good.
To balance, the English were not always as complementary as they might have been, when I pulled up in a truck with a Welsh address, and a (slight)Welsh accent..
Ohh, and 'sais' bashing is not just a Welsh national sport. The Celts from the North also indulge..
Hey don't bring the Scots and Picts into this. They are quite prepared to insult the English in the English language. They have the sense to realize that the damned sasenachs would not know they were being insulted if they spoke in the Gaelic!
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How do you cope with a long line of moored boats, all with their aerials, chimney, boat pole, junk etc on the roof?
This will annoy someone on another thread! You clamber on board the moored boats and pass the tow over or around the obstructions!
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Oh dear. Opened this thread by mistake, in senior moment I thought of "Keel Haul" and looked forward to and interesting thread!
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The grumpy house owners at Giffard Park reported me to BW for running my engine from 7pm till 11pm every night. I didn't get home from work till 8.45pm each evening as it's one git of a commute to London from there. The house owners couldn't see the boat in from of mine behind the bushes so assumed it was mine. I found out they'd reported me because they decided to procrastinate the errors of my ways to me one afternoon - BW certainly didn't care enough to come and give me a ticket and were probably sick of their complaints. When I pointed out the boat in front of mine to them and the fact I'm not even home at the time they say the engine starts each night, they didn't give an apology, just ranted more about the fact they don't want boaters mooring on the canal near their house. Guess which came first?
some people are arses.And as for boaters reporting other boaters.... One or more of the boaters who live aboard on some non residential offside moorings at the Tring Summit Level have been known to forget they're breaking regulations themselves, and report boaters on the towpath side for overstaying, running their engine till 8.02pm....
Live and let live,I say. Life's too short for all this resentment. It'll only give em a well deserved aneurism later in life.
A house owner just North of Giffard Park (About 50 to 70 yards North of the Pub) is frequently bothersome. On one particular occasion I moored up just to take some rubbish to the rubbish point, left the engine running as I was only going to be a couple of minutes. As I stepped off the boat with my rubbiish bags, houseowner stormed up to tell me that I am not permitted to run my engine while moored there. "It was bad enough" she said "with boats passing all day, without me mooring up with engine running outside her house!"
BSP I think we have the same person.
She went on on another occasion about mooring up at night where it was possible to see into her upstair bedrooms
Why in heck buy a house by the canal if you cant accept presence of the boats?
About the same distance South of the pub, there is a lady who lets her dog out after dark every night to do it's business on the tow path. As I was walking my dogs back to the boat at the time she did not realise I was a boater. I offered her a "poo bag" to pick up. Her response, "No, I just leave it, helps keeps the boaters from mooring". Thouth fuming inside I resisted the temptation to Rant. I just instead, spoke to the dogs in a loud voice "Back to the boat now, you two" I hoped that might shame her a bit, but she did not "pick up"
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I find it very odd that the people who complain about being ticketed seem to claim the morale high ground as if they are being wronged. I agree that if they are being accused of rule breaches without evidence CRT need to be told but these boaters do accept they have overstayed. I also don't think it is up to boaters to police the system by asking others to move on as they cannot know the situation. For example, in January I arrived in Oxford to find the Thames on red boards and gave CRT a call asking if I could wait on the 24 hr mooring and gave them my mobile number to call should they need me to move. I stayed for 3 weeks with no problem. Next to me was another boater who I got to know and one morning he was complaining that CRT had given him a ticket. I asked if he'd called them and he told that it was not for overstaying but for not having a licence. I pointed out this seemed fair and his reply was that CRT wouldn't issue him a licence as his boat had failed the BSS and he couldn't afford to get the work done. He seemed to think CRT were being unreasonable.
I agree.
A couple of years the owner of a boat I failed claimed that he was overstaying on his moorings so that the BSS examiner would know where to come to! I heard all about how unfairly he had been treated, being forced to move on, when I went back to him (at a different location). He wanted me to write a complaint to BW as it was me that was inconvienced most. In fact the new location was a shorter journey and much easier to get to. I was glad that he easily passed the failed points and I could get away from a constant tirade of moans.
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Fill it full of water to push out any gas?
Excellent suggestion. Fill the tank up intil the water flows out of the gas locker drains.Leave it for a while with the water level to the bottom of the drain holes, to allow all gas now in the locker to escape outside the boat before draining out the water prior to welding.
Edited to add: - I also sugguest you buy borrow or hire a "explosive gas" detector to check before welding.
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below the gas locker is a redundant and sealed off water tank
Thanks to radiomariner for your very full answer, I fully endorse what you are saying but I think what I am saying is that testing standards seem to be very varied. What one examiner accepts as safe another will fail so it is very difficult for a normal owner who has the boat passed and assumes that all is well only to have a list of different problems the following test, all of which were looked at a passed previously, sometimes by several different engineers.
Redundant or not that sealed off water tank is a gas trap.
The BSS really do try to standardise all checks. That is why it is in the form of box ticking rather than expressing opinions as say a surveyor would. However, I think that although,most examiners stick stringently to the exact requirements and fail a boat where there is doubt, as they should do (Examiners can phone the office for advice on such matters), I suspect others, where there is doubt, possibly, having some sympathy for the owner, may wrongfully rationalise a bit. Also, like the case of a hole in the gas locker, defects can go unseen.
Not being permitted to examine my own boat, I know which type examiner I prefer, the former one, who sticks to the book, beyond doubt.
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I have been told unofficially that if the glass fibre route is taken and the inspector is not totally sure that it has been repaired in this way that he can pass it. So, as you say, it is gas tight and completely safe and if it had been done 3 weeks ago and tested it would have been totally OK. Now it is suddenly unacceptable.
4 years ago when I had my boat examined I had to move the cooker in the presence of the engineer
only to find that there were not sufficient clamps holding the gas pipes and I had to spend ages finding ways to attach clamps to the metal hull. The other thing was that my fuel filters had plastic drain plugs which had to be replaced with metal ones.
Fair enough but my boat has been tested and passed on at least 4 previous occasions without comment and it now 27 years old without any great disaster befalling it because of these items.
At the same time the need for exhausts to be lagged has been dropped, has anybody accidentally put a hand on a hot exhaust, it burns and it can scar, that is a real risk to health and you would be crazy not to have an exhaust lagged but not as far as the BSS is concerned
On the first point.for many years a hole in the gas locker that can leak into the boat interior has been a BSS failure. It was a failure also to have inadequate repairs to the locker. It is difficult to always determine the effectiveness of a repair, especially when cylinders are in the locker. It has come to light that many boats have heavily corroded or damaged lockers. The BSS change introduced in January is not a change in the requirements but a change in the checking procedure. The examiner has to examine the locker more carefully and if necessary ask for the bottles to be removed for him to do so. Bolted on or glued on patches have been unacceptable since at least 2002.
Regarding your fuel filters. If fitted in the engine space these as well as hoses have to meet flame resistance requirements, 2.5 minutes at a temp. of 600degC. Plastic screws at the base of many filters do not meet this requirement.This too has been a requirement for a long time. Gas pipes of course should be secure wherever they are, but I must add that there is no requirement for them to be secured to the steel hull.
The old requirement for lagging was not so much for protection to persons but to reduce fire risk to nearby combustables, one of which could be leaking or sprayed fuel. This had been discussed at great depth. Lagging on an exhaust pipe is of little protection against leaking fuel, and as there is another requirement for examiners to check nearby combustables for signs of heating, it has been dropped. The BSS advice on the subject is to lag exhausts where personell can come into accidental contact. Incidentally where exhaust pipes pass close to weed hatches I would personally recommend lagging. One thing for sure, when you want to get into that weed hatch in a hurry the pipe will still be hot!
Edited for typo's
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To be fair to the disgruntled boater, it is
probablepossible that having being rudely awakened, he was not aware of the seriousness of the situation.Edited to add: but I doubt it.
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Fire fighting is best left to the proffessionals. Insurance deals with the aftermath.
Exactly. The BSS requirments are for Inland waterways, where in general, evacuating a vessel is always a practicality. However, ships and seagoing boats do not have such luxury hence the reason "Cheese Please" and myself attended such courses.
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We have an all electric boat, electric propulsion, electric underfloor heating, induction hob and grill/oven/microwave. Whilst we have no requirement for a co2 extinguisher we do keep a 2kg one to hand near genset, inverter and motor. A WORD OF WARNING, as demonstrated by fire fighting training in the RN, a co2 extinguisher used on an oil fire can easily scatter burning liquid in many directions leading to multiple fires.
I was going to mention this, but decided that nobody would be daft enough to do that. But you are right, I have seen such a demonstration. Burning oil scattered everywhere, so it was then demonstrated that the extinguisher user's attention was immediately diverted and forgot to turn off the gas, the original heat source, which he could not get to until the flames were reduced. The pan re-ignited by which time the extinguisher was empty. This was demonestrated by a very agile firefighter and us watchers had to highlight all his intended mistakes, The prime thing of course was to switch the gas off at source, even if it did take a little longer, and the next thing was "re-assess the situation" after that.
Yes, I perfected my Welsh accent by living in India for two years!
some people are arses.
Fire Extinguisher requirement for canal boats
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
I dont wish to go into this again. CO2 is not recommended for use in a confined space. OK for an engine bay if the gas can be contained. Neither should it be stowed in confined living space.
For those of you that do have CO2 extinguishers you may do well to check that it is not one of these:
https://pro.boatsafetyscheme.com/media/135796/total%20co2%20pfe%20safety%20alert%20(11-004_newsletter)%20jul%2011.pdf