Jen-in-Wellies

Carbon fibre fingers? Strong and light. ?

Another possibility for you is to get a marina berth with a shore power bollard for the winter months give it up and cruise over the warmer months when plenty of solar panels can keep your IT and other electrical needs going. Lots of people do this. Some keep and pay for the marina mooring all year, but cruise in the summer. Others pick a new over-winter spot each year, which saves money and provides novelty.

I wonder if the owner did the blacking themselves to save a bit of dosh.

Another valid way of doing it. A rod welded between the top and bottom of the gas locker, then a ratchet strap to clamp up to three gas bottles to it. They don't budge a millimeter. Passed multiple BSS exams. Jen

The rules on securing gas bottles haven't changed, to my knowledge, in the 13 years since I first put a boat through the BSS. It is always best to go to the source document for the requirements for private boats, rather than go by what different people tell you are the requirements, including me and definitely including BSS examiners. Different examiners have their own interpretation of the rules, which can be sometimes rather creative shall we say. Section 7.1 covers LPG cylinder storage and 7.4.1 covers securing said cylinders. Basically the cylinders must be prevented from moving, so they can't damage hoses, regulators and so on, which could lead to a leak. How that is achieved is up to you, but the examiner must also agree that it complies. Jamming in enough bottles so they can't budge could be said to do this, but you may have to argue it with an examiner, who is more used to seeing chains, ratchet straps etc. I'd imagine some examiners would not be open to the idea that lots of cylinders jammed in to a small space fulfils this, then you'd have to argue it with the BSS head office and maybe still not get a pass, plus the cost of a retest. Easiest to fit some securing straps, or chains as they are expecting. No argument then. How hard can that be? Better to get the brackets for the securing arrangement welded (with the bottles removed!) to the inside of the locker. Problem solved. Bolting something through the locker is not such a good idea as BSS examiners don't like unexpected holes in the locker, except for the drains, even if they are filled with a bolt. Jen

If you budget for spending a pound on what you are used to spending a dollar on, you won't go far wrong. We have VAT, a sort of sales tax, which is higher than most sales taxes in the States,. Things will seem expensive compared with back home, but at least you aren't going to Norway! Won't work if one, or the other currency disappears down the toilet between now and when you come over of course. Jen

The 10A charger should suffice. Don't know about that particular model, but a lot of fridges seem to take around 5A at 12V to run and run for maybe 50% of the time, with a high inrush current for a fraction of a second when the compressor starts up. A 10A charger will cope with this and should keep the new batts happy. The power consumption of the fridge depends on a lot of things, even for the same make and model. How well ventilated the area around its heat exchanger coils are, how good condition the door seal is in, but the above numbers shouldn't be far off. Jen

On the plus side, our pints are bigger than American pints!

The most common type of PRV (pressure relief valve) looks like this - Its job is to release any excess pressure in the system. Very important. Sometimes they can drip because scale gets caught inside and prevents it closing properly. Follow the pipe that comes out of it and find out where the excess water ends up. Could go overboard, or in to the bilge, or in to a bottle that needs to be regularly emptied, or in to the engine bay. Depends. The copper pipe in my picture, but yours may be plastic. Turn the red knob a few times to try and clear the scale. Jen

If it can float the same way up and is big enough to get on board, then it is a boat. After that, everything is optional.

Along the L&L in March? E's sure ta catch 'is death o' cold.

Welcome to the forum. Is this travelling on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the Bridgewater? Going there via the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal you can have a much bigger widebeam. By John Eyres - https://www.flickr.com/photos/32865578@N02/3418179672/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16394014

I see the problem. For mitre read single leaf, which is what I intended to say! Couldn't see it for looking.

Well, the first post says: So @magpie patrick was asking about bottom gates and that is what I replied to. I then went on to give my thoughts. I am fully aware that they single leaf gates are not commonly used on the bottom and are on the top, with some exceptions, like the Bosley flight that has mitres both ends. The reasons, I believe are more space required to swing the bottom gate past a boat in the lock and possibly less strength than a pair of mitres. Not sure how much more clear I needed to be?

The thread is about bottom gates. I'm talking about bottom gates. Read the first post. I've travelled by boat quite a lot thanks.

It is loud. Windows shatter, car alarms go off, birds fall stunned from the sky. Don't you hear it too?

Me too! ?

A single leaf gate in a decrepit state would be more at risk of blowing out I'd have thought. An arch is stronger than a beam and a pair of mitre gates is a sort of arch in construction. Other safety aspects would favour a single leaf. No risk of a bow, or rudder getting trapped in the mitre and the boat either hung up in falling water, or trapped down as the water rises. Also no risk of someone doing the bold step from a single closed mitre gate to the other and falling in. A lock would need to be designed with single leaf gates in mind as they need more space to swing for the same maximum length boat. Edited to add: I suspect it is rare to hear of a mitre narrow bottom lock gate blowing out because narrow mitre bottom lock gates are themselves rather rare! The few examples I can think of off the top of my head are on stop locks, so you only drop 6" or a foot in the resulting wooosh! Jen

If the batteries are well charged and you aren't drawing power to run something, then that will limit the current from the panels. You need to compare a similar state of battery discharge, or better, compare the current in to a dummy load. Jen

You presume correctly. I assume this is a V belt. If so, are you sure you have the right width? Is the bottom of the groove in one, or more pulleys shiny? If it is, you may have too narrow a belt. V belts work by gripping the sloping sides of the pulley. Too narrow a belt and it runs on the bottom, where there is much less surface area to grip, hence they slip. V belts are available in several widths. If you try a wider one, then the length may need to be increased so it will fit. A friend had this problem with a raw water pump. Jen Unlikely to help. Below a certain speed, the alternator won't be able to start charging. Generally, people want to speed up boat alternators as they run slow compared with vehicle installations.