More Ballast & Winterising

As we carry over 2000L of water in the bow tank the trim of the boat is affected between full and nearly empty.

In order to minimise this I decided to put some ballast in the water tank.  As my brother owns a stone worktop company Granite Unlimited he gets plenty of cut outs from the sinks and hobs.  The beauty of natural stone is it's free for me, very heavy 30mm is 90kg per Sq/m and its totally unaffected by water.

 This small amount is 750kg worth

Now it's in the water tank the leverage being right at the front of the boat has brought it down nicely.  It has displaced about 175L of water so the net effect on a full tank is about 500kg of extra weight and on an low tank nearer 750kg.  It's true we have lost some capacity but is not going to be a problem as I see it because we will simply have to fill up that bit sooner which in turn will mean a more frequent refreshment of new water. The stone is nearly 3000kg a cu/m whereas water is 1000kg

 In the water tank

Since being on the water we have filled no more than 4 times from taps along the river, and the tank was freshly painted when we launched.  So where has all this come from?

 New 5 micron filter on the left

The one removed after around 8000l

Hmm! makes you think.  We also have the 0.5 micron drinking water filter for next to pure drinking water.

While I had the tank empty I moved the stop cock to be right on the copper exit stub from the tank.  I feel a lot happier about that. It was close before but was in a plasticc pipe run.

All this was done mid week while on the boat myself.  We have a rule when we are both on the boat.  I mustn't do any work.  I did however slip a couple of winterising jobs past SWMBO.  I installed a frost stat.  It's actually the original CH controller that came with the Mikuni.  I opted to use the RF or remote version as we can move it around the boat depending on where we want to control the heat more fully, i.e. bedroom or lounge.

I have wired it in parallel so it will trigger if the temperature drops below 5c.  The remote unit which looks exactly the same requires 240v at the receiver end so won't trigger when the inverter is off.  This additional one is battery powered.

The other little job sneaked by was draining out enough water form the generator to top it up with antifreeze.  I never knew if it had any in as I acquired it used so to be sure I have put my own in.

The Nice Thing About Having A Boat Is:-

There is always something to do.  Always a problem to be solved, or a combining of my interests.

I arrived at the boat yesterday afternoon armed with necessary tools to sort out the grotty and dismal array of plants and mostly weeds on our mooring.  This is supposed to be done by the Environment agency who we rent from but there doesn't seem to be a schedule of maintenance but strangely there is a schedule of Direct Debits.  Anyway before I got on with the stuff I like I decided it was best to get this done and out of the way as the weather was reasonable and the forecast was poor.

 

About 2 hours saw the job done and all the dead nettles, thistles and sapling Elderberry trees were dispatched.  Hopefully this will allow some grass to grow.

I have been playing with  streaming CCTV for a while now and having bought a new Webcam decided I needed to run some new consealed wires to get the signal back to the laptop in the lounge and then out though the router to the interweb.  Knowing the limt for USB is 5m I saw an adaptor that extends USB over cat5e.  On my last visit to the boat I duly installed a length of cat5e cable in the bedroom ceiling down behind the wardrobes, under the bathroom cabinets and into the lounge drilling necessary holes as I went along all of which are out of general sight. All of this took several hours.

Once this was done I powered up the Webcam only to find for whatever reason that it would only send a 174 x 122 image not the 1280 x 1024 it was bought for.  A bit of digging on the canal forum as there are lots of very cleaver people there with a combined mass of knowledge on all subjects lead me to order a 15m powered USB cable.  Prior to installing the cable I tested it and all was good. 

How pleased was I that when I put the cat5e in the ceiling void I decided to put in an additional trace wire. The result was the new UBB cable was fitted in about 20 minutes.

The intention is to stream live video from the boat as we cruise along, or sometimes if we are just sat mooring.  This can be seen at the Vaughn site.  If you go over there you can become a follower and you will get an email when the camera goes live.  All of this is free and there's currently no adverts on the video feed.

Next up was to run some more cat5e (2 lots) so I can run the bedroom TV on an HDMI extender as this too has a 5m limit and get HD TV in the bedroom rather than just what comes down the coax feed.  While I had the carpet up to hide the cables I sorted out the creaky floor that has been anoying me on my seemingly evermore frequent visits to the loo at night.

This morning it was time to service the generator.  It has reached 2400 hours and the oil was looking decidedly black.  With the oil and filter changed and the diesel filter checked for water (none) and changed it was the turn of the impeller.  This as you can see was definitely in need of changing.

 

The fan belt was checked for wear and adjustment and both were found to be fine.

A while back I moved the Inverter to under the stairs See Here.  And having sorted out the charging so the charger works much harder it then got really hot which caused it to reduce its output so it remaind happy. Result back to square one after a while of running. See you solve one problem and another problem arises!  The only thing to do is to put some extraction fans in to dump the heat.  The easiest way to power these is from the inverters own fan power supply, that way they would only be on as required.  So this meant taking the inverter out again to gain access to the fan wiring.  I took no chances this time.  I photographed the wiring just to remind me not to wire it up wrong.

The fan on the Victron is 24v so I got 2 x 12v 5" fans and wired them in series, drilled 2 x 5" holes in the stair sides just next the the inverter, put in some wiring with an in line connector and hey presto it all worked.

 

I just need to get some nice covers for the outside of the stairs.

 

It's not too much of a problem as its very difficult to see them.  They are not in general sight.

The inverter now runs cold to the touch and is once again outputting maximum charge.

A Little Update

So what have I been up to in the last month?

Well during the half term holidays we took our selves off to Cambridge and stayed a few days on Midsummer Common.  While there we met up with fellow bloggers Brian & Diana of Harnser.  Not being backward in coming forward and know their plans to visit "The Backs" I blagged a ride for me and Deb.  This is a very rare treat as the lock Jesus Lock is closed to access for much of the year, and our boat is too big to get through.

I did a little time lapse of the trip.

Again this is a first cut of the video and when I learn how to drive the video software I will enhance it a bit more.  This is Harnser's blog of the trip.

On the boat I have been fiddling with stuff.  I had been suffering with charging problems when using the generator.  The problem was that I was only able to get 70 of 120 amps of charging because I had to have the Weak AC tab set which seems to limit the maximum charge to about 2/3rds of maximum.

A bit of trawling on the forums came up with the suggestion that the voltage was the problem causing the Weak AC and if you look you can see the voltage is down to 216v on charge load.  A bit more reading and I discovered I could alter the voltage output of the generator using a tiny trimmer on the AVR.  So armed with jewellers screwdriver and the Victron software on the PC I turned the trimmer a fraction I do mean a tiny little amount and whoosh it went up to 270v.  Eventually I managed to tame it to 235v which was not easy on a running vibrating generator.

The result of the over voltage was:-
1 fried Sky satellite box
1 fried DAB radio
2 fried switch mode power supplies for phone charging

Note to self.  Unplug everything not needed when messing with voltage regulation!

Ho Hum!  The good news is the charger can now be run with the Weak AC de-selected and I now get a full 120amps of charge reducing of course as the battery voltage comes up.  When I have paid for the damaged items to be replaced I will be saving money on diesel and wear and tear on the generator as it now does in 4 hours what it previously took 12+.

I'm now in the process of installing some Cat5e cabling for some future CCTV ideas.  As regular readers might realise I have a habit for gadgets and CCTV and video streaming and time lapse, in fact anything.  The Cat5e will assist in developing this interest / project.

In the meantime I'm messing with live video streaming on this server.   Vaughn is a live streaming video community but the plan is to stream direct from the boat without using a 3rd party server.

Other things I meant to blog about but didn't.

A bug zapper.  I have to admit I bought it not expecting much.  IT'S BRILLIANT! this zaps flying and landed bugs, of which we get a lot of on the river in the summer.  Not only is it entertaining, it saves having the pollute the boat with nasty smelling bug spray.  On that, there is no way the moderen stuff  as good as it used to be.  Whatever did the job in the can before has been removed from the formula.  I suppose some more bloody EEC directives are to blame.

To save arguments as to who will get to play Zap The Bug I will buy another one next year so we have one each.

The other one is this.

In the shot you can see the light emitted which is pretty impressive and in the lens reflection you can see the LED's that make up the light. (Talented photography?)

It's a solar charged and only switches on when its dark and detects motion. Linky  I'm very pleased with it.

Sometimes you buy these things on a whim and they really exceed expectations.

More Step Work

I've been modifying the steps in the boat.  This came about at the front because the water level sender gauge needed recalibrating now its on the water.  Previously it was done when it was on dry land during the tank testing etc. It was necessary to remove the front steps to do this and a timely visit from Graham of Matilda Rose fame made the calibration easier as he called out the reading as I twiddled with the adjustment screw 45 feet away.

While I had the steps out I decided to make the top and bottom step liftable as well as the middle one which was already done.  Then it dawned on me that I could take the ply floor out under the steps and and have a cooler area to draw cool air from the bilge when its warm in the bedroom.  A quick temperature check revealed the base plate (black area) was 12.5 degrees while the inside of the room was 23 degrees.  I also changed the 5 micron primary water filter which was visibly quire grubby.  Next time the tank is empty I will move the main stop cock as removing the floor has made more room to position it in a better place right out of the tank.

Then it was on the the rear steps.  For ages now I have been intending to fit the rest of the of the tiny LED plinth lights. This has made such a difference to the appearance of the kitchen area and of course the steps.

Without Flash

With Flash

I am undecided about taking the floor out under the rear steps.  It would make a nice
pre- cooling area for beer and wine, but as the inverter is now under them this adds heat and makes the box area quite warm so I thinking this might be a source of condensation. 
I will consider it again one I have put some additional fans in the side of the steps to dump this heat out.

Book Shelves

All available space has to be used on a boat.  When fitted the kitchen I had 2 end units that had voids behind them. One each side of the boat.

 

Originally I was going to make a decor end infill, but the more I left it the more it became obvious these were destined to become book shelves.

So as usual a template was made each side.

 

This was used to make some end panels which I painted to match the side.

The addition of a shelf and a filler at the bottom completed the job.

And the same the other side. Accept this side has to be easily removable so the gas pipe and a joint can be inspected when the BSC is due.

So that's another job done.  I'm running out of things that need finishing, so as it was such a nice day today I decided to re-varnish the oak bow doors, and while I had the varnish out I also did the oak thresholds which had been left and the oak vents in the rear doors.

Front Locker Seats

Another of those jobs that's been hanging around is the fitting, or more precisely the securing of the bow lockers.

The lids have been loosely laid on top which looked fine but was not very safe if you stepped on them going forward as they would slip.  They were cut from templates I made then scanned into a CNC router by the same firm that did the rear decks. See here.  They also routed a bull nose so now the edges won't dig into the underside of our legs.

I have placed some wooden blocks on the under side that locate against the rim of the locker then to add some security I have set in a latch in each.

Not that anything of great value is kept in them, just I had 2 left over from doing the rear deck after changing the way I secured them down.

I've Been A Bit Of A Chump

I've been a bit of a chump. Yep! even me who is normally very, very careful with measuring, checking, measuring, reading the manual / instruction, and then doing it all again just for good measure etc.

Especially when there is expensive equipment at hand! 

So what did I do? 

In a perverse way I did exactly what I was doing to avoid doing what I did. When I put the inverter in I was concerned that it should be somewhere cool so I decided the engine room bulkhead would be ideal. OK, I know it gets warm in there when the engine is running, but when stationary it's the coolest place and besides when we are on the move the inverter is not really being used that hard. It seems to get hottest when charging which would be on hookup which has so far been never, or on the generator. 

With the top calorifier pipe running inches away from the inverter, several blog readers voiced their concerns that it really wasn't a good setup. I had to agree in hindsight. So  a few weeks ago it was "move the inverter day". The move was from the engine room side of the bulkhead:- 

 

to the cabin side under the stairs. 

Something that with a bit of floor hole cutting for cold air from the bilge to be drawn in and a bit of carpentry modification to the back of the stairs, a bit of cable re-routing etc. should have taken only 3-4 hours with cups of tea and ponder time. 

Having done the necessary I powered up the inverter only to hear a massive "CRACK". That's the sound a 400amp fuse makes when it lets go. 

So what had I done? Well despite having to put 2 very large +ve and -ve wires on each terminal in the inverter and despite the inverter having very clear "Battery +" and "Battery -" instruction on the terminals, somehow in a complete an utter parallel universe I had actually managed to ignore these very simple but fundamental instructions. I really don't know how I did it, I truly don't. My wife thinks its the onset of something more sinister, and TBH so do I. Despondently I realised what I'd done and set about investigating inside the inverter expecting to see a mass of exploded components, but with fingers crossed there was a trip or something I could reset, sort of like an idiot button. But there was no trace of either.

I contacted my Supplier Intellitec who rather than laugh at my stupidity said to send it back and they would make it better again. Within a few days the problem had been resolved and my inverter was back safe and well.  What brilliant and speedy service.  So a big thank you to them.

So with repaired inverter in hand last week I set about finishing the job.  This time doing it as per the instruction not my way. In under haft an hour the inverter was back fully working in its new home under the stairs.

So in attempt to move the inverter to stop it getting damaged, I damaged the inverter moving it.  What a knob!  I am however consoled by the fact that if the calorifier pipe did blow the damage that could cause would have been worse for the inverter than my faux par.

Lesson Learnt!!

River Lark Timelapse

I did some timelapse recording while cruising about during our month aboard.  I used a GoPro camera in timelapse mode taking 1 x 5mega pixel shot every 2 seconds.  In this video the final edit there are 7515 shots. These are then reduced in size to 1024 x 768 which takes so long to do I set the PC to do this task overnight.  Also for the assembly software to compile the images they have to be consecutively numbered.  The software used to reduce the size and re-number is Infranview.

The next stage is to compile the stills into a movie.  For this I use VirtualDub  The result is this:-

 First cut

There's still a bit more to do to this so check back for sound and titles.

I have now been told  3.5 mph over 3.5 hours = 12.25 miles travelled which is about right . To cover that distance in 2 minutes you'd have to be doing 367.5mph (12.25 x 60/2)

Electric Bike

I decided that to get about from moorings to local shops etc. a moped would be a good idea.  I have an old but nearly mint Puch Maxi

But weighing in at 48kg and that it requires tax, MOT, insurance and servicing and that it would mean having petrol on board it became clear pretty quickly it wasn't relay a sensible option.

So the search was on for an electric bike.  A good look around the market and a lot of research I came up with this little beauty.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting much when I ordered it but knowing I had the 7 day remote selling laws on my side I thought I have nothing to lose.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It's a very capable and sturdy bike and a very welcome addition to the boat kit.

The longest journey so far has been a shopping trip to a supermarket which was 4 miles each way.  On the way out I used pedal assist, on the way back I just used power only.  This I thought would cane the batteries and I would be peddling back too, but to my surprise this trip left the battery indicator still showing full.

Otherwise I've just used it to nip about instead of walking.  Weighing in at only 20kg it's easy to get on and off the boat too.

Conclusion.  Well pleased.

The gumph:-

Frame: Aluminum Alloy Folding Frame

Motor: 250 Watt Brushless Hub Motor

Gears & Speed: 7-Speed Shimano (Tourney) Gear System

Battery: 36V/10ah Lithium Ion Battery

Charger: Hi Power for Li-ion 36 volt Smart Charger with 5 - 6 Hours charging Time (depending on use)

Tyres: 20" x 1.95"

Speed: 15 mph (24 kph) (Motor Only) – UK Speed Limit

Distance: Up to 30 miles (48 km) range (depending on weather conditions and terrain)

Throttle: Twist Throttle and Pedal Assistance System (PAS)

Braking System: Front V- Brake and Rear Servo Brake

Front Forks: ZOOM CH-650 DH, Alloy Double-Crown Adjustable Suspension

Saddle Post: Alloy and Zoom Suspension

Mudguards: Front and Rear

Storage: Rear Carrier Included

  

 Weight Capacity: 100 kg (220 lbs)

Bike Weight: 15kg Without Battery

Battery Pack: Removable (quick release) and Lockable

Battery Weight: 4 kg (9lbs)

Legalities: No road tax or driving licence required. Insurance or helmet also not required

A Little Problem

We have spent the last few weeks exploring some of the tributaries of the Gt. Ouse, The River Wissey, The Lt. Ouse and The River Lark.  As lovely as these rivers are they are pretty weedy and so a couple of times the exhaust temperature light came on meaning the raw water intake filters were clogged.  Trouble with this is this starves the rubber impeller of water and it runs dry.

Once back on the deep and straight Gt. Ouse and the engine has nearly 100 hours I decided for the first time to open the engine up and let a good deal of the 114hp have its wicked way.  Top RPM is 2500 so I held back to 90% or 2250rpm  The main engine temperature remained at 85c which is normal.


After about 3 minutes the exhaust temperature warning came on.  I was a little concerned as I had cleared the filters before setting off about 20 minutes earlier and the Gt. Ouse is mostly weed free.


I cut the engine and drifted into the side to investigate.  I checked the filters and they were clear.  So after letting the engine cool down I restarted and saw nothing being drawn up from the river.  I removed the water uptake tube and felt inside the impeller housing and could feel damaged impeller blades.  As the system wouldn't self prime I filled the filter manually which was enough to get it primed. After which we were able to continue as before at about 1400rpm.


Once back at Ely I checked with Ely Chandlers to see if they had an impeller for my engine but they were unable to help but they kindly let me use their address for delivery when I found one in Leeds.  So many thanks for their help.


This afternoon it arrived and I swapped it out which took about 30 minutes.

Left buggered, right new

The new one has an 2 extra blades so I guess the original has been superseded.  Once changed and the system primed manually everything was back to normal, well at least on static tests.  A moving test will be done tomorrow.

Clearly the impeller is intolerant to running dry.  In the service book the impeller is a 1000 hour inspection so I think I have just been unlucky for now.  It's all a learning curve.

AVALON:- It's official now.

I spent all day yesterday, well that was available, between the regular and heavy rain showers cleaning and machine polishing and buffing the paintwork ready for the vinyl signs I had made last week.

This morning was dry and windless so after breakfast I marked out the area and positioned the letters.

I split the template into 3 x 2 letters to make application easier.

After a very long cruise, well about 45 minutes and 2 miles later we stopped on a very rural mooring on the River Wissey.  With the canopy down and a tretrious lean over the stern I applied the rear name. 

It's strange after all the work to this point how something like this seems so important to me.  I'll fit the starboard side whe we moor that side.

As we approached this mooring fellow boaters and bloggers Graham & Jill and Joe & Leslie 

called out to say a BBQ was planned for 2pm, so that settled it for us. A combined mash up of food from all boats stores and good weather resulted in a very pleasant afternoon for 6 boaters, 6 dogs and a cat.

High spot was Deb falling off her chair.

 Soft uneven ground apparently!

RESULTS for the sound insulation.

A few days ago I installed the under deck sound insulation.  Here are the reasults.

I've posted these at the end of the original post to keep it in context.

Doing A Doughnut In My Boat

You may recall I decided to make a Shilling rudder.

This short video shows what it can do.

Enjoy. Sorry about the reflection

It works as you can see and I'm glad I went to the extra effort.

A Kind Of Hush

I wouldn't say our engine is particularly noisy, indeed as its getting a few hours on it it seems to be getting a bit quieter.  We had no soundproofing under the 18mm deck floor.  We have a local firm  

who specialise in acoustic and thermal insulation.  I've know the owner for many years and contacted him for some advice.  He offered a 43mm laminated foam panel with 10kg man made lead type core wrapped in heat reflective foil as a solution.

The process started a few weeks ago with me making and supplying templates as TAP will make to exact size rather than just buying it in slabs as is the norm from chandlers.

 Starboard floorboard underside

Last week I got a call to say the panels were ready and today I fixed them under the floors.  The backing is self adhesive but I decided to add some mechanical fixing too.

Engine hatch before

Engine hatch after

I did some dB checks with the trusty iPhone db meter yesterday while we were on the move and will do some more tomorrow when we move again.  I have to say though just with the engine on tick over there is a noticeable difference.  Of course the engine is not the only noise source, a fair amount of prop against water is present too so a static test is not really valid.

On another noise note I've had an annoying metallic buzz at 1050rmp and again at 1900rpm which can be heard in this video.

I think I've now solved it.  There's a plate covering the turbo and I think this is the cause of the problem.

I have put it back with a few dollop's of high temperature silicone in the hope this will stop the vibration.

RESULTS

First off the vibration has stopped, so that's cured.

I wish I had done some more noise comparison tests at different RPM as the difference on general cruise RPM is measurably better:-

Before

After

But this really isn't the whole story as I later found out.  The sound proofing actually works better the louder the engine gets, so as the RPM and prop noise builds, the sound insulation damps more of it out, so its much much quieter when the RPM is higher and the prop thrashing more.  Now its much quieter when its working harder something I didn't expect.


Another test I never considered measuring was the generator.  The genny is already cocooned but with the new under deck sound insulation the difference is very noticeable.  I will be going back to TAP to see if they can help with quieting then Mikuni CH boiler.


So in conclusion:-  Well worth installing.

 

A Blast From The Past

It is 30 years since I last adjusted tappets and that was on a motorcycle.  So I had to buy a set of feeler gauges, something I never thought I'd be buying again.

Look proper tappets

The inlet ones needed closing up a bit and the exhaust ones opening a bit, but in all cases it was only fractional.  However its amazing how much quieter it is after.  In fact I think the engine is running in a bit now and is getting quieter anyway.

I also checked the gearbox oil which was clean as a whistle and still at the correct level.

I had an annoying bit of water coming in on the floor of the port engine room bilge.  I was convinced it was rain coming in through the engine air vents but it was curious that it's only one side.  I had to modify the intake vents.

However, while running the engine after the tappets I noticed a trickle of water from the normal spot where it runs down off the counter. There was only one place it was possible for water to come from and that was the exhaust outlet.  I tightened up the exhaust clamps but that didn't work so I repositioned them and re-tightened which cured it. So now I have a dry bilge at last.

 

Time for a repaint I think

Another annoying problem I've been having is with the generator start up.  The power on relay was not always latching on, but a wiggle on the remote plug would normally get it going until the next time.  All indications were a dry joint on the circuit board so I removed it from the genny to expose the board and a bit of wiggling produced the fault which turned out to be a bad connection on the fuse.  So that's another one sorted.

I've also re-routed the water inlet so the generator gets its water from the secondary strainer as well now. 

All I need now is some reliable periods of dry weather to do some painting outside.