HOW OUTBOARD MOTORS ARE MADE

 An interesting video on how Outboard Motors are manufactured.

 

BOTTOMS UP!

It's getting busier in the boatyard and roomier too as the boats begin to get launched. The smell of bottom paint starts filling the air. My boatyard's contract has a stipulation that only they can paint the bottom which as I get older seems like a better idea anyway. Though when thinking about bottom painting I get reminded of something I saw in Oyster Bay last fall. It was the test station for one of the manufacturers of marine bottom paints:

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART SIX: Choose to Fuse

So it's time to start thinking about the wiring the instrumentation project up. Since I'll be running 12 volts out to the helm from each of the 8A4D batteries in the 48 volt propulsion bank. Also since each battery is also rated at around 210 amps it is real good idea to have fuse in line with each of the meters.  On the Paktrakr meter there was a 1/4 amp fuse soldered in line with the power lead.  It was easy to blow it when hooking it up to the battery terminals. So I soldered in an  In-line AGC Fuse Holder so I could disconnect it or replace it easily.  It worked OK. but, the two pieces when disconnected easily separated and the contacts could be come exposed  if one was not careful. Since I would be using at least four fuses in the instrumentation project I wanted to use a better fuse holder. One that would not expose it's contacts or wander around in the confined space around the batteries.


I found what I needed with a In-Line Waterproof fuse holder made by Bussman. The waterproof aspect of these fuse was not that important in my application. Because if these fuses are ever under water I would have other problems to worry about. But, other qualities of these fuses are useful for this project.

For example the yellow color makes them stand out in the dark space where the batteries are located. Even more important is that when disconnecting the fuse the two pieces are connected together and don't separate.

 Also the contacts are securely crimped and not just tack soldered to the contact face like the in line fuse holder I used with the Paktrker.

This makes for a secure connection that will not easily pull apart. For the wire connecting the fuse holder to the battery I cut open some 16 AWG duplex marine wire with a box cutter and removed the red and yellow wires for the fuse connections:

The 16 gauge wire was a little hard to install into the fuse holder. So I spread a little dish washing liquid onto the wire insulation which made it much easier to push the wire through the opening:

At the other end of the wire I crimped on a closed marine lug and used some heat shrink on the crimped end:

So now that I had the In-Line Waterproof fuse holders connected to the batteries on one end. On the other end of the fuse I used a short piece of the 16 AWG wire and connected it to an Anderson 30 amp Powerpole connector. I'll explain why I chose to do this in a future Instrumentation Project post.

FOR THE INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART FIVE CLICK HERE

FOR THE INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART SEVEN CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART THREE: Plan B

Finding that the obsolete Kings 8001 Loran case would not fit in my plans for the electric propulsion battery bank instrumentation project was disappointing  The four digital meters where just too big for the case. But, deciding that I needed a bigger case to house the meters also opened up more possibilities for me.
The first plan was to simply have a digital voltage panel meter on each battery with a master on/off switch so I could check each battery's voltage when I wanted. I was also thinking of keeping the Paktrakr connected too but, perhaps with a switch to turn it on and off too instead of keeping it on all the time. When I found out I would need a bigger box to install the meters I thought why not add another meter that would measure the full pack voltage too.  This is what the original schematic looked like:

I also decided to add the all important battery current meter into the same enclosure and mount at the helm position so I would have all the important parameters of the battery bank available there. I would not have to open any cockpit hatches to observe the Xantrex XBM battery monitor for voltage and current readings. I'd also have room to add more instrumentation devices into the box at a future date if I wanted. Because I had already installed a PVCconduit tube in the cockpit for previous helm projects running the wires for the meters would be pretty easy to do:

So the plan looked pretty good. Now I just needed to decide on a enclosure to house all this instrumentation.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART TWO CLICK HERE

 INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART FOUR CLICK HERE

WHAT WORKS: Plastic bag on the prop.

That's The Bag I'm In -Fred Neil

Once again I was away from the BIANKA for an extended period of time. One month or so. I wanted to avoid the marine growth on the prop the boat experienced earlier this summer as you can see below:

So this time I decided to do an experiment of something I had heard about from other sailors. Before I left the boat I covered the prop with a plastic bag. One of those that you get when you buy something in supermarkets etc... I tied it around the prop and came back a month later and it looked like this:

I dove under the boat just using my snorkel and quickly removed the bag from the prop:



I must say it worked pretty good  in keeping the prop clean of the major marine growth and only had a barnacle or two on the blades:

So if you are going to away for an extended time covering the prop with a plastic bag does work pretty good in keeping marine growth off the prop.

RELIABILITY: So much for that!

Reliability can be a double edged sword as I recently found out. I've had a Honda 2000i generator on board for as long as BIANKA has used electric propulsion which is going on five years. It is used for a number of things on board. Because BIANKA no longer has a diesel engine and therefore no alternator the generator comes in useful in assisting the electric windlass in raising the anchor so the 12 volt battery bank is not depleted. It is also useful in charging the 48 volt propulsion bank especially the all important bulk phase for charging before letting the wind and solar take over at anchor or on the mooring. It can also move the boat along nicely at three knots without draining the battery bank as an economical hybrid propulsion system. It also powers some of the 120 volt power tools I sometimes use on board too. For five years the Honda has been a reliable workhorse when needed.

So when I noticed the pull cord was starting to look a little frayed a few weeks ago I bought a replacement. After five years it was to be expected. It was still starting the engine but, I figured it was only a matter of time before I would have to change it. I was about to head out on a two week plus cruise with an extended stay at a dock in New York where I thought I'd replace the pull cord. The boat was fully provisioned up and I motored out to the mooring where I was about use the generator and my electric hookah dive setup to do a quick clean of the hull before catching a favoring current to start the cruise. I grabbed the pull cord and it suddenly broke.

Oh well, I thought no problem I've already got the replacement cord. I had the service manual for the generator which involved taking the covers off and removing the fuel tank to get access to the recoil starter to replace the pull cord. Not too involved I'd just depart a little later than planned or wait until tomorrow. The problem was because the Honda had been so reliable for the past five years I never had any reason to remove the covers before and because it was operating in a marine environment a number of the screws had seized up tightly.


I then spent two days trying to remove them using various methods from PB Blaster, screw extractors  and finally ended up drilling some of them out.

 I also used my Dremel Rotary Tool to  make slots in some of the screws turning some of the phillips head screws into slotted ones:

To make matters worse some of these screws were "special" items according to the service manual. Needless to say I did not start out on that cruise and am currently waiting for parts including some of the "special" screws to arrive.

CAPT. MIKES'S TIP:  If you are using a generator like the Honda 2000 or some other make on board. Take some time when you first get it to coat the cover screws with some of anti corrosion product like Tef-Gel .  It will save a lot of time and aggravation later.  One thing is for sure when I re install the screws each will get a nice coat of Tef-Gel  so in five years when I need to replace the pull cord again it will be a much easier and faster job.

Working the weather with Wxworks

 Capt. Brucato is a Tugmaster who is based out of New York. He spends a lot of his time pushing or pulling barges and other BIG stuff on the waters from Maine to Florida. Since he is professional mariner when he speaks I tend to listen. He seems pretty happy with a new addition in the wheel house. It is a service using the XM satellite network called WXWORKS. While the the $30 to $50 monthly fee is a little pricey to justify for my mostly coastal cruising needs. If I were heading further off shore I might consider it. In the mean time I'm looking forward to using the free weather site put together by Allen Edwards at L-36.com  during the upcoming season as an alternative.

Repairing a Maxwell Nilsson VR-700 windlass Part 1

Bianka came with a Maxwell-Nilsson VR-700 electric windlass to help lift and deploy it's 125 feet of chain. Since I do a lot of solo cruising it makes anchoring or weighing anchor easy for a solo sailor without crew. I'd say it is a critical piece of safety equipment if one should find the boat dragging anchor and need to weigh anchor ASAP. I've yet to drag anchor but, it's important not to think that will never happen as you can read here and here. Having the ability to lift anchor rapidly when things get nasty is rather important.

The VR-700 windlass on BIANKA worked very well for years and did not take up a lot of room on deck. It worked flawlessly until one day it failed. Calls to the manufacturers told me that this windlass was no longer made and no parts or parts diagrams were available. Also the companies Maxwell and Nilsson were now separate manufacturers and neither one had any info on my windlass. In fact I had a piece of orphaned equipment on my hands. Not looking good. But, I also was not looking forward to installing a new windlass in the deck for cost reasons but, mostly because that would mean cutting new holes in the deck. So my only option was to try an repair it myself.

The problem was the windlass shaft was still spinning but, the chain gypsy could no longer lift the chain. Not being the most mechanically inclined person I began the investigation into it's failure. The documentation I found on board on the windlass was sparse and had no parts diagram. Basically it was an installation manual that covered several Maxwell-Nilsson models. Because the motor and gearbox is mounted below decks in the chain locker and the Nonsuch mast blocks access to them. I was hoping the failure might be confined to the parts I could work on above deck. It appeared so at first. I could see that the windlass shaft was spinning but the chain gypsy was standing still. So I began by removing the rope capstan and discovered that the key that sits in the shaft was no longer sitting in the key way of the chain gypsy. As shown in the photos below:

This certainly seemed like it was the problem. Pulling off the chain gypsy I soon found why this occurred. It seems the key which appeared to be made of brass had corroded to the point were it would no longer fit securely in the key way of the chain gypsy. Aha! I thought this is surely the problem.

So now all I should have to do is find a replacement key and my chain lifting by hand days should be over. I recalled when I was on a freighter trip several years ago one of the other passengers was an engineer at the Los Alamos laboratories who was also had a hobby of building and repairing small engines known as "hit and miss" engines. He mentioned a supplier of small brass and metal parts by the same name. I looked at their website and yes the could sell me some square brass rod the same size as the key used in the windlass. But, I would have to cut it to the length I wanted. So it looked like the problem with the malfunctioning VR-700 would be quickly solved. Of course this is silly notion when working on mechanical systems on a boat. But, it often gives one the false hope that the repair will simpler than one first thought. But, the lesson learned is that even though equipment on board is working and looks pretty robust it still needs some routine maintenance. If I had looked at the above deck components earlier I could have prevented this failure from occurring in the first place.

WINDLASS REPAIR PART 2

WINDLASS REPAIR PART 3

WINDLASS REPAIR PART 4

GOING ELECTRIC PART 20: THE FINAL CONNECTIONS

Well it's time to mount the controller and make the finals connections. This is where the going with the ASMO MARINE THOOSA 9000 really paid off. As it is really a plug and play. Or I should say plug and propel system. But, first mounting the controller. I choose the location that was previously occupied by components of the Fridgoboat refrigeration systems and the antifreeze tank of the Westerbeke Diesel. Here is the before photo:
And below is the after photo with the controller and battery charger installed in the same area:

This location really worked out well. It is located close to the battery bank making for a short cable run. Is easily accessible from a maintenance standpoint and from the cockpit. So that the master switch located on the controller is easy to reach. One detail I should mention in mounting the controller is I used the mounting nut to provide an space of about a quarter inch between the back of the controller and the bulkhead it is mounted to. This was to help the aluminum heat sink of the controller to dissipate the heat more rapidly. Here is a detailed photo of the mounting arrangement on one of the four mounts:
With the controller mounted the only thing left is to plug in the cables. The ASMO MARINE controller comes prewired with the battery and motor cables. It also uses a combination Anderson and LEMO connectors for battery charger, throttle, battery monitor and key switch. These simply plugged into the labeled jacks on the controller as shown below: The only thing left was to mount the throttle. Since time was tight I had to jury rig the throttle which is a pretty industrial affair. It will look better once I make a proper mounting platform for it. But, for now I just ty wrapped it up at the helm where the diesel throttle use to be controlled from. It was ugly but, it worked:
I also made a temporary mount for the battery monitor and key switch and mounted them in the same place where the former diesel motor instrument panel was located. So the entire system is connected the only thing left its to try a test:

And so in June 2008 BIANKA became the world's first electrically propelled Nonsuch 30.

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