Anchor Well

Arnold and I put a lot of work into the investigation of leaks from the anchor well into the sail lockers. We first removed all chains and rope then removed part of the upper level giving us full access to the lower level. The enclosed photo shows the bottom of the anchor well as we found it. That dark wedge below the plastic access hatch, just above the bottom of the well, and slightly to the right, is the end of the wood wedge that we drove in from inside in those huge seas in the Australian Bight. That wedge saved our cruise if not our bacon, and I will probably keep it as a souvenir.

Arnold tried to drive the wedge back through and it crumbled. Fortunately I was able to get a good hold of it from the inside and pulled it out.

That wedge went through a double bulkhead. The wedge sealed the inner section but not the outer (i.e. anchor well side) due to its taper. Also, the 12G screw that we used to plug the other hole sealed only the inner section. My theory was that this allowed water to pass into the thin cavity between the two bulkheads and work its way into the sail lockers.

Using and electric fan heater and blow drier we managed to dry the area off well enough to enable us to plug the holes with International 2-part general purpose epoxy filler. Then I did some patch-up work along the edges of the bulkhead where I had done the fiber glassing.

The next day we filled up the anchor well with water almost to the level of the level of the inspection hatch. The good news is that the port side locker which had given us so much grief in the Bight remained bone dry! However, we got some seepage on into the starboard locker. I was prepared to fiberglass the entire bottom of the anchor well but the we had rain threatening us and no matter how much I tried the area with the blow drier I kept getting seepage of water from the bulkhead back onto the bottom of the anchor well. It is a pity because the area was all set up for the fiber glass job.

Nevertheless I am satisfied with what we did. We have properly plugged up the two holes through the bulkhead, cut down on the leakage into the boat, and now I know exactly what has to be done - wherever we can find hot, dry weather and a day or two of free time.

Removing the upper level was difficult since I had used a lot of Sikaflex in an attempt to fix the section (in case of roll over) and direct water entering from the top to the upper drains. However, I replaced the upper section with no sealer so that we can easily get back into the area for the fiber glassing repairs. The panel fits so snugly that I will probably leave it like that forever, relying on the anchor well hatch (lashed with ropes) to keep the rodes in during a roll over.

From there it is one short step to ask why I still need the plastic inspection hatch between the V-berth area and the anchor well. It is a pain because it leaks and we must seal it with silicone sealant. I plan to one day remove that inspection hatch and permanently re-seal the bulkhead. If I get a jammed chain in the lower level I will access it by temporarily removing the upper level.

The other photo that sneaked into this entry is of us having lunch with friends in Wellington.

Regulators

The house batteries are regulated by a "Next Step 2" alternator regulator produced by Ample Technology of Seattle, USA. It is dedicated solely to regulation of the output from the 160-amp alternator to the four "house" batteries.

The "starting" bank charged by the 50-amp alternator using its internal regulator. Once the "starting" bank is charged a relay is used to divert charging to the electric anchor winch.

So we now have two fairly independent electrical systems: separate pulleys, belts, alternators, regulators, and switches.

The photo shows the external regulator above the two large bus bars installed by Bruce & Co. ... Yes, I know, the wiring looks messy. The only way to really clean it up is by a complete rewiring.

Charger

The photo is of our "Mastervolt Mass 12/60" regulator. It will supply a whopping 60 amps of current to our house batteries using "any" input voltage. It also has a battery temperature sensor to guard against overheating of the gel batteries.

Tommo has hard wired it to our DC system. Today Arnold and I will hard wire the AC side to take power from the boat's AC system. When in Australia and NZ we will supply the boat with 240V AC power and the charger will automatically do its work. When in the USA we will use a plug converter so that we can supply the boat with 110V AC power. The charger will use this voltage to do its work and we should be able to then use the boat's GPO's (i.e. wall plugs) to charge our laptops and other 12V equipment.

The unit is less that 12 months old and came off of a boat where two of these units are being replaced by one much bigger one. Bob told us that $750 at about half of its purchase price was a fair amount to pay. After that price was agreed with the vendor Bob checked up and saw that these units are now selling for over $2500. ... We've gotta win a few.

Spouse Trouble?

Friends, are you having spouse problems? Hubby getting up your nose? Wife nagging you to death? Visit New Zealand and all of your problems will be solved with the "Complete Homekill Service" advertised on a shop window.

Wind Charger Up and Running

The replacement Rutland 913 wind charger sent from England was waiting for us when we returned from our car trip to Wellington. Earlier this week Arnold and I put it up with barely one hour of effort. (Practice makes perfect.) We used the supplied lock washers with mounting bolts and added plenty of loctite before tightening the bolts very hard.

Yesterday the system was connected to the re-vamped electrical system and we freed the blades and soon saw that the wind charger was working well, with its familiar and comforting hum.

Work Progress

It has been a while since our last blog entry, mainly because there were several projects in motion but few results.

After our return from the 5-day car tour of the North Island we got back to work on the boat.

Bruce and his colleague "Tommo" had done a brilliant job of fitting the four big gel batteries into the boat. Two were sited under the cockpit above the large Delkor engine-starting batteries. The other two were sited under the port and starboard seats in the main cabin. This meant that the weight was distributed evenly on the port-starboard axis and the weight of two of the batteries was in the aft section of the boat, visibly raising the bow in the water. The rest of this week was spent fitting the 160-amp alternator and its two belt pulleys as well as several other jobs.

The result is that we now have three banks of batteries:

1. "House" bank of 4 new gel batteries yielding 928 amp hours
2. Engine "starting" bank of the two existing Delkor seal batteries yielding about 260 amp hours.
3. "Auxiliary" bank of one ACM gel battery of 55 amp hours that drives the anchor winch.

The pre-existing 50-amp alternator charges the starting batteries and when they are full the charging is automatically directed to the winch battery. The 160-amp alternator charges the house batteries. It has been set up with an external regulator which will yield faster charging than its internal one.

The entire system is monitored by a display that reports:

1. Voltage of each bank
2. Net amperage of the house bank - that is the net result of subtracting the amps going out from the amps going in from the alternator, solar panels, and wind charger
3. The capacity of the batteries still available in amp hours and as a percentage of total capacity

The large "make before break" switch that enabled us to supply the boat power from bank 1 or bank 2 has been replaced by three switches: one for the house bank, one for the starter bank, and one for a crossover when one bank is totally dead. Thus to start the engine we turn on the switch of the "starter" bank and the engine starts using this bank quite independently of the house bank. This has the important benefit of eliminating the voltage drops which stopped the chart plotter and gas sniffer every time we started the engine.

One photo shows the new gel batteries stacked on the pre-existing Delkor starting batteries under the cockpit. Another photos shows the three new manual switches in the bottom and the power monitoring display at the top left. The third photos shows the new alternator and belt arrangement.

On Tour

We are in a town called Turangi, at the south end of lake Taupo. We left Opua yesterday morning in our friend Hector's car and drove through Auckland to Cambridge where we stayed at Betty's place, a friend of Brenda. She is a delightful lady who is the most traveled person whom I have ever met and is still rear'in to go for more. We left Betty's this morning at 9 AM and did a tour of the thermal areas from Rotorua to Turangi. This area is amazing with steam coming out of the earth in parks, back yards, and even gutters beside the road. We saw steam coming from rock crevices, through hot water, and through mud. Just today they had an earthquake of 5.8 on the Richter scale 20 km below this town.

I have established contact with Bob and Ann, relations of my neighbours, and we hope to see them tomorrow afternoon in Wellington. We will then spend the night in Wellington and see Bob and Ann once again before we start trek back to Opua. We hope to spend Thursday night at Hector's home in Whangarei, though Hector won't be home at that time. We expect to be back in Opua on Friday morning.

While we are away Bruce will be installing our new electrical system which will mean making a real mess of the boat so it is just as well that we are away. By the time we get back we hope to have received the replacement Rutland wind charger from UK and the four new cooling system diaphragms from Noway.

Once we think that the boat is ready we will do a very short sea trial by motoring into the Bay of Islands and spending the night at anchor. The idea is to exercise the engine and the battery system as much as possible and then return to the marina for a final checkout. Once that is done we will plan our departure.

Attached are photos of Brenda at two thermal sites and two photos of the most interesting public toilet that I have ever seen, in Kawakawa. (Boys on left, girls on right.)