Vaughan

These are very wise words. They need considering carefully.

I "liked" this post when I read it but it was later that we saw the picture of your battery monitor. 14.8 volts is a high charge and could cause overheating in the wiring. Maybe your alternator needs an inspection as well?

I think there's an obvious solution, but not as long as the otters remain totally protected by "Those who know better".

Sounds good to me!

All the same, it is a petrol engine with a portable fuel tank and loose pipework in the boat. Mix that with a starter wiring loom and I would have thought that's a very good reason for a safety certificate!

But you said it does have electric start . . .

This is just an assumption as I don't know your boat, but you say that the yellow light means that something is being used? The starter battery is getting a trickle charge only, as it is fully charged. The charge on the other battery may be the aggregate difference between the power coming in from that solar panel, and the power being used by the fridge. A 12v fridge uses about 5 amps when running and this is about the same as the power of an average solar panel. I am interested that only one domestic battery is accepting a charge, but the other one is not. Maybe that is the one that you didn't replace?

Maybe that's why they asked for a photo. Have you had a reply yet?

A battery fully charged at rest, will show 12.7 volts. These batteries have therefore recently been on charge. I assume you stopped the engine not long before taking the photo. I had also assumed that the very small trickle amperage was coming from the solar panel. The starter battery will show a high voltage as it is always fully charged, just as it would be in your car. The only true way to test the batteries is to let them rest for an hour, after they have been charged. You cannot tell anything about them while they are on charge and that includes the solar panels. Those 3 batteries cannot be connected in parallel or they would all show the same level of charge. One of yours, is therefore separate from the other two.

Is it possible that your two "leisure" batteries are to run the inverter, and you then have a bank of one starter and two domestic batteries? In your picture, I notice that one battery is at 14.8 volts and I assume this is the starter. If all three were connected in parallel they would show the same charge.

I am also wary of insurers but in fairness I think "covers" refers to a yacht with sail covers and awnings which are traditionally canvas. I also think that the 24 hour single handed clause means that if you have been on the helm of your boat for more than 24 hours, you are no longer capable of "standing a watch". If so, I agree with them!

I grew up on the Broads so it will always be close to my heart. I have operated hire boats in 15 different areas of the French waterways (all of which are different), 2 in Holland, in Belgium and on the Lagune de Venise in Italy. Also on the Hudson River and Erie Canal in New York State and the Intracoastal Waterway on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Inland waterways have two categories : A canal, which is a man-made transport system. A navigable river, which is made navigable with weirs and locks. In some countries these are also called canals. In this respect the Broads is unique to anything else I have seen. An enclosed system of rivers and lakes, with no locks (of its own) and allowing sailing and other watersports as well as motor boats. Apart from Holland, there is almost no sailing possible on inland waterways. Yes, I know about the Thames "A" Raters but even they are restricted to the reaches around Cookham and Bourne End. The Broads is a boating playground like no other. Which is my loyalty? The Broads - by birth - but I naturally have empathy with the Canal du Midi, after 25 years. I was probably most impressed by the Erie Canal, from Albany to Lake Erie, and Lake Champlain, on the Canadian border. As for the sea, I prefer not to go to sea in anything under 5000 Tons!

By the way, be very careful not to lose the screws, as they have a special thread, known only to Jabsco! Always use the genuine part. If you try and use what "looks like" the right size setscrew, you will wreck the threads in the pump body.

Yes, but you must still take the impeller out in the spring to inspect and grease it, as routine maintenance.

To remove the impeller, or not to remove? The last two yards I worked on, we passed antifreeze through the raw water side as described above. A large watering can full would do the trick, diluted to give about -10 degrees on a hydrometer. (That's in south France, of course!) The impeller is then removed, the face plate and screws put back so you don't lose them and the impeller is left on the dashboard to show that it has been removed. Why is this? Because if you leave it in the pump for several months, the same 3 vanes will be squashed up against the cam plate and will stay bent when you next start the engine. We saw a photo of a failed impeller on another thread a couple of days ago and that looked to me to be caused by this problem. Some yards (and owners) replace impellers every spring as a routine but if you have left it out for the winter and inspect the vanes to make sure they are not cracked, there is no reason not to re-use it. Always smear the impeller liberally in special water pump grease before re-fitting as this will keep it soft and give a bit more suction to draw water up when starting the engine. If you don't get any water unless you rev the engine to "prime" it, then you may also have worn front and rear faceplates. In which case, ask the boatyard to change them.

It won't need bleeding, but it will need fixing! I imagine it is leaking from a connection in the feed pipe.

Thank you very much for letting us know! Please keep us un touch with your news and I hope things will go well for you. If it is any consolation, I grew up on a boat, from the age of 6 months, right there on Thorpe Island! Ventilation is what you are going to need now. Lots of open windows. Especially if you are going to fit a fuel burning heater of some sort. Think about plenty of air! Please keep in contact and all the best.

I have never seen such a stupid, inaccurate, misinformed and totally misleading article as that which describes this "incident" on the EDP website. I would not wish to link it, as I would not wish to infuriate Maurice Mynah!

I did wonder about the M&GN line in Yarmouth and the old Breydon swing bridge. As this a Jarrolds map I suspect it will have something around the edge which says when they printed it, and on which OS maps it is based. By maybe Floydraser already knows this?

Looking again at this, I notice how little development there is on the outskirts of Norwich. Pound Lane, to the east of Thorpe is open country and Thorpe End is not there. Catton and Sprowston are open country and the Plumstead Rd is only developed on the south side. Behind the red word NORWICH is Boulton and Paul's airfield, where they developed the Defiant fighter before the War. All that is now the big Heartsease Estate. I remember going shooting with my father around there, in open country on both sides of the Ring Rd. Whitlingham station is shown and I think that closed in 1953. So I would think the map on which this is based is early 50s. The Jarrolds version may be quite a bit later.

Where do you want me to start? I suppose one of the worst things is the galley in the saloon, where you have to drop a flap down across the rear door to have any kind of working surface. This cuts off all access to and from the aft cabins and aft toilet/shower, while someone is cooking, as there is no aft access from on deck. This is a 10 berth boat so any kind of social distancing is out of the question! The only way in or out is by the sliding door either side of the saloon and you don't "step" out of that either. You have to almost crawl out on your hands and knees. That great big glass saloon is like going down the river in a greenhouse. The other thing is leaks. They don't seem to have been built with a great deal of structural strength, so when they run into something (which is very often) the impact springs the seals in all the cabin windows. So next time it rains, every one of the beds is soaking wet. I think that will do for now!

The Borg Warner is an excellent gearbox which has an excellent history in Broads boats. It is one of those things which proves Sod's Second Law of Engineering : "If it is running well, you don't need to bugger about with it". The Austin BMC 1.5 diesel (known as the Newage Captain) was first fitted in the London black taxi cabs and is also a solid, reliable and iconic engine. So your boat is very well equipped!

The oil will be thin red hydraulic oil, TQF, and I seem to remember that the reduction box takes EP90 gear oil. But please Google that first, as I am only going by memory and wouldn't want you to put the wrong oil in it!

This is a Borg Warner box with 2:1 reduction gear. The nut has a dipstick on it when you remove it. The thing is a pressure relief valve. Needs no attention!