Stories about boats and waterways
The third annual Electrika show was held again at Brinklow marina in mid-July but rather than film flashy boat tours, I thought I’d take the opportunity to challenge experts and exhibitors about how safe we are having lithium batteries aboard, as these are widely used on electric narrowboats but you cannot help but see worrying stories about battery fires.
Continue reading
With the weather nearly warm enough to be working at the boatyard on my Microplus 600 cabin cruiser, Twiggy, again, I decided to get a ‘straightforward’ (?!) job out of the way and remove the old and rather odd leisure battery setup. This had for some reason been installed under the sink and comprised three batteries of two different sizes but there was a surprise or two as I took them out.
Continue readingAfter you’ve read this page about the basics of boat electrics, let’s delve further into the technical detail of batteries and all things electrical. If this is the stuff of
Continue readingIt’s not something you have to think about in a house – other than paying the bill – but on a boat, the electricity supply will be something you really
Continue reading
In May 2022, I published a video about a narrowboat being built for a couple who had specific mobility and agility requirements following illness. This is a follow-up video to see how they’ve been getting on with it since launch.
Continue reading
It’s 18 months since I sold my canal boat, “Wreyland”, but I’ve just been back to see what the new owner has done with it – and it’s had quite the makeover!
Continue reading
What would a narrowboat look like if you were able to start with a blank sheet of paper and design it so that the boat was still very usable in later life or with limits on your physical agility? A couple from Hampshire have done just that so I went along to see the finishing touches being put to the boat ahead of it going on display at the Crick Waterways show in June.
Continue reading
A sit-down chat about how the new 540W solar panel helped over winter, and mention of the lead carbon batteries I installed in summer 2019.
Continue reading
At the end of May 2021, I attended a narrowboat trials day arranged by boat builder Ortomarine. Starting on the River Severn and going up the Droitwich canals, eight boats using a variety of power plants would have their fuel, efficiency and any solar input measured and compared. This video summarises what happened and the results.
Continue reading
At the time of filming this it was just over a week since the Crick Show where I had bought three new 100 Ah lead carbon batteries for my narrowboat. Having also bought some new wiring and dongle things to plug into my Victron inverter/charger, it was now time to pull out the old batteries and put the new ones in place.
Continue reading