ANOTHER ELECTRIC PROPULSION MILESTONE

Eight years after I installed electric propulsion in BIANKA I have never looked back or regretted it. It has reduced maintenance and cost close to zero so that I can concentrate on other things like refinishing the galley area and on deck  brightwork. Still I do try and keep an eye on all things involving electric propulsion. I came across this article today involving electric propulsion drive train in trucks. Some quotes that stood out to me:

"Twelve years ago, Ian Wright and some fellow engineers launched Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that has helped jumpstart the market for electric cars. Now, the Tesla co-founder wants to electrify noisy, gas-guzzling trucks that deliver packages, haul garbage and make frequent stops on city streets."

A noisy garbage truck with brakes squealing in early mornings while making frequent stops collecting trash may be a thing of the past. Having the ability for repetitive regenerative braking makes a lot of sense for such a vehicle. As does regen on boats like BIANKA. Helping to recharge the batteries while doing something useful and the high torque availability makes sense too!

"A truck with a Wrightspeed powertrain can run on batteries for about 30 miles before the turbine, which runs on diesel or natural gas, kicks in and recharges the battery. The system roughly doubles the fuel efficiency of trucks and reduces the cost of maintenance"

This is pretty much the same technique I use on BIANKA and it has worked well for the past eight years and the maintenance costs for the boat has dropped precipitously. Good to see these ideas starting to make their way back on land too.

USEFUL TOOLS: PAINTERS POINTS

Because of the cold water temperatures I've been putting off the launching of BIANKA this year. So I've been doing a lot of maintenance items like varnishing and touching up some of the wood trim on board. Much easier when the boat is on solid ground anyway. Because one normally can only put varnish or paint on one side of an item it takes two days to do both sides of say a wood trimmed screen hatch. But, one can also speed things up and do a coat a day if one uses Painters Points.


These neat little plastic pieces allow you to not only raise an item you need to paint off the surface so you can paint all the way to the bottom without it sticking to what's underneath it.  But, you can also do one side a flat piece and then using the points to support the piece put a coat on the other side of the item. This allows you to put a coat on the whole piece in one day. The Painters Points can hold up to 200 lbs. I don't have anything nearly that heavy that I will be varnishing on board. But, even the small items I do have to maintain are done much faster without waiting an extra day for one side to dry. They also stack nicely for storage and don't take up a lot of room when not in use. Which is important on a boat. They came in very useful in varnishing the forward overhead screen hatch:

The points can be arranged to best support the item you are painting or varnishing:

I also used them when putting fresh coats of Cetolon the boarding ladder steps:

In short if you do a lot of refinishing on board these Painters Points come in very handy and can help speed up your projects.
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ANOTHER IMPROVEMENT IN ENERGY SAVINGS

When I first bough BIANKA in the fall of 1995 she had two clip on lamp fixtures each with a 60 watt incandescent bulbs. I used them for the cabin  illumination when I was tied up to the dock as they used 120 volts AC. They worked well as long as you did not drop them when they were on as the hot filaments were very fragile. I replaced them a number of times. Then a few years ago along came compact florescent lights. They only used about 16 watts for the same amount of light as the delicate 60 watt incandescent they replaced. They were not as susceptible to damage but, I still did manage to break one in the cabin when it fell. Since these lamps also contain mercury it is a good idea to clean it up ASAP. This spring in order to avoid another accidental mercury spill this spring I bought some new TCP LED 60 Watt Equivalent Light Bulbs. These bulbs are even more efficient than the compact florescent bulbs they are replacing.  The TCP bulbs use only 9.5 watts compared to the compact florescent 16 watts. An energy savings of 40%. The bulb cover seems to be made of a high strength plastic not glass too. So there is no chance of filament and glass breakage like the incandescent technology or glass breakage and Mercury leakage like with the compact florescent bulbs.  Since I am also using my Ames 48 volt inverter more and taping into the electric propulsion battery bank the low wattage of the LED bulbs also means I'll be using  less power for the same illumination.  In short it is a big improvement in illumination and safety on board the boat .

A BELUGA WHALE EPIPHANY

Coming back from the Exumas cruise I had good intentions to get BIANKA splashed as soon as possible. Until I heard of some unusual visitors in Long Island Sound. Three Beluga Whales where feeding and playing around in various harbors on Long Island Sound. Since these creatures normally reside in Arctic waters having them in the local area is a reminder that the cold temperatures of the past brutal winter are still leaving their mark on the local waters. So that I might not be able to start swimming off the boat soon.  I'm now thinking there really is no rush to get  launch the boat and get out to the mooring until things warm up a bit. I'll continue on my various brightwork projects for another week or so. Trimming with paint brushes is always better when the boat is not moving about anyway.

DINGY TRYING TO MAKE A GET AWAY

While we were looking at the semi abandoned boat our dinghy mysteriously drifted off. Seems the ghost of the Pirates of the Caribbean are always still trying to steal stuff. Luckily, we were in a small cove and Adam was able to wade in and retrieve it before it got to far away.

EXUMAS SHIPWRECK MYSTERY

While we were heading north toward Staniel Cay from Georgetown in the Exumas we passed a Cay with a sailboat beached on the shore. Both Captain Adam and I speculated on what it was doing there. It looked pretty intact from a distance. I thought perhaps the owner might have careened it on the beach to clean it's bottom. On our return south we anchored off a nearby Cay from where the beached boat was. I suggested that we take the dingy over to investigate. Adam was thinking the same thing. So that's what we did...

A LEVITATING DINGY?

I'm currently taking a little break from getting BIANKA ready for launching with a little cruise on a 44 foot St. Francis catamaran in the Bahamas. The waters here in the Exumas are amazingly clear.

The clarity is so good  that when I took the photo below of Captain Adam at Staniel Cay heading off in the dingy for an ice run  it appeared to be levitating above the water. Even though it is just an optical illusion it still sounds like a neat idea:

CONVENIENCE WIRING WITH ANDERSON POWER POLE CONNECTORS AND A RIGRUNNER JUNCTION BOX

I mentioned in a previous post about using my Morningstar solar controller as a junction point for some new rewiring rather than the main breaker panel. I also added a  Rigrunner 4005 junction box. This box allows for several individually fused  Anderson Power Pole connectors to be plugged into the box.

 You can see some of the items I chose to connect to the box in the photo below:

UH OH!

BIANKA is not yet in the water but Tropical Storm ANA has formed off the southeast United States. I'm a little concerned as the storm makes it's way up the coast. But, there are a few good things in my favor:

1) One thing is the boat is still on land.
2) The mast has been unstepped which means less windage and stress on it.
3) The brutal cold winter has meant that the waters around Long Island are colder than normal and so should knock down the storms strength.

All of the above help ease my fears about the storm doing any major damage but, I'll be keeping a weather eye on it.

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: