rjasmith

Good Lord - So can I now! Well done Rich and thanks from me too! Back in 2018 something made me want to look again at someone's photos I'd once seen in the Gallery. It must have been just after a forum upgrade or move to a different platform or whatever. Having found the gallery no longer worked for me I suppose I just gave up and forgot about it. I've now got no idea what it was I wanted to look for 5 years ago- can't have been that important but I'll have a rummage in there sometime now that I can! Richard

Oh good - It isn't just me then! Richard

No not really! I do have some nice doors - just painted white, boring perhaps but I like them. Richard

Thanks for the suggestion but clicking your link doesn't work either! Richard

Thanks for that! But I can't see anything in there! Not even those nice garage doors! I do feel deprived! Can you see anything else that might be vaguely interesting? I'm using a Win 10 PC whereas perhaps you're on a phone of some sort. Perhaps there's a forum setting I need to change? Richard

Back in 2018 I asked a question about why I can't see anything if I click on the Gallery menu! I started getting some help from @RichM who gave me a link to get to it but that didn't work for me either! Are there supposed to be any pictures in there, if so why can't I see them or if there aren't, what is the pulldown Gallery label there for? Still puzzled after all these years! Richard

Have you got a draught stabiliser flap on the flue just above the top of your Refleks? If you do, is it set up correctly? (Eg like one of these https://www.toplicht.de/en/cabin-comfort/stoves-heaters/exhaust-gas-regulatos-spares-accessories/refleks/4678/flue-gas-damper-refleks) Richard

Looks like 40A and 60A are available in the Mega fuse range and there are even suppliers on eBay! Richard

Oh dear! This is not a good start to 2019! I've just spoken to MCL on the phone and they say it was for the usual reasons that other County Libraries have decided to shut off remote access via their websites to BSOL, ie BSI themselves adjusting their access licence rules rather than increasing the charges beyond the level where the library felt it was uneconomic. Apparently MCL are still in discussion over the changes so watch this space (but don't hold your breath). Meantime, try heading over to Glasgow Libraries perhaps. I've just found my way in via their website which currently still works! Richard

As you are "looking up the regulations" (ref your OP) why not have a go at using Manchester City Library's excellent website to read the definitive advice on boat stove installation from British Standards Code of Practice, BS 8511:2010. The "Soliftec" guide drawing everyone quotes is merely a precis of BS 8511 and is very helpful but doesn't give all the options by any means. The Boat Safety Scheme also extensively refers to BS 8511 as I'm sure you already know. I have endlessly explained on CWDF before how to access this doc using the library site and here's a link to an earlier post that does this as it's not completely obvious! The MCL site allows any UK resident to view BS docs for free and you do not have to be a library member. Using a metal shield is completely acceptable to BS 8511 and is Option B (para 7.3). Option A is the usual insulated board and Calcium Silicate is clearly the best. For Option B the type of metal is not specified so steel would be fine. The way the metal shield is fixed is vital and there must be an air gap at the bottom as well as the top to let convection air currents pass up behind the shield. Also the metal sheet must be fixed to the combustible wall behind using insulated stand offs. BS 8511 gives excellent sketches of how this can be done and specifies a whole range of acceptable gap dimensions etc. Richard

Thirded Richard

Best way to read Recreational Craft Directive related info is to use Manchester City Library's (MCL) free link to British Standards Online (BSOL) website (link here). Click on the "Go to British Standards Online" box. Once in BSOL, in their little search box (top right hand, in the grey bit) type in the number "13297" for the ISO standard that covers the RCD requirements for Boat AC electrical systems. A list of 5 results will come up. You want the top one which will give you the latest edition (2014) of BS EN ISO 13297. To read the document (you're not allowed to print or download it I'm afraid unless you want to buy it for £198!), click on the little icon to the far right of the title (looks like a little Adobe Acrobat logo, above the words "In your subscription"). After a short delay a read only .pdf version of the doc will open and you'll be able to read all of it for free (all paid for by MCL). Very few libraries in UK cover the cost of doing this now - thank you MCL! You can read copies of 13297 and some other RCD ISOs by just Googling but these are very often pirated copies of out of date issues. The 2014 issue of 13297 has very nice drawings of typical boat AC installations at the back, earlier issues don't have these. Richard

I have fairly successfully matched a replacement pressure sender to a gauge in an old Land Rover. The sender may either work with a diaphragm that changes a variable resistor wiper or, more commonly, it may mechanically change the mark/space ratio of a pulsing contact. The gauge I had used this second principle. The gauge sends a current (from 12v) into the sender which does two things. In the gauge, it heats a little element which causes the needle to move because it's attached to a bimetallic strip and in the sender it heats another element. The sender is arranged like a car indicator flash relay and starts "flashing" quietly thus pulsing the current on and off. Oil pressure moves a diaphragm in the sender which alters the flash contact position slightly and therefore changes the current's mark/space ratio. As oil pressure rises the current is more ON than OFF and the gauge needle moves further from zero to show this. The reverse happens for lower pressure. all very crude but simple! The pulsing is too fast for the slow response gauge so the needle doesn't "wobble" in time to the pulse. I didn't have a sender for the L/R because I'd lost the original in my garage (very silly)! However new ones working this way are available from eg here or try an eBay search for "Oil Pressure Sender Land Rover". Your BMC engine probably uses Smiths gauges which should be compatible with these senders. I did a bit of calibration on my set up using an air line and a known correct air pressure gauge. To get it spot on I found I needed a small shunt resistor of about 100 ohms across the oil gauge. The only other thing you'll need to get right is the pipe connection to the engine. I had to buy a thread size adaptor once I'd found what was needed. You may want to use a few other fittings anyway so that you can position the new sender out of the way of the filter. Richard

OK - here are the dimensions of my Premier in good old fashioned inches I'm afraid! Measured across top plate - 20" x 13" (No side extender plates fitted) Height bottom of base plate to top of top plate - 13" I have the legs on mine although they are for "show" only - I use a welded steel hidden "chassis" behind them to support it. The legs add a further 8 3/4" if you use them. However where will you find a Premier nowadays? I thought the foundry/assembly place on the IoM (linked to Midland Chandlers) had long ago stopped producing them. Richard edit to add - Of course you could go for one of those Bubble Back Cabin stoves which are also welded rather than cast but maybe they're a bit big and also have a rather big price! (I haven't got one and have no connection to Harworth Heating!) Link here

Splendid new Wheeze Bizz! But did you know these things are really with us and have been for the last 30 years or so? The JET Fusion experiment at Culham uses two fairly enormous flywheel generators to help smooth out the 300Mw pulses of power dragged out of the Nat Grid when they fire up the torus to create a hydrogen plasma. These things are spun up beforehand and help stabilise the Nat Grid to stop it all going horribly wobbly (technical term) while the pulse is on. Seems like a long time ago now but I was a bit involved with this stuff in 1984 when Nat Grid was still part of the CEGB! The motor/generators on the ends of the flywheel shafts are similar to the ones inside the Dinorwig pumped storage power station (300Mw each machine). Here's the best picture link I can find. Link Richard

Re bit in red above - I wish I had a gramophone record I could play to say this! You can afford to read "these codes"! Just go to Manchester City Library website and find their link to their online reference library. Search for British Standards. A link to British Stds online (BSOL) will come up. Use that, MCL pay the BSOL licence (bless them!). Free for you and you don't even have to be an MCL member. Once in BSOL search using the std no (eg 13240 and perhaps, another time, 8511 -the CoP for "Stoves in Boats" of which the Soliftec sketch is a precis). You will then get the titles of stds having this number, listed. Choose the one you're interested in and click the little icon on the far right (quick view). Eventually the full text of the std will appear as a read only .pdf. You'll find 13240 very technical but 8511 is quite practical and readable and IMHO gives all the answers! Morso and Aarrow were represented at a high level in the drafting of 8511 back in 2010 and I believe all their 13240 compliant stoves meet the <100°C to the hearth requirement but it's good that you've asked the mfr in your case, it's what I did and so I can use the not less than 12mm non combustible hearth under my stove. Other hearth arrangements are given in 8511 and it now accepts that a 125mm constructional hearth is probably the least popular solution for a boat!!! Richard edit to add;- Actually I couldn't remember what stove you said you were looking at originally so I've just re read your OP. As "The Biscuits" has already pointed out, your manual already says that the stove can use a 12mm non combustible hearth so therefore it doesn't raise hearth temp by more than 100°C in the 13240 test.

No need to spend any money to read a BSI or ISO etc standard you know! Just go to Manchester City Libraries (MCL) Online Reference library (ideally you should become a member as I have and (I think) uniquely MCL offers library membership to ANY UK resident). From there they provide a link to British Stds Online (BSOL) (MCL pays for the BSOL access licence! Thank you MCL!). Enter the Std no of your choice in the BSOL search box and when the titles come up you'll see a little icon on the far right of it (Quick View). Click this and a read only .pdf will come up of the Std's full text. I've just had a look at BS EN 50291-2 and the paragraphs relating to Recreational Craft are in deed interesting and definitely relate to salty boats ie the alarm must stand up to all sorts of vibration, heel angles, crashing about in waves, salt water splashing about, even non interference with marine VHF etc etc. Have a read for yourself! Richard

Here's a youtube showing John and Andy (of Seaward Eng) starting up a TBSC8 Richard

Excellent news! I'd been wondering about this recently after obtaining an old copy of the WACT magazine Wey South (Spring 2000) which had a photo on the front cover of various Southern Canals Assoc folks on a visit to the W & A canal. Pete Boyce was in the picture amongst them. Some years later we went to a presentation he gave locally on the recovery of Lucy and the plans to restore her. Richard

Martyn, Thanks very much for that long and detailed response! (Greenie issued!) I used to be fairly well versed in all of RCD1 and have read through RCD2 but without retaining the detail quite so well I fear. At the time of its approval in late 2013/early 2014 I was in contact with Mike Clarke in Belgium who I had once met at one of Kevin Whittle's vintage engine rallies (the one at Shardlow in 2004). I still have his emailed understanding of the new difficulties RCD2 would present when it was clear that his words that went into RCD1 were to be removed. I have since then always stuck with his advice on this specific point. Are you aware of what his clause used to say? I could look it up and send it to you if you're interested. Basically it exempted any engine that had been placed on the EU market prior to the coming into force of the RCD1 amendment that first introduced emissions requirements (approved in 2004 but in force from, I think, Jan 2006). Mike even produced an "Engine Declaration of Exemption" document quoting his clause that the builder could sign to go with the Annex XV Declaration of Compliance for all other aspects of the boat build! All this now can't work with RCD2 of course. I am however, from your last post, encouraged to study RCD2 again carefully to better understand how the clauses you have reminded us about (many of which were also in RCD1 but maybe subtly differently worded) can now be used by vintage engine fanatics. Richard

Martyn, Thanks for that, as I said, I thought the old "historic watercraft" stuff might still be helpful here but I don't think those clauses have changed significantly between RCD1 and RCD2. Without another careful study of Mike Clarke's "emissions matrix" sheet again I'm sure there were problems for fitting old engines in new narrow boats under RCD1 that caused him (together with 2 or 3 others) to invent his special clause and get it approved by both the EU Parliament and the Commission. He was even delighted when the Commission actually "improved" his words a bit! When I asked him specifically on this point back in 2013 he was adamant that with his clause removed the situation was radically changed and would be a significant problem for boat builders trying to fit old engines in new boats after RCD2 became mandatory. It's good to hear you say that UK and Netherland boat builders still have no problems these days. Can you point us at any names of UK boat firms that you deal with that are still fitting old engines? I suppose it's all down to whether a present day welded steel narrow boat with appropriate cabin shape configuration can be interpreted as an "original historic watercraft etc etc (words as above)". Richard

Alan, I think the simple answer is "no not really" but I'll do my best! The CB article is in the Sept 2017 issue which anyone can read online by now if that helps. The article doesn't go into great detail about vintage engines other than to remind us that emissions limits were first introduced in the 2004 amendment to the old 1998 RCD (RCD1) but RCD2 has now introduced the tighter 2010 USA limits for boat engines. It doesn't say that the difference between RCD1 and RCD2 is that a very significant but tiny clause in the 2004 RCD1 amendment put in by Mike Clarke (see post 17 above) was removed in RCD2 despite his strong protest to the (British) Rapporteur Malcolm Harbour. This clause specifically exempted from the requirement to meet the 2004 emissions limits any engine that had been built prior to 2005 (or 2006 - I can never remember which year it was!) This is what defines a "vintage or historic engine" in RCD1. Under RCD1 there were complicated interpretations of which types of boat this could be applied to (ie historic boat, historic replica new boat, historic engine, historic replica engine etc) and to clarify it Mike Clarke produced an "emissions matrix" sheet which used to exist on the British Marine website but will undoubtedly have been taken down now. (I still have a copy). With the removal of Mike's clause (RCD2 has repealed the old RCD1 and its 2004 amendment) the situation has radically changed and the simple case is now that all new build boats must be fitted with an emissions (2010 standard) compliant engine. I have no idea but perhaps there is still some room for manoeuvre via a different format of "emissions matrix" vis-a-vis new build historic replica boats plus of course if you build your own boat you can still do what you like and ignore RCD2 but not sell for 5 years. Back in 2013 there were suggestions of a get around, often favoured in Holland apparently, that would get a new boat built commercially and fitted with a vintage engine. This was where the buyer would commission a boat fitted with a compliant engine at first. The sale would then proceed with full RCD legality but the boat would stay where it was at the yard while the compliant engine was removed and a non compliant "vintage" engine fitted to the customers choice! The boat was now no longer RCD compliant but was what the owner originally wanted and the engine change was simply a "repair" subsequent to the legal new boat sale! If you read the CB article, Ross Wombwell clearly points out that RCD2 will no longer allow this as the engine change is classed as a "Major Craft Conversion" and it is a new responsibility for owners under RCD2 to have any such conversion rechecked for continued RCD2 compliance. This last show stopper hadn't previously occurred to me I have to say! Of course none of this stuff applies to boats with existing old engines that were built, either prior to or during the RCD1 era (1998 to January 18 2017). Not quite sure what happens if you change an engine in a previously RCD1 compliant boat for another non compliant engine from now on!!!! Richard

Mike, No this bit is still in there as before but the definition of "built by the owner for his own use" has had the word "predominantly" added in front of it! Mike Clarke in Belgium (the boat law expert I occasionally contact) interprets this as meaning that building from a bare hull is still OK but building from a sailaway might not be. Ross Wombwell agrees and elaborates further on this in the Canal Boat article which was in the Sept 2017 issue. It should be available now in the Back Numbers section on the CB website for anyone who wants more detail. Strangely this earth shattering fact seems to be passing everyone by! I wrote lots of stuff in various posts about the new RCD (now called RCD2) when it was originally approved back in 2013 but it didn't seem to cause much of a stir then either! Richard

Mick, Having got a phone no for Kevin Whittle and having not seen anything of him for a very long time I just picked up the phone and spoke to him a few mins ago! He's still in the land of the living and has received your email - I gather he is, just now replying to you and presumably you will get your copy of his book. Without wishing to start a great discussion on Vintage Engines and the EU, I'm not sure if you're thinking of buying a new boat with a vintage engine or trying to get a used one with a vintage engine in it already. The latter option will be fine of course but since last January the new version of the RCD became mandatory and now makes fitting a new boat with a vintage engine rather difficult so if following this option you will need to check this out carefully. A recent article in Canal Boat magazine written with the help of Ross Wombwell (British Marine Technical Manager) has some details of this. Richard

Just a small correction to this from my experience of using library membership to access the BSOL website to read BS or ISO standards. As you say this facility used to be available quite widely via County Libraries. Anyone can join the County Library for free provided they are resident in that county or in an adjacent county or have an accommodation address there. Once a member, you could either access BSOL online from anywhere by logging on with your library membership id or physically visit a local library and log on using one of their in house pcs. Unfortunately many if not most County Libraries have now dropped this service following price hikes by BSOL for the access licence combined with County Councils having to cut costs in the library service. Over the years I lost access from Surrey, then West Sussex, then Hampshire and finally Cambridgeshire. These four counties have even removed access via their in house pcs. Manchester City Library however stands out as a splendid exception! First of all, they allow ANY UK resident to be a member of MCL and you can join online. Secondly, to use BSOL via their website doesn't seem to require you to log on so I suppose it isn't really necessary to join. I just thought I should join in case the number of members might be linked to securing library service funds or something. Richard