syohana

See my reply to CarpeDiem above. We sell enertec Juice lithium. The LiFePo4 cells are quality imported items but the BMS and display is their own design with all custom circuit boards and software. Another nice feature is NMEA2000 connectivity. I have not heard of a boat actually failing an EWoF for this reason yet but they might start checking, especially as a knee jerk reaction if there was a death, collision or wreck in NZ due to the battery cutting out at the wrong time without warning (whether that be propulsion failure or just the nav lights went off).

Apart from being bad practice to ever sail to a schedule, you still didn't need a 20kw genset. Just back off the throttle by 1 knot on those long passages and your power consumption will halve. Back off another knot and it will halve again. Enjoy the silence! even with a diesel you'll see the same in terms of fuel consumption. Not sure how big your boat is but I bet you would never actually use 20kw except bashing directly into a strong headwind at full speed. That's masochism not sailing! You should probably have been recommended a pod drive rather than a shaft drive. They are still

Of course there can still be improvements but the technology is mature so they are incrementally tweaking details. The motors are already 85-95% efficient so there's no room for a big leap but there are still incremental improvements happening in motor design, such as higher power at lower voltage allowing safe DIY installation of bigger motors. The big leap will be in battery technology as you say. You can install an electric motor now and be happy that it will be future proof and last a lifetime, but you may want to upgrade the batteries in a few years.

We have one Torqeedo 1103C left in stock, that's equivalent power to a 3hp petrol outboard. Priced only a little higher than the Chinese ePropulsion clone but it's actually made in Germany and to a very high quality. We also have Combi outboards from the Netherlands which are bulletproof, solid aluminium, no plastic parts. they will run for longer than the whole lifetime of a petrol outboard before the first quick service to change seals and bearings. They cost a little more to buy but the lifetime cost is far less than any other petrol or electric outboard, especially if you use them eve

CarpeDiem wrote in another thread: Disclaimer: I run electricboat.co.nz up in Kerikeri. We sell electric propulsion systems and lithium batteries. We also do installations and run our own fleet of five electric hire boats so I'm well placed to answer the questions. I hope it's OK to post useful replies to questions here without being considered spam. If anyone buys anything from us as a result of reading my posts here then please mention crew.org.nz and we'll donate to the site. So, some good questions! How has the technology progressed? Electric motor technology is already m

good questions, I'll start a new thread with the answers rather than go off topic here.

We use timing belts on some of our electric drive systems. The difference is the shafts must be completely parallel so it would be a = drive not a V drive. Not suitable to replace most V drives which have an angle between the shafts like the name suggests. You'd also need thrust bearings and a frame to hold and tension the belt so it's not a trivial thing to build. this sounds like another good opportunity to go electric

This would be a good opportunity to switch to electric propulsion, save you the problem of getting that old lump back in. We've got some nice lightweight 5kw brushless units under development, you can lift them in by hand!

more just remembered... 14. Old wooden jetty at sulphur beach in big shoal bay, next to the little boat ramp near the end of the harbour bridge. Very shallow at low tide but good at high tide if its calm enough. 15. Should be possible to do a quick drop off at Devonport wharf if it's calm enough, don't stop long or a big wake will bump you on it. Very high deck but there are some steps at the side. Watch out for fishing lines. Handy for the ferry into CBD. 16. Matiatia and Kennedy point on Waiheke Island, Islington bay on rangitoto all have good public jetties for pick up/drop o

1. The fuel dock at bayswater is all-tide 2. the fuel dock at Orakei is accessible all tide. 3. The whole outside of the Western pontoon at Orakei marina is for public pickup/dropoff too but it is very shallow. It would be good at high tide. There's a lack of cleats but there are a few rings to tie onto. The gate to that and the fuel dock (inside the end of the same pontoon) is locked at night but should be open in the daytime (the marina is required to provide public access to that pontoon so complain to security if it's locked). 4. The pontoons at the landing boat ramp on the

I'm now running "The NZ Electric Boat Co" up in Kerikeri so I have acquired a bit of knowledge on this subject, we've been equipping a few boats with propulsion batteries. For our own hire boats which are intensively used commercially, if they can take the weight then we use conventional flooded Trojan L16H ("Motive" branded) lead acid batteries. These are about the heaviest duty 6v traction batteries out there and high quality. You can discharge them quite deeply while still getting a decent cycle life. If you buy a lead acid battery which has really good deep cycling performance th

I've heard of rod rigging but steel sheets sound a bit heavy. How do you get them around the winch?

White vinegar will kill most kinds of mould.

Insurance underwriters are mostly London based and therefore tend to think highly of the RYA Yachtmaster qualification (and rightly so). It isn't recognised in NZ for commercial use but if you're not intending to operate commercially here then the Yachtmaster is the way to go. You'll learn a lot too. Make sure to take the exam in tidal waters because the non-tidal certificate doesn't have the same prestige. NZ Coastguard do arrange Yachtmaster courses in NZ I believe, but nothing beats doing it in the Solent if you have the opportunity. Yachtmaster Offshore is sufficient for most insurers but

The predictwind price doesn't include unlimited data and 150 mins calls until end of June, that's worth an extra $200. Also looks like the predictwind price is plus GST and plus shipping from iridium in the USA. Maybe you get to pay import tax too! I think you'll pay a lot more than $1080 by the time you get to checkout. It's almost brand new, I think $900 is fair but I'll consider offers if it doesn't sell before the credit expires.

$900

Including an active sim card with unlimited data and 150 mins calls until the end of June. Buy it quick to make use of this credit which expires end of the month! Useful if only to practice using the device before you use it for real. We are in Opua, perfect if you are planning to go offshore from here. Condition is as new with box, manuals, charger and accessories. Also including a spare Sim card which you can activate any time with no minimum term. Use the unit for a single trip then cancel the sim and activate a new sim for the next trip, saves a lot of money!

I purchased the panels in about may 2016 and got the tribunal hearing in july 2017, got the refund a couple of months after that. The guy I dealt with at AA solar was called Pierre. Quite possible ownership could have changed. Soon after losing at the tribunal they stopped selling flexi panels, having learnt that you can't just opt out of refunding for faulty goods by stating "no warranty" on the invoice! Everyone who bought these dodgy panels from any NZ seller for non-commercial use was and is legally entitled to a full refund. AA tried to wriggle out of paying by saying we were a ch

I bought 8 panels from AA solar. They promised a 5% bulk discount on the whole v order but when I turned up to collect the panels they refused to give the discount on the other charge regulators and cabling, just the panels themselves. They did state that these panels tended to fail and had no warranty, but they also said they were no worse than any other flexible panel. I installed them glued down with Sikaflex to the coachroof and they were never bent or stepped on. Within a couple of months the first panel failed - one cell got so hot that it burnt right through the top of

The inner seal doesn't do much, it's mainly just to keep dirt off the main seal and to stop water collecting in there causing corrosion. It's often wrongly described as a backup to the main seal but the clip holding it on is pretty useless and it would pop off if there was any pressure behind it. Other saildrive manufacturers don't even have a secondary seal. The main seal should be replaced after 7 years if it has been heavily used or had sharp shells growing on it. When it gets very old and stiff it fails very gradually (cracks let in a very little water) over a long period of time.

His insurance would have paid for the damage to the yacht and loss of use, which is why the $400 was for emotional harm only. Sounds like the yacht owner wasn't on board at the time so $400 doesn't seem unreasonable for emotional harm only.

Try Fairway Bay marina adjacent to gulf harbour, it's small with friendly management, a community feel and was welcoming to live-aboards when I was there a few years ago. Gulf harbour has a few live aboards too. If you want to be central then can't beat Westhaven but it's very expensive and only allows liveaboards on the one pontoon which has pump-outs at every berth. NZ rules on holding tanks are strict so make sure to buy a boat with a big tank and look for a berth close to a pump out facility or with easy access to the open, deep sea if you intend to live aboard. If in Auckland you have

I found an article about Gerry and his hooklever, with a photo and email address for him, it's also 5 years old though: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/boating/cruising/9252871/Alvah-Simon-Those-Clever-Kiwis

The rigger at Norsand boatyard in Whangarei makes his own special design of removable forestay tensioning lever which would probably be ideal for this purpose and as he makes them himself he could customise it for you if necessary. He talked to me about them about 5 years ago so I don't know if this info is current but if you call Norsand boatyard I expect they can put you in touch with him. I think his name is Gerry or Jerry. Even if he's not making them now I'm sure he'd have good advice for you.

The jetty is available now and I also have two pile moorings for up to 14.7m length available - long term preferred but short term berthing is available meanwhile so get in touch!