Not a good day...

[sahona]

Well, it had one bright flash amongst the gloom.
Went down to fit my new small diameter alternator pulley, which should allow oodles of amps at reasonable engine revs.
Had the presence of mind to take a selection of fan belts, and got it fitted in jig time - nae probs.
Test procedure failed when engine wouldn't start - solenoid clicking but contacts obviously no longer up to the job.
~what a fekkin struggle to get that bas-tird out!
Anyway, succeeded and then went up on deck to tackle the shy talk droppings - all concentrated on my boat, everyone else clean as a whistle. No water on the pontoon due to burst pipe.
Not my day I thought, as I tackled the job with a bucket of seawater and brush.
Reconfigured the anti-gull devices in the forlorn hope that one day I will strike lucky, and went home.
But not directly. There's a commercial vehicle parts shop about a mile from my house. It's been there for 22 years and I never knew about it until today.
Got my solenoid there as you would expect, but also learned it's the Scottish VDO agent and holds all sorts of marine bits and pieces as well. not Vetus by any means, but some potentially useful stuff in stock.
So that'll be Harris in Heathfield Estate, Ayr, for those in this area.
PS - the solenoid cost >£50 which is a lot, and normally I would advocate going to a scrappy and getting one for a fiver, however, when you're going backwards towards the rocks, you want to make sure the engine starts.
What it does say to me though, a replacement Lofrans reversing solenoid bought during the Summer for £59 wasn't quite so outrageous as we thought at the time.

[sahona]

Today was a good day.
Fitted the gizmo and started the engine - lots of amps at idle revs, and no need to blip the thing to start the alternator, yahoo!
Also, the foredeck is keech-free for the first time in months, so a bucket slung above the gooseneck seems to out-do all the plastic owls.
Double whammy.

[Rowana]

{snip}
Also, the foredeck is keech-free for the first time in months, so a bucket slung above the gooseneck seems to out-do all the plastic owls.
{snip}

So hiv ye trained them tae keech in ra bucket
Thon's clever, so it iz

[sahona]

Nahh - Slow learners. The bucket's still empty.
They must be constipated. There could be hell to pay if they blow...

[spuddy]

Not a good day ? Me neither. Diesel hose to engine gone all brittle and starting probs caused by air getting in, I suspected. New hose not cooperating so took banjo off to shove it on but dropped banjo in bilge. I used to be able to get hand down that bit but not now after beefing up the bulkhead. So that's a tenner for a new Yanmar banjo-maybe I should get two in case...........

[sahona]

Hello Spuddy. Welcome to the bad day section.
I think you'll eventually need to get something to access the bilge in case of emergency, when any amount of £10's won't get you out of the situation...
We have always had flexiclaws on board and I have now fitted an adapter that allows them to be used on the end of a piece of broom handle. We also have one of these telescopic pointers with a strong magnet on the end.
Next acquisition could be one of those things they used to use for getting things out of crowded shop windows, or picking up litter.

[Rowana]

But have you got a thing for picking Boy Scouts out of horses hooves?

They can come in quite handy at times!

[sahona]

As far as I can remember, every Swiss Army Knife had one of those. I used mine for opening bean cans.

[sahona]

As a follow up to the previous input to this thread, and because I need one, I made one of these today.


The clamp is one of a set from Lidle, added to a piece of tube which fits over the handle for a bilgepump - in my case a piece of electrical conduit.
The ends of the clamp swivel to pick up awkward things.





This is what happens when you have a distance to go.

I tested it today with a sponge to get into those awkward bilgy places that have got damp over the last few weeks.