Mahe 36: Original FP Mahe 36 Thread

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Scott,
We have already modified all our matrasses using a better foam quality, since the standard matrasses become soft on the place where you are lying mostly. You tend to roll into the hole then. Wouldn't this still happen if you have a top matrass?
The reason for mounting the battens was to prevent build-up of humidity and mould at the bottom of the matrass due to insufficient ventilation.
If you just drill large holes into the multiplex board, to improve ventilation, this becomes too pliable under weight.
After drilling big holes under the rear beds, we have strengthened the rear beds with an aluminium beam lengthwise under the middle of each double bed. And I intend to remove most of the multiplex under the rear beds to reduce weight and further improve ventilation; the battens under the matrasses are supported on the sides and by the aluminium beam in the middle.
Everybody has his own solution....
Jef

[Scott730]

Jef
I was under the impression that under the aft beds is a water tight bouyancy chamber. That is why storage under the bed is only half the depth of the bed. I wouldn't drill holes in this area.
When in the marina, I also leave my A/C, heat unit in a dehumidifing mode which takes care of most of the mold that would otherwise build up in the interior of my boat, never had mold under the mattress because of this, however, it certainly could be a problem if I didn't do this.

Scott

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Scott,
You are completely right that the buoyancy chambers should not be touched.
We have not drilled holes in these, only in the multiplex board. The matrasses have slatted floors under them so there is ventilation between the fore and aft part of the matrass bottom. The holes in the multiplex can thus ventilate the whole matrass surface.
The slatted floors move the sleepers' weight to the centre and the outsides of the double bed. Under the centre of the bed, under the multiplex part, I have mounted a lengthwise aluminium bar to strengthen the multiplex (which was not very strong to begin with, and became too pliable due to the holes). The aluminium bar is supported by the top of the buoyancy chamber using an aluminium L bar of 20 cm. These are welded at right angles in a T-shape.
Now that this aluminium bar is in place (since a year), I will remove almost all the multiplex, except where it supports the slatted floor: on the sides, and above the aluminium bar. Removing the multiplex improves ventilation and reduces weight.
I do not want to remove all the multiplex, since this creates a difference in height between the aft and fore part of the rear beds.
On the front bed the slatted floor rests directly on the polyester, the multiplex was fully removed. This reduces the increase of height by the slatted floor. And has obvious benefits for weight and ventilation.

Hope I was clear enough. To my regret I have not pictures of the rear bed construction, that would have helped.
Jef

[Wayward Wind]

Guys

Can someone provide the sail plan for the mainsail, eg what is the P & E?

Cheers!

JohnC

[Cotemar]

JohnC,

The Mahe Main Sail Plan is:
P= 13460 mm or 44.16 feet
E= 5312 mm or 17.43 feet

Also see attached PDF of Mahe Sail Plan.

Mark

[MKB53]

Hi John

I have been away and have just seen your query re connecting a laptop.

I used a laptop on my trip up north last year and did quite a lot of research into it.

I have used 2 types of connection in the process.

1: It can be connected serially to the Furuno server located behind the fridge. I did this as an initial trial by fitting a serial connecter (wired to the Dsub9 serial port on the server) and power point on the big flat area above the fridge. You could route this back to the Nav station with a bit of effort.

2: What I used on the trip: The boat is prewired with an NMEA output that goes back to the Navstation. This is then connected to an NMEA multiplexor (Brookhouse) which is connected to the Laptop via USB. Bluetooth is available in some models but I prefer a physical connection in this case.

There is one big advantage with using the multiplexor and that is that it facilitates connection of an AIS transponder. These often need baud rate conversion as they operate at 51K Baud normally vs 4800 for NMEA.

I fitted a Comar transponder which worked well in this configuration. It is integrated with the Nav SW rather than have a seperate AIS monitor.

I highly recommend use of an AIS transponder, it helped us safely avoid crossing traffic in the busy areas of Gladstone, Brisbane and Newcastle.

The downside is that the way I have it set up I can't feed commands back to the autopilot. This is just a question of getting down to fixing it as I did it all in a hurry before we left and the autopilot was not a priority at that time.

As you are in Sydney I can show you how my setup works if you are in the Bayview area.

I should probably do a detailed wiring diagram for my maintenance folder anyway.

Has anyone managed to get an overall detailed wiring diagram for the boat from FP? I asked the agents and got a very basic and useless diagram. It could have saved me a number of false starts in my modifications and would help any troubleshooting when things inevitably go wrong.

Cheers
Martin

[lstyles]

I see on the L and S site that there is a thing called the Ecopilot which appears to reduce the power consumption of the autopilot quite a bit (they claim 30Ah to 5Ah daily). Has anyone looked into this? Price?
thanks,
Lori

[Cotemar]

Lori

Jef & Marin on "Miss Poes" from Netherlands has one and hopefully will chime in on his experience with it. Here is the info Jef provided me a few months back.
Jef purchased one for 116 euro ($171 us).

ENERGY SAVING DEVICE "ECOPILOT"
The "Ecopilot" energy saving device was designed to meet the demand for electrical energy saving on sailing-boats. Power reserve on board is often very limited, however it is essential for the operation of an autopilot system. The "Ecopilot" acts on the electro-valve which engages the autopilot. The power consumption of this electro-valve represents a major part of the total autopilot consumption. Its action consists of letting through - during a short moment – the necessary current for the electro-valve to switch on. Then the current is significantly reduced but still sufficient to maintain the electro-valve in position.
Thanks to this system, the daily consumption of the electro-valve is reduced in average from 30Ah to 5Ah.

Power Supply - 12 ou 24VCC, 30VCC max
Own Consumption - 0,01A
Output Current at Switching (Ie) - 2,2A max
Output Current after Switching - approx. Ie / 6,5
Switching Time - 0,2s
Protection - IP65 - Power Supply Indicator
Working Temperature -20°C à +70°C

ECOPILOT 12 V # 2202047
http://www.ls-france.com/ls/uk/lsvoile-options-fr.php

Mark

[Edmund]

Hello all Mahe friends!

I have just ordered my first catamaran, a brand new FP Mahe, hull 108.
The plan is to pick it up in La Rochelle early june, and sail it home to the westcoast of Norway . Planned route is up the Irish sea, through the Caledonian Canal, via Shetland and home. App 1250 Nm.
I was very exited to find such a nice forum on catamarans and this very good thread on Mahe. I look forward to participate here when the boat is finally home.
This my first time ever buying and commissioning a new boat, and any advice on commisioning a new boat in general, and a Mahe in special, is of course highly appreciated. Such advice may already been given elsewhere in this forum, I must admit i haven't been searching very much yet. Please excuse me if so.
And has anyone any advice on this specific route? Anyone who has been thorugh the Caledonian on a catamatan?

[Lucky]

Congratulations with your new Mahe! You will find a swagload of information pertaining to the Mahe.

As you can see I live in Norway but sail a Belize 43, but there are a couple of Mahe's close by to where I'm located.

Read through the thread I you will find a wealht of great input and experience shared by other Mahe owners.

Happy lead free sailin

[Cotemar]

Welcome Edmund,

You will Love your new Mahe. They are great fun.
We purchased our Mahe hull #96 in March of 2009 and you purchased hull # 108 for delivery in June 2010, so a little over one year later, interesting.
Looks like they are making 10 to 11 Mahes per year.

You will find all kinds of great info on this Mahe Blog. Mahe owners are very friendly and helpful.

This is our first Catamaran also. Our two girls really did not care for our last mono hull Catalina 380 which we had for 5 years. They only came aboard a few times in the 5 years.

Now with the Mahe they want to go with us all the time and have already planned out this years sailing trips.

We have been very impressed with the Mahe’s speed when sailing and she really moves out with just one engine running when we are cruising. Mahes are also a breeze to dock with the two engines.

Enjoy
Mark

[Edmund]

Thank you, guys.

A quick tour through this thread shows some minor issues with the Mahe, as you would find or any boat, at any price. To me, the most disappointing is the bimini solution, which is important for us living up north. But I have some ideas on how to solve that.

For people like me, who are tired of all kinds of technical and electrical problems, previous owner's not-so-good selv-made solutions, and endless discussions on how much money you can or should spend on this old thing, this will be heaven. I'm quite confident I will enjoy my Mahe, and the idea of a catamaran has been growing for a long time.

Regarding Mahe production rate: My hull could have been ready for delivery in March, if I wanted to, waiting to june was my decision. It's probably produced sometime midwinter. I understand they have made the Mahe since 2006? So the 108 hulls in app. 4 years gives around 27 boats/year, in average.
Has anyone got a list of factory modifications done to the Mahe through the years?

[Edmund]

And another question: I'm afraid I need to invest in a proper RIB to keep my kids satisfied, and preferrably as big and safe as possible.
How big RIB would fit in beween the Mahe sterns? Any suggestions on producer/type?

[Cotemar]

Edmond,

FP has kept adding hatchs for improved ventilation.
2006 - Only one opening hatch behind mast
2007 - Hatch behind mast and in port saloon window and folding props
also added a fuel gage
2008 - Added 30hp Volvo Penta optional engines with folding props
2009 - Opening hatch on stb saloon window and over both toilets

Your going to have to fill in the 2010 upgrade info for us.

Max Dingy size is 11 feet. Read back in the blog. Someone has a larger dink, but its very tight.

Mark

[DtM]

Congratulations on your purchase.

We have really enjoyed our Mahe (Hull #29). Although many of the changes relate to ventilation we have had very little to complain about on that score even here in Australia.

As to the bimini, is your issue that it is too low? We have a relatively simple solution to that (as do others). The factory bimini is a liability even for those who are vertically challenged. What does the factory want for a bimini these days. Getting drop down sides is also great.

daniel