NB Willawaw - The Revelations of a Narrowboater

The Surge of the Sea - New Book and Sequel

2013-01-10T17:53:00.001+00:00

Work on the sequel to 'The Pull of The Tide' has fared rather better than expected and the Kindle edition will be available this month rather than April as originally planned.

New-book and Sequel

Good Fortune Favours the Brave

2012-12-29T10:36:00.001+00:00

This is a short New Years story. It fits between the end of the first book and the start of the next:

Good Fortune Favours the Brave - A short Mallory story..

No Christmas Trees, Holly or Mistletoe

2012-12-21T08:49:00.001+00:00

A Christmas Message...

A Christmas message

Ex Ray on "Geordie" Paterson

2012-12-17T23:38:00.003+00:00

The low-down on "Geordie"

The Low Down..

The Black Maria

2012-12-08T17:41:00.002+00:00

The oldest remaining steam coaster..

The Black Maria

Goodreads

2012-12-05T18:59:00.001+00:00

Goodreads is an American website for book fans. It doesn't sell anything as such - it is just a great place to find information about books..The Pull of The Tide is now listed there..

The Pull of the Tide on Goodreads..

X-Ray Specs

2012-12-04T20:20:00.003+00:00

Amazon Kindle launch their new X-Ray feature for their e-books

X-Ray or Ex-Ray

Towing in the Test Tank

2012-12-02T09:44:00.003+00:00

Hull design the 20th century way. They thought big in those days.

A 92m Test Tank

The Shetland Bus

2012-11-27T21:08:00.002+00:00

Fishing boats and the Resistance:

The Shetland Bus

Woody's Workshop

2012-11-22T19:34:00.002+00:00

An interesting look at the workshop of a ships carpenter.

Woody's Workshop on Aspatria

New Blog for The Pull of The Tide

2012-11-13T11:12:00.000+00:00

I have started a new book blog which is dedicated to the Aspatria series of books. The new blog will have details about the people and places in the first book, interesting facts and news of planned subsequent books in the series.

If this is of interest, please bookmark the new blog address:

The Malachi Jones Blog

Canalworld and I Finally Part Company

2012-08-17T22:40:00.000+01:00

I've finally had enough of CWDF a.k.a the Canalworld forum here on the internet and have decided to stop posting there.

It's a good forum if you have a boating question, as it has a hardcore of experienced, but overbearing boaters who have opinions on everything and will put you straight, before arguing amongst themselves to prove their superiority to each other, until the post gets locked or turns to dust.

All large forums have this to some extent, but their mob rule is getting out of hand.

Several wise boaters have told me recently that they use CWDF to gain answers to their problems, but then once the information is gained, they stop viewing the post and let the regulars turn their original post into chaos with their bickering and bitching.

I've been a member for 7.5 years and have around 2600 posts to my name, but it's been getting worse in the last few years, with some posts just resorting to rudeness and open insults. The moderation is very laid back and a minority have effectively seized control.

Half the time, people can't even be bothered to read what you've written and just hijack the thread to talk about what they want to talk about.

I stopped posting answers on my speciality, electrical matters, some years ago because I was finding that I would answer the original poster with my professional opinion and then spend the next 5 posts defending my answer to others looking to pick holes in my response. I found myself writing essays to cover all the angles for even the simplest questions. Life is just too short for that sort of nonsense.

The sad thing is that I have met quite a few boaters who admit they like reading the forum for its wealth of information but do not post or even reply to the posts of others for fear of being trampled by the hardcore.

That is a real shame and of course is a form of censorship all in itself. It's all very well for the hardcore to say "grow a thick skin" and "if you can't take the knocks don't play", but why should you have to ?

Not everybody who likes canals wants to spend their evenings arguing and point scoring..

The end result is that the meek get meeker and the know-all's become the only posters.

There is a distinct lack of respect for varying peoples opinions which is just ignorance.

It seems to me that forums like this have a lot of people on their board who think that an evening's entertainment ideally comprises of large amounts of alcohol and winding people up as much as possible.

VHF on Canals More Prevalent Than You Think ?

2012-08-11T22:16:00.000+01:00

In a recent survey on two canal related Facebook groups, it was discovered that

22 boats carry VHF either permanently or occasionally
12 boats don't and have no interest
15 boats don't have VHF but would consider it if more boats and marinas fitted

To me, this suggests that VHF has potential on our canals.

I don't mean that boats cruise round with aerials up and loudspeakers blaring static to spoil everybody's peace. Quite the opposite.

However, if marinas and some service-supplying boatyards fitted channel M, this would allow VHF equipped boats to communicate about berth locations, pump out availability, etc.

In fact, virtually anything you might normally phone a marina or yard for, except the calls are free.

I'm not even suggesting boats fit VHF specially for this purpose - it just seems that if 44% of boats already have VHF, they could actually get better use out of it.

Channel M costs a marina £75 per year for the licence. A VHF base station can be bought for around £100.
No trained operator is required to operate a set working on channel M. The person who normally answers the phone can operate the channel M set.

Most VHF boat sets sold in the UK, come complete with channel M (or Ch37A as it is sometimes called).

I've spoken to a few marinas and there seems little interest. One even said in their defence, that they had not received anybody asking for it.
I wonder how many boaters know about the merits of Channel M ??

Do You Have VHF Onboard ? Would You Like Marinas To Use It ?

2012-08-01T20:12:00.004+01:00

Having recently struggled to get a dongle signal whilst cruising, so I could look up the phone number of a Marina we would were passing to inquire about availability of services, it occurred to me how bloody useful it would be if I could actually get some use out of the VHF equipment that I carry on board our narrowboat.

Like a lot of boaters these days, we carry VHF for the Thames tidal and other selected waterways where there are commercial vessels.

Most of the time it sits brooding in the corner.

We often need to contact marinas and boatyards to see if they have any visitor moorings, if their pump-out is working, etc.

I just thought it would be good if more marinas and boatyards would buy themselves a cheap base station and get a licence for Ch.M.
A fixed set these days can be bought for £100 or less and the Channel M licence costs £75 per annum. As its not an international channel, the users don't need to undergo any test or certification.

Some of the MDL marinas on the Thames have this facility (probably because they are often dealing with GRP cruisers that go down the estuary) and it seems to work quite well.

It would certainly save that long slog off the canal into the marina basin, only to reach the services berth to find an out of order sign.

Or to ask about the price of their diesel

Or to ask where they expect me to moor on the umpteen finger pontoons around me ?

and of course, it might stop my VHF gathering dust..

2012-06-30T14:23:00.001+01:00

I've always been a bit concerned about using expensive smart phones out on deck and when working locks etc. We have a Blackberry and an iPhone and they are expensive to replace (not to mention the loss of valuable data when they disappear into the cut leaving only bubbles).

Hearing about yet another boater who has lost their phone overboard (Alison Tuck on NB Davinci), I bought myself one of these JCB Tradesman phones from Ebay for £57.

I didn't expect much for the money - even the cheapest phones in Tesco are about £35.

The Tradesman, apart from being sexist, is rated at IP67, which means that it is waterproof.

Not trusting IP ratings particularly, I set about dropping the phone in the bath.

Not only does it still work after a dunking, it actually floats and there is a natty little LED torch on the top that can be switched on at night to aid location in the event of a dropping.

Admittedly, after smart phones, it's more of a dumb phone, but it is fine for calling and texting.

It has a very loud ringtone, which is great for hearing over engine noise, although the choice is a bit restricted and it is really simple to use (I downloaded the full manual from the JCB website, although it's not essential). It works with my car hands-free when I'm driving to jobs and its pretty tough.
JCB who sell the phone make a big thing about driving a JCB over it - I think I'll give that test a miss - there's only so much you can get for £57.

So on our boat, we keep the smart phones down below so we are connected to e-mail and the net and we use the "Tradesman" for keeping in touch on deck and when on the towpath.

It's even useful when the first mate is steering and wants to ring me at the lock to tell me to get a move on...

Whipping Wapping

2012-06-05T22:58:00.001+01:00

Spending a few days in the old slum areas of Wapping and Tobacco Dock for the Queens Diamond Jubilee Pageant were somewhat of an eye-opener.
First the narrowboats in the Pageant, as I'm sure you're keen to see them, as the BBC coverage was so bad.

Click to enlarge - From the far side: Fulbourne (name obscured by steam), Tarporley, President, Beatty and Gort

Click to enlarge - Hazell Nut (grey), Orlando (blue) and Pirate Prince (red)..

Click to enlarge - From the far side: Barely Awake, Lord Toulouse, Diamond, Ernest..

Click to enlarge - From the left: Lord Toulouse (green/cream), Barely Awake (red), The Floating Salon (black), Quercus (red), Ketura (with Union Jack umbrella), Bream (far side), Shropshire Lad, Swingbridge 2 (green) and Frances Anne (bow only)

SMS Alarms Mk2 - There's More.

2012-04-22T00:18:00.002+01:00

Following my April 1st blogpost (no it wasn't an April Fools Joke), I've refined the design slightly so that you can alternatively tell when your bilge pump is running (if this is preferable to just knowing when your bilge alarm has been activated by water ingress). Some boats leak and the bilge pump starts and stops a lot - when you visit the boat, the pump has emptied the water so there doesn't appear to be a problem. All is fine - well until the pump burns out or the battery goes flat..

It will text you when the pump starts and text you again when it stops.

The free phone call feature can also be used to start your heating or switch your lights on. Another phone call turns them off. Sometimes easier than texting codes...

SMS Alarms MK2

2012-04-01T19:30:00.003+01:00

Some of you may remember my work a year or two ago on SMS Alarms..

I have been diligently beavering away at this, as a little project and have reached my Mk2 design.

In essence, this is a little box on your boat, not much bigger than a cigarette packet.

Fitted with a Pay As You Go Simcard and mobile phone chip and designed primarily for people like me who leave their boat unattended on a remote mooring, sometimes for weeks at a time, it is hard-wired to sensors supplied with it.

It could detect if your bilge started to fill with water or if somebody broke into your boat.

It would even detect if your batteries were discharged below a specific level or somebody disconnected your shoreline.

An independent internal battery supply provides a battery-back up, so the system will still work even if the DC supply is disconnected to the unit by a clever burglar.

Any of these events will cause the unit to send a text message to your mobile, telling you what the problem is.

A secondary use of this device, is that it works the other way - you can send a text or make a free phone call to the device, to activate boat equipment (e.g turn the heater on before you get to the boat to warm the cabin through, switch the fridge on or switch a security light on for a variable time period to make people think somebody is on-board).

You can test everything periodically by sending a text to the device and it will text you back with a full status report, including information about signal strength and your boats battery voltage.

An optional GPS module also allows it to tell you the exact location of the boat whenever you ask by text message - could be good in case of theft or trying to keep track of a rented boat or hireboat fleet.

Smarten Up

2011-09-06T15:28:00.007+01:00

After having fitted lots of other peoples boats, I finally succumbed and fitted my own Smartgauge.

Chris Gibson a.k.a Gibbo who created the unit has now sold his business to the Merlin Equipment business in Dorset and is retained as their senior R&D man.

This is why the Smartgauge unit now bears the Merlin name.

The main problem with batteries on boats is that most boaters hugely depend on them but don't really understand them.

What Chris has done is to break the mystique down to the essentials that most want to know.

How much power do I have in my battery bank ??

It gives a simple % reading - in the above photo, I have my bank 99% charged or 1% discharged.

I've heard it described as a fuel gauge for batteries.

We have a Mastervolt Amp-Counter for the domestic bank and a Victron one for the starter battery. I don't have a lot of faith in either and tend to monitor the voltage instead.

I have more faith in the Smartgauge which calculates the charge left in an adaptive way using a very accurate voltage reading directly from the battery terminals.

For £150 it does what I need.

It also acts as a display for the Merlin Smartbank system and is able to monitor the voltage of the start battery (already doing that), but an accurate % reading that tracks the batteries as they get older is enough for me.

The unit has changed very little over the years it's been available, but it now seems now that the membrane buttons aren't very positive in their operation - you have to push them quite firmly and don't always seem to get a connection first time. Might be an attempt to get the build costs down or hold them down ??

One of my gripes has always been that it has to be flush/panel mounted and there is no backbox option so it can be bulkhead mounted.

The word on the cut is that there is a Smartgauge 2 in the wings which will do lots more including monitor the charge/discharge current - rumoured to be a bit more expensive though !!

Mark and the Magic Torch

2011-05-25T08:40:00.004+01:00

When our boat was built, we had a rechargeable torch mounted on the bulkhead just as you come down the aft steps.

It was similar to the aircraft emergency ones you see by the emergency exits on airliners.

Unfortunately, it has just given up the ghost after 8 years of valiant service.

Looking for a replacement, I was shocked at how expensive they are. The cheapest I could find was about £60 !!! :-0

It's not rocket science, but I've "devised" a small torch which sits in a charger on the bulkhead and runs from the boats 12V battery supply.

You just come into the boat, lift the torch out of its holster and use it to find all the switches, water cocks and so on, as you move throughout the boat.

When you've finished, you just put it back in the charger and it will be charged, ready for the next time.

It's also brilliant for the dark walk back to the boat from the pub - small enough to slip in the pocket (nobody wants a giant lantern on the table in front of them whilst supping a pint).

One charge lasts about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

I've connected it directly back to the domestic bank battery isolator switch, so its powered (charging) all the time (and protected by a small in-line fuse).

An added bonus is that it also fits in the cigar lighter on the car, so if I'm in the car it goes with me there and when I'm living on the boat, it goes on there with me.

The very neat feature I like is that when the torch is on charge, it has a little red light in the lens, which makes it easy to find when you're stumbling around half awake, at middle of the night o'clock, trying to work out whats thumping on the roof !!! - you can just see the red light in the photo above.

If anybody's interested, I bought two - am using one and have put the other on Ebay.

If it doesn't sell, some relative will get it as a present.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180672061253

Float Switches Don't Float My Boat

2011-05-22T11:04:00.004+01:00

I've never been greatly impressed with the float switches that are used in conjunction with bilge pumps to give automatic operation.

Many older models use Mercury tilt switches inside them. These are usually a small tube with electrical contacts at one end of the tube. When the float tilts, the mercury collects at one end of the tube and creates a conductive path to complete the circuit.

Mechanically activated float switches, which are often advertised as Mercury-free, use a steel ball in an enclosed run. When the float switch is tilted by the water level rising, the ball runs to one end and operates a lever, which in turn activates a micro-switch and makes the electrical connection to switch your bilge pump on.

Anything mechanical will eventually give problems.

I am now using a solid state switch for my bilge pump switching and bilge alarm applications.

These operate on electrical capacitance and are VERY reliable. So reliable, they come with a 5-year warranty. An added advantage of these is that they are very small, don't actually float up and suffer from unwanted buoyancy problems (never a good feature on a water levels switch) and they don't get triggered by an oil leak (which would result in pumping oil into the cut).

I've used these for a while now and am very impressed with them.

So much so, that I've started using them on my Intelligent Bilge Alarm design (my Mk3 version).

I also sell my surplus ones (and the bilge alarm) on my family Ebay site.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180669398184&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Ebay Gum

2011-05-19T07:44:00.005+01:00

Ebay, Gumtree, it's a different world.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I often produce interesting gadgets of a boaty persuasion.

You may remember my earlier post "Talking Bilge" about the Bilge Alarm shown above.

http://nbwillawaw.blogspot.com/2010/11/talking-bilge.html

My workshop is getting rather crammed with pieces of boaty electrical equipment and finished projects, so in a tidying process, I've decided to pass them to my family who are keen Ebayers and have started an Ebay seller called Phoenix Marine as an outlet for my excesses.

Some of the equipment I have is still new in the original packing (I have a habit of buying more items than I need in case I need spares, etc) and some is what I suppose would be considered shop soiled in that they have been on my bench.

Anyway, one of the rules of Ebay is that it has to be clearly defined what is new and what is not - quite right too.

Although, they don't seem to have an intermediate condition for items that are new but have been gathering dust on my bench (classified by them as "used" I'm afraid).

I also have some very interesting items like clamp on, battery powered, LED navigation lights for when you take a narrowboat on a river and need lights just for a few hours a year (i.e. not worth the expense and trouble of running wires and fitting permanent ones).

Anyway, there might be a few interesting things coming in the pipeline..

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/phoenixmarineelectronics

The Alternative Little Venice

2011-05-10T22:45:00.006+01:00

I've seen lots of blogs just recently, showing the same boaty pictures of the 2011 IWA Cavalcade at Little Venice.

To me, Little Venice is more than a line of massed reproduction working boats, flying bunting, with their owners Bolinder-waving to each other.

LV is a sub-culture all of its own, all year round.

It's an upmarket boating community - I guess it has to be with mooring fees being what they are, there.

It's one of the few moorings that I know, where all the boaters seem to have cut-glass accents.

In my eyes, these three pics portray the real spirit of Little Venice..

The Last Blog

2011-04-06T15:47:00.008+01:00

Looking at the blogroll which shows the last post made by each blogger (on the lower, left hand side of this page), some haven't blogged for 2 years.

Whilst I'm sure that many just got bored or what seemed like a good idea at the time, lost its shine (the new fad became something of a fag), some have probably sold up.

Since my involvement in the netosphere aspect of canal boating (about 6 years), I've seen quite a few boaters come and go.

This is made quite noticeable by blogs, where newbie boaters spring up with their new blogs, full of enthusiasm, often looking for escapism and a new life on the canals of merry England.

At the other end of the "long cruise", boaters often have to give up due to ill health, financial problems or disillusionment with the way the waterways are evolving.

Inspired by the epitaph of comedian Spike Milligan, whose gravestone says in Gaelic "I told you I wasn't well", when I'm ready to hang up my windlass, I might be tempted to make one last blog:

"taking on water, am sinking slo"

The Biggest Big Top

2011-04-06T09:14:00.006+01:00

We went to a Westlife concert recently at the O2 arena on the Greenwich peninsula in London.

It was our first time at O2 and we were quite impressed by the facility.

It's got to be the biggest "big-top" I've ever seen.

Not only is it absolutely massive, but its also a dream to reach and park at and there are lots of restaurants inside to keep you entertained, pre-show.

If anything, the facility was a little underused, as there are still large open spaces inside the tent and I'm sure it has untapped potential for the future.

I'm so glad they didn't demolish it after the Millenium celebrations.

P.S Sorry about the photo quality - I had my pocket camera with me and the light wasn't the best.