Time for New Batteries - Again

Replacing our Sailboat's Batteries

Duracell 6v Batteries
April 2016

Our boat batteries are now 4 years old, they are showing their age and we're planning on some trips that demand we have confidence in our Battery System. We installed the new batteries in April 2016, just about 4 years ago, and in Florida that's not too bad. Then, I installed Duracell Batteries, but this time they will be Trogan 6v TROJT-105 Batteries and the best price I found is at Batteries Plus.

By ordering them online, they should be 10% off their already good price. But I'll check with the store to make sure that their In-Store price is the same as their online price.

I placed the order and they should arrive Friday this week. So we'll go down to the boat tomorrow (Wednesday) and remove the four old batteries.

The new Batteries have a 20hour 225ah capacity. At night, our Fridge/Freezer draws about 4.5amps, so that would be about 4.5*24 or 108ah if the fridge ran continuously, it does not! Our, very rough, typical night time usage includes:

Device	Amps draw	AHours	Sub Totals	Total
Fridge	4.5	12	54	54
Anchor Light	0.5	12	6	60
TV	4	4	16	76
VHF Radio tx.	5	1	5	81
VHF Radio rx.	2	12	24	105
Running Lights	1	12	12	117

With 4 225ah batteries, 2 in parallel and those in series to provide 12v, we should have 450ah total.

If we consume about 120Ah per night, we should only drain the batteries down by about 25% (roughly) and that's our goal, to not drain below 50%.

Our Solar System pumps in as much as 8*300watts during the day.

So, if we're using 120Ah per day, we should have plenty to spare.

I'll have to work on the formula's for these calculations.

Oh! and if we run the engine, that can pump as much as 100ah per hour, but it's normally toned down to about 60amps per hour in bulk and quickly drops to 10/13ah in accept.


All of these figures are guesses, and when looking at good battery management, the % of discharge and rate of charge are so complex that I really think it's best to leave it to the battery management system and ensure that the data fed to it is as good as it can be. So I'm updating our alternator regulator so that it's part of the BMS rather then the isolated external regulator currently (pun intended) in use.

I'll post more realistic data when I have it. Meanwhile, it's time to pull the old batteries, so that's Wednesday's task. That and wire in the smart regulator.

The Battery Bay is located just forward of the Galley under the Cabin seat, which, on Eximius, is the original seat located beneath the current seat. Confused? I'll add a pic later.

The 4 Batteries are held very securely.
The wooden beam is bolted to a Fore/Aft beam which in turn is bolted to Vertical End beams inside the Battery Bay.

The new batteries fit like a glove. The Terminal positions are just slightly different from the old Duracell's but actually work out better.

The Trojans have a single piece cover for the filling ports. The slight difference in the terminal positions result in the covers being easy to lift off (the old Duracell fill covers required a twist action to unlock them)

The process to install them is:

1. Place #1 as far forward and near to the midships end of the Battery Bay.
2. Place #2 as far aft and near to the midships end of the Battery Bay
3. Place #4 as far aft and outboard of the battery bay
4. Place #3 as far forward and outboard of the battery bay
5. Move #2 to touch #4
6. Move #1 to touch #3
7. Install the Forward Inboard Vertical location bar (3 screws and nuts)
8. Install the central hold down beam and support beam.
9. Connect the Battery Cables.

The resulting installation is complete. Now to test everything.

Solar Panels are still turned off (covers in place)
12.4v shows on the Battery voltage digital display (low, they need charging) They should show 12.6v when fully charged.

Turn Solar panels on (remove covers) and leave for 24 hours.

Voltage now 12.6v when panels are turned off and all systems are off.

Initial Fluid top up - filled each cell till dielectric can be seen touching the lower edge of the filler ports.

24hours later, voltage steady, solar panels output reduced to float stage.



Test engine start, all fine. 48 hours, relaxed each of the terminal nuts and re-tightened just to make sure cable stress is released.

The central hold down beam is not the prettiest, but those batteries are not going to move even if the worst ever happens.

Ready for the club raft up this weekend.

See you on the water.

Alternator - Internal -v- External Regulator

Alternator Failure - Updating wiring

Our Balmar 100Amp Alternator failed on July 4th. After leaving the dock, the Tach showed Zero RPM and the Analog Voltage Meter read 12.4v (ish). 

Upon arrival at the Bahia Mar, we did some fault finding, suspecting that the Field wire to the Alternator had failed, but the wiring and connectors were ok.

I removed the Alternator and took it to Fort Lauderdale Battery & Alternators on 3rd Ave just off of State Road 84 in Fort Lauderdale ( Map link here).

They put the Alternator on their test bench and confirmed that there was no output. Despite the Alternator being setup for an external regulator, there appeared to be a short between the Field Terminal bolt on the back of the alt, and the surface of the regulator. They confirmed that the Regulator was fried.

So I left the Alternator with Greg to fix and it should be ready in a few days, it was - they have never failed me to live up to their word. With repaired Alternator in hand, I headed back to the boat. Thinking about it, I have a really nice Alternator with an Internal single stage smart regulator that is not used and an expensive external smart regulator that is used. But what if the external regulator failed? What would it take to switch over to using the Internal Regulator.  Time for some research.

The good news is that there's a great diagram on the Balmar website that shows how to wire the Alternator to use either the Internal Regulator or an External regulator.

At home, I complete my research and draw the wiring diagram in Open Office

The SPDT (Single Pole - Double Throw) switch is used to select either the Alternator's Internal Regulator or the External Regulator

I purchased the switch (a pack of 3) from Amazon. It's an On - On switch, so it cannot be in the Off Position which would cause both Regulators to be Off line!

With the Switch in the Internal Regulator position

• The 12v from the Ignition Switch is connected to the Excite connection on the internal regulator. This powers up the Internal Regulator
• The internal regulator senses the voltage on the +ve Output Terminal and adjusts the output of the Alternator as required.
• With the Switch in the External Regulator position

• The 12v from the Ignition Switch is connected to the Reg On connection of the External Regulator. This powers up the External Regulator and Powers down the Internal Regulator
• The External Regulator Field connection to the Alternator now adjusts the output of the Alternator as required.
• The External Regulator Sensor connects to the +ve of the Battery (actually to a shunt close to the Battery) and senses the Battery Voltage, rather than the Alternator Voltage which can be a volt or more different from the Battery Terminal voltage due to losses in the wires from the Alternator to the Battery. So the External Regulator adjusts the Alternator output more accurately. 

The Alternator's Stator or Tach connection is connected to the Tachometer which uses the signal to display the RPM of the Engine.

If the External Regulator ever fails, we simply shut off the engine, flip the switch to the Internal Regulator position and restart the Engine. Now Alternator output will be managed by it's Internal Regulator.

Life is good.

Replacing Steaming Light - Part II

Part II - cleaning up the mess

It was up the mast again on July 5th.

The boat was at the Bahia Mar Marina for the HISC Independence Day Cruise 2019 - and there was a break in festivities on the Friday, so I climbed the mast again to clean up the area where the old lights were fitted in prep for the new lighting fixture.

It took over an hour of carefully scraping away the oodles of silicone sealant that was slathers all around the old fittings.

I countersunk the outside of the holes to give the JB Weld something to grip to. Polished the area with a plastic scrub pad and then finally de-greased the whole area before applying JB Weld to the holes. (that part is not shown in the pic)

Viewed from the deck - telephoto is great - this was after applying the JB Weld and descending the mast.

Since the last climb, we purchased a West Marine Bosuns Chair - it's far more comfortable and allows for a longer time spent aloft getting the job done. But it has a weakness - it really feels as though one could fall out of the chair backwards and there's a constant need to move my butt back onto the seat rather than in the bucket that is formed between the seat and the back of the chair.

I'm thinking of adding a couple of webbing straps to keep my thighs in contact with the seat and prevent sliding backwards.

Meanwhile the area cleaned an the holes filled.

Next trip up the mast will get the JB Weld bumps smoothed down and the holes redrilled for the new light fitting. I should be able to complete the install in just one more climb - at least that's the hope. If it takes two, then OK, but probably just one more trip up the stick.

The Third trip up the mast completed the project
Here's the Combo Navigation Steaming and Deck Light that I purchased off of Amazon.

See you on the Water.

Paul

Replacing the Mast Steaming Light and Deck Light

Replacing the Mast Steaming Light & Deck Light

After a 10 hour trip arriving at midnight, I noticed that the steaming light was really dim, and from previous trips up the mast, I knew it was a bodged job - The Deck light part of the combo lamp must have failed and someone choose to replace the deck light lamp with a new fitting - ie. now there is a Steaming light and a pair of wires going to a separate deck light (Halogen Lamp). So, time to replace both as it's impossible to fix either lamp.

Step 1 was to remove the old lamps

If you zoom in on this pic, you'll see the amount of silicone sealant that had been used to try and waterproof the fitting.

The wires from the deck light (lower) and the combo fitting (upper) are nicely joined and heat shrink tubed, but again, a huge glob of silicone was used to try and water proof the connection.

The lens of the steaming light is cracked from years of UV exposure - these lamps don't last forever!

The two wires coming out of the bottom of the combo unit are actually soldered inside the fitting and then gooped with more silicone. Click on the pic and zoom in.

Yes, that's my Sailrite machine in the background.

Special Thanks to Steffi Shiffer & Peder Sahlin for coming down to the boat dock to act as Safety while I went up the mast.

I spent about an hour up the mast sat in my bosuns sling (not really a chair) and that's not comfortable, the straps grab right where a guy doesn't want to be grabbed. 

During that hour I was able to drill out the rivets that held both fittings in place and scrape away about 90% of the silicone (another tube) off of the mast. 

There are a total of 12 holes in the mast from these fittings and previous fittings, they will need to be filled and the remainder of the silicone scrapped off and cleaned up - I'm going to get a new Bosun's Chair that doesn't try to cut of important blood supply.

This is the new combo fitting.

It has 9 LEDs in the steaming lamp and 12 in the deck lamp.

The mounting only has 2 screw holes and they look to be the same dimension and location as the removed fitting.

I'll mount the fitting with Stainless Screws using anti corrosion protectant between the surfaces.

I'll also use a SS washer to spread the load over the tab of the plastic wings of the fitting.

A trick I figured out a long time ago, is to grind down the sharp point of the screws so that they cannot catch the running rigging lines inside the mast - I'll use my cordless Dremel to cut off the screws and then grind down the edges of the cut so that they are nice and smooth.

West Marine has a July 4th sale on their Bosun's chairs - so we'll visit there before the weekend. 

Then it's back up the mast to tidy up the mounting area, cleaning off the silicone and filling the holes (JB Weld) I'll also apply a bead of silicone in an inverted U above the grommet where the electrical wires come out of the mast. I'll also apply a bead of silicone inside the edges of the new fitting wings just to encourage water to stay away from behind the fitting. Plan is to not be able to see any silicone when the new fitting is installed.

More later - meanwhile, we'll see you on the water.

Upgrading the Cabin Lighting

Upgrading Eximius' Cabin Lighting

We have a variety of lights in the Cabin, the result of units being replaced by a smorgasbord of fittings. During our New Year's Eve Cruise, the Galley Lamp failed and has to be replaced.

I prefer that they are common fittings so that replacement is easy.

• Galley: 12" LED Strip  - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing broken florescent) 
• Table Reading light: LED lamp White - Blue night lite option. (New - replacing weak LED)
• Nav Table: Red LED lamp (original)
• Port Settee: 12" LED Strip - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing original)
• Stbd Settee: 12" LED Strip - 1 white, 1 red (Both New - replacing original)
• Port Side: 8' LED Strip White - Installed over a year ago.
• Deck nite lites: Low Power LED lamps (Installed about a year ago, white - to be painted with thin, Red, Nail Polish)

Later, when upgrading the V-Berth & Aft Cabins, we'll use the same types of fittings.

Here's what the new fittings look like.

The 12" LED Strips are Self Adhesive (3M VHB tape) from Amazon. they come in packs of 4 all the same color.

In each lighting set, will be 1 strip of white, 1 strip of red and 1 dual switch. I went with the simplicity of dual switches rather than On-Off-On switches.

The 'Sets' will be used at the Galley, V-Berth and Aft Berth and the Bathroom

These switches are small enough to fit on the Wooden battens in the Cabin, Aft Cabin and V-Berth.

One switch will operate the White LED Strips, the other will operate the Red LED Strips.

See the wiring diagram below.

These Reading lights do not require switches, they have a built in Touch Sensitive feature.

This does mean that they consume power when turned off, not much, but any 'always on' lamps will eventually drain an uncharged battery.

Our normal practice is to turn off all systems at the Electrical Control Panel, including the Cabin Lighting circuit, so this will not be a problem.

The 'Touch Sensor' is the thin ring near the top of the lamp (where the finger is pointing)

1st touch turns the Blue rings on, 

2nd touch turns the Reading lamp on Blue rings off

3rd touch turns Reading lamp off.

The Reading Lights will be used in the main cabin(2) and the Aft Cabin, the V-Berth is not really a reading area.

All of the new lamps will utilize the existing wiring, but the switches to lamp wiring will be new.

Amazon Links

• White LED Strips
• Red LED Strips
• Suface Mount Switches
• LED Reading lamp

Wiring Diagrams

Pics of Completed Installations

Red Light On

White Light On

AIS Upgrade

Upgrading our AIS from Receiver to Transceiver

We installed our Garmin AIS 300 two years ago and it's been a great asset during our local cruising trips. It alerted us to potential collision situations with some fast moving fishing boats, lux yachts, in all kinds of conditions. Well worth the investment and the effort. The installation simply required a new NMEA 2000 Drop cable to connect to the NMEA 2000 Backbone, a power connection from a spare Circuit Breaker and rerouting the VHF Antenna Cable from the Radio to the AIS and adding a new VHF cable from the AIS to the Radio as the Garmin AIS had a built in VHF Splitter. It really was a quick install.

We're planning on extending our cruising venues and decided that it's worth the extra boat buck to add an AIS transceiver, all we needed to do was determine which manufacture to use and spend the bucks.

Garmin was our first choice, their AIS 800 Class B Transceiver was a drop in! It cost $999.99 and was not available, basically it was on back order for the USA according to Garmin support. 

We looked at Vector and a couple of others, all similar price and all required an external VHF splitter, which was basically the deciding factor. 

Our choice was the ET-413-0086 em-trak B350 Class B SOTDMA AIS Transponder and the ET-413-0060 em-trak S300 AIS/VHF Antenna Splitter.

Installation was a breeze, all done in less than 30 minutes - most of that time taken up on deciding where to install it and drilling the holes for the Transceiver and Splitter. 

The final result is aesthetically pleasing

But the system improvement is amazing. The reception is much better, not sure why, but the ASI display on our Garmin 741SX GPSMap is impressive.

Removing the Garmin AIS was easy, 4 screws, and cables. The replacement did require changing the VHF antenna connection as it previously went to the AIS, now it goes to the new Splitter. And the Splitter requires power, but I simply connected it's power cable to the power cable for the Transceiver. So now when the AIS circuit breaker is on, power is available to both the Transceiver and the Splitter.

I'm wondering if the improved reception is due to the routing of the VHF antenna. Previously it was routed from the Antenna - to a VHF / FM/AM take off and then to the Garmin AIS receive and then to the VHF Radio.

The new routing is Antenna - Splitter - AIS and Splitter - VHF / FM/AM take off then to the radio.

The new unit has a USB connection to the AIS transceiver, but we have not checked that out yet. It requires the Software that came with the Transciever to be installed on a Windows PC (laptop) Shame they don't make it available for Android!

Now we'll see you on the water, and, if you receive AIS, you'll see us on your Chart Plotter.

Alternate Drive

The Wrong Drive Belt

We missed the 2017-2018 New years Eve Cruise due to a squeal from our Alternator (Here's the article about that) Short version was that we were towed from the Lake Boca Anchorage back to our Dock in Fort Lauderdale.

This post will hopefully be helpful for others that have little experience with Boat Diesel Engines, like us, even though we are climbing up that learning curve rapidly.

Background to the problem.

Over the past few months we have noticed a few odities when the engine on Eximius is running, here's some of them:

• Engine hunting - RPM change briefly
• Alternator shutting down - charge rate drops to zero
• Digital Alternator charging indicator shows charging rate changing rapidly, varying by as much as 30Amps.

And the most recent:

• Horrendous Squeal from the Alternator
• Alternator Drive pulley too hot to handle.

The earlier issues were leading me to suspect the Alternator Regulator. When we purchased Eximius, it had two Regulators mounted in the Aft berth (very close to the engine) Both were by the same manufacturer and until I installed a new Alternator last May (2017) I thought that the smaller of the two Regulators was not connected. During the Alternator install, I found from tracing the wiring, that the Smaller regulator was in fact the one connected to the Alternator. The other is connected to the Digital Battery monitor at the Nav Station, but not to the Alternator. After some research, I discovered that the 2nd Regulator was actually a Stand by in case the main failed, however the Main was never attached to the Alternator so the system has been running off the Standby Alternator since we have owned the boat. Confused yet - think how I had been.

The Main Regulator is the one on the left. It's connected to the Digital Battery Monitor at the Nav Station but not connected to the Alternator

The 'Stand By' Regulator is the one on the right, it's not connected to the Digital Battery Monitor but is connected to the Alternator.

My guess is that when the system was installed, the installer connected the Stand By Regulator to test it (no point in having a spare if it does not work) but never completed the job and switch over to the Main Regulator.

We're hauling out the boat next week and I had planned to re-wire the Alternator to the Main Regulator and thus determine if the Stand By Regulator was causing those first few issues.

The more recent issues (Squeal from alternator and hot drive pulley) demanded sooner action, I certainly did not want to have an Alternator problem when we are motoring to the Boat Yard trying to keep on a schedule.

Getting the Alternator Tested

The day after we were towed back to the dock, we returned to the boat to pull the Alternator so that we could get it tested. I still had the old Balmar 75Amp Alternator sitting in my Garage, so I took both of them down to Lauderdale Battery & Electric to get them tested. In the meantime, I contacted 

Compass Marine, that's where I purchased the CMI 100Amp alternator and they were very confident that the bearings would be fine.

This video shows the testing of the CMI 100Amp Alternator. Greg, the tech, wound the load up and the Alternator pumped out 140Amps and as quiet as a mouse! Absolutely no squeal. I asked Greg if he would inspect the Belt for damage, as I pulled the Belt out of my bag and he immediately commented that 'That's the Wrong Belt!' 

When we purchased Eximius, I started to put together spares to carry on the boat, including spare Fuel Filters, Oil Filters, Air Filters, Zinc, and Alternator Belts - I took the info off of the original Belt and purchased two spares, yes, they were on the boat when we had the squeal, but I honestly thought that it was the bearings as the squeal was sooooo loud! But now I found that the belt was not the right size for the Alternator - It had a 1/2" Pulley and the Crankshaft & Coolant Pump pulleys are 13/32"

Ok, it looks like the culprit is the Drive Belt.

As I had the old Balmar Alternator with me, I had Greg test that too, plan is to carry it as a spare and I suspected that the bearings were going on that Alternator (that's why I changed it out last May)

This Video shows the Balmar 75Amp Alternator being tested. It's not so apparent in the video, but on-site it was obvious that the bearings were squealing. Greg commented that the bearings needed replacement and that the stator might also need replacement. That should be ready for pickup on Monday, we'll carry that unit as a spare.

Back at the boat, I re-installed the Alternator but could not get the belt tension right. Everyone that I have asked has indicated that the tension should be set so that the belt could only move 1/2" on it's longest leg (that's between the Alternator and the Crankshaft pulleys)

The problem was the Bolt that secures the upper end of the Alternator Support Arm, and the spring/lock washer that was between the bolt head and the Support Arm. The lock washer had deformed and damaged the bolt head. I decided to replace the bolt, washer and add a fender washer that could be bent over the side of the support arm to lock it in place. Guys from the C34 forum suggested that I use a longer bolt and nylock nut on the back of the bolt to secure it in place and prevent loosening with vibration.

The damaged bolt is shown above the new (but same length) bolt. I'll replace the new one with a longer bolt and and Nylock nut next week.

The Fender washer will be between the spring washer and the Alternator Support Arm, that should prevent vibration from loosening the bolt and thus

After installing the new Bolt, Spring Washer and Fender Washer, I was able to tension the belt sufficient to stop the Squeal, but the belt is still under tensioned! So time to buy/make a belt tensioner.

So, to recap:

• Charging rates change rapidly (Alternator output constantly changes)
• Engine Hunts (Alternator load changes)
• Squeals emit from front of alternator

It could be the drive shaft tension!

GPS taking a break

GPS Shutting down with Low Engine RPM

This is an intermittent issue that we noticed a few times, it's not a critical issue. The GPS will shut down sometimes when we change gear. The process is: Drop the engine RPM to idle, shift to Neutral, Shift into the other gear, throttle up smoothly. It's taken a while to figure out when the GPS wigs out because we're normally focused on other things when we have to change gear, such as holding for a bridge to open, approaching a dock, or shifting astern in order to slow down because some clown has stopped ahead of us for no apparent reason. Whatever, we finally nailed it down to happening when we shift gears.

Intermittent snags are a pain. I had plenty of experience dealing with that type of thing when servicing Navy Helicopters during my Navy days, but that was 29 years ago. I know the drill, try to repeat the fault several times in order to isolate the actions or events that cause the issue. It could be due to an electrical management problem, but also could be an intermittent wiring issue, perhaps a faulty connection that is suffering vibration when the engine changes down below idle when the lever is moved to select a gear. Hopefully we'll find out which it is this week. There's plenty to do on the boat, so we'll take a break and see what we can find.

Here's what the wiring under the cockpit deck looks like from the back of the Aft Berth uggggg!

As I was moving the wires around to try and figure out what's what, a black wire fell out of the terminal block without any effort. Tracing that wire to it's destination showed that it's the GPS Ground Wire! Bingo!

The terminal block connections were awful, so I undid them and stripped the wires back to ensure I'm not dealing with any damaged wires from the previous screw down point of contact.

After re-working the terminal block connections, removing dead end wires (there seems to too many of them on our boat, I remove them when ever I get the chance).

Neatly ran the wires and secured them with new tie wraps but leaving the fuse holders free just in case we ever need to access the fuses.

All neat and tidy, but also secured so that there's no chance any of the electrical cables can move and get caught up on the steering cables (those wheels in this pic) Time to test it all and button it up.

GPS started up and showed 13.6v, Echo Depth sounder is working, Radar - Working, AIS - Working, Wind Instrument display - working, Auto Pilot - Working - Looking good. Button it back up and do some cleaning of the aft berth while I'm in there.

We won't know till the next time out if we have cured the problem, but if I were the betting type, then I would put money on it. (not too much!)

See you on the water.

Paul

Radar Troubles

Radar not working

We're preparing for some night sailing this winter and the Admiral really would like to get used to using the Radar. Luckily, I serviced helicopter Radar systems during my 25yr Navy Career and feel very comfortable using and teaching the concepts and practicalities of a Radar System.

But, the Radar has to work - right! It seems that the Radar system in Eximius suffered during the visit by Hurricane Irma. The Radar systems that I serviced in the Navy had multiple components, but that was 30 years ago. Today the Radar consists of a Radome that has all of the Radar equipment contained in a single unit with an output to our Chart Plotter which also controls the functions of the Radar.

The Radar System has it's own power supply via a Circuit breaker on the main Electrical Control Panel but it's operation is managed via the GPS Map 741sx (our Garmin Chart plotter). We're getting Low voltage warnings on the GPS whenever the Radar is powered up and we're not getting the control options - so there's something not working (or was we said in the Navy - It's US - UnServiceable)

So time to do some fault finding.

• Check that the circuit breaker is Serviceable
• ..Use Multi Meter to check the Power on the output side of the Circuit Breaker - 13.8 Volts.
• ..Power is ok at the breaker.
• Check the power at the Radome
• .. detach the Radome from the mounting plate
• .. Disconnect the power cable from the Radome
• .. Use Multi Meter to check the voltage at the cable end - 13.6 volts
• .. Power is ok, 0.2v voltage drop, that's pretty good for a 48' cable
• Check the supply wire resistance (voltage drop will increase when the current flow increases)
• .. +ve Wire - 0Ω
• .. -ve Wire - Wow! off the scale!

Contacted Garmin Tech support and they concur - supply cable looks very suspect.

I decided to order a replacement cable and test it before routing the wires inside the boat.

Good news - Garmin will allow me to return the cables within 30 days if they don't solve the issue (which means that we'll have to ship the Radome to Garmin for repair 😖 )

So, armed with that good news, I also ordered a replacement for the Cat 5 Cable that runs from the Radome to the Chart Plotter as both cables run together from the Radome, outside the Radome Mounting pole and then into the deck, currently via a nasty blob of Silicone caulk which will have to go.

New cables should arrive in 2 days.

New Cables Arrived

Garmin came through! The new cables arrived via UPS yesterday (Wednesday), so, today we headed down to the boat to test the Radar using the new Cables.

I decided to test using the old Cat 5 Cable but the new Power cable as it was the high resistance in the power cable that caused me to get the new cables.

Disconnected the old Radar Power +ve cable from the Circuit Breaker.

Connected the new Power cable +ve to the Circuit breaker

Connected the new Power cable -ve to the ground bus bar inside the Electrical panel.

With the Radar Circuit breaker turned off, we flashed up the Chart Plotter (Garmin 741xs) and confirmed that the Radar did not show up in the list of System Devices - it did not.

Turned the Radar Circuit breaker on, and we could immediately hear the Radome making noise, that was a good sign. But nothing on the Chart Plotter. I was about to check the connections when the noise from the Radome dropped significantly. At that point, the System devices showed the Radar. Getting somewhere.

To test the Radar, we accessed the Chartplotter home screen and selected Radar - It now shows that it's ready to Transmit with the 'Transmit Radar' option. Selecting that option we could hear the Radar spin up and the display indicates that it is 'Spinning Up' Looking good.

After a few moments, perhaps a minute, we navigated to the Home Page and Selected Radar - it now shows 'Radar to Standby' which indicates that it's currently transmitting, we selected 'Cruising' mode and the screen quickly displayed a typical radar screen, we changed the range to 1/4mile and could clearly see the echos from targets along the sides of the canal ahead and astern of us. WoooHooo! 

View of the Radome from astern

There're indicators on the Radome that provide orientation, the two small ones in the top right hand side of the pic show the Aft Center of the Radome

The Radome is mounted atop of a Steel tube (not Stainless as can be seen from the rusty surfaces) with a Steel plate on top. 

The lower end of the tube passes through a hole in the deck outside of the cockpit and then down, inside the aft locker to a plate that is screwed to the hull. I know, WTF! Why didn't the installer use Stainless Steel and why didn't they make it a deck stepped tube, and why didn't they run the power and Cat 5 cables inside the tube?

Danged if I know, but I'm looking into what it would cost to have a new Radar Support Tube, plate and lower flange manufactured. If the cost is reasonable, I'll have it made and re-work the entire Radar Mounting system.

The pic also shows the Eye bolt in place of one of the securing screws, attached to that eye bolt with a shackle is our Outboard Engine hoist block. Also on the underside is an Aluminum angle bar that can be used for an Antenna, so I'll be hooking one up to that for our SSB Receiver. That should improve SSB reception.

Having confirmed that the Power cable was the problem, I started the change out process. Another install screw up. The original installers had run the 48' of power cable wire down through a hole in the deck, along with the Cat 5 Cable, then both were coiled up and strapped to existing tie wraps in the aft locker just ahead of the Aft Water tank. Then they had crimped a pair of 16awg wires to the ends of the power cable and run those to the main electrical panel - via two different routes. Duh! The 48' of cable is probably about 15' to 20' too long! So they could have just run the power cable to the electrical panel and cut off the excess - that would reduce the voltage drop along the length of the wires and eliminate at least two cable crimp joints! Guess what I'm doing? - Yep, run the new line to the electrical panel and cut it short before connecting it to the Circuit Breaker and Ground bus bar.

I had to go to West Marine to pick up a Blue Sea Cable Clamp as I don't want to have another lump of silicone caulking where the cables pass through the deck. If I do replace the Radome Mount, I'll run the wires through the inside and repair the deck where there are currently two holes, one for the tube and the other for the wires.

At least I'll get it back to fully working status tomorrow - Friday.

Might even get out for a sail as we had hoped.

See you on the water.

Paul

Easy Repair after Hurricane Irma

We were very lucky! The only damage that Eximius suffered due to Hurricane Irma was a broken Wind Transducer. Of course, that Transducer was at the top of the mast and a replacement cost $360, but compared to the damage that others suffered, we were very lucky!

A week ago, I climbed the mast to remove the damaged Garmin gWind Transducer, it's getting easier every time to get up the mast. This time, Peggy used our Electric Winch Handle to hoist me up the mast with the Main Halyard. The setup uses 3 halyards and 3 lines. The Jib and Spin Halyards were secured at the base of the mast so that they were taught all the way to the top of the mast, well, nearly the top, the Jib Halyard exits the mast just below the top of the Jib Stay, the Spin Halyard runs through a block on the mast head crane so that it sticks out forward of the Jib Stay.

I secure our Bosuns chair with 2 lines - 1 the climbing line goes from the seat waist strap up to a Prussic Knot on the Jib Halyard, the other line is a safety line that goes from the waist strap to a Prussic Knot on the Spin Halyard. A third line goes from my foot straps up to a prussic knot just below the other knot on the Jib Halyard. Finally, the Main Halyard is shackled to the Waist strap. So all Peggy had to do was operate the Electric Winch Handle to winch in the Main Halyard and up I go, moving the 3 prussic knots up as I ascend.

This Pic shows the damaged Wind Transducer, one of the 3 Prop Blades is missing and one of the vane tails is missing.

I discussed the damage with the very helpful folks at Garmin Support and we agreed that the most likely event to cause the damage was something hitting the transducer. Certainly the Hurricane Force Winds at the dock were likely to carry plenty of debris.

Garmin agreed that I could get a replacement at a discount if I returned the damaged unit. So Tuesday morning I took the packaged transducer to Office Depot for shipping, it would arrive the next Wednesday.

Further discussion with Garmin lead to them agreeing to ship the replacement upon receipt of the old unit. So the new item arrived at 10am Friday Morning - WooHoo.

Of course, the weather did not cooperate, so I was unable to go backup the mast until Monday.

Following the same proceedure, it took about 20 minutes to scale the mast, less than a minute to install the new unit, and 5 minutes to descend.

As always, I inspected the mast and rigging while up there, all looked ok, although I did notice that there are a couple of rivets missing from the Port Side Lower Shroud upper plate. An easy fix, but it's been fine for years, I'll fix it all the same.

Now that the damage is repaired, time to put the sails back on the boat. We got the Jib hoisted and that was enough for one day. Next day we installed the Cradle Cover and the Main Sail as well as the Dodger. 

Plan is to get the boat out on the water Thursday (that's tomorrow) and head up to Lake Boca for the HISC Oktoberfest. So we started the re-load program. Got the Generator on board, sorted out the cabin and basically got everything ready for a Thursday morning load and go.

Sure will feel good to get the boat back on the Ocean. Weather looks good so far, a big change from the Hurricane, and, compared to both land lubbers and sailors in the Keys and the Islands, we were Lucky!

At home, the only damage was a couple of screen enclosure panels ripped out and the Pool timer unit didn't like the electrical spikes we had during the Hurricane. The timer was easily replaced, the pool enclosure will take a bit more effort. But we didn't lose our home or our boat.

Grateful!

See you on the water, perhaps this weekend if you're in our area.

Paul

Updating our GPS and Nav System

Garmin Update - long overdue

We have a Garmin GPSMap 741xs which came with the boat, but we have upgraded the system to a NMEA 2000 Network that includes a GMI20 Instrument and GND10 wind data input along with a Garmin Wireless Wind transducer, Garmin Depth/Speed/Water temp transducer and already had a GMR18 HD Radar. BUT - the software version was that from 2014 - Time for an update.

Here's the process that we followed:

• Downloaded the Update from Garmin to our PC (We had to login to our Garmin.com account to get this)
• Insert a FAT32 Formatted 4GB Micro SD Chip in the card reader of our PC
• Run the program from the folder where the update was saved
• The program requests the Chip ID (just pick it from the list) and then it installs the update software and data into the chip.
• On the Boat, power up the GPS, Radar, AIS, NMEA 2000 network (On Eximius, we just turn on the Nav Instruments Breaker and that powers up the GND10 and GMI20 as well as the NMEA 2000 Network)
• Once the GPS is running, then insert the Chip into the GPS card slot.
• The GPS recognized the Chip and offered the option to Update the System (which in our case was from 3.80 to 6.6 - as I said, Long overdue)
• Once we confirmed the option, and the note that we should not power down anything until the update was complete - The update began.
• The program on the Chip updated the GPS, Radar, GND10 and the GMI20, it seems there was no update for the AIS. The whole process took about 10 minutes after which the GPS shutdown and rebooted.
• Once rebooted, we removed the Chip - All done!

What we got in the update:

A whole bunch of features that are really cool.

• Windward Route To Laylines - these are really useful when you know the location of a destination. It displays the Laylines on the GPS Map so that we can steer towards them for optimal speed to a windward mark. They are real time dynamic, so they change as the wind changes, very cool. But you do have to know where the mark is located or at least have a pretty good idea so that it can be entered as a way point.
• Boundary Markers - At least, we know they are part of the upgrade but we did not get to test them out yet, that will be the next navigation how to. But they are really useful. The concept is that we can mark out an area(s) on the chart and then set our preference of either Stay within or Stay outside. eg. We could mark an area around the tip of a peninsular that had a shallow area that we wanted to avoid. Then we would create a Boundary around that area and take the option to stay outside (eg. alert if entering). Alternately, we could create a boundary and set the option to stay within (eg. alert if leaving) 
• There were several other minor updates, they just improve the reliability of the system. 

So now we have a bunch more techy stuff to play with on our next trip. Peggy loves this stuff - and you know the old saying - Happy Wife = Happy Life 😁

See you on the water.

Paul

A bit of Kudos

Support groups are really important

Over the past 11 years that we have owned a sailboat, we have received an invaluable amount of support and feedback from the groups that we belong to.

Catalina Yacht owners make up one of the largest boat owners groups in the world, with so many models over that past 30+ years, and so many of them still in great condition, it's no wonder that someone considering buying a new or used boat nowadays looks on the web to find out how much support they can get from owners groups.

The Catalina 34 International Association and the Catalina - Capri 25's Association are two groups that we have belonged to and their support for dealing with the varying issues over the years have saved us so much work, worry and given so much additional pleasures and enjoyment from our boats.

This past year, as members of the Catalina 34 International Association and as owners of a now nearly 30 year old boat, we have done a lot on the boat and enjoyed improving our sailing knowledge, it's been an awesome year.

If you are considering buying a new or used boat, although I'm biased, really consider Catalina Yachts carefully. Get out to the boat shows, look at all of the models of different brands and compare them. Keep the comparisons on an Apple to Apple basis; An 38' Catalina cannot be compared to a 42' beneteau. A cruising boat cannot be compared to a racing sledge. 

Get down and dirty! Look under the engine, in the Bilge, under the anchor locker, beneath the V-Berth. Check out the standing rigging - lightweight or built like a Brick? You'll need to know what your plans are for the boat and that determines much of the requirements you'll be looking for. We're not racers, do we race - Yes - and we always learn so much more about sailing during those few short hours competing in a friendly local race. We like cruising - getting away for at least a few days, we're even planning on a month or more in the Bahamas next year, and our choice affected the type of boat we purchased.

But just as important as the materials, workmanship and reliability of the build, support for the model is really high up that list.

Over the past year we have done quite a few upgrades on the boat and several of them were not obvious, but the C34 Association has so many articles online I think we have done the right thing every time and had the support of very experienced owners that shared their experiences making ours less stressful and more valuable.

For example, the Outhaul on our boom looked a bit painful and likely to fail, we were in the process of replacing the sails and changing from a fixed footed main to a loose footed main and that meant the potential greater strain on the outhaul. So fixing it before the new sails were installed seemed the prudent thing to do. 

As always, I turned to the Association site for advice and past experience, reading dozens of articles on the subject of Mainsail Outhaul replacement. During that research, I found that several folks had upgraded the outhaul or a better haul ratio and, more importantly, that the Boom Gooseneck was a potential area of failure. 

So, while upgrading the outhaul, I also took a close look at the Gooseneck and found it was cracked! I would never have noticed that by casual inspection. I ended up replacing both Boom end castings. Now I know that we're not going to have that kind of failure while under sail and away from the maddening crowd.

This has been just one of the several upgrades that were completed with the valuable knowledge of the C34 Association contributors. 

So I cannot emphasize enough - check out the Support groups for any boat you may be about to buy.

I would be remiss if I did not offer kudos to the Catalina Capri 25 Association, we have been members or 10 years and were able to share with and benefit from the many other owners the knowledge gained while keeping our boat in the best condition.

This past month I have been working on the biggest job so far: A complete Engine Harness replacement, Replacing the Engine Exhaust Riser, and Engine Mounts. In each case, the Association has chimed in when asked and offered suggestions or links to online experience. I've even been able to purchase much of the materials for these projects from an Association member at very competitive pricing.

So Kudos! to the Associations that support all of us. 

Thanks.

Paul

Battery power

Power woo hoo!

With the batteries fully charged, we put them to the test this evening. Pegs wanted a hot shower and our only means of heating the water was running the inverter. 

So... 10 mind of DC to ac inversion and we had hot running water woo hoo!

The system drew 118 amps compared to nah Nutting doing on the old batteries. Running the engine for 30 mind should recharge. I'm stoked. Here's a pic as peggy came out of the shower 

😂 we're good to go.

See you on the water. 

New Batteries Installed

New Batteries - Installed - And charging

Well, it looks like we'll make our trip South with the new Batteries installed and charging seems to be just fine.

The new Batteries have power post in a slightly different orientation so the old Series / Parallel cables did not fit. A trip to West Marine and Boat Owners Warehouse and I had the bits to make new cables.

It took longer to get the bits than to actually make up the cables.  But they do look good and the Crimps are top notch.

By the end of the day, the new Battery connections were in place, tested and the charging circuits restored.

Today I installed the Galvanic Isolator

It's mounted on the aft face of the Head bulkhead. It's connected inline with the Earth/Ground wire from the shore power plug. 

In keeping with my plans to label all new electrical wiring, the GI wires are labeled and everything is tie-wrapped to keep it neat and tidy.

On a side note. The Port side cockpit locker is big enough for me to get into and then room for a couple of stowaways!

While at it, I cleaned out all of the old junk webbing, lines and hoses before putting everything back together.

By the time I left the boat afternoon today, the electrics were 100% back together, we're better protected from Stray current that would risk corrosion of our Prop & Shaft etc. So now I just have to tidy up the Cabin before we are ready to load up for our week's trip down to the Bay.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I'll mount our new Swim Ladder extension that I drilled and cut this afternoon. Also mount the new Starboard Outboard Motor Mount ( I just don't fancy having to re-varnish the wooden OB Motor mount that came with the boat last year.)

So Peggy & I went to the store this afternoon for a Provisioning run. Tomorrow it's just pickup some Diesel - we'll take 15 Gallons with us to cover the planned trip if we have to motor all the way there and back.

Tonight, we cooked chicken and prepared 4 meals, tomorrow we'll cook a Pork Tenderloin in the Slow cooker and that will be all of the dinners taken care of. Plan is to leave the dock early Monday before the bridges close for the morning rush hour traffic.

Perhaps this trip we'll get a few videos and pics of us actually under sail. So far the weather forecast is good for the entire week. Keep our fingers crossed.

See you on the Water.

Fried Batteries

We have been nursing our boats House Batteries for the past year, but they have finally given up the ghost. They are boiling off electrolyte faster than we can add it! Just a week after a top up, they drank another 2 gallons of distilled water! So, time to bite the bullet.

Searching around the web and researching the quality of batteries to use, I figured on a budget of $150 for each of the 4 6v Golf Cart Batteries. I found some at Sam's Club but not available in Florida, but at just over half price I considered having them ready for pickup out of state and making a weekend trip somewhere - it would save $300. But that didn't fly.

Then, when leaving the local Home Depot, I stopped at Batteries Plus just to inquire about their offers. They had batteries that met all my required specs for $85 each (plus tax, disposal fees etc.) So I picked up 4 of them on the spot with the caveat that if they did not fit then l could return them. (Didn't think I could measure the old ones in situ.)

Next step is to remove the old batteries and clean up the Battery Bay.

1st Battery is Out!

Here's the 1st battery out. That hole is in the cabin seat base. The previous owner had cut that out so I guess he had replaced the batteries after adding the seats.
Note the corrosion muck on the top of the battery. Not visible from the top is the fact that the sides of the battery were a bit bowed, swollen from the pressure inside during charging.

I didn't take pics of the various braces that I had to remove to get the battery out. One thing is certain, the batteries cannot move around when braced in place, and if the boat was thrown into a nasty orientation, then knowing the batteries would remain in place is a good thing. But I have no intention of every testing it out.

3 More to go!

Getting the 1st battery out was the hard part, the other three are just a case of connect the lifting strap and haul up. I figure the batteries weigh about 55lbs each. So moving them from the boat to the truck is a careful process. Don't want to slip either on the boat or between the boat and dock, especially as there is an $18 core charge on each battery that is refundable when I return them to Batteries Plus.

Battery Bay Cleanup

With all the batteries out of the boat (ok, the starting battery is not being replaced, that's pretty new). Time to clean up the Battery Bay.

The base is shaped to receive the original 2 12v Batteries, but the 4 6v Golf Cart Batteries has a higher power density as well as the fact that they nearly fill the entire battery bay. It's a tight fit.

Clean up - Done

I didn't expect it to clean up this easily nor this well. The atharwtships braces have been cleaned and the corrosion residues polished off.

The base is covered with a piece of plywood, it's stained but not damaged so just dried out and cleaned up before putting it back in place.

Time to take the dead Batteries home.

Shiny new Batteries

Got them in place, but not connected yet. Short trip to the boat today to load the batteries and do some clean up. 

These Durecell Batteries weigh in at 65lbs each and that 10lbs is a good extra chunk of lead, so I'm hoping they'll last.

Of course, maintaining and not abusing the Batteries is the way to extend their life, so the boat's electrical system is getting a bit of an upgrade too.

Part of that upgrade is to ensure all of the terminals are strong, clean and properly labeled. The labeling is part of my on going efforts to improve the quality of the electrical system and make it easier to work on the system when needed. So all of the Battery terminals have been cleaned and are ready to be labelled before reconnecting the Batteries to the boat system.

Electrical Upgrade

The upgrade consists of several steps, 1st is to construct an accurate wiring diagram that reflects the true wiring setup on the boat at present, it will actually be two diagrams. One a schematic showing what's connected to what and the other a physical diagram showing where the parts are and where they are connected. It's going to be a busy weekend.

Already determined is that there is no Galvanic Isolator installed on the boat. This could give cause to galvanic corrosion of metal parts in or surrounded by water. That includes the Prop, Shaft, Cutlass Bearing, Metal Through Hulls as well as Engine parts that are subject to salt water (like the heat exchanger) - A Galvanic Isolator is on it's way.

Second issue is the means of charging the two sets of batteries - #1 - House Batteries (that's the four that are being replaced right now) and #2 - Starting or Emergency Battery (that's a 12v battery that appears to be in good shape and holds it's charge pretty good)

To prevent the batteries from discharging to each other when not charging, I'm installing an Automatic Charge Relay (ACR) that will automatically connect the 2 battery banks when a charging current is apparent and disconnect them at other times. It also disconnects the two banks when the Starting Battery is being used to start the engine, this prevents voltage spikes being delivered to the boat's electronics.

Installing the GI is pretty straight forward, just cut the earth/ground wire from the shore power connection inside the boat, strip off the ends and connect them to the GI mounting the GI in a dry location. Should take about an hour to do that.

Installing the ACR is a little more complex, as it also requires the wiring to the two battery banks and the charging circuits. That demands that the wiring diagram is done first. So that's high up on the list. it will be a busy weekend!

And it looks like the Weekend will start early, Dan the diver is available to clean the boat below the waterline tomorrow at 10am. So I'll get an early start on the diagramming.

See you on the water.