Jen-in-Wellies

Shiny varnish here after sanding smooth. After twelve years it still looks good, just with a bit of patina.

The Victron switch over from shore to inverter and back is so fast that a PC is unaffected. Similar to a UPS. Might be worth just switching the inverter off when you are cruising and all your gadgets are charged up. Alternatively, look at 12V car style USB chargers for phones and such like, which will mean you can keep your inverter off, or in power save mode for longer and save more battery charge. Jen

With Victron stuff you still get the automatic switch over from shore mains to inverter if the shore mains goes out. If you have the charger working from the incoming shore mains, then you get automatic switch on of the charger too. Needs some work on RCD's etc to ensure it is properly protected, but can be done. Another automatic switching possibility is with a mains relay, switching the charger on downstream of the consumer unit when the mains shore in has power. As @Sea Dog says, it is more wiring, but more resilient.

+1 on this. If/when my combi needs replacing I'll be installing a separate charger and inverter. Much more damage resistant. Jen

It doesn't need to. The charger current needs to be matched to the battery bank size, but that is a matter of buying a combi with the appropriate current to either charge from low, or maintain the charge, depending on how you use your boat. My 1600VA Victron combi is perfectly adequate for charging 4x115Ahr batteries and a 60Ahr start battery from low, for example. For inverting, it will just draw the current it needs till the battery voltage drops below the set level, when it will alarm and shut off the mains output. They are. They are little switches on the circuit board under the front cover of the combi. DIP stands for dual inline package and are switches that can be placed and soldered on to a circuit board by automated manufacturing equipment. like other electronic components. Often used for configuration settings that will not need altering often. They are easy to set, but small. A cocktail stick, or match stick may be useful if you have sausage fingers. ? Just set the combination you want for charging regime on two of the switches, then cycle the end switch to store the new setting in the units memory, as described in the manual. Never tried I'm afraid. What does it do? My inverter is pretty ancient now, so it may not have it. Edited to add: Search mode can cause problems with things like phone chargers, where the power draw is below the threshold for turning on the mains. Fridges can also be a problem sometimes. I've never tried it, but some have. Depends what gadgets you have hooked up to the mains if you can live with it or not. Jen

I went the lined sailaway route on my boat, twelve years ago now. I don't think Pipers are in that market now. They seem to concentrate on Dutch barge style wide beams. As @Boater Sam says, you need to decide where your services go first as they will be behind the lining, but there are lots of other things that will be making holes in the lining. My electrics were all behind the lining, but plumbing and gas pipes were not, so joints were accessible. I did drawings of where everything was to go. 12V socket outlets. Ceiling down light position, light switch positions, mains socket positions and if they were a single, or double pattress, so a suitable cutout could be made. Skin fitting locations, window locations and if they were porthole, narrow bus window, wide bus window, or side hatch. Roof vent locations. Internal bulkhead locations to define the bathroom area. Water and other pump locations, so the wires could be laid to them. Electrics cupboard location, where the wires all terminate. I did it on a Cad package, so got nice drawings to give to them, but dimensioned hand drawn diagrams would work to. Simon Piper reckoned it was the first time a customer had done Cad drawings for their boat! The more detail you give the builder the better chance you'll get the lining as you want it and the fewer changes and patches you'll have to make. However, any mistakes you make will be entirely your responsibility! Jen

Yikes! £200 for a 16A plug and socket.

Is this travel going to be by sea round the coast, or by inland waterways? Whereabouts in Norfolk? Just trying to understand how the boat is going to be used.

Do you have shore electric power available at your usual mooring? Are you not planning to spend much time away from the mooring in winter? If the answer to both of these is yes, then perhaps an electric mains heater, driven from the shore power connection, might be your best option. Will keep you warm when sleeping, or staying on the boat in winter. Given the small size of the boat and the space required for any sort of diesel, solid fuel, or gas heater, plus their fuel supply and the safety requirements you'd have to meet, then mains electric heating might be the best bet. Compact size. There are safety things to take in to account and corrosion protection to consider for the metal hull fittings, but no risk of explosion, or CO poisoning. When cruising in spring, summer and autumn, just wrap up warm during the day and put a thicker duvet on the bed. Don't cruise with an overnight stop in winter, unless it is very mild. Obviously, none of this will work if you don't have shore power, so in that case ignore! Jen

More complicated. A lot of configuration can only be with a Victron hardware inferface and either a VE.net panel, or a laptop and their software installed. Some settings can be changed on internal DIP switches. See the manual. Impossible to say if you can do it yourself, or not. You also need to ensure that cable lengths/sizes, fuses, location and AC electrics are also correct. Unless you are comfortable with all that, then get in someone who knows boat electrics and can configure Victron stuff, especially if you want to change the as shipped standard settings. It is an expensive blue box to make go bang. If your old inverter was wired in with poor practices, then simply replacing it with a Victron will just carry those over. Jen, who has hooked up Victron combis, but kept the standard settings.

Unfortunately, this just doesn't work with the plug and socket on my boat. I've tried it. May be different on yours. Driving rain, or snow settling will get water in through the gap shown. This then collects in the shore lead socket, till it forms enough depth to allow live-earth leakage. The way up in my original photo prevents this, leaving only the cable entry in to the shore lead socket as a route in. Hence the extra hot melt glue around the cable entry. Besides which, your photo shows my boat upside down and I really don't want to do that! ? Jen

At last! An answer from someone who knows. I don't think I have ever seen a boat with these plugs and sockets horizontal. We've all got it wrong! ? The four threaded holes in the bulkhead to attach the wall plug are on a rectangle, rather than a square, so no easy way to turn mine horizontal. Jen

Reversing the ecofan gives you air conditioning on those hot summer days. Just save the ash and empty coal bags from the winter. When the weather gets too hot simply fill the ash pan with ash and place it in the stove. Put the ecofan on top, facing away from the room and give the blades a flick to get it started. Marvel as you boat cools to a comfortable temperature. You need to remember to remove the coal from above the grate a couple of times a day as it fills up and regularly stoke up the ash pan. If you've remembered to save your coal sacks you'll have somewhere to store it ready for the next winter. You won't completely regenerate all the coal you've used. There are some losses that are impossible to eliminate. Thermodynamics, as @Machpoint005 has said. Jen

Those look much better. The IP44 fittings used on most UK inland boats are a bit rubbish really. Jen

I think the picture there is of a wall mount socket, not plug, judging by the sprung loaded cover. With a wall mount plug, mounted facing downwards, then water can run in between it and the round blue plastic protecting the socket of the shore lead. It collects at the bottom of the socket until there is enough current leakage to trip the bollard RCD. Turning them so they face up, the way the blue plastic mouldings are layered when inserted shields the wall mount plug from water pooling around the pins, unless the rain is extreme. Jen

Don't know, never found one. If it does, then I doubt if more than a tiny percentage of people fitting one have read it. There are better solutions, but most boats have the IP44 sockets. The one you've linked to needs a big cut out in the steelwork to install, but is much neater as you say.

As has already been mentioned, the typical connectors on boats are splash proof only. IP44. I reckon most boats have the sockets installed the wrong way up. If they are installed as shown below, the water doesn't collect around the pins, between plug and socket anything like so easily. The cable entry on the plug has hot melt glue around it to slow down water ingress and the cable is arranged with a loop, so most of the water running down it drips from the bottom of the loop. Since doing all this the frequency of it tripping out the bollard from getting wet inside has reduced considerably. Driving rain on to the connector and snow seemed to be particular problems. Jen

These two may be able to recommend a suitably rated switch. Mad! They said I was mad! Bwahahahahahaha!

Reverse layout. No chance of spilling a cup of tea all over the bedding when taking it from the galley to the steerer. Jen ?

Another spellllin mishtake, Woodburn Road should actually be Woodbourn Road! You have a choice of seven to pick from. Farnham, Edgware, Hayling Island, London, Sheffield, Herefordshire and Nottinghamshire.

Maybe I could sell a boatmans stove upgrade kit, a brake shoe spring and a ball of string for £200. My customers would still save £200 compared with buying a squirrel.

Being charitable, since the different spellings are all anagrams, it is possible the characters just arrived in a different order from which they were sent! Or is that not the way email works? ?

Top tip! Wait for the poker to cool down after using it as a soldering iron, before sticking it in your ear.

Received this notice of a towpath closure from CaRT. They have managed to spell Staniforth three different ways in the space of a few lines. There is a Stainforth Road at Barnby Dun, near Doncaster, but no Satinforth Road.

How about a perky new squirrel? Also available in grey.