tjg1677

When we became a nation ruled by the health and safety culture..........

The ultimate power consumption will depend in the duty cycle. i.e. how many minutes per hour the units run. I am not familiar with the dessicant type so I dont know if they run constantly or cut in and out ( cycle ). The compressor type however, do cycle, so in theory a 50% duty cycle will only consume 150w of power per hour - bargain !! Trev,

Thank you, an exemplary write up Jean, very entertaining. I agree that it is a shame acle is closing this year, have had a few boats off them in the last 18 months and the service and attitude is second to none. It is almost criminal that a very small yet efficient and friendly team will be diluted amongst the many when they Move to Stalham. Trev

Always useful to know, thank you all. Trev

Thanks david, very useful. Just put up a post asking what was on for new years eve, would be grateful if you could let me know if and what is happening. Trev

and dont forget. warships had them too.............. in the process of fitting one to mine and as Griff says, if moored stern on ( or mediterrainean mooring as the RN called it ) they are useful to see exactly where the rudder is positioned. Anyway I am an ex POMEM so I like gauges............ stay lucky everyone trev.

Thank you both Iain and Alan, most helpful and informative. You are now BOTH gentlemen and scholars....lol. bye for now trev

Hello all, this may seem a strange question but I notice some BA moorings now have electric hookups. I am assuming that they are fed by a card. Where does one get these cards from, I have them for my mooring at ferry marina but suspect they would not work with the BA posts. thanks in advance trev.

oh? please do tell........

yes indeed !! me too..........

Hi Paul, I had one of these fitted to my last narrowboat and they are really good, very quiet and move a far bit of air over a 24 period considering that the fan only runs relatively slowly. Best suggestion for enlarging a hole by that much is make a card template to the size you need. use it to draw around the existing hole, then once you have the line, cut out very carefully and patiently with a fine small jigsaw blade in a fast running jigsaw. hth ttfn trev.

Thank you Gracie, John and Mary Jayne, I feel at home already. Hoping to be back in the wet stuff in about a week and will be down on her again around wed 21st for hopefully a 4 night stay. Got a day or so alongside to do some more work ( mostly electrical ) then will be out and and about by the weekend, so if you see the Giddy Kipper - please do wave. thanks trev.

I think this is the thread that I have been dreading. The boat I have just bought is called " Giddy Kipper". (previously brink of day when she was a hire boat 8 years ago ) now being the superstitious ex mariner that I am, I dont beleive in changing boat names so I am afraid she is stuck with it. Giddy kipper is apparently an expression used by Yorkshire folk as a generic term for a mild idiot ( probably fairly appropriate in my case ), now this gave me a dilemna - to change or not to change as to be honest, I didnt like the name. When I first took her out the amount of pointing and smiles the name raised made me re-think. Kids love the name, adults smile and wave so I thought - oh what the heck! So despite still not really liking the name, it is worth keeping to see the reaction it provokes, it gives one a feelgood factor In summary giddy keeper she is and giddy kipper she is staying, it may even grow on me in time...... ttfn trev.

Robin, you can also get them with Black faces to give a total contrast to the ones shown. Surprisingly, the backlight is changable between red / yellow, so can be backlit either colour depending on which wire you connect or by using a 3 pole switch you can have the choice depending on your mood. they are actually quite good quality too. I have a voltmeter, rudder indicator and a tacho/hourmeter from them. hth ttfn trev.

That was a great write up Mike, very entertaining and well written. I am new here but have just bit the bullet and bought a boat, she will be moored in Horning when she comes out of dry dock - I cant wait to meet some of the characters that you describe - they sound class . Glad you had a good time and I hope you have your calendar ready to tick off the days until you next get down. Thanks again for a great blog. trev.

Ahh now all becomes clear thank you for that clarification Iain. Sadly I must now draw on my previous maritime experience on tankers and warn Gracie that red wine and high heels invokes stability curves and metacentric heights ( a tanker loading thing ) and make aware of the dire consequences of keeling over !!!! + high heels = ttfn trev

Ahhhh ha, well done that man, given my an idea how to mount it now so thanks for that. Good value for money aint they compared to the vetus offering and the sender unit is quite substantially built. Like you I have hydraulic steering and the reason that they never quite center again is because of fluid leakage past the pump in the wheel unit, quite normal. However on my baot it is dual steer so wherever the last used helm leaves the rudder, if you use a different helm position it picks up from where the last helm left off and therefore throws a centre marker on the wheel - out straight away Turks heads were used on the sailing ships of old in the roayl navy to indicate midships position on the rudder as usually they were anything up to 15 full turns of the wheel hard over to hard over. Rulan indicators are quite simple. You have a swinging counterweight not dissimilar to a self winding watch. When you turn the wheel the counterweight alwas stays at the bottom and a clever gear rack moves the pointer accordingly, no wigglies, no electric string,no batteries - just good old newtons law....lol. here endeth the sermon sorry if I am teaching people to suck eggs.......... ttfn Trev

thank you.

You are most welcome sir but just one thing - OK I give in, what is a " pesky" ????

hello all, yes lots of ventilation and an old but very cheap trick, bowls of table salt dotted around, it is amazing what that absorbs. When I bought my first boat, a norman 23, I had terrible trouble with window condensation in the mornings, get a bag of cotton wool, tease it out into long strips and place it at the bottom of the windows either on the sills or wedged into the frame area, has to be done every night with fresh cotton wool but it does work and stops those annoying cold drips - oh!, and it's cheap ttfn trev.

Great posting Grace and so very true, we were there for a week on august bank holiday and I saw some horrendous things being done by the hire boats, namely speeding, but that said an awful lot of private boats were as guilty if the truth be known. I tend to moor off the beaten track and lunatics rushing past at full throttle really wind me up, whats the rush - you are on holiday for goodness sake! As for day hire boats - dont get me started, I do wish the hire yards would emphasise that speed limits are in force and as such are there for a reason! Agree with what a lot of posters have said, a little friendly help to newbies mooring for the first time, particularly when windy, often goes a long way and done the right way dont half cement friendships. I love getting stuck behind sailing boats or heading towards one when they are tacking into the wind, they are so elegant and I really admire the skill and patience involved to handle on of these vessels. just my tuppenceworth. ttfn trev

Thanks Iain, that is absolutely spot on, you are a gentleman and scholar.Have it working now back onto laptop. MM - after she spoke and said buy me buy me, once I had handed the money over she then said something most strange- " ha ha ha now go and dig a hole in the river and just pour twenty pound notes into it !" Thats boating I guess...lol what really is very very strange ------- a talking boat !! bye for now y'all trev

check this out, bought one to fit to my boat, have checked it out on a test rig and it works great, just got to : a. find the steering gear and tiller arm b. figure out how to mount it. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301899136899?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ttfn trev.

greetings felicitations and thanks for a very warm welcome from you all. broadscot, thank you so much for your link to a manual, I have had a right job trying to get one, will check the link out when I get onto my laptop cos this so called smart phone has very limited abilities! a bit about my boat, well ironically I have the boat everyone loves to hate judging by what I have read on here. It is an alphacraft lowliner 42. I know they have their faults but she spoke to me when I saw her. I moor at ferry marina horning, lovely place. She is in drydock having a bit of work done at the moment. Mine is a fairly reasonable layout, she has the lower helm right up to the front window, so is easy to steer from inside, couple that with a massive galley and it makes her lovely. Downside is I am over six foot and about two and a half foot wide, ao I will leave you to guess the fun I have with low headroom and narrow doors oh did I mention fun size cabins too?? In time all this will be resolved money permitting as I intend to fully refit her over time.she is probably the lovliest handling boat I have ever conned, impeccable manners and actually goes astern in a straight line but she is mine and I love her. If anyone wants to know more, please feel free to ask ttfn trev

Hello all, been reading this one with interest. Back to the hot domestic water issue, if the engine is running at 50 degrees then it is fair to assume that the DHW is heating up proportionately. Not arguing with the fact that it should be nearer 75-80 mark at all but the DHW is evidently heating up, albeit in limited quantity as the OP suggests because you can only get one shower out of it. Assuming that the shower is not lasting 40 minutes and assuming that the problem has always been inherent duringtheir ownership of the boat, then I would reckon on an incorrectly installed calorifier. The calorifier will only heat up to whatever level the heating coils are sat at. i.e if they are halfway up the unit then you will only get a half calorifier full of hot water, if they are 3/4 of the way up, you only get 1/4 of a tank full etc etc. Someone quite correctly suggested that the feed lines from the engine may be reversed, this is quite feasible. I have also seen horizontal calorifiers that are handed and have to be installed the correct way up because the heating coils are in the lower part of the unit and therefore if installed upside down, you only get a fraction of the tank heated cos the coils are at the top. hope this rambling makes sense and helps to at least eliminate a possible cause. ttfn trev