She's mine now!

[goldtone]

I finally got my boat a week ago. Took 6 days to cruise her to my destination. I'd never cruised a canal boat before so a real baptism of fire!

Had the Hatton flight on the 3rd day.

Managed to bang into almost every bridge on the Stratford Canal

3 tunnels

Fouled up the prop

Knocked of the exhaust, so it is now hanging on with jubilee clips and the back box sticking vertically out the engine hold

Something wrong with the fuel system, think water in it as I filled her up (which i don't think has happened for a while) and collected the condensation

Flattened the starter battery yesterday as a result of this

Can't get rid of the smell of the previous owners dogs

Mouldy mattress

 

.....and I love it! Even emptying the cassette, which is the task I dreaded the most was nothing to worry about. 2 swans followed me along the bank and lovely morning sounds as I made my way to the disposal made it more than bearable!

 

So now I am a full time liveaboard and so far so good!

 

About the mouldy mattress....The bed sits on top of the water tank, has a built in wooden frame with slats and no ventilation. Gap of about 20cm between the tank and bedslats, so what I done was got some Space Blanket, the stuff to insulate lofts, and crammed it in the gap, the put a plastic membrane on top of the slats, then the new foam mattress on this. I figured if there is no way for air to circulate in that gap, then no condensation? Am I right, or will any condensation just accumulate in that space, trapped by the plastic membrane and turn the wood mouldy? If I'm wrong, any idea how to sort this problem out?

Edited March 24, 2008 by goldtone

[blackrose]

So now I am a full time liveaboard and so far so good!

 

About the mouldy mattress....The bed sits on top of the water tank, has a built in wooden frame with slats and no ventilation. Gap of about 20cm between the tank and bedslats, so what I done was got some Space Blanket, the stuff to insulate lofts, and crammed it in the gap, the put a plastic membrane on top of the slats, then the new foam mattress on this. I figured if there is no way for air to circulate in that gap, then no condensation? Am I right, or will any condensation just accumulate in that space, trapped by the plastic membrane and turn the wood mouldy? If I'm wrong, any idea how to sort this problem out?

 

Congratulations on your new boat.

 

In general to combat mould you should be trying to increase air circulation around the mattress - not decrease it.

 

Was the watertank insulated before? If not, this may be the source of your problem. Condensation is created where warm air comes into contact with a cold surface. If the watertank isn't insulated then the water vapour held in the warm air (from your body heat) that comes into contact with the tank will condense on the tank surface. You then have a moist atmosphere between the tank and the underside of the mattress leading to mildew & mould.

 

See what happens with what you've done. Check it regularly and if it feels damp and doesn't work then perhaps try to get the space blanket under the wooden slats and cover the tank with it, leaving the gap between the the tank (now space blanket) and the underside as it was at 20cm.

Edited March 24, 2008 by blackrose

[Chris J W]

Congratulations!

[Tusses]

Congrats

 

Tis a dream of mine too - maybe a pipe dream at the moment, but still something to look forward too nonetheless

[bottle]

Hi Goldtone

 

Congratulations.

 

As Blackrose said the only way to get rid of damp is ventilation, ventilation, ventilation.

 

Plastic sheet under under mattress is not a good idea, a 'space blanket' is just glorified aluminium foil, it does not insulate all it will do is reflect heat.

 

Insulating the tank with insulation will help.

 

It would be best to increase the under bed ventilation, perhaps some holes drilled into the side of the bed box would help.

 

You could put some vent covers over them.

 

 

Note: just re-read your post and it seems that you have insulated the tank with something like this. (A bit like bubble wrap covered in foil)

[pagan witch]

Just a thoughgt but if there is space how about srpat foaming the tank ? A couple of tins should do the trick and although it will be a pretty horrible job - it gets everywhere and sticks to everything it would only need doing once.

 

That said - keep the slats - humans give of a surprising amount of water vapour so keeping some under mattress ventilation space is pretty essential in our experience.

[NB Willawaw]

Congratulations on getting your boat.

 

I guess you're learning the hard way, but how else can you learn

 

Enjoy.

[goldtone]

Space Blanket is not the bubble wrap stuff, that was on before and worked dismally. Space Blanket is regular mineral wool, about 150 mm thick, wrapped in foil type stuff on on side, breathable membrane on the other. It is in between the tank and the wooden frame, directly on the tank.

 

The idea about spray foam sounds good though, if this doesn't work, i'll try that.

 

.....Anyway, I now have a much more serious problem, the starter battery isn't charging! I have a Sterling Battery management system. Leisures are charging, but the starter isn't. I put the starter on charge through the genny for a good 3-4 hours, isolated it first. Tried to turn the engine over, and the battery done nothing apart from trip out the BM System, then was down to 10.80 when I put a multimeter on it. And it is a brand new battery. What is this? Is there a short somewhere? Is it something I can work out myself, with a very limited knowledge of electrics, or do I need to get an engineer in with the right tools to look at it?

 

I have a genny to charge the leisures, but I can't go anywhere!! I want to get it sorted before it really starts getting me down.........

[blackrose]

Space Blanket is not the bubble wrap stuff, that was on before and worked dismally. Space Blanket is regular mineral wool, about 150 mm thick, wrapped in foil type stuff on on side, breathable membrane on the other. It is in between the tank and the wooden frame, directly on the tank.

 

The idea about spray foam sounds good though, if this doesn't work, i'll try that.

 

.....Anyway, I now have a much more serious problem, the starter battery isn't charging! I have a Sterling Battery management system. Leisures are charging, but the starter isn't. I put the starter on charge through the genny for a good 3-4 hours, isolated it first. Tried to turn the engine over, and the battery done nothing apart from trip out the BM System, then was down to 10.80 when I put a multimeter on it. And it is a brand new battery. What is this? Is there a short somewhere? Is it something I can work out myself, with a very limited knowledge of electrics, or do I need to get an engineer in with the right tools to look at it?

 

I have a genny to charge the leisures, but I can't go anywhere!! I want to get it sorted before it really starts getting me down.........

 

Why don't you jump start the starter with the domestics using some jump leads?