Compressor for sailboat

[Strygaldwir]

Anyone have any experience with mounting a dive compressor on a sailing vessel? Bauer seems to make a pretty good unit, but if I were going to mount a compressor in permanently, I'd want to put it in the engine room. I don't want to put gasoline bellow decks, so that lets out the Bauer. Any SMALL diesel compressors out there?


Keith

[sy Dolce Vita]

Bauer make an electric model also . or take off the gas Honda , and replace it wth a Farymann diesle. You might even ry a hydrolic moter off the main engine.
We keep a bauer junior in in a deck locker .
Michael

[Strygaldwir]

Thanks for the info. I spoke with a dealer for the Bauers. He indicated that the start-up current for the electrical compressor would be something on the order of 3 to 4 times the running current. He suggested that unless you had a REALLY big inverter it might not be the best solution.

I will probably end up going with the Honda gas powered model. and keeping it one of the cockpit lockers. How does that work for you? Are there any rusting issues? Do you run it in the cockpit locker? How many tanks do you carry? Where do you store them? Inquisitive minds would love to know.

Thanks!

Keith

[s4sail]

A late post, but for info, I have a small compressor that I am in the slow process of fitting. It is a Bristol pump unit with a hydraulic motor, in turn driven from the main engine. The compressor/motor assembly is really small, so much so that I have thought of putting it beneath one of the bunks if I can get enough airflow through.

Steve

[Strygaldwir]

I had not even thought of hydraulic as an alternative. I will have to research it a bit. Thank you for the information.

Keith

[Living the Dream]

We're going to go live aboard in about a year and have thought about a Hooka system instead of trying to keep tanks. Unless you're looking for deep dives, the Hooka will let you be pretty free without the tanks. It seems a lot safer than trying to keep tanks aboard and takes up a lot less room than tanks and the cmpressor to go with them. You can outfit yourself for about 3 - 4 thousand and be able to allow 2 - 4 people to dive to about 90 feet for a few hours.

[JB]

We had a southwinds honda gas powered compressor on board for 5 years of cruising in the Bahamas and Caribbean. We kept it stowed in a deck locker, and eventually, no matter how hard we tried to keep it covered, it got too much rust and died. (One of the cylinders lost compression)
Last year was our first without it, and we had almost no trouble getting air fills at almost anywhere in the Caribbean. Bottom line - it was huge conveneince having the compressor, but I wouldn't spend the $$$ to get another one now that the old one died.

[magiccarpetride]

I have been out cruising now for 5 years. I bought a Bauer Junior II, gas driven compressor before I left. There are Diesel versions of this, but they are more expensive.

The compressor was mounted under the boom, in front of the comapion way. It blocks vision a little but it is not bad. I had a fiberglass box made to cover it so it is fully protected. The box also serves as a "wash station" for gear.

Here is the good/bad

Good:
1) Runs great, with little vibration. I was worried it would shake the boat, but it just puurs
2) It is out of the way. I was worried that I would always be tripping over it, but since it is under the boom, in front of the dodger, it is an area that I never walked on.
3) Mounting on deck is the way to go. If it was stored in a locker or down below, I know I would use it less. To hard to haul out. With it's current position I can get to it in a matter of moments to fill tanks
4) I had a removable bracket made for the base. So if I want to take it off the boat for maintenance, or to go to another location it is easy.
5) Fills a tank from 300 psi to 3000 psi in 20 mins.
Bad:
1) Filters are expensive and need to be replaced often. IT IS DANGEROUS TO NOT REPLACE FILTERS. I see a lot of cruisers out here who do not change filters reguarly. They are playing with fire. Filters run between $40 to $50, and last in the topics, 3 months or around 20 fills. Number of fills depends on temp & humidity
2) There is no good way to measure how good the filter is. You have to use a mathematical formula, given by Bauer, to determing the number of fills. Meters for your filters are an additonal cost.
3) Everyone will expect free air fills from you. I have a had time doing this since filter are so expensive, and hard to find

Other considerations:
1) Buy a extra long fill hose. Mine is long enough I can leave the tanks in the RIB, and fill from on deck
2) This is better then a Hookah. In emergencies you can get a tank on faster, not to mention the flexibility a tank gives you.
3) By extra tanks. Yes, I know problems with storage/cost. But these can be soloved. For instance, I carry 6 tanks, all nestled in at the mast pulpits. Out of the way in un used space. It keeps tank fills down.
4)DO NOT LOOK AT INSTALLIN IN LOCKER, OR ENGINE ROOM. The longivity and saftey for you filter and compressor, is refelcted on how cool you can keep them. At around 100 degrees, the amount of fills you can do, goes down considerbly.

While it was had to spend the money, it is one of the best things I bought for the boat.

[CSY Man]

I was dreaming about a dive compressor aboard as well.

Planned to mount it on the engine and run a belt.
Charge the batteries and fill the tanks at the same time, the diesel likes to run hard, etc.

Never got around to it.
Not even sure if there is compressor units available to hook up to the front end of a regular diesel, perhaps even with a clutch...?

Had planned for a bigger boat, like a CSY 44 with plenty of room for that kind of installation, but ended up with a CSY 33 due to wife problems. (She wanted a house and a small boat instead of a big boat and a small rental appartment attached to a live a board dock in key Largo..Ugh, women folks and their screwed up priorities.... )

[CaptainK]

CSY Man once whispered in the wind

Had planned for a bigger boat, like a CSY 44 with plenty of room for that kind of installation, but ended up with a CSY 33 due to wife problems. (She wanted a house and a small boat instead of a big boat and a small rental appartment attached to a live a board dock in key Largo..Ugh, women folks and their screwed up priorities....

Arrrrrgh!!

Hey check out the JOKES section under "entertainment." There's one under the "perfect woman."

[CSY Man]

Hey check out the JOKES section under "entertainment." There's one under the "perfect woman."

Perfect woman...?

As in oxymoron?

Gave up on them womenfolks years ago.
Had 10,000 girlfriends and 3 wifes.

Now in love with my boat, at least she understands me and gives no problems or surpirses.

If I could do things over again, I would look closely at Singapore Airlines employments policies for their flight attendants:
Strict hirieng requiremnts with age/weight/look/IQ, etc.
At age 28 they have to retire, leave, go away...Next.

No attitude, no head-aces, just sweet young things eager to please...

[CaptainK]

I can agree with ya there!

[captainscotty]

Hey Living how do you do it?
How are you able to dive at 90 feet for a few hours !
Does`nt the build up of nitrogen get you sick?

Dive safe!

Cap Scotty

[RandyAbernethy]

You could get one of these for those two hour dives at 90ft.
http://www.sub-find.com/chambers.htm

The larger recreational Air Line rigs usually only support two at depths of 85' or so (which as Cptn. Scotty indicates, gives you a 25 min max no decompression bottom time on smashed air). Four on a hose usually max around 40'. I suppose you could go bigger but you'd have other issues. These systems are also no fun in choppy seas. If you're diving with tanks, once you're at 15' the weather is always balmy. Air lines mean no swim throughs, some concern for ensuring the pump doesn't stop while you're 60 feet down, etceteras.

If you're going to keep it to 30' perhaps air lines are great, otherwise tanks are the way to go.

After looking around for a year we have decided to install a Brownie YP35 AC unit next month. Bauer based, but marinized and comes with a "digital drive" which reduces the startup current draw to reasonable levels. The YP35 will operate off of a genset with as little as 5KW.

[Strygaldwir]

Hookah's below 33 feet are not usually recommended. A number of issues exist.

90 feet for 2 hours definately puts you into a decompression dive. NOT recommeded for a recreational diver and Definately could kill you.

I don't have a genset, and don't intended to install one, that's why I was interested in the mounting particulars of a gas or diesel powered compressor.


Brownie seems to refine good equipment, not sure that refinement is worth the increase in price. I'd love to know more on that issue.