Vaughan

I wouldn't like to have the job of raising that! Was she sunk by the wave action, from the wind across the broad?

I can tell you that this is one of the original boats, with rounded corners to the windows. Later ones had pointed corners. When I enlarge the photo I can just make out the big letter S moulded into the engine room vent on the aft end of the cabin. This stands for SOLAR and means she is one of the original boats, possibly fitted out in Wroxham by Dawncraft. John Clabburn was one of the designers and owned Dawncraft at the time. Built in 1975, at a guess. Later boats, built by Bounty, had a moulded B on the vent cover instead of the S.

Thanks for that David, and it doesn't surprise me. I see that big boats from Le Boat are now priced at around 4000€ a week, plus all the extras. Best of luck with that!

I don't follow that. How can planning permission "expire"?

This is the same arrangement as Howard's drawing, taken in 2017 when we were moored at the Rushcutters, where there is a large rise and fall of tide. Broads mooring ropes are always far too short, so I always bring a long one with me, to make the two springs. As Grendel says, the boat is about a foot off the bank, but cannot surge backwards and forwards, because of the spring lines.

I hope I am not intruding, but I have just noticed something in this photo of your new engine. The heat exchanger cap has a small plastic pipe going to a plastic water bottle sitting beside the engine in the bilge. That cap on the heat exchanger is not a pressure cap, it is where you fill the engine with coolant when necessary. This pipe should be going to an expansion chamber, which has a pressure cap and should be fitted on the bulkhead at a level higher than the engine. Without this, the cooling system will not be pressurised as it should be and so the thermostat will not be working properly. This chamber is in opaque plastic so that you can see the coolant level in it and is exactly the same as what you probably have in your car. I am sure Peachments will have this part in stock and it is rather important to have it fitted.

I quite agree. It occurred to me after I posted, that the problem could well be on the bank, not on the boat. All the same, I have known battery chargers to leak quite often and this is usually because they have been installed in a little locker with no ventilation, where they overheat.

I am not a "mains" electrician but I would immediately suspect the battery charger. Un-plug it and see what you get then. I have known them to leak as much as 30V to ground before now.

As we are talking about inverters, it is worth a general warning about earthing. Basically, 240volt AC and water do not mix. All shore power circuits must be earthed back to the shore by the third wire in the cable and 240v circuits must never be earthed to the return side of the 12v DC circuits. On almost all boats this means it must not be earthed to the engine either. The inverter provides a 240v circuit in the boat, where appliances can still be plugged in, when not on shore power, so this circuit must be earthed as well. This must be carefully thought out and really should be done by a qualified electrician. The latest types of inverter do not require an earth and several modern appliances don't either but the problem with that comes when you plug something into the circuit that does require an earth. This particularly applies to hot water immersion heaters. These often fail owing to corrosion from the water and if your boat has copper piping, then that is where a current leak will earth to. Not much fun if you are having a shower at the time! Please be very careful when installing inverters on a boat and it is always best to have it done by a professional.

No, 'fraid not, but that boat looks to be in very good shape, believe it or not! It will be an awful job getting all that varnish back to the bare wood but the actual boat looks sound, from the photos.

An inverter simply converts DC current to 240v AC and if it is running something like a microwave it needs a lot of battery capacity to provide the power. Hence Richardsons always say you must run the engine while using the microwave, so that the alternator can compensate for the power being used. The inverter does not charge the batteries from shore power. You need a battery charger for that and I recommend at least 40amps DC output. They can be bought with 2 or 3 separate outputs.

If you have 3 batteries to power the inverter it must be a powerful one. Does it run a microwave? We still have the problem, that your batteries were down to below 10v. You need to make certain that all these little electronic black boxes are actually giving a good charge to all your batteries when the engine is running. 3 inverter batteries maybe also also mean 3 domestic batteries? In which case you may consider fitting 2 alternators and running the inverter as a separate circuit.

I have googled the Cyrix and the Agoi Fet. Both made by Victron, one is a battery combiner and the other a charge splitter. Sounds like what they use in camper vans but I have not come across them in a boat before. Why do you need both, as they both do the same job, but in different ways? The third box is an intelligent electronic regulator which is supposed to give a more efficient long term charge. There are opinions for and against these - I don't use them myself. If either of the Victrons have failed, this will be the cause of your problem. If you also have a shore power 240 volt battery charger with 3 outputs - for starter, domestic and inverter batteries, it sounds to me as though your circuit could be usefully simplified, to make it more reliable.

If your batteries were below 10v, they are dead. There was also something in your circuit that killed them! You mentioned various electronic charge splitters and regulators, so best to determine that all your batteries are getting a charge from the engine. Inverters (also fridges) will cut out if the voltage is too low. Remember that at 12.7 volts a battery is charged. At 12 volts it is half charged. At 11.5 volts it is effectively discharged. Anything below that - it is probably dead.

I think you need to describe the circuit a bit more before we can be of much help. The 240v electrics may not be wired direct to shorepower but rely only on the inverter. The intelligent regulator parts should not have anything to do with the inverter. Do you think that maybe the inverter is tripping out because it has no ventilation, and is overheating? Does the inverter have its own bank of batteries, separate from the domestic batteries?

Sounds like the Garonne or the Tarn but they are not navigable. If is the Charente, it will be well worth watching! Possibly the most beautiful river in France. It was the French king Francois 1er who named it "Le plus beau ruisseau dans le Royaume". Well, it turned out to be the Dordogne. I should have guessed, as that is where all the British expats have their second homes, so plenty of English for the programme to feature! It is actually a very beautiful area which is steeped in history and largely unspoilt by development or heavy industry. Did they do it justice? - Sort of.

Sounds like the Garonne or the Tarn but they are not navigable. If is the Charente, it will be well worth watching! Possibly the most beautiful river in France. It was the French king Francois 1er who named it "Le plus beau ruisseau dans le Royaume".

This is for the nuts which fix the propellor onto the taper. This shaft has been made with the taper at both ends, so that it can be turned and used again if it gets worn in the area of the stern gland. So if you turned it, so that the worn keyway was at the prop end and then did the lapping job to make it fit better, would that put less strain on the worn keyway? You mention only one nut on the thread that holds the coupling, but there should be a second, locknut, to prevent the first one coming loose. Either that, or the nut and shaft are drilled through for a split pin, to stop the nut loosening. Personally, I would like to be sure, and have it machined out for a larger keyway. And then make sure it has a locknut!

As someone who also got forced out of a small Broads business in the early 80's, by recession and press publicity, I can see both sides of this discussion. Yes we are a discussion forum, as I often remind us myself. But we also love the Broads and want its boat businesses to succeed - and survive - as we know that the Broads area itself depends mostly on tourism for its own survival as we know it today. I happen to know a few things about what happened at Acle and I am sure Oddfellow does as well, but I see no need or purpose in posting them here. Perhaps social media doesn't have much room for "gentlemen" any more. That is to say those who, if they haven't got anything good to say about someone, prefer not to say anything.

These are very nice boats, especially when fitted out by Haines. Height limited for Broads use but very comfortable for two people, in all weathers. I think those outside handrails would be a nuisance when mooring but they are very stable when on deck and very nice to handle. Our customers in France were always very happy with them.

It is 78 years since boats like this were seen coming out of Yarmouth Haven. This is a Fairmile D class MTB, known as "Dog boats", in this case from the 33rd flotilla in Southampton, commanded by my father. The coastal forces base in Gt Yarmouth was HMS Midge and was home to the 55th flotilla of D class MGBs, which were the only British coastal forces flotilla to have shark's teeth painted on the bow.

I wondered about that as well. Worth checking, before installing. Edited to add that I am not sure that the pressure supplied by the lift pump would be that important, so long as it is supplying fuel to the appliance.

I gather that the new Highway Code was drawn up without any input invited from motoring organisations. In other words, just a cyclists' dream ticket. As children we were taught to look both ways and always use a pedestrian crossing. Remember the Green Cross Code? Now it seems that children can just step out across a junction in front of traffic and hope to stay alive. Who - "in their right minds" - could possibly have dreamed this up?

Now that cyclists have successfully taken over the Highway Code all for themselves, I suppose the next priority on the Broads will be paddle boards, with their own paddling lanes? It is not technically possible (at least not yet) to paint white lines in the river, or I imagine we would have paddling lanes already. They wouldn't be obliged to use them, of course - like cyclists, they could continue to paddle about in the middle of the river in Horning, as they please. Meantime, give them at least one and a half metres space when going down the Ant or the Chet. And why not? I imagine the BA, EA, RSPB and "Uncle Tom Cobbley" would love it : no more need for dredging, or maintenance of moorings, no more diesel pollution, no more pumpouts, and no more bank damage - apart from all the litter, of course. The perfect route towards the re-wilding of the Broads that they all seem to dream of. The trouble with satire, is that it so often turns out to be nearer the truth than one thinks . . . .

On hire boats in the 70s, cigar lighter sockets all had a 15 amp fuse. Nowadays they are on voltage trips, which are safer and easier.