Mowjo

Thanks Paul, I have a scrapyard almost next to our cafe so I should be able to pick one up for next to nothing, might cost me a couple of Bacon rolls,, I asked about the grill because there dosn't seem to be any way to shut off the heat, so I reckon one of those sliding grills would do the trick, I'll have to check my thermostate as I'm sure mine runs a lot colder, it only just registers on the temp gauge, everything with me is a round tuit job and the list is getting longer, I'll look out for you when I'm at Broadsedge, I'm not sure if it was your boat I saw moored up at/near Moonfleet last weekend,,

Paul I presume from the first picture, that the matrix is fitted in the underbunk cupboard to the right of the engine, looks nice and simple, and something I might try as I can get most of the parts cheap or even free, I just need to see what sort of fan you fit and how, I presume you need to have a thermostate in place to hold the heat, my Freeman seems to run very cool so I don't think it has one fitted, I'll wait for you to test your one first and if it works Ok it's on my jobs list, Oh yes! the vent grill, is yours an open one or one with the sliding bit so you can close it off, :-D

Well because that looks like a nice wooden boat, and I'm such a nice helpful chappie type person, this site may interest you or anyone doing work on a wooden boat, I'll add it too the links page later, I found it while looking for a local supplier of 'Le Tonkinois No1' Varnish, it's the best varnish I've ever used on my last GRP boat I did all the back cockpit with it, and when I sold the boat seven years later it was still perfect condition, it's not the cheapest, but being a Decorator for years and doing loads of varnish work I can honestly say it's the best one I've ever come across, right back to this site, it does all the consumables and tools you'll need to restore a wooden boat, caulking irons, caulk, deck canvas, well take a look cos it'll interest you more than me cos mines a plastic boat,, :-D http://www.tradboats.com/

You can post your query on this site and hope someone replies, and if you join you can also get more technical help,, it's just for Seamasters,, http://www.seamasterclub.co.uk/ I was a member years ago when I had my Seamaster and they helped me no end,,,

Does anyone know what they actualy check on electrics for the BSS, because apart from the loose fuel tank and badly fitted earth clamps that I found, Today I found something even more scarey, I've only owned the boat a couple of months and a couple of weeks before we bought her, the previous owner had the BSS done including all the work needed to get her passed, in total it was nearly £1000, now I thought that part of the BSS was checking all the electrical system, for me thats at least as important as the gas or fuel, because wiring has a nasty habit of being the cause of most fires on boats, well today I went to do a bit of work on the boat, I need a new socket at the front of the boat, and I have an unused one at the back of the cabin, I thought I'd disconnect this old one, and re-run the wires to the front of the boat for the new one, gets behind the bunk only to find a twin white wire with no markings for pos or neg, not even a stamp on the wire, traced it back to the fuseboard, but on the way I found three more of these twin wires just cut off, out comes my tester and they were all live, now these were all in full view so any tester should have seen these, so I disconnect the four wires, so far so good, what the hell are these, four wires that can only be described as telephone wires, about 1mm thick solid core, traced these to the two cockpit lights, rewire these in with the correct wire, by the time I finished four hours later I had a carrier bag full and I mean full of defunked wire, some downright dangerous, some just the wrong wire, and some with so many connectors it was laughable, one twelve inch bit had no less that four connectors in it, now as I said the wires in the cabin were in full view but could have been missed, but the wiring in the fusebox was definatly in full view, and would have been seen when all the new earth wiring was done for the BSS, so what is the point of the BSS, for gas or petrol to explode you need a spark and theres only three sources for this (unless you drop a fag in the Bilge) and thats the engine, static or an electrical spark, so electrics should be very high on the priority list, with hindsight I should have reported the tester to the Environment Agency, or had it re tested by someone else to see what they say, and then reported the tester, but going on the things I've found wrong so far I've lost faith in them and prefere to do it myself, at least I'll know it's done correctly if nothing else,, :-D

Baz! do you have any history on your boat?? I only ask because my old Seamaster came off the Thames and it was used for estuary and coastal cruising, and that didn't have a weed filter fitted, I think they are mainly fitted to inland waterway boats,,,, :

Baz! that sounds like a raw water system, why don't you fit one when you have it out of the water, it's an easy job, if you go to http://www.asap-supplies.com/ and type INTAKE WATER FILTERS in the search, they have one or two remote ones that you can fit without having the boat out, you'll just need a couple of hose fittings for the unit, you just cut the inlet hose and fit it inline, or you can extent the inlet hose and fit it where you want it, hope that helps a bit,,, Oh yea I forgot! as Antares says it won't affect the flow, that only happens if it gets blocked, personaly I'd fit the biggest I could to be safe, but as long as you get in the habit of checking it , you shouldn't have any problems,,

Sorry It's the wooden side panels! and it's crystals, I did read about adding wallpaper paste to it, and I've also found out it's good for removing rust stains, so it's quite handy stuff, I've been told that I can get Borax from Boots so i'll pop in and see, another site said you can neutralise it using a solution of ammonia and water, can't say I'm keen on that because it stinks like Baby's nappies, Oh the joys of owning a boat,, Thank for the Info though, now wheres my rubber gloves???

Sometime over the Winter months I have to strip the rear cockpit on my boat, on the side panels there are a lot of black stains and I've be advised to treat these with Oxalic Acid once I've stripped them, I already have the Oxalic Acid, as the previous owners didn't have time to do it and left me a new box on the boat,, my problem is that going by all the bumph I've read on it, you need to neutralise it with a Borax solution, does anyone know where I can buy Borax, I've not seen it around for years,,,

Ian! I havn't a clue about heating,, on our boat we just suck a Polo each to keep warm, but I would have thought that if that fitting was safe on GRP boats you wouldn't have any problem on a wooden one, after all yours won't melt will it,,,

Ian! just found this,,,,, The products of the combustion are forced from the heater to a hull fitting. This is a straight through skin fitting for a steel narrow boat, or an air cooled fitting if it is passing through a GRP or wooden hull. The hull fitting is connected to the heater by a flexible twin wall stainless tubing, which is insulated for sound and heat and then over sleeved for safety. It's on this site which may be of some help,,, http://www.eberspacher.com/marine6.php?section=marine If you also click on the support button it has all the instalation guides as well,,

Ian! it may sound obvious, by why not have a word with one of the BSS inspectors, if anyone knows they will, I know they used to do an Aspestos sleeve for those sort of instalations but whether they are still legal of even made is another matter,,,

I live in Lowestoft, luckily on about the only bit of high ground there is here, but I've just been told that most of the schools are closed tomorrow, several aid centers have already been set up, and a few of the severe high risk areas have already been told to evacuate, and we have all been warned that there will probably have power cuts, if it does all happen looking at the flood plane plan from the 53 floods I'll be living on an Island, The Lowestoft Online site I use has about 18 pages about the flooding and that only started about midday, some have already moved everything upstairs in preparation, seems there are some very scared people out there at the moment, all I know is that if it does happen theres b***** all I can do to stop it, so guess I'll just plod on and see what happens,,,

You beat me to it Mr Morris Man, I was recomended Wayford Bridge a while back, and I think their phone No is 01692582555, I also think Peter Linford opposite there does it as well, but can't remember the name of his yard,,,

Baz! don't they do it at our yard, I noticed a few boats out on blocks this weekend, perhaps a word with David might be some help,

Thanks Antares, you just saved me some typing,, my fault for not making it clear that the cold tank feeds everything,

Baz! I'd measure up and fit the biggest one I could, I had a 50 ltr one on my old Seamaster and even that was never enough, just remember to take into account that you will be running both hot and cold water from one tank, I ended up having a new 50 gallon stainless water tank made, that would last us a couple of days at a push, so I'd go for biggest after all once it's fitted it cost nothing to heat it if your running about,,,,

Alan! your right Washing up liquid does work, but a word of warning only use it as a last resort, the additives in washing up liquid can lead to premature breakdown of the seals, and the last thing you need on a boat is a leaky loo,, it only affects certain types of rubber and neoprene and I think new loos carry a manufacturers warning about using it, and other types of household cleaners, on my last boat I always carried a top up can of engine oil, if I had no cooking oil I'd use a teaspoon of that if things seized up a bit,,,

One More! this is Blue Mist my first real boat a Seamaster Cadet, I spent four years rebuilding her, and she was worth every minute, Taken at the Thurn Lion sometime in 1985,, odd thing Is twenty years on and I still miss that boat, she is back on the market and now called Mayfly I saw her a few weeks ago, if I hadn't just bought Dragonfly I would have bought her again even though she needs a lot of work,,

And a view from Wayford Bridge up the River Ant, the Ant is one of my favorite places on the Broads, because thats where my love of boats and the Broads started, also Wayford Marina was where we had our first moorings some twenty years ago,,,

This Is my favorite picture, because it was the first day out on my new boat, taken at St Bennets on the 5th Sept 07,,

Just in Case your all missing the old Girl,,,

A moody one of Thurn Mill

A little something for you Sailies,