Running engines

[mrsmelly]

2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I suppose I'm a hobby boater as my liveaboard days were twenty years back. Hot water and fridge run silently on gas, 9" TV doesn't eat much battery and new LED lights even less.

Hobby boaters shouldn't need to run their engines anyway, they should be out cruising about charging their batteries, not sitting under a tree for ages running their washing machines.

I only really object to engines running when they poison me with fumes.  Musicians tend to get irritated by outside noise, especially stuff with an irregular beat - old trad engines nearly drive me insane.  So I find it disturbing, but I've got the choice of staying and putting up with it or, luckily, I've got an engine and can bugger off.  I'm not denying anyone the right to run the damn things within the usual hours, it's my own reaction that's the annoying thing.

Gareth was probably hearing the noise from Creamfields Festival at Daresbury - apparently it was annoying everyone in Northwich too.

Had to give u a greenie for this post. Old knacker so called trad engines also do my head in and I always wonder how the hell people put up with them. Someone came the other direction from us on the Oxford summit pound today and we heard them coming for about 600 yards. The blokes missus was stood on the pointy end whilst he stood at the back with the splitter ruining his lungs and ear drums! We are moored int middle of nowhere now with only enough Armco for our boat so no one will moor anywhere near us tonight ?

[cereal tiller]

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Had to give u a greenie for this post. Old knacker so called trad engines also do my head in and I always wonder how the hell people put up with them. Someone came the other direction from us on the Oxford summit pound today and we heard them coming for about 600 yards. The blokes missus was stood on the pointy end whilst he stood at the back with the splitter ruining his lungs and ear drums! We are moored int middle of nowhere now with only enough Armco for our boat so no one will moor anywhere near us tonight ?

Tim ,What Music will you be Playing? 

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, cereal tiller said:

Tim ,What Music will you be Playing? 

Abba ???

[cereal tiller]

Just now, mrsmelly said:

Abba ???

Don't get Grass stains on your Lurex Jumpsuit!

[Wanderer Vagabond]

2 hours ago, Gareth E said:

Noise: I'm not keen on the constant low pitched drone of a diesel engine, petrol gennie is favourable.

You are having a laugh aren't you? One of the most irritating noises going, a buzzy little generator whining up and down depending upon demand. Complying completely with the BSS requirements, where do you keep the petrol? Personally I wouldn't have petrol on the boat.

13 hours ago, rogeriko said:

The most ridiculous thing to all this is 1 horsepower is 740 electrical watts. Thats 53 amps charging your 12v battery. Running a 30 odd horsepower engine at only half a horsepower is madness. Why cant someone invent a simple diesel to 12v electricity machine, they would be a millionaire overnight.

By the same token I suppose that it could equally be argued that it is quite possible (in fact it used to be the practice) to propel a boat with just one horse power, so why have I got a 35h.p. engine?

14 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Engines running whist moored drives me nuts too. I NEVER need to run my engine when moored.

 

Sometimes it seems to me that some boaters just enjoy running their engines for no reason at all. Worst of all is when I find a nice quiet remote place to moor then at 6pm some inconsiderate boater arrives and moors right next to me and leaves their engine running for two hours after stopping. What's all that about then?!?!

The inconsiderate part of your example,in my view, is for someone to moor right alongside you when you are moored in a quiet, remote location (unless it is a visitor mooring). If I'm moored in an isolated location I expect anyone mooring in the vicinity to be no closer that 3 or 4 boat lengths (and that is the barest minimum that I would moor near somebody else under the same circumstances). Whether they choose to run their engine when that far away from me would be immaterial (unless outside of permitted hours).

[WotEver]

51 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

By the same token I suppose that it could equally be argued that it is quite possible (in fact it used to be the practice) to propel a boat with just one horse power, so why have I got a 35h.p. engine?

Torque sir, torque. 

[MtB]

28 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Torque sir, torque. 

 

I disagree. It is to get the stopping power, and to a lesser degree, acceleration. And so the boater can do 5mph on the lower Thames punching the tide. I’d like to see that being done with a horse! 

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

We are moored int middle of nowhere now with only enough Armco for our boat so no one will moor anywhere near us tonight ?

 

Unless a k&a boater turns up. Boaters who need Armco to moor up are girlie WUSSIES

 

[Peter Thornton]

4 hours ago, BruceinSanity said:

You know we had that business of teapots on top of boats as some sort of code a couple years back? Maybe we could agree something similar to mean “I’m a grumpy sod so don’t moor near me, run your engine in my hearing or work my locks for me”.

 

Suggestions for what it should be?

 

Maybe a guzunder, decorated or not as preferred, to mean p*ss off!

 

Tell us about the Teapot Code please ........

[WotEver]

21 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I disagree. It is to get the stopping power, and to a lesser degree, acceleration

Er... yes... acceleration is down to torque. Stopping power is its inverse, so once again, torque. Depending on the gearing of course, which on a boat is usually pretty high. 

[Gareth E]

2 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

You are having a laugh aren't you? One of the most irritating noises going, a buzzy little generator whining up and down depending upon demand. Complying completely with the BSS requirements, where do you keep the petrol? Personally I wouldn't have petrol on the boat.

By the same token I suppose that it could equally be argued that it is quite possible (in fact it used to be the practice) to propel a boat with just one horse power, so why have I got a 35h.p. engine?

The inconsiderate part of your example,in my view, is for someone to moor right alongside you when you are moored in a quiet, remote location (unless it is a visitor mooring). If I'm moored in an isolated location I expect anyone mooring in the vicinity to be no closer that 3 or 4 boat lengths (and that is the barest minimum that I would moor near somebody else under the same circumstances). Whether they choose to run their engine when that far away from me would be immaterial (unless outside of permitted hours).

I much prefer the relatively high pitch of the petrol genny to the lower tone of a diesel engine. I suppose that fits in with my dislike of music when you can only hear the bass. As for storing petrol, it's easy, I store it in the petrol tank of my motorbike then siphon some into the genny as required. Simples.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

49 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I disagree. It is to get the stopping power, and to a lesser degree, acceleration. And so the boater can do 5mph on the lower Thames punching the tide. I’d like to see that being done with a horse! 

 

 

 

 

My 35h.p. engine hasn't got a cat in hell's chance of getting anywhere near that speed 'punching the tide', if I could get it up to 3mph SOG I'd think I was planing. Second point is why would I want to be punching the tide anyway? using three times as much fuel and travelling at half the speed when, if I wait for a favourable tide, I can travel at twice normal speed using half the fuel. If I'd were that bothered about acceleration, I get myself a car.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Wanderer Vagabond

[MtB]

35 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Er... yes... acceleration is down to torque. Stopping power is its inverse, so once again, torque. Depending on the gearing of course, which on a boat is usually pretty high. 

 

I disagree. There is a lot more to it than that. Acceleration is mostly down to power. Power is torque x angular velocity. A tiny engine can deliver the same torque as a bigger engine if the final drive ratio is low enough yet the acceleration will still be lower. The ‘grip’ of the blade in the water is a major factor too. 

[BruceinSanity]

59 minutes ago, Peter Thornton said:

Tell us about the Teapot Code please ........

I think that if you have a Y chromosome, you’re not allowed to know about the Teapot Code. But then I’m probably wrong as I have a Y chromosome.

[haza]

well  dogless i am  sure we can get away  with to banjos  ,,image over 200 of them .thats where mr is heading for this weekend ,i wonder how many engines would you need to run to drown out that lot ..lol.

[roland elsdon]

4 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Had to give u a greenie for this post. Old knacker so called trad engines also do my head in and I always wonder how the hell people put up with them. Someone came the other direction from us on the Oxford summit pound today and we heard them coming for about 600 yards. The blokes missus was stood on the pointy end whilst he stood at the back with the splitter ruining his lungs and ear drums! We are moored int middle of nowhere now with only enough Armco for our boat so no one will moor anywhere near us tonight ?

That would have been Sextans. Dont worry about them mooring up, he will probably be in Thrupp by now. 18 hour day is a day off..

[Wanderer Vagabond]

3 hours ago, Gareth E said:

I much prefer the relatively high pitch of the petrol genny to the lower tone of a diesel engine. I suppose that fits in with my dislike of music when you can only hear the bass. As for storing petrol, it's easy, I store it in the petrol tank of my motorbike then siphon some into the genny as required. Simples.

The high pitch of a genny is precisley what I don't like, much as I don't like the high pitch of the fizzy motorcycles that kids of a certain age ride around upon. I also dislike 'music' which is simply bass having spent many a bored night 'monitoring' raves (unchar,unchar,unchar,unchar,unchar,ad nauseum).

 

If I wanted to store petrol on the boat (I don't) it would have to be in a smaller container than a motorbike, I haven't got anywhere to put one of them (trad stern).

[Gareth E]

10 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

The high pitch of a genny is precisley what I don't like, much as I don't like the high pitch of the fizzy motorcycles that kids of a certain age ride around upon. I also dislike 'music' which is simply bass having spent many a bored night 'monitoring' raves (unchar,unchar,unchar,unchar,unchar,ad nauseum).

 

If I wanted to store petrol on the boat (I don't) it would have to be in a smaller container than a motorbike, I haven't got anywhere to put one of them (trad stern).

You'll be talking about a 2 stroke bike then, which is what I ride  

[Alan de Enfield]

35 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

You'll be talking about a 2 stroke bike then, which is what I ride  

But then you'd be putting 2T petoil into a 4 stoke Genny engine - bit smokey !!!!

 

(unless you have one of those crappy 2T generators)

[Mike Hurley]

17 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

But then you'd be putting 2T petoil into a 4 stoke Genny engine - bit smokey !!!!

 

(unless you have one of those crappy 2T generators)

Since the early 70s most bikes have separate oil tanks for 2T oil.

[Boater Sam]

There are a number of gas less boats around who have to run the engine to brew up or cook food, poor souls.

[Gareth E]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

But then you'd be putting 2T petoil into a 4 stoke Genny engine - bit smokey !!!!

 

(unless you have one of those crappy 2T generators)

Autolube system via a separate tank for the 2 stroke oil, regulated by a 2 way throttle cable, one end to the carb, the other to a pump for the oil. 

[plainsman]

I thought I was fairly tolerant of engine running until last week when moored at Wheaton Aston visitor moorings. Livaboard moored opposite decided to runup the engine, all well and good but after four hours I asked if they could switch off as engine noise was spoiling a nice sunny afternoon. Reply was quite toxic "I can run my engine till 8pm if I want". I was only asking for a reasonable use of engine. Engine was eventually turned off at 7.30pm after 5 hours of running at high speed. Not very considerate in my view and not good PR for livaboards. I hope this behaviour was the exception.

[Boater Sam]

Move?

[MtB]

19 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

Move?

 

Looks to me as though that was the objective of the arse who was running his engine and spoiling the lovely afternoon. I bet he dislikes having boats moored oppostte him on the VMs so does this to make them move off. 

[sirweste]

Like Mike, I generally try to keep out of peoples way. Currently moored up in the tiny short pound at Ivinghoe lock. There's space for about 6 bouts here, but being 1km in either direction to the nearest car parking and much further to a pub, no-one stops here. 

At the weekend, for god knows what reason, a shiny boat from Braunston moored up right next to me! Couldn't believe it! They then proceeded to be up and noisy with the engine revving just after 8 on a BH monday. Delightful.

I find that when cycling past this spot there's no body moored up, ever. Until I turn up here for a couple of weeks.

 

I think the reason that people stop next to you when you're in the middle of no-where, is because seeing you moored makes their tiny little minds realise it is possible to moor up. 

 

I do have to run me engine every 3 days if there's no sun, but as I'm usually away from folk it shouldn't bug anyone