tommytelford

A point that seems to being missed is that a porta potti holds around 20 litres (not 40) of waste whereas a pump out is nearer 200 / 300 litres. Regardless of how you empty it a pump out is the equivalent of at least 10 / 15 porta pottis. Most if not all elsan stations empty into a septic tank as the local authorities do not allow the chemicals to be put into the main sewer system, this tank is of a size that can cope with a reasonable usage by passing boats and local moorers. The system is just not designed to take large quantities of waste this is why pump outs have there own facilities which are designed to take larger quantities. This just seems another way for people to save money to the detriment of others, If you can't afford pump out then change to a cassette toilet and do as most of do and have a spare in case of the occasional emergency

Sorry Sir Nibbler but having been in the motor trade for 40 odd years I would put my money on the solenoid or as in the case of my recently changed starter a complete and utter seizure do to moisture getting in, but I had plenty of warning shots which if I hadn't ignored them would have saved me a 4 mile walk back to the marina to collect my car to take said starter to the starter hospital,

Got a pair when I first bought my boat, waste of money as nobody would them as they said they looked stupid standing on a lock talking to themselves.

Big battery banks are great IF you have the capability to keep them charged. 920ah requires a lot o input. A 85amp alternator running at a nominal 70% will require your engine to be run for around 15 hours to charge from flat, assuming nothing is switched on during charging. Sorry back of a fag packet calculations.Bearing in mind the batteries you are talking about are not deep cycle batteries they should be kept fully charged it seems that this capacity is a bit over the top,

Think you may have a problem, 2 batteries connected correctly will balance out but if you have a melted terminal I would suggest that maybe it was not properly tightened or there was some corrosion. Or maybe the pump is faulty

I think, as stated earlier, that your problem is more likely to be a fan belt. A failed battery would not normally cause the ignition light to come on and a dim ignition light rather than a bright one would probably suggest a ailing alternator unusual with a relatively modern vehicle.. Did you notice if the temperature gauge was rising or the steering getting heavier

Plenty of mooring close to the water point if you can get in between the constant moorers who seem to have stayed on the winter mooring since the spring

Never yet come across an insurance company that paid up willingly, but point taken

I think that the situation here is really quite clear. The boat owner instructed the boatyard to institute repairs, the boatyard has done the repairs, The owner is responsible or paying the boatyard It is now up to the owner to pay the boatyard, the fact that it is the subject of a claim against the insurers is of no interest to the repairer The owner has 2 choices, he either pays the repairer directly or waits for the insurer to pay, which they will no do until a satisfaction note is signed, in my experience this could take some time so said owner should not make any plans for the near future. Just as a matter of interest insurance companies have been known to go out of business so until that money is safely in his account it is quite reasonable that he doesn't release the boat

Took this up some time ago with BW as I was not sure and they said that is was only necessary to close the gates if there was a specific notice to that effect. I was recently shouted at by a walker at the top lock at Alrewas because I had left the bottom gates open, on this occasion I had an energetic crew and they had, in fact, closed them twice and the had blown open

My boat was in an awfully neglected state and after rubbing down was a mixture of red, blue, green, white, yellow, rust and bare metal. I used Rustoleum combi-color (no undercoat needed) , it covered everything with the first coat and after a light rubbing down a further coat gave a high gloss finish. I am waiting for a while to let the paint fully cure before putting on a final coat and the the fun part of final decoration

The elsan adjacent toe fieldes lock used to be a nightmare and best avoided, however a couple of weeks ago I desperately needed to empty ours and was pleasantly surprised to find that irtnow has a BW lock on the cover and it was spotlessly clean

Just bought 2 110ah leisure batteries from Euro Car Parts, cost £144 for the two

Had a gas fridge when I purchased my boat. Suffered it's tantrums for a while until I ended up buying ice to keep it cool. Changed to leccy one, never looked back

Try Baddie the Pirate, he is canal based and travels around the system but his dispatch times are great. He specialises in gear suitable for boats and can supply adapters for all types. Address is www.baddiethepirate.co.uk

Just looking at another topic and it came to me that a good way to police visitor moorings would be to have a Meter on each mooring. As a boater arrives they enter their licence no. and take a ticket which allows the maximum period for the mooring and display it on their boat. If the boat overstays a Penalty Notice is attached and if it still remains after 7 days the boat is impounded and after another 7 days it is removed and taken to a safe place only to be returned when the statutory fee is paid. It works for cars, why not boats?

Thanks Andy would appreciate dimensions when you have time. Thanks also for the suggestions I am still searching but any advice is great

Iian Jones based in Burton upon Trent. Great guy very thorough, don't expect any favours on BSS. He did a survey and BSS for me and gave me 7 pages of photographs with comments and recommendations. Didn't even realise I had some of the bits he commented on. His number can be found online or I can get it if you need it

I have a 1 1/4" stainless handrail on the roof of my boat, due to using it in place of a centre ring several of the supports have broken. They have a round base with three countersunk holes and an upstand of about 2 1/2" with a through loop on top for the handrail to pass through. I found something similar on an American marine site but they were priced at a knockdown price of $79.95, as I need about 30 this would work out at around £1800 with shipping. Anybody any ideas where I could buy readymade brackets or any engineering works who may be able to make me a new set I am based in Hertfordshire

It was one of those 10 million who broke into my boat and stole my TV and other items. This attitude really needs stamping on NOW, the longer this attitude exists the harder it will be to change

Instead of paying some know nothing surveyor £200 per hour why not get the people who use them to submit reports. Anybody willing to participate could contact C&RT prior to a cruise to register then they could submit there report online and within a month or two most of the waterways would be covered. Silly me that would save our money, won't ever happen

You say that vhf radios are available from the lock keeper but don't you require a licence to use one

Problem is that the stupid idiots go backwards so they cant see you coming/ Perhaps they should fit a rear view mirror

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.

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