granddad

the sea going ships coat their potable water tanks with an emulsion of cement. Try it. ken

whats happening - I'll be in lpool in august (wigan water permitting) I sailed out of lpool as an alfred holts officer, for 12 years and have fond memories of lpool. What exactly is the old dock have they found a gang of dockers still working the welt. ken on nb sixpence

The initial test for a weld is the float test. Even the strongest boat builders have a heart stopping moment when it's first in the water. Maybe offer to pay for to put it in the water - and deduct it from the price you'll eventully pay. If it leaks you lose less than a £1000. There are all sorts of welders/builders out there. Some don't even include frames as it gives hard spots on the outside finish. ken

So to sum up my webasto thermo 90 is unreliable because the fuel is not EN590 or better. I've had it 11 years and only the last 6 have been "unreliable". I have moved marina 4 times and possibly the first one was supplying the "best" diesel. How can I check if the fuel on sale is EN590 or where it is sold. I have fitted a paraffin tank to start up on, and I will try that. Regarding over sizing - this is a 10 kw machine and it takes 3 hours to warm the boat to 20c in really cold weather. I will also reroute the air intake into the non engine side of the engine room plates - its worth a try. I will also take it home and service it on a bench each winter as it has been mentioned that its not hard to work on. Thanks you guys ken

be careful - many of the expensive boats are built without frames. They weld hollow square bar to the bits that may resound. They then have less welded joints and less hard spots on the hull and upperworks. Now with marketing ploy it looks better to the punter, very swish. But its less strong than that built by the run of the mill guy with no marketing ability. Just like my wife who looks at the nicely painted narrow boat and declares its worth more than mine - what nerve - as its painted better than mine. I has less services water , electric, gas, invertors, etc the doors dont close when we're aground but it is better painted than mine ( I can't paint) and thus more valuable than ours. all that glisters etc. ken

mY WEBASTO thermo 90 has just been serviced for the second time in 6 months. Last time was the burner (gbp 140) and a decoke. Now its the flame guard and the thermo sensor (six flashes) each time its £200 then £400. I fitted it with a dual derv and parraffin feed and paul from auto electrics tamworth says it may work. I'm going to reroute the air feed from the engine room space under the plates into the space above the plates. I will also try to close it down on paraffin at the end of the voyage. But otherwise I'm out of ideas. This machine is over 3.5 k fitted so I cannot have two off. The lady wife wont countenance a morso squirrell and back boiler back up as its too dirty. I've tried on this medium to find alternatives but they aren't there. Even the webasto/ebyspacher are saying that these things work well on lorries coaches and tanks but all their complaints are on narrowboats. It cant be the red diesel - as I buy it from ground not air tanked supplies and the red diesel is used in £100k tractors that have more sophisticated engines than my (diesel) 136hp car. any ideas of any one whos been through this mill? ken

Streethay wharf at lichfield do a £70 lockable bar over the filler - try to get over it - 30 years ago it happened to our cars now its our boats. I must get a lock for the gas. ken

on the second floor of lewis's shop over looking lime street and the famous whores was a famous bronze statue of a naked man lookout, on the bows of a ship, with his hand shading his eyes. it was by epstein and was in the scouse song "we meet under a statue extraordinarily bare". ken

thank for that greg and jem I wasnt sure that paraffin would be ok but I do know that fuel treatments aren't allowed in my lister - no idea why, no redex but listers have injectors with attitude and its lasted well with 4 oil changes a year and sounds very well after 12 years. The paraffin will be input at the end of each week end, when its warmed up, for 10 minutes and I intend to do the mod asap with a 3 way valve with one tail in a 5 litre paraffin canister suitably suported against my robust ship handling. So thanks again for the reassurance. ken

My webasto thermo 90 is fitted in my 58 foot narrowboat. It heats 5 radiators and the calorifier. After 18 months it gets clogged up, the indicator on the switch flashes 3, indicating low voltage. The voltage is 12.5 but the unit worked with that voltage the previous week. The plan is to fit a 3 way valve in the fuel feed and drop one tail into a paraffin fuel can suitably guarding against fire. I'm assuming that with the paraffin the webasto will burn hotter and burn off the carbon. Has anyone made a modification like this and did it work. Who supplies a gasket kit for webasto? ken

That is fabulous - I sailed out of liverpool for 12 years - my wife is a scouser - we used to live in toxteth then birkenhead - her indoors put me thru my degree in liverpool - I did my masters (fg) there- I was blue funnel- if you're young and strong its a great place. To park our boat in front of the liver buildings would be great. all her old friends and relatives would relish that. Is it safe - the passage from parbold thro maghull - lidiate sandhills. Did you take the lock into the mersey across to ellsemere port and down the t&m. what is the pilotage cost - can we do it ourselves if we watch the weather - its not far and it's not a dangerous passage if you're a (were a) qualified seafarer. ken

hi the trent and mersey at kings bromley wharf near lichfield was one inch thick 26dec9. one boat has gone thru yesterday. I havent checked today but there was another frost last night (27 to 28dec9) and the marina was more iced up. so it was more than 25mm. I'm not able to break more than 16 mm easily so I gave up on the xmas trip- the boat is 21 tonnes with a 36hp lister. no-one was out trying to make a passage in the thick ice - it was like trying to make way with two bricks in a cement mixer - it wasn't worth the danger of doing damage to your propellor please make an ice report on your area. ken

The qm2 coats all her fresh water tanks with a cement wash as have all merchant ships for 50 years try it - mine have remained taste free for 10 years. ken

battery management systems are great and give us more voltage when we need it. they need to exite the field coils to do this and need an extra connection to those field coils. Ordinary alternators do not have field coil connections. The bog standard alternator guys will not guarantee any field coil rigged alternator. The choice is: get better goodies from the alternator without any prospect of a renewal in the field ; or have lesser goodies in the field with some prospect of a continued run with a bog standard alternator thats easy to fix in the field. --- the choice is yours - big jobbies that fail eventually or smaller that can be fixed everywhere and you can continue your trip. ken

to keep some air coming in as I move along I use flowerpots in the portholes. Cut the side out of a plastic flower pot. Push the flowerpot out thru the porthole. Turn the flowerpot hole to face ford. The boat movement pulls air into the hole and into the fpot which pumps the breeze into the boat. Its an old sailors trick to get a breeze in the red sea. But there we used a steel waste bin with a hole in the side. ken

the tides are nearly neaps at the moment - neap is that the high tide is not as big as a high tide on springs - the high waters will then get higher and higher over the next 2 weeks - as you only went aground recently then you should have tides "making" shortly - and if aground say 4 days before the bottom of neaps then you should have sufficient water say 4 days after the bottom of neaps. That assumes that you went aground at high water. best of luck - 1000 men want to do it - 100 try to do it - and one man does it - good on yer for trying - the trent isnt for the faint hearted. ken

a bow fender with a stainless steel chain inside and secured to a rubber interior - a rope 16 mm non degradable bag next to look good and cover the previous twobits - followed by a tyre over the middle bit that wears the rope out. Its got to last more than two years and got to take the bash as the boat meets the lock gates. I've not seen an adequate bow fender yet - i'm half way thro building this one. My stern fender is built on similar principals and protects the rudder -but with an eye to the extra wet immersion at the stern. The guy who told me was on the lancaster and he was right.

The batteries will die of old age eventually so replace thm regularly with the cheapest wet batteries and reckon on 4 to 6 years and budget for them. I pay £110 for 3off 110 amp hour batteries. to test the leisure battery bank you could fully charge them and leave a light on until the voltage is say 11.8 v then work out what theyve had in them. If it doesnt seem much change them all as a job lot. The starter battery is more difficult as the test is how long it will operate a high load. If in doubt change it. So sorry oh there is no test to deduce their remaining useful life. Batteries are the black art on narrowboats. One thing that I found fairly useful was that 11.8 is empty and 12.8 is full in a non loaded battery. Most heaters - inverters require 12.2 volts no load. Granddad

looks like electrics by committee - dont trust any of it - disconnect all the engine power - then wire it up as its got to be -power the engine - then the alternator to the engine start ken

The cross channel ferries have a small rudder ford for use when moving astern (its locked when going ahead). It also has a small propellor to ensure the flow over the surface is linear, this makes the rudder effective. The use of a mud anchor jettisoned from the bows when going astern and swinging the boat to go into a berth stern first is one I've been considering for some time. It'll work if I get the timing just right. I had thought of using a rope secured to the bows, with a mud anchor part way along the rope and the other end with me at the stern. Pull on the rope and the weight falls in. If you get it wrong pull on the rope again and suspend the mud anchor under the boat so its out of the way. Maybe I'll try it in tixall wide first with lots of room if it goes wrong.