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marinheiro

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Posts posted by marinheiro

  1. Be mindful that the sterndrives sold and installed here were originally designed to power big fizz boats, not Kiwi launches weighing 6+ tonnes. Puts a lot of load on the legs. Apart from the corrosion problems mentioned previously the other major weakness for moored boat installations is the flexible boot protecting the CV or universal joint. If that fails you have a leg full of water.

    You see very few commercial operators running srerndrives which is an indication of their reliability.

  2. Vesper sell a the aerial (I think made by Pacific Aerials) which is said be designed to work up to the band's used by AIS.

    I purchased and installed one when I had the mast out, have not had an AIS transmitter on it yet, but receives AIS signals ok.

    I will need a splitter if I install a tranceiver

  3. These guys do one of the best ranges of units ready for permanent installation

    Www.iceer.com.au . Most of the Queensland charter cats are fitted with them.

     

    Re insulation, much better to go with panels rather than the foaming type, more consistent properties and the foaming type is bad for moisture take up.

    Calder's boat bible has a test of different types of insulation with some interesting results

  4. Winter, there have been too many failures of the water cooled units to consider them. Have a perusal of the internet. I know of a couple of local failures. Problem is corrosion in the condensers and when these hole you have one dead compressor. My suspicion is that the Danfos/Secob compressor have stray electrical leaks causing this. Remember these compressor are designed for caravan fridges and portable coolers, not for the marine environment

    The Ozefridge water cooled versions take a different approach, they have what is effectively a radiator with an extra set of tubes for the fresh water cooling circuit. So there is separation between the water and refrigerant, the heat is conducted by the radiator fins

  5. Do you want to run in it as a fridge or freezer? Big difference in power consumption and hence battery bank size and charging system.

    If you are just going for fridge, simplest option is an evaporator plate and compressor kit from www.fridgetech.co.nz .Keep way from their salt water cooled units.

    Next up in price and complexity are the eutectic type units, such as the Ozefridge that IT represents.

    Finally Fridgetech have a large 12V compressor that they say can be a straight change out for an engine drive compressor. I think they have only installed a couple of these so not a lot of history.

    If you just want a fridge, go for the simple evaporator plate and air cooled compressor. I have 2 of these in small fridges and they are great

  6. Booboo, not sure if you have a Yanmar or a Volvo, but a couple of thoughts assuming you have a Yanmar and for now you decide not to install a second alternator.

    This outfit in the US makes a drop in 94 amp output alternator for Yanmars that can be controlled by an external regulator.

    http://www.zrd.com/pd/esdalternators.html

    I would then suggest directing the output from the alternator straight to the house bank (ie not via the starter motor positive stud as it most liekly is now), with the regulator sense wire taken from the house bank,

    then installing one of these to charge the engine battery

    http://www.balmar.net/products/digital-duo-charge/

    I have one of these on my yacht and Works just fine.

  7. Just to lighten things up and talk about an encounter where communication was exemplary and the customer was very satisfied (and no prizes to the Shore boys for guessing who this is)

    I needed a small casting and had made a pattern, dropped into the local foundry - discussion went something like this:

    me: Gidday xxxx, how are you

    xxxx: what the f... do you want

    me: can you make a bronze casting for me from this pattern

    xxxx: of course I f.....g can

    me: that's great, when do you reckon you have it ready

    xxxx: why don't you come back next f.....g week and find out!

     

    a week goes by

    me: gidday xxxx, is my job ready

    xxxx: course it f.....g is

    me: excellent, what do I owe you for it

    xxxx: why don't you just f... off

    • Upvote 2
  8. Hi Booboo,for a bank that size you need a min of 160 amp alternator and a smart regulator, Belmar or Ample Power are the well known models

    Problem with your alternator apart from being too small, is that it is machine sensed so it will cut back very early.

    Have a look at www.yachtwork.com noting he is now off skippering a big cat, for some ideas.

    I would still maintain your bank size. This is a typical problem for production boats not having enough charging capacity

  9. CO will send you to sleep and eventually causes death if there is enough exposure. The headache only kicks in if you are lucky enough to have someone find you before it is all over. 400 deaths pa in USA attributed to it. This is why they banned fixed gasoline generators in boats there and why they sell CO DETECTORS EVERYWHERE. Cashew in his cruising encyclopedia mentions how In the early days he and his wife had a very near miss with CO poisoning from a kerosene heater

    In days gone by of people committing suicide by running the car in the garage, it was the CO that killed them.

    My understanding of vented Califonts, this means a physical flue to the exterior. Mine was mounted under the stoves extractor hood, which has a fan, but I was told that still does not comply

  10. The head is the worst place if you are using a shower in it. The Califonts gobble up the O2 and pump out CO like there is no tomorrow.

    Unlike the EWOF there is no equivalent for gas. But when a gas fitter does work he has to issue his yellow compliance form for the work he did. If it is a new install then a califont is a no no. But if he comes to put a new hose on the gas bottle and sees a Califont then as IT says it is indeed very gray area

  11. Coming back to radios and frequencies there are two legal issues to consider

    1. A users licence relates to the type of radio you can operate and on what frequencies - to operate a radio intended for use on Amateur bands (and to transmit on those bands) you must have a General Amateur Operator's Certificate of Competency and a personal call sign. (advice from my uncle who is an NZART examiner).

     

    2. Amateur radios are not approved for use on any bands other than the recognised amateur bands as set out by the ITU. It is about techo stuff to do with frequency stability and width of the transmission signal. It comes back to the basis of amateur radio which allows HAMs to transmit on their bands with anything they like whether it is a commercially purchased radio or something they have built themselves. A HAM can transmit on amateur bands using an "opened up" marine SSB.

     

    Those are the rules, I know the reality may be something different and I currently have exactly the same rig as IT set up on CZ, and yes it works fine but it is a case of use at your own peril. When I purchased CZ it came with an old amateur radio (the PO's were HAM's) and within a couple of months I received a letter from Spectrum Management wanting to know what had happened to the radio and whose licence was it registered under.

  12. Following on from IT's comment one of the challenges going down the SSB route is actually buying one. Thanks to the bureaucrats in the EU and USA continually moving the goal posts there will soon not be an affordable new Marine SSB on the market. ICOM are the only manufacturer left at the cruisers level, they have stopped production of the M801 (EU/Australia/NZ type approval) because it does not meet latest EU rules. Their 802 has fallen foul of some new ITU rules which has affected their type approval in USA and may have caused production to be halted and with reduced demand may not be recommenced.

    There are a few new M710's and 802's on EBay and the odd used one, but not so common these days.

    The other option is the HAM radio route, being aware that if these have been "opened up" that they are not legal on marine bands or in fact to be used by a non licensed operator.

  13. Dashew has quite an indepth analysis of the storm in his book "Surviving the Storm", which can be down loaded here

    http//:setsail.com/sts.pdf

    it would appear that all the Met offices were issuing different forecasts with the Fiji office closest to the fact

  14. It is not as if the basic requirement for an EWOF is something new in NZ. I know on the marine side it was not until after ~2000 that the marinas started enforcing this, but I remember as a kid when we went on family caravan holidays a long time before that (like when the One ton cup was first raced in NZ) that the caravan had to have an EWOF. When we arrived at a caravan park the manager would usually walk around the caravan to check for it being there/current

    Maybe it was unfair for the guy to be kicked out after getting his EWOF, but he should never have been connected in the first place and spent years flying under the radar.

  15. Blueprint was in the Auckland to Suva race many years ago (1977?) and Kirsten J (the Mk 1 with the fractional rig) has made many offshore passges.

  16. I know it has always been the case that once you clear customs and head off your Cat 1 certificate lapses. My point is about yachts doing the right thing and waiting for the weather to clear before departing who may see their certificates lapse due to this 1 month validity. Clause 3.05 does not address this.

  17. Had an interesting chat with a former safety inspector on the weekend. We were talking about the cruisers waiting for Cyclone Donna to sort herself out and he mentioned that a Cat 1 certificate is only valid for one month from date of issue.

    So some of the yachts sitting up in the BOI who obtained their certificates around mid April might be put in the position of having to obtain a new certificate before being able to depart.

    There is nothing in the safety regs about this, it would be interesting to hear from someone who has a current certificate if this is correct.

    If this is confirmed, yet another example of YNZ "helping" us, I will need to send an email to Angus

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