Leaderboard

In that case, I apologise for my apology!

Alfie has been found! Lorna sends her thanks to everyone who kept a lookout for him. Six days astray he has gone a bit 'feral', catching and devouring mice. He appears non the worse for wear, but is going to the vets for a thorough check up tomorrow. Poor thing is to be confined to the boat until Lorna gets the boat back to her home mooring.

Typical cheap power meter: https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/13a-plug-in-energy-saving-monitor-n67fu?cmpid=ppc:smart_home:pla:google&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0K7NBRC7ARIsAEaqLRE7Blrhs9Bv79GH8SoaF1oQgWL9-ev4IITKEqRwUABYPAEaZvIqqmwaAgSlEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Good idea but he'll still be guessing I suggest you follow TonyB's advice to go out and buy a wattmeter. They're pretty cheap and you can get one on Amazon, Ebay, Maplins etc. Your partner can then plug all his toys (pc, synth, processors, amps, speakers etc) via the meter. Use them for say a week, divide by 7 and he has a typical daily usage. Divide the power by 10 to convert to Ah taken from a battery bank. Tony

Hi. I'm a working signwriter specialising in boats. I'd suggest a size 5 long sable chisel lettering brush, square ended as the name suggests. One shot lettering enamels will flow well and cover easily. I use white Stabilo pencils for laying out, they will mark on almost any surface but can be removed later with a damp cloth. I don't get too hung up on letter size, preferring the signwriter's maxim " if it looks right, it is right....the registered at lettering had to be at least 2" tall, I understand, though a job I did earlier this year on an historic GU boat was rather less, based on photos. I suspect that many original jobs were laid out and sized by the signwriter doing the job on the day, rather than following an exact spec from the company. Having said that, I agree with most of your proposed sizing. I've never painted the shadow first, always the letter, that determines the shadow shape and size. Good luck. Dave

It is possible to Tame an Ecofan, yes really! Sneak up on it and use Mooring Pins and Ratchet Straps to affix it to the Skin of a Rice Pudding and , Hey Presto!Calm will abound...Pure Inertia-less Calm

Yeah thats the trouble with them. I used to power my washing machine and tumble dryer with one but I always thought the extra power above that they generated was wasted and the heat blown around the cabin used to give us both serious burns.

Yes latterly. But years ago they had bright tangerine orange hulls and white cabins. At the end of the hire season the orange hulls looked very rough!

More ballast under the floor will always improve stability. Is the uxter plate nicely under water? The builders will have ballasted light as they don't know how much stuff you'll use fitting it out.

Me too. Nearly every day in fact. Rarely intentionally.

Once the fitout is complete and your stuff is on board the boat will settle a lot lower in the water and be less sensitive to someone wandering around on board. A solid fuel stove is around 80Kg for example. Similar weight to an average person. Wouldn't worry about it. My boat was about 2" higher in the water when in sailaway condition and the underside of the counter barely touched the water. Once fitted out it was fine. Jen

It could be lacking ballast but most sailaways are pretty tender until they're fitted out. Slightly bow high is both good and normal.

I am happy to remain uncharitable as Colours Of The Cut is full of errors, and in my 'business' accuracy is everything As far as I am aware there were three addresses (possible four but I can not find evidence at the moment) applied to Grand Union Canal Carrying Ltd. narrow boats as built: 20 Bucklersbury (March 1934 - January 1937) = turquoise / white / blue livery. 149 Fenchurch Street (January 1937 - March 1937) = turquoise / white / blue livery. Port of London Building (March 1937 - c1941) = red / white / blue livery. My terms of reference are the Health Registration certificates for each boat, which give the Company address at the time of Inspection - and I have sufficient transcripts of each Health Registration certificate to piece this all together. There is no doubt that the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company Ltd. operated from other addresses in London but I do not think they appeared on a cabin side, but if they did it would have been in the first three months of 1937. As always there are a few anomallies where a boat was delivered in early 1937 but not Health Registered until later that year, such as THAXTED which was delivered 15 January 1937 so carried the address 149 Fenchurch Street but was health Registered on 20 July 1937 with the address detailed on the certificate as Port of London Building

Clive Sinclair is often regarded as the true inventor rather than the slightly seedy entrepreneur that Sugar is often is seen as, but I have read that Sir Clive started of by selling out of spec/reject transistors to the hobby market. Most businesses have to take a few risks when they start off, I reckon Branson just chose to borrow a bit of capital from HMRC rather than the banks which sounds like quite a good idea to me. I do fear that the entire inland waterways economy is a bit of a sitting duck for newcomers to move in and wreck but I don't know what we can do to protect it .................Dave

It became quite common to see former Grand Union Canal Carrying Company Ltd. narrow boats painted as per the drawing of FULBOURNE throughout 1970's / 1980's when it became popular to re-introduce 'historic' liveries. Clearly owners used the vast array of black and white photographs to come up with their opinions of what the colours and tones would have been and then matched these to lettering of the period. I am sure there would then be an element of copying, especially of those boats owned or operated by museums or those which had undergone professional repainting (which was not common back then). Every single G.U.C.C.Co. Ltd. narrow boat that was painted in the first generation red / white / blue with 'company' lettering carried the 20 Bucklersbury address - perpetuating this livery into history to such a degree that it was published in Waterways World as a part of Edward Paget-Tomlinson's Colours Of The Cut series in April 1994. From this point forward there were only three clear voices that this was wrong - Alan Elyard Brown, Alan H. Faulkner and me. It was not until about 2003 when somebody was prepared to listen as once something is published it is read as fact. The owners of BATTERSEA and ACTIS contacted me regarding the painting of ACTIS in the first generation G.U.C.C.Co. Ltd. livery, and as far as I am aware they became the first to letter a boat with the Port of London Building details, soon after followed by BATTERSEA which at that time was lettered 20 Bucklersbury but red / white / blue. This was a bit of a turning point as REGULUS followed very shortly afterwards and fortunately this trend has continued, although this has been a real personal battle for me especially as I am the only person still harping on. Edward Paget-Tomlison made it clear at first publication in Waterways World that some liveries he drew were based on greyscale interpretation or the distant memories of the few people who could remember these boats in trade or even popular opinion. As I have said earlier in this thread there was an opportunity to add a caveat to the drawing of FULBOURNE prior to Colours Of The Cut been published in book form but it was ignored by somebody who thought they knew better, and every time it is bought to light it is necessary to go though all of this over and over again. Hopefully Colours Of The Cut will never be reprinted, but if it is I hope somebody is prepared to add that caveat

Thanks for all the great/useful and I believe mostly grammatically correct feedback ☺️ I think I will follow Lilly Rose's excellent suggestion, and buy both the Pearson's and Nicholson guides for our local area, and try out the online tools as we travel. We can then argue between the two of us (SWMBO) about which are the best and buy the one she wants. Regards Alan

Very good! I make silly mistake about manmeter I dont ave girlfiend to type me now as she sleap with gas enginear. I laugh on other side of head now as Enlish like to say! I get new girl soon on net. I get one who can type me good.

Maybe that hadn't paid their mobile phone bill?

I think if you regularly find yourself down in the 10 to 11 volt range that is a pretty fair conclusion. A bit like Nightwatch's thread on the topic, really. By that stage I doubt removing one or two duff batteries from the bank is going to keep you going much longer.

Neither, it was a low battery voltage beep.

No. Sorry sir. One hundred lines....... I must stop asking grammatically incorrect questions on forum. I must stop asking grammatically incorrect questions on forum. I must stop asking grammatically incorrect questions on forum. (lines are much easier if I(not you) cut and paste)

1) Run the engine 2) Switch on the battery charger 3) Disconnect the inverter from the battery 4) Stop discharging your batteries so deeply

Is a monammeter used for measuring current flow in French rivers ?

I think that part of the 'perception' of 'bluntness / abruptness' could well be the media that we are using. Certainly, I tend to use short sentences and or bullet points rather than long rambling paragraphs, primarily because I always had secretaries to type for me and only since I took early retirement have I learned to 2-finger type (very slowly and with some difficulty as someone moves the position of keys everyday, this forum takes great delight in inventing words I did not type, and, the keyboard keys are bit 'sticky' a often need 2 or 3 hts t ork. (see what I mean) I you really want to learn then stay 'on site', if you want someone to say what wonderful plan you have then you should may be look elsewhere. Only you can decide if you want help or not.

I get rid of used ground coffee in the pump-out tank. It is known to be good for compost heaps due to being rich in nitrogen which helps the bacteria do their job, after you've done yours.

I can't figure out if you are losing keys or crew members? Cheers Graham

If you read the advert carefully you will see that he says 'earn' up to £52K per year with rental of £1K per week, ie his 'earn' is turnover NOT profit. For established businesses, one way to determine sale price is turnover or 3-8 times profit (simplify by saying 5 times profit). Hence his £52K price is the same as the maximum annual turnover which is directionally ok. The problem with this deal though is that the value of the business will include the value of the assets (assume that includes the boat) and any cash in the business less any debts. It is impossible to value the business therefore without that information. If the boat was a business asset and the value of the boat was £50K then that would have a huge effect on the value of the business. Has VAT been paid on the boat? etc, etc etc. For me the biggest issue is what is the profit? Cleaning? Maintenance? Repairs? Insurance? Compliance? Bad debts? Tax debts? I cant see it making much profit if one sticks to the rules (but I havent a clue what the EA rules are). If you are selling a 'going concern' then I would expect a few years of invoices etc not 6 weeks. Edit - while I was typing -Thankyou Mr Rose for beating me to it.

I fell for my boat at first sight even though (the most obvious point) it was 70' and I was looking for a 57'. Two months later I was very worried that its "quirks" were going to overwhelm me. Now (after five years) I am beginning to get used to them. Throughout, I have really loved the boat. You can moor it amongst many boats and it still stands out (in my opinion) when you return to it. But Cuthound is only beginning to describe its oddities, some are just odd while some verge on lunacy. Frank.

As you say - this site IS a brilliant place for advice . Try to think of where else u might get such well meant , honest & generous information ? No one on this forum is trying to sell you anything, whereas you have an electrician who seems not entirely trustworthy & someone looking to take 5K off you tor a toilet . Who do you think is more likely to be impartial. Its s clear you are unhappy about the suggestion you want a floating flat or cottage . But that IS what you want is it not ? My suggestion was to consider cutting back power consumption as a way of assisting your power management. Well , this is clearly an unwelcome suggestion despite it being a very relevant way of managing your seemingly endless " wants " . Some will criticize choices . Folk are making very very valid points about your chosen toilet . It IS going to cause you a great deal of hassle for all the reasons mentioned above . The cost is a joke . But a diesel generator that WILL go a long long way to enabling you to power all tje gadgets your life cannot function without is too expensive . 5 K for a glorified pisspot or 7 - 10 K for a marine generator that will be worth its weight in gold to you - i 'd suggest that it isnt rocket science to see which is more useful . You can get a boat toilet for £50 - £1000 job done & use the rest of the savings for tje genny . People on the forum who are miles more knowledgeable tjan me are advising you to do some serious rethinking before you make costly mistakes .. but it isnt what you wanna hear is it ? , which is a shame but they are giving freely thier knowledge built up over many years . You should heed it because you re not likely to find better advice elsewhere No one is being rude , mean , obstructive etc . It would be lovely wouldn t it if everyone just said " yeah yeah of course you can , have what you want - it ' ll be a doddle " BUT it wouldn t be honest would it . If you ask for help or advice then you have to be prepared to accept the answers even if theyre unwelcome . You should keep posting . You shouldn t worry about what folk might reply but don t expect anything but honesty . cheers

We have just had our second pump out since using some Bio washing stuff I bought in a cheap O shop in Elesmere and even looking in the tank and pouring a bucket of water in to flush the tank there was no smell. There was no smell where the chap was doing the pump out and none by the pump unit. The tank also pumped out cleaner with no visible solid residue. I have used many things in the past but this seems the best. We have never had a smell problem in the toilet other than when holding the ball open to clean the seal, but even that is better with the washing liquid. The stuff we are using is "Easy 3 in 1 Liquid Laundry " bio action ; Brightens ; east iron and it must be OK for toilets as its made by Jeyes and my gran use to put Jeyes Fluid in the outside privy when I was a kid. http://www.jeyes.com/en-gb/our-products/easy/

Read what the contents are, they should be printed on the container. From Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_Duck#Ingredients

Just ignore the Luddites, they mean well but struggle to get it across sympathetically Do however pick up on the very valid points that crop up - like a new gas cylinder weekly if you stick to your idea of an incinerator toilet. I seem to recall that in the recent thread about that concept there was a pretty unanimous response of "Don't do it" yet it appears that you're going to ignore that advice. The usage, generation and saving of electrical energy is a complex subject and you WILL take a while to grasp the complexities (particularly with the seemingly poor advice that you're receiving from your electrician). However, you WILL grasp the fundamentals in time. Keep asking questions and ignore the rude posters And like the advice above, never trust a thin chef.

Actually I don't think building a narrow boat and calling it a narrow boat is half as quirky as building a wider boat along otherwise similar lines and then calling it a widebeam narrow boat. I do appreciate that self contradictory term may be slightly on the decline now there are a lot more of them, but it certainly still seems to be widely used. (Apollo Duck certainly still has a "Widebeam" sub-section listed under "Narrow Boats". What's that all about?

Some issues, but it may be possible. 1, Peltiers work best with a large temperature difference, if you used the input side (return flow) water to cool the cold side of the peltier you would hopefully get about 70 ish degrees C temperature difference hot to cold, which should be OK. 2, Peltiers for sale on ebay generally have a max temperature of 120/140 degrees C, your stove will exceed that easily (measured mine at 270 and not roaring), maybe using the back of the back boiler will limit the hot side, but if the pump failed then you will boil over and possibly melt the peltiers. 3, The Peltiers output is not easily controlled, to get 12 volts with say a 30 degree teperature difference you will need to put 3 or 4 in series, this will output 30+ volts at 70 degree temperature difference. You will need a buck boost controller (a bit like a MPPT solar controller) which will accept a large input voltage range and give out a controlled voltage range. To get 0.5 amps you may need more than 1 series chain so perhaps 8 peltier devices. The principle is fine, I would suggest clamping the peltiers between the back of the back boiler near the top and a cooling plate carrying the CH return water to the pump. This should avoid melting the peltiers. You can buy High Temperature Peltiers which will cope with 300-400 degrees C but they are extremely expensive. The usual difficulty is the cooling side, as air near the stove is hot it is not very useful for cooling, but you have a source of low to mid temperature water which is very useful. In theory if you have big enough plates to have many peltiers say 20 ish with a good controller you could get 2-3 amps to charge your batterys (3 amps may sound small, but it will be 24 hours a day in winter and 36 amphours charge then is worth a lot)

I've got mud hoppers that are prettier than that thing. The quality of the workmanship within is very high though - but I'm not naming the builder in case they'd rather remain anonymous!

The one conclusion is that we have the balls to make it work, on another note, the Mediterranean countries are so far removed from the North Western Europeans in mentality and history, equally the Eastern countries. On a personal note, it is this diversity that makes Europe such a fantastic place but political and monetary union without fully centralised budgetary and legal control is not possible, and Britain will not subscribe to meeting most of the other requirements, after all we are the oldest organised government in Europe with monetary, language and political union across country dating back centuries. On a point of note, even the Eastern block countries want all that is good but nothing of the costs, no immigrants but keep all of the benefits for their nationals working abroad....they send money back home and enriches their own economy....do I blame them? No. Do I think it is right, No!....even my one Polish friend thinks we're mad and voted for brexit....forget all this rubbish about fear. At the end of the day we should retain a common market, sack all of these unelected bloodsucking pompous egotists dining on foil gras and fine wines at everyone's expense, and then get back to being us in our rich cultural diversity. ?...guess which way I voted!?

Why do you say this? In my opinion they are the perfect pairing. With the two of them you can... Know when to start charging (or at least, stop discharging). Know when you can stop charging. Accurately measure the battery capacity. You can't easily do all 3 with anything else without a lot of experience and, in the case of the third item, a lot of time.

I've run out of petrol in all the best places. In the Mersey tunnel in a Minivan where the Mersey tunnel police turned up in their red Land Rover with a gallon which cost me more than all the petrol I'd used to get from London to Liverpool, I couldn't afford to stop for a few pints after that. A sudden squall snapped our mast off whilst sailing an old home built Lysander sailing cruiser in the Thames estuary off Southend pier. Talk about wreck of the Hesperous, the whole rig had blown over the side, managed to cut it all free in true Charlton Heston style. Powerful wind against tide conditions, no maroons no life jackets, whiskey all gone, half drowned with salt spray, fags kept getting extinguished, matches sopping wet, even the gulls were flying backwards in the fury of the gale. We needed to get back under the lee of Canvey Island where the mud berth mooring was, or under the lee of something to escape the raging elements. After a big struggle we managed to coax the old Seagull outboard into life as we were broaching too badly, very dangerous in the very short mountainous wind against tide conditions off the pier on which we could see folk drinking and pointing at us. We struggled on westwards looking longingly at land and safety on our starboard side, especially longingly at the green roofed Halfway House pub on the Esplanade, we kept looking thirstily back at that pub for a long time until it faded away into the gloom. And then the Seagull coughed and spluttered as it was also getting thirsty. We had about a quart of petrol in a can so proceeded to top it up whilst under way, spilling most overboard. Then the Peterboat pub loomed up to starboard at Leigh-On-Sea and we knew we were almost safe under the lee of Canvey point. Good old Canvey, trouble is they only sell lager there. With the tide still ebbing we were popping merrily along approaching the mooring trots when the Seagull spluttered and finally expired for want of more petrol, which we didn't have. With the boat hook I reached out full stretch and just managed to hook onto the stern rail of a moored boat, which we clung onto for dear life until the tide turned when we paddled up to our mud berth mooring. I hasten to add that we'd left the anchor at home which would have been useful for that last bit. We spent the rest of the day in the Hoy and Helm in Benfleet where they sold decent beer.

All this as Nick had a couple of unpleasant and unnecessary experiences attempting to purchase fuel. i have bought stuff in a great deal of areas of the country over the past three years or so. In the main, good experiences. However, there are those that just want a pieceful life and find that cuctomers are an added nuisance to this pieceful life. In these instances I have managed to buy,if available, all that I wanted. Not always at the price I would have preferred to pay. I have bought from the majority of the places mentioned and the only place my own diplomatic skills saved the day was Fenny Compton before the 'big lady' went somewhere else to sing. My wife's diplomatic skills failed miserable on a number of occasions. The hire base in the Stratford,can't remember the name, was one such place where staff were far too busy to even tell me that the pumpout was duff even though I had been waiting over 90 minutes with their knowledge. This was a Friday,change over day, and yes they were busy and behind with their cleans, customers waiting for their hire boats etc. I was told pumpout won't be fixed until Tuesday. Eventually someone took me to one side and suggested I moor on the tow path and he'll let me know when the Pump out was fixed. It turned out to be about ttwo hours later. I don't actually believe it was broken at all. Why didn't they tell me to bugger off until they'd sorted themselves out. I would have offered to help clean a couple of boats,refuel or whatever. We just needed our tank emptying. In the end we bought diesel as well. DIM.(did it myself). We all need to be more tolerant. We,sadly, live in a me,me me environment,me,I live in a whenever environment. Things do wind me up, I very rarely lose my rag. It's their loss that they didn't get to chat to me and allow me to bore them still with my stories of sea and canal. please excuse my gobbledegook post. I'm having a nice day. Off to meet an old shipmate at lunchtime that I haven't met since 1979 ish. We are both bigger than then, he has no hair,I have grey. He has been married,I think three times, I have only suffered been married once. Wish me luck.

What you say is simply not true, and I for one resent you coming on here spreading false information, presumably in an attempt to drum up business for yourself. Clearly the Bubble tester should be suitable for the max load and an inadequate one giving excessive pressure drop would be a BSS fail. That is not in doubt. However you go on to say that a bubble tester correctly installed by the owner would nevertheless invalidate the BSS and hence insurance. This is simply not true. Please get your facts right before posting misleading stuff and using your qualification to attempt to make your view seem more valid. You clearly don't know what you are talking about and thus are off my BSS inspector list.

If you go ahead and fit a Bubble Tester in this arrangement you will at the very least immediately invalidate your BSS Certificate (Take it from me, I am a Gas Safe Registered BSS Examiner). Not only that but by installing the Bubble tester in line with your LPG gallery it will act as a choke and restrict the gas flow to your appliances when they are all running. You have 18Kw power in your appliances. Bubble testers cannot be installed in line where appliance ratings add up to more than 12Kw. Choking the gas may seem that they won't burn quite as fierce as they should, in actual fact it means that the gas will not burn as it should and it will produce deadly amounts of CO. Please seek professional advice. There are ways to install a bubble Tester in systems with over 12Kw appliance ratings but they must be installed in an 'isolated branch' arrangement. And with regards to insurance, the BSS have a record of every vessel with a Bubble Tester so in the event of an accident or worse a fatality, the resulting MAIB investigation will look to find out who installed it and when. And if done by other than a GSR Engineer certified to CCLP1-B then your insurance will be invalid. Happy to help if you want more advice.

Langley Mill Boatyard charge 80p per Litre domestic rate, because we have to make money. We know it's not the cheapest, but it doesn't make us much as we don't have the biggest tank so can't attract lower wholesale rates. We also do pump outs at £12, we don't include blue at that price. As a re-growing business, at the dead end of an 11 mile canal we have to price realistically, and we refuse to rip people off and use the "service station" principle. We won't imply a split on fuel, will fill either side of your boat, and will also serve with a smile, welcoming attitude, provide a thorough service and be transparent with costs throughout. It's difficult providing services with such small margins, but we see no difference between a pump out, blacking or major repair and treat all customers with the same respect. We look forward to welcoming you all to the only working boatyard on the southern Cromford Canal, Many have visited over the past 2 weeks on their way to the IWA festival of Water, and the Erewash has never been so popular, but there's still no queues at locks!! Dan

A pet elephant could provide a medium for transfering fuel from the pump to your boats filler. The pump attendant pumps fuel into a large bowl placed on the ground, from which the animal sucks it up into its trunk. With its trunk full up it then clomps across to your boat and at your command discharges its cargo of fuel into your orifice. Choose a beast with a nice long trunk that will reach the other side without it mounting your boat which might upset it. Lets name the pet elephant ''Tanker''. Their poo if dried in the hot summer sun and shaped into handy pats is good fuel for the stove too. They like to be rewarded with tons of cream buns. For more cream buns they will haul your boat along too, which they really prefer doing rather than keep suffering trunkfulls of diesel fuel which makes them sneeze. They can even make trunk calls, phoning ahead to notify fuel vendors of your approach.

The bit I highlighted indicates with near certainty the thermostat on the oven has failed. Provided only that the gas supply pressure to the oven is correct, which it almost certainly will be if the hob above it works correctly. I had the exact same symptom on my very old Stoves Vannette and a new thermostat fixed it. Was quite difficult sourcing the new one though. I ended up scavenging the spare identical oven I have in the car port. You might possibly have the tar-like brown gloop that accumulates over long periods in LPG gas pipes but this is unlikely unless the installation is more than about 20 years old.

Won't there be a gas jet - probably of brass and located just before the burner? If so, I'd be checking that it is clear.

Some ovens use a thermocouple that limits gas flow when you first light it (to prevent a hair-singeing WOOOOMPH) and only after a minute or two when it's heated up, allows full gas flow. I've no idea whether your oven has this, but anyway it does sound as though something is stopping the thermostat going to full blast. Or quite possibly the thermostat / gas control valve is faulty.

I had a very similar problem with my Vanette oven of the same age. At the back of the oven there is a metal plate protecting the burner assembly with one screw holding it in place. Slacken the screw and the plate will slide out to reveal the burner assembly. I found some bits of old, charred food and a small pool of sticky fat. Once this was all cleaned out the burner came to life again with a much better gas flow and the thermostat now works correctly and the oven gets hot. HTH

How old is the gas regulator? Has the static and flow pressure been checked at the cooker with the oven firring? Check the gas pipe for physical damage or crushing. Replace the flexible to the cooker ( if fitted) and at the bottle for a new one in case they have degraded inside. If the system is very old you may well have a problem with the gas tap being gummed up, fixable if you have the knowledge. If you have to buy new, without changes you may be lilimited for choice. If it is fitted under the gunwall even worse if a lid is fitted. Bought an lpg convert able cooker from curry s last year then had to swap for a motor home type when replacing my vaneette

My experience: 16 years with a dump through holding tank and no additives from new = absolutely no odour (and I have a very sensitive sense of smell!) 2 years with an Airhead composting loo = again no odour (sense of smell undiminished!) Reason for change: My mild steel holding tank developed a leak where the pump out pipe entered the top (there was some odour then) and as a friend on a neighbouring boat remarked – "with sh1t it's better to be proactive rather than reactive." So the tank was hastily pumped out and filled with a concrete slurry and the composting loo installed in its place.

We've tried 'everything' over the years but NEVER Blue as it's the invention of the Devil and really designed only for recycling porta potti types- Original Odorlos - good results Brewers Yeast - partial results Above with bubbling fresh air through the flush pipe (very smelly). On our patch most pump out units have high pressure hoses which we attach to our own sprinkler pipe (to avoid complaints) and give a good blasting through the open pan - results - good; extend the time between pumpouts Industrual Bio - excellent - as mentioned earlier. A previous thread on here recommended "OxyGen" granules available from Tesco. Will try this when the stock of the previous item runs out. I think it's important to have an element of mechanical agitation to break up any mass of solids - so I have a pointed-stick for that purpose. Both the rubber seals and balls are expensive, so it's important to keep them clean with a round loo brush and perhaps leave over might with a