CarpeDiem

Is there another alternator? If yes, is your house supply 24v or 12v? If no, how are you charging the start battery currently?

Yes. And it should be fused.

I would suggest investigating a GriGri as an option. And you can also use a GriGri as an ascender with leg prussics or an ascender. Then you're all ready to descend, no change over required, just pull the lever and down you come. The knuckle thing, is known as an ATC. https://www.alpinesavvy.com/blog/using-a-gri-gri-to-ascend-fixed-ropes

You can use seat belt type webbing for the foot straps. Then use normal shoes. Or use a foot ladder. https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Ascender-Ladder-Etrier-Mountaineering/dp/B07XBQBL5B

In a previous life, when I was much younger, I spent a lot of time climbing mountains and for a while was an Apline instructor. So have had quite a bit of exposure to Prussicing in extreme environments. Prussic's are very iffy on technical ropes, eg, if the rope you are climbing has a Dyneema outer then using a prussic could result in death. Prussic's are hopeless on iced up ropes, probably won't occur on a boat for any one reading this... But keep it in mind. More importantly on a boat, be aware of wet ropes. Wet ropes can also greatly reduce the friction. This includes t

Oh absolutely. If your boat is being cleaned in the water in Auckland, and you find a "marine pest", you must cease cleaning, notify council, put in place a plan etc etc.... I was given this phamlet a few years ago by a Volunteer while heading out for the weekend. biofouling-and-invasive-marine-pest-species.pdf It has places you can clean and can't clean. The rules are really straight forward, I personally don't find anything onerous in them. I wasn't aware Westhaven had restricted cleaning to registered divers. I see so many boat owners DIYing it.. We use Salt

I have not heard that? There are some marinas that will not allow in water cleaning, but those rules were in place since the marina was established. Eg, Pine Harbour and non-private berths at Gulf Harbour.

There's a bit of scaremongering in that poster. I went through all this a few years ago and with bay week coming up it was time for a refresher... The different requirements are confusing... Northland marinas require: antifoul within 6 months per manufacturer specifications with appropriate evidence; or A lift and water pressure clean within 1 month: or An anti-fouling declaration from NRC NRC will issue you a declaration if: The vessel has been antifouled within 12 months (with receipts/evidence); and You declare in writing that the hu

The point is the clutch will fail at or near its maximum working load long before the rope breaks. If a manufacturer places a MWL of 2300kg on a clutch, it's totally unreasonable to expect that clutch to hold a 10mm SK78 rope at its breaking strength of 10200kg. The clutch is going to fail or rip out of the deck long before the rope breaks. Same as it's completely unreasonable to expect a pulley rated for 1000kg to hold a rope which sees it's maximum break force of 2500kg. Our Lewmar winches have a MWL of 685kg, our sheets are rated to 3000kg I don't worry about the sheet with

Ugh, I missed that!

Exactly. (And handling). Look at it another way; The clutches on our boat are High Holding Lewmar DC2 clutches they have a max working load of 1200kg and start to slip at 700kg. They are the most powerful clutches Lewmar sell. Spinlock XXC, arguably the top clutch on the market, at nzd$3200 are only rated for 2350kg... The clutches are going to fail long before a 10mm Dyneema line with a halyard knot breaks.

A properly done splice should take off less than 5% of the strength. A bad splice might see 10%. But in reality you don't need to worry about breaking strength. It won't be an issue unless you're a big boat or using really small lines. Generally speaking, ropes get cut, (due to chafe), or they get crushed and cut (due to crappy clutches), they don't break due to excessive forces. Eg, Fineline Dyneema Advantage 10mm has a breaking strain of over 5000kg. That's a fully laden Toyota Landcruiser and Toyota Corolla hanging from the top of your mast. 10mm Fineline Classic

Or if want to go cheaper still, consider the Victron smartshunt. https://victronenergy.co.nz/collections/battery-management-and-monitoring/products/smartshunt-500a-50mv They also have an new IP65 version if you want to mount it in dubious location.

We put a 2m sacrificial dyneema sleeve on our halyards when we find chafe, very easy to shorten and resplice. I've found that once the dyneema tip is on, the chafing ceases to be a problem. Infact ironically I have never needed to resplice one...

No. They didn't get here under their own steam. Their larva hitched a ride in water ballast or attached to a cruisers hull.

There's lots of different ways to approach this and what you should do now depends on where you want to be in the future. I don't think you will get the optimal effect with a VSR and a start charger. You'll find that when charging the start battery, the vsr will engage and now the charger will see both batteries and any substantial house loads, like a winch will pull down your start battery unnecessarily. If you want to go down this path then you ideally need to ensure that the vsr kicks in above the voltage of the start charger. You might find that's too high for your alternator..

Some DC DC chargers will trickle charge the start battery when they have excess energy and the house battery is finished charging. The CTEK 250SE is one such unit which includes a MPPT for solar. Coupled with the CTEK 120S this is a pretty good solution for a Lead Acid bank. But it is pricy. I highly suspect you already have dissimilar batteries? Probably a Starter and a Deep Cycle. Most start batteries don't like being charged to 14.7v while most deep cycle batteries need to be charged to 14.7v. I would certainly go DC/DC over VSR any day.

A fray is a time-consuming repair and it is really tough to do on a used/tough rope. And like you say it will turn into disaster at the worst possible time if you don't repair/replace it. $2.30/m for a new 12mm double braid using the link above. And maybe you could go 10mm?

What's wrong with it? For our mainsheet, all other sheets, outhaul and reefing lines we just use polyester, negligible cost benefit from a UHMWPE like dyneema on thjose applications for us. Halyards, code zero tack, runners and bob stay however are a different story.

I highly recommend Nigel Calders Refrigeration on Boats book. It has a strong focus on engine compressor driven refrigeration and cold plates. I found it very helpful. https://boatbooks.co.nz/electrics2.html#4209

That's the capillary tube, not a spring or thermostat. One end has a sensing bulb that will be attached to your suction refrigerant line. The other end goes to a diaphragm at the top of the expansion valve. It holds refrigerant in a closed system (not part of the refrigerant that passes through the condenser). Its purpose is to open and close the txv depending on if the superheat needs to be increased or decreased. Its length, internal diameter and bulb size is specific to the rest of the installation hence it is just coiled up. IMO It sounds like you need to get a profe

Wow. That's a great resource! Thank you for putting that together, hopefully I get to make use of it one day

The overheating is a common problem on the D1-13 and D1-20. So common that my installer knew about it and went out of his way to investigate if the problem existed on the D1-30. Solution is to lift the expansion tank - problem solved. FWIW Starting the engine without firing the glow plugs first is a suspected way to burn out even the latest model MDI boxes. I know two people who have suffered MDI burn out immediately after cranking the engine in cold Auckland weather, coincidental? Maybe, maybe not... turns out neither knew how to fire the glow plugs before starting and were just crank

The D1-13 and D1-20's with the side mounted expansion tanks have a design flaw with the tank configuration. If the fly wheel is aft, (as most are), then when the boat is heeled to starboard, it's possible to create an air pocket in the heat exchanger resulting in overheating. (and of course vice versa) A lot of people have complained about overheating alarms sounding when in wavey/rough conditions. The solution is to relocate the tank above the heat exchanger in all angles of sail. With the D1-30 onwards the tank is mounted on the front and is slightly above the heat exchanger at

The expansion tank can be relocated, that will not effect the warranty. The installation manual states that the coolant tank can be installed in a different location for all the D-Series and give specifications on how far away you can install it. Infact, if you install a hot water system over a specific capacity then you need to add a aftermarket expansion tank to provide extra capacity. There is no mention of the MDI box in the installation instructions. Under NZ law they would need to show that relocating the MDI box was the cause of the fault. I have a friend who has his MD