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I have candles on my boat . Why ? Because i like them - i find them relaxing , they provide enough light to " chill out " to whilst listening to Pink Floyd . Theyre just much nicer than an LED bulb . I always grin whenever i read of this or that being dangerous . The person who cannot use a candle without setting fire to themselves really shouldn t be allowed to use a knife & fork for eating thier dinner with or be allowed to tie thier shoe laces up . Candles are not dangerous . People are dangerous . There are also alot of idiots about despite the fact that many folk have some piece of paper called a degree or anothe qualification that would suggest that infact theyre actually quite bright . If i walk down any high st i guarantee some twat will be walking along reading thier mobile fone , walking across road staring at facebook or some other tosh . This clearly means that mobile phones are dangerous as they divert otherwise intelligent peoples attention . Nonsense of course . Fones arent dangerous & neither are candles . People are dangerous & often thick as shite aswell . I sometimes wonder whether such notions of killer candles is part of modern britains " someone else is always to blame mentality " . " i cant possibly be a fxxxxing idiot - the fault lies with xyz " Big candles , wide base , secure , away from curtains , light with a match , enjoy & ensure its put out at the end of the night . It ain t rocket science is it Unless you re tool of course !

I don't know why folk are even talking about candles being unattended while cruising and the danger of them falling over. You wouldn't have one lit under those circumstances. End of the day, sat relaxing with a nice meal and a bottle of wine, a few candles lit... lovely. However, if you're one of those who consistently feels that the sky is falling then don't do it. It's (more or less) a free country.

Please think about the safety aspect of two inverters permanently wired in. My concern is that unless you are using inverters that have a special link cable to keep the two inverters in phase, then the two inverters will not be in phase. As the inverter clocks (50Hz) will be ever so slightly different your two inverters will run at ever so slightly different frequencies, the result is that sometimes they will be in phase and the rest of the time not. They will at times be 180 degress out of phase to each other. When they are 180 degrees out of phase - assuming the neutral side is bonded to earth - then the rms voltage difference between the two inverters will be 460V. When in phase it will be zero between inverters whilst still 230V to earth. This is one of the reasons that 3 phase is not supplied to domestic premises - it also costs more. I doubt you would install sockets supplied from different phases in a kitchen or living room in a house so I would not do it on a boat.

Your question is a good one but, rather than ask here, ring your local fire prevention officer. The fire brigade will have a much better handle on the reward versus risk of using candles.

Well, a very slight reduction in the oxygen content, a very slight increase in CO2, and a few ppm of other products of combustion, but creating an atmosphere? I though that needed millions of years of bacterial action!

The funnel and the roof have been kept and preserved as the current owner would like to some day put it back to a trip boat but they were not fit for use. Always good to actual ask questions before passing judgement?

Bear in mind that even a tap dripping once every ten seconds could be losing more than 50 litres of water each week! https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/questions/how-much-water-does-dripping-tap-waste

Very appropriate as today is the first day of lent and traditionally a day of fasting, so a small portion is correct.

In which case I fervently hope that if you ever get any wine it comes with a long cork! In fact, the mains lead is long enough to pass along the full length of the roof if we are moored stem-on (as we are at present) but it's not very elegant. It's far easier for small grandchildren to board at the cruiser stern though, hence stern-on is preferable.

We like candles. I can see no danger from using them on our boat in the areas we have them. Ian.

Configuring the new content stream is one thing, but even then, there's so much white space that I find it difficult to skim the list as previously. It doesn't help that the authorship information is now the same font size as the thread title, so the eye doesn't skip over it as easily. I use a browser extension called Stylish which lets you supply your own stylesheets for other people's sites. A little tweaking, and the New Content view looks like the attached pic, which I find much easier. The same stylesheet can also disable some of the extraneous clutter in threads themselves, such as profile pics (I'm sure everyone's lovely, but I could really do without close-up eyes staring straight at me in every other post). In case it's useful to anyone else, I've uploaded the altered style here: https://userstyles.org/styles/139567/canal-world-compact

It's not often we get a 4 foot swell on the canals, even on Tixall Wide.

If I tell you I'll do something, that means I'll do it. You don't have to keep reminding me every six months.

Not only is it not a requirement, it's not a very good idea. You will potentially have many points of contact between the sheath and the hull giving lots of potential for electrolytic corrosion.

The AC wiring on my boat has an earthed flexible sheath as a defence against abrasion. I'd thought it was an RCD requirement but maybe not, I know nothing...

To be fair, however, I think the majority of comments made on this forum are more directed towards narrow boats, not boats like yours. Howard

A few years ago we met an Australian couple who had moved to the UK to spend two years on the canals with their young son and daughter. They said it was a deliberate decision made to enhance their childrens' education - couldn't disagree with that, what stories those kids will have to tell their own children. Living on a boat then trying to find a way of sending your kids to school seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Who was it said all you really need to do is teach children to read, the rest is brainwashing. I reckon I've forgotten 90% of everything I was taught at secondary school.

In what way is posting on Facebook/Twitter any more nonsense than posting on a forum like this?

I really can't imagine how a tea light candle could fall over even if the boat was being steered by Tim & Pru.

YesBut If the Boat's Engine is running the Tea Light will keep bumping into the Spoon

I think I may need to go and lie down in a dark room somewhere, but I do actually agree with you, particularly the suggestion of seeing them all gone. Perhaps I'm just a funny b*gger but it all this nonsense of 'likes' and 're-tweeting' that has kept me off the likes of Facebook and Twitter as I can't see the point of it all, express your opinions and if people like it or don't like it,so be it. Then I read this article https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/28/how-technology-gets-us-hooked which I will apologise for the length of, but it does actually make some valid points and interesting reading. Perhaps we are just addicted to pressing buttons to see what happens and I suppose give some explanation of why there is this addiction for 'likes' (for god sake don't click on this comment)

Hi guys I am a relative newcomer to boats and not experienced at all with steel hulls. Before I read this I thought I had found a solution. I was going to isolate my noisy computers and bits with a transformer and then use a GI for the rest as I plan to split my load across 2 inexpensive inverters instead of 1 and use 2RCDs. I quicky realised it would not work as both circuits would be bonded to the hull effectively making the transformer practically worthless. I still plan the 2 inverters for cruising but will be fitting automatic changeovers for shore power. I think I will use a GI but check my shore earthing as regularly as I test the RCDs. From my understanding of all of your interesting discussions this should give my the protection I require both for myself, my boat and anyone coming into contact with the hull. I am considering using standard mains MCBs for the 12v side. I have done simple tests and they seem to trip correctly both on short circuits and on overload does anyone have any experience of this?

Unlikely to be an issue in a boat, but I can say from experience that if you turn up at a festival and they find the syringe that comes with this product, you're might have to wait some time while the uniformed man with the little dog pulls your van to bits. Especially if he finds a pack of Rizlas with a bit of cardboard missing. So I'm told!

I have now found a manufacturer of miniature circuit breaker designed for Dc use up to 70 volts. With a range starting at 1 amp. CHINT CIRCUIT BREAKERS they can be found on line. I found a wholesaler EXPERT ELECRTICAL on line or call on 01706860011 They sell the range of MCB's and the enclosures

I was recently involved in a discussion about circuit breakers for use on boats. I have now found a manufacture of breakers which are designed for use on dc voltage up to 70 volts that have a range starting at 1 amp . The manufacturer is CHINT MINIATURE CIRCUIT BREAKER. you can find the on line. but I found an electrical wholesaler who will supply the breakers and the enclosures. EXPERT ELECTICAL SUPPLIES.

I bring the stern in close to the pontoon so I can step off with the centre line, that way I can hold the boat close to the pontoon whilst it slowly moves backwards. Once it is most of the way in to the mooring I step back on and knock it out of gear. If there is a couple of empty pontoons by you then have a practice without a boat being there for you to worry about hitting.

Now that we are allowed to discuss politics, religion, mention thunderboat,, and the mod team seems to be almost sane, it's great that we have been given something to moan about. Let me just chuck my hat in the ring and say that I think the new forum software is much less user-friendly then the old. there - it's out now...

Are you a member of the technical team Mr Ross? Perhaps you should be as most of the advice and answers have been yours in the last few days. Mot of us are struggling with this and trying to make the best of it with lots of questions. Looking from outside, the forum is awful. Painful. Not user friendly. Why should a prospective member have to spend any time at all changing settings/creating "activities (whatever they may be). The site was and should be very simple for the most non computer literate person to enjoy. It isn't.

On the matter of home education I dont think that has anything to do with Pandas quest that is merely bshit sidelining. As for actualy home educating children I personaly would never have home educated any of my children as I believe the biggest and most important part of education is for kids to mix and learn how to integrate with their peers, this is the reason I am also dead set against single sex schools, we dont live in a single sex society so educating in such a manner is totaly alien to reality.

Anyway, putting metamorphic boats aside for a moment, my suggestion would be to not depart too far from normal boat practice. If you tailor you boat specifically to your present circumstances, you may regret it later. I doubt you have any security of tenure on this mooring and even if the landlord isn't going to change their attitude, your needs might change and you might want to move or sell the boat. So normally you will have a water tank and pump. Then you just have a choice between an instant water heater, which has to be gas not electric for the reasons mentioned earlier. Or a hot water storage tank aka a calorifier, which can typically be heated by up to 3 sources, ie electric immersion element (1kw is adequate), the engine's cooling system and the system that heats the radiators (gas, diesel or solid fuel back boiler). Calor gas is fairly expensive, diesel heaters not that reliable or very expensive to install, so the cheapest solution is likely to be shore power electricity via the immersion heater. These are always thermostatically controlled so can just be left permanent switched on and you will always have a tank full of hot water (if you are on shore power).

I think there should be canals run by Warners, children not allowed.

As mine is in the engine room I can and have connect my engine to the takeoff from the stove tank when someone borrowed the diesel out of my main tank. Kept me going for a couple of days.

I have a separate stainless steel tank attached to a bulkhead. It is fed by means of a semi-rotary pump from the main tank. Read the BSS regulations because a tank greater than 27 litres is subject to more stringent conditions - venting, overflow arrangements etc.

So is mine for my Old Dutch, plus there is a transfer pump, to allow diesel to be transferred from the main engine/Webasto tank. (Pity you can't transfer it the other way in case you run out of propulsion fuel though).

Mine is on the well deck, tucked under the gunnel, with a proper filling fitting on the gunnel and a gooseneck vent protected by the roof overhang. It is actually for the Mikuni but I find it very easy to fill and it works well. But it was probably done at build. It is a fabricated tank, bolted in place. Not much bigger than a shoe box.

Been a member since Oct 2008 and hav'nt any forum friends yet and it's my birthday this Thursday. I do feel inadequate...