Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

[JohnK]

Once it has taken place, and I have the list of items to rectify, I need to get such put right and I am hopeful that this could happen at reasonably short notice, not to mention also sort the issues with the heater stand pipe leaking from the fuel tank.

The question I put to the Authority was; what would happen if the items that needed to be sorted (of which I know not what they may be currently) was not to be rectified by the expiry of the second two week visitor Toll?

If you use one of the bigger yards to do the work I believe they will let you use one of their sets of trade plates whilst the work is in progress and until you’ve passed the BSS and paid your toll.
When that service was offered to me my boat was moored at the same yard doing the work so maybe they were just doing me a big favour. I don’t know if it’s standard.


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[Guest]

13 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

If you use one of the bigger yards to do the work I believe they will let you use one of their sets of trade plates whilst the work is in progress and until you’ve passed the BSS and paid your toll.
When that service was offered to me my boat was moored at the same yard doing the work so maybe they were just doing me a big favour. I don’t know if it’s standard.


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Er can trade plates be used like that ? I'm  Not so they can really BA are pretty strict on the usage but I'll guarantee it's in the Broads act and bylaws .

[LondonRascal]

Well after a long conversation with the Tolls Office I have now got another two week visitor toll - their opinion has been that if I have not got the works sorted before its expiry and I am not able to have the boat out of the water to contact them again and that something 'should be able to arranged'. 

I have to say, that they have actually been very helpful people to deal with, and when they say they would call back did so and have genuinely been trying to deal with matters and not just been 'too corporate'. I know the B.A gets a bit of a hard time sometimes, but so far they have been easy to deal with and have liek wise thanked me for being in touch with them.

 

[Polly]

I have always found them to be helpful too. And a big plus point, Bill who was the manager of that office, and may still be, is a Wherry skipper. Respect!

[CambridgeCabby]

Robin has never asked any advice from myself , and not having any expertise to be able to proffer any I’d be shocked if he did.

but 

i would like to offer some advice ,

KEEP LIVING YOUR DREAM !!!

, your journey so far has been wonderful and a privilege to have been invited to  follow  online on the NBN 

I , along with many others look forward (with a touch of jealousy admittedly) to your continued adventures .

 

 

[Meantime]

3 hours ago, Polly said:

I have always found them to be helpful too. And a big plus point, Bill who was the manager of that office, and may still be, is a Wherry skipper. Respect!

Bill Housden is still the manager of that department and very helpful.

[LondonRascal]

I have just been in touch with Norfolk Yacht Agency Service Centre. Very helpful was Sean to deal with and I feel things are now on course for being sorted.

I have a large list of items to go through and will be meeting him on Monday to show him around the boat and they are going to attend to the leaking heater stand pipe from the centre tank and look into the vent hose issue which, if such is found as a result of the heater installation. then I will not be responsible for the costs to resolve. I will let everyone know how that goes.  But, I think all being well we will be seeing another 'leap of progress' made both in due time with service items being attended to and upgrades.

These include:

Needing the anodes looking at and changing on the engines, especially in the Turbo/Oil coolers which I doubt have been touched for years judging by the bolts looking so pristine. I was also told in Plymouth to have these dealt with so preventive care is always a good course of action.

I am going to replace the batteries, and having decided to go with Victron 200Ah GEL batteries and replace the charger with a Victron Quattro pure sine wave combined Inverter/Charger. This will provide 3Kw of 240v and provide up to 120Amps of charging power. I suspect the fully working and  new fit Mastervolt 80Amp battery charger could go on Broad Ambition as a bit of an upgrade to her charging system.

Other small items would be changing some hoses on the engines that look like they are reaching time for a change, tension up the belts on Alternates etc, and rectifying a small leak where coolant returns to the engine having come from the hot water calorifier.

Once this is done I won't need to rely on shore power or running a generator for smaller electrical loads, and will have complete confidence in her engines once more and then I can look in the spring to the external cosmetic issues and finishing and sealing the Teak decks etc. I feel like I have a bounce in my step again

 

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, LondonRascal said:

  I feel like I have a bounce in my step again

 

And potentially a lighter pocket Robin I think! I am still following this thread with awe, much of it goes over my head being a mere female but your enthusiasm and willingness to share the adventure (despite one or two critics and who cares about them anyway) is commendable. I’m looking forward to seeing Independence at Brundall or on the rivers next month when our own boat is back in the water. 

[LondonRascal]

Quote

being a mere female

What has gender got to do with anything? Trust me not all men are as keen on the ins and outs of boating, it works..great, it is broke fix it do not need to know what it is, how it works, what broke it but please for the love of God make it work again lol.

I have already made some changes  to save some costs - take the batteries, the Victon GEL batteries come in at £528.00 each. I know..I know..That is eye watering to the average boater used to a 110Ah lead acid battery that may cost from £70.00 to £100.00 each, but this is far less than the £1,899.00 I was going to spend on each Lithium battery.

The Gel batteries are able to be placed in any orientation as the are totally sealed, have a longer cyclic life, and a lower self discharge rate and a longer warranty period too.  I am consuming lots of watts on my battery charger to just keep the current batteries alive - take them off charge for an hour and it will take several hours to get them back up showing how knackered they are. I need to have this sorted come what may,  so have opted for something better than flooded lead acid cells, but not as costly as Lithium.

 

[vanessan]

Robin - gender has everything to do with it! It’s the only excuse we girls have to avoid having to get involved in things we don’t want to. My husband likes to make things work again, we have a garage full of things which he intends to make work again. One day! 

[LondonRascal]

Quote

Robin - gender has everything to do with it! It’s the only excuse we girls have to avoid having to get involved in things we don’t want to.

You do realise, on behalf of many women you have made set a precedent, but I for one am pleased you have.

So, when I am asked to do chores, like bed making, ironing, general household cleaning and so on, I will simply refer to the fact that I am a mere man, and therefore all the technical aspects of how one irons, or gets a cover over a duvet go right over my head. After all, it's the only excuse us men have to avoid getting involved with things we don't want to

[ranworthbreeze]

3 minutes ago, vanessan said:

Robin - gender has everything to do with it! It’s the only excuse we girls have to avoid having to get involved in things we don’t want to. My husband likes to make things work again, we have a garage full of things which he intends to make work again. One day! 

Hello Vanessan,

Sadly a glue gun does not fix everything. 

What I can not understand however how does he manage to store broken things in the garage with all that wood stored in it

As Robin says the technical aspects of household husbandry (poor choice of a word) is well beyond me, repairs to washers, dryers and irons I can understand, but the merits of the programs are well out of my league. 

Regards

Alan

[Guest]

What the????

Whatever happened to replying to the female with the simple phrase, "if I wanted to do women's chores, I wouldn't put up with you" 

Jayfire - NBN equality champion

[Cockatoo]

11 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

You do realise, on behalf of many women you have made set a precedent, but I for one am pleased you have.

So, when I am asked to do chores, like bed making, ironing, general household cleaning and so on, I will simply refer to the fact that I am a mere man, and therefore all the technical aspects of how one irons, or gets a cover over a duvet go right over my head. After all, it's the only excuse us men have to avoid getting involved with things we don't want to

Works for me 

[vanessan]

7 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

What I can not understand however how does he manage to store broken things in the garage with all that wood stored in it

No short planks in our garage Alan! 

[vanessan]

15 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

You do realise, on behalf of many women you have made set a precedent, but I for one am pleased you have.

So, when I am asked to do chores, like bed making, ironing, general household cleaning and so on, I will simply refer to the fact that I am a mere man, and therefore all the technical aspects of how one irons, or gets a cover over a duvet go right over my head. After all, it's the only excuse us men have to avoid getting involved with things we don't want to

But then Robin you will end up with grubby wrinkled clothes and a messy house. You see, those are the little chores we girls happily (?) do for you guys. So it could be you that loses out eventually. 

[JohnK]

What the????
Whatever happened to replying to the female with the simple phrase, "if I wanted to do women's chores, I wouldn't put up with you" 
Jayfire - NBN equality champion

A tradesman once asked me in front of my wife if he could borrow the hoover.
I turned to my wife and asked her if that was the one that made clothes flat.
The bruises went away eventually.


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[Guest]

1 hour ago, LondonRascal said:

What has gender got to do with anything? Trust me not all men are as keen on the ins and outs of boating, it works..great, it is broke fix it do not need to know what it is, how it works, what broke it but please for the love of God make it work again lol.

I have already made some changes  to save some costs - take the batteries, the Victon GEL batteries come in at £528.00 each. I know..I know..That is eye watering to the average boater used to a 110Ah lead acid battery that may cost from £70.00 to £100.00 each, but this is far less than the £1,899.00 I was going to spend on each Lithium battery.

The Gel batteries are able to be placed in any orientation as the are totally sealed, have a longer cyclic life, and a lower self discharge rate and a longer warranty period too.  I am consuming lots of watts on my battery charger to just keep the current batteries alive - take them off charge for an hour and it will take several hours to get them back up showing how knackered they are. I need to have this sorted come what may,  so have opted for something better than flooded lead acid cells, but not as costly as Lithium.

 

It largely depends on the charge rate you want lead acid can stand being charged at far higher amps than gell battery's hence the reason to adjust the chargers settings before installation and yve same goes for any battery management equipment .

Cost wise not really shocked my entire battery bank would cost roughly the same to replace ie 2x £528 .

What will make your eyes water is picking them up they are seriously heavy .

[grendel]

41 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Sadly a glue gun does not fix everything. 

Duct tape however does (given enough of it)

[grendel]

11 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

What will make your eyes water is picking them up they are seriously heavy .

He has a nice hoist on the top of the boat, just needs a sun roof to drop them through to the engine room now.

[grendel]

Thats a thought Robin, there must be a way of removing something to get access to remove the engines, taking off the roof, or an access hatch through from the upper helm or something.

[LondonRascal]

23 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

It largely depends on the charge rate you want lead acid can stand being charged at far higher amps than gell battery's hence the reason to adjust the chargers settings before installation

That is correct, and also why it does not do well to mix and match different battery types - but I am not too worried about the charge rate, currently the Alternators only can put in 55Amps each at best, and the battery charger 80Amps when on shore power. The modest increase to 120Amps with the new charger is nothing too great of a change and it will just need a one time set up to know the capacity and type of batteries it is to connected to.

If I was to own a boat that did a lot cruising away from shore power provision, and indeed had no generator on board,  then I would have opted for Lithium cells. Not only will they stand a higher charge rate than Lead Acid to you can re-charge them faster, but (and more importantly) can discharge very rapidly with a high load without the voltage fluctuating or 'giving up the ghost'. They tend to supply the current demanded until they are very low on their capacity where the voltage will decay more and will then cut off, which is the battery management system stepping in.

This sort of set up would be great if you had a boat which, like Independence (and now an increasing number of hire boats) have no gas system installed. If you had an overall capacity of say 800Ah but you were going to have an electric fan assisted oven and hob run off these, coupled with say an electric kettle and toaster, then the moment you go asking the battery back via an Inverter to run the oven, and a couple of rings on the hob then the poor old Lead Acid cells would have a fit dumping so much amperage out of them so quickly.  Lithium would be far more stable.

There is a good comparison running a fan heater as a load across different battery types to give a better outline of what I am referring to:

 

[LondonRascal]

4 minutes ago, grendel said:

Thats a thought Robin, there must be a way of removing something to get access to remove the engines, taking off the roof, or an access hatch through from the upper helm or something.

If the engines ever needed to come out, it is a proper cut away the fibre glass flooring of the fly bridge area. Where the batteries are located is also not under a hatch area from the saloon - so whatever way you go about it it is a lot of work and these batteries wight 57Kg each. I would rather have an insured boatyard make an error and drop one than me do the same and only have myself to blame for the resulting damage I had caused.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, grendel said:

He has a nice hoist on the top of the boat, just needs a sun roof to drop them through to the engine room now.

I cant see that quote !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[grendel]

Robin, a while back you were interested in your consumption, In the video above there is an OWL meter (wireless meter) connected to the system under load, this is what I use at home to see how much power I am using at any one time, a clip clips around the cable making the metering circuit, a wireless transmitter sends the result to the unit shown in the video that reads out your usage mine is an old one, they do more modern ones now that can be remotely monitored

http://www.theowl.com/index.php/energy-monitors/remote-monitoring/intuition-e/