Lol

Jammy bugger, safe journey - enjoy

Snibble sorry for the delay I would appreciate your opinion now based on the attached scematics of the boat (probably not much help) for my B38 the alternator and panel (delux) schematics are at: http://www.betamarine.co.uk/newsite/downloads/handbooks/1630.pdf unfortunately its 8Mb, hope you can handle this?

Rumor has it as a bit more than just downsizing, over 80 laid off leaving only 8 staff to "tidy up" with the gaffer leaving to run his new marina?

I will avoid obtuse and come to the point, is this the rumor about Liverpool boats laying off a load of guys?

Ken when you say "she" I hope you are refering to the boat not me, because although the boat name is slightly less than macho I am all man.... Chris's answers blew me a away ! to be sure about the exact set up I will refer to the manuals later this week when I go down to the boat, I am very interested in this whole thing and as I said I do not think anything is broken I just think this is function (albeit undesirable) of the set up

Chris thanks for the help so far, you are obviously very knowledgeable on the subject sorry for the last reply it was cut short by the laptop hibernating on low power first of all I hope the battery meter is not a crude voltmeter it is a Victron one that cost £200 !! back to the start... I have a new Beta 38 with two alternators and the deluxe panel that has two battery indicators one for engine and one for domestic, then i have a Victron combined inverter/charger with the batteries monitored by a Victron BMV501 you did confirm one of my thoughts that this pointed to belt slippage but I have checked and they seem correctly aligned and tensioned the basics of the problem (probably the wrong word as the whole system is working a treat!) is why if I start up with the domestic batteries indicated at the BMV as being 100% charged do i get a flashing domestic battery lamp at the engine control panel for a short period whereas if I start up with anything less than 100% indicated i don't get the flashing light? You are correct that there is no safety in numbers but I am not convinced anything is broken as other boats with different systems are observing similar behaviour, it seems to me to be just a function of the whole set up and i was just curious?

Sorry i may not have explained well enough, when i say losing charge what I mea is say I have been on land line for a time and the battery monitor is showing 100% and the multi stage charger is on float, I disconnect the land line start the engine and we have flickering we set off and the kids start up the TV and playstation battery indicator goes to 98% no flickering? also if i start the boat next day with say 80% on the battery indicaor - no flickering?

Being fairly new to narrowboats I have a lot to learn, one thing I learned straight away is that when a group of boaters (usually men) are stood around "chewing the fat" (this seems to happen a lot at are marina) the subjects most discussed seem to be voltages/batteries and toilets !! This subject came up recently and a couple of other boats in the marina had observed the same thing, but we could not understand why the Keeping up theory seems very logical but would this not mean that the light would be flashing all the time the batteries were below fully charged? Chris - complicated but very interesting, but why would the light only flicker until the batteries have lost a small amount of their charge, if there was a fault would it not be continuous. Obviously I hope there is not a fault with anything, this boat is 6 months old and it does exactly the same thing on a couple of other boats in the marina?

Just to repeat myself from a previous post: Just come across this thread and had to comment. Its not a good idea to Chlorinate your system and then allow this solution to pass through your filter as the filter will almost certainly have a carbon element to it, the Carbon will react with and remove the Chlorine (hence no taste/smell) but at the levels of Chlorine mentioned here the Carbon will be quickly depleted and become inactive. There are filters and filters: Most Basic - There are filters that just mechanically filter out undissolved lumps such as sand silt rust some micro-organisms - ceramic or micron or sediment or depth filters. Good - There are filters that react with the water in some way to remove things such as Chlorine, Organics, pesticides, Iron(Carbon or Silver or Iron removing or combinations). Advanced - These filter types can be combined which is what you see in most of the commercial ones. Ultimate - The distinctly different "filters" are Reverse Osmosis membranes that actually remove both undissolved and dissolved matter these usually have the previous types of filter in front of them to protect the membrane - these can easily be used to fill you water tank from the canal if your that way inclined. As for cancer and Chlorine at normal drinking water levels its not the Chlorine that has become an issue but its reaction with certain Organic compounds that can be in the water and the resultant product can be carcinogenic. Most water authorities remove these organics if above certain levels. The effects of Chlorine on Stainless Steel can be bad but the relatively low levels discussed here (100ppm) and the low temperatures are not normally an issue. Neat bleach is usually 5% Chlorine which is 50,000ppm and can be a problem. I think Milton are concerned because the concentrated product can cause pitting and cracks in certain steels but more importantly Chlorine can stain "Stainless" steel ! You are correct that most bleaches are 5% concentration (usually measured as available Chlorine not the actual Sodium Hypochlorite concentration, don't use the thick stuff it contains caustic Soda and fragrances) but the swimming pool stuff if it is Sodium form is usually 14% available Chlorine but more usually the pool stuff is Calcium or Lithium Hypochlorite which has much more available Chlorine - up to 40% The British Standard for sterilising new systems is to achieve throughout the system 50ppm of free Chlorine for 1 hour (this would be 100ml of household bleach in 100 liters of water) , or 10ppm for 5 hours or 5ppm for 10 hours, the important thing is that the Chlorine level is constant because as it does its job it gets used up (it reacts with lots of thing other than bugs, such as iron) Sterilising industrial systems is part of my work and to do it properly is a little complicated i would say follow the advice on dosing cheap thin bleach and if you run all the taps (and more importantly the shower head) and you can smell bleach as strong as it smells in a swimming pool at the start of the dosing and again a few hours later I would say job done as for your water filter if it contains carbon do not run 50ppm of Chlorine through it, i would schedule the sterilising to coincide with changing the filter but sterilise the filter housing with no filter installed, its a bit of a catch with carbon filters as they can harbour bugs but they also remove Chlorine! (if you can, go for a carbon filter with silver impregnation as this kills the bugs in the carbon)

if I have been on shore supply and the batteries are consequently 100% charged why when starting the engine does the domestic battery charge light on the engine control panel flicker until some charge has been taken from the batteries?

We got a Reeves 45ft cruiser last year, very good quality weld and finish (although some more traditional types in our marina don't like the bow shape, I think its sexy) my only complaint since using the boat is that the area of base plate at the stern has been extended to allow steps for getting out of the water and i believe so that the rudder movement is restricted so as not to knock anyone off the back with the tiller if the rudder is in a reversing collision, to me the restriction is too much and I will be altering it at the first dry docking

I am quite aware of what service life can do to a person being ex Royal Navy and having a son about to join the Army but none of the points made thus far gives anyone the right to defile and abuse someone elses property

do you have any evidence to support that, i know when i walk round manchester the vast majority of homeless men I see are in their 20s, surely not old enough to have been tramatised by war and institutionallised?

having just read through this lot again i will try to put brain in gear before engaging mouth from what I can see campingazz has listened to the points of view based around the limited info he originally gave and has decided it was a dream, if he had only got the views of the "tolerant and generous spirited " on here he would have made a big mistake I was saying it as I saw it, sometimes the truth hurts

and being an ex professional soldier is pertinent - why?

we got ours at Crick last year from Midland Chandlers but they were Halogen wall lights which we than fitted warm white LED lamps to, i am really pleased with them they also swivel 180degrees so you can either use them for reading or facing upward to light the ceiling for a warm general backlight

I may be part of the whinging minority in your opinion but I would be very supprised if in reallity I actually am, people are scared to speak these days my work takes me to different sites every day and i get to speak to people from all over the country and from all walks of life and believe me the bleeding heart, politically correct, left wing, human right screaming types who have nothing but sympathy for the people that admit to the least little persecution or problem and hold out their hand at the slightest oppertunity are in the minority, they are just the most vocal - I am sick of hearing it, YYAAWWN when i originally posted i did consider the cost to the state and I think if it were cheaper for the state to house people on the canal we would have miles of council moorings ! i was maybe a little harsh but what grated was the feeling that boating to me was for some time unattainable, and for someone to be given it does not feel right

I havn't personally met this guy but from what i have read about him I cannot understand why some people seem to speak of him as some kind of urban hero to be admired from what i have read i think he is some kind of low life scum that has no respect for others property and deserves to be locked up

The first thing you will have to do is get used to the differnt colour/warmth of the light and more than likely the drop in light output we have a mixture of halogen (for the main cabin lighting) and LED (we have LED wall lights that are used most of the time) we also have some fancy under cupboard LED strips and a small bathroom LED that I leave on at bnight for the kids and the dogs to avoid any falls and back deck and cratch LEDs be careful when you buy as there is cold and warm white, I find the warm ones comfortable and the cold ones just too cold also be aware that the replacement bulbs/fittings should have built in over voltage protection (the ones I have had to have the components fitted when the bulbs were fitted but I think most current ones have it built in?) as without protection I think they dont like the high voltages such as when the batteries are charging

bit extreme, I have absolutely no problem with benefits for those who cant but you are claiming you can by wanting to CC the state owes you and me an existance, not treats i know all about the benefits system and its inadequacies as I have family who havn't officially worked for over 20 years each both are claiming, both having holidays, both having a car, plasma TV, both in designer gear..... if it wasnt for their children I would have shopped them years ago - thats why I might be a little unsympathetic

I definately do not want to live your life, I also definately do not want to fund your life, I live my life the way i like but not at the expense of others - I contribute

also that the air inlet is below 25DegC as atated in the installation instuctions, i.e. not from the engine compartment

As you are on disability benifit it may be you are too disabled to work which could mean the physical demands of continuous cruising may be beyond you? so i hope your none working girlfriend is up to it?

The fact that pram tops or in our case cratch covers are fitted such that they in effect cover the front or back vents is something I queried before we had our cratch fitted. Basically we have two front bulkhead louvered vents fitted that were calculated to give the required free area of ventillation at deck level with the internal vents having the required "do not block" notices, but then we had a cratch cover fitted which fairly effectivly seals the well deck. the now remaining ventillation comes from the well deck drains (which can be blocked to air flow with stuff in the front lockers) and any "leaks" in the cover (which have an indefinate size). I asked at the time if this was adequate or indeed legal and never really got a definative answer, I have to say that the ventillation does feel very adequate with a good flow of (cold) air being felt. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

try this http://www.espar.com/html/service/download/technical.html