Onewheeler

I use small brass d-shackles. They look fairly tidy, break when necessary and don't degrade with UV.

For only 20 p more you can get a 2 kW unit (scrolling down on the eBay link) 🤠

Our french boat has a wheelhouse something like that. Toggle clips hold the roof on and it was a two person lift to get it off (plus some hassle with the back door). Now, with solar panels on top, it's a four man lift. Never taken it down though, there's enough air draft everywhere in France to let us through.

On my Beta 38 the only oil filter tool I've found that works (other than banging a screwdriver through the body) is a rubber strap wrench due to the difficult access - I bought mine as an Aldi special but Ebay has lots. I've found no need for any other special tools for a routine service other than a socket set and screwdrivers for hose clips.

I like to have isolators on taps and toilet cisterns, mainly at home, it's not a problem on the UK boat. Our shared boat on the mainland has a much more complex heating and domestic water system with lots of isolators and drain valves which get used for winterising as it get's much, much colder than here. I've never tried to open our drain valve. It's also about 30 years old. I only drained the calorifier once, reasoning that it's bottom is pretty much in contact with the water about 30 cm down and unlikely to freeze. The one occasion I did drain it, I took the PRV off the top and sucked it out.

Although we're only just the other side of Stroud we seldom need to descale anything. I've never done a kettle. When we were in Wotton only 10 km away, we had to descale the kettle almost weekly.

Ta! They aren't cheap, but the extra would have been well worth it to save having to drain everything.

True... I can still piss like a donkey, but don't always know when.

I've been doing some modifications to the domestic water circuits at home and have found that most of the gate valves and "washing machine" ball valves I fitted twenty-five years ago are inoperable (won't close properly). I don't have anything quite so old on the boat, but wonder if anyone has ideas for valves which maintain their capability after long periods of not being used?

I thought that my tiller was fine like that, but my son and his mates proved otherwise. However, I find the small resulting bend in the tiller arm rather satisfactory from the point of view of standing in the rear doors and steering.

I'd have guessed that those pipes with gate valves are for bleeding the system. It looks a bit difficult to use them to top up, but then people do weird things on boats. What happens to the water when it expands?

Lower? 🙂

Found it! I hadn't realised that I'd had it done about six weeks before the due date (and the examiner didn't post date it to the due date as he should have done 😠)

Sounds like a possibility. I was sure that I'd looked it up online shortly after it was done but blowed if I can find anywhere to do it!

That's the other problem... I used a new examiner last time after my customary one retired, and I can't remember who he was! (Also, I thought it was due this year but looking at my records it's next year).