Canal Boat — January 2018

canalboat.co.ukcanalboat.co.uk Canal Boat January 2018 75

Why do we pay VAT on mooring rent?

Having the correct tool makes the job easier

Balancing your batteries

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WRITE TO Canal Boat Magazine, Archant Specialist, Evolution House, 2-6 Easthampstead Road, Wokingham, RG40 2EG

This has probably been asked

many times but I’m puzzling over

it. Our county council charges us

VAT on the rent on our residential mooring.

We also pay Band A Council Tax. This is our

sole residence. Is it ethical to be charged

VAT on rent? Do council house tenants pay

Vat on their rent? Doesn’t seem right. We

are receiving no service of any kind from

the council, just a wharf to moor our boat to.

All utilities provided by utility companies for

which we pay separately.

STEPHEN

TONY REPLIES: The last thing you want is

well intentioned but poor advice from those

not involved in VAT details. I suggest that you

study this document https://www.gov.uk/government/

publications/vat-n otice-742-land-and-property/vat-notice-

742-land-and-property and then contact HMRC (VAT) to get

a written and definitive answer. Be aware that your mooring

provider probably has every right to require you to move if

you upset them.

My unqualified view based on what you tell us is

that a mooring in water is not land as described in that

document. Most, but not all marinas have to pay CRT an

annual access charge for connection to the system and this

attracts VAT. Online moorings not owned by CRT by and

large have to pay CRT to allow mooring in CRT’s water.

VAT is payable on that fee. It sounds to me as if your

county council pay CRT and pass the charge on to you in

your rent. Then there is the wayleave to allow you to tie up

to the council’s land plus fees to grant you access rights. I

do not think council houses (not that there are many these

days, most are tenants of housing associations) have

much to do with moorings.

I doubt many other boaters pay separately for their

services and moorings so should not give advice. I repeat

• you do not need opinions other than those from HMRC
  or an accountant who specialises in VAT matters.

Q

Q

I have a question on narrowboat battery
placement. I have 4 calcium sealed lead
acid batteries on my narrowboat wired for
24v. Two are mounted/placed at floor /base plate level
and lie on one side at the rear end. The other pair lies
lengthways in relation to the boat and at floor level.
Bearing in mind that the boat leans and rocks slightly
in relation to body and general load placement, which
in your view would be the best orientation for the
batteries.
PHIL DEACON

TONY REPLIES: I am not too sure about
your question. My answer would be any way
as long as they are vertical with the top of
the battery at the top. Some sealed batteries say they
can even be mounted upside down but I would not
do that just in case a charging fault forced them into
excess gassing. Having them any other way up may

then allow them to vent acid rather than gas. Although

narrowboats seem to rock more than other craft the

actual angle of heel is far less than a sea boat would

suffer while a sailing yacht would heel even more.

Remember that the cells inside the battery are

totally sealed from each other and are probably less

than 2” X 6” in cross section. Any likely list or trim of

the boat can only move the liquid in each individual

cell so if the battery is set parallel with the centreline of

the boat there is only about 6” of surface to “pile up”

into the low end. Batteries set at right angles to the hull

centreline only have about 2” for the liquid to pile up

in. Even on the 6” distance I doubt the heel or trim will

make the liquid level more than about 6mm difference.

As modern wet batteries (sealed or open) seem to

claim “maintenance free” by dint of a larger electrolyte

reserve above the plates it should be impossible for

any normal inland heel or trim to expose the plates

unless excess charging voltage has driven water, as

gasses, out of the battery. Typically you are only talking

about a very few inches of heel across the boat, let’s

say 2”. So 2” on 7ft = about 0.2”. Simply not worth

worrying about

My concerns about your set-up relate to unbalanced

charging and discharging. Ideally I would want the two

links between the 12V batteries in series to be of equal

length and then the parallel links linking the pairs to

also be of equal length. I would want the main positive

feed to be on one end of the paralleled sets and the

negative at the opposite end. All cables being over

specified for their current and length.

As long as the interlinks are nice and thick on what

is effectively a two x 24 volt battery banks I don’t think

having the main pos. & neg. on the same end would

make a discernible difference. However it would if

more sets were added: the more batteries in parallel,

the more important having the leads at opposite ends

of the bank becomes.

I have a Technodrive gearbox fitted to my
Lombardini engine. The coupling came
away from the gearbox drive shaft, and
I had no propulsion. The nut holding the coupling
to the drive shaft had undone itself. I managed to
put it back together and tightened the nut as much
as I could. All was well until I put it in reverse then
suddenly no propulsion again and looking at the
engine the nut had come off again. Have I missed
something, should there be a cotter pin of some kind
to secure the nut?

TONY REPLIES: In general across
a range of gearboxes, those nuts are
usually self-locking nuts or in some cases
castellated nuts with a split pin. You will recognise
a castellated nut by the cut outs like a castle tower

and a self-locking nut by a nylon insert around

the top or a funny side slotted semi-domed top.

There may be some form of washer under the nut

or even two, one being a spring or toothed washer

designed to stop the nut undoing. Best search the

bilge/drip tray to make sure they were not used

originally. It might be that the nut had been loose for

a very long time so the splines in the coupling and

on the shaft are worn. If this is so then each time

you reverse direction the nut and shaft will start to

revolve a fraction before the slack is taken up and

the coupling moves. This will potentially help loosen

the nut. However I suspect this is a hydraulic box

and as such without the engine running you cannot

put it in gear. This means that without a special tool

you will not be able to stop the coupling turning to

get the nut tight enough. On a larger PRM hydraulic

box the torque is 340Nm. This is exceptionally tight

so you will need a long “spanner” to get that degree

of tightness and a way of preventing the coupling

turning. The proper tool is called a Counter Holding

Tool that fits the holes in the coupling so you can

prevent it turning while you tighten the nut – Google

Counter Holding Tool for images so you know what

they look like.

I doubt you will easily get access to one of those

so try either a very large Stilson pipe wrench on the

coupling (but remember to file off any burrs they

produce) or sometimes two bolts and nuts in two

of the coupling holes with a large steel bar wedged

between them to stop the coupling turning while

you tighten the nut will also work. Ideally use a

torque wrench set to whatever Technodrive say it

should be. Otherwise as tight as you can.

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