Abel Seaman

Well I followed Aardvarkash10' suggestion and bought an EPEVER MPPT controller. It does seem like the cost /quality point i was looking for. Actually it arrived today and seems to be a solid bit of gear. My next question regards series or parallel. I already have a 20 watt panel which seems to be working just fine so i would like to continue using it and add a 60-80 watt panel as well. Series or Parallel? Thanks

Thanks very much for that. That model is one of the ones that i was looking at so that is very useful feedback. Back story: If i had a fully wired and instrumented keeler with multiple batteries, i would not hesitate to spring for the best, but I have a simple, low value (but dear to me) boat with a single deep cycle battery that doubles as starter battery for my electric start, long shaft outboard. Starting the engine with the pull cord is not difficult so there is no point having a separate starting battery. Electric start is nice but the real reason i went for it was that f

Hi all I am wanting to bump up my solar on my Trailer yacht to 70 watts nominal. I don't have huge electrical installation and this amount will improve the current setup to meet my needs. (pun intended) At present i have a cheap PWM unit with my smaller panel, but want the efficiency of a MPPT and also some sort of display would be nice. I don't want to pay victron prices. Trademe etc has lots of cheap controllers claiming to be MPPT, but are they in fact and are any of them any good? Thanks

I use my non cellular S3 Galaxy Tablet regularly for GPS location using OpenCPN and the NZ chart set. I use it as an e reader so often use it on planes where if i am next to a window, the tablet will get GPS signal and i can see where we are and how fast we are going etc.

Maybe google Carrington event? Only 160 years ago and only recognised at all because there were primitive electrical systems. Similar events prior to that would not have been noticed necessarily. Another Carrington event now could/would wipe out all satellites and most computer systems. You would need the paper charts to get home to find out that your bank now had no record of your wealth as they stopped keeping paper records years ago...

Thanks for the affirmations. I didn't report them but now wish i had. I did have an encounter of another sort a few days ago. Motoring up channel at 5 knots which is max speed against outgoing tide for me, a powerboat passed me at estimated 25 knots and within 5 metres. (not 50metres!) Of course i gesticulated! Caught up with them at the ramp. Asked the skipper whether he was aware of rules. He wouldn't meet my eye, but his hatchet faced wife accused me of having an attitude problem. I used to be against compulsory boat registration and skipper licencing, but i am changing my views!

Yes! This is true in so many areas. I am the first to say that civil disobedience in the face of bureaucratic incompetence is the duty of every citizen, but most of the rules such as no dogs in national parks are there for very good reasons. I love dogs and when i retire will probably adopt one, but i wont be trying to sneak it into the national parks.

I think you mean choke chains?

Me: solo in trailer yacht arrives Bark bay (Abel Tasman) after a hard upwind sail. Him and her: in oversized tinny outboard thing with accommodation. They just get into the lagoon on rising tide before me and anchor in the north corner. (which is as far from permanently staffed Doc Ranger hut as possible to get) Now this was a spot was where i had been previous week and I calculated that I would dry out and re-float no problem on the neap. Further in the Lagoon may have been problematic on the neap tide and i did need to get home. It seemed there was room for two so after he had set up

I just made a box shaped shower dome using 5mm acrylic. Following research the whole thing is glued up using superglue. No problem.

10 years ago i bought a $100 fishfinder with transom mount transducer for my glass over ply trailer yacht. As a trial, i bedded the transducer in a wadge of vaseline against the inside of the hull. I was careful to extract a lump of vaseline from the jar with no bubbles in it. It worked so well, that it is still there and still working, and as opposed to epoxy, i can remove it and replace it if i need to with no drama. I built an open top open bottom box to put around it so it doesnt get knocked, but honestly i havent touched the transducer since i installed it 10 years ago! Whe

Combination chandler and hardware store in Greece. They had everything you could imagine in a space the size of a living room. Your challenge, should you choose to accept is to find what you want.

Both give optimistic fuel use/heat output. The maths ain't difficult: Lower calorific value of diesel is about 36.5 Mj/litre. 1 watt = 1 joule/second so for heat from 1 litre per hour of diesel =36500000 joules /3600 seconds = 10 kw Claiming 5 kw for 0.1 litre/hr consumption is a bit of a stretch!

Shower domes work, but there are cheaper options: I bought a sheet of perspex and made one using a wooden former and using hot air guns. Cost of perspex is not much, but it was suprisingly difficult to get enough heat even with two x 2 kw hot air guns. So for the upstairs shower, i just glued some hardwood battens around the shower cubicle at the same height as the door frame and have a flat sheet of 3 mm perspex sitting on door frame and battens. No complaints about claustrophobia from me or my wife. It works. Can have a shower and the unheated mirror doesn't fog up. The perspex

When i firts rigged my new full batten main i thought i had made a tragic mistake: I had to winch it the whole way. A few good squirts of silicone lube later, i could hoist the whole mainsail by hand and just use the winch for final luff tension. Figure out your friction problems and deal to them. Cheers John