On Board with Mark Corke

Copper Anti fouling

 
Washington state has become the first state in the union to ban the use of copper based anti fouling paints and it looks as though California will not be far behind. After January 1st 2018 it will be illegal in Washington to sell  boats with copper based anti fouling paints and paints with no more than 0.5 % copper cannot be used after  January 1st 2020. It seems likely that other states will follow suit. What bothers me about this is that boats over 65 feet are exempt as are all  government vessels, research vessels and commercial vessels. So basically the one people that it is going to affect is the small recreational boater. So that means that in Port Townsend, WA I cannot paint the bottom of my Boston Whaler with a copper based paint but right next to me in the ship yard they can be spraying on copper based paint to a 370 foot bulk carrier! Now the surface area of that Boston Whaler boat that is contact with the water is but a minor pimple compared with the bulk carrier. Then when we factor in that the Whaler is dry sailed off the trailer and may only go into the water a few weeks a year but the bulk carrier sits at the dock for days leeching copper into the surrounding water. Something does not add up here.

Copper is one of the best anti fouling treatments out there. The British admiralty knew it hundreds of years ago and started nailing sheets of cooper onto the bottom of their warships to prevent infestation from ship-worm and other pests. Anti fouling works because it is toxic if you make anti fouling less toxic then the boat become more susceptible to fouling. Come on, does the average recreational boater make that much difference, I don't think so. The other problem for paint manufacturers is that they now have to come up with alternatives. We had this same problem some years ago when TBT (tri butyl tin) was banned which again was only for recreational craft, commercial vessels were exempt. If congress and individual states are really worried about our oceans then worry about the billions of oil that were spilled into the Gulf last year of which no one seems to have been held accountable.

ProMariner battery charger

 

Batteries are expensive and keeping them in tip top condition means keeping them charged up and maintained. Batteries that are deeply discharged may never fully recover especially if they are of the conventional lead acid type, plates can actually buckle ruining the battery and in the cold winter months a 'flat' battery can actually freeze and the case can split dumping acid everywhere. Frankly until a few years ago the only charge my batteries got was from the engine alternator with the occasional top up from an automotive style battery charger on the odd time when I was tied up to a dock. The automotive battery chargers are cheap and they work sort of but they do not take into account the type of battery that they are being connected to, AGM, gel, lead  acid and others all have differing needs as  far  as charging goes but the car style charger which is most probably of the resonant type puts out a high amperage charge which gradually tapers off as the battery is unable to accept higher charge rates. This all sounds fine and is often great for a quick top up but is not good for the battery which will often show charged when in fact it is not.

Boats and car batteries operate in completely different environments and I am not talking about one  being on water and another on land. What you have to think about is that a car battery is pretty much being charged all the time that you are in the car. There are rare occasions when you may be sitting at the side of the road with the hazard flashers going but 99% of the time when you are sitting in the car the engine is running and thus the alternator is putting out a pretty hefty charge which could be of the order of up to 65 to 80 amps depending on your particular vehicle. Some of this current will go to charge the battery and keep in charged up and the residual current will be used to run the car electrics, ignition lights, radio etc etc. Modern car batteries are often quite small because basically all they have to do is start the car. If the battery is in good condition and the car starts readily any charge that is used up starting the motor is soon replenished and the battery is thus kept at full charge all the time.  This is where the cheap battery chargers from NAPA or the auto parts store come in. If you inadvertently left your car lights on over night and the battery is flat all it often needs is a couple of hours with the clip on type charger and there will be sufficient charge to start the car  whereupon the alternator takes over and after 40 minutes or so of driving the battery is once more charged up and will fully recover as the regular charging regimen with current from the alternator takes over.

Contrast this to the average boat. Typically even a modest boat may well have more than one battery which may be of different capacities perhaps a 80 amp hour for engine starting and 120 amp hour battery for house loads. The boat may often be left for weeks at a time and when it is used the engine may only be run for and hour or so and sometimes less particulary if it is a sail boat which is scant time to charge up even one battery let alone two. Then to add insult to injury the boat may be achored for a time while the crew fish or having cleared the harbor the sails are hoisted and the engine is turned off. Even with the engine off the radar and other electronics may be on which further depletes an already stressed battery. Even with a good 85 amp alternator on the boat the engine may ideally need to be run for several hours to fully charge the batteries but that does not often happen unless  you happen to  be on a power boat that is on a longish trip. Because the current decreases as the battery comes up to charge many boat batteries may only ever be 90 % charged at best all the time. The last 10% takes the longest to get into the battery.

The point of all this is that to maintain batteries properly they need to be fully and consistently charged. Many long distance sailors and liveaboards opt for wind generators and solar panels which are great for providing an almost constant source of power as long as the wind blows or the sun shines. For the rest of us however where the boat is tied up in a slip  and there is a ready supply of shore power a marine style battery charger is the answer. One such charger is the ProMariner  range of which I have been testing the 12 -20P model. Other models are available and which one you pick will depend to some extent on the size of the battery bank. Available from 10 to 60 amps in 12 volt and 20 and 30 amp models in 24 volt the 12 - 20 that I have been using is capable of charging up to three batteries with a maximum output of 20 amps which is more than enough to keep the two AGM batteries that I have on the boat fully charged. Designed to be permanently fitted into the boat the AC side operates on any voltage from 100 to 220 in either 60 or 50 cycles so it will operate in just about any area of the world without modification, a boon to world voyagers. Completely solid state it was easy to install and set up. The  installation  instructions are easy to follow and soft keys on the from panel allow you to set the charger to your specific requirements depending on the type of batteries that you have aboard. This is key as it means that the charging is specially matched to your batteries, thus output voltage is adjusted by the unit to give optimum charge irrespective of what type of batteries that you have. A temperature sensor connection also monitors the batteries reducing and adjusting the output depending on the battery temperature.  Once the charger is set no further input is required from the boat owner and each time the power is connected the charger brings the batteries up to charge quickly, but just how quickly depends on how discharged they are.  The big difference with this type of marine charger is that it is a three stage charger. Unlike the car charger that just reduces output as the battery voltage increases the ProMariner has three output phases; the bulk charge where a lot of amps are put into the battery quite quickly which may be up to the maximum of 20 amps, a float charge at a much lower amperage rate and finally a conditioning charge which may be a small percentage of an amp to keep the battery fully charged. Charging the battery like this is much better for them and after I connected up the charger for the first time I was surprised at just how much better my batteries performed, spinning the engine over noticeably  faster. Prices vary depending on the model but the model I installed retails for around the $250 mark.

Diesel repower?

     

Duramax diesels are a familiar name on the roads of North America. Powering many trucks by Chevy and GMC the 6.6 liter engines have been proven over many years of service so it is exciting to note that there is now a marinised version available. What is interesting is that the overall dimensions are very similar to the gas GM Crusader engines and the information that I have seems to indicate that the diesels will be pretty much a straight replacement for the gasoline power plants. Two years ago Sweden Diesel signed an agreement with GM and started development of the engines which are to be sold in the USA through Performance Diesel out of Galveston Texas. The engine are available in four variations currently, a 350, 400, 450 and 500 hp versions. Another interesting point is that the diesel is actually 50 pounds lighter than the comparable gas version.  Also in the works but not as yet available is a version of the engine equipped with twin Lysholm superchargers called the TSC which would be a great replacement for boats that need a lot of get up and go such as the Cigarette style boats, Baja and so on. When you consider that the V8 575 supercharged gas version uses about one gallon every two minutes at wide open throttle there could be significant energy and operating cost savings after swapping over to the diesels.

Considering the amount of boats out there that use the Crusader engines I can see that these new diesels will be great not only as OEM fitments but also as repower units.

 

 

Low bridge

 

Well this is one way to get under a non opening bridge if your rig is too tall!

Zinc time

 

 

Up here in the North East at least, some boats have already been pulled for the season and others will not be far behind. This is just a friendly reminder that one of the chores with the boat out of the water is to change the anodes on the boat. I like to change mine at the end of the season at the same time as I service the engine at the end of the year ready for the coming winter and also it is one less thing to worry about come the next season. Remember that for a zinc to work it needs to make good electrical contact unlike a boat that I looked at recently where the shaft anode was the wrong size for the shaft and someone, presumably the owner had wrapped plastic electrical tape around the shaft to make it larger so the anode would fit!

 

Actually this year I found that my zincs did not get eaten up as much as the previous couple of years. I am not sure why that is but none the less you can see here the difference between the old and the new. No guesses for which is which.

Compact cruising

 

 

It's a fact of life that many of us have boats larger than we need or can comfortably afford. This boat called the Mayrik P214 has been on my radar for several years now and actually made the trip from the Caribbean to France on her own with no support vessel or refueling stops. She has I believe a smallish Perkins of about 85 HP cruises at 8 knots and tops out at 10, uses less than a gallon per hour, is 22 feet in length and 8 feet wide. As you can see from the picture she has a bulbous bow which apparently adds to the forward buoyancy and prevents too much pitching into head seas. Built of plywood and epoxy I think she is fantastic and should be very cheap to own and operate. With so many other boats drinking up fuel at the 30 to 50 gallons per hour rate this boat will still get you there and cost pennies in the process. The website is French with a rather funky English translation but there is a ton more pictures of the boat being built and underway.  I wish plans were available it looks like something that would be a great project for a competent weekend and evening boat builder that could be built over a couple of years for not too much money.

Neat idea

 

 

 Here is a neat idea indeed. Incorporated into the galley sole of just about every Beneteau is a handy little dustpan. If you spend anytime aboard you will know just how much sand, grit, hair and other detritus ends up on the cabin sole. A little plastic tray built in as shown above means not having to stow a separate dust pan only the brush. The access plate is lifted out, the junk swept in and then thrown over the side or into the waste bin. On some boats the tray also lifts out to give access to the galley seawater intake sea cocks. Simple and efficient, I only wish more boat manufacturers would come up with cheap but effective ideas such as this.