We like Barton Turns Marina. Maybe not the best marina to live in as it carries the A38 noise but the Red Carpet Cinema is a treat location for us - the film and a meal deal is our treat. We even took Percy there back in 2015 from Fradley - took us three days to go to the cinema and back !!
This time we went from the cottage so it was just 50 minutes. A bit of a pre Christmas treat to see the Choral, a nice gentle British film, well worth the watch.
As we were leaving we took a stroll and met a visiting boater who'd just arrived and managed to lock himself out of the pontoon - rookie error. We got chatting as you do and he was keen to tell us he'd only got the boat recently but removed the engine put iirc 10 solar panels on the roof and added in a motor off a forklift at 72 volts with standard lead acid batteries to run it.
He told me he can cruise 4 or 5 hours on a charge. He had a generator on board for dark days he said but didn't elaborate on the capacity of said generator. An interesting concept and one I'm sure a few boaters may consider as battery tech increases and cost per kw drops with lithium getting ever more available.
Percy would be a good contender for this as she has a motor driven pump to the hydraulic prop motor. But she's a heavy long boat ..... and she suits a trad engine amidships. Just needs the exhaust manifold off for a clean and while off the exhaust stack a sweep.
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