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Solo Southern Wanderings


Broads01

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9 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Here you go Howard, you thought Beccles was quiet

Good grief Simon, we get that in December! Hope it's as quiet in a couple of weeks but I'm not holding my breath. Looks like you have springs on there which I find keeps the boat nicely tucked in during rough weather.

I agree about the Lord Nelson, it's OK and often has Humpty Dumpty on but doesn't feel very 'pubby' 

The Ship is more popular with the locals I think and feels a bit more like a proper pub. 

Really enjoying your tale. Might be worth mentioning that battery though! Swancraft used to have double battery banks although we never needed to switch the 'reserve' over. 

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Regarding your battery issue Simon, as others have said, you really should phone Freedoms to let them know. Even if you can make do as is, at least it will give the folks at the yard the heads up so they will be ready to put things right ready for the next customer. Forewarned is forearmed as they say.

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12 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

The cost of said alternator plus fitting MM plus maybe a split charging system to cope

Is it not possible to replace the alternator with one of a higher capacity?

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21 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

If I were to increase my battery capacity, can anyone tell me roughly how much it would cost to have a second alternator fitted?

There are two choices.

1/. You can fit a bigger alternator, but this might put too much side load on the crankshaft. Depends on the engine.

2/. You can fit 2 alternators but then you would be best to have 2 separate circuits - engine and domestic. You cannot fit alternators in parallel or they will cancel each other out, unless you fit an "intelligent" charge splitter such as the X-SPLIT.

On the Nanni engine the parts are available to fit 2 sets of brackets but this means also changing the position of the front left engine mounting.

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The engine is a 'Beta Marine' 35hp.

At the moment the single alternator first charges the engine battery then switches (automatically) to the domestic.

My idea was to pretty much leave that alone but to have a secondary bank which would be dedicate3d to the fridge, Diesel heating and TV. There are a few other details on the switching ideas I've had, but I'd want to chat to the rascal first!

I like the idea of the resilience of having two alternators each having it's own battery bank.

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From what I can see a beta 35 would have a 70 amp alternator , the problem with big units is you need bigger and better belts to drive them , to be honest the first thing I'd do is fit a advanced regulator to the alternator , that then charges the battery's faster an fully charges them a standard alternator doesn't do that , my own set up is 660ah domestic 170ah starting , via a 80 amp alternator and advanced regulator , splitting is done by a 120amp relay , no fancy electronics with the exception of the advanced regulator n it works fine so well that the only thing iv done in the last 6 yrs is rebuild the alternator as the brush's were worn out .

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Whilst I don't understand the technological bits of your post I do understand that you have a good system that works well. Fair enough and advice taken on board, but where I differ from your view is that I'd like to split the domestics into two different circuits, each with it's own source. It's no matter of importance but just a desire.

When I was building desktops I discovered a strange quirk in my character. If there was a facility on the mother board, I felt almost obliged to utilise it. One case had room and mountings for 4 DVD drives and for 4 Hard drives. Therefore I installed 1 DVD ROM, 2 DVD Writers and a removable Hard-drive caddy, in addition to 4 500gb hard drives. The PCI slots at the back end were similarly all used. It's just the way I am.

My Beta Marine 35 has the mountings already there for a second alternator, it's driving me crazy that there isn't a second alternator on it!!! :-)

Just as an aside, one of the PCI slots was used for an extra SATA slot. on the back plate it had an E-SATA slot. I never found any device that could be plugged into it. That too drove me mad. 

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15 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

Whilst I don't understand the technological bits of your post I do understand that you have a good system that works well. Fair enough and advice taken on board, but where I differ from your view is that I'd like to split the domestics into two different circuits, each with it's own source. It's no matter of importance but just a desire.

When I was building desktops I discovered a strange quirk in my character. If there was a facility on the mother board, I felt almost obliged to utilise it. One case had room and mountings for 4 DVD drives and for 4 Hard drives. Therefore I installed 1 DVD ROM, 2 DVD Writers and a removable Hard-drive caddy, in addition to 4 500gb hard drives. The PCI slots at the back end were similarly all used. It's just the way I am.

My Beta Marine 35 has the mountings already there for a second alternator, it's driving me crazy that there isn't a second alternator on it!!! :-)

Just as an aside, one of the PCI slots was used for an extra SATA slot. on the back plate it had an E-SATA slot. I never found any device that could be plugged into it. That too drove me mad. 

If there is a position on the crankshaft pulley for another drive belt then a second alternator would work fine , then using that for the starter battery you cann then split the charge from the original alternator to the 2 domestic banks via a relay , both domestic banks will then get the same charge and the starter it'd own independent circuit , it all depends on the crankshaft pulley really but its a modification worth doing defiantly .

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1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

Yes, I believe it does have the second belt position.

In that case that's the way to go all you need are the brackets an alternator and belt + a bit of cable , I would put another warning lamp on the dash for the second alternator though don't use an led its not got enough wattage to energise the alternator to start charging + its easier to wire that way and you can tell that both units are working .

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I'll mention the battery issue when I return the boat tomorrow and I know the boat isn't going out again until Wednesday.

Well it's been challenging in very wet and windy conditions today but I've enjoyed it, having made it safely to the Surlingham Ferry House. I was umming and ahing about whether to tackle the Chet but made a decision to do so as I approached the Chet mouth. At the confluence the boat rocked violently from right to left as I turned in, much more so than I can remember experiencing and sufficient to shake a couple of items to the floor. It's a good job coffee jars are made of tough glass. I kept the canopy side panel rolled up which made for a cold, windy experience but at least I had the fall back of being able to peer out and see. I made it to Loddon Staithe and headed straight for Rosie Lee's tea rooms. What a lovely little old fashioned place it is and coffee and gluten-free cake went down very well. 

On returning to the boat I made the decision to set off straight away and catch the last of the incoming tide when I reached the Yare. It was raining even harder now and piloting took all my concentration. When I reached the Yare the boat rocked less this time but it was proper choppy nevertheless. I ploughed on and decided to stop again at either Cantley or Langley Dyke. Cantley was a no no because the water was so high I would have needed welly boots to step off the boat. Thankfully the quay at Langley Dyke was sufficiently high and it made a relatively sheltered spot. I had some food and a good break and then set off for Surlingham. It was an uneventful cruise despite still needing to peer out of the side every now and again. In the whole of my cruise today, I passed two boats on the Chet, zero on the Yare (yes, zero all day) and that was it. I'm sat in the Ferry House now and very much looking forward to whatever I have from the menu. 

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If you`re ever in need of shelter from bad weather on the Yare,  you can`t beat Langley dyke or Rockland staithe. We`ve been sheltered there several times over many years.  I hope you`ve had a good and warming meal Simon?.

We`ll be there in 8 weeks. 

YEEEEHAAAA

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26 minutes ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

If you`re ever in need of shelter from bad weather on the Yare,  you can`t beat Langley dyke or Rockland staithe. We`ve been sheltered there several times over many years.  I hope you`ve had a good and warming meal Simon?.

We`ll be there in 8 weeks. 

YEEEEHAAAA

Yes indeed, Neil. I'm very happy to say the Ferry House is as good as everyone says it is. It was a lovely meal, not just standard gammon, egg and chips but huge gammon, two eggs, sweet potato chips and a plate of freshly cooked vegetables. The atmosphere is warm and friendly. 

DSC_0056.JPG

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Love keeping up with your travels Simon. Glad you liked the Ferry House, it is a cracking pub. I'm also salivating!

Agree with Liz though, keep the heating going if you can or even better stay in the Ferry! They don't boot you out early like some I could mention!!

Enjoy :default_beerchug:

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