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Hi Richard - I noticed that boat - looks very substantial! Was it built by something like M & J or M & M or similar? It reminded me of a boat at Crick (but maybe that ws just the colour).

Go into any chandler and buy one of their little brass plaques that says "Battery isolator below". Leave battery isolator under the floor, where the batteries are. Job done.

Or go the other way up to Anderton, where you can turn by the boat lift. Should be reasonably comfortable in three days, or go on a bit further and turn before Saltersford tunnel (where you can walk down a track to have a look at thw Saltersford locks on the weaver).

. Maffi : You really should climb out of your own backside sometimes. The sarcasm was mine. If you read the rest of my post relating to speeding, you would see that it was not a mistake, it was merely me being sarcastic.

No! (lowest form of wit?)

Down to Audlem this weekend (sorry Richard, - couldn't remember hte name of your boat. Four comments: The food in the Shroppie Fly is much improved, but quite pricy for bar food though. Wine reasonable though with a good merlot at £9 (compare that to the Dusty Miller at Wrenbury where an awful vin plonk was £12.50 and a very average Rioja was £17.50). A (private) boat was moored 1: on the lock moorings & 2: opposite the winding hole. I didn't feel at all guilty rocking the boat with my prop wash as I turned (should I have though?) Passed a boat called "diddycoy". My wife asked the lock-winder (a very repectable-looking lady) about the name and was told "it means gypsy as we travel about quite a bit". She evidently isn't aware of what type of gypsy the term diddycoy is usually referring to! It seems the Shroppie now has a 4 mph minimum speed limit. I can't recall when I've been passed by such a high proportion of boats that make no more than a token gesture to slow down, if at all. People seem to think that as long as they are seen to touch their speed control, they must have slowed down for you. And it was just about all private boats htat were the culprits.

Remember you are not insured to travel after sunset in a hire boat. You will really have to go some to get round in a week AND spend best part of three days in total getting to Chester and back. In fact with only about 12 hours of daylight I really wonder if it can be done. Anybody done it in that time?

Depending on where it is from, about 100 - 300 million years in the making (Carboniferous to mid Cretaceous - depends on the source of the hydrocarbon).

There are an awful lot of "I think", "I believe", "I have heard" etc. I think our OP needs a more definitive answer. Would BW be able to give that?

Looks like a bench test is on the cards Alan. I'll let you know how I get on. Any further observations gratefully received.

I assume the 750VA is a continuous rating, as it is supposed to be able to supply that power for at least 30 minutes continuosuly (based on the built-in batteries). It is pure sine wave as well. I would think that if I disconnect the internal batteries and connect the boat battereis, it will just think that there has been a power cut and supply the mains power. I don't know what the quiescent current would be though, which is where I was hoping someone might have had experience of doing this. I can always bench-test it first under vairable loads to see what it draws. I t just makes me think - how many UPSs get chucked out when the batteries have died when they contain a perfectly servicable good quality sine wave inverter.

A UPS is used to provide backup power for computers. It sits between the ac supply and the ac input to the pc. If power fails, then it maintains the ac to the PC. there are two types, on-line & off-line. One type supplies the ac contiuously from the batteries, with the batteries being constantly recharged, the other switches the ac supply over from the input to battery when it senses an interuption. The former give less disturbance to the ac supply, the latter relies on the fact that most pcs can stand a few hundred milliseconds interuption before dying. The UPS is rated at 750 VA, so presumably could supply about 3 amps, drawing 60 amps from the battery, i.e. what you would expect for a 750 VA inverter.

John Uninterruptible Power Supply.

I've got a 750 VA inverter with pretty well shot batteries. The battereis are sealed gel batteries, 6 volt but wired in pairs in series to give 12V working voltage. Can anyone think of a reason why I can't dump the batteries in the UPS, link the terminals to my boat 12V system and use the UPS circuitry as an inverter? It seems to me that (charging circuits aside), that is all the UPS is doing when the AC supply is interrupted, which is what it thinks is the situation if no AC is supplied. Taking it a stage further, if I did have an AC shoreline, it could also act as a battery charger.

Last time I went through the Harecastle, I was behind two other boats going out from Stoke. I thought my lungs were pretty resistant to the effects of most pollutants, but I felt quite ill by the time I came out at the other end. I guess I must have been behind a praticularly smoky boat (the one at the front was towing a small butty), but even so, I wouldn't like to be at the back of a convoy of 8 which can happen.

I have to say I'm not a great supporter of windfarms, as I believe their presence is more political than environmental, and having seen how they blight the landscape in places, I would rather not see them. I would like to see genuine figures for what energy they actually produce, compared to the energy involved in their manufacture, installation, maintenance etc. Aftre all, they are notoriously inefficient. They are also all manufactured in other countries, and bought with huge sums of tax-payers money. The elctricity they produce is the most expensive going - it certainly isn't 'free' like the supporters keep calling it. Maybe offshore they could produce more consistent power, but if you look at windfarms as you are passing, how many are not turning, even when there is wind? i.e. they are locked off (probably because they've broken down again[/]).

Rayman: wher abouts are you? Crewe rail depot - (not sure exactly who it is as what used to be BR is now all sorts of different companies) - is flogging off or giving away all sorts of redundant rail materials. The latest thing at the moment is old concrete sleepers taken up from the west coast line upgrade. They are being used to make farm tracks and are being just about given away. If you are in this area then you may find you can get what you want. I think their are people who cut up old line into usable lengths as well.

If you are on BW water - i.e. moored on the canal not in a marina or private offshoot, then BW will charge you approximately 50% of the going rate for a nearby BW linear mooring. Some owners of offside linear moorings deal with BW directly and include the BW element in their mooring charge - others leave it up to you to sort out with BW. Make sure you know which you are on - but it sounds like the latter. In Cheshire I think we pay about £14 /ft for a BW linear offside mooring, after prompt payment discount. You will also need to get approval from BW, but that shouldn't be a problem these days as long as the mooring doesn't interfere with anything.

Yamanx: Was it a hire boat? If so, who from and why didn't they come and fix it?

I have put up a link in the past for 12V regulators. I would strongly recommend using one for LCD tvs as they are very sensitive to over-voltage. Or else use a £30 inverter and use the power supply supplied - but it may not work on quasi-sine. Here is a link: http://www.amperordirect.co.uk/prod_adp_90dc-12s1.asp

Ahhhh - the joys of boating. However for most of us your experiences are spread over several years! Glad you can look back at your experiences with a smile.

Just about every cruiser-stern, and most semi-trads, I have come across have the battery isolator under the floor. This is normal practice so why argue semantics of the regs. It is clearly acceptable. Otherwise why would there be all those little brass plaques that state "Battery isolator below". Why do we have to try and create a problem when one doesn't exist. There are thousands of boats out there, with current BSS verts, with battery isolators under the floor.

I've used Hammerite (the "hammerite smooth") in a number of places such as down the engine 'ole etc. anywhere prone to rust that has already rusted. As long as it is dry and you get the loose stuff off, it seems to work pretty well at stopping further rust. It claims that it can be painted straight on to bare metal and rust - and that's what it is used for. Available in a reasonable range of colours as well. Just for interest - I used hammerite smooth in silver about 20 years ago to paint a rusty milk churn. This has been outside all that time and is just starting to show a few spots of rust coming through on the seams.