Stourbridge December 2022

Trip to Stourbridge for drink with Friends.

Route Using new GPS Tracker.

New Fuel filter

Installed a Fuel Guard filter as a prefilter. Not because I've experienced any problems, but as a precaution.

The new filter was installed in the same position as the old filter. The photo shows the rail installed to enable the old filter to be move a bit further along. The old filter can be seen on the left in the photo below.

Trip!? to Service Point

 GPS track of short trip to service point & return. Just to show how the new tracker works.

Magnet Fishing Success

 What goes into the canal separately, but comes out together.

A windlass

And

a magnet

The GoWinlass cost £80 so when it slipped into the canal, off a lock beam, I was determined to find it with the magnet. It took about 20 minutes, but eventually it was successfully 'snagged' and lifted on board.

Battery Problems?

 

Possible Battery Issue

Have received some alerts from my battery monitor*. It sends, via email, an alert if the battery drops to 60% and again at 50%. The only time I’ve received these in the past have been when we are on the boat and over using the inverter.

I’ve not received any warnings for several months, but in the last couple of weeks there have been 4 warnings. The chart below shows how the voltage of the battery rises during the day (thanks to the solar panel)and then declines during the night. Up until 3 weeks ago during the day the voltage would regularly reach 14 to 14.5 volts, but suddenly this has declined to 13 to 13.5 volts (The spike at the right is when I ran the engine for a couple of hours).

I’m not sure what is happening, but suspect there may be a battery problem. I have checked the levels in each battery and topped them up. Now it’s time to wait and see what happens.

*ChargeMetrix see here for post when I installed it.

Extra Storage Space

 

Cupboard Under the Bed

For some time I’ve been thinking about using the space under the bed for storage. There is not much space because the black water tank is positioned under the bed. However there is a small gap between the tank and the bed edge.

There are three panels at the side of the bed and today I put a handle and hinges on one of them and there is space to store the electric drill and accessories.

Stained Glass Portholes

Two stained glass portholes in one photo

 

"End of Year Stats 2021"

Miles, Hours, Locks L/Ms per hour etc for the fourth year of Hamwih ownership : Jan to Dec 2021

Year	Total Days	Moored Days	Working on Boat Days	Upgrade 2018 Lockdown 20&21 Days	Cruising Days	Trips	Engine Hours	Cruising Hours*	Distance Miles	Locks	Avg Lock/Miles Per Hour
2021	365	180	39	87	53	10	297.3	286.2	530.25	337	2.92
2020	366	208	41	84	28	4	144.5	137.2	233.50	156	2.84
2019	365	224	45		96	10	570.3	541.7	902.25	747	2.89
2018	365	123	48	129	65	12	420.2	372.7	600.25	548	2.73
2017	161	99	22		40	2	189.7	170.7	308.75	157	2.46

* Cruising Hours are the total engine hours less those used for topping up the batteries, moving the boat to top up with water and/or fuel + winding in preparation for next trip.

For 2017 & 2018 about 90% of the engine hours were spent cruising. In November 2018 I fitted a solar panel and for 2019 & 2020 the cruising hours were approximately 95% of the total hours, in 2021 it was 96%. Up until the solar panel was fitted, when visiting the boat to keep an eye on it, I used to run the engine to top up the battery. Since the solar panel was fitted I’ve not had to do this, thus saving about 5% to 6% a year on fuel.

The engine hours recorded in the table below are the accumulation of the total hours the engine has been used since the previous fill up. Therefore the hours recorded at the first fill up for each year includes some hours from the previous year, whilst hours completed after the last fill up for the year are not counted until the following year. This explains the difference in hours recorded in the table above, where the engine hours are counted on a daily basis.

Year	Engine Hours	Litres	Litres per Hour	Cost	Cost per Litre	Overall Cost Per Hour	Central Heating Hours	Litres Used  @ 0.5 per Hr	Cost Per Hour	Engine Litres Less CH	Litres Per Hour	Cost per Hour
2021	297.4	492.61	1.66	£398.59	£0.81	£1.34	65	32.5	£0.40p	460.1	1.55	£1.25
2020	151.2	259.00	1.71	£172.63	£0.67	£1.14	64	32.0	£0.33p	227.0	1.50	£1.00
2019	583.3	916.66	1.57	£777.93	£0.85	£1.33	167	83.5	£0.42p	833.2	1.43	£1.21
2018	430.2	624.02	1.45	£504.76	£0.81	£1.18	97	48.5	£0.41P	575.5	1.34	£1.08
2017*	159.8	353.90	2.21	£303.87	£0.86	£1.90	50	25.0	£0.43p	328.9	2.05	£1.77

* 2017 engine was a 38HP Beta Marine. Since 2018 the engine is a 43HP Beta Marine