Chris Lingwood

My boat is slightly unusual in as much as its bedroom is at the bow. This means that in the event of a fire amidships (where the stove is) we have to exit by the bow hatch. At the moment this is fine because our mooring is a single 100m jetty which covers one whole side of the boat. BWML want to move us onto a jetty which will be a good 7 foot shorter than our boat so our bow will be firmly over the water blocking that escape route. The gunwale won't be an acceptable route because the way we will be forced to moor there will be a rope along at least part of it (lovely trip hazard in the dark). Bow in isn't an option either because the only doors which are externally unlockable are at the stern. This leaves us with the option of taking to the roof or the water, neither of which are going to be particularly safe in the winter when it gets icy and often blows a gale. I'm really quite unhappy about this but I'd like to get some opinions from you guys.

wow who would say that? I've got 3 broadband (I liveaboard so its pretty handy) and its fairly good. NEVER goes at 2.8Mbps (not MB that's a factor of 8 out) though only ever gets up to about 800kbps but thats about all I was expecting so I'm happy. I signed up when you got the free modem too, which is handy when I'm out and the girlfriend is in.

If you've no other access to a shower I'd say it was pretty high up! You're going to start honking fairly quickly! Having said that I never use my shower and use the one in the marina (because the hot waters free and I'm tight). BUT whenever we go for a cruise you can't really do without it. Unless you really go to town I can't see a bath on a boat being anything less than disappointing.

on a subtly different note how much hot water do you get from a 30l calorifier (assuming no extra added heat) in terms of use (number of showers/washing up).

hmm my new route would have quite a few, but it means i get to avoid all the electrical wires and water pipes, which in my book is a bloody good idea! Maybe 7 right angles would be needed. I'll probably get the gas guy in to give me a hand anyway. Saves doing it and being told its not up to scratch.

Iiiinteresting! I was going to fit my new gas system myself then get the qualified gas man down to commission it and make sure its not going to kill me. Sounds like I can't do that seeing as I live aboard. Is solid pipe really a problem? It would make my installation much neater and I have several 90 degree bends.

although I'd freely admit I don't know a great deal about the process I would say that the critical difference is that electroplating companies expect their machines to work fairly rapidly. They don't have years to achieve these things. We leave our boats plugged in and sat in electrolyte for years on end. If you think of it in those terms although the effect is minute it could add up to mm lost over time. I'm going to run off now before the 12 page thread starts! Oh and less you could do that....but people would hate you! And if you were found to be doing it deliberately you might find people claiming their hulls back by means of an electric drill

There are 6 on the Glasson branch (effectively 12 as its a dead end so you get to turn round and go straight back) its quite a pleasant branch with a few pubs at the end and a pleasant basin, its quite near the lune/conder esturarys. There's a few at the start of the Ribble link too but I doubt you are allowed to take a hire boat on that, I hope you're not anyway. You could have a go at the Tewitfield locks but you might have some depth issues!

Well I've been assured I will have good coverage (we shall see) and its the cheapest way of getting broadband which isn't tied to a mobile phone so my girlfriend can use it while I'm out. I've ordered it and got the free modem and free bluetooth thingy. I should be able to get the 2.8MBs signal which I believe is per mast, so even if it averages out to around 512kbs or even 256kbs would be much better than grps and only £2.50 a month more.

New this week its £10, £15 to £25 a month for 1GB 3GB and 7GB respectively and the modem is free if you get either of the 2 most expensive ones. only available in the some of the north from September then it rolls out to other places but most of the country doesn't get it. Its up to 2.8MBs so LOADS better than my current grps dial up speed. And you can get a free bluetooth headset if you talk to them on their live chat. The coverage looks fairly limited at the moment so you need to check on the checker. Its the green turbo button you want to press. Skype is allowed too (I asked them) so with skype pro you get "unlimited" calls to a landline for an extra £1.50 a month. BARGAIN! I think my tmobile contact might find itself cancelled soon if I can get something approximating an landline.

bugger, I'm trapped between January and March

Surely the broken window is only as secure as the film to frame join? Won't it behave like a laminated windscreen and break and not shatter but still pop out of its frame.

I thought I'd win this particular competition! Apparently not! I have got: 2 kayaks colapsable engine carton (greatest roof box of all time! its hinged and everything!) a pallet of wood about 4 oars life ring various poles 2 bikes (technically on the back deck) a bbq It looks a frightfully mess, I really should empty the engine carton and put the fire wood in there and paint it a nice colour. Not a lot I can do about the kayaks though apart from repaint the ply one. I should probably make a frame for the various poles too! Damn you all...that's like 3 things for my todo list....ITS ALREADY 47 ITEMS LONG!!!!

oh...your cats clearly cleverer (and more persistant) than mine! Could you put a removable bar over the outside of the door? Although that's not much use if he manages to batter the door to pieces! You could do what some one at my marina did with his cat flap....accidentally mount a mast in the way...oops! Don't know of any metal flaps though, I'd probably have bought one if I did. Having said that the attacking cat might be a little worse off if it gets smacked in the face by one of those.

Our flap...doesn't anymore because the cat beat the hell out of it (into the invading cats face I might add) but it has a sliding cover that you slot in when you want it locked. I don't see that a cat could get through it without punching a hole clean through it. I think its the cheapest one in argos. Unfortunately the flap will fall off. Could you just put a normal door over the flap? Or a bit of ply wood. I'd like to see it burrow through 3/4inch ply...or better still STEEL!

So when I said 1150W i meant 1150VA. So the transformer is OK up to just over 7 amps in reality. I've reread the wikipedia article and I think I've got it now. That's a much lower resistance than I would have expected but then again I've never measured it! I may also buy one, if they do what the specification says they should then it seams almost silly not to! Shame I can't find a stockist other than RS for this model. I might try them directly.

Oh ok. Thats good to know. Splendid. Right gotcha, I thought you were just talking about the outer casing of the transformer rather than any internal component when you said frame. I can't see any reason then why this wouldn't be as appropriate as Victron one. Surely there's a flaw with this setup though. I can't think of a reliable way that mains would trip if you managed to short your shorepower live wire onto the hull (before the IT). The mcbs on the shore wouldn't trip because no great current would flow. The RCD might trip but that depends on how much current the water conducts back to ground. I think I'm right it saying that nothing on the boat would trip either. Relying on the RCD on the shoreline to trip uses the same logic that says you shouldn't ground your hull...logic I'm not fond of.

ARGH!!! Exactly! Now have Victron made something subtly different or have they stuck a marine sticker on something and quadrupled the price. As far as I know there's nothing special to a 1:1 wound transformer which should justify £400 other than economies of scale. Phew!

I noticed that. I was under the impression that this is only of significance when there is a low power factor. My 5 amps have proved to be plenty which is 1150W so with 1650VA that allows for a power factor of 0.7? That sounds like plenty of headroom bearing in mind I probably very rarely use that 5amps. Having said that the wiki of pedia suggests that for switch mode power supplies the factor could be as low as 0.55. And most of my loads I think are switch mode apart from my hifi amp. They are however very recent so may well have either passive of active PFC. My computer for instance has: so its power factor might be about 1ish...which is good! Dunno about the sterling charger or tv though. Yup otherwise I've done what's commonly known as defeating the object So I would be connecting my neutral and earth wires together just as happens somewhere off in the national grid normally. Makes sense. I take it this connection MUST be made on the IT side of the RCD otherwise it wouldn't detect a current imbalance if you held onto the hull and the live wire. Is this connection not made inside the transformer? The earth bonding would serve this purpose then? That sounds like debate of galvanic isolators Mr. W I think there's been more than enough of that. I seam to remember something about earthing a safety screen. What ever it was its internal to the transformer and could be wrong for our purposes.

I remember reading here about a isolation transformer from RS (436-8805) which at 1650VA should give me 7amps continuous (3000va peak for 15 minutes). I have a 5 amp fuse in my shoreline anyway and have only blown it once when I hit both switches on the fan heater by accident so that's plenty. Some one did point out another potential problem with it (other than the potentially low capacity). The problem is I think its in the galvanic isolator thread and I don't really want to venture back in there. I think it was to do with the way that it is earthed. I don't want to buy something that costs loads (the Victron one) if I don't have to, but equally if it doesn't do the job then I might as well not fit it. I've found the manufacturers website so I should be able to find the answer to any questions from there http://www.carroll-meynell.com/ I seem to remember a forum member was trying to get a cheaper isolation transformer sourced but I can't remember who it was...did they have any joy in the end? Some boats in my marina are coming out with some odd deposits on them so there might be a problem with the wiring. I thought I'd investigate this again as I'm redoing some of my wiring anyway and galvanic isolators are debatable at best (PLEASE DON'T DEBATE THEM!!!! PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEE!!!!).

Hang on have I been dense? I was under the impression we were talking about something far cleverer than I think we are. I though an alternator controller was a fancy bit of kit just like a mains battery charger that just uses the 12v ish supply instead of a AC supply. Whereas it seams they aren't, they are just external voltage regulators. So as you drag your batteries voltage up it won't do anything UNTIL you reach the limit set by the internal regulator. At this point the controller either starts lying to the internal regulator about the voltage or takes over the energising of the field windings (assuming it doesn't just do that anyway). At this point without the controller the internal regulator would be in effect limiting the charge current but in reality is limiting the voltage. Couldn't roughly the same thing be achieved with an internal regulator that has its limit set at 14.4v or whatever? Which I'm pretty sure is exactly what Gibbo and others have been trying to say for 5 pages. I think I reiterated a couple of other peoples posts here but I'd like to make sure I'm not thinking/talking bollocks. What I don't quite understand it how the battery responds to applied voltages. I've tried and failed to find a graph showing this. As I understand it (perhaps wrongly) presuming we start with a discharged battery: The battery voltage starts low (when disconnected) We then connect charger This slowly brings the voltage up to a set limit (bulk charge?) 11-14.4-.8v Then it sits at this limit (absorption?) 14.4-.8v Then drops down (float?) 13.?v What I know I don't understand is at absorption the voltage is around 14.4-.8v but if you switch it off the voltage would go down to 13v ish (same as float?). Does the voltage drop on the battery if you turn off the charger in the bulk stage? Why can't you get the voltage of the battery higher during the bulk stage? I guess its down to the chemistry. If I'm not talking bollocks the first 2 stages are down to the nature of batteries and the voltage limit. What is the purpose of float? To avoid damage to the batteries? Do the alternator controllers have a float stage? This could be an advantage but admittedly wouldn't charge it any faster. Also with lower current battery chargers/alternators does the bulk stage just last longer as the charger can't raise the voltage up to the absorption level without trying to supply more current than it is capable of? I think with some of this I've attempted to treat a battery as a ohmic conductor which its not.

I thought about putting a bike rack on the stern of my boat but don't you keep crushing your bikes against locks and whatnot? The seem a bit vulnerable out the back.

yeah I think they changed the terms and conditions of the £7.50 tariff, although it should still work on the £12.50 tariff. Edit: I've got the £12.50 (as do you if you are using it on a laptop) and the pocket msn won't sign in now. Maybe they've blocked it for everyone/something's gone bang!

Splendid, how do they switch. I've found one on chandleryworld but it has a position where both hot water sources are connected together and slightly worse where they are both supplying the hot taps. I can't decide if that's dangerous or bad for the water heater (I suppose a NRV after the paloma would protect it though) as I'm guessing the presure drop through the calorifier is less than through the water heater. Ideally I want an all off in the middle. http://www.chandleryworld.co.uk/acatalog/BallValves.html

Why would I need 2 valves? I might be able to use a motorised 3 way valve. It would be more impressive (and probably neater) to have the pipes hidden and only a switch to select between the two. Shame they are about £30 and 240v