Systems
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Systems
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Anchors and moorings: Our LEROY SOMER anchor windlass is big and definitely looks the part; we had no problem with it, although we would have preferred a more mainstream and world-wide available brand. The supplied 16-Kg. DELTA anchor, although
consistent with the manufacturer's recommendation, seemed a bit too small to us,
so we initially replaced it with a 20Kg.CQR. During our previous years' cruises, we seldom needed to anchor with stern-lines led to the shore, while this practice is frequent in Greece: while in Corfu we then bought a 50m-reel of high-strength webbing line to be installed permanently on the pushpit as they do in Nordic countries. Obviously, we then had no opportunity to test it! Navigation equipment: The Steiner Skipper 7x50 binocular (an impulse-buy at last year's LIBS!) turned out to be really excellent; if this is their budget model, one wonders how are the top-of-the-line models!.... At the Genoa Boat Show we bought a YUKON night-vision device which proved its usefulness in several occasions of slightly-too-late anchorages (why oh why a lot of people does not switch their anchor lights on??). Security: We really do not look forward to be able to provide any practical experience in this area!! A consideration though: in view of the expected voyages - and crossing fingers.... - we afforded ourselves the best EPIRB on the market, as well as a SART (radar transponder) which would show up on nearby search vessels' radar screen. It's our life which is at stake, after all! The Plastimo top-of-the-range inflatable liferaft may be not the very best on the market but looked reasonably up to the job, so we kept it. Electrics: On this subject, books can and actually have been written, by people much more knowledgeable than us!! When we bought it, Shaula was equipped with a large Aerogen 6 wind generator: initially a bit noisy, but just needing a bit of maintenance to become silent again. We immediately added a 100w solar panel and, after the first year's cruise, an ADVERC intelligent alternator regulator which greatly improved the engine's battery-charging regime. Tackling the problem also from the other extreme, we also tried to limit consumption by installing LED lamps wherever possible. During our second year's cruise, in average light-winds conditions (where the wind-generator was least effective) we generally recorded a deficit of about 30-50 Ah per-day. To break even, we would therefore need one hour of engine-charging per day: quite in the norm, but we would like to further improve the situation by adding another solar panel (problem is "where?"), or acquiring a towed generator (such as Aquagen or Aquair). The boat came with 4 plain 100-Ah "maintenance-free" batteries which, after two additional seasons (and therefore a total service-life of 6 years) were more than a bit tired. We thought about it for a while, and in the end we bought 4 new 105Ah Lead-Calcium maintenance-free batteries:after all, it does not look like we really need to spend a lot of money for special-purpose batteries! Electronics: At the time of purchase, the boat was already equipped with an excellent Raymarine ST6000+ pilot connected to an impressive, bullet-proof hydraulic ram, while the instrumentation was limited to a console of two Raymarine ST60 displays. The electronic pilot confirmed to be the right one, powerful and responsive: this year we even let it steer the boat while running with F7 winds and 2m-high following seas and it steered much better than what we would have been able to do - by night! We decided to complete the instrument console, along the
classical configuration: wind, close-hauled, speed and depth, and we relocated
the existing tri-data to become a below-decks repeater. We wanted a GPS/chartplotter unit, and initially we were
considering the Raymarine 435, which uses Navionics charts which at the time
were the most attractively-priced. The lack of instrument
space in the chart-table area (due to the well-done but grossly oversized
switchboard which Alubat should really redesign to a smaller footprint) forced
us to remove the existing Furuno radar and replace it with a combined
Radar/Chartplotter unit. We were thinking of the Raymarine
C-Series, but its horizontal layout would not fit; as it happened, right at that
time Raymarine was doing a sale of their older but sophisticated RL70CRC unit,
which happens to be networkable (unlike the C-Series). For the price
of one, we have been able to afford two networked units, one of which at the
helming station. The radar's MARPA function needs some comments: we believed that the ability to automatically plot the targets' course and speed on screen would have been of great help; we even added to the system a Rate-Gyro unit to allow the best possible performance of the system, but still every now and then we see targets which suddenly seem to change course or point towards clearly wrong directions! Useful, but the helmsman needs to keep his senses fine-tuned and not rely on what the screen is showing. Potentially very dangerous! On our old boat we were using a lot a remote-control for the auto-pilot: Raymarine has just discontinued its simple wired-remote, so we went for a sophisticated SmartController wireless remote, which can also act as an instrument repeater (another one!!). Practical experience: practically never used!! The big problem is battery capacity, which is totally inadequate and forces us to keep the device in its charging cradle all the time. Disappointing, too complicated and expensive. Software: In reality, we do not plan to run any mission-critical function on PC: first of all, PC's are too exposed to failures, and also have a much too high power consumption to be left on for long periods of time. The main planned usage of the PC is to send and receive e-mail, be it via GSM phone, satphone or SSB radio. For the latter, we subscribed to the Sailmail service, offering a worldwide coverage at a very reasonable price, although it is a volunteer-based service. The tests done so far via the Belgian Sailmail station have been fairly positive, while we had a much lower rate of success with other, farther away stations. It remains to be see whether we will be able to use this system while at sea! The Sailmail software is also capable to send and receive compressed mails via an Iridium satphone: an interesting feature which we have not tested yet. Another likely use of the PC will be for meteofax reception: the Sailmail software has a free utility for this, but we found Meteo-Scan to be a bit more sophisticated. Either way, reception is very good, fax reception and storage can take place automatically, the only open question is the high power drain of both PC and SSB radio. We own several navigation-software packages, although they are meant only to be an extreme-backup solution; different story for c-MAP's PC-Planner, which allows us to view the chartplotter's c-Map NT+ cartridges and prepare our routes and waypoints on the PC. Communication equipment: We did not spare on the fixed VHF transceiver,
so we choose a DSC-equipped ICOM IC-M601, and we also installed a
remote control microphone on the steering pedestal. We also brought along from the previous boat an ancient ICOM M11 handheld VHF, equipped with a standard AA-cell battery pack, which we keep in the grab-bag. The Blue Water Rally require an
MF/HF SSB transceiver, the only one which allows long-distance
communication:
unfortunately, these are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, still in use only
on ships, and very few type-approved sets are available on the market.
We selected a SAILOR
4500e,
horrendously expensive but the only one (at that time) available in a "split"
configuration, allowing to hide away the very bulky transceiver unit while
controlling the set from a small display at the nav station. For much less money, we made a pre-paid subscription for an
IRIDIUM satphone, which will therefore be our primary means of
voice-communication with home while at sea (and will also be an emergency
channel to other Rally boats, as many of them will have a satphone as well.
The Iridium system will also serve as a backup solution for e-mails, in case we
could not connect via SSB radio. For what concerns the on-board PC, nothing special, just an aging DELL Latitude 600C laptop, more than adequate for e-mails and not to be mourned too much in case of failure! Comfort: The ENO gas oven is a basic version, but reasonably effective. With 4 CAMPING GAZ 2,8Kg bottles stored in their dedicated aft locker, we have enough to cook for 3-4 months. The ISOTHERM refrigerator works very well, provided defrosting is performed regularly as advised (it would do it automatically every 10 days, but it always picks the worst possible moment!), otherwise power consumption jumps up. The boat came equipped with a LIVOL watermaker: it's an interesting product, claiming a moderate power consumption, but unfortunately the company has been bought by another one which discontinued the old product range: future availability of spares is anybody's guess! The unit had never been used, and so far we also chose to leave it alone, although we will certainly test it before the "big voyage". Finding folding bikes has not been easy!
apparently, demand is so scarce that no retailer keeps them in stock,
while - considering the cost! - we wanted to see them and make comparisons
before buying. In the end, we only found a shop in a nearby
city who had the DiBlasi range, and DiBlasi is what we got!!
We choose a model which, although not the smallest available, was available also
in stainless steel (meanwhile, also the smaller version has been made available
in stainless steel). A boat cannot be without a barbeque!! The choice fell on a classic MAGMA gas unit: some problems to find it a fixed location, so we resigned ourselves to dismantle it after every usage, but at least it works very well, cooks rapidly and is not too bulky; the only problem is cleaning it!! Tender: We had a BOMBARD Ax3 inflatable with
high-pressure inflatable floor, which is very light and practical, but is
smallish for 3 heavy people and we regularly get wet!! For the big voyage we decided to buy another, larger tender; in the end, the choice fell on a ZODIAC Cadet Club-4 Fastroller, still of the inflatable-floor type, but longer and with larger tubes, equipped with a 4 stroke TOHATSU 6 HP outboard, which apparently is the more powerful single-cylinder engine on the market (and therefore relatively lightweight - for a 4 stroke!). The idea is to keep the old tender and outboard as spares.
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Webmaster: Gianfranco Balducci - email: gfbalduc@tin.it Last Update: 11/11/2014
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