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Boat Safety and Coronavirus


StephenA

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Ive just fitted a vacuum gauge on the suction side of the fuel system to help get to the bottom of the air in diesel problem. Whilst doing this it occurred to me that if boats had a gas pressure gauge fitted it would be really easy to do a DIY monthly check on the integrity of the gas system. We have also had a bit of trouble getting the grill to stay lit and a measure of gas pressure would be really useful. Do regulators have a failure mode where the pressure drops as they get old?

 

................Dave

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4 hours ago, MartynG said:

You are not permitted to travel.

The surveyor could collect the keys  and the new filters from your home as he would be travelling for work and with no alternative means of collecting the keys possible.

Or post the keys and let him supply filters

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5 minutes ago, dmr said:

Whilst doing this it occurred to me that if boats had a gas pressure gauge fitted it would be really easy to do a DIY monthly check on the integrity of the gas system.

 

The bit everyone misses about tightness tests, is the need first to prove the isolator valve is not letting by and corrupting the result.

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37 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

 

Chatting to the BSS man

You're lucky! I rang the Boat Safety Scheme people and spoke to a lady who was very pleasant but who, as a receptionist, couldn't answer my questions. She duly tried to put me through the THREE people who would know the answers. Two didn't answer and the third was making another call. The lady told me that he'd ring me back.

That was two hours ago and I'm still waiting.

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22 minutes ago, Athy said:

You're lucky! I rang the Boat Safety Scheme people and spoke to a lady who was very pleasant but who, as a receptionist, couldn't answer my questions. She duly tried to put me through the THREE people who would know the answers. Two didn't answer and the third was making another call. The lady told me that he'd ring me back.

That was two hours ago and I'm still waiting.

Misunderstanding, I was chatting to the local tester man who was booked to do our test, I did not even think about phoning the head office, I assume it would take ages to get a non-answer.

 

............Dave

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25 minutes ago, Athy said:

You're lucky! I rang the Boat Safety Scheme people and spoke to a lady who was very pleasant but who, as a receptionist, couldn't answer my questions. She duly tried to put me through the THREE people who would know the answers. Two didn't answer and the third was making another call. The lady told me that he'd ring me back.

That was two hours ago and I'm still waiting.

What are your questions?

 

There are probably some people on here who will know the answers.

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2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

 

Post 74.

 

 

Post 66 on my screen (we've had this sort of discrepancy before on here if memory serves).

Post 74 is DMR's. On my screen, at least!

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4 hours ago, Lottiespal said:

My concern is for what happens if my BSS runs out before I can get it surveyed and how that would impact on my Insurance and compliance with the rules of my marina, especially because I will be unable to go and check the boat for the foreseeable future.?

An expired  BSS does not invalidate insurance (unless it is specifically states that in your insurance policy - which I doubt).  For example coastal based boats don't need a BSS at all.

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Just now, Athy said:

Post 66 on my screen (we've had this sort of discrepancy before on here if memory serves).

Post 74 is DMR's. On my screen, at least!

Mine too!

 

  

4 hours ago, Athy said:

We could arrange with an examiner to visit the boat but at the moment there's one point on which it would fail. This could easily be rectified if we went to the boat, but at the moment we aren't supposed to, and we certainly don't intend to flout the new regulations.

 

Why not ask the BSS chap to fix whatever the issue is while he is there testing the boat?

 

You haven't said what it is, but it doesn't have to be a DIY fix unless you are flagrantly storing things that shouldn't be on the boat on the boat.

 

Is it the generator or the gas cartridge stove in the cabin that you are most concerned about? :giggles:

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9 minutes ago, MartynG said:

An expired  BSS does not invalidate insurance (unless it is specifically states that in your insurance policy - which I doubt).  For example coastal based boats don't need a BSS at all.

Our craftinsure policy states the boat has to be licensed and have a current boat safety certificate.

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14 minutes ago, StephenA said:

I'm starting to suspect that C&RT are not going to shift - that they will expect people to leave their homes and travel distances and then move their boats just to get a certificate done.

That’s not the case. In his email to me this morning he said:

’Please don’t worry, we understand that it is not possible for you to have the BSS inspection done at present’

 

We have to give them chance to work everything out, these are unprecedented times aren’t they and there will be lots of issues to consider. 

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21 minutes ago, Lottiespal said:

That’s not the case. In his email to me this morning he said:

’Please don’t worry, we understand that it is not possible for you to have the BSS inspection done at present’

 

We have to give them chance to work everything out, these are unprecedented times aren’t they and there will be lots of issues to consider. 

Thank you, that's a chink of light amongst the gloom!

 

I rang BSS again this afternoon, spoke to the same pleasant receptionist. Again she assured me that someone who could comment on the problem would ring me back. Again, no one has.

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5 hours ago, Rob-M said:

Our craftinsure policy states the boat has to be licensed and have a current boat safety certificate.

That s a surprise . 

Personally I would not have bough that insurance a I don't have my boat licensed over winter but keep it off water .

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‘We understand that those for whom the BSS is due to expire shortly will not be able to have an inspection and we will be considering what advice to give imminently’ 

 

From the latest Coronavirus Boaters update from CRT, landed in my inbox a few minutes ago. 

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I phoned them again today. Instead of yesterday's pleasant and efficient-sounding receptionist, I got one who was clueless at best and yabbered away irrelevantly. When she suggested that I contact our examiner because he might know more than the BSS did, I knew it was time to make my excuses and leave. 

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I phoned them again today. Instead of yesterday's pleasant and efficient-sounding receptionist, I got one who was clueless at best and yabbered away irrelevantly. When she suggested that I contact our examiner because he might know more than the BSS did, I knew it was time to make my excuses and leave. 

The world is full of inefficient ‘experts’. Yesterday I waited 3.5 hours past the allotted time for a lorry to turn up to collect three heavy pallets. We have no loading equipment ourselves so require the lorry to have a pallet truck and tail lift. When the 3.5 hour late lorry turn up it wasn’t a lorry at all but a small curtain-sided van with a friendly lady driver who explained she had neither a pallet truck nor a tail lift. While I was seeing if I could sort anything out I received a phone call from “... the driver, I have to pick up three pallets?” I asked what he had and he replied “A 40 ton truck, tail lift and electric pallet truck”. He had no idea what the lady was doing there and she had no idea why he was coming too. So I sent the lady away and waited another 40 minutes for the suitable truck. 
 

During all this time I was exchanging emails with the very nice lady at head office who was supposedly sorting this out. Her last email included “I’m in Glasgow, so it’s just as frustrating for me as it is for you.”

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On 24/03/2020 at 12:25, dmr said:

Ive just fitted a vacuum gauge on the suction side of the fuel system to help get to the bottom of the air in diesel problem. Whilst doing this it occurred to me that if boats had a gas pressure gauge fitted it would be really easy to do a DIY monthly check on the integrity of the gas system. We have also had a bit of trouble getting the grill to stay lit and a measure of gas pressure would be really useful. Do regulators have a failure mode where the pressure drops as they get old?

 

................Dave

I use a GASLOW regulator with pressure gauge on the outlet side, really useful and will do a reasonably good leak drop test.

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15 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I use a GASLOW regulator with pressure gauge on the outlet side, really useful and will do a reasonably good leak drop test.

Thanks, I looked at something like that but from the blurb it looked like the gauge was on the inlet side.......I will look again.

 

I do think a gauge in the boat would look good, especially an old brass one,   can you get old brass gauges that read to 50mBar ? 

 

................Dave

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On 24/03/2020 at 12:25, dmr said:

We have also had a bit of trouble getting the grill to stay lit and a measure of gas pressure would be really useful.

 

I suspect as the pressure is so very low (3.7kPa) that bourdon type gauges don't work, meaning the only low cost way to do it would be a manometer. Can you IMAGINE all the ways a manometer permanently connected could go wrong? Especially in the hands of someone clueless?

 

Anyway your grill. Do you suspect low gas pressure reducing the flame size then? Its more likely an elderly thermocouple, change than first.  

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4 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I suspect as the pressure is so very low (3.7kPa) that bourdon type gauges don't work, meaning the only low cost way to do it would be a manometer. Can you IMAGINE all the ways a manometer permanently connected could go wrong? Especially in the hands of someone clueless?

 

Anyway your grill. Do you suspect low gas pressure reducing the flame size then? Its more likely an elderly thermocouple, change than first.  

I remember a school science lesson where the pupils took turns to suck on a mercury manometer to test their lung power, that could have gone really wrong, especially as the smart-arse ones did a rhythmic sucking to excite the resonance of the manometer.

 

Here is a 100mBar jobbie:

 

https://www.bes.co.uk/pressure-gauge-0-100-mbar-8837?gclid=CjwKCAjwguzzBRBiEiwAgU0FT9aOzPF3IlsmwFmy_qZHx95DDsQ7cP92xEb97f8-DpRJPGHPHT27bhoCoBMQAvD_BwE

 

dunno how it works, could be a bourdon with suitable gears but I do wonder if it uses very thin walled tube. Could always get a proper transducer and do it with electronics, will have loads of spare cash to waste now the pubs are shut ?

 

...............Dave

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7 minutes ago, dmr said:

I remember a school science lesson where the pupils took turns to suck on a mercury manometer to test their lung power, that could have gone really wrong, especially as the smart-arse ones did a rhythmic sucking to excite the resonance of the manometer.

 

Here is a 100mBar jobbie:

 

https://www.bes.co.uk/pressure-gauge-0-100-mbar-8837?gclid=CjwKCAjwguzzBRBiEiwAgU0FT9aOzPF3IlsmwFmy_qZHx95DDsQ7cP92xEb97f8-DpRJPGHPHT27bhoCoBMQAvD_BwE

 

dunno how it works, could be a bourdon with suitable gears but I do wonder if it uses very thin walled tube. Could always get a proper transducer and do it with electronics, will have loads of spare cash to waste now the pubs are shut ?

 

...............Dave

 

Yeah we had a 1 litre glass Kilner jar in our science lab nearly full of mercury, must have weighed about 30kg and we used to play about with it and the contents unsupervised at lunchtimes. Can you imagine dropping it!!

 

That gauge must be slightly special given the price is 20 times that of a similarly styled run-of-the-mill 6 or 10 bar bourdon gauge. I also notice it also has a calibration screw in the face near the bottom, prolly for zero setting.  

 

 

The BSS man will prolly have a purple fit is he sees one of those permanently fitted to your gas system, especially is he is GSR...

 

 

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1 hour ago, dmr said:

I remember a school science lesson where the pupils took turns to suck on a mercury manometer to test their lung power, that could have gone really wrong, especially as the smart-arse ones did a rhythmic sucking to excite the resonance of the manometer.

 

We had a chap put one on a helicopter, they put a new bottom in it

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Has anybody had a response from CRT regarding extending the BSS end date...?  I've not had a reply to my email and their advice on this mornings Coronavirus update is still showing they will be providing advice soon.

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