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PMR or VHF radio?

LadyPatricia

By LadyPatricia
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JawsOrca

JawsOrca

Posted
Posted

Alan, are the fish finders easy to install? Always handy to know if you've just moored up over a large shoal of bream :) and as you say its good to know whats under you as it were.

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

Most are supplied with a transducer that needs installing under the water so for these you would need to be out the water and you will need to drill a couple of holes in the hull.. you can get "in hull" transducers which you can position inside though which can be done afloat.. (we fitted one of these in our project and it only took a few moments) although these will probably be supplied with more expensive units, naturally! 

 

Mes (http://www.mesltd.co.uk/sonar-fishfinders-c-1030_24.html) are really good and I use alot.

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Mowjo

Mowjo

Posted
Posted

Steve! as you can tell I don't do gadgets, on the 240v Shorepower, Crackers was the first boat I ever had it on, only because we spent  time in the marina plus it was handy while I was working on the boat, never had it, never wanted it, didn't think I needed it, after three years I can't imagine how I did without it for the last thirty years, when we're out plug in charge the batteries, 240/12v Radio and TV, couple of small table lamps for the evenings, charge you phones and lappies or Ipads, electric kettle, toaster, nice little heater for the cold times, or even an electric blanket, if you can't get to the boat much with the proper charger you can leave it all plugged in at the marina, run a small tube heater or dehumdidifier, the list is like me and goes on and on, it really is the one thing I don't think I could go without now, I'm just fitting on my new boat and it all cost under £100, and before anyone says a thing I'm fitting it and an electrician friend of mine will be testing it all,  :P

 

Frank,,,,

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mbird

mbird

Posted
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Steve

 

A bit of thread drift, but just picking up on what you mentioned about a 12v coolbox and inverter. Be very careful with your battery usage as you will quickly flatten your domestic batteries with those two pieces of kit, and without the option to plug into shorepower to operate a battery charger, you could end up a bit stuck! The 12v coolboxes generally draw around 4-5 amps or more and an inverter will draw considerably more depending what size it is and what you are running from it.

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mbird

mbird

Posted
Posted

They'd be fine whilst underway, but as I say, be careful when moored up. We had a 12v coolbox as our beer fridge which did manage to flatten our domestics, though admittedly I suspect it was drawing more current than it should.

 

As a very rough rule of thumb, take a look at your batteries to find their capacity and then halve it to give you your usable amps. For example, a bank of two 105Amp-hour batteries would have a usable supply of around 105Ah.

 

Theoretically you could therefore use a coolbox drawing 5 amps for 21 hours (105 divided by 5). However, if you have something plugged into your inverted drawing 300 watts, that equates to 25 amps (i.e. 300 / 12v). So your inverter could only run for about 4 hours. This is obviously very simplified, but gives a guide, and takes no account of other loads on the batteries such as water pump, lighting etc.

 

Another thing to check is that you have a separate engine starting battery used solely for the engine. At least that way you can still start the engine even if you do flatten the domestics.

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JawsOrca

JawsOrca

Posted
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"I'd suggest, instead, to invest in a depth gauge or fish finger (which has a depth too) because I swear there are shallow places on the broads and I hate not knowing now much water is underneath."

 

Would that be Birds Eye or Ross??

 

Lidl's own brand! I have to type quick because my boss keeps noticing I have these forums open too much ;)

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Mowjo

Mowjo

Posted
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Mr Bird! I was going to mention what you said about coolboxes and invertors, but I give Steve enough grief as it is,  most people forget that most hire craft these days have a rather large battery bank so can't be compared to our meager set ups, give Steve and Debs a season out on their boat and I bet they will have a new fridge and 240v on board, cos it's sods law you'll have a flat battery/s when your stuck on a wild mooring or somewhere without leccie, just make sure your sitting down if you go for a low draw Isotherm fridge,, :eek:

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LadyPatricia

LadyPatricia

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Hey listen guys, we don't see any of this as greif :).

This is our very first insight into owning and looking after your own boat. All help, advice and even stern talkings, to telling us we are idiots, is much appreciated. It is going to be a huge learning curve for us but something we are both looking forward to.

I will attempt to do whatever I can myself so with advice from the lovely people on here hopefully we will be ok. The idea of changing this and adding that so that she becomes our own so to speak really is exciting.

I just have to keep telling myself 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. More to the point Deb will hold the purse strings so she will be constantly reminding me ;)

Steve & Deb

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Mowjo

Mowjo

Posted
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OK Steve! lesson No1!  "More to the point Deb will hold the purse strings so she will be constantly reminding me" Trust me! if she's half as bad as Judi it will be you saying do we really need that, an example when we bought Crackers, almost new cooker, nothing wrong with it, Judi wanted a new one because someone else had used it, Toilet, nothing wrong with it! Judi wanted a new one because someone had used it, Fenders all OK just needed a clean, Judi wanted new ones because they had marks on, you wait! while your typing on here Debs will be plotting on what she wants on HER boat,,

 

Frank,,,,

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littlesprite

littlesprite

Posted
Posted

I'm a long way short of the experience of many on here and was holding back on giving advice, but, wait until you use it at least a few times and then make a decision.

Just to give you a simple example of how things change I give you Nav-lights, 4 years ago I decided whats the point as I'll never use them, that is until coming back from the forum meet at WRC and had over heating problems. The engine was fine if I crawled along at snails pace which left me 1 hour away from my home mooring when darkness started to descend,  Nav-lights would have got me back instead of arriving home a day late.

 

So what I'm trying to say is don't make a hasty decision on where to spend your budget, have some time on board and see what you can live with or without before committing your money.

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Baitrunner

Baitrunner

Posted
Posted

I agree that if your staying on the Broads and dont need bridges swinging then save your cash.

 

However, I have found it useful contacting the Harbour masters at Oulton Broad and Beccles. Especially if your on your approach and want to know were they are putting you. I know they have mobiles, but have found the VHF a bit more useful.

 

Is it worth £100 for a hand held VHF and the licence fee - not unless you use them every week.

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ExUserGone

ExUserGone

Posted
Posted

On a norman 24 you'll never need a bridge swinging or going out to sea so I guess vhf will be just a toy most of the time, depth sounders are far more useful and don't need a hole in the boat, mine is in a tube of castor oil epoxied to the inside of the hull, ultrasound 'sees' straight through grp just don't have air bubbles under the transducer, and don't get tempted to shorten a transducer cable as it throws the calibration out.

As for fridges go for a compressor fridge every time as they take so much less power to run, danfoss seems to be the best compressor unit (waeco and isotherm use danfoss).

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Baitrunner

Baitrunner

Posted
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I was a member of a sea angling club many years ago and on our boats we all had to have a cb. Most to the boat owners didn't have VHF licences (and back in the day you had to pay to be licensed). For us it worked really well, but then we normally didn't fish that far from shore and mostly fairly close to each other so it was good for chit chat - not sure it would have helped in an emergency. Mobiles are still probably better nowadays and how many people have CBs?

 

A quite funny story about keeping the airwaves free - maybe in Europe we would, but on a recent trip to the Caribbean around the Grenadines (and not in my own boat I hasten to add) one of the islands actual broadcast the local news on Ch16 and then had a sale/swap section selling everything from outboards to domestic appliances. I could see that happening in Yarmouth :River Police  :River Police   

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