Mowjo

Nice repair Clive, it's amazing what you can do with a few old pallets,,,

I'm a mine of useless information Jill, the old bloke on the boat just next to me said, if if don't move and it should WD40 or heat, if it does move and it shouldn't Duct tape,

If it's the same type of filter as fitted on my Freeman, mines not a weed filter though it's the one that seperates the oil and water from the bilges, one trick I've used is to get and old tea towel or something, soak it in as hot a water as your hands can stand and wrap it around the threaded part of the lid, leave it for a couple of minutes for the lid to expand and it should come of ok, I've had to do it a few times with mine, the other problem if it had a fine thread is it could be cross threaded, or for any type of thread it could have got grit or something on the threads when it's been removed before, in both cases it'll be just brute force and a prayer to remove it, but reading Bjorns post again I wonder do you mean the weed hatch lid as fitted on some boats and narrow boats???

As someone mentioned shore power towers, I was at the Wroxham moorings last weekend and noticed the towers only have one power outlet, I could have sworn they used to have two on each side, have they changed it or am I imagining things???

Don't tell me Newf! you did what I did, took all the wires off and forgot to note down what wire goes where,,,

It's probably been stuck down with something like Styccobond F44, there are some solvents that will do the job, but none safe enough to use in the confines of a boat, when I was a Carpet fitter the only way we found to remove it was by using one of these, http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16530/Dec ... ty-Scraper, you can also buy the in B&Q type place or your decorators merchant, if the glue is fairly old and hard it usualy comes off quite easy, if it's still soft-ish it can be quite hard work, just make sure you keep a sharp blade in it,,,

Here's one from today with two coats of stain applied, at last I'm ready to put on that six coats of Varnish

If it's anything like this, your in for a bit of hard work to get rid of it, because it's caused by water getting under the varnish, first you have to strip all the varnish off, then I gave it two washed with Oxalic acid (wood bleach) to remove the black watermarks, then it's a case of sanding and re-varnishing, the first piccie shows the watermarks, they still show through a little bit in the second piccie because it's still wet but after sanding and staining you can't notice them, havn't got a piccie of that yet,,,

According to their website they've been going since 1989, I could have sworn it was longer than that, I used to buy from the van when it delived to Wayford Marina, and because my brother was the manager there I used to get everything at trade price, I remember going to their new shop to pick up a load of cable and fittings I needed urgently, and ended up buying a load more stuff while I was there, thats the one thing I miss going to the shop, they are all online now so I only get to go there to pick up stuff, But I can't fault the service and they have given me lots of advice on parts and general enquiries, I'd recommend them anytime, some things can be a bit pricey from them so I still shop around, but they do seem to be able to get parts that other places can't so they are always my first port of call,,,

Yup! if it's not raining or snowing i'll be there around 9.30 am,, and probably up to my neck in sanding dust,,

Where's that Barry?? I got to the marina around 10.30am and left about 4 pm, but did I see Barry, No! did a nice little circuit diagram for him, and even took my spare 12v Bible that I was going to let him have, Oh well theres always next Saturday,,

I did Jonny! I use them for most of my bits and bobs,,,

Anyone thinking of changing or fitting Nav lights, may be interested that ASAP are doing a special on them until the 13th March, instead of £50.13 they are doing the full set of White Cased Perko lights for £35.00,,, http://www.asap-supplies.com/ Frank,,,,

Barry! if your anywhere near Broadsedge this coming saturday pop in and see me on Dragonfly, you know where I am in the new part! I'm in the middle of re-wiring all my lights and everything else, so I can run you through what you need to do,, Frank,,,

Ah Ha! thats true, but unless you have one of those very expensive remote control spotlights, that you can automaticaly swivel from the comfort of your cockpit, a £3.99 handheld spotlight would do the same job, for emergency's I have one of those handhelp spotlights that plugs into dash, and a brand new fixed one still in it's box, but thats only because it came with the boat, not that I'm tight or anything,,, I cured the pothole on the banks problem by making the wife get off first,,

Erm! do you get pot holes in water,, though I do agree with Poppy and Rod about spotlights, in 30 years of boating I've only ever had to use one once, and that was when someone fell in the water at Horning late one night, other than that they are really just decoration, having said that I have had one fitted on all my boats though, Frank,,,

Oh! the fully tinned cable God thats the sort of thing I was thinking about Antares just wasn't sure two wires would fit into one butt terminal, as the cable is for the bilge pump, it's a link cable in the poss side from the bilge pump to to the float switch, I be using normal crimps and adhesive shrink tube for a watertight connection, I love my crimps and use them for everything, I even use crimp pins for anything held by a screw, and bullets for anything that I may need to disconnect covered with normal heatshrink tube, the best bit of kit I ever bought was the proper crimping tool, cost me about £20 twenty years ago, but boy has that earnt it's money back,, Oh! and I usualy buy my crimps and stuff from this place,, http://www.thewiringproject.co.uk/default.asp

Ok! I've got a couple of wires I have to splice into, main one being the bilge pump, anyone got any idea of the best way to connect into the existing wire, I ask because I've never been a lover of the scotch block type connector and don't trust them, do they do some sort of two into one wire crimp connector,, Frank,,,

Andy it's not that hard to fit Nav lights, the hard part part is getting access to hide all the wires, you'll need a basic knowledge of 12v electrics, or a good book but it's not beyond the average DIYer, I would think it was an expensive job if you have it done by a yard, because of the labour rates, why not have a word with Clive Richo he could advise you on the cost, I'm in the middle of re-wiring my nav lights and spent the whole day yesterday just re-moving panels to get at the old cables, and yes I'm using fully tinned cable,

Ooooooh! I love that tow boat, bet she would be a real beauty restored, Oh! if only I had the time and the money!

Thanks Folks! Antares! I do all that but I still get leaks, I can only think that it's something to do with the GRP on Freemans being quite thin especialy topside and it allows more flex than normal causing the seal to break, I never had any problems with my old Seamaster, but that was at least half inch thick, Happy! that sounds like a good idea I'll give it a try, I should have thought of that seeing as I used to make my own fishtanks,

Ok guys and gals heres one for you and I'm sure i'll get ten different answers,, I have to re-bed all my deck fittings due to several leaks, at the moment the ones causing the main problem have been bedded with silicone mastic, the others are bedded with mastic tape which I did last year and Freeman swears by, but they still have a few leaks, so is there a better more reliable way of re-bedding them, I know about not fully tightening the fittings until the mastic has set up a bit, then re-tightening them, but is there a more realiable product for the job,, Regards Frank,,,,

Jimbo! are your water pipes the clear braided ones by any chance?? because I had the same problem with my Freeman, since I changed them to the Blue water pipe I've not had any problems with first run smell! someone told me something like, because the pipe was clear the light encourages stuff to grow in the pipe, I cleaned a short bit of the pipe out with rag and it came out green and slimmey, also I got my Blue water pipe from our caravan shop at Yarmouth, it was half the price of the same stuff from the Chandlers, Frank,,,

You could also try this one from Screwfix, I've had mine over ten years now and it still works fine, I have a feeling it's actualy made by Pela but branded for Screwfix,, http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;jsess ... utton.y=18

Steve no idea about replacement hinges, but for repairs try Ken Nevard at Catfield 01692 670926 he does all that stuff and his prices and work are the best I've found so far,,,,, Regards Frank,,,,