aread2

I had the crankshaft oil seal go on my Beta 43 and the oil all fell out pretty quickly. It also sprayed liberally around the engine compartment as it was thrown off the pulley. The seal was destroyed by fragments of poly-vee belt that had wrapped around the crankshaft after the TravelPower belt shredded.

It works without the telephone line.

Wow! He's got a room especially for the wireless!

We've got the Beta 43 in an acoustic housing. Same little hatch on top. It's very quiet. You are right, the dipstick and water filler are under the edge of the hatch. The dipstick is no problem as it points out of the hatch. The water filler is slightly inconvenient to use. I usually stick my finger in rather than try to see the water level but it is possible to see the water level with the aid of a torch. For filling I have a little funnel that fits in the hatch and runs down at an angle into the filler. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the engine for anything other than checking levels. About 12 of those are taking the floor up and dismantling the wooden frame that holds up the floor to reveal the acoustic housing. The acoustic housing comes to bits in about three minutes; the top and side are held on with quick release catches, leaving the end panels in place. The panel at the forward end is held on with three bolts and comes away to change the alternator belts. The panel at the rear does not come out since the exhaust, vent and gearbox cable pass through it and these would need to be disconnected. As for ventilation, there are numerous gaps and openings around the engine deck boards that add up to about a square metre. If push came to shove I can open the doors to the electrical coupboard to more than double this. The housing has a large ventilator fan and a duct that carries air to the outside for the benefit if the three alternators as far as I can tell, as the engine itself is cooled by the skin tank. If I was doing it again, I would still buy the coccooned Beta 43. It does what it says on the tin. The engine is almost inaudible outside the steering position. A lot of that is due to the hospital silencer. I still haven't put any acoustic damping on the underside of the deck boards as I thought I might. The law of diminishing returns has become a factor.

I got a mag mount aerial from Garex (garex.co.uk), last year. They will make up any aerial you want, complete with connectors. Originally I ordered a DAB aerial but as the radio was changed between my original order and delivery I had to change the order to a VHF aerial. Cost £20. Excellent knowledgeable personal service and UK based.

You need to do a power audit to work out what your daily power requirement will be. Once you have that figure you can work out how large your battery bank will need to be. Then you can decide how much of that will come from each potential charging power source, be it propulsion engine, solar panel,wind generator, petrol or diesel generator or land line.

Yep! With a family of five afloat we can fill a cassette in less than a day.

Or a vacuum cassette system allows you to place the cassette remotely from the bowl. Ours is located about ten feet away (= ten feet nearer the door). Disadvantage is that it's more expensive and more complex, hence more likely to fail.

An old mooring rope, still tied to the piling I was moored on wrapped around the prop. As I pulled away from the mooring Syncopation lost drive, then came to an abrupt halt. The prop and shaft had been wrenched out of the collet on the centaflex coupling and come to rest against the rudder, bringing the boat to a halt. Luckily it was less than six inches otherwise the shaft would have come clean out of the stern gland and the boat would have sunk. Better still, no damage was done and everything went back together, good as new.

Have you checked the RCD and fuses/MCBs? There should be at least one fuse box/240v distribution panel. Is your engine supplying 240v with a Travelpower? Follow the cable from the Travelpower box to find the fuse box. Inverter working as a powerpack usually means it's supplying 12v to the boat as well as charging batts when you have a 240v supply going into it.

I've not got any figures but they shouldn't be too big if like mine it's wired in parallel with the domestics and if the BT is run for too long the domestics start to supply the BT. Some advocate using a battery to battery charger at the front end to overcome voltage drop on this long cable run.

I couldn't find it - thought it had gone missing...

My Multiplus 12/3000/120 is showing the temparature warning light as soon as it's switched on, in either charger only or in inverter mode. It obviously isn't too hot. Has anybody seen this fault before?

I was so pleased that nothing on the boat broke over the summer trip. A few weeks later and I went to the boat today for a potter and found that the temperature light on Our Victron Multiplus 12/3000/120 comes on when it's switched on and it doesn't charge the batteries or transfer generator power to the 240v circuit. I tried a few things: Switch on in charger mode only. Temperature light flashes a few times immediately after turning on then goes steady. The mains present light flashes to indicate 240v from the generator is present but the Multiplus isn't going to use it. Switch on in inverter mode, mains present light not lit and the temperature light illuminates as before. The fan is not running and the unit cannot be overheated as it has only just been switched on. Has anybody seen this behaviour before in a Multpilus? Is there anything I can try other than switching it off and on? Is it, as I suspect, broken?

It's how ours is set up. The switch is mounted at the top of the battery box on the side. Not a problem if the ventilation is up scratch. In the BSS guide there appears to be no stipulation as to the location of the circuit breaker except that it must be as close to the battery as possible and ignition protected if it is in gas or petrol compartments.

Have to try that next time. We've got a whole roof covered in off-white anti slip and moor under a tree. Every holiday starts with a thorough scrub of the roof, a process that takes hours. It's an excellent noon slip surface and the off-white keeps it cool in summer. The rest of the paintwork just needs a wipe down with a wet sponge but the roof always takes a good scrub.

Our English springer has an Up Buoy. The handle is robust and does the job perfectly. It will keep him afloat for as long as required and he's fine about wearing it all day although he does have a good shake and scratch when it comes off. In the summer we took him with us on the Thames ring and while on the canals he falls in most days so the lifejacket gets plenty of use.

Syncopation - Shift of emphasis to the off-beat

Same here: Edwardian Bedding co full depth sprung mattress on a cross bed with about the same split. Fold occurs under our legs so no problem for sleeping on. The most difficult part is squeezing it down below the gunwhale as it opens out.

And bearing in mind that 65% of electricity generated at power stations is lost in transmission before it reaches consumers, fossil fuel generated mains electricity doesn't look very green.

Whitefield, built by Fernwood

Pump is fine. The strainer keeps cracking (on the fourth one under guarantee). I have asked the fitter to replace the pump with a different make (still under guarantee) and while waiting for him to do it started reading the installation instructions. It was then I realised that the strainer may be on the wrong side. My guess is that the strainer bowl is capable of withstanding the pressure on the inlet side but not the pressure on the outlet side. The pump is designed to be fitted without accumulator and I think the hammering the bowl gets is enough to crack it. Generally it goes after about a week.

Yes, typical of modern small cars. It took me ages to change the headlight bulb on my C3 pluriel, and then I got it upside down. Left it like that as I couldn't face taking it out again. I imagine a larger car would have more room for access. Most modern cars have the radio communicating with the engine management system. Presumably more secure than just a four digit code.

The strainer should be on the inlet side, right? And if it were fitted on the outlet side it would A.) not protect the pump B.) Break?

I used the Hep2O (metal) insert in speedfit pipes with brass compression fittings and copper olives.