Vital Statistics

Measuring up

March 2017

Its getting to crunch time when we actually start to load all that carefully prepared stock onto the Jam Butty, ready for sale during the summer season.

Its not just the size but the weight distribution and storage capacity which has been occupying my mind. A quick tally in the store room suggests something like 2000 jars / bottles will be coming with us which at about 150 jars per trading day gives us, um - about 13 days supply. Thats a lot of volume and a lot of weight.

All jars have to be stored in boxes to keep them safe, and we have enough space, just. But how much will it all weigh? Nerd that I am I decided to do a bit of maths. Each 210g jar actually weighs 370g when you include the glass - so thats 740,000 grammes or 740 Kg. But as traditional boaters we spit on metric so 740 kg equals 1,630 lbs, or 116 stone which is the equivalent of 7 medium sized blokes (something I can imagine).

Thats quite a lot of weight, but not so much that the butty cant carry it. It just needs to be distributed taking account of the natural list to port (it lists 2 or 3 cm and its not the fit out weight distribution, so it has to be vagaries in the construction using the remains of the iron day boat. My guess is that one side is deeper than the other. The fabricators were never convinced it was straight either and the feeling is that one side is longer than the other but on a boat which is all bows and stern, with just 2 metres of straight plate in the middle, being a "banana boat" isn't a particular problem.

So, the storage has been constructed with 2/3 to starboard and most towards the middle of the boat and about 66% below the waterline for stability. Time will tell if this all works out.

Bunging up the ole

Its curtains for curtains

March 2017

Its hard to believe it, but in just over four weeks we will be setting off on our epic jaunt. One level this is great but on another it highlights the need to attend to all this little jobs on the boats which remain undone.

One new porthole bung

Sure, the installation of the solar panels and battery bank was a big achievement but everywhere I look there are outstanding tasks which, if I get my finger out, could be addressed before we go.

So, yesterday set about one of the most obvious tasks - washing Wand'ring Bark. This may not sound too hard but our mooring is under a tree and as a result we suffer from chronic verdigris. It all washes off of but it was so bad that the gunnels had become like ice rinks in the wet. So, I ran the engine for an hour or so to get a supply of hot water and tackled the task full on. I have to admit that the improvement was immediate and impressive, even if it did highlight the flaky bits of paint here and there.

Whilst the water was heating I tackled some internal jobs like fixing the pictures to the walls and most particularly, trying out the new bung in the window on the corridor. We have never really cracked this particular window from a curtain perspective as anything we have used has been snagged as we walked past either wrecking the curtain or our clothes. When we had the rest of the curtains made by Elite we asked for suggestions for this window which has a rebate of just 1cm, which precludes a traditional fabric covered porthole bung.

The suggestion was a circular bit of ply with some form of tape found the edge to bake a tight fit. Not a bad idea so I thought I would give it a shot.

I has some 8mm ply and with care I was able to create a circle on the bandsaw with a margin of error of about plus or minus 1mm. This was varnished and a nice curvy stainless steel handle added. To keep in in place the edge was trimmed with some self adhesive P profile draught excluder and hey presto - one bung which fits tightly in its ole. Time will tell if the slightly over tight fit continues.

In addition I have been giving security a bit of thought. Last year when we were in Walsall Basin with one of the BCN Explorer Cruises on of the boats had its back deck boards lifted. Whilst nothing was taken I did clock the issue, which is a particular concern on a cruiser sterned boat. A winter of cogitating resulted in the idea to add wooden "prongs" to one edge of the board which hook under the metal surround on which is rests. On the other side I inserted a barrel lock bought from Screwfix and drilled a slot into the steel surround which the lever rotated into - making access to the engine and batteries impossible without serious crowbars. 

Thats four jobs down - but a long way to go.

Power to the People

We have power!

March 2017

After much anticipation this weekend was nothing short of electrifying.

A couple of weeks ago I bought four new 110 ah batteries to replace the two batteries which had been in place for 5.5 years, neatly filling the newly enlarged battery box, The problem was then how to wire them up in the post effective manner possible and a bit of guidance from Halfie came in handy.

A new 440ah battery bank

Then there was the small matter of sourcing the crimped wires of the correct thickness and length. Peter from Solar Kingfisher came to the rescue and quickly produced the positive and negative wiring I needed, and pointed out that as my new batteries come ready with M8 terminals there was no need for clamped attachments which can be areas of poor connection.

Friday was a day of biblical rain and I took the opportunity to sit on the engine and complete the battery wiring under the shelter of the canvas awning, connecting the whole bank together and, with the aid of a set of M8 nuts and a socket set. the task was soon complete.

Saturday saw me back at the boat, this time with my friend Mr G, who happens to be both an electrician and experienced in solar panel installation. Now admittedly his specialism is in the huge commercial arrays, but its all a matter of scale and he willingly offered to give me a hand. First we introduced a DC isolator switch at the fromntof the boat into which the wiring from the two panels was fed. Fortunately, there was already a 10mm hole in the bulkhead which used to carry a TV ariel, to this was recycled for our purposes.

The wiring through the boat has been in place for a couple of months so our next task was to install the regulator at the stern, as near the battery bank as possible. An extra hole was cut through the bulkhead into the engine room and the battery feeds were bolted onto the battery terminals. Then, finally, a remote monitoring display was cut into the instrument panel and hey presto - we had evidence of a supply from the panels, a steady feed into the batteries and proof that the battery condition was good. 

Ready to become a battery nerd

Put simply - the whole set up works.

But thats not the end of the story. If you remember we started on this electrical adventure to power a small isotherm freezer, which needed a new power supply and an enlarged electrical storage capability. So, Sunday saw me down at the boat again to complete the wiring to the freezer. Now it said, quite clearly, on the freezer delivery docket that the unit should be tested within 24 hours of receipt, and that would nave been in about November 2015..... so it was with huge relief that I flicked the new freezer switch was was rewarded with the sound of the compressor fan humming and the freezer cooling fast.

Not content with the freezer, I also discovered fixed the hot water pipe under the sink which appears to have caught the frost and resulted in a slow drip. The pipe was repositioned and the jubilee clip tightened and we now seem to have a leak free plumbing system too.

The new cruising season may still be a few weeks away but the boats are taking shape.

A bright spark

A bright spark

Feb 2017

Time is flying by and whilst there has been little action on the blog in the last month, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes.

New solar panels on Wand'ring Bark

The end of my paid employment is rapidly drawing closer, with just over six weeks left till I leave in mid April and then, almost immediately, we will be heading off to Droitwich for the first trading event of the season. 

Suddenly, all our plans are stepping up a gear and there is a veritable blitz of ordering going on to ready ourselves for our 2017 extended trip. Glass jars are being ordered by the thousand, new leaflets have arrived, blackboards are being re painted and various carpentry jobs are being finished off on both the motor and the butty. Truth be told the number of things on the "to do" list is frighteningly long.

Viewed from the tiller

This weekend represented something of a milestone in the electrical power department. You will remember that I built a small 12v freezer into the new saloon (32ltr Isotherm) but this needs an extra power supply and extra storage, which all adds up to quite marathon on the DIY front.

To start the weekend I bought 4 new sealed cell 110ah batteries from Coombswood Trust in Hawne Basin. These will replace our pair of five year old batteries and I was relieved to discover that the extra two batteries fitted snugly into the newly extended battery box. Now I just need to source some extra battery wires and we will be sorted.

Not content with the batteries I also bought two 160 amp Midsummer solar panels with a controller just before Christmas and have been itching to get them fixed in. I did spend a very chilly day on the boat about a month ago installing all the electrical cables which will carry the power from the panels to the controller and also the 12v supply from the batteries to the freezer, but the means of securing the panels to the boat was in something of a gestation period.

Motor and butty await the start of the new season

My key criteria is that the panels have to be as inconspicuous as possible, protected from accidental damage and also capable of some angling to maximise power gathering. What I didn't want was those triangular brackets screwed to the roof which are, to my mind, unsightly and add significantly to the air draft. Success means that I can still navigate the Froghall Tunnel and failure is not an option.

My solution was to set the panels end to end in front of the centre ring and to the port side next the the pole rack. The panels have been fixed to a hinged frame which in turn is attached to three hardwood strips which match the curve of the cabin roof, wedged into position under the the handrails. The production was a bit tricky but in the event turned out better than I expected, with a very even 5mm gap all round the panels. When flat the panels are below the level on the handrail and even in the centre of the roof they stand up less than the height of the cratch. Froghall remains within our reach.

All in all I am very satisfied with the end result. From the stern the supports look a bit like boatmans beams and from the side they are all but invisible.

Now I just need to sort out the wiring.

The Reader on the 6.27 - a book review

The Reader on the 6.27

By Jean Paul Didierlaurent

Jan 2017

I don't know how this book came to be kicking around on the welsh dresser in the kitchen. Its almost certainly one of Helen's literary acquisitions, maybe bought to satisfy the reading demands of her long running book group.

Whatever its origin,s I know it wasn't bought for me and at no time did she proffer a "this is a really good book - you should read it" endorsement, which of late has tended to introduce worthy and often ponderous tomes. Books which no doubt have great literary merit but so often fall short of gripping plot lines or heaven forbid, a half way decent body count!

And so in silent protest at this onslaught of the worthy I have tended to indulge myself in the type of lightweight action thriller offered by Clive Cussler or Dan Brown.

However, finding myself bookless and wanting a read I aligted on the above book, its spine unbent and its pages unread. The blurb offerd no suggestion of references to long dead playwrights, so I carefully opened the book to page one, which is always a good place to start. Now I have to say that I am a bit notorious for reading books lightly, and its quite possible that I can read a complete work and replace it in a condition which leaves almost no clue that a pair of eyes have travelled this way before. So, if this book was not for consumption by the Captian lets leave it that way, as a little secret between the two of us ok? 

The book is an amazingly charming translation of a short story written and first published in France written by, for and about book lovers. In fact its fair to say that books and the reading thereof forms the the core of the plot line.

The plot centres on lonely and slightly geeky Guylain who's life in publishing is certainly one less travelled. His job is the operator of a book pulping machine, a machine which reduceds remaindered books to their essential pulp, ready to be turned back into - more new books. This endless cycle of loss of the written word troubles Guylain deeply, and each day as he cleans the hated machine he recovers odd pages which he dries out and, for some inexplicable reason, he reads aloud each morning on the 6.27 train.

Words have power and Guylains snatched fragments reach out with unexpected consequences, enriching the lives of those he encounters and transporting them in directions they could never forsee.

Its only 200 pages long but each is crafted with care, sucking you in. As with all short stories, it will come to a conclusion of sorts and leaving you wanting more - a bit like the snatched readings on the 6.27.

Helen - if the book was meant for someone else I havn't read it, honestly, and this review is entirely plagarised form other on line reviews! ;-)