Another great post. Thanks Poiu.
There are so many posts in this thread from people whose opinion I value. It is like having your own private boat consultants
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Heating/cooling
Both are a necessity in many parts of the world, not a luxury. Unless you are going into places where water temperatures are below 5deg C a reverse cycle air con system is very effective and efficient, no less efficient than a drip heater.
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At anchor we do not find hot
weather a great problem on a boat. There is always the option of a swim to cool off (you can even check the anchor at the same time
).
Without an air conditioned car,
work and home
environment there tends to be natural adaption.
Air conditioning also isolates you completely from the natural environment and encourages staying shut up down below.
In a marina, without the natural sea breeze and a
water that does not invite a midnight dip the heat can be a problem. Avoid
marinas .
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Hifi
I have an a/c Linn amp and quality overhead speakers in each area. Cockpit, saloon, owner's and guest cabin all fed from MP3s on the PC. Great sound and not optional equipment in my view.
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This is more a personal hobby for me and not applicable to most boat owners. The system I have at the moment of B&W speakers and Alpine
head unit is better than most similar boats have. It produces great sound for movies and casual listening, but the quality is not good enough to simply listen to
music for its own sake. I am not sure this goal is achievable in a cruising boat, but the aim is to give it a try. This will be an owner installed system so other than planning the location of speakers it does not influence the build.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Batteries
LiFePo4. Big thumbs up for these. Mine have been great. Not many dissenters out there.
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There are lots of advantages to
lithium so I am still undecided. Running 24V (primarly for the anchor winch) and solar (as opposed to a
generator based system) reduces the advantages, but there is still a lot of appeal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Genset/power
I realise it will take a lot to sell the genset to you.
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Yep, sorry
.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
I'd go for the Victron or Mastervolt charger/inverters. Victron also do a super light, seemingly switch mode isolation transformer. I don't know how that works. I wonder if it is suitable?
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Mastervolt seems to win judging by the user reports on CF. A 24v 2500w
inverter will be fitted. With no
shore power, an isolation transformer and
battery charger are not needed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Radar mast
I note it is on the port side in the picture, shouldn't it be on the starboard side? I think it would be tidier up the mast though. I'd think about making room for the new Simrad Halo open array type. Looks like a game changer.
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The
radar will be on the mast to avoid solar shading. The technology is changing so rapidly I have not looked at this in detail, but Halo is on the list to
research further. Thanks for the recommendation.
If there is a
radar pole at the rear, I agree a starboard pole makes sense, as when heaved-to, starboard tack is the preferred side.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Dinghy
Probably not a helpful suggestion for you as it may change the boat too much to be viable: it seems to me that a dinghy on davits or even on deck is hideous
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Our current boat is brilliant in this regard and is something we will miss.
An arch with davits does make sense for a solar boat and we are hoping by specifying these at the design phase, rather than an add-on, they can be made to function well and be structurally sound and look integrated. There will be provision on the foredeck in front of the mast for the dinghy in severe conditions.
I agree they do tend to look ugly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
My electric winches have been pretty reliable and I think they are in general, so going electric is another area for the KISS principle to be compromised. You will be an old crock before you sell this boat and so you are building for your dotage probably.
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There have been a lot of votes for electic winches. So I think this is one change we need to make.
We have never felt unduly taxed by our current manual winches, but with a slightly greater sail area this could be an issue, especially as we are all getting older.
I am much less convinced by electric headsail furlers. A well engineered
furling system is not difficult to put in on a 50' boat and putting electric motors in the wettest part of the boat when it can be avoided seems madness. What I am missing here?
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Chain claw
Seems missing. I would fit one. What, he is advising the anchoring guru of something to do with anchoring. What impertinence.
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LOL. I have specified a Muir chain stopper with a Devil's
claw. I think the
Maxwell design is almost the same. Opinions?
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Bimini
I'd make it fixed and insulated as sunbrella lets a lot of heat through and cover it in flexible lightweight solar panels with a couple of windows to see the sails. Also panels on the deckhouse. I'd put tracks down the side to put side covers down to give a totally dry cockpit for wet passages or for when it is really rainy. In the tropics nearly every boat has a bimini and keep them up all the time, so why not make it permanent to start with.
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The solar panel arch provides a nice amount of permanent shade, but it also gives a good attachment point for additional Sunbrella. We plan a removable
bimini between the solar panel arch and pilothouse roof. This will probably be used more at anchor, but could be used sailing if desired.
Seaworthy Lass is brilliant with a
sewing machine so there will be lots of shade. It is a challenge making a pilot house an asset in both cold and warm climates, but a boom tent is planned (design based on our current one).
A totally dry enclosed cockpit is less important with the pilothouse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Sea-chest.
I.e. minimum through hulls. Just seems sensible.
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It does seem sensible, but when you analyse the hose runs it is hard to achieve in practice, especially for the outlet side. On the best aluminium boats the seacocks are installed above the waterline. This reassuringly eliminates the risk of flooding from a leaking seacock or hose (unless the boat is heeled a long way when sailing). The standpipes reduce the advantage of a sea chest, and also reduce fall, making installing a central drain point more difficult.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Aluminium
You obviously like it as you are going for a second one. Aluminium has high emissivity - don't you feel the heat inside on a hot sunny day?.
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No. One of the big advantages of aluminium is that the hull is much better insulated than a
fiberglass boat. Our current boat has 75mm of
insulation on the deck and hull and it works brilliantly. The
new boat will be the same. The
insulation makes the boat much cooler in summer and warmer in
winter, as well as insulating
noise. However, the biggest advantage is that there is no
condensation (except around hatches) so the boat stays dry and fresh.
There are some un-insulated aluminium yachts, but this is usually seen only in ex-racing or home built versions. Even 15-20mm of insulation will be better than a
fiberglass boat, but thick insulation is strongly recommended. This enables you to get away without the
generator and
air conditioning .
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Swing keel/rudders
Having been shut out of quite a few shallow spots this is something that appeals to me. It would occasionaly be great to get right up to the shore. Twin spade rudders for redundancy and efficiency appeals too.
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The unballasted swing
keel yachts like Boreal, Garcia,
Ovni, Allures, etc do have a lot of appeal. There are significant differences to conventional fixed keel yachts creating pros and cons. As always, there is no perfect answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Sealable dorades
I have lost a few bits of kit due to seawater ingress. Worth fitting seals, but I can't see any dorades on the pictures. How do you get fresh air in at sea? I can understand removing dorades as they will block the view, but you still need to get air inside.
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Ventilation is incredibly important in a cruising boat. Good insulation removes the need for a lot of the cold
weather ventilation that is mostly needed to control
condensation, but in summer lots of airflow is needed.
With good insulation the main purpose of dorades is to provide some airflow when the boat is completely closed up when left unattended. As we normally live almost 365 days a year on the boat we have not specified any dorades. We will have lots of hatches. The hatches will be non standard. Stay tuned for more details
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
Fridge
To help with the KISS process: I recently installed a frigoboat fridge evaporator with is a freezer chamber with a lid. With it I have a fridge and a small freezer combined. Works really well for ice, ice cream and the odd fish filleted and I don't bother turning on the freezer now
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Good quality boat fridges work well until they don't work
.
My wife managed wonderful
meals even when we were cruising on small boats with little or no
refrigeration. This is mostly technique (if your wife suggests ordering a vacuum
pump, don't panic guys, it is just used to keep cheese fresh
).
So the "car fridge approach" with redundancy, high
reliability, low cost and no requirement for someone to come out to the boat to affect
repairs if there is a failure seems like an ideal solution for us. However, if you require a large capacity fridge it is not the best solution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by poiu
This is against your KISS principle. I'd vote electric, but you do need to concede on the genset first. Anyway, with the space and weight with the tanks you can house a genset, improve safety and reliability on board and reduce hassle in not hunting down or decanting propane.
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Safety is better if you can get rid of
propane.
Space and weight I am not do sure. Even if you want to carry lots of propane, the alternative genset,
diesel, spares,
oil and extra house
batteries, switch panel and possibly start
battery for the genset would I think take up more space and room, but maybe not enough to matter.
As far as reliability, I disagree. This is the big drawback of electric
cooking via a genset. There is not much that can go wrong with a propane bottle other than it can be empty
.
Hassle hunting down bottles: yes, this can be a pain. Carrying 40kg of propane reduces this problem to a rare event.