Archive for November 2003

I need a long lead

27/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

05:30 start (no change there then), but awoke to a very frosty morning.

 De-iced the car and decided to take the boat battery charger home to fit longer leads.

I’ll be back!! (probably on Monday!).

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Bill Bryson, English Heritage and chicken & broccoli pie

26/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

I awoke in the morning following a restless night due to the heavy rain. The good news however that were the noggins and upside down trunking have remained in place (as they are not yet supported by the under-gunwale boxing. Although I had intended to get replacement gas from a local supplier in Swansea (Brisco), I decided that as the sun was shining by lunchtime, that I would pop over to Limekiln. Whilst driving to Compton, Bill Bryson was being interviewed on Radio 2 about a recent report from English Heritage regarding the poor upkeep and standards in country properties e.g. no more Georgian windows – new all uPVC!

In the evening I continued with the electrics by cutting the holes for the remaining starboard sockets. There is to be a single socket for the aerial and one double 13A for the TV / HiFi, the already cut 13A socket opposite the galley and one in the bedroom. The original single socket in the engine room, having not previously been recessed, would not be replaced. I then fixed the dry-lined boxes and ran the recently cut cable through the trunking and terminated as short coils within the boxes. To secure the noggins, I screwed the lower T&G panel to the upper vertical wall batons. These screws would eventually be hidden by the replacement gunwale boxing and trim.

I gathered another three bags of rubbish, sorted the tools and loaded the car with the ‘Gulper’ box, old aerial, washing and notebook. I also loaded the mountain bike as it was starting to show signs of rust having been kept out-doors for the past couple of months. As it was now far too late to start clanking the new gas bottles, I chose to secure them to the bow with the bicycle chain and padlock.

Time to pack in for yet another night. Showered and warmed up Tesco’s chicken and broccoli pie before settling down to watch TV (22:15)

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Double sided sticky tape and egg on toast

25/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Run out to B&Q at Wednesbury to pick up some double-sided tape and small screws (just in case). Back on Tastoma, I cut the first smaller socket hole to take the double-socket dry-lined box. To support the trunking on the starboard side, I cut and fitted approximately 15 short noggins under the gunwale. I then attached the two runs of PVC trunking, upside down to the wooden noggins using the double-sided tape.

Another night over, so clear away the rubbish (two bags of polystyrene), showered and made egg on toast.

Later in the evening I had a phone call from Guy Taylor (Marine Engineer). He apologised for not being in contact earlier regarding the engine service, but his mother had just died.

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Under the gunwale

24/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

I continued to prepare the underside of the gunwale and unloaded a very full car. With the new batteries holding their charge far better than before, I still wanted to reduce the need to run the engine just to charge them back up. I chose to install a temporary battery charger to run continuously whilst on the boat. This would allow the batteries to get a full charge by the end of the week. Then when disconnected from the charger over the weekend, would hold enough for the weekend. With Ocker Hill having token meter showers and electricity card meters on the towpath bollards, I purchased a number of each from Malcolm (the Ocker Hill Caretaker).

Still using a lot of gas (as no solid fuel stove installed yet), I had to switch to the third cylinder. The two empties were put in the back of the car, along with one of the saloon chairs that I had decided to stow in the attic at home to give me more room whilst the refit was done. A quick clear up of rubbish, showered and made a meal of sausages, onions, eggs and toast!

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I went to buy some trunking and bought a car!

21/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Back in Swansea I dropped into B&Q and bought the PVC trunking that I had now planned for, and on the way home, bought the Freelander!

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It’s blue and very long…

20/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

Having purchased a considerable length of 16A(?) blue multi-strand mains cable, I started to run the cable to the existing socket holes down the starboard side. With the existing holes already in place, I decided to keep the new sockets in the same locations. However, I chose to increase their size to accommodate double sockets. To house the cables, I decided to install two runs of PVC trunking the full length of the boat. This would be installed upside down under the gunwales supported by cross-strips of wood screwed to the vertical T&G mounting batons. One piece of trunking run would house the mains cable, whilst the other the coaxial aerial cable and 4 x 6 strand telephone cable (use yet to be defined!).

I also now planned to fit the new sockets with dry-lined boxes rather than crudely fitted to the ply-wood with no inner protection. To improve the engine room entrance, I planned to relocate the RCB and fuse box from just inside the engine room door (constantly being hit when entering the boat) to inside a purpose built cabinet in the engine room (behind the existing engine controls).

I will also be fitting a new, flush-mounted 16A 240v hookup plug to the external wall to the side of the aft engine room doors. The cable from which would be fed into the area behind the existing engine controls to a newly housed RCB and fuse panel.

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Dodgy wiring - how shocking

19/11/2003 by Mark.Whalley.

With one of my main worries following the Survey being the 240v shoreline installation, I decided to tackle this job first. I started by isolating all the sockets bar the single one in the engine room from the land line hookup and RCB/fuse. I then checked the safety of this single sockets and used this with an extension lead (just for low loads). On decommissioning the remaining sockets and cable, I was soon to discover a number of worries – including the use of household single strand cable as identified by the surveyor. To start, the first single plug on the run had an entering earth cable that was not connected to anything. This of course meant that the first socket was not earthed, and therefore neither were any of the other sockets in the run! Secondly, every socket was roughly cut into the plywood walls with no backing boxes. This meant that the incoming cables were touching the polystyrene insulation, with a risk of bare-wire exposure to the metal hull. The poorly secured sockets felt lose to the touch and did not support the weight of a plug and cable very well. Thirdly, again as picked up in the survey, the cable was run under the gunwale touching the polystyrene insulation – banned by the BSS. Fourthly, the cables ran almost touching the gas feeder to the wall-mounted gas fire. Fifthly, the shore line hook up was located inside the engine room. This meant that the rear doors always had to be kept ajar when hooked up, and also presented a risk of accidental shearing or chaffing. Finally, although I am unable to find documentary evidence to back me up, the whole installation was a single spur as opposed to being a proper ring main.

In removing the cables and sockets, I also removed the rather flimsy boxing under the gunwales, as I intended to replace this with PVC cable runs and better wooden supported boxing.

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