oldgregg

I think for the moment the best option is a good hybrid (and I don't mean 'mild' hybrids) such as the Toyota system. People moan about the whole 'self-charging' strapline but it's just highlighting the fact that you're recovering the energy that would otherwise be lost as heat and brake dust under braking. Some silly MPG figures have been quoted in the past, but the reality is that they're a good 20-30% more efficient and thankfully they've also now fixed the issue of all the cars looking dull and driving with the flair of a shopping trolley. As for electric cars, the biggest problem at the moment is weight and charging infrastructure. I've driven a fair few different electric cars and I've yet to try one that's a proper driver's car and under £50K. Everything under that price either handles like a hippo or has a tiny range. If we do go hydrogen, it has to be fuel cell electric and not combustion engine otherwise you have the same problem of chucking away 70% of the energy from the fuel as current vehicles do. Toyota Mirai tech, basically. They've been remarkably on the money where other manufacturers have been totally asleep.

I've heard of people drilling holes and squirting expanding foam under the wobbly forward wells to make them a bit less spongy. I suspect that brings other problems with it, but a proper fix would be very time consuming.

If I owned one I think I'd be more worried about osmosis and delamination.

Indeed. I wonder if Barnes have managed to correct the twist in the mouldings that Alpha managed to introduce. They'll have needed to make a new set of mould tools given the stretch (and how wrecked the old ones were) so hopefully that was fixed. I will say that overall I think this boat looks like an improvement, and integrating the flybridge seating is a good move too. The more subtle livery and the fact it isn't covered in flat solar panels (like the last hybrid was) adds to that.

There was a 'Brannigans' on riverside in the very early noughties, but it was more of a bar/club style venue.

I think those will be the same type of incidents Thunder suffered with. I just don't think BCBM in its current form offers enough value. I've said it many times, but the term 'professional' just means that someone does something as a job. It is not synonymous or interchangable with the term 'talented'.

Seems like a good decision, that's a decent chunk of funds each year that can be invested into the boat.

ChromeBooks are better than they used to be, for sure. This guide might help a little with what the differences and limitations are. Chromebook vs. Laptop: What Can and Can't I Do With a Chromebook? - CNET If Android apps are an essential then it's either that or a decent Android tablet. Google are due to release a first-party tablet called the Pixel Tablet fairly imminently, so that could be worth a look. If you've never used Android without all of Samsung's junk on top it really is a revelation. There's also a Google Pixel branded Chromebook Go though it isn't cheap. If Android Apps aren't as important then I'd probably look in the direction of a Surface Pro, which is a great device. Sure, you can run Android apps on Windows 11 but they'll need to be published in the Amazon store rather than Google Play and us App developers don't like going to the trouble of doing that because sales are generally really poor. My final thought would be a MacBook Air - It's a proper laptop running a proper desktop operating system, but Apple has cleverly allowed us App developers to publish the same Apps to both the iOS and macOS stores. It's literally a case of ticking an extra box when you upload. I don't know how many developers have bothered so far (I know we're holding back at this stage as our Apps could look better on a big screen) but I suspect there will be a lot more good iOS apps on macOS than there are good Android apps on Windows 11.

The latest set of photos do look fantastic (not that those from the Mini 2 didn't). The Mini 3 is a great product offering and I think the pro controller makes for a slicker experience.

The other thing to note is that the MR6400 doesn't have dual-band WiFi, whereas its big brother the Archer MR200 does. Whether that actually has detachable antenna I really couldn't say. And yes, before anyone points it out, you'll saturate the bandwidth of the 4G connection before you saturate 2.4Ghz WiFi. But there are other reasons to have 5Ghz WiFi, particularly if you have multiple devices connected and accessing one another.

Which boat is it you've got? Would that be the Crystal 37 that came from Pacific?

Is it potentially the case that 'Nisa Retail Ltd' was known internally by another division name and the independent bit is known as the 'retail' division given that it is what it functions as?

eBay is your friend for motherboards - There'll be part numbers on it and you can usually find a replacement. HP tend to use custom power supply wiring and connectors and other such wierdness to ensure that a standard motherboard can't be easily swapped in.

I'd be looking for a replacement motherboard at this point I think, provided you've tried it with all expansion cards unplugged and tried unplugging drives etc.

They do. But it relies on people reading them.

That's how he affords 12 Astons....

That's how to make sure you don't have customers any day - Word gets round that the opening times can't be relied on and then no-one bothers going. It staggers me how many businesses fail to get this very simple fact.

But again that would apply to a BMC and not a modern Nanni, where the base engine would have been manufactured in Japan and then marinised in France.

That's presumably not a Nanni-engined boat you have, though? With the Nannis there's a proprietary multiplug for the dash harnesses.

If it was a Ricko's swap then they usually will, to be honest. They're generally replaced with an engine swap (along with the whole dash panel and switches) and used to determine service intervals etc.

Nice boats those Aquafibre Sapphire 32's. A lot of interior space in those for their length. As for the engine hours, yes that's more than a private boat would have but now she's in private hands you won't be adding to that very quickly. If you keep on top of the maintenance then that engine should last you a very long time.

Yup, tons of fake SD cards about. There's a lot of money to be made in dressing up a £1 card as a £100 one. https://sdcardexpress.co.uk/blogs/news/sandisk-ultra-microsd-card-how-to-recognise-genuine-card

I guess they'll probably tidy up the residue on the next lot of winter maintenance? I do think the new font is cleaner and I suppose the reason they're being applied to hulls on some boats is simply because there's such a variety of superstructure colours that colour contrast is going to be a real problem. Probably the approach is to find a suitable white surface and apply the blue text on a white background against that. In some cases, it will probably also make it a lot easier to defleet the boats when the time comes.

That's good to hear. I think fundamentally she's a really nice boat but which needed the right people to keep her updated. A few of the syndicate boats have suffered from not being kept fresh, and I don't think BCBM were doing enough to impress on people the importance of doing so. There are people who see syndicate boating as essentially a cheaper way of hiring, and who will milk it for a few years and vote against anything that costs more than the bare minimum. But that's not good for the boat (or, ironically, the value of their share).

Well this is it. There are electronic systems for use with mechanically-controlled engines, but they rely on electro-mechanical actuators which could fail and leave you with no throttle or gearchange at all. And the fully-electonic systems would require modern engines with electronic injection, which you don't usually find on Broads boats as they're less hardy than the tractor lumps that Nanni and Beta provide.