It was a very productive month on the narrowboat as weather was good and I can see Winter approaching!

12v system planning

The boat yard here removed my alternators and sent them off to be repaired as the engine servicing guys pointed out the leisure bank wasn’t charging at all. Turns out both alternators were knackered – total was only about £90 and they came back as good as new. I found a new V belt in the box of spares that came with Lizzy, so that’s all sorted for cruising.

While the current 12v setup seems to work OK, I’m dubious about the wire thicknesses and connections and haven’t used the cheapo “1000watt” inverter since buying Lizzy. I want to check the cable ratings and fuses and tidy up what’s there as a first step. My next step is sort out the wiring for my BSS inspection in Spring, then move towards a Victron inverter/charger setup with 400w solar. If the power goes off on the marina my computers just turn off which could damage them, and it’s a pain in the arse when I’m working. Inverter chargers auto switch to battery if the shore power drops. My battery bank isn’t huge but it will give me long enough to finish what I’m doing and close down safely, or use my laptop and run the router for a day or two.

I’ve been watching Matt Eastly’s beautiful van install episode on YouTube and learning about cable thickness, ampages and all kinds of 12v related things. I like having the Bluetooth monitoring on the Victron battery charger I currently use. It also manages charge stages better than just blasting amps at the battery bank, and can get it closer to 100% charge that way.

Lounge Upgrade

To get things cosier for Winter I fixed some springy floorboards, fitted a new carpet, had a beautiful Scandi sideboard delivered and had some massive blackout curtains turned into smaller narrowboat sized curtains by a lovely neighbour.  I also replaced the plywood and grotty rubber mats with Oak steps using flooring left over from the kitchen alterations we did previously.

Wood Club

We seem to acquire loads of trees and scrap wood, so a few of us have formed a WOOD CLUB and get together to chainsaw trees up, use a (donated) electric log splitter to break down the logs and chop up kindling using my shiny new finger saving device (aka splitting wedge). It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth with ready to burn logs being cheap from Aldi etc and having to store any raw wood for a year before burning it, but it’s a good social event and we donate some of the results to our less fortunate neighbours.

Roof Rust Removal

This was the same method as the well deck – battery drill with wire brush, Fertan then Zinc primer and satin black. Bought some kneepads to save my poor creaking knees after nearly crippling myself doing the welldeck. Also got a kind of ‘sponge’ disc from Aldi that absolutely ripped through the rust but left the metal alone. Painting with a brush looked a mess so I went back over it with a roller.

Also did a mild chimney refurb while I was working on the roof. The existing chimney hat was about to rust through so I cut that off, rust treated the whole thing, sprayed it with high temperature paint and bolted a new hat in place (to stop the hat blowing into the marina). That should keep me going until I replace the whole lot, leading to…

Stove Plans

The current homemade stove has a back boiler and gravity fed radiator which keeps me toasty warm, so I want my new stove to have a back boiler. Options are Morso Squirrel which are £££ and a bit chunky, or a Salamander Hobbit which are smaller and will fit great. They’re also a friendly UK based company and sell spares and accessories to keep their old stoves going as long as possible. Looking at finding a preloved one and having a boiler fitted to it, along with a new twin wall flue kit including collar and chimney from Salamander themselves. This would cleanly replace all the existing homemade, single wall, rusty system with more up to date kit.