boaterphil

Comastic is very good, my boat is a colecraft it came when new with comastic 3 yrs ago it came out of the water after 3 years the comastic was still on under the waterline cleaned it well down and applied another 3 coats after 3 years there are no signs of it coming off, DO NOT overcoat this on to black tar varnish it does not work, Comastic is not cheap £40 for 5 litres that does one coat on a 60 footer, I do not paint my base plate, but it is worth every penny in my opinion.

Gaz, Many thanks for your reply,

Hi, The boat behind me just said to me your the one who got stuck at Salters, my 5 minutes of fame, I would like to point out to all that this was my decision to go out and rightly pointed out I got stuck on the third attempt. Yes it was a long night, I thought I had planned well in advance having telephoned Paul 6 weeks ago regarding tide times, the cruisers that did get through one of which I work at the same place I informed him at the same time 6 weeks ago, he had been sat there since saturday lunchtime we had planned our trip to arrive at Salters at lunctime on Monday and moor at Denver for the night, I rang Dan at Denver he opened the gate for us, we came up with the tide and Mike very kindly let us through at 7.55am, thankyou very much to both of them. We have been making this crossing for 20 years, and it is not always easy, we had a reason for being in "pole" position in 2010 my partners mother was very ill only to die the following week so I apologise if you were thinking I was queue jumping which I was not, I have learnt over the years it is not always best to be first, the year before, we had planned to come through the following day from Denver we rang Dan he had finished locking he said there is plenty of water, come down and I will let you through to Salters no buffeting onto the tyres the tide was not ebbing fanastic if only every trip was that easy. Paul, Mike and Dan are all front line staff, these guys do not manage the budgets for Middle level Commisioners or the EA, the powers that be assure me the silt will be cleared this week or at the latest next week.

I used comastic after three years still as good as new and when I took the boat out last time the comastic was still on below the waterline from the previous time 2/3 years, I have only used comastic, it does does like going over the cheap black bituemn just seen a boat done at a boat yard 8 months ago rusting through, cheap black bituemn. Not cheap my last lot £40 a gallon, that does one coat on a 60 foot boat.

I have brass mushroom vents, domed ones on my roof I am thinking of having the top half chromed, has had anyone had any experience in this area as regards to cost will also have my tiller bar done at the same time.

Hi, many thanks for the replies, I have just been to the boat this morning, checked the pump/ Impeller it has a cross{positive} marked so will attach the live terminal to that side, so hopefully its going the impeller is going the right way and I will fit an inline switch to isolate the tank thermostat, that is my easiest option, its annoying to frind the pump has been on when I return after been away for a few days, or the other option is to leave the fuse off at all times, many thanks.

I have two questions regarding my Alde bolier, the first is is there a right way to connect the wires to the circulation pump, there are two terminals on top of the pump, the second is the there is a thermostat on the side of the calorifier, this seems to turn on the circulation pump when the boat heating is not on, so I have to disconect the boiler via the fuse to make sure the pump does not come on.The boiler is an alde comfort balanced flue.

My BMC1.8 when new smoked Iwas told new injectors were needed another engineer said check the tappets from cold which he did, it never smoked again. My neighbour a great person engine has smoked for years I told him the same he has checked and his tappets are ok. but he has chnaged the cam belt which was out by 1 tooth? and he feels that was his problem, the smoke was terrible, I will keep you updated.

My well deck was painted with gloss, I then put 2 coats of red oxide over it which is pretty good at being non slip but now have a large rubber mat with holes which is great and also protects the paint from chipping.

one wire comes from the centre of the alternator to the relay that is what i had the same wire comes from another connection spade fitting and goes to the negative on the service battery ,i had it to the positive hence why the relay was warm that dragged the service batteries down and also kept the relay on between the BT and cranking battery , which is the best neg. to attach to, cranking or service, i think it should be the service??

Hi, Problem solved after calling my local Parkinsons electrics, I had mistakenly put the thin wire from the relay which on investigation connects to one of the alternatorsvia the relay I had wired it to the positive hence it was energised all the time and therefore drawing current I have now put the wire to the negative on the cranking batteryas now I believe it was oriigally connected and I think I had a new set of batteries and had to turn them around, now I have a cool relay, many thanks for your help and interest.

The relay has a wire to a positive on one of the service batteries can i move this to the positive on the cranking battery, will the relay still work properly.someone had suggested I may have a short because the relay is warm also I have not got the bow thruster battery connected and still the relay is warm, the relay is warm when the engine is not running, also when i put my multi- meter on the service batt or cranking batt when the engine is running it shows 14 volts so it is charging, but when i do the same to the bow thruster when fully connected it only reads 12.5 volts.

H i can any one help I have two battery banks cranking and service the cranking battery has a lucas relay connecting to a bow thruster but the relay is conctantly warm, any ideas is this right or should it be cool replaced the relay and it is still warm.

I have a Honda EX650 generator I have great difficulty in getting it to start 35 pulls when it DOES start it works fine, any advice regarding fuel additives, carb cleaning, I had not used it for a long time thats when the problem started, it gets very little use only when we are away and then only for a fews hours over the whole holiday, any advice please.

I use foil tape wrapped roud the chimney collar to help seal the gap and to amke a tighter fit, although I do not usually my boat during the winter. I also sit a piece of chimney flue inside the the chimney, which is stainless steel and has last for 11 years has no rust although I have replaced the coolley hat.

Last year having bought a 19inch feeview, dvd, tv. with no external transformer, I then bought a 15inch freeview tv with external transformer at my local auction for £45, I had kept the the jack plug from my old black and white tv, plugged this into the tv and ran directly through a 12 volt socket, just had two weeks away and it worked absolutely fine, although I never had the tv. on when the engine was running the tv is a Maxim and retailed at £150. I had watched a 15inch tv. for 7 years and the small tv. is great for hols and when on my mooring I do have hook up, and use the 19inch tv. I only have a small inverter, and use a 12 volt charger for my laptop from Maplins so no noisey fan from an inverter.

Yes you are right, and that is what we are charged, I am away and don't have my bill to hand, and the next contributor what excellent advice, Foxes charges are similar to ours, and they are very organised, its easy a 1kw heater will cost what your unit charge is per hour, in my case 13p.

I do symathise we were on a meter for a year before we got a bill so did not know the unit charge which is 13p inc. v.a.t @8% I waited a year before I got the bill we have a house 2 miles away and had the same supplier, so we had a good idea what they were going to charge, we were told at the start we would be billed twice a year, and it took them 11 months to send a bill, I read my meter every week, I have a tv. kettle, vacumn cleaner, electric lights, radio, fridge, I do not use a fan heater- those were the days when I paid a fixed amount!!!!!!no electric heating or immertsion heater or washing machine, and use an average of 4 units a day. This may be useful why not get a metermaid meter it plus inline to your hook-up they are not cheap £140, using the electric as I am now with the meter I estimate my bill to be £250, if I am there all the time, its bad accounting on the marina and they certainly should give you time to pay.

How much is a huge bill? do you have a meter? what are the unit charges? how to keep the bill to a minimun is to not to use electric heating, your problem, is similar to many households when they were paying there electric bills by direct bebit, then the electric price went up and when the the meter was read they got a huge bill, we used to pay a one off charge every year, now we have a meter, what a difference that makes, no electric heating now we use the wood burner all the time and the alde bolier, so we pay as we go I used the oiled filled for one day and could soon work out it was going to cost many hundreds a year!!

Best option is to keep a house or a flat, just in case it does not work out, I have lived on my boat for neally 8 years, but I also have a house to go back to if my circumstances change although I love the boat.!!!

Hi, I take out the baffle plate seal the stove, then use a wire brush taped to a pole and clean from the the top, every month, as i burn a lot of wood,it needs cleaning when you open the door and the smokes comes out into the boat, I also put silver tape round the the chimney collar, so when you fit the chimney on you get a snug fit.

Went to Maplins in Peterborough purchased a 12 volt adapter for£19.99 its a 120 watt version its fantastic, thanks for this thread no more inverter fan running!! they also sell a 240/12 converter for £9.99 . my laptop is a Toshiba 350L

Do you need a regulator or is it possible to plug straight into the 12volts, as long as you have the right plugs? Is there any difference between a 12 volt charger and a 240volt charger?

Having repainted my boat last year, the first repaint after being built 9 years ago, I repainted with toplac which is what we used originally, the colour retenttion was pretty good, it failed because, the original painter used thinners, and it caused the red to go milky, Ialso had some micro blistering which at the time was put down to mill scale, this problem came after 4 years i rubbed them out and repainted the roof and no problems whatsoever, I have used thinners to clean the mettle work, applied undercoat for it then to blister, I was advised not to use thinners as it it did blister stright away!! Craftmaster are on the defensive, my neighbour used there paint and is had far gloss retention, than toplac. I had my boat lifted at the same time as having it repainted and was delighted to find the Comastic in perfect condition after 3 years UNDER the waterline I put on 4 coats the last time and applied another 4 coats, but do not apply over black tar varnish, as it may react and not go off,

I paid £200 just for the wood 9 years ago its oroco sorry re spelling its as good as new two side windows come out, oak is a dad idea as it will go black if it gets water on it.