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Brinks Serenade


Broads01

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Somthing my Grandma said when she looked at the boat; "Still no duel helm seats, and the sofa doesn't look comfy" this is somthing that has been said a lot in our house, now I know that the helm seat on 'Seranade' is being looked at but I am wondering if the next boat brinkcraft are building (I can't remember the name) will have a duel seat, after all It is for couples? Also with the fully electric gally will it have an electric oven or will it be that god-forsaken Combi-oven I hope it will. over all I like the boat a return to the old styles somthing better suited to the broads (I personally am not a fan of the duel-helm cruisers).

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Thats some contraption!

The idea is very good but I would say it might benefit from a few further refinements.  Hide that metal frame which is visible on the rear of the back rest for one as its not very attractive, a nice polished stainless panel might work.

It does look robust and I reckon its improved the driving position and comfort no end. 

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Hi

After discussing various options for the Serenade helm seat the clip on Facebook shows what we came up with.

We tried a few ideas for the seats frame and this one is by far the best.  We could cover some sections but others fit in with the base when it's lowered.

We have tried our best to break it, mainly with slightly over weight engineers acting like big kids.  As always when doing something different the unforseen can catch you out. The seat is very over built and the system has been setup to cope with the typical hire boat demands.

The helm position is now more comfortable. The seat can be adjusted fore and aft and to some extent up and down.  Everyone who has tried the seat has been able to find a comfortable position with a good vew of the river. 

As requested we have also made room for two.

I'm not great at the posting comments thing but I will try and watch this one over the next few days.  If you have any other queries I will do my best to answer them.

Phil

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Hi Phil

please dont think i intended my comment as any criticism of your work.

You listened to the critics and the solution youve come up with has knocked it out of the park! Brilliant 

But just as a thought, you say its been tested by some heavy engineers, have you tried a 6 year old child as they can break anything in a matter of seconds! 

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I will follow these threads where I can.  This can be quite time consuming.  Thanks for the pointers Jonzo.  I have also written my password down this time too!

We haven't put a sensor in the seat to stop it working when people sit on it.  We have labeled and put instructions on the panel telling people to only use it whilst not sitting on it.  The extra weight on the seat tends to just make the hydraulics pop the over pressure valve and it not move anyway.

The boat goes out for the first time at the beginning of March and I am hoping that it will be almost complete by the end of this week.  This will give me the opportunity to take it out for a day with the two young vandals I have at home, probably with there friends as well.  I will let you know if they manage to break it!!!

I will also look at the battery and cooking systems.  I have taken the family out on our boats regularly and cook day to day meals with the hobs and microwave combi.  This system works really well and as a rule you don't have to run the engine the batteries cope.  The big plus on the system is that the other boat systems lights pumps and heating can almost be forgotten about because the battery can run these systems for a week at a time.  The Serenade is in the water at present with people working on it.  It has all the lights on the heating and the seat must of been up and down a hundred times by now.  The batteries are still above 50% even after a week without charge.

I don't mind criticism.  My job is to make the boats as safe, reliable and appealing as possible.  Hearing other peoples thoughts can only help.

 

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3 hours ago, barnesPhil said:

 I have taken the family out on our boats regularly and cook day to day meals with the hobs and microwave combi.  This system works really well and as a rule you don't have to run the engine the batteries cope.

Hi Phil

Pleased to hear this, we have Encore booked in June and assume that the electrics will be much the same as Serenade, I was a little concerned since we have never had a boat with electric cooking before.

I know you're busy but just a quick question; is the Combi Oven Microwave, Grill and Convection?

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4 hours ago, barnesPhil said:

I will follow these threads where I can.  This can be quite time consuming.  Thanks for the pointers Jonzo.  I have also written my password down this time too!

We haven't put a sensor in the seat to stop it working when people sit on it.  We have labeled and put instructions on the panel telling people to only use it whilst not sitting on it.  The extra weight on the seat tends to just make the hydraulics pop the over pressure valve and it not move anyway.

The boat goes out for the first time at the beginning of March and I am hoping that it will be almost complete by the end of this week.  This will give me the opportunity to take it out for a day with the two young vandals I have at home, probably with there friends as well.  I will let you know if they manage to break it!!!

I will also look at the battery and cooking systems.  I have taken the family out on our boats regularly and cook day to day meals with the hobs and microwave combi.  This system works really well and as a rule you don't have to run the engine the batteries cope.  The big plus on the system is that the other boat systems lights pumps and heating can almost be forgotten about because the battery can run these systems for a week at a time.  The Serenade is in the water at present with people working on it.  It has all the lights on the heating and the seat must of been up and down a hundred times by now.  The batteries are still above 50% even after a week without charge.

I don't mind criticism.  My job is to make the boats as safe, reliable and appealing as possible.  Hearing other peoples thoughts can only help.

 

From a cooks point of view, would the batteries stand up to all meals being cooked on the boat.   We do not do pubs.

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Hi Bryan

Encore

Just to clarify the Encore's will have a gas cooker.  I am quite sure that is a 4 ring hob with separate oven and grill.  They also have a basic microwave and domestic type mains fridge.

The spec has quite a large battery for a boat of the size about 8 kw.  I would not expect you to have any problems.

Serenade

The Serenade which is the bigger of our new boats is the one with all electric galley.

I have been told not to get techie when talking to customers but try this as a guide.  The battery bank on Serenade is rated at over 20 kw in practice I would expect you would be able to use 10 kw regularly without any problems.  The hob will use approx 1.5 kw per ring per hour.  There are 40 led lights on the boat these use about 0.1 kw per hour, when all on.  I would expect you to be able to run 1 ring on the hob for 10 hrs as they tend to cut in and out on temp.  When I get a minute I will try this out!!!  Hopefully that will give people an idea of the power in the batteries.

The engine has a powerful charging system and can recharge the batteries at nearly 4.8 kw per hour.  In practice the batteries won't absorb the charge that quick.  Most customers run for 2 to 4 hrs a day and the batteries recover in this time.

The dash panel will show you how much power you have remaining in the batteries and how much power you are using.

We have 16 boats with similar systems and batteries is not something that causes a problem.

  

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Hi all,

Having hired Sonnet for the last 4 years in a row an she being fully elec the batteries we have found there good never run out or had a problem, the plumbing is however a different story.

This isn't soley to do with Seranade but more widely with your fleet would you be in the future doing video tours of the boats (like Robins, the Capitains Blog?) because when we have been chosing some of my family have found it hard to visulise the space, and a video or two would help.

Anyway Seranade looks nice so does Encore and am I right in thinking that there are two of each boat?

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Hi Gallipoli

Please tell me more about your Sonnet plumbing problem?  If you have had the boat 4 times and have the same problem we need to look at it?  If you would rather you can talk to the office and they will tell you how to contact me directly.

For the start of the season we will have one of each boat, with the second of each starting about May I think.  That will be all for this year but we are planning more for next.

We are looking at improving our web coverage.  We will start with the new boats picture and videos but I would like to cover pictures and videos of the other boats.  I think it would also be good to cover updates that we do on the older boats.  I need to get used to doing this first.  I also need to find a video star, me and Kerry are not keen on the role to say the least.

Phil

 

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17 hours ago, barnesPhil said:

Just to clarify the Encore's will have a gas cooker.  I am quite sure that is a 4 ring hob with separate oven and grill.  They also have a basic microwave and domestic type mains fridge.

Hi Phil

You are an absolute star.

I was wondering how you would get sufficient batteries in a 29ft boat without sinking it but it would have been good for Potter Heigham Bridge.

Once again many thanks and as Jonzo says don't worry about being techie.

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17 hours ago, barnesPhil said:

Hi Bryan

The engine has a powerful charging system and can recharge the batteries at nearly 4.8 kw per hour.  In practice the batteries won't absorb the charge that quick.  Most customers run for 2 to 4 hrs a day and the batteries recover in this time.

 

  

Phil, Hi.

Are you running 12V or 24V batteries, please?

(So I can work out kw per hour into  ampere hours!)     cheersbar

 

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Hi

The battery bank is 24v although we are using 12 and 24v equipment.

The battery is 1070ah 20 hour rate at 24v.  It has a battery monitor connected which sends data to the display on the dash.

The engine is fitted with 2 x 110 amp alternators.  They will charge at 150amps at engine idle.  Max output comes in above 1000 rpm.  You only see the max output if the battery is very low or the inverter is loaded.

Phil

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Hi Phil,

The plumbing problem is mainly the problem of what the previous hirers put down the loo (typically we get the problem :) ), though you can only tell them, but I think it would be prudent to tell everyone not to put certain things down the loo.

As for the video if I wern't so far away I'd do it haha, but you don't need to be seen in the video, in fact most people would find it more useful with a GoPro or somthing strapped to a person of average height or as what the industry calls it a Point of View camera (POV), and have either subtitles or a voice over to say what you are looking at :) 

Gallipoli (James)

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Hi James

I imagine your problem is the dreaded baby wipe.  This is an on going problem for us.  We check every toilet before each boat goes out.  The problem is wipes get caught on the toilets macerator and slowly get more and more torn until they jam the pump.  It is very hard to tell if there are any wipes in there until then.

Big labels in the toilet compartment seem to work best.  Staff on handover should tell people about the problem.  At least new customers.

If you come again and have any concerns let us know before you leave and we can check the toilet.  It is much quicker and easier on the yard where we are better equipped to clean up than on the river bank.

Phil

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22 hours ago, barnesPhil said:

Hi

The battery bank is 24v although we are using 12 and 24v equipment.

The battery is 1070ah 20 hour rate at 24v.  It has a battery monitor connected which sends data to the display on the dash.

The engine is fitted with 2 x 110 amp alternators.  They will charge at 150amps at engine idle.  Max output comes in above 1000 rpm.  You only see the max output if the battery is very low or the inverter is loaded.

Phil

Bloomin' Heck, Phil!   :shocked

Are you using Li-ion technology?

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