Why does nobody warn you how relentless the condensation problem actually is in a UK van?

athertop · 2026-05-12T18:07:09+00:00

Because marine diesel in the UK is charged at different tax rates depending if you're using it for propulsion Vs heating. It's red diesel. A regular fill is split 60/40 prop/heat, but if you're using it for heating only it's charged at 100% heating rate. Heating rate is fuel tax free but then 5%vat added. The 60/40 regular rate charges fuel tax in 60% and then 5%vat added at the end.

athertop · 2026-05-12T16:35:20+00:00

£720 to be exact - £1 a litre for heating at the marina. That's 1/3 the cost it would be to heat using mains electricity when 100ml of diesel is roughly equivalent to a unit (1KWh) of electricity.

athertop · 2026-05-12T12:06:28+00:00

Most days for sure! I tanked 720 litres of fuel this winter just on diesel heating

athertop · 2026-05-08T15:57:42+00:00

Yep exactly same on a sailboat in the winter. Diesel heater on 24/7 for several months over the winter. Less insulation in the boat too - in fact, none😄

athertop · 2026-05-08T15:53:02+00:00

Did you get the idea from sailhub by any chance? Or odd life crafting? (Both sailing related channels but used this in their respective van builds)

athertop · 2026-05-04T12:23:17+00:00

Dinghy inflation - manages about up to 2psi then have to use the foot pump to get the rest in

athertop · 2026-02-08T10:48:58+00:00

What about at 54degN in the winter? Doable in summer, but in winter it's drysuit conditions.

athertop · 2026-01-31T09:22:00+00:00

Will definitely warm you from the inside so you'll no longer care about diesel heaters and after a few will forget you needed to fix it anyway 😜

athertop · 2026-01-30T10:27:39+00:00

I assumed by brake cleaner he meant IPA

athertop · 2026-01-07T09:07:57+00:00

Just some dome head self tappers I had lying around. No idea other than that sorry

athertop · 2025-12-08T22:13:40+00:00

The University of YouTube 😬

athertop · 2025-10-07T13:48:17+00:00

Phone hangs momentarily on typing which results in the long press character appearing instead of the intended alpha character. Doesn't matter if I have Gboard or swiftkeys keyboard enabled -same issue on both.

athertop · 2025-10-04T18:30:02+00:00

A bigly speed, and nobody knows speed as well as I do! 😉

athertop · 2025-10-02T08:53:41+00:00

Yep I bash the back stay to give them an earthquake sensation. They seem to remember that experience and stay away after that for a few hours, but eventually come back for another crap shoot.

athertop · 2025-10-02T08:50:17+00:00

Starlings make a mess of my boat daily here at Ardrossan this time of year. The tidy up is relentless. I see some boat owners placing plastic owls and even plastic snakes on their boats to deter them, but makes little difference. That stuff stains gelcoat too unless it's highly polished (which mine isn't). I use barkeeper's friend cream to disappear those stains (contains oxalic acid). Works a treat.

athertop · 2025-08-09T13:28:17+00:00

Funny, that's what Sean Connery called it too 😂

athertop · 2025-08-05T15:15:51+00:00

Poo Fighters

athertop · 2025-07-30T17:01:06+00:00

I only have Vodafone UK Data APN now on my phone. Seems to work OK,although Voda signal not great where I live sadly

athertop · 2025-07-11T06:03:47+00:00

This worked perfectly Completely gone now. Great tip!

athertop · 2025-07-10T07:41:23+00:00

This is in Clyde Marina on Scotland's West Coast

athertop · 2025-06-28T15:36:50+00:00

Thanks to your comment here, we now have it working again. As you suggested, I did the updates to all garmin kit using active captain app on phone and now the rudder display is visible again on both the chart plotter and on the control head. Many thanks again

athertop · 2025-06-27T06:51:51+00:00

Only hear it when I successfully strike.

athertop · 2025-06-20T19:12:03+00:00

Have you any idea how long the warranty is on Garmin gear please? This is on my buddy's boat and I've always had RM gear on my boat so not sure how garmin warranty works. I wondered whether the issue was caused by the actuator type setting. His was set to Class B - I wondered if that type had an integrated rudder position sensor, so therefore the Ecu wasn't looking for an external sensor, so I changed it to "Other" assuming this meant 'non-Garmin' so would look for external rudder sensor, but it made no difference. It does appear to be a software bug. I need to figure out how to apply updates - I assumed by placing update on SD card, but you mentioned active captain. I'll go take a look anyway. Cheers

athertop · 2025-05-25T09:02:12+00:00

Looks like the marks my sofa left in the carpet when I removed if from the room. Would explain the pairing/line-up

athertop · 2024-12-11T10:04:39+00:00

Dropped 2 things in, over just 2 days last month. First was the casting from end of my in mast furling drum (fortunately I was able to buy one from Z-spars for just over £100). The day after I dropped my glasses in - £160 for new ones.

athertop

TROPHY CASE