The new stove is fighting me

Real live update  - Today Saturday 11th Oct was a bust. The plan was to go to the boat and fit the new stove which as its a 1410 and with a back boiler should have been easy'ish.

The problem and I sort of had a feeling for it was the tails of the back boiler - the sticky out bits that Percy's plumbing connects to I thought were longer than what was out of the back of Percy. Trying to fit it I  have to conclude this is my issue. I could not get the pipes to go back on and the feet to match the brackets that the old stove was bolted to. 

The stove it about 10mm further forward which i think is what the difference in length is. I've reached out to Keith from Morso Heaven who took my old stove to be refurbished. I've asked him to measure the stubs on the old stove for me. The stubs are stainless steel so will be a bugger to cut - certainly with a hacksaw. if I do I need to run a nut onto the 1"BSP thread so when I have made the cut by removing the nut is will remove any burr on the threads  - Other option is to use a cutting disk on the angle grinder or get a smaller 1"female BSP to 28mm compression fitting  - this latter is the least risky if i can get one that is 10mm or so shorter.....

Boats eh ! 

I did the adult thing and stopped as I was running out of patience and strength !

Did I mention the Hydraulic oil test ?

Percy has a hydraulic drive. A pump on the back of the engine that drives a motor that is directly connected to the prop via a small prop shaft. It allows for a full height back cabin as the hydraulic pipes run under the floor. A conventional long prop shaft has to have a lifted floor. 

The rear motor has a small weep, not enough to have it off and serviced but enough for me to start thinking of topping up the hydraulic oil in the reservoir tank. No point topping up dirty or contaminated oil so I set to to find someone to check the oil and also tell me if its 32 or 46 weight and if it has many additives...

I paid my money to The Oil Labs limited and they sent a kit to extract and package the oil to be tested. Turns out their lab was Burton on Trent way so I dropped it off on the bike. 

A few days later my report was emailed back - the hydraulic oil is still good to use. They confirmed it had low additives and was 32 weight so I can go to the local farm supplies shop and get some to top up with. 

I had previously spoken with one of my neighbours who works for JCB and he gave good advice on Hydraulic oils and systems. 

To the end of May

Percy was sadly fully ignored for the rest of May it seems from my photos. 

There was a lot of motorbike riding and family get togethers detailed in my photos. 

For my Youngest son and his son's birthdays  we came together for a gathering in a pub near where he lives. One of Rachel's sisters brought her luxurious caravan to Longnor caravan and camping park so we booked a 'hut' - a first for us. it was nce and we had a lovely walk in the area ending up with a meal at the Cheddar Cheese in Longnor.  A nice way to be retired ! 

The changing of the guard happened also in late may when the old loyal 20k Himmy was being prepped for sale and the green Himmy was getting all the duty rides 

I finished may as I started it with another evening shift on the blod bikes. 

That really was a small resume for a lot of trips and entertainment in May. ... we dd get the patio in and was using it as the weather was beginning to give an indication of things to come 

My long term workshop conversion project was finally completed also  - now called the 'Dog House' as it can be a place for friends and family to stay if they bring a dog - our cat Lilly is getting ever more skittish around strangers and especially dogs in the house since Leia died. 

Its been a real labour of love and we estimate its added a decent amount of amenity value as well as cash value to the cottage.  

Back in time and maybe a reason for the gap...?

My last post before the more recent late September musings was way back towards the end of April. In early May it was my mums 90th and she celebrated it in her care home, not in the way of previous celebrations sadly. It does play a lot on my mind and emotions my mums state of health. I guess certainly in my case projections into our own mortality and more critically later stages of life generate some fears and emotions. Maybe that's why I stopped blogging, wanting to be in the moment more or maybe not so keen to share the highs and maybe more lows than I was happy about? 

Anyhow I intend to catch up, and a lot will be off boat topics but its my thoughts and memories. My photos tell me just before my mums birthday I was on a 12 hour blood bike shift, the lovely BMW 1250 RT parked up in my chaotic garage.

I'll not post any pictures of my mum in her care home - here is one of her in her house she loved so much. She left one day on an errand and never saw the place again .... that is how fragile life can be.

A more boat related one. We picked up a short notice week on our Share boat NB Sylph ( photo is June 2005) so took Rachels Dad on it for a few days from Festival marina to Burton. Then swapped crew and my mum and her partner came back with us back to Festival park. The picture is mum steering the boat under the pipe bridge heading our of Alrewas. Ironically heading to Hunts lock where I was to live aboard on Percy for two years some 9 years later. 

I was working on a little DIY round patio project also early May. We had been on the look out for a used one for ages then while in a neighbours garden I spotted he had one stacked up he was happy to sell to us.

I was at the boat on the 8th May. Seems it was a grass cutting visit on the classic. I do recall a passing boater asking if he could take a photo of the bike and boat.

4 more years ...

This getting up early is hard to get used to. We were up early on Sunday and had a lovely walk around Macclesfield Forest with Callum our youngest and his lad little George. Callum did the whole 8.7 miles 1,000 plus feet of climbing with about 17kg on his back carrying George in his luxurious rucksack ! 

Excuse the tramp like appearance I need a face manicure for sure 

A lovely ride on my Classic 350 yesterday to see our other son Tom at his Tattoo studio to collect something gave me an excuse to have a last ride before I Sorn on the classic - it's too nice a bike to be exposed to a salty British winter - I've another bike for that gig.

Called for a coffee at a little shack on the Tissington trail ( which was closed) so as it was quiet I took a picture of the bike in the tunnel entrance of the tunnel that leads the track out of Ashbourne. 

The alarm went off again at 5.45am  this morning ( Tuesday) as I needed to be away for 6.30am to meet Nigel the Boat Safety examiner by 7.30 am at Shebdon. We arrived together and after a chat he did the exam and passed with the standard advisories of ventilation. I was confident after having Mike on the boat and Nigel was happy to see the bubble tester. Interestingly he said the old stove would not be a fail... more advisories but it was not safe so I'm pleased it's gone.

After giving Percy the good news he helped me get the new stove out of the van and into the boat ready for fitting.

So the logistics of the boat safety passing are done. Just need to put the boat back together now. I will also look to install the rear stove I've had for a couple of years - might be nice to get it in so we can enjoy the super warm cruising a boat with a rear cabin stove and a trad stern affords. 

One frustrating thing to note Nigel said C&RT has 'passed' the whole Boat safety scheme operation to a third party. The standard cost to exam iirc is 70 odd pounds charged by the scheme operators to the examiners passed on to the boaters  ... In April the new lot who are overseeing the scheme are increasing the charge to the examiners to 90 plus pounds .... guess who'll be paying that increase !! I must have missed this bit of C&RT news and or consultation ? 

It was a lovely morning and I really should have stayed but I  had other things to get done. 

The boat safety prep - the stove Pt 1

When we had Percy painted in 2015 we had the front and rear stove cowls off and re sealed. There has recently been evidence of the horrible tar staining on the inside wood of the cabin by the stove indication the cowl is letting a bit of water in so (picture check) on August 10th we were on Percy and I took off the cowl repainted it and re sealed it. I didn't re seal the flue to the cowl. 

Did some 'gardening' at the same time 

However on working around the stove it was obvious it was a BSC fail as the rear flue pipe cover was rusting of and the side was also easing off - all age related Morso issues. The top was also starting to crack on the lip at the back. The stove is 30 plus years old and had a new top on as part of our purchase. So it was in need of a replacement.

We considered having a diesel stove but to be honest the Morso and its back boiler with large copper pipes along the living area just works. Problem is they do not sell the Morso Squirrel 1410's anymore ! I wanted a swap out and pleasing found Morso Heaven in Bodmin who 'refurbishes' said stoves. Looking at his pictures and testimonials I  was happy to commission one. 

 - The van, so much to blog about. 

For a while I've wanted a van for general DIY duties as well as carrying cycles for holidays  and maybe a motorbike! Anyhow I got one having sold the trusty Toyota Auris - another saga. A lovely little Peugeot Partner one owner full service history, clean, cruise control Apple car play low miles. The van afforded me the opportunity to take to old stove to Bodmin and bring the new one back, Did that in 24 hours getting up after a stop in a Travel lodge near Bodmin  at 4.30 am and a round trip of 550 + miles. 

Of course I'd had to remove the old stove for its trip to Cornwall. It pleased me to do it on my own as when we brought the boat Tony had made me aware what a PITA is was to replace the top of the existing stove. 

It took some draining down. The pipes hold more fluid than I was expecting, this is my decanting device  

The tricky bit was releasing the flue from the stove collar. A cement is used and sets hard. The win is using a multitool and pre bending the cutter with a curve.... like a hot knife through butter - all hail the multitool  

Removed and ready for its trip - Mike the gas man helped me get it into the van. Hopefully the new stove will go back in without a fight .... We've the Boat safety on Tuesday then the stove will go back in.  

It's been a while - the gas leak

I do miss blogging. Leaving the blog and getting behind in updates starts to feel like an impossible task to 'catch up'. 

So in an effort to maintain the spirit of the blogging community and to distract me from watching so much Youtube I've decided I am going to try and catch up from April.... it'll maybe not be so interesting but it will get me back in the horse so as to speak. As ever I will use my photos to remind me when we've been to Percy and maybe a few other  bits and pieces that I'd like to record.

But for now I'll start with the most recent updates and that is all about the Boat Safety Certificate (BSC) work. For those non boaters it is a four yearly safety check by a registered BSC examiner. It gets a bit complicated around Gas safe BSC engineers and non gas safe as well as your boat use  - live-a-board or recreational users. We are now the latter..... there is detail around that but to be honest it's confusing and can be interpretational as to who can and can't test what and what needs testing. 

How do I know - well  three years ago we had to have an out of water 30 year insurance survey. We contracted Balliol Fowden (great name and nice fella who also knows more about boats than Noah) to do it. He was flabbergasted that our gas regulator and flexible pipes were so old and recommended ( as gas safe engineers will do ) to replace them every 10 years. The Boat safety guidance is visual inspection  - so ours being dated 1989  - yes OEM from Tony's build were still being passes as they didn't have and signs of cracking or perishing. 

So... I read on Adams Briar Rose blog ( Thanks Adam) he had used and recommended Mike Bickley a gas safe engineer. I contacted Mike and we agreed for him to come over and replace the regulator and pipes. Plus do a looksy on the system. In hindsight we should have had him to the BSC but I'd already started talking to the guy who does the last two on Percy -I wanted to be fair. 

He arrived on time and we chatted on options and I opted for a bubble tester and on bottle regulator  (Bubble tester not really needed) but it means we can do random leak tests and it also means I can replace the gas cooker hose (would have been £65+ for Mike to do it ) and check for leaks after using the bubble tester.

Work done and Mike gave the same information via a BSC scheme leaflet we always get about the gas water heater  really should not be in the bathroom - been there 30 plus years. He then found a small gas leak on the gas tap that isolates the water heater - replaced the old tap and all good. That sort of leak would be evident using the bubble tester. 

All in all a good visit and we were very pleased with Mikes work and approach and information given. I'd highly recommend Mike and grateful to Adam for his recommendation.

So that's the first £500 to sort the BSC - the stove is the next story !  

Good stuff and worth having on the boat. 

One side note  - being fed up with the gas cylinders trapping moisture and grinding aways at the locker bottom I built a wooden platform but crucially put it on 4 rubber 'door stops' and was pleased to see the gas locker in the same condition as it was 3 years ago - dry and rust free  =  result