Islander

Any boat could sink for the failure of a simple hose clip or perished hose connected to below waterline skin fitting. Not knowing how this happened I can only guess. Close inspection of the photo you can just see three large cleats along the floatation tanks top level. My thoughts are it became hooked up on the quay heading on a high tide then one or other of the now plugged holes let water in. Possibly because of inadequate fendering. Is she worth repairing. I would think so. A b00dy good clean first, the windows refitted and the roof sag repaired. Going by the piles of stuff on the quay she was nice inside with the kitchen cupboard doors of oak. Going to be a lot of work. Colin

There is a through bolted ply pad just below the furthest window but can’t see the other side. The pump is a serious bit of kit. Colin

Just to return to the title of this thread. The cut is still closed but houseboat waiting for a tow to a sympathetic yard. Colin

So if I go to the boat, I can sit and watch the wildlife, make tea, read a book all as part of recreation but as soon as I lift the cabin floor and pour some antifreeze into the exhaust system it becomes unnecessary travel and not allowed. Someone tell me if I’ve got that wrong. What I hear is different sections of gov sitting on the fence and passing the buck. Either allow boating, even if restricted to daytime use, or ban all of it including canoes, paddle boards and fishing boats. Colin

We had considered adding a fresh water flush to one of our toilets because at low tide our mooring dries. While it sounded like a good idea, in the meantime we have been using a 1Lt plastic jug filled from the basin tap when we are aground. This works fine and gives an idea how much water is needed. A lot less than I thought. We will be trying the Odourlos product once we have used all the blue we still have. Colin

Apologies, just corrected the speelling mistookes..........possibly.

Still no advice for live aboard boaters. Still comes up as ‘page not found’. I’m sure it will be the same as the first lockdown which means we can navigate for the purpose of refuelling, pump out and water. I think we can also travel by boat for essential supplies so a trip to Norwich riverside to shop in Morrison’s would be allowed. So, before I need to put my tin hat on. We, in fact have all the necessary services on the island and enough food for at least 2weeks and probably a month with dried and tinned stuff. So we will be staying home as much as we can. Now defra have interpreted the gov ‘nonessential travel’ as meaning travelling to a boat to maintain it. I wonder what the environment agency think of that stance. Oh but you can pay for someone else to go and do it for you. Great idea unless you are boating on a budget. How many boat owners are on pension, low income or have just lost their jobs etc etc, but if a boat sinks. Today has turned out to be a beautiful sunny day here at Thorpe Green, the paddle boarders are out, about eight so far, canoes, a rowing boat and a small (local) cruiser. Thursday evening we had one of the local canoe clubs, about 20 of them, racing around the island 3 times. This is, at the moment, acceptable exercise but pouring antifreeze into my exhaust system and draining my freshwater is not essential travel. Now I know ‘rules is rules’ but sometime the only way to improve a rule is to break it and only then will someone take a closer look at why a rule was broken. Being the sad person that I am I signed up to get gov email daily and these generally have 30 to 40 changes to wording to guidance just which just shows how fluid the current situation is. Just to reiterate, we will not be going to st olaves to winterise Lady Linda but hope to bring her back to Norwich for the winter mid December (spring tide for Thorpe railway bridge). Stay safe everyone. Let’s hope the animal rights people don’t start releasing mink. Colin

There is the catch. Colin

Let’s hope the BA read that Simon. Colin

Having waded through the 32pages of legislation no where can I find anything that travelling for essential maintenance is not permitted. Maybe defra can quote a reference or maybe Broadsedge would like to comment. I think some people may reconsider who and where they get their services from when things return to some form of normal. Am I right in thinking that Broadsedge don’t have any residential boats in the marina. Colin n.b. Just to add my insurance renewal has just arrived.

It might have helped if people hadn’t been to large gatherings like protests or had parties when they had tested positive. (3 students in Norwich) Colin

Well, in my case, the unnecessary travel would be for me to drive from Norwich to St Olaves to unlock the gates to my private mooring so that a marine engineer can drive the last 200yds to my boat to over winterise while I wait at the gate until he has finished. I will then need to pay him for his time, travelling costs and consumables. Now, let me think for a moment what’s going to happen. Like a lot of boat owners on the forum we have not been given enough time to put our boats into a suitable state for winter conditions. In the last few days we have had doctors appointments, chiropractor appointments, meds to collect and today the car serviced. All these prebooked. Should this lockdown extend beyond the beginning of December or the weather take a serious downturn in temp then a visit to the boat will be on the cards. Other concerns are flooding at St Olaves over the winter period as I have a quantity of old timber stored there that will float off if I can’t get there to secure it. That is not everything that needs to be done but enough to bore you all with for now. Who I do feel sorry for are those unable to travel to their boats or holiday homes to prepare for winter. Just how much more can we all afford lose due to ill thought out restrictions. We are both in the at risk category and we will take the necessary steps to keep ourselves ( and our property) safe. We intend to stay safe and think for ourselves and hope everyone else does too. Colin off to bed now.

MM, Cancer research, Gapton Hall est, Gt Yarmouth. They were buy the till. Ask if there are none as they had more out the back. Colin

Bought a couple of these, at £2 for all those crimps it is well worth it. The quality is better than those you can buy from some auto and diy stores. The crimp tool, as yet untested, but looks better quality than the ratchet one I have been using for the last 20 odd years so. I will make a few test wires and give a good pull/destructive test. I would say that they will pass with flying colours. Most poor crimps are because people use the wrong size for the cable they are using. This is what you get for your money. Note the number of other tools the manufacturer produce. Amazon sell these for just under £20 but have been priced around £40. The cancer charity shop has a pile of these near the till and told me they have a lot more out the back, so if you can’t see any ask, they may still have some and not had time to restock the shop. There was a pile of about 40 on Saturday with ‘lots more out the back’. Colin N.B. Just to add, these could be a factory quality control reject purely for the printing on the outer packaging.

Looks like the Durite relay has been replaced by the digital charge relay. The heavy gauge wires just chopped and transferred. The thin wires now redundant and probably from alternator warning light. The boat was no doubt built with the most basic of electrics and has over the years had numerous add ons without the removal of redundant circuitry. Colin

Having just read this I think you will find the 14.8v reference is the solar panel voltage and not the charge voltage. The solar charge controller is a fairly common type for small off grid/RV setups but now being used on boats but without using the load connections. A better indication to battery charging/usage would be a Victron or NASA battery monitor. The solar charge controller is not going to show what your alternator is doing. Out of interest, does the inverter run the fridge. As Vaughan has said, it would be a good idea to get a marine electrician to give it a once over and draw up a basic circuit diagram for you ( I really must do mine ). Colin

Sun shining here at the moment. Much better than forecast. Fingers crossed for you. Colin

Hi all on moonlight shadow, you past us at herringfleet this morning just as we were prepping to leave. Nice to see the welsh flag flying. Some of our family are in Trefor and can’t wait to see them again. We are back on our home mooring at st olaves. Enjoy your trip, the weather seems better than expected. Colin

We have a fan heater with stat and three heat setting so is very economic on electric. The low setting doesn’t seem to dry the air to much. Last thing you want is something that makes you cough. A convector type may be a better option for you. We have a 500w one that is more than enough to heat our bedroom (cabin). We also have 12v car blanket which is great to put over your legs on cold evenings. We also use it on the the fly bridge on fresh autumn morning going up river. Second to that we also found two car seat heat pads in a charity shop which work well too. You could also try one of the halogen type heaters but look for the the black tube ones as the ordinary ones are a bit bright. Colin

No, I live on mine. Colin

So, do you make a rule that E boats can ONLY moor where electric posts are? I may be wrong but the production of lithium is far from green or environmentally friendly. If you want to charge cars and boats with our current level of generation then we need to stop wasting it on unnecessary luxuries. Just have a look round at home and see just how many items sit on standby for hours on end just so we can have instant whatever or use a remote to switch on various items. Colin p.s. What about heating or are these new boats going to be summer days only.

Thanks for the link Peter. I had just found that supplier and they do click and collect too. Being as we live on the island at Thorpe the likes of Hermes are not very reliable. I think one of those will be going inline with our solar charger. We already have aNasa BM1 but that shows the net charge and battery %. I shall look forward to seeing the finished model. Colin

I must admit I agree. There is little to be gained from the added complication but these clever little devices would mean almost any battery pack could be used. I about to use one for the Mrs portable sewing machine. It's 6v and she wants to use it of 12v. The price of these boards are so low there is no point in me designing and building one. By the way I do like your power meter. I will be looking for one of those on Fleabay. Colin

Unless you are building to MOD spec ( ministry of defence not moderator of de forum ) to please Griff, I would say the lithium wins hands down as far as stamina goes. The lead acid, in theory, may win a drag race but the lithium will win the marathon. DC to DC convertor wise, I thought something like this may have been useful and the weight, I would think, is quite low and well within what you save by using lithium. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-DC-Converter-20A-300W-Step-up-Step-down-Boost-Power-Adjustable-Charger-P8T4-/224038775789?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10 All in all Peter, the model is looking great. Colin

Why not use a DC to DC convertor. You could either boost or drop and no need to change your motor controller. Colin