grahame r
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Posts posted by grahame r
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Why not divert your wee into the big holding tank? With no flushing water it will take ages to fill and a pump out every few months is all that is needed.
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Have you asked your wife's opinion on this? My wife also has mobility problems and is a nervous steerer. Ten years ago when her mobility was better and she could operate the locks and we had a wide beam we found that a bow thruster allowed me to position the front of the boat precisely enough for her to able to get ashore safely. Now that we have a 60ft narrow boat she is happy to steer through the locks having the security of the bow thruster available if needed, especially if there are bypass wires.
The "learn to steer properly" argument is fine for the macho boater but in the real world of people wanting to boat into their senior years a bow thruster can make all the difference
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If the canal is wide enough don't be afraid to ask to moor alongside, most people are very accommodating and may even swap to the outside to allow your father easier access ashore.
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4 hours ago, frangar said:
Look at using something like West Epoxy system...if used well it can produce a varnish like finish....its transformed wooden boat building over the last few years and its much more durable than varnish....some of the wooden boat yards on the Thames would be a start.....or given where you are ask at Nielsens yard at Gloucester...they are very used to dealing with wooden boats
Two good suggestions, I'll be in Gloucester Docks next week and will also look into the West Epoxy System.
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3 hours ago, bizzard said:
Ahoy Grahame. Ask Ron Seal,
Ahoy, I think Ron is more suited to the domestic market. Hope you're surviving lockdown, don't suppose it affects you any more than it does us!
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Whilst our boat is of steel construction we have a lot of exterior wood which is currently in good condition and I'd like to keep it that way. Can anyone recommend a good varnisher? This seems to be a bit of a black art so I'm looking for an experienced practitioner. We are based on the Gloucester and Sharpness but being retired would be happy to travel assuming the Government will allow it. Thanks in advance.
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Thank you all for your enthusiasm in answering my question. Tippiness is probably a good synonym for my understanding of "tenderness"
When we first launched our boat we needed about a tonne of ballast to get her sitting correctly in the water. All of the ballast was required at the front.
We are in the happy position of having an 8 foot front cockpit with easy access to the baseplate over the full width.
The original ballast used was of a low density and currently covers the whole of the base plate also taking up a lot of space in the side lockers. I intend to replace the low density ballast with pig iron ingots and retrieve our much needed locker space.
Having looked at all of your arguments I intend to try ballasting at the sides, leaving the centre of the base plate unballasted. It is not a big job to move it if it makes the tenderness worse.
We appreciate that narrow boats are tender compared to our previous boat (10 foot widwbeam) I am just hoping to make the best compromise I can.
Thanks again.
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Would a boat be more stable (less tender) with ballast postioned primarily around the perimeter or with the ballast positioned close to the centre? Assuming the boat is already level side to side (no list) and acceptably head up in the water.
Thanks in advance.
Grahame
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50 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:
I haven't checked the details to see if it applies but I do not want my license put forward so that I catch the next round of price increases.
Speechless!
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Tats, is this an end of garden mooring? your garden? are you the land (and tree) owner?
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Are you planning on living on the canal side (constantly cruising) or in a marina? If this is your first boat then a marina for a few months might be worthwhile while you get the hang of power supply etc.
If in a marina, simply plug in the landline into the bollard and the Victron will look after your batteries.
If you are constantly cruising then running the engine regularly will also charge the batteries directly fro the alternator(s), but insufficiently unless you are cruising 5+ hours a day. Additional charging can be by simply running the engine whilst tied up but charging this way will never get the bateries back up to 100% which is what you are aiming to do. Attaching a generator to the Victron will make a much better fist of charging to 100% but you really do need a good battery monitoring system to keep you informed of the state of charge, Everyone has a view as to the best Battery Monitoring System but hopefully I won't start a riot by saying that a "Smartgauge" (reasonably priced and easy to install) will give you a good idea of when the batteries need charging and a monitor to tell you the charging current and therefore when the batteries are approaching 100%, as described by Alan de Enfield, post 3, shouid suffice.
Petrol generators have to be treated with respect. Apart from sizing, as descibed by BEngo in post 2, they are potentially very antisocial if not properly silenced and dangerous, don't even think of putting one in the engine room and remember that all engines, if not being used for propulsion, are banned between 8pm and 8am.
Sorry crossed with AdE's reply, same message different words! I'll butt out!
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On rivers where a by weir is flowing, leaving exit gates open (upper or lower) at all times of year seems to me to be a good idea. It's certainly common practice on the Lea and Stort and advised on the Avon.
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You
17 minutes ago, bizzard said:But Mike, do you or do you not have smelly feet ? Do you swap the outdoor shoes for carpet slippers at the door? There's nothing worse than folk with stinking feet walking about in their stocking feet on carpets and spreading the pong throughout the ship. One gets used to ones own stinks and it can be oblivious to them, but strangers and visitors certainly can. I was a mobile car mechanic for many years and when I was usually, after mending the car invited in the housefor tea and things, and in some houses, Yukkkk!!!! the stink of feet was terrible and nauseous although it was obvious that the home owner was very house proud and everything was spotless. Much worse in the winter when the stink was locked in with windows closed and heating on As soon as the front door was opened the pungeant pong burst out and would knock me back and I would politely refuse the tea, get money and buzz off.
You seem to be becoming obsessed with smelly feet lately. Perhaps there's a new tenant on April Island who has become a frequent visitor who suffers from this afflication? Our days of enjoying Waitrose bargains and putting the world to rights most evenings are long gone so I think it's probably not me.
We had a reverse layout cruiser stern widebeam which was very convenient, now have a standard layout narowboat which is also perfect and Sue now often stays in the saloon whilst cruising, we almost always use the rear door, so I'd agree with the majority of contributors that widebeam reverse layout and narrow standard layout seems to work.
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I think the word "continuous" gives the clue that he was referring to the central 16 locks at Caen Hill. The presenter is Dan Jones, not Dan Snow who would probably have done a bit more research and been more precise in his assertions.
Overall we enjoyed it.
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In your original post you mention Spencer, is that Spencer of Spencer and Victoria fame at the Boatyard? If so, he know's everything about everything and certainly has the diagnostic software to tell you if the unit is faulty and the experience to bleed the system properly. Enjoyable as it is to pontificate on this problem, winter is coming!
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On 15/07/2019 at 13:38, Jen-in-Wellies said:
The most common questions on here are on electricity and replacing it in the batteries. The only way to run a 725W of power for grow lamps is with a generator, running basically every hour that is allowed under CaRT rules. You'll want a built in diesel generator for noise reasons, both you and your neighbours, but this will set you back around £10k and cost a lot in fuel and maintenance. I'd suggest that this hobby isn't going to be compatible and it would be a lot cheaper to just buy in your chillis and St John's Wort. For computing, try to reduce the power usage. What is the real minimum spec you need to do your work?
Diesel is the only fuel that won't limit your travelling. Electric has to be generated somehow. Biofuel isn't available on the cut. There isn't the charging infrastructure (yet). With lots of solar panels and I mean a lot, plus lithium batteries, electric boating can be done, at least in summer. Search for @peterboat's description of his wide beam. At the moment you are basically on your own, with engineering your own system with happy fun exploding battery banks and fires if you get it wrong!
I totally agree and love the example pictures. You may end up having to do a refit on the interior. You have a reasonable budget, so could end up with something rather good.
Yes there are. A recent example in General Boating. Very late 60's, early 70's. Most boats are rather traditional on the outside, but some owners do go wild! The paintwork leads a hard life. Knocked and scratched by vegetation, other boats and canal infrastructure, so it needs to be able to be touched up easily, which s harder to do with an air brushed finished without it being obvious.
Oh and welcome to CWDF. May I suggest getting a secondhand boat that is set up for living aboard, living on it it for a year, or so, then going for your ultimate boat. The depreciation will be small and you'll learn a lot about what is practical and what you really want in that time. These will likely be very different from what you think now.
Jen
This is the best advice in this thread.
Unless you have a lot of narrow boating experience, you are really not qualified to specify your ideal boat and no one else will ever be qualified to specify YOUR ideal boat.
A couple of years living aboard won't make you an expert but at least you will have an appreciation of the essentials.
If you are thinking of a new build then £100,000 puts you in the sensible/economy class, another couple of year's savings may allow you to build your kitty to afford the extras which you may currently consider to be the essentials.
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I didn't say I wanted to re-calibrate it, I had read MtBs previous comments and checked my Smartgauge which was reading about 0.3V low. I contacted Smartgauge and they replaced it without quibble, the replacement being correct. I am, however, curious to know if there are any secret ways of affecting the SG readings as claimed by MtB and others, just a naturally curious mind.
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2 minutes ago, Slim said:
I was told in absolute confidence some years ago so I cannot say. Others may ķnow as well.
Let's hope there's a Julian Assange out there who is willing to spill the beans.
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3 hours ago, Slim said:
I've been meaning to ask this for months and months ( and no, I don't want to get into a debate.) Why don't you re-calibrate the inaccurate ones using your wizzo ones as a datum?
How does one go about re-calibrating a Smart Gauge?
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On 06/06/2019 at 13:19, nicknorman said:
OMG, MtB needs therapy. He has actually said something nice about SG!
Peukert is not relevant to amp hours used nor SoC. It is only relevant to “time to run to flat at the present discharge rate” which is not usually a useful parameter.
I think the later BMV gauges automatically set the charge efficiency factor.
I'd agree that Peukert Factor is not relevant to Consumed Ah however changing the Peukert factor has an immediate effect on the SoC reading. My BMV is currently showing an SoC of 90% ( PF set at 1.25) changing the PF to 1.1 changes the SoC reading to 82% and changing it to 1.4 changes the SoC to 95%. This seems counter intuitive as me sketchy understanding of Peukert Factor is that the higher the factor the greater the discharge at higher loads, a perfect battery having a PF of 1, I'd therefore expect that a higher PF would show a lower SoC. The time Remaining is infinite as the solar is ensuring a positive charge. Do we have any mathematical/physics geniuses who can explain this in English?
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Surely Castle Marinas' income expands.
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Yes, I have the panels on the port side going through one Voltage Regulator and those on the starboard going through another. The theory being that with the curve of the roof there will normally be a difference between the two and if going through one Voltage Regulator the whole system will be pulled down.
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Is the Aux LNB actually connected to twin LNBs on the Vuqube or is it there for a future upgrade? If you have a twin LNB equipped dish then just connect the 2 LNB leads to the 2 inputs on the Humax and you can record one channel whilst watching another, Make sure you buy a large recording capacity Humax box as the recordings build up quite quickly and also that you need the dish operating for timed recordings. Sounds obvious but ........
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23 hours ago, DannyC said:
Hi all,
So the other day I left the boat for almost a week. Before leaving, I turned everything off at the switch box and turned of fthe isolator switches too. The battery was fairly well charged when leaving (well over 50%). However, when I returned we found that the fridge was still on! So somehow, even thought I had cut out all the power, the fridge was still managing to draw from the batteries - everything in the freezer was still frozen! I checked the battery using the volt meter and it had dropped down to 11.4 (eek!).
Ever since I have been cruising I have been so so careful not to let the batteries drop below 12.2v. We use a fairly limited amount of power, but I am starting to wonder about the fridge. Something seems to eat all the electricity, and I can't believe it is having one 12v light on of an evening and the pumps + the occasional laptop charge.
Do you think my fridge may not be 12v? It is a Lec brand fridge, but there is no model number on it, so i am not sure the best way to check, and how can it be wired so it is not controlled by the fuse box/ isolator switches.
What do you guys think? I am well aware that I may be being a moron!
Do Lec make a 12v fridge? If not you may have to look for a dedicated inverter directly wired to your battery bank. Hopefully this will will have an on/off switch allowing to turn the fridge off if leaving the boat.
Alternative to Victron Quattro ?
in General Boating
Posted
I thnk you'll find that your generator will have to earn its keep a lot more than you expect.