Generators! A reply to nb Jubilee!

sladen said...

Talking of monster gennys... what brand/model is it and has it proved good/bad/indifferent? nb. Jubilee needs to be getting one for monster workshop and general power tooling!
24 September 2009 18:49

Hello from Pippin!

Please excuse this rather unconventional way of replying to a comment, but The Ship's Computer seems averse to letting me post a reply in the normal fashion......

Pippin's monster genny is a Pramac 6000s Yanmar diesel engined job with loads of sound insulation. This means 5.9 kva and not a very great deal of noise.

Up until now, it has been brilliant: producing more power than even we could need at once.....We've had angle grinders, sanders, hot air guns and drills running off it with no problems. Our neighbours' silly-thousand psi pressure-washer was too much for it though...

It is powerful enough to run our domestic washer/dryer. Any spare power ends up in Pippins slightly over-egged 1320 A/H battery bank courtesy of the Victron inverter.

The genny has about 500 hours on it and was trouble free until the day before yesterday, when despite the diesel engine making healthy super-silenced sounds, it produced not an amp...

Fiddlesticks!

An engineer is being sourced as we type as this sort of problem is way beyond Pippin's crews' skill set.

We'll post the outcome of the investigation asap. My own thoughts are that a service kit may sort it....

We'll see.......

Regards, John and Jackie.

P.S. Was there ever a more romantic way to celebrate a second wedding anniversary....?

New term, and lots of new stuff....

Neither of us are teachers, but it has felt a lot like going back to the first day at school for me.....

The new job and training has been intense and hectic (hence the absence of any blogs for ages) but in a good way.....

I am bound by all sorts of Legal Eagle stuff to do with Client Confidentiality, about which I cannot and will not blog, but suffice to say I am off for a three day course tomorrow in how to make small, accurate holes in extremely sensitive material. The major problem with the process is that the material can react very badly to the hole-making process. This can lead to the mother and father of all paperwork mountains, so the aim of the course is to get us to make holes without doing so.

It requires a very steady hand.......

Anyway, enough of that.

News from our part of the Cam:

We saw our friend Rhian today. Great to see her and hear all the news from Chile.

James of Lucky Duck gave me loads of help yesterday in the re-organisation of the Stealth Wood-Pile. Thanks James!!

Pippin has been in the wars a bit though: Our Jabsco waterpump stopped working the weekend before last.

Rather than waste time with the local chandlery, (who are very rude, patronising, inefficient and always shut when you really need them) Jackie drove down to Jabsco HQ in Letchworth and bought a factory re-conditioned pump and accumulator for £30. (An improvement on the £140+ that the rude, patronising, inefficient and shut place would have quoted....). Jackie then fitted it, all on her own, with no help from me. (I'd just given blood so was hors de combat) Result!!

Big round of applause here for Jackie please.....

The next thing was the lights in our cabin.They'd been flickering a bit for ages, then died. Jackie to the rescue once again. I'd just finished sorting out the woodpile when she had sorted all the problems with some new connectors. Job Done.

More worrying, and outside our collective skill-set, is the fact that the Monster Genny has stopped producing power. The diesel engine is running well, but no amps come forth. This looks like a service engineer's job.

Lets hope it's nothing too serious as a new Genny like ours will set us back about £2,500-£3,000.

Eeek!

Visit from one of Britain's Finest Shakespearean Actors

Last Sunday, we were joined by our Soho chums Sally and Phil and Malcolm and Catherine.

We all had a lovely buffet lunch prepared and served by Jackie as I steered Pipppin towards Cambridge,where we pumped-out.

I've got to share Malcolm's thank you note, simply because it is a work of genius, and more than does justice to our humble efforts in the hospitality department:

Dear Hearts of the First Rank!
 
What a splendid marvellous banquet-feast of a holi-day! 

Truly, a multi-millionaire who might yet command
the whole world with the power of his wealth
could not have hoped for any thing
higher or more especial!
The finest wines!
Haute cuisine!
Parfait!
Exquisite!

And company beyond delights' describing! 
And all aboard 'Cleopatra's Barge', serenely poised,
soon gliding our way to dreaming Cambridge.
And lo, t'was there a miracle was enacted,
whereon, our party disembarking to savour the fragrant air of that fair town, 
Pippin's loaded tummy-tanks were swiftly disgorged by noble Captain Long-John; 
with O such a lightness & sweet delicacy of hand,
that passing throngs at Sunday leisure,
gnawing on brave burgers or sucking the sweets of melting ice-cream,
were let but hardly a moments pause to quiz the content of their recipes! 
Nay  barely a cough or spluttered guess as to the nature of such a sudden fruitful wind-shift, 
that so permeated then that watery glade;
nor how so subtle had been the trick of disappearing it! 

But all too short the halcyon day!
No sooner had we land-legs rediscovered when harsh-lecturing Time began her shrewish urgings;
& ere we had traversed the bankside park,
pausing en route to tout our thespic gifts in lusty audit for some new camp-spouting
of 'My Lady Fair';  
the dark beckonings of Taxi rank had won the test.
'Twas thus from there we sped to Cambrige Rail Stop, embarking, with sec's to spare,
once more for London's dirty lights,
where soon : 
 
Behind gallery Tated
Sad though elated,
Empty though sated,
Both slightly deflated,
(O loss unabated!)
Of Strawberries un-plated!
But Oh what a cream of a Day!
Eh? Hooray!
 
Dear Jackie & John,
Our Host & Hostess with the mostess!
Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!
 
Ever yours in warmest appreciation
Malcolm & Catherine


As I say, the man is a genius!

Why he was overlooked in The Birthday Honours list is beyond me.....

Never mind, there's always New Year's.....

Additional crewmembers

Pippin is up to full complement this evening. Archie, our godson, is over for a visit.

Also, we have a permanent addition to the crew.

A picture's worth a thousand words, so here's a thesis:


Enter Tom Kitten, stage left, mewing quietly.


Is the coast clear?



You're sure?


I'll have a nap then....


Meeting the swans:

Saying hello to Archie:

Doing the blog:

The cute-ometer is reading off the scale.......He's just gone to sleep on my lap as I type this.

One, two, three, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Duck Overboard!!!!

Jackie noticed something odd floating in the Oggin this morning. Originally she thought it was a dead duck, but when it transpired that it was a "Lucky Duck (James and Amy, Mascot, for the use of)" a rescue operation was launched:







Ta-Dah!