Vaughan

That is if the charge points have not suffered "power outages" owing to the freezing conditions. But of course, it must all be blamed on global warming.

I can't help wondering what it must feel like to be stuck overnight on the M62 in 15 inches of snow, in a pure electric vehicle, watching as the heater rapidly drains the batteries. I can't imagine that their eco - gesture to the reduction of global warming would seem quite so significant, right now.

How nice to see the Nationalpike back in action! Trouble is, very funny it may be but one is left wondering just how close it actually gets to the truth?

I think it was Frank Muir, on a radio programme, who said that the red phone box is an iconic piece of engineering : Designed so that no matter what direction you approach it from, the door is always on the other side!

Your photo of the front at Southsea shows the Naval Memorial, which itself, is well worth a visit. Sailors in wartime very rarely have a grave on land : they are either lost at sea, or buried at sea. On this memorial and on the walls around it, are listed the names of all who lost their lives on Portsmouth based ships, during both world wars, but who have no grave except the sea. It says that there are similar ones at the Naval dockyards at Chatham and Plymouth (Devonport). I especially noticed a large proportion of one whole wall, dedicated to the ship's company of HMS Hood. Across the common from the memorial is the Queens Hotel, where we always stay the night off the ferry from Caen. Their standard rooms are the same price as the good old Travelodge in the ferry port but the atmosphere is rather different : This is the memorial at dawn, from our hotel room balcony, looking out over Spithead to the Isle of Wight.

Good Grief!

An angle grinder is the most dangerous power tool I have ever used, and we use a lot of them on boatyards, with a disc sanding pad, to dress up the hole in a damaged hull before glassing it up and repairing it. I once had one get caught in the corner of a hole, flew out of my hands, hit me in the face and then walked across the back of my hand before landing at my feet, still running and still attacking me. I was standing inside the bow of the boat at the time, in the chain locker, with no escape from the thing. They have no kind of safety catch or grip, so when they are turned on, they stay on! Luckily I was wearing an ex Army gas mask as a dust shield, so my face was protected from mutilation. As I type this I can see the scars in my hand, which needed nine stitches. Although I was wearing leather welder's gloves. Be very, very careful, when using DIY angle grinders.

I saw this on BBC Look East last night and could hardly believe it, on the same day that boat owners have received a whacking increase in their river tolls through the post. How does this relate to the scandal of a few years ago, when a member of the BA actually got removed during a petty planning dispute over the "change of use" of a village phone box? And yet now, the Good Doctor in his obligatory and rather silly hat, can stand there and suggest what a great way it is, to spend our money? On silly clock-work bird noises? I think this is a scandalously frivolous insult to our intelligence.

Susie always prefers TEFAL pans, which can be bought on line. edited to add: Don't ask me as my catering skills are limited to putting sugar on my Corn Flakes.

Which also makes a joke of the Broads National Parkway (sorry - Northern Distributor Road) which will "feed" literally thousands of little boxes on vast housing estates on what used to be green belt Norfolk countryside. The occupants will have no local infrastructure : no school, no doctor, no village hall, no fire station, no pub, certainly no village church and above all, no shops within 10 miles. They will just have to hope that the developers will have installed sufficient power supply on these estates - there will already be insufficient water supply and drainage - for all of them to be able to re-charge their "eco friendly" electric shopping carts - that we used to call cars - whilst "working from home " in between peak time power cuts. Their only hope - whilst their only view of "Norfolk countryside" through the kitchen window is into some-one else's kitchen window - will be be that "Iceni Farm Foods" internet delivery will get through to them before they starve to death.

What rival was that? I was referring to the word "rival" rather than any consideration of consenting adults. Surely this forum is "sans pareil"?

I don't have any experience of a TCM I am afraid, so can't help on that one.

What rival was that?

Funny you should say that, as I remember that the day of Harry and Meghan's wedding was on the spring meet at Salhouse. We were sitting there happily watching the wedding on Richo's standard 12 volt TV, with Ranworthbreeze moored beside us. It was only when she left early, to catch the tide, that we realised that all her height and various metal bits must have been acting as a relay TV aerial! When she left, the picture died a death! Luckily the day was saved by Oldgregg, who was a guest on board at the time and managed to call up the programme through some sort of APP on his tablet. Technology way beyond me, but it worked!

I have been thinking about this and what Marge and Parge says could be quite true. The Hurth gearbox may only be splash fed when the gears are engaged. I have hired out a lot of boats with these boxes when I worked for Locaboat and they are supplied as standard by Nanni in France. They are simple and very reliable. I have never known of any trouble with this and and the company, who have used them for years, never spoke of it. All the same, all our boats had shore power and were always plugged in on the yard when not on hire. Well worth thinking about! Anyone with a Hurth box should perhaps ask Peachments in Brundall, who are the Nanni agents.

The TV signal is coming from about SSW, from Tacolnstone, so Salhouse Broad is hidden behind the high ground. You need a place with a "clear view" south across flat land, so Acle Bridge or Thurne dyke would be good.

Salhouse Broad!

This is getting off the subject of poor old MM's batteries, but I think you have heard this one "back to front". All "hydro mechanical" boxes such as PRM, Borg Warner or TMP have an oil pump driven by the drive shaft - that is the input shaft from the engine. They are called hydro mechanical as when they are in gear, the clutch plates are held together by oil pressure. A Hurth or old fashionioned Parsons box is pure mechanical, with the clutch engaged by a spring, where moving parts are splash fed from the sump and they do not have an oil pump. What you must not do is tow a boat with a PRM or Borg Warner box, without stopping the prop shaft from turning free in the slipstream of the propellor. In that case, with the engine not running, the internal parts are not being lubricated, as the drive shaft is not running. I have never heard of possible damage to a marine gearbox, simply by running the engine in neutral.

I agree with all of that. A 90 amp alternator on full charge will take around 5HP off the engine. And it is only a 40HP engine in the first place! Normally, the alternator will be charging at around 35 amps during a 4 hour charge and will drop to under 10 amps in the last hour. Intelligent regulators can "bump up" this charge rate to charge the batteries quicker but is this a good idea? Answers on a postcard please . . . I once had to run 3 Nanni engines in hire boats, for 10 days and 9 nights continuous, to keep the rest of the fleet off the quay when the Rhone burst its banks and flooded out the town where we were based. The engines ran slow ahead at 900 revs against the mooring lines. When we topped up with diesel afterwards and checked the hour meters, it amounted to 0.75 litres per hour. Edited to add : Before Griff asks, the boats were on hydraulic drive!

In basic principle if it is a "thick" cable it will be 12 volt DC since a main advantage of 220v is that it runs on much thinner cables. "Mains" wiring is normally brown for live, blue for neutral and green or green/yellow for earth. IF it has been installed according to regs, the 220v will also be in a protective conduit, or "gain". I know I am sitting here 1000 miles away but I am concerned that your mate who installed the shore power came out last night "on a breakdown call" but could not simply establish whether the the battery charger was actually charging the batteries, without "coming back tomorrow". I wonder whether you may need a second opinion, on this??

John, looking back over the last 6 hours since you asked for our advice, I can't see one post that you can rule out. I am concerned that you are going to be spending a night out on the boat, in winter, with no electrics and therefore no heating. Have you started the engine?

If you only have 10v that is a problem. Start the engine. If it starts, then your engine battery will NOT be the one on 10volts! If it starts, then the domestics should start to take a charge. This may only show show about 11 volts on the meter at first. The voltage will mount slowly, over the space of an hour or so. If it doesn't mount, then your domestic batteries are too low to accept a charge. Let me know if the engine starts or not and we will take it from there!

Could have been any one or all of the above. 1st question : were you on shore power at the time? 2/. If not, have you been cruising enough to charge your batteries? 3/. 12 volt TVs take a lot of power ; perhaps more than you think. They will also cut out automatically when the voltage gets below about 11.5, to protect their own circuits. 4/. So were other things still running, such as water pump and lights? If so, you may just be suffering from a lack of battery charge. 5/. If your batteries are lead/acid type you can test them with a hydrometer. This will immediately show you if you have a dead cell in one battery, which is draining the others. If they are AGM batteries you will need to disconnect them from each other, before testing them with an electronic tester. DO NOT use a drop tester. I suggest you start the engine and have a cruise around for a few hours and then see what happens!

"On the butts" at a firing range in North Devon, late 1971 : "MISTER Ashby! I don't think you could hit a barn door at twenty paces. What regiment was it, that you're being commissioned into, SIR?" "ROYAL CORPS OF TRANSPORT, SAR'NT MAJOR!" " I might have BLOODY KNOWN IT!"

A great post Griff and I can certainly vouch for the quote above. I can well remember the navigation as managed by the Commissioners and it was a different place! Not forgetting spectacular failures such as "yurt-gate" at the WRC and the quite incredible farce involving the "change of use" of a telephone box. Now we hear that having put up our river tolls, they have bought a large tract of land near How Hill. How do they justify this expense, if it is just to re-wild it? I thought the BA have always announced, during other disputes, that they are not meant to be land owners? And the Sword of Damocles hanging over us is still to come, in the shape of all their threats about green initiatives and carbon neutrality. With all sorts of chair-bound officers "working in partnership" with similar officers from other Quangos. In other words, holding expensive meetings and conferences. Maybe their new carbon reduction expert ought to be "recycled" and taught how to drive a dredger?