Radiomariner

My daughter has mooring in Barby Marina. She has electricity, water, internet cable connection. a fenced off plot of land (lawn) and a shed. The photo's in earlier posts do make it seem a little bleak. That is deceptive because most of the marina is hidden from view from the cut. There is an island within the marina with grazing alpaca's. It is a short walk to the Sports Club bar which is pleasant and thare is a pub in Barby not very far away. Security appears to be good. (entrance gate always closed} and every time I have visited by car someone always appears, to enquire who you are. Development progress is a little slow, but steady. My daughter and her partner are extremely happy there. Edited to add: - forgot to add she also has free pump out facilities.

Not fallen in, but accidentally jumped in. Lesson learned:- Never jump ashore holding a mooring line without checking that there is sufficient slack in the line! SWMBO on the other hand has lots of experience in this subject. I would never tell her this, but on each occasion it was quite an hilariously event!

As a "live aboard" or "residential" boat if you fit only a test point, for your BSS examination you will have to find a BSS Examiner who is also GSIUR registered.(or arrange for a registered fitter to attend at the same time as the BSS examiner.) With a bubble tester installed in the gas locker any BSS qualified examiner can inspect your system. (Removing the test point screw is considered to be 'work' and work on a residential gas system requires GSIUR registration) As an BSS examiner I find quite a lot of dodgy gas installations, most have been done DIY but some unfortunately done by what the owner claims to be a 'qualified gas fitter'. Also, owners often carry out their own 'modifications'. As suggested by others I think you should get a GSUIR fitter with endorsements for LPG, Boats and cookers. Also insist that they also install a bubble tester, which is recommended by the BSS as it allows boaters to check for gas leaks on a regular basis without endangering themselves. Some fitters argue that this is not necessary, stick to your guns and insist. BTW the testing time for bubble testers has recently been increased to 60 seconds This has effectively improved their reliability. I

Nearby boater turned up volume of his "Rap music" to drown out generator noise from nearby boat!!!

All BSS examiners are trained and examined in the use of manometers.(by Gas Safe) But boat examiners are not all gas engineers and otherwise have very little need to measure pressure. Dangerous pressure related problems are detectable by observing gas burner flames There has been a recent change in the test using bubble testers. The test time has been increased from 20 seconds to sixty seconds. Since that change I have failed three boats that would have passed before the change. As I mentioned above the test period HAS been changed BSS examiners main concern is about the system being leak free. The bubble tester indicates gas flow when there should not be any flow i.e. a leak There is no need to check the pressure. A serious regulator defect shows itself in other checks. BSS promote bubble testers because boat owners have a facility to check tightness for themselves without risk. An earlier post mentioned that gas leaked through a cracked glass in the bubble tester. The observation chamber is by-passed when the device is not being operated. There was probably further reason for this to happen. As for the OP the "Gas-Fuse" as I understand shuts off gas in the case of catastrophic leak, NOT the slow leak that gradually fills the boat bilges with gas. It is "as well as" rather than "instead of"

Exhaust manifolds and pipes can be, no, usually are hot enough. In the case I mentioned earlier the cabin was full of vapour because they had been steam cleaning the bilge. Of course on the subject of wrong substance in the tank, it could just as well have been petroleum in the sewage tank!

That is a very dangerous thought. Diesel vapour is extremely flammable. A VLCC I was on had the engine room completely gutted when diesel came in contact with a steam pipe. It took about 15 seconds for the fire to reach a height of about 30 feet. Two people nearly died. They were rescued by some very brave crew wearing BA sets climbing down a lift shaft to a position below the fire seat. The fire was only extinguished by flooding the engine room with CO2. With no engine the ship swung around on anchor and went aground It was (and still is) a nightmare of mine. I remember the fear I felt when closing the engine room vents which actually belched flames as well as heavy black smoke. We held back on the CO2 until we heard that the missing two were rescued. T'was very scary Dont ever be complacent about leaked diesel. Does not ignite as easily as petrol, but when it does its as bad if not worse. edited to add: It was also scary being aground n rocks with a cargo of 300000 tonnes of Arabian Light Crude. The only tug available was far to small to pull us off, but was employed to keep us on the rocks to avoid further damage. In the two days before help arrived we had rewired and plumbed pneumatic control system to get the auxilary boiler going which gave us enough steam pressure to run the low pressure turbine and we got ourselves off the rocks.

Dunno, such detail was not kept. Besides, the question should be, How many dangerous occurrences were there? The only one I heard about was a sewage tank being filled with diesel, where the cleaning out caused the boat interior to have aconsiderable amount of diesel in the bilges (Mixed with sewage) and a lot of fuel vapour in the cabin, because very hot water had been used to clean out. This was a story related to me by another boater some years ago. There is always a hero in such stories, and in this case the hero was the guy who prevented the distraught owner from lighting up a fag!

Oh dear, I am sorry if you feel "Patronised" by the BSS. Do you also feel patronised by the licensing authorities who charge you more than ten times more a year than for the BSS just to have your boat in the water where it belongs! You obviously misunderstand the concept of BSS. Labels, of any type are there not for the owner who presumably knows his boat, (and I have met quite a few who don't) but are most obviously for people who do not know the boat. It is quite conceivable that on occasion this may happen. BSS don't give a fig if you damage your engine by putting the wrong fuel in the tanks. Further checks include checks whether the tanks and hoses etc. are all suitable for the fuel in use. Hoses and tanks suitable for diesel are not automatically suitable for petrol. The overall concern is that your boat becomes a dangerous hazard. Another poster said they tear any such labels off immediately, such stupidity I can understand not replacing a label that had fallen off or been painted over, but to remove purposefully I can not comprehend. Incidentally, should a boatyard accidentally put the wrong fuel in your boat, the yard's first line of defence would be that the fuel type was incorrectly labelled, your insurance company probably would not help.

My daughter did this recently. Her employer arranged for an inspector to check things like desk height, lighting proper seating at work station. It was all OK she now only attends the office two days a week. It has resulted in my opinion, to a slight reduction in her "standards" we found her working, still in her pyjama's at three in the afternoon. Edited to add tip. She had a sweater handy to pull on for video conferencing!

Ha ha. Agree with your sentiments Point made

I consider that the fuel type marked on the filler cap is normally OK. Some boats have diesel tanks and petrol tanks and sewage tanks all with similar caps which could be interchanged, these are the ones I would insist on having the filling aperture clearly labeled. Despite of clear labelling I have heard of a case where a boat had a sewage tank filled with diesel.

Get rd of that plastic beaker arrangement before your next BSS inspection. Definite failure. Edited to add. Many Lister's I see do not have such a 'T' piece or have it blanked off, the spill being entirely returned to the tank.

I have lived in the area long enough not to be at all surprised. Weird folk quite commonplace

Regarding left handed RO's. Over time I progressed from a regular morse key, to a "Bug" (Both vibrating and electronic) where the thumb and forefinger operated a sidways moving paddle allowing the wrist to rest on the desk while operating. (Essential when sending messages of over 2000 words) The thumb would make the dits and the forefinger the dhas. Was a "left handed Key" ever made? Most of the 'lefties' I knew managed ok but one who originally learned using the right hand after an arm injury had to turn the key upside down to use his left hand. Edited to add: _ I sold my vibrating bug when I got my electronic one. I regret that now. The electronic one has little value, but the mechanical vibro will no doubt become an object of great interest. For my 21st birthday Ship's engineers made me a beautiful morse key. A useless object of art, could not achieve more than 15 words per minute due to it being badly balanced. That compares to 30-35 words per minute on the electronic bug

Wow. The HRO. Did he have a full set of coils?

Most/Many internal doors have large gaps both high and low allowing sufficient ventilation throughout the vessel. If the doors are completely sealed the examiner should consider each compartment separately considering any appliances and persons likely to occupy that compartment. I have on a few occasions given an "advisory" where an internal door did not allow sufficient ventilation to a room with fuel burning appliances. I also fear that there may have been times that I have failed to notice an open pinned back or sliding door Prior to 2005 I believe the BSS requirements for ventilation were mandatory as they still are for commercial and hire boats. I was not an examiner then but was a bit miffed when the Examiner told me to fit three more UFO type ventilators. I was upset some time later when I discovered that all I had to do was replace one of the existing UFO's with a mushroom. I don't think it would have been too much for the examiner to suggest that. I think I said this recently in another thread but I think it is part of the examiners duties to help the boat owner to solve any problems that he, the examiner, presents.

I am shocked that this is the first mention of S.G. in this thread. The best way of checking standard Lead Acid (and some other types) is with a hydrometer, Very cheap only £4-£6 For a reasonably reliable one. At that price every boater should have one. It would be a great help also keep a battery log. Say once a month or at least four times a year, about 30 minutes after fully charging the batteries check and record the SG of each cell. Comparison with previous readings will highlight any deterioration. Must add that I had to do this all my working life, but as far as my own boat is concerned I presently do not practice what I preach . Edited to add: - For those that do not know, those little "magic eyes" that indicate the state of charge of the battery are useful but only indicate the condition of one cell. It can indicate a full charge even when other cells in the battery are goosed.

Quite right. No low level ventilation requires a warning notice. However, still remains advisory. Some people find it hard to get their your heads round that! (Including some examiners)

Twas "funny ha ha" presentn from SWMBO. Being a tight fisted Aberdonion I just had to get the use of them. After all, who would ever see them!! Leopard Skin print. .

Andy's trousers falling apart brought back an experience I had as a young man. I managed to splash a very small drop of battery acid down the front of my uniform trousers. Just a tiny splash about 5mm radius. I immediately removed the trousers and plunged the affected area into a water filled hand basin and, let it soak about ten minutes. I thought that would have diluted the acid enough so as not to cause damage. About five days later, as I hitched up my trousers to sit down at the breakfast table the material just fell apart in my fingers, Every time I moved a bit of trouser material would rot away, An area of about a foot in diameter (the area I had soaked) just fell apart, revealing my leopard skin Y-fronts. I had to sit, with my napkin in my lap until everyone finished breakfast and left the dining saloon. Somebody saw what happened however, because some of the wives teased me about my Y-fronts until I left the ship months later.

Yes, I heard that. After letting the irate hornet go (Post 111) we shut all doors and windows in fear of retribution SWMBO even put sellotape over the keyholes! What whimps! (SWMBO says she was worried for the baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Living in India in the 1970's, SWMBO comes into the living room and says "There is a Hornet in the baby's room". I jokingly replied, "If you can grab it by the wings it can't sting you!" Next thing, SWMBO says "What do I do Now?" Three lessons learned that day: 1. It is possible to catch a hornet by the wings. 2. When you are holding a Hornet by the wings it is impossible to open doors or windows 3. A hornet, having been held by the wings, when let go is as mad as hell!

I agree that the interpretation of the legislation is a bit dodgy, and often being "piggy in the middle" I worry about it quite a lot. I do not entirely agree with your cut and dried conclusion. I believe It once was more simple, boats licensed as residential, were residential, boats that actually moved around were not. I think the licensing changed and the "used primarily for domestic or residential purposes" was slipped in to keep everyone happy. You have honed in on the idea that if the boat is 'used' it is being resided in. I think the"purpose of boat ownership" is more like the question intended Any how, it is a can of worms I do not wish to delve into

I do not think I said or even implied that UFO vents were unfit for purpose. They do their job very well. The point is that they allow less ventilation than similar sized mushroom vents. My boat is fitted with UFO style vents. The OP was considering changing his mushroom vents for UFO's, and I understand why. However it depends on the fuel burning appliances and number of berths as to what the minimum ventilation requirements are. If the OP's boat is anywhere near the limit he may have to consider extra ventilators if he is to replace all the mushrooms with UFO's. Back around 1996 when ventilation was a mandatory item on the BSS checklist, my BSS examiner asked me to fit three new ventilators. I took his word to be gospel and did so. I now know that if I simply had replaced just one of the UFO's with a mushroom, the requirements would have been met without the need for more holes. I did not discover this until I became a BSS examiner myself, it made me angry, and I resolved then that as an examiner to help boaters find solutions to problems rather than simply present them with problems. (Not always possible but I do try) I have looked up my notes and found some free air ventilation figures for some UFO types Tannoy 4" this one I dismantled and measured myself 2700 sq mm EC Smith 4" (from association of Boat Examiners, guidance sheet) 2740 sq mm Aqua Marine 4" (from Association of Boat Examiners guidance sheet) 4500 sq mm Vetus 4" from Vetus (calculated from sales blurb some years ago) 3180 sq mm On the other hand:- Brass Mushroom vent with 1" gap from shoulder to dome , (From ABSE Guide) 7740 sq mm Brass Mushroom vent with 1/2" gap shoulder to dome (from ABSE guide) 3870