Peter R

without wishing to be too pedantic ...... I want to come, the question is whether i'll be able to? which day is fairly irrelevant to me - even if it was sunday i think getting the boat back to gayton junction in one day (single handed) might be a bit optimistic! It depends on whether I can persuade the boss to let me move my holiday to that week. I have asked, and I hope he'll say yes, but as nearly half the team are already off that week, i'm not going to hold me breath!

So far i've always had mine done by Alvechurch at Gayton junction (it's where I keep the boat, and they have the facilities, so I don't see much point going anywhere else). They use a crane to put the boat on some old railway sleepers on a hardstanding next to the canal. My 45' cost just under £400 in November with them doing all the work, or you could just pay the craneage and do it yourself. Also I don't think there would be any problem with staying on board - i'm sure i've seen people living on their boats on the hardstanding. Peter

On my last boat a previous owner had rivetted the coolie hat supports to the chimney. I keep meaning to do the same to my present one (primarily so the coolie hat stops blowing off!), but I guess it might also serve the double purpose of stoping anyone stuffing anything of significant size down the chimney! Peter

Just in case it is of interest as comparison, I had my boat (45' narrow) blacked in november at my home base (Alvechurch Marina at Gayton). Move from berth to crane, crane out, pressure wash, two coats blacking, crane in, move back to mooring - just under £400. Not only did I not get my hands dirty - I was about 100 miles away at the time If time was no object I might do it myself, but until I find a way to live without working, i'd rather spend my time off cruising! Peter

Chris connection from battery to fuseboard is about 2-3m, currently 2 x 6mm cables in parallel - may get upgraded to something bigger at some point. Yes, I know the maths says 6mm for the fridge connection should be fine, but if I am buying new cable I would rather get something too big than find out the hard way that it isn't big enough. Existing cable is 6mm (but to be fair it is about 15 years old). Peter

I have a thermotop E, and I am intending to do exactly this with it at some point. I discussed it with 'B K Marine & Vehicle Heating' (who i bought thesystem from) and they confirmed that it would not be a problem. I assume the same would apply to the 'C', but if you want to be sure I would suggest you look up http://www.boatcentralheating.co.uk and send them an email to check. The wiring from the timer contains three active wires (red, black and brown). The information I have been given is that the Red is the 'live' to the timer and the brown is the 'earth'. The back wire is the trigger wire to the heater. As I understand it, if you connect the red and black together, then the heater will fire up and run. Separate the red and black wires and it will shutdown. As standard this is what is done by the timer, but can be performed by any other form of control such as a thermostat or simply a switch. My intention (although I havn't worked out the wiring for it yet) is to use two thermostats to set separate 'switch on' and 'switch off' temperatures to avoid the system being started and stopped too frequently. One other thing I will mention is then when I bought the system the first question the supplier asked was 'do you live on the boat'. They went on to say that the thermotop system was not designed for a live-aboard environment, and if that was what I intended then they would not sell me one. However, I won't be surprised if people do use it in this way with no problems. Peter

i'd like to come along (time permitting), and Napton doesn't sound like a bad idea (the boats based at gayton junction, so I think that should be about 2 days each way, provided I can summon the courage to tackle the buckby flight single-handed!). At present I am off work w/c 10 March, but I don't have anything specific planned, so might be able to move that to fit. Peter

I have a Hauppauge USB stick for my laptop that works fine, but will obviously be signal dependant. The usb stick plugs straight into the usb port, and has a standard aerial connector on the other end. It came with a little portable aerial (about 3" tall) which went in the bin as it's about as much use as a chocolate fireguard! The boat has one of the omnidirectional TV aerials fitted, and the stick works fine with this, provided you are moored somewhere it can pick up a signal. You also need to re-tune when you move from one transmitter to another. Peter

If it helps I have had similar problem that has been driving me up the wall! Basically, the volts at the fridge were fine, both with and without the motor running, but the motor kept dropping out on 'motor speed error'. After trying everything else, I moved a battery next to the fridge and connected it direct and it works fine, so it must be the cable even though I was not getting any detectable volt drop. Fridge is about 8m from fuseboard, so i'm currently waiting for a mate to get me some new cable of at least 10mm (maybe 15mm to be on the safe side!). Peter

If you are replacing a halogen bulb with an LED equivalent that is designed as a direct replacement, then it should work. However, boat electrical systems can be subject to some quite high voltage spikes that are not good for LEDs. As a result some LED suppliers include spike suppressors with their products. You may wish to have a look at the following http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/Important_LED_Info.htm Peter

Just over three years into boat ownership, and i've managed to avoid trying to walk on the water ...... so far! (where's some wood, quick!) However, I learnt the mobile phone lesson the hard way - my phone at the time lasted about an hour into boat ownership! I went to collect first boat, and put phone in shirt pocket as I was waiting for a call from some friends who were coming to help me. An hour later I bent down to pick up hose after filling water tank - the phone went swimming and I went shopping for a new phone! Peter

I came across a reference to the forum in a magazine, so I thought I would join in and give myself yet another excuse for spending too much time on the internet when I should be doing something else! Anyway, thought I would start with a couple of shots of my boat, Andante. First, as I bought her and how she looks now - amazing what a bit of paint will do! I live in Suffolk, but the boat is based near Northampton - hopefully i'll meet a few of you out and about somewhere! Peter