Quinafloat
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Posts posted by Quinafloat
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It seems to be a feature of mastervolt chargers, mine is a 12/80. When my first one burnt out, Mastervolt replaced it with a refurbished one and I sent mine off so that they could repair it and just charge me for the repair.
The refurbished one had to be restarted every time the engine was started. I have a travelpower and that, in combination with the charger, looks after the domestic bank. I complained as remembering to restart the charger every time we cruised, or risking flat batteries was unrealistic. The previous one was simply left in the on position and came on when the travelpower started putting out power.
Mastervolt replaced the refurb unit with a new unit and that did not require a restart on engine start, so far so good.
It does, however require a restart when I change from shore power to travelpower or vice versa.
When the new unit decided to emit smoke instead of electric power I had it rebuilt with different innards by a good refurb specialist company. It works to this day, but still requires a restart or two when we change over to shore power or travelpower. Obviously that was not one of the bits that needed replacement.
The travelpower puts out pure sine wave at 230 volts. However it is from +115 to -115, whereas mains electricity is sine wave from 0 to 240. I suspect that the Mastervolt samples the incoming electricity, and, if different from the last time requires a restart.
The specification of mains input is: 230v -10% +15% or 117v -10% +15% so it certainly has some sensing/adaption capability.
It might be worth checking for voltage fluctuation of your mains input.
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If correct that must be a local policy because I know of no NHS wide policy that promotes preferential treatment for 'travellers'. The Urgent Care Centres in the hospitals I was responsible for all dealt with patients in order of clinical need, or if there was no clear medical priority waiting in order of arrival.
It exists.
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I'm a liveaboard so have no intention of polluting my canals and rivers. I take the point about professional garbage personnel knowing about sharps, however as I use CaRT rubbish disposal points the problem is the first 100 yards. Firstly I must ensure that my wife is safe carrying the rubbish in a polythene bag. Then I must ensure that the people picking over the rubbish (yes gentle people, they exist) before it is even collected are safe.
I don't drink beer or fizzy pop, so If I bought a can, I would have to empty it down the sink first just to be able to use it, and then dispose of a can and a single sharp, that would really be needless pollution.
As regards taking them to a proper rubbish disposal place, there are so few near canals I think that everyone can see that unless you own a car, which I do not, that it is pretty impractical. A great many now ban people who arrive on foot these days.
Plenty of people use scalpels for electronics, modelling and many other purposes including cutting polythene six pack holders off of ducks necks to prevent them from starving to death. It's just a small, sharp knife with replaceable blades. For those of us who make things rather than buy them they are invaluable for precision work.
There is also a sense of scale missing, I dispose of perhaps 3 blades a year. A bucket of ash is vast in comparison.
I suspect that a lot of the condemning responses are from people who live in houses and have cars and a boat or two just for fun. They are the real polluters.
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My post was certainly not a joke post. I think that the detractors are missing a few salient points. Compared to the surface area of the canal bottom such objects are minute. They will almost certainly sink into the mud and not be uncovered for many years and only by a dredger by which time they will certainly not be sharp.
As to the possibility of them ending up round a prop, well having had many years of prop cleaning, the chance of a fishing line with a hook is a more realistic probability. The chance of a single blade being picked up and embedded round a prop, with or without anything else, is frankly laughable.
To those who think the dangers are so immense, I suggest a little realistic analysis would be a great thing. Disposal on land of such objects is potentially far more dangerous to people.
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Anything really sharp that could injure people dealing with the rubbish goes in the canal. Scalpel blades, broken glass and "stanley" knife blades and suchlike are, in my opinion, far too dangerous to be disposed of any other way. I suppose that in 50 or 100 years some dredging machine might need a band aid because of this but, as our rubbish is now supposed to be sorted it seems to be the safest option.
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Which begs the question if you don't like or want your boat photographing why own one that is guaranteed to be snapped?
Try going through London in the tourist season, If it floats and moves it will be photographed. There is absolutely nothing exceptional or photogenic on my bog standard clonecraft.
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I take a lot of photos of other peoples boats for my cruising newsletter, and my boat get's photographed a lot. It's all fair game as far as I am concerned. The trouble is that a picture of my boat is now part of a stock collection which means that it it used whenever some hack wants a boat photo. The result is that every so often other boaters tell me that my boat is featured in such and such publication. Sometimes they even buy a copy just for me.
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Indeed, nice to see some serious maintenance in that area. I hope that they get in the habit as there are a few more bridges in that area that need fixing.
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I'd be interested to know more about the 12s - what are your sources, please? It's hard enough to get round that corner in an eight....
I'm afraid I know nothing about them. My brother in law, who lives in Ely,and who went to Jesus college in Cambridge happens to be a history buff on the subject of the Great Ouse. When I told him about my experience on the Cam he immediately told me why that stretch had such unusual rules. I have no reason to disbelieve him.
I am sure that it is very easy to get round any corner on the Cam in an eight, they are highly maneuverable with eight separate motors. However it would require slowing down.
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There was a stretch of the River Cam (and may still be) where the rules are reversed so everybody has to cross to the other (left) side of the river, and give way to craft going upstream. I started digging into this rather strange set of circumstances. It seems that the Cambridge Universities boat clubs used to use 12s rather than 8s and the and it was the extra length of the boats that meant they could not keep to the same side when rounding the bends there at speed (the concept of slowing down is a bit alien to rowing clubs).
I then visited the Cam Commissioners to complain about the lunacy of boats going upstream having right of way. The Cam Commissioner explained that when out hill walking it was a general rule that people coming downhill gave way to people coming uphill. Having very recently come downstream in flood conditions at very high speed I tried to explain to him the problem. Last time I was down that way nothing had changed but it was a few years back.
The concept of passing other boats whilst keeping to the right if in a narrow channel, had (and may still have) at least one exception in the UK.
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A drop of cyanoacrylate should do the trick without all of the heavy engineering. put some on the screw thread and tighten as best possible with what you have.
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The "on CaRT system" numbers seem to check out in general, but do not actually appear in the list of locations I have. So they look as reasonable as the list of locations. The trend continues with BW-007 numbers pretty much in accordance with expectations for off system licences.
Mike. I think that we are now trying to invent electricity by intensely studying a light bulb. We have the pattern, it is now time to ask the questions of CaRT and see if the answers match the pattern. Thanks for your efforts and confirmation of the pattern.
I will report back on what I find out.
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Having looked at my licences for the past few years - yes I'm sad enough to keep them
Code
GU-071-002 - Home mooring on GU (Brauston Marina)
BW-007-006 - Home Mooring on Middle Levels (Fox)
BW-007-011 - Home mooring on river Nene (Oundle)
BW-065-007 - No Home mooring CC
From this it would appear that the first code relates to the CART asset list as that number equates to bridge no 2 on the GU which is at Braunston.
The second two both begin 007 which could indicate the navigation authority for the home mooring. Perhaps 007 is for Anglia.
The second part 006 & 011 could indicate the specific waterway which would tie in the with OP who also had BW-007-011 for his home mooring on the Nene. The final one we seem to have established is aCC code.
My two penneth for what it's worth
I think your "two penneth" provides some pretty solid reasoning reasoning based on fact. Many thanks for your time and effort.
I will still check with CaRT when they are back as to the actual meaning of the codes, as nobody who has replied seems to know the actual details of the codes, and their interpretation, for boats that moor off of the CaRT system .
I find it very interesting that both Oundle and Northampton get the same coding which would reinforce your analysis and refute some of the previous interpretations.
I had previously heard of a boater on the Great Ouse with a home mooring finding out that everybody who did not have a home mooring on CaRT waters got a CC licence. If that were true it may even be that the "BW" code indicates continuous cruising.
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Given that the code that we are looking at is 007;
We need to consider;
1) How many canals are less than 7km long. There are a few branches, but there aren't many valid codes that don't include 007
2) How many canals are less than 100km long. Most actually, so if we look at the distribution of codes (assuming that moorings aren't unevenly distributed), I feel sure that rather MORE than 1 in 100 codes will be of the form xx-007-nnn
3) We aren't actually sure exactly how the BW- pseudolocations are allocated, but as a techie, I would hazard a guess that 001-063 are allocated to non-CRT navigations (or possibly navigation authorities), with the third part specifying waterways/parts of waterways/moorings on those authorities waters. A code may well be allocated for trailable boats. 065 with bit-7 is clearly set apart from the others, indicating that significantly LESS than 63 codes are actually in use.
4) We may assume that the lower BW-nnn codes are the major authorities.
Conclusion;
A boat that used to be a CCer and now has a mooring off CRT waters is very likely to get BW-007-nnn as a code.
The situation is that Northampton Marina is about 1km from the end of CaRT waters. Using the only list of location codes I have, the word Northampton did not exist.
CaRT seem not to have location codes on other navigations waters at the Km level of accuracy. Therefore the 007 is not a km designation.
Are you saying that code 007 is or could be EA?
I was assuming the OP was going to remain on CRT canals
I use both CRT canals and rivers as well as EA waters. Little point in buying a gold licence otherwise.
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The code really means little. You could decide to move into a marina in Jan till March, decide to CC for April May, back into a marina for June to Aug and CC from Sept to Dec.
No one will care.
It's one boat licence.
You just apply the rules depending on what you're doing, you wouldn't ask CRT for a new form of licence every few months...there is no "new form of licence."...there is only 1 licence.
CaRT certainly will change your licence if you move from a canals and rivers licence to a gold licence, and change the expiry date into the bargain if the original licence did not end in December.
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While I would agree that there are only boat licences and houseboat licences referred to in the 1995 act, CaRT seem to issue a a variety of flavours:
Canal and River licence.
Rivers only Licence
Gold Licence
"Trade Licence" covering multiple boats but only one at a time.
I would also consider winter mooring permits a licence as well as the connection charge for marinas (although that may just be a contract)
I was also, minorly, involved in the beta testing of the online licensing system trialed by CaRT which failed to recognise the off CaRT waters marina moorings that I tried.
I did check the paperwork and it did not state what conditions the licence was issued under. The invoice did state BW portion £296.13, EA (Anglian) £864.87. As BW no longer exists, the amounts are obviously reversed, and I thought it covered the Thames as well, It does not seem to be the best put together document I have ever seen.
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Many thanks folks,
I still think it's a major omission that CaRT do not put on the invoice what they have sold you but such is life.
As to the concept of calling CaRT at this time of year, I have to wait for an answer to a recent email sent to CaRT till at least the 5th of January, I figured I would get a significantly faster response here.
I will contact them in January to get the exact meaning of the coding. It's a 100 to 1 chance that the 007 code would appear on both licences despite a change of location and mooring type, hence my suspicions. Maybe I did indeed hit the jackpot.
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I recently renewed my Gold Licence along with adding a home mooring. Previously I was a CCer and my licence had BW-065-007 identification. Now I have a home mooring at Northampton Marina on the river Nene and now have BW-007-011 identification on my licence.
CaRT do not specify on their invoice or licence sheet what type of licence they have issued and that seems an omission.
There are two points of some importance here:
1, Being identified as a CCer obviously places a greater risk of the boat being broken into as any thief who knows his business knows that all your worldly goods, including your administration, is aboard.
2, It could easily cause needless hassle from CaRT if I was obeying 17,3,c,c,i rather than 17,3,c,ii.
Anybody know what these identifications actually mean?
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Helemaal terecht.
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These use the same sizes as standard North American two pin plug/socket combinations. Not a good idea if you have North American visitors who are likely to want to charge their phones etc. If that is not a problem then they work pretty well.
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Secondary glazing made a huge difference to the comfort of our boat over the winter. I used 3mm acrylic and simply screwed it onto the wooden window surround. You do have to mark which sheet goes where but then it lines up on the screw holes each time it is put up. It stopped the whole window condensation wiping business as well.
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It depends on the anthracite. Some types are highly controllable, and will stay in overnight. Some burn at furnace level but just goes out if turned down.That is the problem with a natural fuel. Unless you know where it is mined you don't know what you are really buying.
I used it for three years, the stuff I got the first two years was superb, the third year it was nothing but cold mornings so I gave up on it and went back to manufactured fuel which is more consistent in it's properties.
If you have room for two fuels, Anthracite makes a great additive to fuels such as pureheat or excel. That's how I used up the last of my year 3 batch but personally I found hand mixing two fuels too much of a hassle as I didn't have room for two hods on the boat.
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It also seems to throw another undefined variable into the ring, having "specific reason". Is needing to pump out your boat a specific reason? Is visiting a friend a specific reason? Is "I prefer to go shopping there" a specific reason?
Sounds to me like the waters just got very murky.
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Lots more info, thanks all.
Quinafloat - just when I was starting to think it would be ok you post a video of getting stuck
oddly reassuring nevertheless.Scholar Gypsy - still working through your blog, really useful stuff and great to see so many pictures
Gabble
Getting stuck cost me 6 minutes, not really serious in the grand scheme of things. My longest unexpected delay whilst boating was over 12 weeks.
I took the video because I had told the Lockie that there was pretty much no way that I could turn the boat before the sandbank and I knew that my friends would enjoy seeing what it was like to get stuck. You probably noticed that my wife forced the boat over so that I could get the the back to start swinging round while I was still in the lock.
Last time I passed that way they had dredged the channel and there was absolutely no problem. A bit boring really.
oddly reassuring nevertheless.
Have I got a CCers Licence?
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