g-man
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Posts posted by g-man
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And like most cruisers badly located controls.
Come to Thrupp and watch the antics of Cruiser stern boaters trying to get round a sharp left hand bend.
Pfft! That's a new one on me as I've never experienced such "problems" reaching the controls, but maybe those cruisers sterns you see struggling contain a higher than average percentage of hire boats?
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We have also just one one in the dying moments of the 'old' "sealed bids" tender system, rather than the new more "open" auction system.
I read it much as you have - we are not actually tied to the full 3 years, once the first six months are up. The only bit I think different is that I think ours is two months notice after that, not one.
Even so, there must be a bid that is worth making each time a similar mooring comes up under the new system, just in case nobody bids higher.
I'd certainly try it, having "run the maths!".
Yes it's certainly worth a speculative bid should a new vacancy arise. Under the old tender system I was paying £1825 but I've just won a mooring in the same area with £1079! Even with having to pay the two months notice its a big saving.
It's funny thay no one else bid this time around as last summer there was about 5 people bidding for the same spot. One wonders where all the others were, is it the recession, people cheesed off with the auction system or simply the time of year? Whatever, I'm a happy man.
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I am a generator virgin and so know nothing! I have searched this site for an answer to my question but can't find or understand one! What size generator would I need if all I really want to do is keep my 5 batteries charged while living on the cut?
From my experience a 1KW generator will just about charge 5 batteries whilst running an inverter with a few lights on etc. However if you can afford it get at least 2KW as it'll be more comfortable running equipment like a washing machine and vacuum cleaner.
I tend to think of my gennie more as backup to the engine, OK the gennie uses less fuel maybe 1/2 to 3/4L per hour against 1.4L per hour but red diesel is also cheaper than petrol and the engine heats up the water as a bonus. Swings and roundabouts
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Changing the toilet isn't really a bad job as I have "proper" one a cassette!
Cleaning out the years of water and rust from the engine bilge and repainting was pretty rough as I had to become a contortionist to do it and it coincided with the hottest days of the year.
I guess the worst routine job I have to do is checking the batteries as they are pretty inaccessable and again I have to crawl around in the engine bay plus disconnect all the wires in order to just top them up.
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up round the 1000w you would only need to look els wear for power in the winter and have more than you need for the summer.
i will be using a 12v emersion heater in the summer to store the excess energy in the hot water tank.
Oh I agree, in the summer months 1000w would be very useful on most days. My warning about installing panels now is that the OP would find they are not enough for their needs over the next 6 months, they'll just be sitting on the roof gathering dust.
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strangely enough I have just been told that someone came to GIVE me a bag of coal, and to give my neighbour, Maffi, a bag of coal too. No idea why... a bit of a contrast to the Cropredy thieves.... unless someone is missing 2 bags of coal up there!
Just double check it really is coal!
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Sorry 'bout this. I have trawled several threads on this but cannot find the answer i need, so here goes:
We want to get solar power to assist keeping the batteries topped up, but not sure how much wattage we would need. We have a widebeam so roof space not a problem, so is it better to get more than one panel or just get the biggest single panel we can get?
We are guessing at about 200w, but that's exactly it - a guess. We have 6 batteries powering all the normal stuff (lights, radio, fridge). Does this sound about right? I don't want to get too anal about power consumption - just laymans terms would be great!
We are looking at panels on ebay, direct from China - does anyone have an opinion on these? Anything to watch out for?Do we need a charge controller? Again,we have seen digital ones on ebay.
Any help and advice from the elecy gurus much appreciated!
I'd advise saving your money and waiting till spring before installing them. You'll get minimal useful charge from 200w panels at this time of year. Personally I've found them very good during the summer for trickle charging over a week when I'm away but now autumns arrived they barely register a charge.
If your heart is set on buying them then get as many as you can afford possibly upwards of 1000w but still expect to have to use a genny to charge the batteries most days.
Using the practical knowledge I've aquired If I could afford a decent sized solar array I still wouldn't buy... I'd put the money in stocks and shares and spend the interest earned on petrol or diesel.
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I was unable to refill my generator with petrol on Friday evening because some time earlier, some selfish, dishonest, thieving scum had lifted our Jerry can containing ten litres of newly purchased fuel.
OK, I am sure some will say that we shouldn't have been so trusting in leaving it on the deck without chaining it down - or perhaps we should have kept it locked inside the boat, although I have never been happy with the thought of petrol stored inside. Nevertheless it is a very sad state of affairs if we have to keep everything on the boat under lock and key because other members of our community cannot be trusted to keep their thieving hands off other people's property.
Thieving's not a modern phenomenon, my old mum in her 80's thinks I'm mad leaving wood, coal, petrol and assorted kit around my boat. But, as i say to her until proved otherwise I'll trust my fellow boaters around me. Of course if I ever caught some scrote nicking stuff I'd skin em alive, the irony would be I'd probably give a fellow boater the odd gallon of petrol if they were short...
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I agree with county, wood likes air from above and burns better in a bed of ash, coal air from below likes a rattle on the grill every now and then to keep it clear. Glass will keep cleaner with wood.
I'd agree with the first part but glass definetely keeps cleaner and there's less tar with smokeless coal.
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We're about ready to get another dog (probably a rescue greyhound). We never took our last dog to the boat (he predated our purchase), because he was (I) not keen on noise (II) not keen on water and (III) completely neurotic (so hated anything that disturbed his routine).
So, does anyone have any tips on how to introduce a dog to the boat? Should we get him/her used to it while quiet and stationary, or let him/her know from the outset that it has an engine?
We don't liveaboard, so it won't be make or break if he/she hates it, but it would be nice to be able to take him/her on jaunts instead of leave at home or in kennels.
We've had cats, now dogs. What about hamsters? I'm rather partial to them myself.
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I was talking to someone in Solihull, once who told me that everybody in Coventry was scum.
And mighty proud of it we are! But, of course it's nonsense everyone knows the scum live in Treacle Town (Nuneaton)
Edited to add smiley
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I've literally just pulled down the rather more conventional surround to our stove, which was in-situ when we bought Chalice.
It's simple ceramic tiles on top of 1/4" (6mm) style "Masterboard" type material, applied directly to the 9mm ply linings behind.
There is absolutely no evidence of any overheating, despite us having over-fired the stove at least once.
I conclude that on out boat, from a safety perspective, I need do no more than was there already when I replace it, and that talk of thicker materials or air gaps is irrelevant in our case.
I do however need to make it extend further upwards, to be significantly higher than the stove top, as there is definitely some overheating of the wood above where the tiles run out.
Of course if your stove is hotter than ours, or the separation from it's surrounds tighter or less well ventilated, you may need to do more, so I'm not saying the simplest solution is always sufficient, but I suspect it is in the vast majority of cases.
I'm currently re-tiling mine too. Based on what i've read on this forum I've always had concerns about potential problems as my tiles were stuck directly on to the end of the MDF kitchen unit by the previous owner.
This week I removed the old tiles so as to add an additional layer of fireboard between tiles, kitchen unit and side ply. I have the same observation, absolutely no sign of any overheating but I'm glad I have done the job as it's put my mind at rest
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<rant>
Oh how i detest those lights with a passion. It is only by a thin thread of civilisation that I resist throwing every single one into the canal.
Are you scared of the dark? One of the loveliest things about the towpath at night is its true dark.
And then people stick these silly useless led lights outside their boats, no use to them but true pollution to me.
</rant>
Did you misread my original post perchance? I was talking about using solar lights as an alternative to using battery power for lighting the INSIDE of the boat. And no I'm not scared of the dark but a couple of solar LED's just adds a bit more illumination when I'm scrabbling my way to the loo.
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For some low level *mood* lighting I use solar LED garden lights. I bought them for lighting up the mooring pins so I could see them when stumbling home from the pub but found they are really useful placed inside the boat to give some extra illumination rather than than use the main lights. Put them outside to charge during the day and they'll last well into the early hours. I bought the small stick style ones and place them in holders just like candles. You can pick them up 4 for a tenner from places like Wilkinsons.
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Wot are you lot on about?
The Government are not bothered at the moment what split you declare, but in the future, they now have the ability, to pounce when they want to tighten up on finance.
No outlet can stop you having fuel at anything you wish to declare. It's a VAT matter and it's between you and HMG
Agreed, the last 3 times I have purchased red, I have declared 100% heating without any arguments from the supplier. Most of this seems to be how much a jobsworth\tax collector the individual wishes to be.
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Sad really, the guy is possibly suffering mental health or addiction problems outside the remit or training of a BW official?
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I went up as far as Bosworth just over a week ago no problems at all. Enjoy your trip!
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Do you not run the risk of petrol fumes building up in the bilge? - I would be interested to know as this would be a great "plus" to having a pram cover, but I always run the genny off the boat for this reason.
Andy
I haven't had any problems with fumes, I keep the hood up to protect from the rain but open both side flaps, I place the genny close towards one of the open sides with the exhaust pointing towards the outside world. On a dry day I'd also run it off the boat but only to keep the noise as far away as possible.
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If you have had one fitted is it really a benefit and are you able to use this space more perhaps when moored up.
Are they in the way at all when folded down when cruising.
Very useful, as others have said one can drop the hood easily when cruising - takes a couple of minutes. The extra dry space is invaluable for storage, keeping the bilge dry, working on the engine and with the sides open for ventilation you can run a generator "outside" protected from the rain. Buy one you won't regret it!
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The slow running does reduce wear rate up to a point but each stroke is very powerful compared to each stroke of a modern high RPM engine so the hammer effect on bearings etc is very much higher and can be unkind to any casting defects. It is not just the piston moving up and down that will cause wear and failure of an engine.
Also the long stroke of a vintage style engine means increased piston speed in the bores against shorter stroke modern engine which is why they have to have a lower rev limit. But the upshot is both vintage and modern engines will last a long time if serviced properly the choice boils down to looks and sound V practicality (e.g twin alternators) and cost. I notice according to Beta the tug engine uses more fuel too compared to their smaller engines with similar performance? Not to be ignored with diesel costs increasing.
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It's well worth a detour, the scenery around Hartshill/Mancetter is excellent, Nuneaton's not so bad and the natives are mostly friendly. There's a nice quiet mooring just before the winding hole after Hartshill BW yard that has views of the wooded hill on the one side and the valley on the other.
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I've emailed them to find out if delivery of many will be cheaper than the delivery of one, so I can work out the total cost.
Where can you get 80w panels at that price?
I fitted one of these from Maplins 60W with controller and free delivery, £200
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Just a quick point.
Most panels have bypass diodes not blocking ones.
The controller should have an anti feed back diode in it.
However there has been some discussion about the power lost by a blocking diode being more than the power that could be drained back via the array over night. The jurry is still out on that one.
Now the cable from the panel to the controler.
100w 5m (each way?) 12v
8.33 amps x 5m /12 = 3.47mm2 so any thing over 4mm will be plenty to keep the losses down.
If you are every going to upgrade the array you could fit larger cable now to take that into account.
2 panels would need 7mm2
3 panels would need 10.5mm2
4 panels would need 14mm2
(based on still using 5m)
4 panels at 7m would need 20mm2
For the cable from the controller to the battery bank I would go up in size in case you go for more panels in the future.
Whats the max the controller can take in amps? Size the cable to that if you will ever upgrade.
I recently connected up a 60w array and so far so good it gives me some useful top up charge while I'm away from the boat during the day. However the instructions were a bit vague and I simply connected the wires from the controller to the centre battery of my bank of 5. However I notice that my Mastervolt battery monitor doesn't register the positive amps when the solar is connected even at peak times. It's working fine because the overall battery voltage increases so I'm presuming maybe I need to wire the controller to battery wire differently?
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I'm known as being pretty fanatical over bilges. I dare say many jokes are shared on the quiet over my efforts to keep the bilge dry and in order. I justify it due to the fact I live aboard and my boat is old. Thus, all day yesterday I was wet vacuum cleaning my bilges and below the engine as well.
My own bilge has no paint at all and I have considered bitumen. The trouble is I have no idea how I could paint below the Lister engine or even get the bilge dry enough to paint in the first place. Some of it could be painted but large parts are unreachable.
I often ask boaters if I can have a look at their bilge out of curiosity. I've seen some in pretty chaotic condition and others that are totally pristine and in order, painted and kept spotless.
Yes, I think painting the bilge is a good idea if you can get at it.
Although my boat is a cruiser stern the main source of damp was the PRV venting straight into the bilge (the previous owner was ignorant and the builders should be shot for installing it that way). Fixing it for the time being with a bucket under the pipe I soaked up the excess water with Tesco nappies and left it for a couple of days to dry out completely.
So last Monday I spent half the day scraping out the old paint and rust then vacuuming all the dust out. After that it was a 1-2 hour job painting the base plate and part way up the sides using a long pile radiator roller and a brush for the odd nooks. I've only done the lower rusty parts for now as it isn't the nicest job in the world. Also I figured I'd let the fumes evaporate before doing any more.
It's pretty hard graft doing this job as you've got to be a bit of a contortionist to get to parts but it's certainly rewarding to see it clean, dry and shiny. I'm going to do the rest section by section until finished - it'll probably be like painting the Forth bridge.
Why do they do it ...
in General Boating
Posted
Of course but this paints it all a bit black and white, not all people put 100% of the proceeds of their house sale into their boat and a good secondhand boat is a lot less to buy than a house. The option I chose was to use about 50% of my capital and invest the rest on the stock market for an income and future growth.
It's fine to point out the downside of costs but weigh it up also against the cost of repaying a mortgage and home ownership. Personally I've found living aboard very rewarding, it more than makes up for the planning and energy involved.