My name is Philippe. Please do not hold my French citizenship against me - I also have an Australian passport to compensate. My wife and I live on the
water since 2010. First on a 1990
Beneteau Oceanis 430 that we refitted from
head to toe. In 2015, as we could not envisage life any other way, we invested in a 2008 Nautitech 44.2, that we named TAO (philosophy about one's path in life going with the easy way in harmony with nature). Que du bonheur (bliss)!
After two crossings of Atlantic and Pacific oceans (once with each boat) we are now in
New Zealand. What a wonderful country and people... and we are pleased to be there, away from all that covid madness. I just hope they will let us stay as long as it take for travel to get back to "normal".
I am (was) an
electronics engineer and 5 years ago I installed a
lithium battery on TAO. Not finding a suitable BMS to protect my
battery and to manage energy on board I have, over the years, designed and built my own. At the request of sailing friends, it is now a
commercial product, but I think Forum rules do not allow me to talk about it.

The
Cruisers Forum has been for me a great source of responses for any question or problem I encountered over the years. I have been very reluctant to becoming a
member in any forum as I have so many times observed very interesting topics being sidetracked into useless polemics and fights of egos. It seems that here the forum rules are generally respected and it is time for me to contribute a bit of my experience and knowledge as the opportunities arise.

Just a note: there is so much activity in so many sub-forums that I have to figure out a way to locate the threads where I could contribute. I already subscribed to Electricity and
lithium forums, but there is so much I have learnt over many
live aboard years that I could occasionally contribute in other threads... but I do not want to subscribe to all
forums as I would be swamped by emails! How do you do it without too much time investment?