system 4-50

I can't manipulate a 20L jerrican and peer down a tiny inlet hole at the same time so this sounds like a perfect solution. But does it work? I am surprised that a search gives no hits. Is it new? Does anyone have any experience of it?

Can you give the details on how you did this? I'd like to have a go.

No it didn't. I lied. It was the ceiling that moved. As I lay in my bed, wide awake at 04:00am, the ceiling moved. Why awake? I went to bed shortly after dark as I have no lights other than torches. Anyway, to get back to the point, the ceiling moved. Being thoroughly bored, I got out of bed despite the cold (no heating), and examined the ceiling more closely. An earwig. And another earwig. And yet another earwig. In a 41ft cabin there were no less than 15 earwigs wandering across my unboarded sprayfoamed ceiling! I hate crawly things. I'm only connected to the bank by 2 ropes and 2 small fenders. There is no gangplank or welcome to earwigs banner, What attracts them on board? I know they like high dampish places but how do they know that there might be some here? And most importantly, how do I deter them from coming on board?

What has an MCB got to do with an earth? I don't understand...

This is the deadly silencer: And this shows how easy is was to accidentally touch it. You can just see the edge of it, upper right. I tried to lag it but I could only get 2 inch lagging from a prominent Midlands Chandlery and that cost about £48 for 30 metres. I was not willing to disconnect the silencer so I had to try & do it in place. This was very difficult and I had forgotten just how awful glass fibre is. Eventually I gave up and manufactured the rabbit hutch shown. This was deemed satisfactory and I now have a BSC.

Thank you very much! I can stopping searching the back of the sofa and other disparate places for the wherewithal to buy a new alternator... Not in this case as there are no lights on the domestic system. Nor is there anything else! I haven't got as far as installing any domestic electrics yet. My batteries are probably the most fully charged on the canal system ? And stratified as well, no doubt.

Whilst working on building my rabbit hutch in my cruiser stern engine well (don't ask) I wafted a piece of bare wire about, as one does, and managed to have one end touching the steel hull and the other end touching some part of my domestic alternator. I don't know which part as it was behind me. There was a brief fizzing noise, then a "phut", and then silence. I don't know if the noise would have been continuous if I hadn't been moving the wire at the time. So. Have I killed the alternator? Have I killed anything else? How can I tell without risking doing any more damage? Boo Hoo........ NB Standard Betamarine 43 configuration

You are quite right. The silly part is that I did buy the book, and I did go through it! Unfortunately I had the idea in the back of my mind that anything that appertained to the boat as initially built must be ok as the boat builder would have got it right. I didn't bother to look at those items. However for a sailaway the builder is not specifically building to the BSS specification as it (the boat) is clearly incomplete. My builder did warn me that somethings might need to be done, for example, removing the tap handle on the fuel drain cock, but in the excitement of that final pre-launch chat there was far too much detail for me to remember it all, and I think it probably did include the possibility of needing to lag the silencer. I hate being old! I can have no grumble with it being failed, that was my fault as the rules are clear. My grumble is with the rule itself and even there it is mostly irritation rather than scientific disagreement.

My boat failed its BSS today. Its hospital silencer needs to be fully lagged in case somebody burrows into the corner where it lives, despite it being 2 feet away from anything else that might provide an excuse for travelling in that direction and being well out of the way in a corner of my cruiser stern, under the deck itself not the opening bit. (The pipework to and from Is fully lagged.) OK, somebody could (and I am told at least once , did) get their fingers burnt. But why pick on this? After the engine hole board is lifted, there is a big hole. An inexpert person might not realise just how deep it is. A clear opportunity for a slip and a broken bone. A label saying "Deep Hole" perhaps? Rubber matting to cushion the fall? Another label "Hot Bits Here"? "Beware Slippery Floor"? The drive goes round and could snag trouser legs. "Naked People Only" perhaps? And at the end there are bits that go round. Another label "Danger - moving machinery" perhaps? A chain guard to protect the fan/etc belts. Another label " Stop Engine Before Opening"? Coming up again, "Mind Your Head" to avoid hitting the tiller arm? I suggest that the BSS rules should be amended to allow the use of a single label "Access by Trained Personnel Only" or something similar as an allowed alternative to being to clever about the contents of the 'ole itself. OK I concede that we need to have rules to protect inexpert boaters who must have access to the greaser & weed hatch from the rest of the gear down there and those rules have to be general and impact those of us who know what they are doing, But it still rankles...

I need some protection from the rain for my Honda EU20i generator because I want to use it here in England where it rains every 10 minutes or so. Nearly all the covers that I've seen advertised are expensive and only suitable for storage. Where can I get a suitable box that will let it run but keep the electrics dry? OK I could make one but I've got so many other things to make and I can't do them all at the same time.

My understanding is that concentrations of antifreeze in excess of 50% are NOT OK as it has a deleterious effect on hoses and such. However I am totally unable to find out where I got this idea from.

Apologies, it has taken me a while to remember how to reference the image properly. It looks like this:

I've used about 6 litres to do 2 coats on quite a lot of it, with a 2nd coat on the bow deck, 2 coats on the lower RHS, and 2 coats on the whole of the cruiser stern still to do, from the 4 litres I have left. I am guessing that when I've done the 2 coats over all of it I'll have used all 10L up, with none left to do further coats or touch-ups. When I've finished I'd like to have 10L in hand. Yes, I tend to stockpile everything. Its a sailaway. I am not fussed about what it looks like, I just want enough layers of paint on it that I can forget about the exterior and get back to the interior which is where the fun is. Currently I am at the stage of laying the flooring, with clips to take underfloor heating pipes at a later date. But first I need to get through the BSS in October... I have contacted International, and despite my detailed email request, got a quick response which just gave my local stockist who of course doesn't have it. (Thanks for the other reference.)

I have unfortunately chosen to paint my boat in a colour that has recently been discontinued & I didn't buy enough. Does anybody know of paint stockists that tend hang onto old stock? Not Chandlers obviously, because it is not a specialist boat paint. It used to be stocked by Focus. I am after 4 x 2.5 L pots if I can find them.

VENT Do I need to fiddle with these venty thingies to make them work or do they do their job automatically?

Nope. How do such people cope on the canal system? I was rammed twice whilst stationary in my first month on the water. If you saw my amateurish half-complete hand painted job you would realise that I would have difficulty in identifying additional damage to the upper parts of the boat... And I accept bumps as inevitable, to be accepted cheerfully. I can touch them up easily enough. The bits that bother me are the ones where I can't fix them myself without involving other people such as boat lifters etc.

This is the bit that I wanted to know more about. I get the impression that nobody actually does this. Is that right? Is there anybody out there in CWFland who has tried it? Anybody got pictures of it being done? It just doesn't sound practical. My blacking became precious when my boat builder told me that because it doesn't grow on trees it would cost me money to replace. Cue impoverished retirement hardluck story. What sort of damage do "icebergs" do? Is it just chips or does it score along the water line? I might be a little oversensitive on damage - some recreationally-challenged individuals danced on my car last week and put dents in all over the roof.

Before I collected my Sailaway at the start of the year, I visited Whilton Marina, and whilst there I saw a nb come in, dislodging huge sheets of thick ice towards neighbouring boats. I have worried about my boat since. What can I do to protect my precious blacking? My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

Sounds like you've got a weapon of mass destruction there...

Took mother-in-law from hospital after her heart attack to a care home because she at 90 can no longer live in her own home. She liked it! Took father-in-law from hospital after his hip operation after a fall whilst recovering from his heart attack to same care home likewise. Discovered that he had been on happy pills for 15 years which now had to stop because of the heart attack, and the withdrawal symptoms are severe. So now he is slightly demented and can't understand where he is. A few weeks ago he was a highly intelligent normal soul. MIL can't cope with him in this state "He has always been the strong one" but can't live without him either, so now she is not happy in the home either. So no, we did not get to carry out our plans to finish painting the boat...

My normal travel speed is very slow when travelling in pretty places with no deadlines on destination or finish times, and medium-ish otherwise. If going slow then I am careful to help craft to overtake me at the next opportunity. (Last time to be met with "no thanks, we're winding in 400 yds"!) I may speed up if overtaking is not possible. My intention is to not disturb people who are aboard their boats and not to put any unoccupied boat at risk of having its mooring mechanism dislodged or damaged, assuming that it has been done as efficiently as possible for the available bankside conditions, whilst taking advantage of the canal's primary purpose, the movement of boats. I slow right down for: All moored boats between 20:00 and 08:00. They may be occupied despite appearances. Moored boats that look as if they are travelling but have made a stop. I slow down less for permanently moored boats that look unoccupied. I assume that they are well secured. I have little sympathy for boats on EOG moorings with the big slow down signs. If you have the good fortune to have such a mooring then the least you can do is provide it with robust mooring apparatus that can withstand regular traffic. If you're aboard I'll slow down. I slow down less for boats that are parked with 200ft gaps for mile after mile. I slow down past boats where navigation could become difficult. I may actually speed up past boats moored by bridge holes if it simplifies the traffic, for example if I can slip through between two (non-towing!) oncoming boats with minimum disruption to the three of us. A boat moored by a bridge or other pinch point can expect no less. I modify the above if canal conditions need me to do so, narrow/shallow etc. So my basic philosophy is, if you're navigating the system but have temporarily stopped then you deserve the maximum consideration. If you're really a houseboat then the canals' function as a transport system has precedence. Am I being unreasonable? (Most of my canaling so far has been on wide canals.) PS I slow down past Tupperware so that I have time to check if they are having a party...

And that's not the only risk. Any water getting down there will be very difficult to remove. But what the hell. The boat will still last longer than I will. When it goes wrong I promise to post on here so that you can have a good laugh and say you told me so.

Yes. I am doing it. It is difficult. The normal way of doing it requires an extra pump and bypass to keep the UF heating water below 50degrees. Kits available all contain 240V pumps. I've had the bilge sprayfoamed so the fish don't lose their cool.