nicknorman

No. The alternator is a conventional alternator BUT rewound as a high voltage variable frequency ac source, something like 300 volts I think. The braided cable is because the voltage is so high. This is connected to the travelpower “black box” (which might be black or silver according to its version) which contains the electronics to convert it into 230v ac 50Hz. So a Travelpower comprises 2 separate items, the alternator, and the box of electronics.

Hmmm, sounds like you could be a convert to the dark side!

That’s great. It has always been thus in theory, but in the past I think the “ask if boater wants assistance” was downplayed and mostly ignored. As has been said, this seems to have got better recently - as in this year. Lots of people like assistance. Lots of people don’t like assistance! So by asking, everyone is happy!

Yes. You just have to look at some of the folk coming on here for free advice! (Not the OP, obviously).

Well let me explain then. Again. And I am not always moaning, i do occasionally do other things. My boat, which I paid quite a lot of money for. My licence to use the canal system including locks. So their “leisure time” is paid for by me, and yet they give me nothing I want in return. They don’t pay for my leisure time. So unfair! But as I have often said, I don’t particularly mind if they want to help, but I do object when they try to take control and tell me how I should be doing it. To be fair, this has happened less recently. You like to eat your lunch in your leisure time. If some people came along and sat down at your table uninvited and started to eat your lunch, you wouldn’t be too pleased. If they then went on to tell you that you had made the sandwiches incorrectly and This is how you should do it, you would be even less impressed.

No I don’t think so, although it is a bit confusing. But even if I’m wrong, he was a member of the public since he was not there in any official CRT capacity. I am reminded of my own falling out with the WFC when one of them was shouting stop at me and the parallel boat when we were just a very few yards from entering the lock going up, side by side. I looked up to see him standing between the balance beam and the edge, incredibly stupid when 2 boats were just a few yards away from pushing the gate the last bit open, which would have sent him over the edge. Fortunately the other guy stopped (the chap was on his side) but the other crew member, and owner of the boat, who was bankside, was profoundly deaf. So if it had been her steering, she wouldn’t have stopped and the guy would have been pushed in.

Thanks Andy. So I think I can see where CRT are coming from. Even though the volockies weren’t on duty, they were carrying out similar activities, behaved recklessly, didn’t think through the risks of their venture, with the result that a member of the public was seriously injured. Under slightly different circumstances, it could have been fatal From CRT’s perspective, they probably thought that if the three could be that irresponsible, it was quite likely that they would display the same level of responsibility when they were on duty, and the last thing CRT want is to be sued by a member of the public for injury caused by a volockie. Plus, they had probably grown too big for their boots! The rest of the rather lengthy description is just smokescreen.

We have 2 feeds to our radiators / calorifier circuit, the Mikuni and the plate heat exchanger from engine skin tank circuit. Each pump feeds via a low pressure 1 way valve so that you can turn on one, or the other, or both, and there is no back-flowing through the inoperative circuit. Completely transparent and foolproof and simple.

Oh dear. Hard to answer your question without full knowledge of what happened but I suppose the first step is a polite approach to the boatyard asking them to fix the problem. If they decline then try to get as much evidence as possible, contemporaneous notes, witnesses and photos, and be sure it is 100% their fault and not at all your fault. An “expert witness” such as a surveyor might be needed if it goes to court

Well to be fair it can happen to anyone. Including me! This summer I was holding the paddle pawl with one hand, the windlass in the other hand, winding the paddle down. At that moment a gust of wind caught my hat and it was about to depart into the cut. As a reflex, I let go of the windlass to catch my hat. Ouch! Should have let go with the other hand obviously, but reflexes are faster than brain analysis!

Interesting. Personally i have no desire to own an electric car, even less an electric boat - I think I just like throbbing things and burning fossil fuels! But still interesting. Do you have an idea what the energy efficiency of the battery set up is? (Not the charge efficiency, which will be close to 100%). This will depend on how fast you charge and discharge, but it would be interesting to compare that with the energy saved by using an efficient generator running optimally vs (as you say) a large diesel engine running rather slowly.

Do you mean connect them directly, not via some sort of split charge device? I would not recommend it due to the possibility of the BT draining the starter battery and thus creating cold starting difficulties. In practice it will be OK most of the time, but one should design for worst case!

My understanding was that Peter posted a private email from CRT to him on his FB page. CRT did not post directly to Facebook. Posting private emails into the public domain is poor behaviour unless exceptional circumstances, which this is not. Got up themselves and decided it was their flight to play with, not CRT’s?

Well if not, there soon will be! CRT can amend their ultra vires Ts & Cs whenever they like as quickly as they like.

You did. But it was not explained and rather lost in your seemingly categoric length limitations. Weight might be an issue, it depends on the type of boat.

Well there has obviously been a major falling out. Exactly why, we don’t know. My personal opinion is that the WFC are very helpful to a large number of under-confident, or incompetent, or physically limited, boaters. Which is good. But in their eyes, they have become indispensable. And worse, it is their flight of locks. They own it. Thus a conflict with CRT becomes inevitable. It is exactly the same as a government in power for too long. Arrogance, entitlement and a lack of accountability all come to the fore, and ultimately needs to be knocked back.

In narrowboating world as you say we tend to choose fatter cables than are necessary from a current rating point of view (depends on the length though) and so the cable rating is rarely an issue when it comes to choosing fuse size. With a single operation device eg a water or shower pump, there is a certain current that it should take. If the current is much more, something is wrong eg it's jammed / stallled and it doesn't hurt to have a fuse rating that might blow after a while under those circumstances, to avoid the device overheating. Bottom line is to select a fuse in accordance with the manufactuer's installation instructions because the manufacturer might be basing their failure mode analysis not causing a fire, on having the fuse blow under fault conditions. AC devices tend to be more complicated and have various modes that could draw various amounts of current, washing machine being a prime example. As I said earlier, having a fuse that closely matches the maximum power consumption doesn't protect most of the components that draw much less current but might take too much current and overheat whilst the water heating element is off, and hence the total power consumption might still be quite low as the flames start to lick... Plus of course, the public is thick and stupid and having a variety of different fuse sizes is just too complicated!

Sorry but I rather disagree! The old adage is correct in that the fuse is to protect the cable not stuff within the appliance. Especially an appliance with a very variable power consumption. In the case of the Zanussi the heating element is around 1300 watts and the other stuff is much less. So for example if the motor or a valve or even the controller had a fault, it could easily generate enough heat to cause a fire without consuming as much current as the 1300w heating element. Same applies to a dishwasher. Obviously there is nothing wrong with fitting a smaller fuse but I think the enhancement in safety would be as close to zero as to not matter.

Yes a 5A fuse can take 5A indefinitely, and so it won't blow on a fairly short term modest overload for several minutes or even hours. But it will get very hot and eventually fatigue fail.

The manual specifies a 13A fuse. 5 A is only about 1200 watts. The washer uses about 1600 watts when the heater is on. This is why the fuse blew!

I'm not sure why you think that. Most rudders have a large area of plate in front of the pivot to reduce rudder forces, which could catch in something expecially when the rudder isn't central. Our boat has a relatively small area in front of the pivot (high tiller forces) but I still managed to get a tiller hard-over when it caught on a submerged shopping trolley going forwards (fortunately very slowly). Even though the tiller didn't move that fast due to our low speed, it was quite impossible to stop it.

And yet people still stand within the arc of the tiller, hire boats still have seating within the arc of the tiller.

Although it says Northamptonshire, wasn’t this one near Autherley Junction? Or is it another one?

Somewhat counter-intuitively, a quick wash normally uses more water and power than an eco wash that takes a lot longer.

They would have to be in parallel or selectable (ie taking water from one or the other). I think if they were paralleled via a slight restriction or pressure reducing valve, the system could be persuaded to take roughly equal quantities of water from each. But it does add a lot of extra faff compared to one larger one. While we are on the subject of calorifier, my one regret with our current boat is that it is a horizontal calorifier. These don't seem as good at keeping hot water following partial use - as there is a bigger contact area between the hot at the top, and the cold at the bottom. If you have the space (and it is a large boat after all!) I would always go for a vertical calorifier. Risk of Legionnaires?! I suggest 50 minimum, preferably 55.