General Info: Astrea 42: Owners?

[chlemaire]

Hi Brian,
There no longer seems to be an edit button available for editing posts. Just curious: Is this something you control as administrator to this forum?

[Sheldo]

Thanks Chlemaire for the video. Looks great. Please keep them coming!
We have Hull #16 about to come out ex-factory. Regrettably I cant make the delivery voyage from La Rochelle to Athens where it will be based, but we plan to be the first charterers early April.
Some excellent discussions in the forum to date.
Cheers all!

[MAE]

That footage is superb ....sorry I could not match it with our maiden voyage....we had similar experiences but your food looked more delicious Cheers

[BKC]

Hi C

No, nothing to do with me! Not sure why that's happened?
Great video btw. Awesome. I was too focussed on getting my head around various systems last week to take much video. Lots of pictures and measurements however, if anyone needs anything.

[BKC]

Originally Posted by No Sprogs

I'm intrigued by your shower thoughts, Brian. We have opted for the Jack and Jill configuration and are not worried at all about potential gaps. But I'd love to hear what you think about it now that it's there with you. Thanks for all your info, by the way. I have greatly enjoyed reviewing it.


Maz
Proud Astrea owner sometime around Nov '19

Hi Maz:

Here's the rub on the central shower. There are (smallish) gaps under/above the partitions. It's not actually too bad in practice. The floor gaps are needed as both forward and aft heads are actually still wet heads i.e. the sink faucet/tap is actually a shower head also, so in fact you end up with 3 shower heads across two heads, including the central shower. Hope that makes sense. I doubt anyone would use the sink showers, but if they did, they drain under the partition.
Now for why converting to a truly isolated central show might not work from my POV: There is no hatch above the shower itself - that has upsides too. Haha. So the shower ventilates into the adjoining cubicle areas, each head having its own hatch above. I had planned to have both shower doors refitted to fully seal, but I think it could be too enclosed from a ventilation perspective. An option might be to have one side fully sealed and clamp off the sink extendable hose on the other side so is never used as a wet head.
We are going to make an assessment over the first few months before deciding. In practice, it seems to work better than I thought, but I'd still change it permanently if I were FP.

[BKC]

Originally Posted by VP and the Fox

Water Makers.

We have been recommended the Aquabase ESW601 model by a few Helia owners. Then again, others with older cats have said you can't go past the "agricultural simplicity" of the Cruise 50. The factory fitted offering doesn't stipulate the brand but the 12V 60L/h is €10260 and the 50HZ 180L/h is €13378.

Can I ask what people have fitted or ordered so far please? We have to finalise our options in April and I'm still confused. FYI there will be two of on the boat mostly with up to four guests at the most. La Rochelle pick up May 2020.

Thanks in advance and have a cracking weekend!

I completely agree with the recommendation of the 12v water maker option. However, despite the 12v 60l still being shown on the Astrea price list from FP, and some folks having ordered it, we were specifically told it was not available from the factory - we had to go 120v. I asked to change to the 12v option which was how I found out. It is completely possible that weren't given accurate info by FP - but I'd push and check! We found that we ended up turning on the Genset just to make water, which is annoying. You are also much better keeping those water tanks c. 1/3 full saving about 1,000lbs of weight up front V's full tanks. And as someone Jay mentioned earlier in this thread, a broken down genset doesn't leave you without water also.

[VP and the Fox]

Choosing a generator for an FP Astrea 42.

We have delivery in France in early 2020 and we need to decide what generator to install, either factory fitted or aftermarket by Uchimata in La Rochelle. We will have about 1 kW of solar power, air-conditioning in the saloon and master cabin, Aquabase 12V water maker, washing machine, lithium batteries, and some basic appliances.

I am seeking experiences on what size and brand generator they are using or have ordered, and any pitfalls or problems to watch out for.

Thanks in advance!

[VP and the Fox]

Thanks Brian. Yes, I was told that if I wanted the Aquabase it had to be fitted by Uchimata.

[BKC]

Right. Got it. Makes sense. You could go for dual voltage (different make of watermaker?) as an option. Best of both worlds. My broker has dual voltage and loves it. The auto flush system on watermaker is key. Real pain without it involving buckets & hoses.
BTW, I watched power usage on board with appliances running, instruments, VHF, auto pilot, both fridges, freezer, stereo etc. on 82F day and total draw was c. 18/19 amps with the factory solar panels (400w) generating 18+ amps. You'll be golden with 1,000 watts of solar.

[VP and the Fox]

That's really interesting Brian! I was watching the Sailing La Vagabonde episode on power usage and was using their figures to work out mine but if you're only using 18ah with all that, I'm way out! Yep, 1kW will be more than sufficient.

Here's the video in case you haven't seen it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXWGEGd3mM

[BKC]

I dont think you are much off at all. If we averaged that for 24hrs, we'd be using c. 3x our solar production. Reality is, we aren't entirely off grid so genset and motors do come on everyday when just pottering from port to port. We even ran a/c at night coming from our -10C (tonight in Boston) to Abaco +26C so genset was on and not factored into those #'s.
Obviously anything using the inverter kills batteries - laptop charging, a small hairdryer you can watch battery bank drain in minutes, etc. We keep our inverter off most of the time. Fortunately, iPads and phones can all charge directly from 12v. Makes a huge difference. I see La Vagabond's laptop accounts for 58A a day. Yikes - go solid state on a tablet w keyboard! Haha.

[MAE]

Hi Brian,
Glad the shower is solved. Question to all doing their final specs.

Has any-one explored installing a dive compressor, type Bauer etc, cost. cheers Alan

[Luc bulterys]

I could find a good secondhand one: Bauer junior II. But no idea yet were I will install it. Sorry
This model works on 230v.

[BKC]

FP keeps 230v/240v circuits even on the 110v equipped Astrea for A/C etc. Should have reasonably easy access for a circuit in one of the forepeaks OR, even easier tank access in anchor locker. Lots of space in there.

[Luc bulterys]

Good to know. I would prefer the anchor locker and keep the tanks there too.