Bobbybass

Hi..done the run several times including this ...2010..year. We used Nicholsons guide which shows moorings. As the Thames is wider..its often easier to overshoot a mooring with ' overnight £4' signs...and see whats around the corner..on the basis you will be able to turn. This is the case at Sonning..where there are signs...'phone this number'..and they charge £10 a night for a bit of bank !!..whereas through the lock are free moorings. If you go to the meadow at Letchlade....before the bridge..which is as far as you can get...I have never had to pay...but there are signs on the field before that where you pay £3 for some reason. There are no signs on the meadow...and I have never had to pay there ?..I asked this year in town..and they said no charge. In summer peak..its advisable to leave yourself time in case the moorings are getting full... it is often the case that some **** head in a plastic boat has moored right in the middle of a huge space to block it off for his plastic boat mates..and keep out narrowboats.

Actually..In my mind there is a bigger problem than power. I make sure noone outside knows I have a good TV..musical instrument..laptop etc.. I think...only think..that if (Some..) passers by know you have musical instruments...they will hear them after all....recording gear..hi-spec generators...that you should make darn sure you never leave the boat alone... you may need that shotgun as word gets around !!! But only..my opinion.. Bob

I was on the Thames this year..brought the boat into the bottom of Boulters lock...(only boat in the lock) up steps with centre line...half twist around bollard..lock keeper 'I want 2 lines on this boat !!'..so he holds centre line..I go down steps bring up stern line and half loop it on another bollard BUT without realising he has put one whole loop now on the centre line bollard. Paddles go up..boat rises...centre line 'nips' on bollard..boat rises....centre line twangs like a guitar and isn't gonna slip off...boat tips...rises...tips...!! A lot of shouting and he drops the paddles..but not before my Ebertspacher exhaust takes in water !!..very very near !! Beware of centre lines..and Thames lock keepers ! The previous year..I came into a Thames lock full of plastic boats...and the lock keeper said..'throw me the stern line'..my wife is on our bow ready to hook the front bollard..but the guy on the stern heaves and pulls..and the bow swings towards the other boats..'stop..stop..I say..give me some slack...'..But he carried on pulling and we hit another boat. I told him that the science of narrowboats..but he said..' we are under instructions to rope off a boat as soon as we can'...and shrugged.. Hey lets have another hanging...yee haa... Actually..I did my RYA course a few years back..and we came to Hillmorton locks..and the guy made me hammer in one pin and moor the boat to the centre line... I asked if that was OK for longer term..and he said it was fine...thats what is was for..

Tell me more...?! Bob

I agree...£1500 is very small compared to owning... I think boats are like cars....that 'in your head'..you think a car costs £x to run....but if you write it on paper with all the real costs...it actually costs £x times 10 !! You could hire a boat many times a year at £1500 a shot and still not pay what owning costs. I'm not sure what depreciation figure is...even on secondhand..but it ain't cheap.. Thats my opinion..I'm off to sing 'always look on the bright side of life' now.. Bob

Hi again... Waffling again... As per the post above this one....I didn't think about the sheer amount of power from 11Kva. Namely..over 40 amps !!...so as the poster said..its unlikely your boat is wired to take that. I know..that if I take out my 240volt sockets...they would be hard pushed to do 13 amps...without some new pyro effects. I use a £200 notebook and run Cubase VST 5 ( a special verison Steinberg gave me that is totally bug free and very memory efficient) I use VST..Virtual guitarist...LM4 drums..Bassist...B4...The Grand..and a variety of instruments I have collected over the years. If I want great orchestral samples..I Yoke Reason to VST5 and use the samples there..and also multipart vocals..and live guitars etc... I do most of this over headphones...using an Alesis IO2 for ,low latency..and mikes...but playback over some nice little Alesis monitors for checking final 'mix' Many of the things I do are in the line of radio Idents and jingles..including for BBC locals...holiday companies etc...and I haven't had any complaints.. I also work with a writer..who sends stuff by internet..and I master..and email back.. I'm not knocking what you do..just giving you an idea of what I do...and how it works for me.. I like Virtual instruments..but can see how you enjoy the sound of a hammond and Leslie.. Its a bit like Harry Hill isn't it !!.. Which is better...?...FIGHT !! Bob

Its late here...and I am not in UK and an hour ahead... Being tired...this is what I think..but I may have misread things... I always 'very roughly' work out that for every 1 amphour you invert to 240 volts..you draw 20 amphours from the 12 volt batteries...this is rough because you have invertor losses etc..and the bateries will not be 12 volts..they will be higher..its rough OK !! If you run 1.4Kwh @ 240 volts ...thats roughly (diving 1400 by 240 volts..see I said it was rough)...6 amphours....so that makes it 120 amphours from the batteries at 12 volts.. 6 (at 240 volts) x 20 (at 12 volts) If you have 5 x 135 amphouor leisure battgeries..thats an ideal world total of 675 amps for an hour...BUT they must not drop below or get near to 50% state of charge..so thats roughly (again) 337 amphours... Taking into account that they won't hold up this level after a few months use..and temperatures come into play..I would not push them to more than 2 hours use... THe real problem is monitoring it..because you play a loud note...and the consumption will go up...so it will not be easy to judge state of charge based on average use over ..say an hour.. This may be all twaddle and cr*p....and my theory of Brotasauruses is..'they are thin at one end..they get thick in the middle..and then thin at the other end' Bob..the bass.....Bobbybass

I do that. It doesn't do well to the gallon these days. Bob

They have given up now. Apparently..'lost in the snowy Christmas post'. They 'say' they will send another... Duck....its a pig flying past... Bob

At present the loo facilities are split between pumpouts and elsan points... Supposing every single boat had to pump out a gray water tank!!! I can see a slight problem for BW setting that up ? Bob

I use...a fresh broom handle..... Bob

I initially went down the 'real instrument' route...and ended up on a second set of batteries after 2 months !! Sadly..virtual instruments are the only alternative.. I use a laptop...running VST...and Virtual : Guitarist...drums..bass...hammond B3...and various other virtual types. I also use Reason sequencer which gives some nice orchestral sounds....and I midi 'yoke' that to Cubase...if I want to add real vocals or guitar etc.. Laptop runs into an Alesis IO2 for audio/midi low latency and speakers are some little Alesis..which draw small power but sound pretty good. I fear (as others said) you just ain't gonna do it on batteries...but...we could be wrong ... By the way...if you saw the end off the shotgun...you can fit it under the bathroom sink !! Bob

BW seem to be giving me the run around as they cannot answer where my license is. I expired end of December, and having received my renewal notice by post , I did it online in the first few days of December. This was by credit card...and they took the money but cannot tell me when I will receive it. Anyone else still waiting ? Bob

True...but if you have £350k to spend on this and more to spend on other toys...the boatbuilder's opinion doesn't count ! I seem to recall seeing the customer looking over the 'build' on TV, and he said...he always got what he wanted. So there you are..he must have wanted an unstable boat. By the way..the builder told me it is built from 20mm plate..and as a consequence of that and all the gizmos, has a huge draught. Another reason to be wary. Bob

I saw Whitefield being taken to the Crick show by the people that built it. You would 'assume' they knew as much about how to manouever the boat as anyone. It took them an age to reverse it into a bay...totally calm day..and that was before other boats arrived. I could have put a standard boat into the space with little problem (I'm not blowing my own trumpet) ..but using the bow thrusters and stern thrusters the thing was wallowing about for ages as the silly little 4 inch joystick steering was worse than useless.Some time later I saw the boat on the cut with the sainted owners approaching a pretty average left turn and under a bridge. They looked terrified as the boat zig zagged left and right and hit the bank...almost uncontrollable. We went onboard at Crick after they (builders) finally got it into a space...and they were just finishing off a few things. The cost of build was in the £350k region...although they wouldn't 'officially' say...we had to say 'is it more than ?..is it less than ?...and arrived at £350k after a while... It had 6 TV's onboard including one in the shower/wetroom..(which was grey slate floor and floor to ceiling multijet shower) and the TV in the bedroom (about 32 inch) rose from the floor and showed mainly video of waterfalls, seascapes or a raging fire.Various cabinets rose from things under electric power. The bow doors were floor to ceiling ..quite thin tinted glas. I wondered how long they would last in Manchester. The interior had a Meditteranean feel..light..glass..and chrome. I admired the electrics and wondered how many hours a day you would need to run it to find all the power !. It was great sitting in the 'drivers' seat twiddling the joystic..watching the bow side and stern cameras which were split screen on the monitor between the seats...I guess being a big kid I liked the James Bond theme. Looking back though..the whole boat was rather silly ! If anyone here buys it..tear out all the electrics and 6 TV's , get rid of some of the fancy glass, put a tiller on..and then you end up with....a narrowboat like you and I have !! You can't easily reinvent the wheel. Bob

Well....its not an ideal world..is it...? I always try and consider others...but.. There were permanantly moored boats on the Regents canal visitor mooring...so I couldn't enjoy the area.... People were moored and running power leads...and fitting out boats... Whereever I went...there were permanant moorers on visitor sites...so I couldn't enjoy various villages and towns etc... On the basis that I think I would like to moor for a few days and enjoy places...and in probably 4 out of 10 places...we were blocked by 'continuous cruisers'..on visitor moorings with an attitude problem...I would like to see scathing fines and boats crushed...!!.. Maybe people dragged out and burned at the stake...or...a hanging or two... Its not really fair though..is it ? Its for all to enjoy...and for all to be fair...but then..people are not fair are they..? Bob

Its OK..its one I have used for about 15 years...takes me seconds...and I never really scramble it that much anyway..but nice of you to be concerned... Bob

Its a tricky one isn't it? On the canals..mine lives under the seats in the cratch area..but when we head for rivers I have to get all the old tins etc out of the way..and drag it out. I then put it on the roof with line,chain etc attached and run a security wire with combination lock which I put through a mushroom vent. I figure that the combination lock is better because I would not be fumbling for a key and can throw it off the roof straight in..the other end attaches to a fixing on the bow. That's the theory..but wether it would all work like that if we were adrift, I dont know ? Interested in other ideas here... Bob

I'm in Costa Blanca...but at least not 14 hours away like someone else.. Left the boat in a marina in October...with noone to watch it. Before leaving ? This is my check list : Wash and then thick smeary wax on outside paint work... Thick stern grease over all brass..mushrooms..portholes...including hatch runners...touch up any rust. Clear roof of 'tools' Check auto bilge pump works (direct to batteries) and put huge pressure on stern gland greaser...(until its sick !) Shut off fuel to engine and Eberspacher..Drain fuel water trap and remove injector pipes at injectors and squirt some oil down them...leave disconnected. Drop my silica gell 'sausage' down the top of the fuel tank to absorb water and wrap the fuel cap in insulation to stop condensation. Empty water tank..refill and add ' Miltons'..leave and then flush..shut off water tank valve..and backup tank valve ( in case the first one doesn't work !!..call me Mr belt and braces !!) remove water pump filter..drain pump and water level sensor....blow through the shower pipe..and leave it hanging with taps on...remove kitchen and bathroom water filters...leave all taps on..drain calorifier...empty and flush pumpout tank after flushing pipes through with Harpic blue ( has no bleach in it) ...tiny drop of Harpic blue stuff in loo bowl...grease on the loo seat hinges which I leave up so no condensation on lid..grease on chrome sink taps and any brightwork.....tiny Miltons down sink U-bends.. Sweep chimney and put its hat on...cable tie J cloths around top of chimney flu to stop rusty stains... Wipe ceilng boards and walls timbers down with clove oil diluted in washing up liquid to stop mould...spray a little onto curtains and around window frames for same reason. Spray it around shower cubicle and anywhere mould may lurk....dry it all out !! Defrost fridge and prop door open. Prop matresses vertically.. Check battery water levels..Solar cells on charge...Main battery 12 volts off.. Check SG of antifreeze in engine and radiators... Shut off gas. Cover things with dust sheets... Leave some slack in the ropes. Check the insurance policy...and GO !!... Bob

Just attach a length of wire to your leg and that should earth you nicely.

Hi...I'm in a better mood today..my sugar was a bit high yesterday and I get weird... Anyway...yes..I hired out dehumidifiers for some years. The way they work is...they go into a cooling cycle...and the internal 'fins' ice over.....it fans the air from around the unit over the fins and moisture in the air freezes onto the fins. It then goes into a 'heating' phase and the frozen water melts and flows down into the collection tray. It can thus take several hours before this cycle establishes and so you have to give it a chance.Putting it on for...say 5 hours...will achieve little. You need to try and cut down external draughts of any kind..because it needs to reduce the hunmidity around itself in order to 'draw' from floors/carpets etc. They work better if you can raise the surrounding air temperature a little..maybe with a fan heater. If you have had a large flood...as it sounds that you have....an industrial unit would be better....but they are very heavy and awkward. You can ask the hire company for a 'litres per hour' figure..but don't hold up hopes of hitting that. There are too many factors...cold/heat/draughts...to be very accurate. Don't forget...gas heaters or parafin are no use...as they give off more water than you will recover. 'Dehums' are good..but they need 24/7 on-time to be of use...that goes for domestic or industrial. By the way...its surprising how much water you can draw out of carpets etc with a blue J-cloth..and keep it wrung out. I should also have said...that the domestic and industrials work the same way...but the industrial usually has a larger 'fin' area....a more powerful compressor...so it can cool and heat in shorter cycles...and a larger capacity collection method. Bob

OMG...when I get out of todays sun...I will work out how long it will take me to read 1000 books...and ...when I get on a plane...and burn loads of fuel...I really worry about my impact (not) I guess...if I spent all my money on 'must haves'....I to...would have to live in England....instead of Spain...or Cyprus... Bob

OMG !!!! You can buy a book in a charity shop for 25p...and save someone from cancer !!! But...you could buy a Kindle...which is amazing...and it may last at least a year...before you have to get the next version !! Wonder why I have the money to be in Spain in the winter...and you're all in the ice !! Maybe I should be a sucker and buy crap... Bob