too_tall

The amount of french built production yachts I have seen in marina's around the world which are regular ocean voyagers, says that they must be pretty OK all rounders and obviously do not sink or fall to bits as regularly as the nae-sayers would have you believe. I have seen all sorts of yachts suffer major structural issues, made of all sorts of materials. I have seen a yacht which bumped into something hard at 4kn do damage which I suspect wrote it off, and have seen the exact same make and model hit something equally as immovable at what I assume was around 8kn ( we were doing 6kn and they w

I was not thinking of alternate charging systems. Our shore charger has 3 isolated outputs which negates the need for the DVSR to remain connected. What I have had is the voltage sensing fail and tie the batteries together. It didn't have a bad outcome, but could have... That being said, our solar charger has multiple isolated outputs. I am not sure what most have however.

Depending on the VSR you can set them up to only ever link while the ignition circuit is powered - instant disconnection when the engine is turned off. A good way, IMO, to set them up.

Silly thing is that if the digger operator had been a bit more on his game, he would have pulled himself onto the vessel far quicker and probably not lost everything in the process. Still a stoopid idea. Third world nations often provide some amusing youtube footage of stupid behaviors.

Its price reflects its appearance. That thing is uglier than a.... picnic bar in a public pool....

Indeed, and my only experience has been on some Amels, but those things are well built, tough and durable. Pity the new ones systems are so bloody complicated that I believe they might suffer the modern BMW and Audi problem of being absolutely great till they get a bit of age on them, then the overly complicated systems will become a major source of drain on the bank account and hair pigmentation.

Funny thing... American boats, in my experience, are fairly well built. Australian ones too. Euro ones, a much more mixed bag... Cars, however... Quite a different story!. Obviously no Kiwi made cars so they don't really fit into my equation here. There are plenty of kiwi built Ferro's which are exeptionally poor - although there are probably far more ferro's out there than many realize. Its just you don't notice the good ones.

That being the most useful part - not only a detergent but also something that will break down the thick suldgey crap which detergents hardly will make a dent in. Alternately, assuming you have made sure there is no source of ignition, hydrocarbon based degreasers are awesome. I buy a 5L tin of them from either Repco or Supercheap ( I think its repco ) and that goes a very long way. Its the same as the spray cans of degreaser, but obviously a lot more cost effective. I use it in a small pressure sprayer to keep machinery clean or in the parts cleaner. Works brilliantly and makes the greas

As reliable, if not more so, as they don't rely on batteries, charging systems etc. However, far less convenient or easy to use, and, as a few have noted, clutter etc. Its as much a personal preference as much as anything else, but outs soon found its way into the shed once the Hydraulic system was in place and had done a few shorter voyages. It was considered to be refitted prior to the last islands departure, but consideration did not turn into action.

i will look into what FW is on the AC42 - I think that last time I looked ( 3 years ago? ) it was the most current. What are the prices on the Precision 9? I don't recall it being an option when we installed ours. Sounds a bit like the self steering module in one of my tractors in what it does. How is the sensitivity to interference like compared to the RC42? The RPU is more or less just the pump portion of the HLD system is it? We had no reason to get a custom ram made up, although it would most likely have been cheaper.

We have a Simrad/B&G setup with the AC42, AC42 rate compass and HLD2000 hydraulic drive system. We drive it mostly from the AP24 but can do so from the Zeus MFD also. Mostly, its great. The boat builders who constructed the mount for the ram did a terrible job and it near tore itself from the hull ( A well known Tauranga boat builder ) and the Marine electricians who sold and fitted it will never see another cent from us ( again, a well known firm ) but once we sorted those issues out, its been good, although not faultless. Occasionally it will have a temporary "failure" with no e

How would the efficiency stack up though? PV panels harvest about 10% of the energy, what does a solar water heating panel harvest? I think its far higher..

Brokers are a bunch of crooks in general from my experiences!. I accept that any yacht purchased second hand will have minor work required - its the majors that you need to consider when purchasing. Minor work you almost accept as you will have to sort yourself, I feel.

I recently did some alterations in the house, and installed underfloor hot water heating. We have a 5000L cylinder ( yes, 5 m3 of hot water ) which was a little pricey, but its heated by solar and also a heat pump water heater ( HWHP ) ( 9KW ). It also has a wood fired boiler which has yet to be lit after a couple of years. Works very very well, mostly solar powered but occasionally the HWHP fires up to top the temp back up to 60 degrees. The wood fired boiler was probably an unnecessary option, but as we are rural and have unlimited wood available, I thought that it could be a great option.

I totally agree. Currently. What will power prices do in the long term though? They certainly have not reduced over the last few years!. What would the real cost of a solar system be to maintain? Batteries don't last forever, nor do panels. From an environmental aspect it would be interesting to know what the real environmental savings are, or are not, by being off grid. NZ has a large portion of its power generated by renewable sources - namely Hydro. That power is non polluting now - the dams are there, and are not going anywhere. New dams create pollution ( I'm thinking the major

Figure out what it will cost to rectify the issues properly. Then, if you wish to, negotiate some or all of the repair price out of the purchase price. I have had 3 different surveyors recommend that you never let the seller do the repairs as you are most likely to get corners cut, and more often than not end up in a small claims tribunal or court.

Yes, that teak looks nice, but ouch when it needs money spent. No ifs, only when. Also agreed that 50' is a whole lot more cost and work than a 40'. Yes, probably near twice the usable space, but do you need it if it is just you and your wife? I have seen people circumnavigate in 30'. That is a bit small. 40' is enough space to be comfortable, but small enough to be manageable. Consider your partner/wife/kids handling sails...

Most chandlers have BEP DVSR's - a good unit capable of switching up to 125 amp I believe. More than enough for most applications. Connect it via the ignition circuit so it disconnects as soon as the motor is turned off.

So with a yacht overseas, and my father not having very much skill in the electrical field, some work he had done on it in Fiji manifested into 2 ruined alternators and a cooked smart regulator. Graeme Polley, of Smartregulator.co.nz was of immense assistance in sorting out the problem, both supplying regulators to allow testing, and also loaner alternators whilst we waited for parts for the one salvageable alternator and he also supplied us with a refurbished alternator for a great price. His patience with Dad who really has very little skills in this area, and advice once things got

More to the point for the OP and Wheels, a VSR ( or a DVSR - the modern equivalent ) can be used to manage a dual battery bank installation, be it a house/start pair, or a main/backup setup, whatever. Generally they are wired that the start battery is the main battery the alternators see, and whist voltage is over a certain level the house bank will get charged, I generally believe that in a cruising yacht they get installed with the alternators seeing the house bank and the start battery getting charged only when the engine is running as the house bank in a cruiser will have a FAR greater am

Check it does not have a VSR which has failed. The VSR will charge the house and start batteries, but disconnect them when not charging.

Plenty of other animals I could add to that list KM. Rapists, Kiddy fiddlers, murderers, hard drug dealers etc...

Wheels, it still requires the same amount of energy to heat a specific volume of water by a specific amount, and when using a cylinder, you have additional losses as you have storage losses. But yes, its far easier to deliver the energy over a longer time period. I did a rough calculation in my head just now. If your wanting to have 20L of hot water for a shower, - enough for maybe 5 minutes of total shower time once you mix some cooler water with it, you probably need to be heating it by somewhere near 35 degrees above "ambient" water - or around 50 degrees total temp. To heat 20 liters b

I have a 240V califont shower in a cowshed. It struggles to give a good hot shower and that thing is 8KW. That thing draws around 34 amps. At 240V. At 12V that would be 680Amps. That is an amazing draw and no alternator I know of would manage that, not even a pair of big mothers. Even if you had a massive battery bank and massive amount of generation, your going to have some serious voltage drop issues with almost any sized cables.

Is your Hilux the D-4D motor? You can get them remapped quite reasonably by DPS in Matamata and they perform considerably better and you will also find you get better mileage. Its a proper remap, not "chip tuning" On a long trip towing you really notice the difference. But more importantly, get out, get it wet and have some fun. Taking an extra few minutes to get there is not the end of the world.