Gordon

Clive, I have often heard your guys refer to the Ponderosa, is it just the big shed or the whole area at that end of the yard. How was it so named, was someone a 60's western fan?

Paul is right there, but as Mojo says they are trickle chargers. I have one on the boat and have just got a second one for the other battery. If I remember correctly they deliver about 15mA into the battery which should keep the battery in good fettle over the winter months. To answer Jill's question, I would see little point in trying to up the output, as even 2 would not be sufficient to run anything or indeed recharge the battery .

Mowjo Yea I remember the sandvik, infact I still have the tool less the rough bit. I think these are far more savage than the Sanvik, and yeas totally unsuitable for anything other than the first rub down of damaged paintwork, they shift fibre glass or filler at a hell of a rate

Hi Jill. Now thats the 64000 dollar question, If you have flaking varnish yes it will fetch it down to the wood in no time and then allow you to prepare the surface in the ordinary way, If however you are just keying down reasonably good varnish I would consider them a bit savage. I have the block and the finest side of thaat is equivalent to about 100 grit paper

Not sure whether boaters are familiar with permagrip tools. They are basically made from silicon carbide fused onto a metal base and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They last for ever and can be refurbished with paint stripper or a wire brush. They rapidly shift old paint, rub down glass fibre or filler or can be used to shape wood. The big blocks come with different grades of silicon carbide on . The blocks have different grades of silicon carbide on each side. face and in varying length. Great tools for the impatient but maybe not for the purist! http://www.permagrit.com/ http://www.permagrit.com/index.php?cPat ... 244dc6a86e edited for spilling

Steve, I would certainly separate them. A simple and cheap solution is to use one for engine and one for domestic and charge via a split charge relay or diodes . There are many articles on how to do this on the web. The relay idea is the same as used in caravans, the engine battery is directly connected to the existing charge circuit but the domestic battery is isolated from the charge circut until the engine is running. The isolating relay is operated by a feed from the alternator, again details on the web. There are also diodes available to do this, some purists argue that this does not give a full charge to the domestic battery, my own boat uses diodes and I can see no problem. I guess most of the older hire boats use one or other of the above systems, as well as using dual purpose batterys for both jobs. You will be able to acheive what you want and the security of knowing you will always be able to start your boat. And all for about a fiver for a relay!! Remember if they are separate if your starter battery fails chances are your domestic battery is ready willing and able to swap over albeit if you have to do it manually with a spanner. If sod's law struck and you had flattened the dom battery the night before the engine one failed... well you would have had to been a very bad boy in an earlier life!!!

I saw one the other day pretty sure it came from Brian Ward in Brundall. I like the previous plan though

Paul I would have thought that if the spikes are big enough to do damage that a ferrite ring would present not nearly enough inductance to have any effect. A ferrite ring is normally only effective at RF frequencies and the result of the turns creates a low pass filter by introducing both capacitance and inductance The big inductor and capacitor however might. I am still concerned however that this should even have happened, certainly an alternator can bang out quite a high voltage but I would expect the battery to keep this down to 14 volts Jonzo's idea of an ic regulator sounds good, I would include a 100nF capacitor to prevent it oscillating and probably a hunking great electrolytic as well for good measure, although that may be ott.

Cygnet, I have not heard of this issue before, a 12 volt lead acid battery eg car or boat battery is usually a very good regulator (13.8 volt) and smoother (getting rid of noise etc due to low internal resistance), however you may need to take the supply from a point near the battery. How good is your battery? a poorly cell can destroy these qualitys The other thing that goes through my mind is to have a word with one or two amateur radio suppliers, I can give you some details if you wish. It is possible they have adapters for hand held radio equipmemt which is more than just a cigar lighter plug. Ought to be at some of the prices. Another thought that goes through my mind, belt and braces and a little bit clumsy is to use a small inverter and a good quality regulated mains unit

Does anyone know the size of the tap fittings used at boatyards, both sizes I have found in diy shops and builders merchants are smaller and several do not believe a larger size exists

This have been discussed numerous times on both forums and yes I believe the Reedham Bridge have a hand held used for that purpose, but there are lots of people on the forum who can give you chapter and verse on that one.

Not that that means much these days, some of the damn digital stuff takes longer to sort itself out than valve took to warm up. Seriously though not sure why the spitter is solid state, unless it uses clever switching diodes rather than pasive filters

I did not realise that you could get these commercially looks very small for what it has to do. Could be the answer though

GCB, Yea I occaissionally use HF/VHF and UHF Usually take the HF in the winter. This question has been raised a couple of times on the NBF and there should be some lists of callsigns deep in the archives of the Geeks sectiom.. My callsign G4EMK and Jenny's G8ILU

Nigel Technically the VHF aerial could be used for both but without some serious matching and filtering you will impare reception on both VHF and normal radio, if you use the VHF aerial for transmit you stand a fair chance of trashing both the car radio and the marine VHF. I have seen it done but the guys who did it were very experienced radio technicians. (they made a very elaborate box of filters, and had a very good reason for doing it) They actually used the same aerial for transmit and receive on lowband VHF, receive on broadcst and receive on CB. Could you use a marine VHF radio for just the car radio, well yes, sort of, try it by all means see what happens. I suspect though it would not be brilliant, an awful lot of ugly hardware for a poor result. I would be surprised though if a normal car radio aerial hidden out of the way would not do the trick, no need to mount it outside, unless you have a metal boat. Just give it a go but avoid connecting the car radio and the marine vhf to the same aerial

Hi Ken, Being a savage I don't tend to do much at all, not come to any harm yet just use the filter for drinking. Lets face it there is no way Jenny would let her dog drink it if it was at all suspect I do try to keep it full when left though. Small quantities of water can become putrid. Might be down at the weekend, not sure yet.

Jonny Just another thought, is the red charging light coming on when you operate the switch, if not it is another clue that all is not well with the 12 volts getting to the switch, as Strangers said get that voltmeter around the switch see if the power is present going in to it, then ensure that it is switching. Sounds like you have an annoying problem but not critical or expensive one. My guess is that it is a corroded connection, maybe on those lugar connectors on the switch. Or one of those nasty fuses. A boat is a hostile environment and physical contact connectors both get corroded or lose their tension. Dont do anything drastic like ripping things out or changing bits yet, have a measure with your meter,draw a picture and note readings.on it don't overlook the negative side, try the meter in different places to get used to the sort of readings, pick your earth up in different places, you will learn a hell of a lot and I reckon solve your problem in the meantime. Remember that red light it is another clue you are looking for that switch to do three jobs Power to the charge cct, operate the starter solonoid ( that is a low current device that switches the big start current) and operate a relay to do the same sort of thing to the glow plugs, clearly that is not happening either as you are not witnessing a volt drop.

Jonny Well at least you got nice weather Sorry to hear you got problems, Did you get the meter I recommended to you, as with a little bit of logical faulting with a meter it sounds like you could soon sort it, without one you might as well put a blindfold on. 2 Clues there sounds like all is well in the heavy current side if you can turn it over by shorting the solonoid, the bit about the voltmeters, I assume you expect the meter to drop right off when heating and its not, That together with the cle that it is on the low current side suggests an issue with the switch or more likely the power not getting to it, All the fuses are clean and well seated arn't they. Very difficult to remotely fault but keep posting the clues and we will try to help Good luck mate

Anyone remember the village store at Hickling, not the one on the car park but a few hundred yards the road

Mark, I think you are right, I have now got myself all intriguied about this I have confirmed that these things do give a 50hz quasi sine wave, so the frequency issue is laid to rest in my mind. I was mixing it up with inverters with specifically designed transformers designed to work at higher frequencies, eg in aircraft or old mobile radio equipment. My mind has now turned to the waveform , I am going to have to bring the damn thing home and look at it on a scope to satisfy my own curiosity, if it is nearer square than sinusoid i would expect the peak to be much lower than if it was a sine wave to give the correct average voltage. I hesitate to suggest RMS as that surely can only be applicable to a oure sine wave. So its gotta come home to satify my stupid curiosity. The demise of the transformer is surely down to its cheapness

Now here is something for you technical guys to think about. I have a small 300 Watt inverter on the boat, I use it to charge a camcorder/digital camera/lapdog mainly, all switch mode power supplies. I do however possess a rechargeable electric razor, although shaving and boating are not things that go together in my mind. Now this rechargeable razor is a very expensive high quality bit of kit, it cost £3.95 in the garage at Wroxham!! Having plugged it into the inverter it did not charge for long, investigation revealed the primary of the transformer had gone open circuit, maybe cos it was cheap and nasty or maybe........ What is the output frequency of an inverter, clearly mains transformers are designed for 50Hz. So the question is is my theory right and can you use equipment that incorporates a transformer with an inverter Oh and the razor I replaced the XFMR with a weed lighter plug and a 120 ohm resistor, wonderful 12v charging now

Sunset tranquility, at the new 24 Hrs moorings near Thurne mouth

I totally agree with MOJO with regards the caveats with regards washing up liquid, as well as being savage to certain materials, including steel, sometimes contains salt and can cause corrosion. By its nature it is a wetting agent and can cause leaks eg in window seals. Thetford, the cassette loo people sell an aerosol of seal lubricant, not only is this good for loo seals its good for lubricating sliding windows and I also use it to lubricate the caravan awning track, its half the price of the stuff sold fpor that job and is the same stuff

Jonny You seem to have more luck unbunging those drain holes with a hose than I do. often it works but many a soaking I have had when I have poked the pipe down one and the pressure has built up. We have no shortage of drain holes, from memory 2 in the rim round the engine cover, 2 on the rear well some more on the sides at the back drains in battery and gas box a couple in the front well all together with a wierd and wonderful network of plumbing joining them up. Are you saying that there is no means of getting the bilge pump to protect that rear compartment on yours. Unlike yours ours did have 30 years of abuse in the hire fleets before it retired at the end of the 2005 season. Its condition is a credit to the designers, builders and yards that have maintained it over the years

Hi Jonny. Glad to hear that you have no real problems in that area mate. Those deck drains on the Calypso really are a pain in the stern. I am for ever onblocking them. I really need to get ihem and take the plumbing apart and give them a thorough clean out. I did have even more problems with the engine hatch being cracked and water getting into the cover, this slowly drained into the engine, filled up the blocked off area under the engine . I have now repaired that I suspect this was the cause of the recent demise of the starter motor which was seriously rusty around the brush area. Re the little hole between the engine compartment and the main bilge, this lives just to the side of the hole left when the steps are removed to the left regards Gordon