So What Is Going On At Herbert Woods

[Meantime]

Your never going to get anywhere near enough moorings with power so that anyone who wants to plug in can and use what they want. Therefore the answer has to be to manage expectations rather than promising what cannot be delivered.

If you market that a boat has shore power, put a big disclaimer alongside it that power is only available at a limited number of moorings and then only in sufficient quantity to power a small percentage of the mooring spots. 

Then moving to the onboard electrics move to installing USB charging points all around the boat so that people can charge their multitude of tablets, phones etc straight from a USB port which is way more efficient than using an invertor to give 240V and then letting them plug a charger in to knock the voltage back down again to charge their phone. The chances are the phone charger is left plugged in and the invertor on even when the device is charged.

Provide one small 300W invertor for powering anything else that cannot be charged directly from a USB port, or for if they bring their own games console along or laptop etc.

Finally make sure there are enough batteries on board, in a good enough condition to power the boats onboard systems such as electric cooker or the heater without the requirement to have the engine running.

Finally and this might prove to be a little controversial, but hire boats are not allowed to navigate between sunset and sunrise so fit a dusk to dawn sensor that stops the engine from being started when it is dark outside. 

[andyg]

Vaughan, I don't think it's hard to work that out. Everyone seems to have some sort of digital device in there hands nowadays. I remember watching a video one of the Thwaite brothers posted ( apologies I don't know his first name ) he was explaining the technologies they were building into there serenade class. Jeez it sounded more like they were building a space shuttle not a boat. The cost must be eye watering, but it seems that's what a large percentage of the paying public want. So fair play to them. I remember our holidays aboard as a child I don't ever remember ever having flat batteries. Boats running there engines on the moorings was far more common as well. 

[Vaughan]

3 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Then moving to the onboard electrics move to installing USB charging points all around the boat so that people can charge their multitude of tablets, phones etc straight from a USB port which is way more efficient than using an invertor to give 240V and then letting them plug a charger in to knock the voltage back down again to charge their phone. The chances are the phone charger is left plugged in and the invertor on even when the device is charged.

Provide one small 300W invertor for powering anything else that cannot be charged directly from a USB port, or for if they bring their own games console along or laptop etc.

Totally agree with this. A mobile phone can happily be charged on the little shaver point in the toilet, and/or the hirer can easily buy a 12 volt phone charging lead in any motorway services.

There is no point in converting DC to AC just to plug in an appliance which has its own transformer, to charge on DC.

[JanetAnne]

I remember the days when all we took was a pack of cards and a game of ludo

[BroadAmbition]

Ludo?

Uckers - much more up market 

Griff

[Meantime]

We must have been posh, we used to take a compendium of games! 

[Aboattime]

1 hour ago, JanetAnne said:

I remember the days when all we took was a pack of cards and a game of ludo

I remember when there were no tvs,or fridges on the hire boats,you had an ice box and changed the ice block at the nearest boat yard when it started to melt,Southgates always had good ice blocks.

[CeePee1952]

1 hour ago, JanetAnne said:

I remember the days when all we took was a pack of cards and a game of ludo

That's where we went wrong  we used to play tiddly winks but the games never lasted long as most of the counters got pinged into the river!! 

Chris

[annv]

Hi If yards fitted larger alternators or two alternators along with a advanced regulator this would alleviate many of he problems, also battery's dont like being left not fully charged when standing for any length of time. John

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, annv said:

Hi If yards fitted larger alternators or two alternators along with a advanced regulator this would alleviate many of he problems, also battery's dont like being left not fully charged when standing for any length of time. John

I did wonder if that may be a solution but as I am not really that up on charging systems I didn't want to suggest it.

Between you and Meantime you make some very valid points.

[grendel]

4 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

Ludo?

Uckers - much more up market 

Griff

I must check with my dad to see if he still has the old uckers board we used as kids, with the board painted on a sheet of hardboard.

[Ray]

I had to google uckers.... There is an additional definition to the board game in contemporary slang, those of a sensitive disposition have been warned! 😱

[Mouldy]

4 minutes ago, Ray said:

I had to google uckers.... There is an additional definition to the board game in contemporary slang, those of a sensitive disposition have been warned! 😱

Are you referring to the term used for someone who still has all their pieces at the start when another player has finished?

Not something that requires visualisation!! 😬

[Ray]

Possibly.... 😁

[CeePee1952]

I notice it's traditionally played in the Royal Navy!  I'll say no more 

Chris

[Mouldy]

Just now, CeePee1952 said:

I notice it's traditionally played in the Royal Navy!  I'll say no more 

Chris

Sailor!! 

[CeePee1952]

I need to be careful  I think us ex army members on here might be out numbered by the ex navy members!! 

Chris

[Ray]

A lot of fun to be had with inter service rivalry. My family (not me sadly) were well represented in the RAF, a good friend and also Gill's dad were RN.. well placed insults abound 😁

[addicted]

When our granddaughters were about  aged about 9 and 6 we took them for a week on the boat. That boat was unable to support their plethora of sophisticated electronic games and we introduced them to dominoes we had lots of laughter filled evenings and when their parents took them away later that year they pestered them to make sure that they took dominoes  as a holiday without them was doomed to failure.

 

 

Carole

[andyg]

I have some fantastic photos of our grandchildren enjoying the broads last summer. Not a phone or Ipad insight. They both totally got into the wildlife the surroundings and interacting with other boaters. They absolutely loved it.

[andyg]

I thought I'd spend 10 mins watching hw webcam this morning. The cam that gives you an excellent insight as to what happens on A section. Ive seen about 6 boats come back in and a few more brought round for prep from the side dyke. Every single one that was fitted with sure power which was most of them got plugged straight into the posts. So a good 5 or 6 hour charge. So they do try to make sure the batteries are fully charged. 

[Cheesey69]

Getting back to nature and enjoying birdsong should be an option but not a requirement.

I too enjoy sitting out but I have my mobile on charge in the boat.

I've long had the view that not enough attention is being paid to on board power systems. 

I've hired boats with a massive bank of batteries and no idea what state of charge is in them.

Install a NASA battery monitor (other makes available) and this tells me what's in, what is going out and how long it will last!

At least give the hirer a fighting chance and stop them being paranoid about running out of power

[FlyingFortress]

11 minutes ago, andyg said:

I thought I'd spend 10 mins watching hw webcam this morning. The cam that gives you an excellent insight as to what happens on A section. Ive seen about 6 boats come back in and a few more brought round for prep from the side dyke. Every single one that was fitted with sure power which was most of them got plugged straight into the posts. So a good 5 or 6 hour charge. So they do try to make sure the batteries are fully charged. 

You can charge a shot battery for as long as you like. It will never recover.

I may also ask what are they doing to the ones that don't have shore power connections.

[oldgregg]

22 hours ago, annv said:

Hi If yards fitted larger alternators or two alternators along with a advanced regulator this would alleviate many of he problems, also battery's dont like being left not fully charged when standing for any length of time. John

Agree - I just don't get why so many boats have just the one alternator.

If people need to do 5-6 hours cruising a day to put back what the fridge, lights, water pump etc use then it's not going to work. Many boats do 2-3 hours gentle cruising on the North each day and that just isn't enough.

Increasing the charging capability so that the batteries can be replenished within a couple of hours and you remove the need to send engineers out to the middle of nowhere with a sack barrow piled up with batteries.

Personally I'd fit something along these lines https://betamarine.co.uk/he-hybrid-propulsion/. Not so much for the electric running (although that'd be nice), but there's a big genset which will cover all the electrical needs. Sure it'll use a bit more fuel, but no call-outs for batteries has to be worth it?

[Bogart]

Wonder how much these units cost?