Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

[Cockatoo]

RB has a little fold away ladder under a hatch on the bathing platform. I must admit I didn't get it out to try it so I don't know how far down it reaches.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

Doesn't anyone think if how they would get out if the water ? , my boat a humble river cruiser is equipped with 2 life rings , a throwing line and a boarding ladder that extends far enough to get your foot in it and securely bolted to the hull . 

Even less people consider that the person in the water could be injured, exhausted or even unconscious, unable to really assist in getting themselves back on board, leaving the crew on the boat with the task of lifting a person and wet clothing (deadweight) of maybe over 100 Kgs  

[Islander]

Lady Linda at present only has a step fender on a length of 16mm rope which allows its use off any of the cleats on each side. Plans for a stearn ladder with fold down section of 2 rungs under the water are in hand.

Having had a family holiday at Centre Parcs with son and grandson mainly in the pool I realised just how unfit/old I have become. I seem to sink quite well with just my trunks on, as to how I would cope in full winter wear I don't know but my ability to swim half a mile has long gone.

Having in the past been involved in training scuba divers, part of the training involved diver recovery while in full kit. With the right method this was fairly simple but try again with an unconscious subject with a fully inflated lifejacket the procedure becomes far more complicated if not near impossible for just one rescuer. 

If you ever get the chance, try climbing out of a swimming pool while wearing an inflated lifejacket. Some pools that have lifesaving sessions may let you try this.

On a second note, how many hire boats have ladders?

Colin

edit to add that maybe this should be another thread.

[Islander]

Stearn or stern, I new what I meant. I blame my lack of interest in English at skool

Colin

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Philosophical said:

Even less people consider that the person in the water could be injured, exhausted or even unconscious, unable to really assist in getting themselves back on board, leaving the crew on the boat with the task of lifting a person and wet clothing (deadweight) of maybe over 100 Kgs  

Exactly that's why boarding ladder's need to extended a long way down so you sint have to lift your leg and attempt to pull yourself up 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet is good less than that you are pushing yourself away n given you might be injured or tied that's a bad thing .,in summer moor on a broad and try it for yourself , trust me its good to know how to deal with the situation and do bear in mind it might not  be summer and instead freezing conditions n believe me that makes a massive difference .

[Guest]

The short answer Colin is none hardly in fact the first   time my ladder was used was for a boy who had fallen off a hire  iat at the bell St olives n  I'd only been back In the water less than a week , but hwy happy to help n all that  .

[LondonRascal]

On Broad Ambition we have a ladder  home made it is - about 6 foot long with lead weights. It is kept in one of the lockers at the stern and is flung over the transom with the top secured over the cleat.

This was put into real practice a couple of years ago when one of the crew onboard got off the boat at Reedham - overbalanced and jumped back on the boat - only to then make a leap back off the boat to shore, but had by then lost momentum, did not make it and went in between boat and quay. Rapid thinking, a shout MAN OVERBOARD and while someone kept an eye on the chap in the water another had the ladder deployed in seconds - it was  fortunate the current was slight at the time more than anything, but getting him out the water was made significantly easier with the ladder.

I am guilty of making myself take more care when on wider tidal rivers when in practice the narrow and slow running river Ant is just as dangerous if you went in.

[ExSurveyor]

I have a six foot hook over ladder that is stored outside whenever onboard and two throwing lines.

You never know when you will need them.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Exactly that's why boarding ladder's need to extended a long way down so you sint have to lift your leg and attempt to pull yourself up 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet is good less than that you are pushing yourself away n given you might be injured or tied that's a bad thing .,in summer moor on a broad and try it for yourself , trust me its good to know how to deal with the situation and do bear in mind it might not  be summer and instead freezing conditions n believe me that makes a massive difference .

On my last boat  (a sailboat) I had a pulley that I could attach to the end of the boom and a harness attached to some line that could be guided to one of the electric winches. Plan was if anyone had be recovered from the "oggin" and was not able to make it onto the platform or "sugar scoop" without assistance, the lift from the boom would bring them on board.  

[Bound2Please]

4 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

the narrow and slow running river Ant is just as dangerous if you went in.

Trust me I know this from experience.

[LondonRascal]

I've just had news in that NYA are on the boat and working on the replacement and re-routing of the fuel vent hose from the centre fuel tank. This is a very involved job because the hydraulic tank which supplies fluid for the bow and stern thrusters needs to be removed.  So far 100Ltrs of fluid has been drained and there is more to go!

Once that is out they will be fitting new hose but routing it in a gentle curve so it will always drain fuel back to the centre tank and not have a bend in it which effectively acts as a 'U Bend' trapping fuel in the hose.  This will then mean I have a complete working fuel system with no risk of leaks and the only outstanding item for the BSS will be the fitment of the heat shields to my Racor fuel filters - to be done in the next day or two and then it will be on to Tim Waters to come down and hopefully sign off all the remedial works and I can get my 'ticket'.

I have also been talking to NYA about the ZF commanders that operate the throttles. I have been told that the units I have are not the latest and greatest ZF make, but on any craft that has had them fitted and which NYA has had to deal with there has always been some sort of issue.  I know that I need a new command head for the upper helm and one of these alone is more than the cost of two Morse style heads. Therefore I have come to the conclusion the best method will be the complete removal of the current system and go to a mechanical 'Morse' system.  Te only issue is the running of cables from upper helm down to the lower and to the engine room, but where there is a will there is a way.

I need to get a long video from last weekend up to bring everyone up to date as to the RIB and what else has been going onboard the boat - as ever more as it happens.

[LondonRascal]

It has been a good while, so it is time for the 'big catch up' and what has been going on over on Independence - mainly cleaning.

 

[Londonlad1985]

When you said "Alexa" your video set my echo dot off! "I can't find Netflix on amazon prime" 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Londonlad1985 said:

When you said "Alexa" your video set my echo dot off! "I can't find Netflix on amazon prime" 

Awe ain't technology brilliant 

[scaniaman]

Hi robin. your blue smoke is usually turbo seals,valve stem seals,valve guides or worn piston rings.Given that the engine is still fairly new its likely to be turbo seals letting a little oil through.If it clears up as the engine warms up  it should  be ok. Still sounds great though.

paul 

[diesel falcon]

hi,

your lighthouse comes from The Lizard, Cornwall, and is made from Serpentine,the gift shop where she bought it might still be there! this was 5 years ago or so,Serpentine was carried in ancient Assyria to request the gods and goddesses to provide double blessings. Serpentine can be placed directly on the skin. Healing properties of Serpentine. Balances mood swings. |!!!

[quo vadis]

1 minute ago, diesel falcon said:

hi,

your lighthouse comes from The Lizard, Cornwall, and is made from Serpentine,the gift shop where she bought it might still be there! this was 5 years ago or so,Serpentine was carried in ancient Assyria to request the gods and goddesses to provide double blessings. Serpentine can be placed directly on the skin. Healing properties of Serpentine. Balances mood swings. |!!!

Oy if you want to know about lighthouses ask me I married 2 lighthouse keepers 

[MauriceMynah]

11 hours ago, quo vadis said:

Oy if you want to know about lighthouses ask me I married 2 lighthouse keepers 

I hope they're very happy together.

[donnygeoff]

12 hours ago, diesel falcon said:

hi,

your lighthouse comes from The Lizard, Cornwall, and is made from Serpentine,the gift shop where she bought it might still be there! this was 5 years ago or so,Serpentine was carried in ancient Assyria to request the gods and goddesses to provide double blessings. Serpentine can be placed directly on the skin. Healing properties of Serpentine. Balances mood swings. |!!!

It is still there, went in last year and will probably go in this year.

[LondonRascal]

On 4/9/2018 at 20:33, scaniaman said:

Hi robin. your blue smoke is usually turbo seals,valve stem seals,valve guides or worn piston rings.Given that the engine is still fairly new its likely to be turbo seals letting a little oil through.If it clears up as the engine warms up  it should  be ok. Still sounds great though.

Yes this is where some light oil was found around the Turbo air intake. Some have said that if i had an oil leak of any substance I would have a huge smoke screen and not to worry too much.  I remain unconvinced and it will be something to be looked over in time as above all else I want her to be mechanically tip top. 

[FairTmiddlin]

The engine inthe Williams is Weber  MPE 850  engine

  you need the Weber manual here

https://www.manualslib.com/products/Weber-Motor-Mpe-850-3606440.html

[LondonRascal]

So it has been a while since I wrote here about Indy, but those over on our Facebook Group will have been aware with my 'nugget videos' that I have been doing more works on the boat and spending a lot of time in Norfolk of late, either on holiday with Shilea on a hire boat, dealing with Trixie's works or Independence.

So last Friday  (20th April) I headed up to Independence and the first thing to do was inspect all the works that had been completed for the BSS. They were indeed all sorted and done and my engine room had been left very tidy - so there was just one last thing to check, open up the balance pipes between the three fuel tanks to equalise them having been drawing fuel from only my centre tank over winter to get as much fuel out to aid Norfolk Yacht Agency in their works on the system.

They had not found any leak in the vent hose from the centre tank, but had found the starboard wing tank's vent hose was not secured properly so believed that to be the source of fuel leaking. I found this a challenge to work out and I was soon proved correct that it was not the cause, when fuel rushed into the centre fuel tank putting it under some pressure and forcing fuel up the vent hose to the level of fuel in the wing tanks - and seconds later the exterior of the vent hose was wet with diesel.  Off with the fuel flow then, get the oil absorbing pads and 'sausages' out again and film the situation at hand to then email off to NYA.

I had a call from Shaun, very apologetic that him and two others (including Tim Waters who had been inspecting works) had not found the issue as nobody had thought to open the valves to get fuel into the centre tank under pressure. All would be sorted he assured me come Monday top man!

Then it was time for a good clean of the superstructure and jet-wash the hull - this takes several hours and is one of the main drawbacks I have found to the size of the boat is the cleaning schedule to keep her in tip top form and how long it takes to do properly. I certainly had a nice sleep come Friday evening!

Saturday morning arrived and it was an early start, I left Brundall for Norwich at 09:30 where I changed trains and got to Wroxham - here I had an hour to kill before my bus to Ludham Bridge to meet George and catch up with the works on Trixie - see that thread for information - then it was back on a bus from Ludham Bridge to Norwich, and train to Brundall arriving back to Indy at 16:45. Rather than take it easy, I decided it was time to give the upper superstructure including my Radar array, domes and crane a good clean - and use some so called 'wonder' cleaner on the RIB since although clean, was not as good as I thought I could get it.

Well I got underway with the cleaning and soon my domes and crane were looking spotless once more, I too was soaking wet but it was okay as Saturday had been a lovely hot day up in Norfolk.  I then turned my attention to the RIB using a product from Chemicals Direct called simply 'Marine RIB'. At over £20.00 a litre this is not cheap stuff, but my goodness it is amazing. Spray on and ingrained dirty vanishes, it got the tubes super white and a real soft feel to the rubber. I then gave it a go on my tired and weather hard vinyl seating - boom - it was so white you needed sunglasses in the sunshine. The only issue? It has remove my finger prints and made my hands super crisp and dry! I must wear gloves and read labels next time.

After the cleaning was done I got to named the RIB officially and had a Beer and little ceremony  which also involved Face Timing Shiela to show her. The old decals came off so easy with a new decal remover soft rubber dis for use with a drill, and the new ones look the business in electric pink and I like the design I made with the font too. Once that was done it was off with the worn, battered and ripped Williams RIB cover (they wanted over £2,000 to have a new branded cover) and on with a silver RIB cover I bought on Amazon for £50.00 and which also looks proper cool. Now clean and looking good it was time to relax finally and stop work - only to then need to get on with works inside fitting my replacement fire extinguisher that had arrived and polishing the wood flooring.

Come Sunday and it was even more hot! On with the AC only I forgot how much Amps it drawers and my real gripe with the mooring it only has 16Amp shore supply which is ok for 99% of boaters but on a vessel  like Indy who is all electric and consumes oodles of electricity not so good. I duly tripped the pontoon's supply when the second AC compressor kicked in. Ops.

So all reset and back on with power, it was time to run the Generator - running at 1,500RPM she does not drink too much fuel but this is not something I can do long term  week after week in the high summer - 83,000 BTU of cooling power though soon got the interior of the boat cooled right down - bliss. I then decided to find the 'Mediterranean pack' out from storage which was purchased from new and includes window covers - both mesh and opaque - for use in hot climates. Not only do they stop as much heat getting into the boat, they stop the damaging bleaching of the UV light on wood and upholstery. I only am bothering with the forward screens, since these are not tinted glass, the rest of the windows are super tinted with UV blocking glass.

I used the Marine RIB cleaner on the white vinyl screen cover and just as with the seating and actual RIB, this came up amazingly. I used gloves this time though! Then it was time to pack up and head off home.  I had a call from NYA come Monday to say they had fixed finally the vent hose and replaced it - they also sorted my slack Alternator belts, belts I was told in Plymouth were new and which I questioned but was assured were - turn out to be anything but and have been badly worn. I have ordered new sets and in time am going to have a full audit carried out on the engines because I now no longer trust what Mount Batten did or advised in Plymouth. It makes me think they just changed the oil to make it look clean and nice. 

Some photos:

 

 

[Hylander]

Gosh it does look smart.

[ChrisB]

Robin,

May I offer a suggestion for you and Independance? All of which you can google and research which seems one of your strengths.

The Staande Mast rougte through Holland so no air draft issues, The Keil Canal, Copenhagen, The Gota Canal across Sweden to enter the Baltic just south of the Stockholm Archipelago and then cruise in an area of almost no tides, of vitually no darkness in summer and a salinity so low the grass and trees grow to the waters edge. Almost like The Broads rather than a sea. You could have a fabulous time on a boat like you are lucky to own, and though in northern latitudes enjoy fantastic summer weather.

[LondonRascal]

26 minutes ago, Hylander said:

Gosh it does look smart.

I am getting there, there is still a lot to be done (for my liking) that is having to be put on the back burner such as having her out the water to change the Anodes, polish the props and hull. Also the superstructure needs compounding, waxing and polishing and new anti-slip paint applied to areas where it has worn on and around the RIB area of deck.

I need all new seating for the sundeck and fly bridge, and probably an all new canopy for the sun deck. I also need to sand the forward part of the Teak deck as the aft section and swim platform has been done previously and is in perfect condition, the forward part is not as good as could be. That should then sort her out and make keeping on top of things easier.