Cinimod

Thanks @Cal Ando Mine is finally out of the water and just been blacked, I have ended up using High Line Yachting on the Slough arm at Iver... John and Neil are a great bunch and they have done a really good job..

Very many thanks

A quick reopening to this topic - who is currenlty recommended near Reading for a 40ft Springer - thanks :)

Me too... so much time has passed that I have now completed my journey down from York and am currently on the 48-hour moorings outside SCC before heading down to Bath this weekend and then on to Hanham so I can say I went as far as I could... I am guessing she found an alternative?

Thank you both for that... I am thinking about sending them back and getting this instead - https://amzn.to/3hh2WVx - 20W Portable LED Work Light Cordless Rechargeable IP65 12v LED Light Hand Lamp Much more flexible in its use and I could have it up at the back with me, so if a boat is coming the other way, I could shield it a bit, or at least turn it to face to the side...

Thank you - I have done so!

I need to put a light on the front of my boat - at the moment it has a 240v lights, which is switched from inside the cabin, and as I am on my own, there is no way I can run into and out of the boat to turn it on and off... I have bought these lights - https://amzn.to/34gEgZr They are 27w, 12v - so now I need to run a cable the length of the boat... From what I can see, using the cable guide, a 4mm cable should be OK as the cable run will be about 11m from battery to light (via a switch) - does that sound about right to you? I am thinking one light will be bright enough for tunnels and as I will be running the engine when I will want to use it the voltage drop should not matter too much as it should be 14v coming from the alternator. My next question is - where do you buy the cable from? The only thing I can see on Screwfix in 4mm flexi is Green/Yellow 7-core - I guess it would do the job, but I should probably use black and red to do it properly... RS Components - appear to have it - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8114466/ - but do not offer any convenient shipping/pick up options Would 12AGW speaker wire work? (AMAZON) - It looks like it should and £18 for 15m seems like a good price... Pure Copper Stereo Audio Speaker Wire & Cable - Made in Germany - 2x4mm² - 15m - I know it says Audio speaker, but it is copper, which surely would work? One more question - looking at it, I should have a fuse in there somewhere too? Thank you so much for your thoughts - - love this forum (Going to wire up a horn as well!)

You are absolutely correct - is there a way to edit the post, I can not see one? - Thank you

Very happy to share the story... I went out of Keadby onto the tidal Trent with all going very smoothly... It was a warm day and I have an air cooled Lister engine from around 1975 in a 40ft Springer. At the time of leaving the lock, the tide was still on the ebb, so was pushing up river against the outgoing tide. In order to make headway, the engine needed to be going at quite a rate, and as she is a trad layout, the engine is very noisy in the cabin right in front of me, so I had the top of the hatch only partially open... Long story short, not too long after getting onto the river the engine cut out... just before the M180 bridge (https://goo.gl/maps/zjigUeaQD3tNPew16) My first action - was to try and restart the engine, by turning the key... the starter clicked, but nothing happened... As I was heading for the centre column of the bridge, I thought it would not be a good idea to hit it... so deployed the anchor. I had the anchor sitting next to me at the back of the boat for just such an eventuality, as I am 'skippering' on my own (From York to Bath...) The anchor deployed, and lodged - at this point the tide was on the turn, so the flow was reasonably neutral to slightly incoming. I spent the next 10 or so minutes, trying to figure out what to do next... I could manually turn the 'wheel thingy' which has the belt to the alternator on, so the engine did not appear to have jammed... I checked the starter battery was OK, turned everything off and on again... then the engine started up again... By this time the flow was coming in pretty rapidly and even though the anchor was deployed securely I had still been pushed under the bridge (slowly), fortunately away from the centre column. As I had travelled out with a couple of other boats they were kind enough to be waiting to see if I needed help. The issue I had is that I had tied the anchor to the stern of the boat... and with the flow coming in so quickly there was no way I could back up over the anchor to get it up. I did try to pull it up and almost ended up getting knocked overboard as the tiller swing in the current - (I did have a life jacket, but would not advise falling overboard on a tidal river in full flow!) One of the other boats came back to try and help me - the plan being to tie up together and pull me back over the anchor so that I could pull it up. However, that did not go entirely to plan... whilst we got a rope on, the other boat overshot and got caught by the current which swung her round behind me, resulting in their prop slicing the rope to the anchor (good job it was not all chain, or it would have got tangled and who knows what would have happened!) I then spent the next few hours (not sure how many, but it was quite a while) taking it very steady to get to Torksey. The following day I was lucky enough to be able to borrow and anchor to complete the journey up the tidal Trent to Cromwell... From Cromwell to Nottingham - I just took it slow and steady, with no anchor - had anything gone wrong then, it would have been a matter of trying to get into the bank somehow... a very anxious few days boating. So - things worked out alright in the end - just need to replace the anchor, which whilst it is a cost, is a lot less substantial than hitting a motorway bridge or sinking the boat. What would I do differently? - Very definitely have the anchor ties on to the front of the boat. That way, when you are ready to recover the anchor, all you need to do is to power forward over it and pull it up - assuming you can get going again. So on engine failure or other loss of control - get your anchor our ASAP to stop your movement - then take time to assess what needs doing and call for help if you need to.

Very many thanks for the replies - all very useful... I am considering going with this - https://www.marinescene.co.uk/view/13245/claw-bruce-style-15kg-galvanised-standard-anchor-kit As it is on a narrowboat, I think that I only need enough chain to get the anchor to lie flat on the bed and dig in... then the rope. This is the arrangement I had - before I had to deploy, then cut it loose on the Trent a few weeks back when the engine cut out on the tidal section just before a bridge! I was unable to retrieve as it was tied off at the stern and not the bow. I believe it should do the job? The only river I am planning on being on now is the Thames between Oxford and Reading, and the K&A where it has river stretches, between Reading and Bristol.

Hi Iain - the suggestion was to NOT HAVE A CHAIN - just the anchor and rope... then instead of the chain you have a couple of 10kg weights...

Hi - I am about to go out on the Thames from Oxford to Reading and need to get an anchor for a 40ft Springer. I have read through numerous posts on here and my head is swimming! Please, can someone suggest - very straightforward - what weight of Anchor, Length of Chain and length of Rope I would need for this? I will also want to go from Bath to Bristol at some point, but am hoping that would be about the same. Also - where is a good place to get it from, and get it delivered to - most likely around Kidlington. It was suggested to me by someone who used to run tugs to NOT have a chain - instead get some weights to run down the rope and hold it horizontal... with a retrieval line connected to the weight and one to the back of the anchor, to make it easier to pull up in stages. What are peoples thoughts on that? Many thanks in advance

Very many thanks for these Mike

Thank you for your comments Magpie... I am currently headed down to Bath from York - I was initially considering how I would get on as a CC, but from what I have seen and read elsewhere this is looking increasingly unlikely... I am looking to live-aboard the majority of the time with occasional trips for business - I have a 40ft Narrowboat - so any suggestions and recommendations on places to look would be much appreciated, or is it best to get down there and then look around for a couple of month and speak to people locally? (My ETA is around the end of August to Mid September) Would it be worth considering just setting up a winter mooring, or is that like hen's teeth too? Is there an online forum anywhere for discussion just for the area from Bradford-on-avon to Bristol? Many thanks in advance.

I came up through Cromwell today - I did not arrive at Cromwell until 16:40 and the lock was shut, with a red light. I moored up and walked up to the control tower and no one was in (as they finish at 16:00) Fortunately the lock keeper was just coming out of his house and very kindly did the lock for me. He said that they are short staffed, which is why the locks are on limited times and even he has had problems getting hold of the other locks. He also said that he thinks as of the start of August they will be back to full staffing with the tides. Here is hoping for those traversing the Trent soon

Hello Derek, You are right - and I apologise for going so far off topic especially in the Historic and Heritage section - it probably should have been in pub talk. I am certainly interested in the debate - as a practical green, rather than a we must do it at all costs - a change will only happen if it is acceptable to the masses. Look forward to haring more about historic electric boats. Thank you

Hi Ian, Thank you and great to have your thoughts on induction chraging... what do you think to this podcast - fullycharged - Induction @ 50-75Kw range? And the PR Release for a Jaguar iPace taxi rank that uses induction charging; (PR NEWSWIRE) Also - regards NIMBY on the tidal lagoons - the ones proposed in Cardiff would be for public recreation too - and provide local long term jobs and a site for olympic training - and a nature park - seems like something nice to have The plans I am looking at is NOT the Barrage, which I totally agree would be an environmental disaster - the ones I am looking at is for a Lagoon to the side of the channel. That is why we need to develop a distributed grid system, with renewable power spread out across the country, rather than concentrating it in giant power stations... This would be more efficient - a bit like develoving government to the local area (oops, probably, should not go there either!) Hi Derek - Some people think we have already passed peak car ownership - the youth of today are not so keen on even learning to drive. More and more car clubs are popping up, where it is easy to just go and grab a car for the period you need it... on average most people's cars spend over 90% of their time parked - so with car clubs and (coming soon) automous vehicles people will most probably not buy a car, but use it on an as an when basis - yes, there will be exceptions and people who will still need to own cars (especially in rural communities) but as more and more people are moving to cities - car ownership is declining. Indeed the share of car ownership is moving even more from private individuals to lease companies - mostly leasing to other companies. Please, can you let me know where you got that statistic from, as it is my understanding that Onshore Wind is now the lowest cost form of new energy? (BLOOMBERG) Yes, they do need maintenance, but a lot less and a lot less costly than a gas fired power station, which is our main alternative at the moment. In the graph below - Grey is Nuclear (considered a green technology, interestingly) Orange is Combined Cycle Gas Turbine, Biomas is Brown, Blue is Wind and Yellow is Solar. Blue is pumped hydro (Like Dinorwig) So yes, last year - most of our power came from gas... https://gridwatch.co.uk/demand/percent This year, a lot more from Wind, and also a lot more from Solar since COVID grounded a load of aeroplanes! I do agree that by themselves Solar and Wind are not the answer to the UK's energy needs - but it can vastly help (along with Micro Geothermal) Indeed - and it was due to a parallel situation in New York, where they had 3 -5 story piles of horse manure, that the Model T Ford became so popular... the first cars were electric though - it was just the charging and range that was an issue.... I think it is being proven now that it is no longer the case. Yes the charging infrastructure needs working on - but with scheme like https://www.plugshare.com/ and https://co-charger.com/

I totally agree with you on this - there is going to be an ever increasing need to supply electricity and we are going to see an increase in these levels before it decreases. One potential way for it to local-side decrease would be with the introduction of autonomous vehicles and charging zones - then you would only need to be able to provide 'mass' power to certain areas. Unfortunately - the only motor company who is really preparing for this is Tesla - and even they are still working with a plug-in solution rather than an induction based solution, which would be the most sensible for autonomous charging. Regards the banning of gas boilers - this will only be on newbuild properties, which they should install solar and batteries into at the same time if the developers have any sense. If you listen to the podcast from Fullycharged with Moixa - it is a well thought way of implementing all these systems without having to re-lay loads of cabling (as least on new houses) - https://fullycharged.show/podcasts/podcast-69/ and it is possible to retrofit too. So - Ian - from this extra column... it appears that Tidal Lagoons are a very low cost per kWh energy source? It is important to bear in mind this would only be PART of the solution This article here - https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2016/10/tidal-and-wind-energy-in-the-uk - does have some different figures With Onshore wind being in the region of £52 / kWh by 2020 - its conclusion is also that the UK would benefit mostly from a mix of wind and tide based energy solutions.

In the UK we are 'lucky' in this respect - we are an Island - and in fact have some of the highest tidal ranges in the world around our shores. Projects like this - http://www.tidallagoonpower.com/projects/cardiff/ - it has the potential to generate 3,000 MW - as a comparison - Hinckley C capacity is around 3,260MW I know which project I would rather support! And they have 4 other sites which show great potential... If you want to take it local - there is potential to build micro geothermal power stations like they are going to at the Eden Porject - https://www.edengeothermal.com/ These are not sources which come and go, but will provide a reliable and constant source of power - in fact the tidal lagoons can potentially be switched on and off like the hydro at Denorwig If you need something quick - then there are these tidal turbines - which generate far more power than wind turbines, due to the increased density of water over air - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-49471881 Yes, we do need battery (or other) storage and there are a lot of very creative people all over the world working on different solutions... for the moment - it would be very 'easy' for the 'Grid' to deploy battery banks at local substations. It is all very exciting really in the race to decarbonise - it will be interesting to see what rules and regs they bring in about inland boat engines and if they will introduce the equivalent of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone requiring hybrid or Electric drive trains. (There may already be some out there, but I am newly back to the cut after 9 years...)

It may be obligated - but they did not do it for me - I sent the text and got one back saying that I had to call them or do it via their website. Via their website was straight forward, but you have to have the old sim in your phone to get the pin code to get the PAC code... Anyway - all sorted, so hopefully my number will come across soon. To be fair - BT has been good and provided a good reliable service for the most part. When our Broadband at the house went down, as we had Halo they immediately gave me unlimited data on my phone to use that as a hotspot and sent out a mini Mi-Fi hub enabled for about a week longer than the outage... that all went very smoothly.

I talked to the lock keeper and he gave advice on the best time to go... about 7:40 on Friday or 8:30 on Saturday (so around 6:50 tomorrow I guess)

This FullyCharged podcast is interesting and how they need to solve the issue. https://fullycharged.show/podcasts/podcast-69/ Smart Grids and local battery storage, including smart chargers - so you don't need to massively upgrade the infrastructure, just use is it better. One thing they do need to plan over the next 10 to 15 years is for the retirement of the majority of the nuclear facilities. This is replaceable with renewables, but they need to work out storage too...

I am heading out from Keadby to Cromwell on Saturday 25th at around 08:30... anyone else?

Regards fully battery powered cars - BEV - with the intro of the Tesla Model 3 things are starting to shift. https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-news/bestselling-cars/ OK, so still need a LOT more, but it is proven that a good practical car can be made. The majority of current new model BEV's will do a upwards of 200 miles on a charge, and some will do over 400 miles. Then charging times - if you have a Tesla you can charge up 300 miles in 30 minutes... which is how long it takes you to get into the average service station, use the bathroom and get out again! Even the slower charging cars are getting a lot better - the Nissan Leaf takes 40 mins to get to 80% charge, and the Renault Zoe takes about an hour. The thing to think about though is that the majority of people do not charge their cars anywhere, other than at their home for the majority of the time... simply get home, plug in and wake up with a full 'tank' the next morning... (you can not do that with Petrol or Diesel) A fully electric narrow boat - that is something I am hoping to aim for and will most certainly be looking into the practicalities of it... there must be some car parks close to canals where companies would want to install rapid chargers for cars, that they could take a feed off for boats too. OR we need to develop a unit, which is 'easily' removable, so that you can take it to the local car park to charge up - for that we need much greater power density or they would be far too heavy to move. They do have a review of a hybrid boat in this month Waterways World - https://waterwaysworld.com/magazine/onsalenow

Hi Welshmally... Curiously I am in a similar situation, I picked up my girl last Thursday in York and she has an air-cooled Lister engine... Again - in order to operate the gears, I need to have the hatch open, but ALSO the engine has quite a haze and if the hatch (or doors) were not open then the engine room would soon fog up. My way round it - to put in my mpow earbuds and listen to podcasts whilst I am cruising... This is the newer version of them - https://amzn.to/2E9qLjo - works well, and then when I stop for a lock I take one out so I can talk to people I also have the issue with getting in and out, it is not the easiest... and mine is metal topped to moving the hatch is a bigger job... but I may have it done one day. You say you have a wooden top, so can you move the hatch over to the side with the access to the cabin and put steps down there? I am on my way down to Bath and will be coming via Oxford - I should be there in about 25 days if you fancy meeting up for a chat...