Jen-in-Wellies

Hoisting big blocks of stuff up and letting them fall down is an actual thing for storing power. No joke. Seehttps://www.gravitricity.com/ and https://heindl-energy.com/

Swivel chairs are for swivelling in! Got to take the considerable forces involved once you build up a good rpm. ☺️ What others have said. Most towns of any size will have a bearing stockist. Take them in and let them match them up. Jen

Does it absolutely have to be 10l? I've had a cheapo 5l plastic can of the sort that most garages sell rattling around in the boot of various cars for years. Never a whiff of a leak, which your nose would spot straight away. 2x5l = 10l. Carry one in each hand back from the garage after filling up, rather than 10l in one hand. Jen

Nope, your brain is fine. It is mine that has the misfire today. For some bizarre reason it substituted coal with gas. ?

Does the boat have a locker built in for one or more gas cylinders already? If it was built as a gas-less boat, then retrofitting a gas locker that meets the boat safety scheme requirements would be extra expense and push you in the direction of diesel. Jen Edited with strikethrough 'cause it is complete twaddle!

Should be pretty easy to do. As @peterboat says, it won't thermosyphon on its own without a pump as the hot bit is higher than the cool end (cauliflower), but it doesn't need a big pump. I've quite bit of experience with solar thermal on my boat. I would think that without a transparent cover over the photovoltaic panels you'll only get a significant output of warm water on the very hottest days. As the water in the cauliflower heats up, then the return coolant back to the panels will get warmer and eventually you'll run in to the reduced pv efficiency problem anyway. If the calorifier is already warmed up, then you might end up with reduced electrical output. Might be better to have the coolant going to a small skin tank to dump the heat in to the canal. This may well be more expensive to set up than just adding an extra panel or two to compensate for the loss. If the panel array is sized to give you enough power during the summer, then on a hot day it will be over producing anyway. Twelve years ago I had a gadget that swung the two panels I had in an arc automatically to track the sun. Cost £250 to buy, but was worth it as an extra panel was £400 at the time. I eventually replaced it with another panel for £70 and mounted all of them flat to the roof and still got more output. Since then, panel costs have continued to drop. Jen

Mines a reverse layout boat, with the kitchen at the stern, so just open the slide hatch and/or doors, depending on the amount of rain, or how cold it is outside. No use to you, if your boat isn't similar though. Jen

Since the C&H is now getting trashed by floods on a regular basis it makes sense to take the time and see what can be done to reduce the risk that the rebuild won't be destroyed again at the next "100 year" flood as soon as it reopens. That may not necessarily be a straight rebuild of what was there before. Jen

Good job CaRT aren't responsible for maintaining that one.

The front end of a boar is very spiky.

Before filling the fuel, or water tanks up for the first time, take the filler caps off, turn the boat upside down and give it a good shake. Jen ?

In the two marinas I've moored, the facilities block has been a long walk down jetties from the boat. When it is dark, the wind is howling and the sleet is coming in sideways the on-board facilities are very attractive. Rarely use the site showers here, but good for a long soak occasionally if the cauliflower is cold. No laundry on site.

Oh dear. A tribute to the strength of the barrier it is balanced on.

To find the real cruising rpm there are various frequency analyser apps available for Android and Iphone mobiles and tablets. They use the microphone and give a sound frequency indication from the engine sound they pick up, which can be converted to an engine speed. Needs a bit of interpretation to get the right value, but useful. If there is a tachometer on the control panel its accuracy will depend on if it was set up properly in the first place. Not something that can be totally trusted. Jen

Definitely go for a larger engine pulley, rather than a smaller alternator pulley if at all possible. The smaller the alternator pulley, the less surface area is available for the belt to grip and the more chance of slip under high loads when charging empty batteries. Also, the wear on the belt will be worse.

What is the maximum engine revs of your Lister? What is the diameter of the engine pulley? What is the diameter of the alternator pulley. You don't want the alternator going over speed at max engine revs, so take the ratio of the two pulley diameters and multiply it by max engine revs. Divide that by two if the engine pulley is on the camshaft pulley, rather than the engine pulley. As long as that number isn't greater than the maximum safe speed for the alternator, then all is OK. An older style Lucas alternator, like the one that appears to be fitted to your engine, is probably good up to around 12,000rpm. Modern alternators can go a lot higher. This should give you an idea of how big a step up is OK. Jen

Back on topic. Another option is a fisherman's landing net. A friend bought me one when I first moved on board to retrieve the cat when it fell in. It is very good for that, but also works for floating rubbish too. Jen

For the OP, if you do do this note the following. With the starter off the engine, you'll need to bolt the battery black earth lead that goes somewhere on the engine to the starter motor body via one of the bolt holes as well as the big battery 12V+ lead to the main tag and any other wires. The kick when the starter turns is considerable. Be ready for it, preferably by having the starter held in a vice. Be careful with the wires. Any short circuits will flow very high currents and produce big fat sparks. Jen

Thanks for the reply. I am also guessing that they would be a lot of work to make, compared with stitching in a zip. Inserting all the eyelets, ensuring the loops are the correct length and stitching them in. Jigs might help, once you've got the optimum length, for a particular spacing and canvas thickness.

Someone has to be brave enough to go first, since no one on here seems to have done it this way. Also needs a canopy maker open to the idea. Wonder what @Kinver Canopies thinks of the concept? Jen

It can be done from both sides. Not as easy, but can be done. Canvas type materials are flexible. Tent doors need to be done up from both sides on differing occasions too.

It has been windy enough these past few weeks. Why on earth would you want to install something to generate more? ?

I went in to Aldi for one of their centre aisle special buy chocolate tea pots and they had sold out already. Only had ecofans left.

They do seem to be an effective intelligence test!

Explosive bolts holding the windows in. ?