Fully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will ruin your lead-acid batteries (regardless of type) in a distressingly short time due to sulphation. However, there is a solution: equalization. In this chapter we cover what it is and how to do it.
What with spending a lot of time in the high latitudes and keeping boats on moorings year round in Bermuda, John has a lot of experience dealing with heavy weather while anchored or on a mooring. In this chapter he gives some tips for preparing your boat to safely ride out a storm.
We have never seen the point of anchor swivels. In our opinion all they do is add a potential point of failure to the anchoring system and provide no benefits in return. But they are, in fact, even more dangerous than we thought. In this chapter we explain why and even tell you how to ameliorate the danger if you really must have a swivel.
Many anchoring experts advocate hybrid anchor rodes made up of a long length of chain attached to an even longer piece of rope. But is this really a good idea? We examine the practical real world issues in this chapter.
Most marine battery chargers are, in fact, battery killers. Yes, that includes most of the fancy three stage units we all pay so much money for. Here’s why and what to do about it.
So far in this Online Book we have covered the basic theory. Now let’s look at, and quantify, what will happen if we just stick with the electrical system installed on most boats. After all, if we are going to improve things, it’s as well to know what the payoff will be.
John, who has done three of them, fervently hopes that this will be his last repower. Read along as he spends three months fulltime at one of the best diesel repower shops in the world, sweating the details to make this installation the best it can be.
One of the biggest challenges with lifting keel boats is how to design a rudder for them that really works? Jean-François Eeman, one of the partners at Boréal, shares their approach to this tricky problem.
All engines have tradeoffs, but by really thinking about the theory we have learned in the first chapters as we select a new engine, we can make a big difference to efficiency and reliability. Here’s an example.
Up to now in this online book we have looked at the theory behind designing an efficient engine and drivetrain for a displacement cruising boat. Now we will dive into a real world example as John shares the story of the last repower of Morgan’s Cloud.
A recent article in French sailing magazine Voiles et Voiliers looked at 7 different gennaker furlers, both for ease of use and ability to handle heavy loads. The results are surprising.
Although we are not Luddites bemoaning the take over of electronics and warning of the dire consequence of over reliance on them, we are aware of several dangers in their exclusive use:
