BELLE

When BELLE first went into the water she was fitted with 5-off 110Ah ‘Multicell AGM Dual Purpose’ batteries for the domestics.  We do not have an electrical shore supply, so these batteries were hammered, and they were subjected to daily discharge / charge cycles.  Their performance was perfectly OK for 4 years, started to deteriorate at the beginning of the 5th year, and they needed replacing at the end of that year.

In view of this performance, I was minded to fit more of the same, but I could not get another 5-off at short notice.  In a rush, I ended up getting 5-off 110Ah ‘NUMAX Sealed Lead-Acid’ batteries instead, expecting that they would last at least 2-3 years.  They set me back a few quid shy of £500 around Christmas time 2011.  Alas, this was not to be, because they started to show signs of deterioration after 6 months use and they needed replacing after about 10 months!

Needless to say they have been replaced by another set of Multicell AGM’s!  This latest set are actually 125Ah (in the same case size) and they cost me a few quid shy of £800, but they still represent the cost-effective solution. 

No brainer, init

PS. No updates to this post for another 5 years (hopefully)

…..are definitely getting to me, and many others apparently, according to the boating media.

I was wondering, do you think that a sign like this might slow a few down?  It might work with some folks, but there will always be the certifable *uckwit boater that would raz past regardless.

As for the latter, take note; I am working on a readily deployable adaptation of a police ‘stinger’!

After a fair bit of research we decided in the end to purchase an Ampair 300 wind turbine and Ampair Voyager VS-50 regulator.  The wind turbine has now been installed on our mooring and the regulator has been installed in BELLE’s stern, leaving us the option to mount the wind turbine on board BELLE at some later date.  The system was fired-up at dawn on Monday this week and everything seems to be working OK - performance thus far is impressive.

Looking back to the two questions posed in our BLOG entry 19 July 2011:

Noise and Vibration – Having had brief discussions with a number of boaters that have passed us over the last few months with a wind turbine stowed on their roof, we established that a wind turbine is best located at the stern, where it can be mounted securely to the rear bulkhead and/or the counter.  The boat structure is much stiffer here and this helps keep the noise and vibration down.  However, noise and vibration is still evident on board in a stiff breeze, so it makes more sense to ground mount the wind turbine whilst on your home mooring when seeking a quiet life.

Charging Control – The Ampair VS-50 regulator is effectively two regulators in one, i.e. one to manage a wind turbine output of up to 25 amps and the other to manage a solar panel output of up to 25 amps.  There are other regulators available from Ampair and their competitors, but we opted for this one because it has been designed specifically with the Ampair 300 wind turbine in mind.

For sure, these items of Ampair equipment cost significantly more than those available from Ampair’s competitors, but you do not need to look very hard at all when comparing designs to quickly realise that these Ampair products are definitely built to last a long time in a marine environment.

The wind turbine mast has been made from a 3.0 metre long section of 48mm OD aluminium ‘standard’ scaffold tube – this mounts into a steel ground socket that has been cast into a small block of concrete.  The guy lines and fittings are stainless steel - the lines are connected at the ground end to eye bolts that have also been cast into small blocks of concrete.

The electrical output from the wind turbine is delivered to BELLE via a flexible cable assembly that connects via a new waterproof plug and socket arrangement on the stern.  A waterproof plug and socket has also been incorporated into this flexible cable assembly at the base of the mast.  Therefore, a much shorter flexible cable assembly can be substituted when the mast is mounted on BELLE’s stern in due course.

The regulator has been mounted into an existing electrical equipment cupboard in BELLE’s stern.  This regulator is quite large when compared to competitor products  and achieving a tidy installation was a bit of a challenge.  This regulator is built like the proverbial ‘brick sh1t house’ – built to last.

Those wanting to learn more can mail me.

When BELLE was first built she had sand applied to most of the ‘walked on’ painted surfaces whilst the paint was still wet – the intention in this respect was to create some ‘slip resistance’ and in so doing lessen the risk of one ending up in the cut and / or bashing or impaling ones anatomy onto something undesirable, etc.  In BELLE’s case, sanded surfaces featured along the tops of the gunwales, around the edge of the counter and most of the cabin roof.  This is a common approach and pretty much every boat you see on the cut will have some walked on surfaces sanded.

Unfortunately, regularly standing on these sanded surfaces and weathering, etc. erodes them and it does not take very long for some of the more frequently walked on surfaces to erode to the extent that their slip-resistance is compromised.  Additionally, the underlying steel is exposed and this starts to rust and things get, well, unsightly.  Reaching this stage took about 4 years around BELLE’s counter and the tops of the gunwales at the bow end.  The roof and the gunwale tops elsewhere are still OK, but this really has more to do with their relatively infrequent use.  The roof and gunwale tops have been re-painted once since first build.  There are alternatives, e.g. applying rubber treaded sheet and dri-deck matting , etc., but it is not practical / economical to apply these everywhere.

Folks that wish to ‘tread carefully’ might be interested in our latest modification to BELLE, i.e. we have fitted aluminium tread plate to those areas that are used most frequently.  This picture shows one of the tread plates that we have shaped and then mounted to the counter.

Two coats of zinc phosphate primer have been applied to the underside surface of each tread plate and then they have been ’bonded’ into place using 2-part epoxy glue.  This avoided a need to drill holes through the top walls of the diesel fuel tanks and/or any having to weld on any mounting features.  They are certainly securely fixed.  We anticipate that the application of the zinc phosphate primer, in conjunction with the painting of the top wall of the tank, will avoid any electrolytic corrosion between the aluminium plate and the steel tank – time will tell of course.    We have also fitted some shaped aluminium tread plates to the top surfaces of the gunwales at the bow, but in this case the plates have been fixed in place using stainless steel countersunk head fasteners.  We have also fitted aluminium tread plate to the upper surface of the step at the stern doorway because this gets hammered as well.  We elected to use aluminium instead of steel because steel would need painting and this paint would inevitably chip off with use, thus allowing the steel to rust.  Whilst aluminium does corrode, the process is effectively halted once the first layer of oxide has formed on the surface – it does not look so unsightly either.    

All in all, once you have obtained the materials, it’s an easy job to carry out yourself, or if you are having a boat built, your boat builder should have no trouble incorporating similar tread plates (at a price of course).  I recommend that you use the relatively slower curing 2-part epoxy glue so as to allow some re-positioning during installation.

Get in touch if you want to learn some more.

……. can be caused by things like this, i.e. a chunk of wood that managed to find its way through the grilles on the ends of our bow thruster tube and lodge itself between the propeller and the propeller housing.

Unfortunately, no amount of rapid port-starboard thrusting was going to shift it.  Within an hour though, the thruster had been removed, cleared and re-installed.  This was almost as easy as exposing the main propeller via the stern weed hatch.

In our case however, the entire thruster, complete with propeller can be removed whilst afloat so there was no need for an expensive dry dock!  This might serve as a timely reminder to folks having a bow thruster installed as part of a new boat build (or having one retro-fitted), i.e. they might want to quiz their boat builder about how their bow thruster will be readily cleared and/or repaired?

I thought that my eyes were deceiving me earlier today when I spotted what I thought to be a ‘bent’ boat approaching us.  Most boats ‘sheer’ from bow to stern in a uniform manner, but this one had two sheer angles, giving the appearance of it being ‘bent’ part way along its length.

It was not until it was much closer did I realise that this boat; Alice was effectively two boats in one.  Alice’s bow section can be separated from her main section, leaving the latter to be operated independently if so desired.  The owner explained to me that the bow section could be a workshop, office, or extra berth, etc.  I thought that this was an excellent innovation – allowing, for example, the shorter locks in the network to be navigated whilst still effectively providing 70′ worth of boat.  Steering Alice would surely be much easier than steering a craft whilst towing in the usual manner.

I cannot recall seeing an arrangement like this before.  I expect that there will be more examples to be seen on the water as the idea catches on though.

No, not the ‘Foo Fighters’; I’ve got time for them.  I am referring here to the so called ‘Friends of Fradley’ and, to be totally honest with you, I am struggling to find any time for them at all.  The FF have been gradually raising their profile hereabouts at Fradley Junction.  Some FF members have now progressed through the ‘lower’ litter picking and wall and kerb painting ranks to the more demanding rank of ‘lock assistant’.  For years boaters have navigated the locks at Fradley without any assistance, other than that casually offered to them from time to time by a crew coming in the opposite direction. 

I propose that the FF intervention in this respect is actually having a detrimental effect on the waterway.  For sure, the average speed of the boats that pass us has increased noticeably this weekend; this being the first weekend that the FF have been lock assisting throughout.  Some boaters see the lock gates ahead of them being opened by the FF assistant - realising that there is now no need for them to pull in at the lock landing to drop their lockie off, they just gun it to the lock and to hell with the locals.  Ergo, the boats moored here and the occupants are being bounced around more than they would normally be and the canal bank is seeing more erosion, etc..

It would be hard to argue that the FF lock assistants are doing the core BW workforce out of a job, because to date the BW core workforce has not assisted (and probably never will assist) boaters at the locks here.  However, the other FF activities hereabouts certainly are doing the BW core workforce out of a job!  I could not bear that on my conscience, so how the FF live with themselves is beyond me.

Before long, will the FF be commandeering our boats and taking them through the locks for us as well?

What do you think?

Driven by a growing need to be more environmentally friendly as well as escalating diesel fuel costs, etc., we are seriously contemplating installing a wind turbine generator, e.g. a Rutland 914i (or something similar).

Installation should be fairly straightforward but there are a couple of potentially troublesome issues that need sorting out beforehand:

Noise and Vibration

Should we mount the wind turbine generator on our cabin roof or should we mount it adjacent to BELLE on the bank side at our home mooring?  Our main concern in this respect is the associated noise and vibration if the generator is mounted on the cabin roof.  For sure, our preference would be to mount the generator on the cabin roof so that it can readily travel wherever BELLE goes.  However, we still want to hear the TV and we do not want our teeth fillings rattling out when the generator is whizzing round in a stiff breeze!  Has anybody out there come up with a cabin roof mounting method that effectively mechanically decouples the generator from the boat structure?

Charging Control

We already have two 130w / 7.5 amp solar panels fitted on BELLE’s cabin roof.  These solar panels are connected to BELLE’s domestic batteries via a Steca PR3030 controller.  This is a very nice compact controller that is simple to use, but unfortunately it can only control one electrical input, i.e. it is not suitable for controlling the output from the wind turbine generator as well as the solar panels.  When we purchased this controller we opted for a 30 amp version in anticipation that we might well add some more solar panels, but at that time we did not take into account  a future need for a wind turbine generator.  Does anybody out there know of a controller that will simultaneously manage the output from a wind turbine generator, say 20 amps  and at least 15 amps worth of solar panels?

Any comments and suggestions, etc. (positive and/or negative) would be welcomed.

This article is not about boating as such, unless you consider that there may well be a correlation between the demise of many key British manufacturing industries and the demise of many small British boat builders.  Read on only if you want to learn what I have to say about the imminent loss of the last British passenger rolling stock manufacturer – the end of yet another era.

Media coverage of the recent UK DfT decision to award the Thameslink passenger rolling stock contract to Siemens Transportation seems to be ramping up.  So it bloody well should be, because this DfT decision will almost certainly be instrumental when it comes to the complete closure of the Bombardier Transportation factory in Derby – arguably our last British passenger rolling stock manufacturer!  You might well argue that this Bombardier Transportation factory is actually French-Canadian.  Nevertheless I would argue that it is still a factory absolutely steeped in British railway vehicle history, a railway legacy.  It currently employs around 3000 workers with a very impressive collective wealth of railway engineering experience and knowledge - experience and knowledge that has has taken centuries to evolve and develop and in all probability is about to be, for the most, discarded.

Today we learned that 1500 Bombardier Transportation workers in Derby will soon be losing their jobs; about 50% of the total workforce at this factory.  Be sure that the remainder of the workers at this factory will only be employed for as long as it takes to complete the current contracts and then these workers will also be down the road.  Then there is the Bombardier Transportation supply chain to consider – no doubt more job losses there.  If you believe the theories presented in Evan Davis’s new TV series, all of these workers will soon be ‘re-deployed’ in other thriving British industries, like those engaged in making new fighter aircraft and high-end sports cars – yeah, right, dream on Evan.

I have been around long enough now to witness the demise of principal British industries like British ship building, British motorcycle manufacturing, British truck and commercial vehicle manufacturing, British car manufacturing, the British steel industry, the British mining industry and now fear I am about to see the end of a large part of the British railway industry.

Don’t get me wrong – I am all for achieving cost-effectiveness and I acknowledge that there is a demand for getting the best deal for the tax payer wherever possible.  For sure, the BT operation in Derby is not without its problems, just like the manufacturing and other medium to heavy industries I have mentioned above, they had their problems too, but closure or serious winding down is not the answer.  I propose that, to succeed, British manufacturing needs more guidance and support from our government and more constructive barriers to importing, etc. put in place.  We need a government with greater vision in these areas – can the one we have now possibly measure up?  The Jury is out on that one!

We hear of Hitachi and their plans to build a new factory near Darlington and that this factory will employ around 500 workers.  To my mind this is not a positive step by any stretch of the imagination.  I propose that  this will only lead to greater dependence upon Japan and a diversion of the bulk of the wealth generated back to Japan.  This approach to manufacture and distribution of wealth is just like that resulting from having cars made at Toyota, Nissan and Honda, etc. in the UK.  The first such example for this Hitachi factory will be the wealth derived from manufacturing the new IEP trains for the ECML (another DfT decision!).  No doubt this will be followed by the wealth gained at some later date by manufacturing trains that are destined for use elsewhere in the EU – that is unless our EU partners manage to apply the EU rules differently and in so doing keep Hitachi out!

I heard this morning that “Mr Hammond said it was not possible to review the bidding process. His only option would be to cancel the whole Thameslink project, which was already 16 years behind schedule.”

Well cancel it then!  Then set about doing your job along with your department colleagues and the other government departments involved, i.e. actually deal with the underlying issues rather than just talking about dealing with them and in so doing depend much less on imported goods.  Stop blaming Labour.  Currently, as I see things, our leaders are effectively opting for an importation policy with short term gain and long term pain.

Sufficient pressure must be swiftly brought to bear on the UK DfT and the other governmental departments involved and our political ‘leaders’.  They must all be compelled to take the steps required to halt and hopefully reverse this trend for placing too much dependence in imported goods, call it another ConDem U-Turn if you like.

Nuff said – for now.

Whilst on a recent trip to Berlin we spotted several ’Bierbikes’ whizzing around the city centre area – this particular model has seating capacity for up to 12 pedalling customers and 2 non-pedalling customers.  Of course, there is also ample space for the bartender, who steers the Bierbike when he or she is not pissed or too busy serving the beer and/or serving other refreshments to the on-board customers.  All of the occupants we saw out and about on one of these Bierbikes were having a pretty good time, especially the ones that did not have to pedal!

Who knows; the way things are going, maybe it’s just a matter of time before we get one or more of these Bierbikes whizzing up and down the towpath in the vicinity of Fradley Junction – can’t wait!

PS. Before anybody asks - I don’t know whether there was a cassette toilet or a pump-out fitted.