Beneteau 38

[mstrebe]

Another useful metric regarding whether or not one should use a microwave on batteries:

5 minutes of Microwaving through an inverter requires one hour of re-charge time with the engine's factory alternator.

So "use sparingly" would be my advice.

[Sconnie]

Just wanted to add my thanks to everyone for this thread. It helped us make the decision to place our order a few weeks ago for a 2015 Beneteau Oceanis 38. We don't have a Hull# yet, but are excited to explore the Great Lakes starting this summer.

[MarcStAug]

The profile of that thing is awesome. I read through this entire thread, watched the videos and now I have this love thing going on! Congrats on a great choice. I hope she ages well for you and that you enjoy many years together.

[RKsailsolo]

Agreed Marc. I still lust after this boat despite the weird options package and apparent electrical gotchas. Congrats Sconnie on your decision. Maybe you can take this latest thread insight back to your dealer to ensure everything goes as planned.

[mstrebe]

By the way, I'm no longer having any issues with devices on the NMEA 2000 bus. The dealer sent a technician over and he replaced a bad terminator on the bus. That change fixed everything and was under warranty. Was a SIMRAD/Navico problem.

All the connectivity wiring is in one place behind the switch panel, so the whole thing took him about ten minutes.

[homerobarros]

Originally Posted by Sconnie

Just wanted to add my thanks to everyone for this thread. It helped us make the decision to place our order a few weeks ago for a 2015 Beneteau Oceanis 38. We don't have a Hull# yet, but are excited to explore the Great Lakes starting this summer.

Welcome to the club, Sconnie.

Matt and Fleur de Mer have a lot of experience in equipment and sailing, so they will be able to help when the time of decisions come.
Things I wish I had:
1) Bow truster
2) electric winches that can reverse near the helmsman.
3) a decent inverter to connect my Cpap machine without having to turn the generator.
4) a good Bimini ( for Florida)
5) a salt water foot pump for the sink
6) a remote control for the auto pilot on the Starboard.
Cheers
Homero

[Stu Jackson]

Re: water pump.

The recommendations are correct. Keep one closed. The pump won't cycle. Not worth going into the hydraulics of this, it's just a reality we've known about since our boats started being sold in 1986.

Another good reason: You will know when one tank empties, even without a level monitor. Then you switch over and know to refill the empty one. Immediate notification of a need for your "backup" water tank. No electricity or expensive monitoring involved.

It's a GOOD thing.

Great thread, tremendous detail and quite illuminating.

[Fluer de Mer]

Definitely an undersized inverted that was installed on my boat. see attached photo. I will be checking with dealer and Beneteau to see what they say as it does not seem right that they stock the boat with an inverter that won't even run the stock microwave or most other common appliances (like a drip coffee maker). Probably an honest mistake. I will let you know. FdM

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Fluer de Mer

Polux, Excellent point. I’m not an electrician so I can't comment on battery-to-inverter sizing, but my boat came with 1 X 80 Amp engine battery standard, 1 X 80 Amp service battery standard, plus 2 X 80 Amp additional optional service batteries ($4,295 ‘electricity pack' option), and 2 X 50 Amp dedicated Bow Thruster batteries [see attached pdf of batteries from owners manual]....

It seems that the inverter you got is adequate to the standard service bank battery that is just 80amp.

As you have 3 times that you can get a much higher capacity invertor. It seems to me not a Beneteau mistake (standard boat, standard inverter) but a dealer mistake that should know that with a 3 times bigger battery bank you could have a much bigger inverter. He should know also that the inverter you ordered would not be able to run the microwave.

Not easy to order a boat that can have a lot of options...an informed dealer is always a plus.

[Fluer de Mer]

FYI, Attached is the photo of the propeller zinc the diver swapped out.

[hellosailor]

Ah, yes, the same metric/imperial confusion that caused NASA to lose a Mars lander.


No, seriously, I would encourage both the dealer and Beneteau to save face and blame this on 12/24 volt systems, or 120/220 inverters, or the metric conversions...just give them the opening that you can understand how their might be confusion but this inverter is obviously grossly unfit for this electrical system, and since it can be so easily unbolted and replaced with a correct one...perhaps they could attend to that.


I find it helps if you sympathetically offer a face-saving way out and a carrot the first time around. The second time around, I get out the stick. But I strongly suspect they'll gladly take the carrot, the goodwill and PR value and worth way more than an inverter, in any case.

[Silver Shadow]

Hello everybody,

I just purchased an Oceanis 38, hull 009.

Just wanted to thank everybody for insightful comments that helped me a lot in making my decision.

Regards,
Max

[mstrebe]

Originally Posted by Silver Shadow

Hello everybody,

I just purchased an Oceanis 38, hull 009.

Just wanted to thank everybody for insightful comments that helped me a lot in making my decision.

Regards,
Max

Welcome!

[mstrebe]

Originally Posted by Polux

It seems that the inverter you got is adequate to the standard service bank battery that is just 80amp.

As you have 3 times that you can get a much higher capacity invertor. It seems to me not a Beneteau mistake (standard boat, standard inverter) but a dealer mistake that should know that with a 3 times bigger battery bank you could have a much bigger inverter. He should know also that the inverter you ordered would not be able to run the microwave.

Not easy to order a boat that can have a lot of options...an informed dealer is always a plus.

Concur with Polux that with the three batteries a much larger inverter is correct. In the ordering system for this boat, the "inverter" option requires the "electrical pack" which comes with the three house batteries--at least in the online configurator. Also the inverter is a pretty expensive option, much more costly than having a 3rd party put in the right inverter for the boat.

Really no excuse for this not being an 1800 watt auto-transfer pure sine-wave inverter given the capacities of the rest of the system. Glad I skipped the option and will be adding my own.

[RKsailsolo]

Originally Posted by Silver Shadow

Hello everybody,



I just purchased an Oceanis 38, hull 009.



Just wanted to thank everybody for insightful comments that helped me a lot in making my decision.



Regards,

Max

What!?!!

Will you guys stop snapping up the new 38s? There will be none left for the rest of us! (Kidding).

Congrats Max. That's one big beautiful boat.