StillCruising

We have a phone that can block calls that you define and also 'anonymous' calls which works well enough. In the main if we get a call from a number not in our directory we do not answer it and it goes to answerphone allowing 'genuine' callers to leave a message. Unfortunately some genuine calls also come up as anonymous which are blocked and our doctors falls into this category. Having waited for a call from them and not receiving it I went down to the surgery and was told that they get this a lot but if you tell them they can enter a 'prefix number' that will bypass the anonymous block and add a comment on you notes for future reference. Thankfully we have not needed to put this to the test but if it is true I wonder how many other folk are in a similar situation without realising it.

Hi. I may be wrong (I often am according to my wife). I thought that the Scammell Scarab diesel version was a Perkin’s lump but the later Scammell Townsman (GRP cab) had the Layland OM160 borrowed from the Layland 20 & 90 Commercials and had heaters / demisters as standard. If this is the case your engine will have the heater pipe points for sure. There a number of both types restored at various heritage railways etc so it could be worth your while looking in that direction or maybe trying the ‘Scammell Register ‘ (www.Scammell Register.co.uk) . Regards Bob

Like PLC I have a Rover 75 which is my second one, the first being written off by a white van man. Mine has a full size spare which was an optional extra when new, the standard being a compressor and bottle of gunk. The previous car had a ‘space saver’ spare wheel but it had to be fitted to the back so a front tyre puncture meant that you had to fit the spare to a rear and then replace the flat front tyre with the one taken off the back. This was a right faff about, not so bad if you were doing it on the drive at home but on a country lane in the wet and dark is an entirely different matter.

I'm no expert but I have been told that there are issues with the highwayman hitch relating to the thickness of the rope compared with the diameter of the post used also they are not reliable on large square posts.

Peter & Alan at Sabena Maine Wroxham could be worth a call 01603 782552.

One of the first jobs I did on our boat when we bought it was to upgrade the wiring, Change the batteries and fit a Sterling digital charger. The previous owner had written the date on the batteries and they were only 18 months old but failed due to constant undercharging and probably over discharging.

Yes you do need adequate ventilation around a fridge and the space and gaps requirement around a fridge is part of the spec. That said there are many electric compressor fridges on old boats that have been fitted as replacements for old gas fridges using the same aperture (as ours was) that are close to or fall a bit short in the ventilated area. As installed (before we bought the boat) our fridge has always worked OK in 'normal temperatures but on very hot summers days has really struggled virtually running all the time as it just could not get rid of the heat fast enough. Our fan just supplements the naturally occurring air movement and believe me it has made a big difference to the efficiency of the fridge.

There has been some interest in my fridge cooling fan. The final design evolved from several unsatisfactory attempts mostly concerning the amount of air gap behind the fan restricting the flow and the positioning of the fan with relation to the back of the fridge. I did make a few notes in my book at the time so I have typed them up as a rough spec for anyone that may be interested. The fan and digital controller are available on e-bay very cheaply. It would be OK to not have the thermostat and run a fan all the time as they take very little power but at night when the temperature has dropped it is not really needed and as we sometimes use the seat in the saloon as guest bed the, whirring of even a quirt fan can be obtrusive in the still of the night. The controller has a thermocouple and I found that it was best to position this out of the air flow, in fact it is now positioned beside the fan as in the photo. Setting the on and off temperatures did require some experimentation and would obviously vary dependent on particular installations. The 12v feed from the fan is taken via a small line fuse from the supply line to the fridge so that it runs either off the battery or the 12 power supply when on shore power. I am considering adding a second fan next year to give more air flow over a bigger area. Fridge Fan Materials & Construction 80mm 12volt Computer Fan x 1 20mm x 25mm wood batten as required Digital Thermostat x 1 Plastic Spacers 35mm x 4 Terminal Block x 1 P Clips x 2 Screws as required Constraints that I worked with: The assembly cannot extend more than 80mm from the wall to give a reasonable air flow gap to the evaporator on the back of the fridge of approx 100mm. To achieve full airflow the back of the fan must be unobstructed, experimentation suggests 55mm min so 20mm wood thickness + 35mm spacers used Fan must run only when the air temperature behind the fridge rises above an acceptable level. (to be determined) Fan must continue to run until the temperature drops to an acceptable level (to be determined. I hope this all makes some sort of sense, PM me if you want any other info.

We have gone down a slightly different route. Our compressor type fridge is 12volt and draws around 3 amps (a bit more at start up) which is supplied by two 110aH domestic batteries. We have a 100w solar panel and MPPT controller that charges the batteries all the time when there is sunlight. Given that the fridge does not run all the time the solar panel will keep up with the consumption of the fridge. I did not want to fit a built in charger to run on shore power since it is only the fridge that draws any large degree of power so I made a panel that has a 10amp rated double pole break before make change over relay and a 240v to 12vDC power supply fed through a double pole fused isolator. As soon as the shore power is plugged in (assuming that the isolator is switched on) the power supply will start up, power the relay and switch the fridge over to the power supply output. Disconnection the shore power or switching of the isolator resumes the battery feed to the fridge. Because our fridge is in an enclose space with little space around it there was little if any air flow to allow the evaporator to lose the heat generated when the compressor was running, in hot weather it was running most of the time which is neither good for the fridge or current consumption. To combat this I made a thermostatic controlled computer fan positioned behind the fridge to blow onto the compressor and evaporator when the temperature in the cavity reaches a certain temperature and continues to run until the temperature reduces again. This made a tremendous difference to the operation of the fridge reducing the duty cycle and therefore current draw even on the hot days that we have see this year.

CC. Funny that you should mention the Ant. We spent the a lot of last week moored under trees to keep cool (no doubt you saw us) and I was pleasantly supplied by the in the main sedate speed of the passing boats both private and hire alike. Day boats by their nature do create a fair old wash even at low speed so you expect to see / feel it. The only real excessive speed / wash incident was a large H W cruiser that you could hear a long way off and the wash slammed into us with enough force to spill our drinks off the table. By the time I had got topside to remonstrate when I heard his revs drop after being shouted at by a moored boat just up river on the other side.

I am pretty sure that Misty Willow was opposite us at Broadsedge in the 'new bit' a few years back.

We have been with Euro Marine for some years. Friendly helpful people to talk to and competitive prices. We have never had to make a claim so cannot comment on that aspect. They do have a web site www.astonlark.com/euromarine Phone no is 01843 603345 Regards Bob

For me this would not be a viable proposition for all the reasons previously mentioned. Personally if I was looking for a 27 for use on inland waterways I wouldn't even consider a twin engine version. For estuary use a twin may be better but they were not designed for rough water or anything more than force 5 and they would be very uncomfortable to be in at that. There are far more single engine boats around so the choice would be greater, running costs less and accessibility to the mechanicals far easier. If you want a boat for sea use buy a 30, believe me the extra length, width and stability makes a lot of difference.

In the 80's I restored to Tiger Cubs, one with all the fairing and the other was the sport version. With the asking price of them now I wish I Still had them !

Fergal's boat was F28 a Generation 4 when it was in hire with Beaver. The name was changed to Gay Lady when it moved to the Thames for hire with Bushnell's I think.

The guy who restored / converted the boat in NeilB's link was Fergal Butler, a truly remarkable and skilful man. Sadly his son who had cerebral palsy passed away in march this year. Fergal's record of the boat conversion is in this link. https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057583016 This was not his only foray into boating, he build a V8 powered Crackerbox called Olds Cool. I think there are some video clips on U Tube or Google Olds Cool Fergal Butler Regards Bob

It was at Sutton Staithe last week.

Regulo mentions an auxiliary fan that he fitted to improve airflow. Our fridge is free standing but in what can be considered as a box slightly bigger than the fridge therefore there is very little if any natural airflow. This is ok in the winter when the ambient temperature is relatively low and the compressor doesn't have to work too hard but not on hot summer days when the compressor is running for a lot longer. I was going to fit a computer fan to come on and off with the compressor by breaking into the thermostat wire but was advised against it but a friend who was the production manager of a well know fridge manufacturer. He never told me why this was not a good idea but he knew that the fridge was out of warranty so it wasn't that. In the event I made the thermostatically controlled auxiliary fan which is mounted behind the fridge so that it blows onto the compressor and evaporator with thermocouple strategically placed out of the air stream. The fan On and Off temperatures are set by the digital controller settings which you can set yourself to suit the installation. After a bit of fine tuning of the positions of the fan relative to the back of the fridge, thermocouple position and controller settings the fridge is a lot more efficient with the compressor running a lot less. Another benefit is that the reduction in the compressor run time means less amps being drawn per hour. Edit. Just noticed the photos which were portrait have attached in landscape for some reason.

I'm sure that I read somewhere that back in the day the flooding at geldeston was deep enough to allow wherry's to bypass the lock and sail across the fields.

I remember how rich I thought I was when I started work on 3 pound &15 shillings (3.75 new fangled pounds) per week !!!.

What really annoys me is people who flick their cigarette butts into the river !!! Regards Bob

We only use a small section from Postwick to either the Salhouse or Wroxham turn roundabout because it is jolly convenient but I hate the road with a passion. The roundabouts are far to low therefore do not show up until you are very close especially when bad weather limits visibility and the diameter is far too small. If you are in the outside lane it is virtually a 90 deg turn to stay in your lane, add this to the relatively narrow lanes it makes it very difficult for lorries to stay in their own lane without drifting over, this has happened to us on more than one occasion but since I drive like a granddad (cause I am) and do not look for openings to 'squeeze through' as seems to be the norm now so we have not actually been hit so far.

We have a Flavel Vanessa cooker that also responded well to having the jets cleaned, it is now part of the yearly maintenance.

I live near Goodwood where there is a spitfire flying school so we often get to hear the wonderful noise of the merlin engine. Slightly off topic but back in the day I knew John Dodds who had a meteor (downgraded merlin) engine in his car 'The Beast', that went pretty fast albeit being bloody noisy. There some videos about it on Youtube.

What a trip down memory lane this thread has developed into. First ‘car’ at 16 Bond Mk C modified to coil ignition, unlike Santed’s car mine had a hinged lever inside connected by a cable to the engine kick start which you quickly pulled towards you at the same time as pushing down on the floor mounted decompressed pedal. I changed the points once which required taking the flywheel off and reset the timing by the well tried method of using a pencil through the sparking plug hole. All seemed good till I stared up engaged first gear and promptly reversed into the back of the garage because I had got my before and after TDC mixed up. After 10 lessons I passed my test in an Austin A40 Farina and bought a 2ltr Triumph Roadster complete with ‘dickey seat’. This was followed by a Wolsey 4/44, the test drive was great and both the body and interior was immaculate, it was only after using it regularly that I kept smelling hot oil and discovered lots of oil fumes coming out of the engine breather. To overcome the smell I attached a length of garden hose to the breather, wired it under the car and tucked it under the back bumper. This stopped the smell but started a succession of other motorists stopping me to tell me that the boot was on fire. I did 15000 miles in that car and sold it for more than I paid for it which I was pretty chuffed about. Then followed a succession of cars of all makes and types up to the present 2004 Rover 75 Connie SE that I mentioned in a previous post (Robin – mine has sepia coloured dials and illumination). Most unreliable car (apart from the Bond) Ford Escort Mk 2 estate that spluttered to a stop ever time it rained. Most fun car MG Midget Mk2. Most favourite car more tricky Bentley S2, Jag XK 140 or Rover 3ltr Coupe – it must be the Rover cause I still have it.