Kennet & Avon – July/August 2019

As we barely finished the project before we were due to go on holiday we had no time to properly test our system under load. We ran it on the driveway in air, but having the boat in the water is quite a different proposition. Our holiday, therefore, became a testing session. We left for the slipway, near Bradford-on-Avon, without being sure that the solar panels would stay on the roof, the electrical system wouldn’t overheat or that the steering would work.

Click here for K&A 2019 trip page.

Sally Narrowboats – nr Bradford-on-Avon

 

We got there without anything falling off of the boat, which was a good start. After launching, getting everything on-board and connecting everything up we were ready to go.

Leaving the marina and the distance to the lock at Bradford highlighted a major problem. Although I think we were probably expecting some form of issue with the electronics, it was actually our home-made steering system that let us down. It was clear quite early on that it was difficult to keep the boat going in anything resembling a straight line. The Caracruiser has never been the easiest boat to steer as it’s hull design isn’t ideal for a boat – but this was unworkable. The issue seemed to be that we couldn’t provide enough steering angle. We decided to remove the remote steering system and steer from the back for the rest of the trip – we were off to a bad start.

 

But – did the electronics blow up?

Surprisingly enough – no! Everything involving the electrics worked pretty well. The only real issue we ran into was that the motor controller got quite hot.

Dad had been into Poundland not long before our trip and picked up a small USB fan – in stylish pink, naturally. It just turned out that the stand for the fan worked perfectly as a method of attaching the fan to the motor controller and the USB socket on the solar charge controller could provide the power for it.

 

Range

It’s possible to run at around 1.5mph with very little battery usage in overcast weather. While that might sound slow – it’s still faster than a lot of narrowboats go while passing other moored boats. It’s not ideal, but it is doable when the winds aren’t up. In direct sunlight you can run 3mph (1mph below the general canal speed limit) on solar power alone – with no battery consumption. This feels like a really good cruising speed. We started most days with full, or almost full battery power after the first day with most days being partly cloudy.

Range is also dependent on how many locks there are, as the boat won’t be using power during locking up or down. Locks are a good chance to charge up the batteries. The one day it rained heavily almost all day we were traveling up the Devizes flight of locks so we were still fully charged at the start of the next day.

Trees, buildings and other obstructions can also affect how much sunlight reaches the panels. A lot of the first couple of day’s travel was under trees which means you can’t just rely on positive weather conditions.

Pros

• Quiet running
• No worrying about refueling
• No fuel smell
• Interesting watching the meters and catagorising the system
• Lot’s of positive attention from passers by and other boaters

 

Cons

• Lower available speed
• Weather dependent range
• Charging impacted by trees and other obstructions
• Remote steering system needs work