oldgregg

Wasn’t it the split charger that failed on Belmore? Just thinking there are quite a few things which can fail in such a way. Of course there is gas, too. A small and very slow gas leak is likely to eventually be ignited by something. We don’t know what caused this fire.

I’ve seen some electrical horrors on used boats and I’d expect anything which has been out of hire for a decent amount of time to have a variety of DIY ‘treats’ in store for a potential owner. A rewire is probably not that high on most people’s list of priorities but it’s very important. With regards to insurance, it’s always important to look very carefully at the list of policy exclusions. The best price will usually buy you the worst policy and insurers will happily find reasons not to pay. I have worked for two major names in the insurance industry plus a repairer in the sector and it does change one’s perception.

A shame to lose one of these. I won’t name the vessel until all has been confirmed but I think it’s obvious to most people which of the Pearls that was. If she was unoccupied then I think the possible causes are fairly minimal. As Andrew says, they’re fairly rare these days. We don’t know what the cause is yet so I won’t speculate. It’s probably a good warning for all that gas bottles should be off when a boat is unoccupied and that electrical systems should be off and / or isolated when not needed and that those which are needed (ie battery charging etc) should be well maintained. Automatic fire supression systems are also not a bad idea around the engine bay.

I don't think anyone is having a particularly good season. The weather has been fairly rubbish so short-notice boating holidays to soak up the rays will not have been much of a thing, but I think with many people not having been abroad for quite a while then they're choosing that option. With hire prices having been ramped up to the levels they have over the last two to three years, I can't say I'm shocked. There are lots of offers out there for late notice bookings but seasoned boaters mostly don't want to play that game. I expect there will be some price adjustments to come.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with this boat, Simon. It looks like it'd be a good option for myself and Mrs OG. I think the Ricko's handover thing is a new procedure to show that they're taking onboard recommendations off the back of the spate of accidents that took place in the insanely busy seasons of 20/21. When I turned up at Stalham last, we were told much the same and that everyone must go for a river trial etc and we would need to wait until someone is available. Once we were aboard the boat they quickly established that I knew more about the boat than them and we were off without a trial.

Gotta love the Lakes, we try to get there at least once a year. We did go on the shuttle boat on Keswick this time and they certainly don't hang around. Actually, those traditional wooden hulls don't have spray rails and so when they start to push the speed towards the limit of the hull you end up with a lot of spray coming up over the occupants.

I think you're right. The change did take the pub a bit more upmarket in terms of its appearance, but really the soul of the place also went with it.

It's such a shame as WRC used to be the obvious destination when heading north to south.

Good job it's summer, but what happened?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvswW6M7bMo

Yeah those Symfonisk speakers are supposed to be quite decent. The limitation with classic Sonos devices is they're really intended to be used on a network with a number of other Sonos speakers. The model is very much that your phone is a 'controller' whereas what most people want in the sort of environment that you describe is a bluetooth speaker where the speaker is simply outputting the audio from the mobile device. Sonos have released the Move and Roam more recently (the Move is great, the Roam less so) and those can be used in bluetooth mode. The latest 'Era' models also allow you to connect with them via bluetooth or wifi without having to manually switch the mode like you do on the Move. We have a Move and it's great in the garden and also handy to take boating because no other bluetooth capable speaker sounds that good. It also has Google / Alexa and Sonos' own voice assistant (which is less good).

I've got the DM38 in the loft, they are indeed great for the money (and nice and compact). These days I've gone for convenience and mostly use Sonos, which again sound quite good for their size but there's an element of what us techies call 'vendor lock-in' with that system. Anything which has people buying into an 'ecosystem' is generally not great for the consumer. And my old Tannoy Mercurys with the DM38 sounded richer...

Is it just me that thought "I bet those speakers sound good" ?

If it's a proper install then they'll all use the same SSID (network name) and your devices will be switched to the access point with the strongest signal. But certainly a WiFi repeater is worth looking into.

That's for the 4G side, though. What I think the OP is after is a repeater for the WiFi deployed on site.

Some syndicates also specifically have 'school holiday shares' available, and for someone dependent on specific weeks then those have to be a really good option. You will of course pay more for those shares, but they are very flexible. And they're not just school holiday shares, they're basically a 'pick your own weeks' share.

I think he means the NBN burgee, which you won't find in Brian Wards.... But you will find them here https://forum.norfolkbroadsnetwork.com/shop/

It's night and day I'd say. The Haines Bure 36 is pretty much the ultimate 'Alpha' bathtub whereas what Viking were producing was very 'old school hirefleet' in terms of quality. Not a terrible fitout but just nowhere near what comes out of Catfield. It must be good because I've somehow convinced Mrs OG to book Kris' Bure 36 on the Thames next year... That separate shower cubicle very much helped the decision.

You still see houses come up for sale with the old floor-standing boilers. They're not always amazingly efficient but they're insanely reliable and designed to be repaired rather than replaced. And yeah, same here I guess. My dad is a qualified mechanical engineer so we were forever taking stuff apart when I was younger. Times were a bit hard in the early 90's (as you've alluded to) and I learnt to do all manner of jobs on cars and plumbing, electrics etc to save money and it was a bit of a faff at the time but it's incredibly useful nowadays.

Those older boilers are simpler, that's the main thing. We used to have a 90's Ideal Classic with cast iron heat exchanger and it was a good old-fashioned 'heat only' boiler in that its job was purely to heat water. The only controls on it were a power switch and a temperature knob. Everything else was separate; expansion vessel, diverter valve for heating / hot water, programmer, pressure gauge, the lot. The programmer literally applied power to the boiler and it'd fire up and heat the water on which ever circuit was selected. No data communication at all between the two, simply put 240V up it and let it do it's thing. Spectacularly simple, I replaced the fan assembly on it myself when it failed and I was never really very worried that it would let us down as parts were available. Now we have a Worcester Bosch combi (part of a kitchen refit) and the instant hot water is convenient but that thing is massively more complex inside and so densely packaged to fit inside the housing that I can't see it lasting the 20 years the old one did at the point we decommissioned it.

I've fixed the problem.... Stick that on a signpost

That's what an FFD is fitted for, surely....

What device is it and what browser do you use? A quick Google will tell you how to do it on Chrome, but other browsers will be similar. For iOS, see here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201265

A bugfix has been released, and I've just applied it. I think that seems to have resolved it, but let us know if you continue to have problems once you've tried clearing your browser cache.

They should do, yeah. Unfortunately I think time pressures etc unfortunately tend to dictate release schedules. I would expect an update within the next few days that'll solve this bug and others. If you haven't already, I'd suggest clearing your browser cache just to rule out any issues there.