Construction Thread for Custom 45' Cruising Powercat

[jknight611]

Boat looks great! Congratulations to all that provided their time and talents to bring it to life.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

I have a thread on " The Hull Truth" and was asked about the boat's electrical system.
I thought I would copy it over here and share it with you.

The DC systems Quote:
Originally Posted by v12mac
Some day if you have a moment could you post sort of a thumb nail sketch of how the DC systems work / are laid out on her?

The DC system as I said is in layers.

Power into the system

2- 85 amp alternators on the main engines. Alternators modified with Balmar Max Charge 614 digital regulators with a Balmar Centerfielder system.

3- 285 watt solar panels

Victron 3000 watt Multiplus inverter charger.

2 - Balmar Digital Duo Chargers.


Batteries

8 - 6 volt DC-250 Full River AGM batteries totaling 1000 Amp Hrs at 12 VDC House Bank

2- Group 31 Odyssey 1150 CCA start batteries. One on each engine. Gen set uses port engine battery for cranking and has no charge feature except when powering the inverter charger.



Everything charges the house battery bank. The engine start batteries are charged off the house bank thru the Balmar Digital Duo Chargers, they are a 30 amp 12 VCD to 12 VDC battery charger. Three stage charge. They are monitored by both volt and amp meters.

The two alternators charge the house bank when in normal operation. The Balmar Centerfielder controls the two alternators thru the two Max Charge 614 regulators.
Each alternator is equipped with an amp meter and the house bank is monitored with a Victron battery monitor that shows voltage, and current rate of charge and discharge.

In case of a failure of the house bank, thru a series of battery switches, the source voltage and alternator output can be switched to the engine start batteries as a back up, in that setup, the Centerfielder is cut off and each engine charges it's start battery.

In case of house bank failure, all DC systems except the anchor windlass and the inverter can be run on one of the engine batteries to maintain lighting, pumps, navigation, the watermaker and other systems.

Solar.

The 3 solar panels charge the house bank thru a Victron MPPT controller.

In normal operation, it charges the house bank. However, it's output is also equipped with 2 switches that allow it in backup mode to charge the 2 start batteries.

When the main engines are online, we shut down the solar system.

On shore power or with the gen set, the Victron Multiplus can charge the house bank at up to a max 120 amps, but we have set it to only charge at up to 90 amps.

On the AC side, there are 3 power inputs. 50 amp shore power, 3000 watt Victron Multiplus inverter charger, and a 5.5 kw Next Gen gen set.

All power systems input thru the inverter.

When there is no AC input, the inverter will provide up to 3 kw from the house bank.
The system is configured that the inverter will run all AC system except the 3 HVAC units, the water pump for those units, the water heater, and the washer-dryer.

Those systems will only run on shore power or on the gen set.

The water heater is a huge power draw [ 1200 watts at 120 VAC] so it has both a heat exchanger that uses heat from the starboard engine cooling system and 2 water heating solar panels on top of the hardtop to heat water.

As I said before, I did my best to layer the systems to have several sources of backup power.
__

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

The planned haul out to adjust the pitch in the props and add alittle cup, plus adding a set of fixed trim wedges on her sterns, will be delayed a week due to the bad weather forecast.

Not much need to haul to do epoxy work when the forecast high for next week is only 45.

I can't wait however to make these small adjustments and get her totally dialed in.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Well the much delayed haulout will happen on Monday, we finally have a forecast we can live with.

Will be taking her to the yard on Sunday, and hauling Monday morning.

Will give you the reports as they develop.

[beiland]

Originally Posted by Capt Hugh Wilde

I have a thread on " The Hull Truth" and was asked about the boat's electrical system.
I thought I would copy it over here and share it with you.

The DC systems Quote:
Originally Posted by v12mac
Some day if you have a moment could you post sort of a thumb nail sketch of how the DC systems work / are laid out on her?

The DC system as I said is in layers........

__

I think you have built a really nice SYSTEM there.

Hope to hear more of any 'tweaks' you might apply in the future.

I have earmarked your description of the system for future reference.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Originally Posted by beiland

I think you have built a really nice SYSTEM there.

Hope to hear more of any 'tweaks' you might apply in the future.

I have earmarked your description of the system for future reference.

Thank you for your kind comment.

Today, we ran the boat from New Bern NC to Washington NC to haul her out so we can tweak the props, add a couple of intake thru hulls for the 2 heads, we had them pulling out of a 3 discharge strainer along with the A/C pump and the washdown pump and the manual heads just can't pump well against the other pumps so we are going to install 1/2" thru hulls on each head.

We will also be adding small wedges to each stern to adjust her trim, she is running slightly higher than we would like.
I have some pictures from today I will post later.

Back to the electrical system.

It was a pleasure today, after designing it and building it to watch it in action.

It was doing it's thing, and it works just as I desired it to.
After all the time, thought and sweat put into it, it is nice when it meets your expectations.

In a long range boat, I see no other way to do it than to build in enough redundancy to be able to run most of the systems for navigation and basic living needs that if there is a house bank failure, that it can be lived with until you can make port to repair it.

Thanks again for your comments.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Today we carried the Silver Voyager from New Bern to Washington,NC to haul her out on Monday morning.
All of the other trips we have made with the boat were test trials, but today, Al Springer, her owner, was able to just enjoy a nice run from his home to the boatyard, and just enjoy his boat.
It was cool this morning then rain this afternoon, but it was a nice ride, and was quite enjoyable sitting in the cabin, watching the world go by.
Al and Ginny are ready to go cruise her, and if we can get a couple of weeks of sunshine, the painting will be complete.
A few adjustments while we are on the hill, then back to their house for final painting and putting the rest of their belongings aboard so they can begin enjoying this once in a lifetime project.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

We hauled out this morning and everything looks good. The props are in the shop being tweaked, and Forest is putting on the wedges on the sterns to adjust her trim at speed. Just alittle to much bow up to suit us.

All is good except where the brackish waters of the Neuse river have stained the Shark white bottom paint, but it is ablative so when she starts cruising soon, Al will wear the brown off of her.

Will report fuel and speed numbers when we get her back in the water. Sounds like winter is returning here on Thursday, and the yard is closed this Friday, so it will be next week before I can report to you the final numbers.

The lift says she weighs 28,000 lbs, and she is full of water 300 gals, and has half her fuel load onboard, 360 gals.

[GordMay]

... Al and Ginny are ready to go cruise her ...

Capt. Hugh:
It’s been a real pleasure following the construction of the BEAUTIFUL “Silver Voyager”.
I hope you’ll encourage Al & Ginny to join CF, and to share their cruising experiences with all of us who followed the build.

[44'cruisingcat]

You guys have done a fantastic job, I'm sure the owners will be delighted.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

The weather has been fighting us, but the props are done, the wedges and endplates are installed, ready to prime tomorrow and start putting the bottom paint on. Got to have 4 coats of that, so it will be Saturday before we take her home and see what the tweaking has bought us.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Forest got the wedges and endplates on yesterday, and I picked up the props.

He also had a death in his family and left out for Florida at 3 am today, so Nat, his son met me at the yard to sand, prep, prime and bottom paint the wedges and end plates.

I re-installed the props and he put the first coat of Pettit barnacle barrier on the props.
He also sanded out a small boo-boo on the port side near the stern caused by a fender to get it ready to repaint.

More bottom paint and barnacle barrier tomorrow, hope to topcoat the boo boo Thursday along with the last coat of bottom paint, and re-launch Saturday morning and take her home.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

We are installing new engines in the 50' aluminum dive boat I run during the summer.
A pair of 8.3 liter Diamond C-series Cummins 430 hp.

We set the engines today. We had the boat ready and the crew from Bock Marine made short order of getting them in the boat.

[Capt Hugh Wilde]

Videos taken by Alan Stewart, a member of our build crew, that he took yesterday on the way from Washington NC to Fairfield Harbor in the rain and damn southwest wind in that shallow ass river.

Sailing Adventures of SOS

[q240z]

Great thread!

28,000 pounds sounds super light for a fully loaded 45' FRP hull. Was that your target weight?