Quote:
Originally Posted by LITTLE DIXIE
Adelie plan is to head south and stay around Bahamas, Bimini area. It's just me so I have many options.
a. She comes with Achilles LEX-88 Dinghy and a 5hp Tohatsu outboard thats 2 years old.
b. Has a Raymarine Autopilot (your thoughts?).
c. Yes I am learning but with help I'm cool I believe in doing it right the first time. Had a coworker who has been a ton of help.
d. Now I'm looking at a Spectra Watermaker (200T if I remember) and
e. I hear good things about CoolBlue Refridge units.
f. As far as clothes go lol well a bucket works fine for me, gonna keep things simple but has to be dependable.
g. She has 2 135 watt panels that will be updated.
h. Also came with VHS/AIS reciever AIS transponder send and receive. List goes on and on. Needs some TLC but so do I lol. All solid just do the bottom but I won't cut corners. Any other things I'm missing please reach out and give me your input and thoughts
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A. For a
single person that dinghy and engine probably is fine. The issue is whether you expect to be able to plane or not with a load. Generally I would expect you to
anchor near reprovisioning spots and points of interest but you may want to make forays away from there for
diving or a picnic guest. Past a certain distance/trip time, unique to every person, cruisers want to plane. Small dinghies plod along at about 3kt unless they can plane in which case it's 10-18kt. There pretty much is no speed in between, you get a very marginal speed increase for a massive increase in
power and
fuel consumption, basically you are plowing the sea. Once on a plane you can throttle back. If you don't have enough
power to plane, then don't try. The dinghy is light, but the engine is small. My guess is that it can plane with you and a moderate load. Test out the dinghy and see. If you can get on a plane, how big a load can you get on a plane? You will want to know this when going to afield to reprovision. Test it now. If you have trouble getting on a plane, there are several things that you can do to help.
1. Get a tiller extension and move yourself forward when trying to get up.
2. 3gal
fuel tank with a hose long enough so it can be at the bow.
3. Flatter larger diameter prop. This will help you with the holeshot getting onto the plane but will cost you in max speed. If it's the difference between planing and not it worth the
money. Also makes the dinghy
motor more efficient if you try to use it to push the mothership. For that you would tie the dinghy on the mothership's hip or you would mount a dinghy bracket on the mothership. Even if you hope to never have to do this, it's good practice to test this out if the main engine breaks down.
4. Foils on the motor's cavitation plate.
Here's a link to the results of a
survey on motors vs hp vs type of dinghy vs how many people.
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3498738
The dinghy is an air-bottom so it will be a bit vulnerable to dragging over rocks. Consider getting some drop down wheels.
The engine you have is a 4-stroke, which is pretty much mandated by environmental
regulations in the US, UK,
Canada, Aus/NZ and EU. In the Bahamas I believe you can buy a 2-stroke. They leave
oil in the
water and get about 2/3 the
fuel economy but they are more robust, easier to
service and generally lighter. Given the proximity to the US you should have no problem finding mechanics that will
service your 4-stroke, probably true for much of the
Caribbean but no guarantees.
B. No opinions on the make/model of your autopilot but expect it to use about 50Ahr/d @ 12v. I would dedicate 150W or so of
solar panels and about 150Ahr of
battery capacity to that specific demand when designing the
electrical system. Windvanes don't use power, tend to be much more reliable but cost a lot up front.
C. Are you learning to sail on a
small boat or better yet dinghy or on your own boat? Sailing and cruising are 2 different things. Sailing is about trimming the
sails,
steering the boat, picking your course, rules of the road and picking up crew
overboard. Cruising is that plus motoring, the head,
electrical consumption,
provisioning,
cooking underway, longer range
navigation,
electronics, sleeping arrangements, port and
customs clearances, .... Sailing is like learning to drive car, cruising is like driving a Class-A RV or semi-truck&
trailer.
I would recommend a Laser to learn to sail. Easy to find, east to rig, sealed
hull so won't swamp. Can resell for about what you paid. Buy one, sail it 3hr every other weekend for 6mo.
If you are learning to sail on your own boat or another large boat there is a tendency to get distracted with secondary systems rather than learning the sailing machine which is the most important part.
D. I have no opinion either way on that make/model of watermaker. From the maker specs it needs 1.2Ahr/gal produced. I would assume 1.5Ahr/gal because over time the membrane efficiency will decrease. That's still pretty good compared to a lot of water makers. If you produce 10gal/d I would have 45-60W of panels and and 30-40Ahr of
battery capacity dedicated to this use. Keep in mind that the more water you use the more electricity you need to produce it. Even with a watermaker you want to keep water tankage on the boat, if the watermaker or
electrical system fails you won't die of thirst. I would carry 2gal/person/day for the longest
passage you make. You really only need 1gal/day/person but 2 gives you a reserve for a slow
passage, or a ruptured tank, like say during the storm that killed the watermaker. Once underway on a passage I would slowly draw some water from the
tanks to lighten the boat but I'd always maintain 15d worth. Unless you are heading across and ocean just maintain 30gal or so, and you should be fine.
E. I would count on using 35-50Ahr/d power needing 120-200W of panels and 100-150Ahr of
batteries dedicated to their use.
1. I have no opinion on any fridge system except the Engels. Engels produces chest fridge/freezer units that apparently are very well regarded in the trucking industry. They also publish power consumption data which most makers don't. That data indicates makes their power consumption seem to be good or pretty good. I have no idea how well they last in a
marine environment. There is a 3rd party market for various add-ons like insulating blankets and a drawer rack so it can be slid in and out of a cabinet. It probably really needs additional
insulation. The Engels would cost 1/3-1/2 of what the CoolBlue system costs.
2. If you go with the CoolBlue you would need and want to do
installation, you want to know your systems and how to maintain them yourself. That will let you beef up the
insulation of your
icebox, which you should, 4" minimum, 6" would be nice. I hear that the vacuum panels are much more efficient than foam but are not as durable. The CoolBlue has a holding plate so you can turn down the temp when there is an excess of power available such as near the end of
charging with the engine and in the afternoon when the
batteries are almost full and the panels are putting out more power than the batteries can take. Once the excess of power stops return the temp to normal and the fridge will coast for a while on thermal inertia.
3. Another option is to get a
cheap dorm fridge or small apartment fridge and run it off of AC. To do that you would need a more
solar panels and batteries to keep up which cost money but if you are saving $2k on the fridge would be worth it. Also you would need a big, 2kW
inverter. If go this
route you could spend more on
solar and batteries up front and down the line when the fridge dies you can splurge on the
marine fridge of your dreams.
F. Bucket and plunger are nice and
cheap. Cut holes in the plunger, I hear it swirls the water better. I've heard that small amounts of ammonia
work as a detergent. No personal opinion here on the plunger or the ammonia. Get a mangle, big water saver. After
washing, run thru the mangle before rinsing, and mangle that water back into their respective buckets. After several pieces the rinse bucket becomes the wash bucket and you need to dump the old wash bucket which becomes the rinse bucket with a little new water. Here is a stainless example:
https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Wis...a-599920542218
G. I would max out
solar. I would keep what you have and buy more. If you run out of places for permanently mounted panels, get some flexible panel,
epoxy or glue them to 1/4" or 3/6"
plywood or PVC planks. These can be tossed out in open areas in calm
weather as convenient.
1.Instead of one large controller I would put a small
MPPT controller on each panel which will improve output in conditions which shade some of the panels which will be much of the time. At the very least put the panels one each side of the boat on their own controllers.
2. I would also go to Sam's Club or Costco or whatever you can find and buy as many golfcart FLA batteries as you can fit on the boat. Lots of "deep cycle" batteries are really hybrid or worse starting batteries with a "deep cycle' sticker plastered on them. If it says golfcart it is more likely to actually be a deepcycle battery, especially coming from a major retailer but even then no guarantees. The more batteries you have the longer you can last in cloudy conditions before you have to start the engine or a
generator. And even if you never do, the larger bank will last longer because it won't be cycling as deep on a day to day basis. Don't get
AGM, they don't last as long, if they did, the golf course fleets of golfcarts would have converted years ago, they haven't last I checked. Don't go
Lithium, there are a bunch of changes for secondary systems that have to happen when you convert.
3. Depending on the age of the engine you may want to get a
generator. Because of the size and weight of the boat the engine is probably large, 45-75hp and
diesel. Running a
diesel under loads, such as
charging the batteries, for extended periods tends to glaze up the cylinders. Just before shutting down, run it up to 80% or so
RPM for 10min, may help the situation. If the engine is old, I wouldn't be too worried about it. If the engine is an Atomic-4 low load operation isn't a big deal. Low load fuel economy is a problem for both gas/petrol and diesel.
H. AIS transponder is good.
Does the boat have a Bimini or
Dodger?
What's the head and
holding tank situation?
Here's what I recommend.
1. Learn to sail, really sail, on a
small boat or dinghy.
2. Go as cheap as you can right now. Don't pour a lot of money into this and find it really doesn't suit you. You and I assume the boat are in MO. Do the minimum to get going, that means going down stream to the gulf or up river to the Great lake thence to the Atlantic. Along the way you will learn a lot of idiosyncrasies of the boat, and you will start getting a sense whether you want to keep going with this.
3. Get a crew or 2 while sailing the golf or Atlantic and make a 3-4d passage outside the InterCoastal Waterway to find out how well the electrical system does when you aren't running the engine for hours on end everyday. When you get to
Florida you can make more informed decisions about what to upgrade. Better make 2 extended passages outside before you get to FL.
4. Get and mount the batteries, solar panels, controllers and cabling now. A lot of other systems depend on the electrical system so go large now. I would try to mount at least 450W of panels and have at least 450Ahr of batteries. Assuming 150Ahr/d usage you should be able to go 3-5d in overcast conditions before needing to start the engine or a genset.
5. Get the large
inverter and go with an apartment fridge. You will be motoring a lot until you make an extended sailing passage, so it won't be until then that you find out if you have enough solar and batteries to supply all uses.
6. Get the drifter now. The better you can sail in light winds, the happier you will be and the more likely you will be to stick with it.
7. Get foredeck bags for the headsail and staysail. They stow in place on the stays with the sails out of the sun without taking up precious
storage below.
SailRite has kits, which I have used, and you will learn to sew which is a good skill to have on a sailboat. Get an older, 1970-80s
sewing machine or the Singer Heavy Duty which is what my wife got me.
8. Right now test the dinghy with increasing load until you know how much load you can get on a plane. Get dinghy wheels, tiller extension, the flatter prop and the motor mount for the mothership, especially if the mothership engine is older or an Atomic-4.
9. Stick with the autopilot you have. No cost except for the upgraded electrical system you should do anyway.
10. Do not upgrade the
alternator on the engine unless it is really tiny (40A). A 70-90A
alternator will be fine. A larger alternator will only marginally shorten the charging time for Lead Acid batteries, regardless of whether they are flooded,
AGM or Gel. Starting at 50% discharge the batteries will accept as many amps as the alternator can put out (called bulk charging). In 30-75min the batteries will reach the max allowed voltage. If you have an external smart
regulator that tapers the amps and maintains 14.2-14.4v. If the alternator is internally regulated like a car it is probably limited to 13.6v or so which won't damage the battery even if it is run long periods but it will take longer to get thru absorption charging. The tapering charge (called absorption) will take 5-6hr regardless of how big the alternator is. If you need to use the engine or a genset to charge batteries regularly, you it first thing in the morning when the batteries are at their lowest, the engine will bulk charge 50-100Ahr until absorption charging starts then let the solar panels do the rest.
When you get to FL you will have made a couple passages and have an idea what they entail, you will have a better idea of what you want to add to the boat and you will still be in the US where you can get items without paying
customs. And you may have discovered this is not for you. Lots of folks do, don't think you are immune. Hold back on big purchases until you have a taste of the life.
Assuming you do down river to the Gulf you want to leave MO September-ish. You can get to the Gulf in October which is still
hurricane season but getting closer to the end on November 30th. If you take the Okeechobee
canal that puts you in West Palm Beach. Or you can make one of your outside passages be rounding the south end of the peninsula and pull back in at
Miami. Regardless, you are somewhere between
Miami and West Palm and can do upgrades starting near December 1, then jump to the Bahamas in early January and have 4mo there before needing to be back in the US the beginning or middle of May to go north ahead of
hurricane season which supposedly starts June 1.
If you get to FL and decide the solar can't keep up with normal sailing demands, I would get a good, small genset (Honda EU2200I for preference) and 2-75amp chargers like this:
https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-...951140228&th=1
The
Honda because it is reasonably priced ($1k to me would be reasonable) and is the quietest generator that size and is just as fuel efficient as similar. You will still want to build a hushbox for it.
The 2 chargers because they are $200 each, and together, each putting out 75A, will just use 1800W which is what the
Honda can put out indefinitely. Max output is usually near the most fuel efficient speed for any engine. Having a 2nd
charger provides redundancy and will probably chop 1/3 off the runtime for the generator until the batteries reach absorption voltage. Bigger chargers can be found but they are more than twice as expensive. And most generators have 2 sockets so 2 chargers is possible.