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Surprise!

From Philpott's 2020 SHTP thread: "The kicker: Greg Nelsen agreed to make him an emergency rudder."

So here we go. Today Greg made a mock-up of the lower support for the cassette. With levels in all planes, I was glad we'd leveled out the boat first!

Mockup.JPG


Some people deal in debits and credits while others like to play with epoxy. Greg counted out the minutes until it kicked, and was spot on!

Greg Epoxy.JPG


In the lower-left corner of this photo is a choice to be made: Carbon tubes or SS? I chose carbon because it's for Surprise!

15 years ago, Greg built the emergency rudder for Ragtime! It's fun to be doing this project with him again, for another boat.
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A gale warning was posted this morning so our BYC race was cancelled. Surprise! has to settle for second place in the double-handed division, having lost her opportunity to beat Zenaida in the final race. Congrat's to Fred and Jennifer, and a big thanks to Philpott who raced with me in November and to Rob Tryon who raced with me in the December and January races.

BobJ said:
I also need to decide where to mount the control head, since it would be hard to drive the boat from the lazarette!
Click to expand...

Before I went home I installed the control head for the Simrad/Pelagic backup AP, so that system is now complete. There was a disconnected analog fuel gauge in that spot, always reading empty. It bugged me. Also, the E-dock collective agreed that having the control head by the tiller might be nice when trying to switch pilots. So that's where it went.

Control Head 1.JPGControl Head 2.JPG
 
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The old inverter/charger had a remote panel mounted below the main electrical panel. Removing it left a big hole. I thought about covering the hole with one of those nautical plaques: "Marriages performed by the Captain are valid only for the duration of the voyage." But a sub-panel for the new autopilot switches (plus a couple spares) was a more useful way to fill the hole. Chuck (the PO) had made two product videos aboard Surprise!, describing the modular panels available from Blue Sea Systems. I went back to Blue Seas and ordered a small DC sub-panel. Rob did his usual nice job of installing and wiring it, using a matching trim piece from TAP Plastics:

New Sub-Panel.jpg
 
This weekend's project was to convert the other secondary/halyard winch to make it powered. I'd installed a powered winch on the other side months ago and thought I knew what I was doing, but this one presented new challenges. The installation options are limited by the location of the existing winch, since it's bolted through a molded base. On the underside, the motor and gearbox can be rotated in 45 degree steps but this is limited by headroom and aesthetics. The other side had a lot more clearance - this one barely fit into the available corner. But it turned out well and I won't bang my head on it. I'm still in the hunt for some nice teak boxes to finish the job. Does anyone spot another possible installation issue in the photos?

Port Winch 1.JPGPort Winch 2.JPGPort Winch 3.JPG

At the Three Bridge Fiasco skipper's meeting, Jim spent a few minutes talking about the rules concerning powered winches. Here's a quick overview. RRS Rule 52 says you can't use them (Rule 52 concerns stored energy). However this rule can be modified in the NOR for particular races to allow their use. This modification was made by the SSS (in NOR 1.c.iii.), OYRA (in NOR 1.7) and Berkeley Yacht Club for its Midwinters (in SI 1.3). In each case, the local Rule 52 modifications require that the powered winches be declared in the boat's PHRF application and considered in its rating. This was done last year on Surprise!'s PHRF certificate.
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Bingo! :D Perhaps I should have a contest to determine how I should fill that hole!

Since the winch motor ended up on the side away from the compass, I thought I'd test it first. I have my doubts.
 
Not much to report (it's tax time) but I just had a grand revelation:

Since all the money I've spent on this boat came out of the market before it crashed, it's like I just got a 15-20% discount on all those boat parts.

amIright?
 
BobJ said:
Since all the money I've spent on this boat came out of the market before it crashed, it's like I just got a 15-20% discount on all those boat parts. /QUOTE]

You're the numbers guy, but shouldn't it be the other way around? Or would that be too painful?
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Like Ragtime!'s Yanmar, Surprise!'s Yanmar came with a light-duty alternator with internal regulator. This would be marginal for charging the batteries offshore. As I plan to install the replacement, I'm confronted with a dubious-looking twisted bracket. It's doing a poor job of keeping things in alignment, as evidenced by the belt dust. The tip of the bracket almost touches the side of the engine box so I'll have to find a new bracket I can cut short.

For those planning to sail to Kauai this Summer, this is a public service announcement.

Bracket.JPG

P.S. Yes, I know. But I see a lot of folks viewing the site. I suspect I'm not the only one looking for a distraction.
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Meanwhile, Greg is making great progress building the e-rudder. It looks like the blade is about done - now he can build the cassette around it:

Rudder Blade.jpg
 
I finally got around to measuring all the loads and preparing an offshore electrical budget.

Your comments are encouraged. What did I forget, or what looks out of whack? Thanks!
 

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BobJ said:
I finally got around to measuring all the loads and preparing an offshore electrical budget.

Your comments are encouraged. What did I forget, or what looks out of whack? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The numbers seem reasonable and give ideas where energy use could be controlled.
On the demand side, the autopilot is the big user. Is there an opportunity to do some sailing and document energy use on different sailing angles? How much energy can be saved if sail trim is spot on? Alternately on the use side, how much hand steering is needed if power generation has problems?

On the power generation side, the engine generator setup is your lifeblood. Is fuel clean and well filtered? Any traces of sediment in fuel tank? Spare parts such as belts and generator adjusting brackets should be on hand. I don't like the look of the generator bracket since cold forming leads to stress cracks. Unfortunately, I have no idea what options are available. A tension adjustment would be nice if it could be incorporate - have some sort of tension screw so belt tension can be easily set then lock alternator in place. The idea of prying the the housing with a large screwdriver or flat bar while tightening bolts would not be fun at sea.

The power range of the batteries is probably not an exact number or could be something that changes. It might be a good exercise to change number to a smaller range and see what that does to fuel supply.

What are implications for major failure of generating system at mid-point of race?

The energy budget is the only tool to objectively look at the options. You are in a great position to develop scenarios. Good job.

Ants

PS when I developed one for R2AK, the use of depth sounder was a significant energy use. Not a problem in your case, but if you are approaching at night and with limited power, it could be a concern.
 
BobJ said:
I finally got around to measuring all the loads and preparing an offshore electrical budget.

Your comments are encouraged. What did I forget, or what looks out of whack? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Morning Star's electrical budget for the 2018 race predicted almost one hour of engine time to charge every day. And that was expecting 7 hours/day of sunshine on rigid solar panels with a total of 225 watts. We had little sunshine for the first 10 days or so, and not a lot over all, and ended up putting a lot more run time on the Yanmar 3YM30 power plant than planned. I don't have my log book handy so I can't tell you the total hours, but it might have been twice what what was planned -- so for my 17-day passage, maybe 30 hours or more. This was really not good for the engine. Then, in the inevitable slow down in usage after getting back from HI, things got worse. The injector nozzles fouled and the mixing elbow became so constricted I was surprised the thing even ran at all.

You are projecting >2.5 times the engine time I was expecting. Not sure that's a good plan, but not sure what the alternative choices would be.
 
BobJ said:
I finally got around to measuring all the loads and preparing an offshore electrical budget.

Your comments are encouraged. What did I forget, or what looks out of whack? Thanks!
Click to expand...

What about the powered winches? The solar panel output seems optimistic.
I’m curious what happens to the carbon foam batteries when fully discharged and trying to crank an engine. Does damage occur? I know you have a separate start battery, not sure if you know the answer, be good to know
 
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Another solar panel, or three, wouldn't hurt.
You don't plan on talking to anyone for two weeks on VHF? The system lacks elasticity.
 
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WBChristie said:
I’m curious what happens to the carbon foam batteries when fully discharged and trying to crank an engine. Does damage occur? I know you have a separate start battery, not sure if you know the answer, be good to know
Click to expand...

I know the answer to this... See my write up for DOMINO's 2015 long pac for the how's of that.
Bottom line; no lasting detectable effects on either the AGM starter battery or the Carbon Foam house bank.
Not that I made it a policy to repeat the exercise.
 
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