On Board with Mark Corke

Feel the Breeze

 

Go into almost any marina and you can spot the liveaboards by the bikes tied to the gauard rails, the extra fuel cans on deck and the general detritus but nothing says serious sailor as much as solar panels and wind generators. I've had boats with both in the past and when properly sized and correctly wired they do a marvelous job at running the fridge and keeping the batteries charged. However some boats do not lend themselves to mounting solar panels and wind generators either because  there is nowhere suitable to permanently mount such appendages or even for the aesthetic reasons of spoiling the lines of the boat.

Windpax is a small enterprize which has been raising money through a kickstarter programme to manufacture market and a range of collapsible vertical wind turbines. The website is a little skant right now but it seems that they are developing three units initially of differing sizes. The middle size is called the Breeze and has a stated output of 100 watts and folds up to a compact 22 by 5 inches.  Although they are not shipping units yet they can be preordered at what seems like a very reasonable $285 with an additional $40 for a clamp on bracket. There is a no mention of boating on the site but I do think that they have an untapped market and whilst the turbine may not charge a huge battery bank I do think the Breeze could be a good choice for a small pocket cruiser with modest power consumption.

Simrad NSS evo 2

I am in the process of finishing up a feature on NMEA 2000 and 0182 protocols which will be published soon and as part of that I have some new marine electronics on long term loan which I am linking together to show how a network is set up. I don't want to go into great detail here and you'll have to wait or the full story later but one of the major components in any on board system is the MFD (multi function display). Often called the chart plotter by many folks including me because not so many years ago that is they did was to display a chart they have since morphed into a truly do anything display that can display data from multiple sources and that is where the net work comes in. In the old days of NMEA 0183 there were what is known as 'talkers' and 'listeners' where essentially something like a depth transducer was a talker and the instrument at the helm was the listener – data was only sent in one direction. That changed with NMEA 2000 and now we have a situation where data can be transferred at much faster rates and in addition is bidirectional meaning things can be both talkers and listeners.

So back to the multi function display which is the heart of the system. At the risk of over simplifying things it helps to think of this as the brains of the network in much the same way as your computer is the hub of things on your desk to which other stuff is connected, scanner, printer, internet etc etc. Anyway the main thing that we want an MFD to do is to tell us where we are and where we are going so the main function is still as a chart plotter but then as we add other things to the network it can display such things as depth, radar, engine data and even control the stereo system aboard.

Announced at METS at the end of last year the Simrad NSS evo2 comes in a range of sizes 7,9,12 and 16 inches and as you might have guessed the evo2 moniker means that this is the second iteration of the NSS series of MFD's. Now you may be wondering why I am mentioning these almost a year after they were first introduced. Well the models at last years METS were early examples and deliveries to the press and retail markets did not start in earnest until a good way through this current year. I am not sure if that was a good or bad thing but I do know that folks like me who saw those early pre production models couldn't wait to get their hands on one for themselves. Simrad sent me a 16 inch and so far I am beyond impressed, the screen is super clear has a fast refresh rate thanks to a quick processor and the display is customizable to suit individual tastes. On the two smaller models the screen can be split in two for say a radar on one half and a chart on the other but on the larger 12 and 16 models there is the option of splitting the screen into 3 or 4 due to the extra real estate available. The displays use what they call 'touch sensible' which is very similar to the Raymarine Hybrid touch interface in that you can navigate around all the functions, access the menus etc using either the knob at the upper right of the display or the touch screen. I have found that the touch screen works well when at the dock or in calm conditions but when the wind and seas pipe up the knob is the better choice. One other thing that I like is that the the NSS has a glass bridge look. Although the displays can be trunnion mounted they look so much better when mounted flush into the boat dash and with only an 8mm protrusion just look so damn cool.

The 12 inch version which is likely to be the most popular model almost won the BWI technology award at this years recent NMEA conference at which I was head judge but was pipped at the post by a new camera from FLIR.  

Correct battery wiring

I recently surveyed a well kept Halberg Rassy 42,  a boat which I have always a had a slight hankering to own myself.  Well thought out and put together these are true go anywhere boats which are robustly constructed with long distance cruising in mind. One of the main concerns for any cruiser is keeping the batteries fully charged which for the weekend warrior is often simply a matter of plugging the boat back into shore power at the end of the weekend's cruise. On a long distance trip where you will not have that option other methods need to be employed. Wind chargers and solar panels are very popular amongst long distance travelers and those who dislike having a generator aboard. My friend Charlie Doane whose aluminum cutter I recently surveyed has both attached to a very business like arch at the aft end of the cockpit. Charlie tells me that the two 75 watt panels and the wind generator keep the batteries topped up so well that he rarely if ever plugs the boat into shore power. Running th main engine also helps to charge the batteries but is very inefficient especially if you are under sail and don't need the engine for motive power at that time.  It is also very important that the cables to the batteries be of the correct size, for undersized cables will have too much resistance and can have a dramatic effect on the how your batteries perform. The set up shown in the picture is almost perfect. I say almost because the cables are connected to the batteries with wing nuts and these are frowned upon by ABYC for anything larger than 8AWG. But this is small point and the bank of four AGM are apart from that enjoying an almost bucolic existence. Obviously the lid has been removed from the top of the battery box but if you look carefully you will see that the batteries are restrained by a couple of hinged hold downs and in the to right and bottom left of the battery box are air vents to allow any hydrogen to safely vent away; a feature not often seen on production boats. What is interesting to me and indicates that whomever did this installation knew their stuff is that the positive and negative connection start at opposite ends of the battery bank thus evening out the power distribution amongst the four batteries. Often the connections will both connect to the same battery and the rest of the bank will parallel of this first battery which is not the ideal scenario. All batteries do a have a small but noticeable internal resistance and this will lead to the last battery in the chain not receiving a fair and equitable share of any charge voltage but by connecting the battery bank in the manner shown in the photo this is almost entirely eliminated and thus ensures a complete and full charge to the entire bank.

Sigma Lights

 

I'm a big fan of LED lights and they are now so sophisticated that I can't really fathom why anyone would want to continue to use regular bulbs of any sort aboard. LED's use about a fifth of the power of regular incandescent bulbs yet produce as much light. Regular light bulbs are very good at producing heat which accounts for something like 90% of the energy consumed while light is almost a by product. That heat can degrade head linings and the extra heat can be a real bear especially in the warmer weather which may require running the A/C unit to suck it out of the cabin.

Some time back I upgraded the lights on Mallard my Golant gaffer from incandescent to LED lights. At that time I used the Hatteras lights from Imtra which made a vast difference to the interior of the boat. Not only was I able to install a total of five lights which consumed less electricity that the two previously installed but the light output was constantly variable from off to wow. As I was installing the lights essentially from the word go I ran new cables to each of the fittings; four wires were required, two for the power and a second two for the dimming circuit making four in all. Of course in my installation where the cables were essentially surface mounted the extra couple of wires was not an issue but what if the wires are hidden behind a headliner, furniture or other obstacle as might well be the case in an older boat. Thankfully Imtra have addressed that and introduced the Sigma light. About the size of a small hockey puck the light can either be surface mounted or set flush into the over head panel. The best part about the light however is that it is compatible with many halogen digital dimmers and as such can be used with just two wires making retrofitting a very easy job. The light operates on any voltage from 12 to 40 volts DC and although not cheap with a starting price of $160 it is a quality product. Available in both warm and cool white color temperatures the lights have a useful lifespan of 50'000 hours so conceivably would outlast the average boat by a factor of 20.

 

The Sigma series is available in small, large and surface-mounted configurations. Sigma Small, with a 2-9/16” (65mm) cut-out, is sized to be a drop-in replacement for many of the popular 20 Watt halogen recessed spots that have been used in the industry for years. Sigma Large contains the same light engine as Sigma Small and is supplied with a larger diameter trim ring and special adapter plate that allows its placement in hole cut-outs from 2-9/16” (65mm) through 3-7/16” (87mm). Sigma Surface Mount is designed for surface-mount installations and is ideally suited for under cabinets or ceilings with restricted recess depth. The fixtures can be installed with included springs or screw-mounted.

 

Water tank anode

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See that hot water connection at the top of the picture above well I bet you did not know that there is an anode in there that has to be replaced periodically. It's a fact that most water heaters corrode from the inside out, the first indication is that something is amiss is a sulphurous smell each time that the hot water faucet is opened. Often this is put down to bad water in the fresh water tank and there are lots of remedies on the internet forums of how to deal with this from sanitizing the tank with all sorts of chemicals to replacing the hot water  tank altogether. But often it is just the anode that needs replacing  as if this is completely wasted the water inside the hot water tank starts to eat up the very fabric of the tank. The insides of most water heaters are aluminum and they have a coil that comes off the closed loop on the engine fresh water cooling circuit which heats the water indirectly as the engine is running. They also have an electric coil which can be switched on when the boat is plugged into shore power which works in a similar way to the electric water heater that you may have in your home. The anode which is made of magnesium protects the insides of the tank and heating coils. There is some miss information on the internet which states that these should be zinc. This is incorrect as zinc is close to aluminum on the galvanic scale and as such will not protect the internal parts. Magnesium is less noble that aluminum and offers much better protection and in any event if a replacement anode is ordered for a hot water tank the manufacturer will supply the correct part.

If the anode is not replaced the first indication that something is amiss is the sulphur smell mentioned above, then if nothing is done to address the problem the electric hot water fails soon after as it is consumed by the galvanic action. This usually gets the attention of the boat owner who then has the difficult task of either replacing the element or most likely the whole water heater. 

Replacing the anode is fairly straight forward but the level of dificulty is directly proportional to how accesible the tank is. The first step is to isolate the water from the hot water tank. If you have a valve turn that off if not you may have to drain down the entire water system. Don't foregt too to turn off the electic element if this is on and watch for any water escaping from the water heater as it will be hot.

After turning off the water or draining it down lift the pressure release valve on the side of the heater to let built up pressure release.

Remove any hot water connections that are attached to the outlet on the tank. The boat I was working on had copper connections but alternatives may be flexible hoses or PEX type pipework. Irrespective of what you have they have to be disconnected.

With the pipes out of the way unscrew any nipples or elbows that are attached to the outlet. If they have been in place for a number of years you may need a fair bit of effort to remove these. With these removed the threaded part that actually goes into the tank will be visible. Push back white plastic trim cover to expose the non threaded part and get your pipe wrench on that and unscrew it. I guarantee that it will be tight. 

No prizes for guessing which is the new anode. The old one was completely wasted away. I was working on a 12 gallon tank and just to give you some idea that new anode is 16 inches long!

Re installation is a reverse of the procedure outlined above but use teflon tape or pipe dope as appropriate to sea threads. Once everthing is back together check carefully for leaks before turning on the water heater and Ta dah fresh hot water without the smell, no chemicals required.

Incidentally the Seward 6 gallon water heaters do not have an anode but for less than $20 you can add one. You have to removed the drain stop tap on the front of the heater and replace it with a pencil anode that you can buy from online retailers.  It's a modification that is well worth the effort as it will pro;ong the life of the heater by many years.

Torqeedo 40hp

Electric propulsion is nothng new, it has been around for more than one hundred years. What has always held it back has been the battery technology. Batteries are heavy, expensive and the slow rate of charge has been a bit of deterent to the slow adoption by the recreational boat market. This morning I got to go out for a ride on a center console boat equipped with the 40hp Torqeedo motor. The battery is a single Lithium Ion item which in this case is situated under the center console seat and console. Weighing in at 328 pounds it is something of a beast but it is diguised well and frankly you would never know it is there. In fact much of the space that would be taken up with the gas tank on a regular boat is in fact used for the battery stowage. The outboard itself operates on a voltage of 345 volts which is high but this keeps the battery cables to the motor to a sensible size. Anyone who has a 12 volt bow thruster on their boat will know just how thick the cables have to be for even a modest thruster of 3 or 4 horse power. If you remember your high school physics then you will remember that as voltage increases resistance decreases and so this is one reason for the high operating voltage, potential power from the battery is made into tractive force rather than heat in the form of electrical resistance. So just how does the motor perform? The answer is very well. At first the quiet is unnerving. After turning on the key switch which is akin to an ignition switch on a regular gas engine nothing happens. All that you have done is energize the circuits and it is only as you push the 'throttle' control forward that electricity is sent to the motor and the boat starts to move forward. The lack of noise is uncanny and normal speech is possible even when driving the boat at 20 knots or so. Top speed as tested was around the 26 knot mark and even at that speed the only thing that you can hear is the whine of the reduction gear which on a gas engine is still present but masked by the motor. The brushless motor produces prodigious amounts of torgue and acelleration is swift. The down side to this installation is cost, the motor and battery as tested costs $35,000 which is significant. Although built to a high standards using the best German engineering there is no getting away from the cost, for the same money I can buy a Toyota Prius which has a hybrid power unit, batteries and all the other trimmings, and still have change left. If only Torqeedo can bring the price down of the motor and batteries they are onto a winner.

Bluetooth audio-Cheap

The MILBTREC adaptor from Prospec electronics is neat wifi adapter that works with any stereo that has a spare set of RCA phono inputs in the back. About the size of a match book hooking up the gadget is simple and requires plugging in the phono connections and connecting to a suitable fused 12 power supply. After entering the supplied four digit code into your smart phone or other device you can wirelessly stream tunes to the stereo. On the site it is selling for a penny under $70 but you may be able to find it cheaper by doing a web search.

Radar - bad idea

This boat pulled into our marina the other day with engine trouble and as I was sitting in the cockpit of my boat watching the mechanic come and go with various bits and pieces my eyes alighted on the radar scanner bolted to the front of the fly bridge. Now I am sure that the owner thought that this was a go idea at the time that he did it, in thick weather he can con the boat from the fly bridge where he will be more attuned to what is around him. He will be able to hear distant motors and the bells and gongs of navigational marks that he would otherwise be unable to hear were he to operate the boat from the lower position and although I cannot be sure I bet you dollars to donuts he has the radar display up on the bridge too. 

At first glance the siting of the radome would appear to be a in an ideal position, the bracket can easily be affixed to the boat, cable runs are nice and short and there is nothing ahead of the radome to give any sort of radar shadow. However conventional radar like the unit shown emits microwaves and you don't want to get too close to the source of these. That's why there is a warning on your microwave oven at home and there is certainly a warning in the operators handbook that comes with the Raymarine unit fitted on the boat here to the effect that you should be at a safe distance when the unit is operating. In fact when I am working on a radar I always place a piece of tape over the on switch so that it cannot inadvertently be switched on. 

The operator of this boat is likely to, well get his gonads cooked if he operates to radar while he is on the bridge. The last time that I checked and eighth of an inch of fiberglass was not an approved microwave shield. 

I should add in closing that cooking your nuts is eliminated with broadband radar as it works in a different way; instead of sending out pulses it it sends out continuous inaudible tones at much lower power and as such you can stand in front of it quite safely.

 

 

Compact charging

 

Time was battery chargers on boats were large heavy ugly affairs that hummed a lot and produced huge amounts of heat. Not only that but they were very expensive too and only the largest boats tended to have them. Luckily things have moved on from those not too far off days and now we have beautifully compact units that do not use tons of electricity that is wasted as heat. Better yet the newer units, the smaller ones anyway, are pretty much fully water resistant if not waterproof thanks largely to their fully 'potted' electronics which are encapsulated in some form of resin. One such unit is the Turbo M106E from Powermania. Cost is a dollar less than the full eighty and at a shade under 5 pounds the weight is non issue. The makers claim that it is capable of charging a single battery bank of up to 72 amp hours but this I feel may be a little optimistic as bringing a large battery up to full charge takes amps and time and this may be where the 106 E falls down, however to be fair I have not seen or tried one as yet so cannot report on the makers claims with any authority. This is not a 'battery maintainer ' type of charger but a proper three stage unit offering bulk, absorbtion and float profiles so it should be safe to use on even expensive marine deep cycle batteries. User selectable for AGM, Gel and flooded cell types this charger would seem to be ideal for smaller boats like center consoles and dailsailers that have one or two group 24 batteries.

USB outlet charging

Since I have had my ipad I have found more and more uses for it aboard the boat and use it not just for the obviously things like watching movies and playing music but also as an invaluable navigation tool. On my ipad I have loaded both the Jeppesen and Navionics cartography and I like them both for different reasons and for slightly different applications but the one problem with using  the ipad as a navigation tool is keeping it charged on board. At the chart table I installed a couple of the 12 volt cigarette style sockets and these  are great for plugging in some stuff like MP3 players, cameras and such like. However more and more portable electronics are using USB plugs not just for the transfer of data which was there original intent but also for supply charging voltage to the device.

For the most part the USB plugs are a better, more secure fit that most of the 12 volt cigarette lighter type plugs. Not only are they less prone to fall out while underway but they look neater. But not all USB sockets are created equal. As an interim measure I was given a couple of the excellent Zantrex inverters which plug into the 12 volt sockets. These are very secure at both the receptacle and the USB sides and are much less prone to disconnect themselves at an inopportune moment like some other manufacturers products. However what is not universally recognized and this is something that I personally did not realize is that the Zantrex units only have an output of 750 milliamps which is sufficient for charging up an iphone or ipod but not enough for the ipad which requires 2amps.

To make sure that enough power is available during the coming season I am installing one of the
dedicated USB sockets from Blue Sea. These have two stacked outlets one above the other but the total load cannot exceed 2.2 amps so although you can charge and run an iphone and ipod at the same time you can only charge and use one ipad or the socket will be overloaded. Swapping out the socket is a simple affair as the hole cutout in the panel is the same.