On Board with Mark Corke

How to install underwater lights

 

Seaglass, all decked out with her new Aqualuma underwater lights.

Let's face it; there is no need to install underwater lights. They won't make your boat go any faster or handle better … but boy, do they look cool! I confess that I had shied away from putting underwater lights on my boat, thinking them a frivolous waste of time and money. I'd seen the large yachts at boat shows with the waterline all lit up, but thought that look wasn't for me — until someone gave me a couple as a gift. So I bit the bullet and installed them while my boat was hauled for some routine maintenance.

 Things you'll need (apart from the lights, of course!)

Tools:

• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Holesaw
• Electric drill
• Scraper
• Respirator

Materials:

• Lights
• Adhesive sealant or mastic
• Rags
• Sandpaper

Time: Two hours per light

Cost: $450 per light

Some transoms have a slight curvature. A generous bead of manufacturer-recommend mastic behind the mounting flange should care for any discrepancy between the two mounting surfaces.

When choosing underwater lights, you have many options— LED or tungsten. LED lights have a longer life than tungsten, don't get hot, and have lower power draw. These are all good reasons for picking LED. You'll also need to decide on the color of the emitted light: Generally, blue, green, or white are your options. Blue travels farthest in saltwater, green is best for freshwater, and white is best for attracting fish. Note that blue underwater lights are illegal in some places, so check local ordinances for your boating area.

My boat is solid fiberglass below the waterline, but your boat may not be. In that case, you will need to seal the core to prevent water intrusion (see "Cored Hull Care" below). Even if you have solid fiberglass, you'll need to seal the open edges of the hull cut with epoxy or another impervious coating to prevent possible water migration into unprotected glass should water seep past the light's seal.

Cored Hull Care

Fitting underwater lights in a cored hull presents some unique challenges and requires a little additional work. Although it may be tempting to simply drill a hole through the boat and fit the lights, water can find its way into the coring, eventually damaging the boat's structure.

If your boat has a cored hull, drill through as outlined in the step-by-step instructions in this article, then use a sharp instrument to dig out the coring material about an inch back all around from the edge of the hole. Vacuum and clean out the hole thoroughly. Mix up some epoxy and colloidal silica to a peanut butter consistency and force this into the void you created until it is even with the edge of the hole. Leave it overnight to cure, trim if needed, and finish the installation as outlined in this article.

Note, too, that normally you would install a backing pad behind any hull penetrations. In this case, the light manufacturer said this was unnecessary because the retaining nut is only hand-tight. Therefore pressure against the hull is minimal, and the light is effectively held in place with the special adhesive sealant mastic recommended in the instructions.

Follow The Rules

Don't let your boat's underwater lights confuse other boaters. The U.S. Coast Guard COLREGS (also known as the "Rules of the Road" for boaters) require that a boat avoid displaying any light that could be confused as another navigation light or another vessel. And remember, flashing blue lights are reserved for law enforcement. At a distance, wave action combined with the steady rocking of below-the-waterline high-intensity blue lights can give the appearance of a police vessel.

In addition to the steps below, a large portion of the work time will be taken up with the wiring. Be sure to follow the recommendations with your lights concerning wire- and circuit breaker sizing.

 

1. Carefully measure and mark the light's center position on the outside of the boat with a pencil. Placement is likely to be a compromise between the ideal and the possible. Go inside the boat and check the inside of the hull to ensure that there are no structural members or wiring or anything else in the way that could impact the placement. Recheck it to make sure. Consider, too, that you will have to be able to reach the back of the lamp for installation and service. Don't position lights too close to exhaust outlets or other existing penetrations.

2. After double-checking your measurements, chuck a 1/8-inch drill bit into an electric drill and drill through the hull on the marks you made in the previous step. Remove the drill bit from the chuck, but leave it in the hole so you can easily see on the inside of the boat where the final larger hole will be. If you measured correctly, carry on. If not, remember that it's much easier to repair a small hole than a larger one!

3. Use a hole saw of the correct diameter to cut the hole, using the smaller hole as a guide for the drill bit. Use a slow speed and apply firm pressure to the drill. My lights needed a 2-3/8-inch hole, but other lights may require a different size. Again, refer to the instructions that came with your lights.

4. Clean up any rough spots around the hole with sandpaper. Then, after wiping the hole and the inside of the transom with acetone to remove any residual dirt and grease, brush on some epoxy resin to seal the edge. Once the epoxy has dried, feed the cables into the hole and test fit the light. Draw around the circumference of the light fitting with a pencil.

5. Remove the light, then use a scraper to remove any antifouling inside the line back to the original gelcoat. Use a clean rag to wipe the scraped area with acetone to remove surface contaminants.

6. Feed the cables back through the hole. Apply a generous bead of adhesive sealant — according to manufacturer recommendations — around the flange of the light and press it into position. Scrape or wipe off excess sealant.

7. On the inside of the boat, screw on the retaining nut, then route the wires and connect them to a suitable switch or breaker. (The correct size will be given in the instructions.) Double check all your work before turning on the light.

Before Drilling That Hole, Stop And Think!

No one likes drilling holes in their boat — especially below the waterline — but sometimes it's necessary. Before you crank up the drill, ensure you know exactly where you want the hole (measure twice, drill once), and be certain that you know what's behind where you're drilling. In one case, an owner was drilling a hole to install a battery box and accidentally drilled into a diesel fuel tank, spilling a couple of gallons of smelly fuel into the bilge (consider if it had been a gasoline tank!). 

Top Boating Videos of 2021

I'm happy to report that a couple of my videos came top of the list of  BoatUS' most-watched in 2021 and are embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Repairing gelcoat is a common boat owner task, but it requires more than just filling in small spider cracks. “How to Spray Gelcoat on a Boat Using a Preval Sprayer,” which shows how to make professional gelcoat repairs over a larger area, was the most-watched new BoatUS video of 2021, from BoatUS Magazine. The second most-watched video on the list, “Bilge Pump Not Working? Here’s How To Troubleshoot the Problem” proves that even in this technological era, boaters continue to be vexed with the age-old issue of keeping water out of the boat.

 

 

 

 

Installing an automatic fire extinguisher

 

Of all the things that scare boat owners the most, sinking is probably at the top of the list. But fire is no less of a threat. Indeed, a fire, even if you manage to put it out, can easily lead to a sinking. The first line of defense when it comes to preventing a fire on board is to make sure that all systems are correctly installed and that there is nothing that can turn a small problem into a large one. Normally a single factor alone will not cause a fire; they are most often started by a combination of factors.

Should the worst happen you need to slant the odds in your favor of putting a fire out. The best fire extinguisher is probably a frightened sailor with a bucket, but after that, it usually comes down to genuine fire extinguishers. Most boats have a few of these on board. There should be one in each cabin, visible and easily accessible so that it can be grabbed and used in a hurry; speed is of the essence here.

But what if the fire is in the engine space? You may not even realize you have a fire there until it is too late. Worse yet, opening the engine cover to see what’s going on is often a bad idea, as it feeds additional oxygen to the fire and may cause a flare-up. The ABYC recommends that engine fires be tackled without opening the engine cover or—in larger vessels—the door to the engine room. The cover or door maintains a physical barrier between you and the fire and restricts the amount of oxygen that can reach the flames. Often, sailboat builders thoughtfully install fire ports in the front of their engine boxes; a small plastic disc pops out, allowing you to deploy the nozzle of a fire extinguisher through the hole. This is very sensible, but is not necessarily the best solution.

Top of the tree is an automatic fire extinguisher system. In its simplest form, this senses the engine room temperature, and when it rises above a preset limit, deploys an inert gas to deprive the engine room of oxygen, thus putting out the fire. Halon used to be the gas of choice, but environmental concerns have resulted in it being outlawed. New systems use another gas called heptafluoropropane, although halon is still acceptable for existing systems. (If you do own a boat with a halon system, be aware that it cannot be refilled with halon when serviced; the same holds true for older refrigeration units that use halon as a refrigerant.)

Installing an automatic fire extinguisher in the engine room is well within the capabilities of a competent DIY owner, but it is necessary to do a little research first. I contacted Sea Fire, who supplied me with the necessary parts to complete the installation that you see here after sending me a worksheet that asked some questions about the boat, engine size, location and most important, the size of the space that the system would protect.

In theory, it is possible to install an automatic extinguisher that employs a vial on a sprinkler head at the top of the extinguisher cylinder, which bursts at a certain temperature and smothers the fire. The advantage to this approach is that you don’t have to make any extraneous connections to your engine room. Most owners, though, will opt for a slightly more sophisticated system, which is what I did. Connected to the top of the cylinder in my system is a cable release controlled by a handle next to the helm that can be pulled to deploy the extinguishing agent manually. Because the boat in which I was making the installation had a large electronically controlled engine, I also installed an automatic shut-down system. With this, if the extinguisher is deployed either manually or automatically a relay trips and shuts down the engine. Shutting down the engine if it is running ensures that the extinguishing agent will not be sucked into the engine and ejected out of the exhaust before it has the chance to do its job and put the fire out.

 

Here’s How I Did It

 

Tools required:

Drill, screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure, crimpers, wrenches

 

Skill level:

Advanced amateur

1 Decide where the extinguisher will go. In many cases the decision is made for you, as there is not much space in the average engine room. Bear in mind that you will have to make a connection to the top of the cylinder and that, depending on the type of system you have, the cylinder will either need to be mounted horizontally or vertically. This will be made clear in the installation instructions.

2 Measure carefully, then bolt the mounting bracket into position. I had a nice clear space on the aft bulkhead, which was just perfect. You may not be so lucky and may have to reroute wires or hoses if they are in the way.     

3 Mount the extinguisher as outlined in the instructions. The Sea Fire I’m mounting has stainless steel worm-drive clips that pass through the bracket and around the cylinder. Make sure they are tight.

 
 

Install the manual release cable. Bear in mind that it is stiff, like a throttle or gear shift cable, and will not bend in a tight radius. Cables are supplied in almost any length, so measure the run of the cable before ordering. An old piece of 6mm 1x19 rigging wire is handy for this, as it has the same bend characteristics as the release cable.

 

4A. After deciding where the cable will go, install the plate for the manual release, which should be near the helm. You will also need to drill a hole for the cable attachment; I was lucky to be able to use the plate to cover an unwanted hole where a gauge used to be mounted  

4B.Install the brass nut and washer before passing the end of the cable through the hole.

4C.Then install the other components on the other side: barrel nut, O ring, T handle, and safety clip.        Connect the other end of the cable to the cylinder, which is retained by a spring clip. It is also worth noting that the cylinder has a safety pin in place that has to be removed, but leave that until you have completed the installation to avoid a possible accidental discharge.    

 

5 Use a hole saw to drill a mounting hole for the monitor panel.

6 The panel is passed through the hole and secured by a straddle clip on the back.

 

7 Wiring is likely to be the most time-consuming part of the job, as it must be neat and well ordered. First mount the relay/control box. I put mine behind the breaker panel. Use cable of the correct gauge; Sea Fire recommends no smaller than 16 AWG.

1. The wiring is fairly easy to follow, but requires connections from the top of the cylinder, a power feed and connections to the electrical engine shut-down solenoid. When connecting a shut-down solenoid, be aware that the contacts will either be normally open or normally closed. You may need to refer to the engine wiring diagram to identify your specific application and which wire you need to splice into.
2. Install the CAT 5 Ethernet cable between the monitor panel and control box.
3. Make the power connections to the fuse box, which must be protected with the correct amperage fuse. Don’t forget to mark up the fuse for identification later.

Finally, clip back the cables for a neat and orderly appearance.

With thanks to Brewer South Freeport and Matt Durkin.

 

Replacing a boat fridge

 

Until now I’ve never owned a boat with a refrigerator, all my past boats have had an icebox. This was not necessarily by choice, my electrical system has been for the most part pretty minimal and I’ve not had sufficient electrical capacity to operate a fridge, but this changed when I got Seaglass my Grand banks 32. By comparison to my other boats, electricity is profligate, not only do I have a huge battery bank but additionally I have a generator, able to supply 120 volts AC at the push of a button.

Like many marine and RV refrigerators the unit fitted to Seaglass is able to operate from either AC or DC. When the boat is connected to shore power, or the generator is operating, the unit runs from this supply, but disconnect or interrupt the AC and the fridge defaults to 12 volts. Up until now I been manually selecting AC or DC on the breaker panel and it was only after I spoke to the good folks at Thetford that I found out you can leave both breakers turned on.

The fridge on the boat was, I think, original and although it had soldiered on for 25 years it was showing its age. The old fridge didn’t look too bad but after 25 years time was up.

The door seals were worn, the flap to the freezer compartment was missing, and it ran almost all the time in an effort to maintain its temperature – it had to go.

When the boat was built the buyer had two options, have a meat locker cold plate style fridge replete with solid teak door and stainless steel interior or a standalone marine fridge. Frankly I wished my boat had come with the former option and although I could have had one built, the cost, along with the siting and mounting of the separate compressor/evaporator was more than I was prepared to tackle. The simpler option then was to replace the fridge that was there with a complete new unit. I had assumed that this would be a fairly simple matter of unbolting and sliding out the old unit and replacing it with new fridge of identical dimensions. Sadly it was little more complicated than that, as a direct replacement is no longer available. So after looking at all the available options I decided on the Norcold 0788, the closest in size to the original.

Here’s how I did it.

1. The first step after turning off the power was to get the old unit out. To make this easier I first removed the door.

2. Screws through a flange around the fridge secured the fridge to the surrounding woodwork. With the screws removed the fridge could finally be pulled forward to reveal a quarter century of dirt and crud.

    3. After double-checking that the power was off I disconnected the power connections, both 12 volt DC and 120 volts AC were hard wired through separate terminal blocks.

4. With the old fridge off the boat I measured the opening, as I knew that I would have to make some adjustments to ensure a neat and tidy installation of the new unit. Because the new fridge was slightly smaller in both width and height compared to the old one it was necessary to make up a new teak surround to blend seamlessly with the existing teak joiner work.

5. To promote good air circulation and give the fridge a firm base on which to sit two half-inch marine plywood skids were screwed into the base of the cabinet.

        6.The new fridge came with a right hand hanging door so I had to swap the hinges to the other side – an easy job – so that it swung the other way to make it more convenient for the         cook.

7. Before I bolted the fridge in position I had to connect up the power cables. I’ve said it many times before but don’t be tempted to use wire nuts, which should never be used on a boat at any time. I used proper crimped connections and cable of the correct gauge to extend the wiring that was then reconnected to the terminal blocks.

8. One final check before turning the fridge on is to make sure the door seals correctly. The instructions that came with the unit explain how to do this but a dollar bill should just be pinched between the seal and door edge. If the bill slides out too easily, or not at all, then the hinges need adjustment.

9. The completed job after the fridge was bolted in place through its feet into the ply skids installed earlier. An added bonus was being able to repurpose the space above the slighter shorter new refrigerator with a new cutlery drawer, which is made of teak then varnished to match the existing joiner work.

Many thanks to the good folks at Thetford for help with this project.

Waterproof USB socket

 

Scanstrut will be a familiar name to many readers. Makers of various mounts and pods for radomes and marine electronics they have just introduced this handy USB socket. I have a couple of the ubiquitous cigarette lighter type sockets on the boat and they work well enough for charging the latest tablet, phone or iThing but they do have a couple of deficiencies. Namely the adaptor that plugs into the socket does not always make the best electrical connection, you think that your phone or whatever is charging on to find out that it isn't often at a bad time, and second, although the sockets work OK below decks they are far from ideal on the flybridge or the cockpit in an open boat where they are likely to get doused in spray.

Both these issues are addressed in the new socket which features not just one but two USB outputs, one 1 amp and a second 2.5 amp, allowing you to charge two things simultaneously. As can be seen from the pictures a flip cover seals out water with a neoprene gasket and the design of the cover means that water tends to drip off. The units has only just been introduced in the USA and although some online retailers are advertising it for around $30 there may be a slight delay until you can actually get your hands on one.

If I do have a complaint is that the front sticks out some and could get caught even when not in use - the cigarette lighter socket wins on this count as with nothing plugged in it's almost flush with the dash, console or whatever.

Ancor wire ties

 

Do much electrical work on boat and you are sure to use cable ties – called zip ties by some. These are great at bundling cables and making everything neat and tidy but once pulled up nice and snug you have to trim off the excess tail. In some cases this is not a big deal, a pair of side cutters makes fast work of this, but in other cases where space is tight you can’t really see what you are doing. There is always the danger that you may inadvertently cut, or at least nick on the newly installed cables or the waste end of the tie will fly off and likely as not end up in the bilge or some other spot from which it cannot be retrieved. Trimmed ends of ties can also cut you very badly as they can end up extremely sharp which can be a hazard, I’ve lost blood to many a boat I was working on for this one simple reason.

 

But now it turns out there is another way. Anchor marine, makers and distributors of almost all things electrical for boats have come up with a self-cutting cable tie. With a simple twist the end is cut, no tools required, and best of all nothing to be lost in the bilge and no sharp edge to catch an unwary hand.

 

It’s so new there is no picture or pricing available yet.  Apparently they will be in stores starting in December.

Looking after boat batteries

 

Optima AGM battery

 

 

Let your batteries go flat and unable to start your engine and you'll be dead in the water. Batteries tend to be forgotten about until we need them and by that time it may be too late and you could find yourself calling for a tow.

 

Batteries are expensive so it pays to look after them, in many cases batteries prematurely fail and require replacement more often than they should because they are not maintained correctly. It is helpful to think about how a boat's batteries are used. On a car the battery basically fulfills one function and that is to start the engine. With the car engine running the alternator takes over and powers all the electrical circuits until the engine stops. On a boat batteries are asked to work in a different way, sure they still start the engines but then when we get to that picnic spot or we drop the anchor in some quiet cove they have to supply all the electrical needs until we start the engine again. This puts quite a strain on the battery bank and one small battery as fitted to your car would soon go flat if this was all that was available on the average boat. Most boats will have at least two batteries, often one which is reserved for starting the engine and another for house loads; lights, stereo, fridge etc.

 

The situation is even worse with a sailboat as often times the boat is sailing without the motor running so the chances to recharge the batteries are even less. Batteries that are routinely undercharged will fail prematurely and conversely it is possible to overcharge batteries and this will also lead to their swift demise. One of the best ways to keep batteries in top condition is to connect up a battery charger when the boat is left unattended. If the vessel is kept in a slip or at a dock where power is available then this is easy. Do not be tempted to use a automotive battery charger however as these may be OK for short term use but will overcharge batteries if left connected for long periods. Far better is a proper marine battery charger which are designed to be left permanently connected to the batteries and will maintain them in tip top condition. Many marine battery chargers allow some degree of user interface because the different types of batteries require somewhat differing charging regimes but this is something that once set requires no further input unless one type of battery is substituted for another. On a boat that is trailed it might be worth considering fitting a marine battery charger that can be plugged in when the boat is stored for longer periods, this will ensure that the battery remains in tip top condition and will perform well when you next take the boat out.

 

If plugging in the boat is not an option then other methods are worth considering such as installing a wind generator or solar panel. Another possibility is removing the battery from time to time, taking it home and giving it a proper charge before taking it back next time you visit the boat.

 

It is worth mentioning that there are three types of battery that you can buy. This has nothing to do with size but is how the battery itself is manufactured. The first of these is the lead acid wet cell and these are the cheapest and also the most common. The next are gel batteries which uses a jelly like substance in place of a liquid electrolyte and the final common type is an AGM (absorbed glass mat) which gets its name from the acid which is held in a fiberglass mat between the plates of the cell. Both the gel and AGM batteries are pretty much maintenance free and do not require topping up of the cells as is the case with the traditional lead acid. However this convenience comes at a price with a good AGM costing in many cases three time the price of more traditional types. On boats that have two or more batteries in a bank it is sensible to change these as a set even if one appears still to be in good condition. As batteries age their ability to accept a charge changes and they loose some of their potential to supply their full rated output, if a new battery is added into the mix the older batteries will tend to drag down the newer battery and you could find yourself changing it sooner than you had planned.

 

 

Batteries should also be kept clean and dry, batteries that sit in a damp bilge will all suffer and in some cases this can lead to high rates of self discharging for no apparent reason. Also it is USCG requirement that batteries be properly restrained and can't come loose when the weather cuts up rough. Electrical connections to the terminal posts should be well made, secure with no corrosion. Sometimes you will see a white deposit on battery posts but this can easily be cleaned off with a baking soda solution.

 

Wet cell batteries need to have the electrolyte regularly checked which should be just above the level of the top of the plates when you look into the battery. Top off with distilled water if the levels are low and always exercise caution when working around batteries. Remove jewelry such as watches and metal bracelets that could cause an electrical short and wear goggles or other eye protection to avoid splashing acid into your eyes. Batteries give off hydrogen as they charge so make sure all naked flames are extinguished and never smoke near a battery as an explosion could result.

Repairs and upgrades - Norcold and Simrad

This picture (above) was taken with taken with my iPhone at close range and as I could not get far enough back so you will have to excuse the parallax error, but it shows the fairly well, I think the progress to date on the new fridge installation. The old fridge was noisy, the seals were worn so it ran all the time, it used a ton of electricity, iced up with gay abandon and the small freezer compartment door did not properly close. With that said I am pretty impressed that it managed to soldier on for 26 years, but it had to go and is being replaced with another, which like the first is from Norcold. The fridge is a dual voltage 12/120 model which looks pretty slick, but installation has required some modifications to the cabinet work around the unit as the overall size is a little smaller. The old fridge had what can best be described as flange around the unit and this screwed into the wooden framework. This had two functions, it sealed the gap between the fridge and the cabinetry preventing dirt and debris from entering and secondly held the fridge in place preventing it from moving when the boat moved about at sea. The new fridge lacks the flange which I miss and I hope that at some time in the future Norcold sees the wisdom in reintroducing this feature to at least some of the models in their range. The 0788 model that I am installing is fixed in position with screws through the feet which are visible when the door is opened. This works well on my boat but I could see may be a problem where the fridge is located higher from the sole where a solid attachment point may not be available. Because the fridge is less tall than the original I also have room for cutlery drawer and you can see the drawer front temporarily taped into position for photography purposes.

After talking with the technical folks at Norcold I found out that I had been operating my fridge incorrectly in the past. I had always assumed that with a dual voltage fridge one had to turn off the DC breaker before turning on the AC breaker to power the fridge but it seems that I should have been keeping both the 12 volt and 120 fridge breakers on when I was aboard. Apparently there is an automatic relay in the back of the fridge which by default runs off AC voltage, if this is interrupted or unavailable then the appliance automatically switches to 12 volts DC until 120 volts AC is restored. They have been wired that way for years, it seems, but I never knew, and now you do too.

I've never liked the way that many radar and chart plotter displays just tend to get bolted down to any free bit of space with the cables sprouting out of the back. I think this messy and I wanted to do something better. Seaglass has surprisingly never had a multi function display installed at either helm and this is something that is being addressed during this winter and spring fit out season. The truth is that I have a bunch of equipment on long-term loan from the good folks at Simrad for a series of features that I have been working on about installing an NMEA 2000 network. At the heart of the system is a beautiful 16 inch NSS evo2 MFD. I've played about for ages trying to work out the best location for this with initial thoughts that it might go above the windscreen. This looked like a good bet and would have worked well with the general refit of the headliner and lighting upgrades but a mock-up showed that it was just too far forward of the helm seat to make controlling it as easy as it could be. So further head scratching and another mock up brought me to the point I am at now with what I can best describe as a teak nacelle which sits on the self and to port of the main  steering compass. The MFD can now be controlled with relative ease from the comfort of the helm seat and the large screen is easy to read from most anywhere in the salon making watching movies when swinging on a hook a distinct possibility. I am going to miss the flat surface on which I placed pilot books and charts when underway and so I have to find alternative placements for these, but I think the trade-off worth it. 

In the picture above the MFD has been temporarily dropped into place just to see how it will look when finished properly; there's to be a matt black surround between the teak 'eyebrow' and edge of the MFD but this will not be installed until after the nacelle has been varnished to match the rest of the boat interior. Also, you will notice that the teak is still somewhat of a rather odd color. The nacelle is made of 9 mm marine ply onto which I have glued teak veneer with the adjoining corners and eyebrow from solid teak. Teak when freshly cut has a definite green tinge but this soon fades and the color reverts to that familiar honey tone within a few days and the nacelle is still in that phase but by the time the varnishing starts the color will be somewhat different to what you see here. I should add that the color continues to mellow even through the varnish and so with time will blend in well with the 25-year-old teak interior.

 

Rogue Wave Wifi

 

 

For the past 25 years I have run seminars on long distance voyaging and although I wish I had more time to do offshore passages we have covered topics on almost everything from safety at sea to entering foreign ports. When I lived back in the south coast of England we would organize a couple of trips each year where we would take a flotilla of boats across the channel to France. This for many of the participants was there first time going 'foreign' and led many of them to take longer trips or at the very least give them the confidence to go back and cross the channel by themselves at some later date. Twenty years ago few people had cell phones, WiFi, the internet, Facebook, streaming video and all the other stuff people seem unable to do without these days had not been invented and many of the questions that I was asked centered around entry requirements, where to get water and ice when you got there and other such fundamentals. Oh how times have changed and now the leading question is frequently where the nearest hot spot is and whether there is cell phone service. It seems that WiFi is an almost essential ingredient of life aboard these days. Now I admit that I do work for myself and rely on my cell phone for clients, editors and others to contact me but I do feel a sense of freedom when on those rare occasions that I am out of cell range or I just leave my phone off for the day or weekend.

 

 

Many coffee shops, boat yards and marinas now offer free WiFi to their guests but if you are tied up some way from the source the signal is often less than stellar with frequent drop outs a common problem. Some sort of WiFi extender or amplifier is thus a therefore a good idea to overcome these problems. Not knowing much about this stuff I asked around and spent a good deal of time on the internet researching what was the best way to bring WiFi signal aboard. That search bought me to the Rogue Wave WiFi which I got last year. Set up was easy and I clamped the antenna to one of the rails on the fly bridge the cable from the antenna connects to a router and within a few minutes I had the whole shebang up and working. I am the first to admit that I am far from a computer geek but following the instructions set up is easy. Power for the system comes either from a 12 volt supply or if AC power is available from a plug in cell phone type transformer power is not supplied from the computer. LED lights on the antenna itself light up to show the incoming signal strength and also give an indication that the unit is receiving power. With that done you simply log in to a 'Network Scan Page' which shows the names and signal strengths of in range WiFi signals. Other boxes indicate if these are closed private networks but I found that in many places I was able to grab a free signal from even several miles away.

 This truly is a remarkable bit of kit and for folks like me that spend a lot of time living a working aboard, a godsend.  My friend Ben Ellison also had good things to say about the Rogue Wave too so it seems I made the right choice.

Choosing a marine battery charger

 

 

 

Back in the day on board electrical requirements were modest but as boats have become more complex their need for reliable electrical systems have increased. When I stated cruising my outboard was started by pulling on a cord, there were no navigational instruments that required electricity to function, the boat had one dome light in the cabin and a tricolor navigational light was about all that I had. Things have moved on and electricity is needed to start the engines, power up the myriad electronics and light up the cabin interior, in fact without electricity most boats are dead in the water.

Batteries are an essential part of the boat's equipment and they need to be kept properly charged. There are several ways of charging batteries but many boaters have an on board battery charger that operates from the mains when the boat is plugged in at the dock. This is a good approach and means that the batteries should be in tip top condition and fully charged when you arrive for a day on the water. To keep the batteries charged one might be tempted to nip down to the local auto parts store and pick up a cheap battery charger but this could be a big mistake. Auto store battery chargers, the type with a plug on one end and a couple of crocodile clips to connect onto the battery posts at the other are of what is known as the ferroresonant type. They are simple affairs hence the cheap price and work by putting out a large charge which diminishes as the battery comes up to charge. These chargers work great for a very occasional charge of a partially flat battery but continued use day after day will almost certainly lead to premature failure of the battery aboard your boat because unlike a more sophisticated charger the output is virtually unregulated from a cheap auto store it is possible to boil off the electrolyte from lead acid batteries.

Marine batteries are often of one of three different types, conventional flooded lead acid, like those on your car, GEL where the electrolyte is a jelly like substance and thus cannot spill and finally AGM which stands for absorbed glass mat; the electrolyte is suspended in a glass mat between the plates allowing the batteries to be mounted in any position even on their side if desired. The point of all this is that each of these different types of batteries have slightly different charging requirements which cannot be met by the cheap auto store battery chargers. For optimum charging efficiency a three step charging process is needed; bulk absorption and float which a good marine battery charger offers. Assuming that a battery is heavily discharged the charger will go into the bulk phase where a large amount of amps are input into the battery to restore the majority of it's lost capacity. As the capacity of the battery starts to reach about 90% of fully charged the charger will go into the absorption mode, this is because putting the last 10% or so of charge back into a battery is the hardest; the charger will put out less current and the micro processors in the charger monitor the battery and vary the output until the battery reaches full charge at which pint the charger will go into float mode ensuring that the battery does not self discharge and will remain completely charged almost indefinitely until the owner next turns up at the boat and unplugs the shore power cord to head off out for a cruise. Many chargers also have temperature sensors and as such will vary the output of the charger dependent on the ambient temperature as the cooler the battery the more readily it can tolerate a higher rate of charge. Marine battery chargers are intended to be permanently installed and connected to the batteries inside the boat, they must also be wired in correctly and although you can do this yourself is best left to marine electrician unless you are confident of your abilities. The picture at the top shows a couple of marine chargers from Charles industries which are excellent products and can be programmed to charge all types of marine batteries.

Incidentally if your boat is not equipped with a volt meter on the electrical panel you can still check the state of charge with a cheap digital meter from an electronic store. With meter set to volts and the probes touching the battery terminals read the voltage. A fully charged battery will read about 12.75 volts, a battery that is showing 12.5 is approximately half discharged and contrary to what you might think a battery that reads 12 volts is in fact flat. Incidentally readings should be taken on the battery with the charger turned off and the battery allowed to 'rest' for at least 30 minutes.