Happy New Year! 2020? Before we get too engrossed in new resolutions, boat projects, and other adventures, we must pause to reflect on (and share) a milestone we passed in 2019, transiting the Panama Canal. Enjoy the video and thanks for following our journey! More photos & recommendations below.
Recommended:
Book: The Path Between the Seas
Canal Agent: Rogelio De Hoyos, Panama Cruiser Connection
Recipe: Sancocho
Place: Miraflores Visitor Center
Moving stuff
Cruising is not going on a cruise. Cruising is definitely more work than that, and a lot of that work is about hauling the freight, schlepping your stuff, getting the groceries, and so forth. We use the fold-it aluminum cart. This has been a great help hauling 4 batteries at a time, huge loads of laundry, provisions for a month. In this picture we checked into a hotel while our boat was in the yard. Here we are moving our stuff, back to the boat, all in one load, no taxi. The large wheels and sturdy construction let us easily move our stuff a half mile back to the boat. The cart takes seconds to fold or unfold and stores in a small flat package. The folded handle is designed to keep the cart in the folded position making a package that weighs only 33 lbs and is 41 inches long, 9.5 inches thick and 23 inches high. We love this cart and it has held up well over the past 4 years. An airless tire option is available although we top our regular tires off about twice a year.
If you’re not a boater this would make a great garden cart or use it to walk to the grocery store. Please support our blog and buy your cart here…
Ok, we are cruisers, and we are supposed to be watching the clouds, catching fish, using the sup board or enjoying a sundowner. Truth is, we are bandwidth hogs. We need to order stuff, get YouTube videos about how to fix stuff, figure out the weather, follow the news, check our investments, and keep up with our friends. And then there is the blog with all its photos. Of course after dinner, we wouldn’t mind streaming a video on Netflix. Catching some NPR on Sunday morning from our home town feels kind of cozy. We want bandwidth.
What we used to do:
T-mobile’s international plan came highly recommended so we gave them the extra $50 per month. 4 lines came to about $170 per month. We would use our hotspots and things seemed to go swimmingly but after about 4 months we got a sweet text from T-mobile telling us that roaming was actually a privilege (despite the fact that we were giving up $50 per month) and they were canceling the offending lines in 30 days.
We also had a Wirie antenna. This is a router and external antenna. This worked pretty well and gave you the option of connecting to a local wifi hot spot or a 4g cellular tower using a sim card. One of our T-Mobile lines was this sim card. Unfortunately, most Wi-Fi hotspots are secured and their antennas are indoors making reception difficult. And the sim card became part of our T-Mobile problem. Just learned wirie is out of business, too bad it was a good product.
So this year we are on to plan B:
We parked our phone numbers with Google voice. Twenty dollars to transfer the number, then free, and while this does not allow international VOIP calls, our friends and family can text or leave a message on the same old number and we will be notified by email and through the voice app. While in the US we can forward to the sim we are using at the moment.
We use a local telephone sim card in our unlocked phones. Here in Mexico we get most of a month for about 200 pesos, 12 dollars for each of us. enough voice and casual data for us when we are away from the boat.
Enter the sky roam. This is a little hockey puck. Designed for frequent business travelers. You basically plug it in, or it will run on batteries for most of 24 hours 6000mah. The batteries can actually be used to recharge your cell phone if desired. We don’t do that. Turn it on for the first time and go to the website where you need to buy some time. The charge is $9.95 per day, or $99 per month. We do the $99 making our total Cell Bill roughly $124 per month a $35 savings. Once its turned on, and provided you have purchased some time, The little light on top of the gizmo swirls for about 1 minute and finally you see a white ring on top of the device. The swirling means its busy picking out the best cellular signal to latch on to. You don’t care what carrier, the gizmo does it all. There is no need to buy a sim card. When the swirling stops, you connect the same way you would to any wi-fi, the password is on the bottom of the gizmo. You are ready to go for up to 5 devices. We often stream a couple of hours of Netflix with no problems. When we travel, the Skyroam is better than most hotels, and all Marinas. Marina Wi-Fi is always in the brochure and is universally abysmal. And while we don’t do it, its easy to carry this hot spot with you.
We plan to try VOIP using a new app called Line.
We leave Paradise Village Marina and anchor for the night off of La Cruz. On the way out we have no power, the engines are smoking black and boat speed is limited to 3 knots. Props? I don’t swim in marinas, which can be pretty gross and may even sport the occasional crocodile; plus, being a cheapskate, I didn’t have the bottom cleaned since we were going to the yard for that service.
We anchor outside the mouth and I dive in to scrape a thick layer of calciferous creatures off of my propeller. Boat speed increases to 7.5 and engines stop smoking. Another cruising lesson learned.
Prop looked like the drive leg
Day One
We motor into the yard and they pick us up right on time. The boat glides into the way with a couple of feet between the boat and the cement walls. We spend the morning supervising the blocking of the boat. Footloose has a cored hull so taking the pressure unevenly on the supports can cause delamination.
Peter Vargas at the yard shows us the trick of using pieces of foam boogie board to spread the load from the blocking. We have two jobs to take care of in the boat yard. 1) bottom paint, which the Peter Vargas crew will handle. 2) my job- is to replace the sail drive hull seals. I’m nervous, thinking about it.
We check into our hotel, the La Cruz inn, take a swim and enjoy a Paloma by the pool.
Day Two
The yard guys are sanding the bottom and I begin the work of removing first our propellers and then output shafts from the sail drives.
Next, I remove the starboard sail drive from the boat, a Volvo 130S. I have been worrying about this step. The instructions include the direction to slide the engine forward 30 mm. They tell you to support the front of the sail drive with a 12 mm rod, but after spending a lot of time looking for that, I learn that a 12mm is actually too big and the hulls are too narrow to allow sliding the rod in anyway.
Wedge to Position Sail Drive
The Catana group on Yahoo enlightens me. One of the members emails me a word document that describes using a piece of 2×4 fitted between the drive and the hull opening to keep the drive in position. I modify the procedure making a wedge that gives me the ability to adjust the input shaft angles slightly as needed.
I create a short fall with two triple blocks that came with the boat and a length of dyneema I had on hand. I am able to lift the motor slightly and after disconnecting the motor mounts, I am able to separate the sail drive from the engine with one gentle kick on the bell housing. At about 50 lbs I am able to lift the transmission assembly out of the engine room and drop it over the transom with the help of a line. This won’t be so bad after all.
Both propeller shafts are scored from the lip seals, so Peter Vargas drives me down to Torno Neptuno in Puerto Vallarta and we plan to have the grooves welded up, then lathed to specification. I am a little worried about the welding taking the shaft out of true, but they assure me that they apply the weld in small lengths on opposing sides of the shaft. The answer I wanted to hear.
Scored Shafts
Back to the pool and another Paloma.
The Inn has a restaurant and Lupita our waitress befriends us and patiently helps us to learn a little more Spanish… Gotta figure out the verbs.
Day Three
We are removing the drives because we want to replace the rubber seal that goes between the hull and the sail drive. If this fails, your engine room fills with water… not good. Volvo recommends replacement every 7 years. I think the port side is original with the boat (20 years). The metal retaining ring is oozing rust, so the time has definitely come.
To change the hull seal, we need to separate the transmission from the lower portion of the sail drive. In the middle, there are a series of shims that you need to keep track of. These limit the endplay of the vertical shaft in the sail drive. I separate the two pieces and am moving things around when Peter comes over to talk about something. I look down and there are 2 shims lying on the ground. Argh.. I pick them up and with two more shims and a spacer, I put them safely in a plastic bag and into the tub with the rest of the parts from that side of the boat, and then double check that there are no more shims that may have rolled a distance.
The sail drive is aluminum and needs special anti-fouling treatment, so a guy from the yard takes the drive leg along with the parts tub over to the shop to carefully prepare for the new specialized aluminum bottom paint we are using, a coating called Petit Hydro coat.
I take the Port side drive out during the rest of the afternoon and then back to the inn for a swim and another Paloma. Just sitting on the steps sipping an icy drink made for a great end to another very sweaty day in the yard. Most days are mid 80s for both temperature and humidity.
Day Four
I disassemble the second drive leg. This is a Volvo 120S. Yes the two sail drives are different because years ago, the boat hit a log off of Panama and the starboard drive was replaced with a later model. I carefully place the shims in a plastic bag and then into the parts tub. The yard collects the second leg and tub to prep for antifouling. I reassemble and reinstall the 130
Outer hull seal
and glue a new outer hull seal to the bottom of the boat. This does not keep water out of the boat, but acts to improve the hydrodynamics as the water flow passes the drive leg.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Willa is parked off shore and boaters are doubling up their dock lines and preparing for the worst. If the Hurricane comes here, hauled out is a good place to be.
Swimming and another Paloma.
Day Five
Time to reassemble the second drive. I carefully set up the drive gasket with Permatex adhesive and then get ready to replace the shims. I cannot find the shims! I tear apart our garbage. I never really throw anything out until I’m done with a project like that. The yard guy is sure he never saw them. In my heart I believe he misplaced them in the shop which is very busy with many simultaneous projects going on, but I have no way to be sure, so I keep looking.
Permatex on the gasket
No dice. I spend the afternoon figuring out how to order new ones. I use my old Vernier caliper to measure for replacements according to instructions in the manual. Some shims for the older 120s drive are discontinued, so I contact another outfit who specializes in out of production Volvo parts….for a price.
Swimming and more than one Paloma.
Day Six
It is raining off and on but the air temperature is still mid 80’s giving me the odd sensation of walking miles in my shower. Lisa accompanies me to the yard. Fresh eyes, new day, we will try to find those shims. The tubs have been closed up in a garbage bag to keep the rain out, and I carefully look again. Lo and behold the shims are actually in their bag in the garbage bag! Somehow I missed the tub when I put them in there. Hooray….. I confess my sins to the yard guy who seems relieved.
How many shims does a saildrive take?
I begin to reassemble the drive, but now there seem to be too many shims. The spacers and shims seem about ¼ inch too thick for the space they need to fill. Remembering the 2 shims that I dropped originally, I begin to worry that some of the shims from the first drive were confused with the second drive. Although the dropped shims were far less than ¼ inch in thickness. OH NO that means there may not be enough shims in the first saildrive….. I feel trapped in a bad movie.
I have to be certain. Tomorrow I will remove the first drive again. At least I’m getting good at this.
Swimming and multiple Palomas.
Hurricane Weather
Day Seven
It’s Hurricane time, raining a lot but only light winds, even the predicted swell fails to materialize and the storm passes 100 plus miles outside of Banderas Bay.
I remove the 130s for the second time and dissect. No problems, the shims are actually a different diameter and not interchangeable. I measure and all seems good. But what is going on with the 120? I start to measure again and press firmly against the bearing race that will support the shims. It slides into the transmission ¼ of an inch. Now it will work out. I measure again and everything seems OK. I start to put the 130 back into the boat, but stop when the rain picks up.
Things are looking up. I sit on the steps of the pool in the rain drinking my icy Paloma.
Day Eight
It’s raining, but the yard charges $50 per day for parking there, so I need to keep moving. We rig a plastic awning over the engine room and I finish connecting the starboard transmission to the motor, then shift to the port side and install that transmission.
The rain made for a dark day, but things are looking up.
Pool and Paloma
Day Nine
The sun is back, and the yard is sweltering in the humidity. They need 24 hours for the paint to dry so today is the day. I arrive early and glue down both external seals. They do the first coat, while I reassemble the propellers and put oil in the sail drives. The second coat of paint goes on in the afternoon. What a great job Peter and his crew have done. In the afternoon, I prep the propellers and apply Propglide, a less expensive version of Propspeed, but probably the same stuff at a better price point. Tomorrow is Splash Day!
Almost done. A relaxing swim and a sweet Paloma.
Day Ten
We wait through a little scheduling issue. The delivery captain ahead of us is fuming, but I’m done with heavy lifting, so what’s a few more hours? They hoist the boat and paint the patches where the stands were touching the hulls and it’s splash time. They gently lower boat into the ways, stopping for a moment when the deck is at ground level so we can get aboard, then into the water. We check for leaks and after a minor exhaust issue, we are good to go. The engines start and we begin to back out. Oh no, the starboard dagger board snags the lifting strap causing the starboard side to drag against the cement wall, with gel coat crunching and popping off to my dismay. Disappointed, we move to the Marina. At least we are back on board and afloat. Paloma please.
Day Eleven
We meet Dublas, a freelance gel coat artist who comes highly recommended. For $1000 he will repair the injury plus about 30 or 40 minor dings and scratches. Boats accumulate these things over 20 years and this is a great deal.
Soon we will be off towards Panama and new adventures—with the boat yard, a distant memory.
That’s not a Paloma
Michael’s Paloma
2 parts tequila
1 part soda water (Aqua Mineral)
2 parts grapefruit juice (Toronja)
Mix well, Pour over ice,
I don’t think we find anything as worrisome as the idea of a man overboard. Since we often sail with just two on board, one of us is always on watch, while the other needs to try and sleep in order to stay useful. For me, the idea of waking up to find that Lisa had disappeared in the last few hours is truly horrifying. So, we take measures to keep that from happening. We wear life jackets underway. We use a harness at night staying physically attached to the boat even in the lightest conditions. We agree to wake the off watch before doing anything on the foredeck. We do our utmost to contain this risk.
The icing on our cake of man overboard protection is the Ocean Signal MOB1 device. This compact unit is installed on our life jackets and is automatically triggered when a life jacket is deployed.
DSC (Digital Selective Calling) is an alarm system that lets a radio user “ring” a specific radio using the radio’s MMSI number. Like a telephone number, the MMSI number allows another user to contact a specific vessel in the area. The MOB1 uses this system to “ring” ALL the radios in the area, so that not only our boat, but every other boat in the area gets an alarm that says MOB. This happens seconds after the person hits the water. On Footloose, our ICOM M506 marine VHF rings loudly enough to wake the off watch.
AIS is another electronic system that is normally used to identify other vessels by showing them on your chart plotter. In about one minute after entering the water the MOB locates itself using GPS and begins to send an AIS signal to all chart plotters in the vicinity that are equipped with AIS. This places a return on the chart that says Man Overboard, and marks the exact position of the device/person on the chart.
Our average cruising speed is about 7 knots which translates to 12 feet per second, so in only one minute our boat has moved about 700 feet. While the standard procedure for man overboard is for the crew to keep one set of eyes on the person in the water, for a couple cruising there is no way that can happen as the person on the boat needs to get the boat stopped and turned around. The MOB1 acts as the additional watch stander, allowing the driver, even when they can’t see their partner in the water, to maneuver the boat to the position marked on the chart by the MOB1. When they are close enough (GPS accuracy is well under 100 feet), they should be able to see the person or the flashing beacon on the MOB1 if it is night time.
On Footloose, we carry six inflatable life jackets with harnesses and installed MOB1 devices, which we test once every 6 months.
Here is a video we prepared for crew training that demonstrates how the MOB1 works, and yes, it was made before we changed to the ICOM.
**To sleep better off watch, click link below video to order and support our blog!
Fujinon Techno-Stabi
When you are preparing to cruise you buy a lot of things that you hope will make cruising safer and more enjoyable. On Footloose no single item has had a greater impact than the addition of these stabilized Fujinon Techno-Stabi binoculars. Being able to see where you are is obviously important for navigation, but good binoculars also help with identifying other boats, exploring shore features, and watching the wildlife and birds that abound in the cruising life. Using binoculars from the deck of a moving sailboat can be challenging; the stabilizing feature of these binoculars makes it much easier.
Binoculars usually carry a marking with 7 x 50 being a common boating pair of binoculars. The first number refers to the power of the lenses, and most agree that the 7 or 8 power is as much as anyone can hand-hold on a small boat. The power refers to the degree of magnification. 8 power means that the object seems to be 8 times larger or at 1/8th the distance when compared to your bare eyes. The second number, usually between about 15 and 50, refers to the size of the objective (front) lens of the binocular. The bigger the number the better the low light performance (light gathering) ability of the unit. While larger objective lenses are available they make the binoculars too heavy to hand hold for any period of time.Binoculars with larger objectives are usually tripod mounted for bird watching or astronomy.
The Techno-Stabi binoculars add the feature of stabilization, which is a big deal. All of a sudden you can hand hold the binoculars with much higher magnification. Our Techno-Stabi’s are 14 x 40. After using 7 x 50 binoculars the change is nothing short of remarkable. Guests and crew are fascinated by the magnification. What color is that birds eye anyway? If you are an optical geek, you might notice that because of the additional optical elements needed for stabilization, these binoculars may not be quite as bright or quite as sharp as say a high-end pair of Steiner Commanders, but the stable image takes you from seeing a dot with your bare eye or a buoy with the Steiners to seeing the sleeping sea lion on the buoy with the Techno-Stabi’s.
After 2 years of almost continuous use, we cannot recommend this product highly enough. An amazing help entering the harbor or avoiding traffic, plus lots of fun for looking at wild life. Push a button to power on, again to stabilize. Another to turn off. They are robustly constructed, armored, and use four AA batteries about once every 6 months.
Don’t you want some for your boat? Do us a favor and help support our blog by clicking the link below:
Recently we decided we should unload our boat, as we were just plain carrying too much “stuff”. You’ve all seen the George Carlin bit “Stuff” right? When you are leaving to go cruising you are not quite sure what will be important, so we spent a few hours going through every storage space in the boat and removing the things we don’t use or need. All told, we were able to remove 902 lbs from the boat, yup we weighed it as it left. Turns out our boat is more sensitive to excess “stuff” than our house was and I wanted a sense of the performance change a 1000 lbs buys you. Lucky for us, friends James and Deena will be transporting our “stuff”, in their RV to north of the border. But first we had to get the “stuff” to their RV in Guaymas, 750 miles away.
One of the larger things we were trying to get rid of was our Hobie Mirage Adventure Island Kayak. We enjoy sailing it but we just didn’t use it enough because it was a little too much work to rig and launch from the deck of Footloose. This single item was responsible for 250 lbs of weight and would also give us the advantage of a less cluttered deck. But how to transport this beast?
A local company in Bucerias (which we recommend) was the Gecko Agency. They have all kinds of vehicles with roof racks and such and specialize in catering to the windsurfer market. People who fly in and want to experience surfing at remote beach breaks in and around Banderas Bay. They were pretty adamant that their vehicles needed to stay in Banderas Bay. As a local company, they had no way to support a vehicle that was out of the area if something went wrong. We decided that the kayak might or might not go, but we would continue to pack and remove as much “stuff” as possible. Anyway we kept calling, looking for a trailer or something. We found a cab company willing to do it but we needed to provide a roof rack, couldn’t get that figured out, but we developed a pretty big pile of stuff ready to go.
Finally we give up. The kayak will stay on the boat, but one more call to Gecko just in case we can talk them into an exception… No NO and NO.” It’s the one rule we never break”, gotta be able to support the vehicle…… But we do have these inflatable roof racks…. Whaat? How can that be. Yah, look em up. The Malone HandiRack attaches with straps that pass through the door openings and the passenger portion of the vehicle. The soft inflatable bladders don’t slide around and they distribute the load over the roof to prevent dents. They should not be inflated super hard. But should be sort of soft to maximize the surface area, and also to allow for increasing pressure in the hot sun.
Rental day arrives, we get a fabulous, sparkling, brand new, 3000 miles, totally shiny and perfect suburban.. Argh, why not a two-year old almost outta here rental full of nicks and dings? We load it up with our boxes plus two old anchors, and head over to Gecko to check out those racks. We go for it. But take four instead of two because it’s a big load and 750 miles. I really, really, really hope these don’t mess up that vehicle… We get a couple of cruising buddies, George and Kurt, and load up the kayak in the sweltering heat.
We drive the loaded beast to Los Mochis and then Guaymas. Nervously easing her over each speed bump… Mexico loves speed bumps..Topes. They are somewhat random in nature and not always marked. The roof makes a kind of “crunkling” noise if you hit them too fast……
Finally we unload. No marks, no dents. We love the Malone HandiRack, and while it it would not be our first choice for what we did…. A solid roof rack would be much better. We think the Malone HandiRack would be great for someone that wants to use their Accord to take a SUP board to the lake, or pick up a new ladder or a couple of 2x4s from home depot.
If you think the HandiRack might be for you. You can buy one here, and help support our Blog.
Lisa will share more about our road trip in an upcoming blog, while I focus on making some recommendations of products we really like. Thanks for your support!
Screws pre-treated with Vibratite VC-3
Boaters all need to change their zincs, an important item that prevents corrosion of underwater parts. Screwing a piece of zinc to your prop shaft or propeller has issues. This stuff is moving and subject to vibration, but how do you keep things from falling apart?
Often a diver will squirt a little blue Loctite onto the screw, and quickly install the zincs under water. But read the Loctite product description and you learn that the parts should be dry and clean.
Sometimes you buy parts with a blob of red stuff in the threads. The thread locker is already on the fastener. But what is that red stuff?
On Footloose, we use Vibratite VC-3 Thread locker to reduce the risk of premature loss of underwater parts. The product is applied and allowed to dry, then installed even underwater. Per the instructions you can even re-install the fastener… Great for zincs, but how about your motorcycle, cars, or lawn mower? I might even try it on my eyeglass screws.
Wanna give it a try? Purchase Vibratite Here, and help support our website.
For a cruising sailboat the anchor windlass is a very important piece of equipment that ranks with engines and sails. The anchor windlass hoists the anchor when it is time to leave, and needs to operate reliably. Our boat has a primary anchor that weighs 88 pounds. The anchor is attached to a chain that weighs about 1.4 lbs per foot. We often have 100 to 125 feet of chain out. The point of all that is that the deployed anchor and chain weigh a lot and are beyond the ability of an old guy like me to lift with my back.
The anchor windlass hoists this load at the push of a button, but as a key piece of equipment it needs to operate flawlessly. Before our departure we replaced the anchor windlass as a precaution against any trouble.
The windlass has an electric motor and gearbox that drives a part called the capstan. The capstan has depressions in the edge that grab every other link in the chain. As the chain passes over the capstan it should release and fall into the anchor locker. To help with this the windlass has a chain stripper that helps the chain off of the capstan. We have damaged this stripper 3 times so far. This happens because every once in a while one say every three months or so one of the links would pass the stripper arm bending the arm and damaging the base of the capstan. After making this repair several times, we had a Mexican welder add a small tee shaped piece of stainless cut from one of our damaged strippers to a brand new stripper. We had this done at the La Cruz Shipyard near Puerto Vallarta (ask for Peter). Cost about $10.00. What a difference. The windlass actually soundsbetter.
Before
After
After hearing of other successful installs, I decided to replace our 1200AH golf cart battery pack with Lithium Ion batteries.
Since Lithium battery packs are capable of 80% discharge, by my calculation an 800 Amp hour pack was the equivalent of my lead acid system. We plan to never discharge more than 640 amps.
My system consists of two 400ah packs with 4 cells each of CALB (Chinese Aviation Lithium Battery) cells which I purchased directly from CALB USA. We had one defective cell about six months after installation and this redundancy proved itself at this time, as we were able to operate completely normally but with half the capacity. The defective cell was covered under warranty.
I fabricated a housing for each pack out of Aluminum Plate with pieces of steel all thread holding the plates together. The bottom is a piece of boat board with grooves in the underside to slip over the all thread. The all thread is covered with pieces of black irrigation tubing to keep the all thread from abrading the cell cases. A bracket is fitted over two pieces of the all thread to mount the regulators. This thin piece of sheet metal helps to dissipate heat from the regulators which can get very warm when they are dissipating current to bypass a fully charged cell. A small fan is also mounted that is thermostatically activated when the regulators get warm.
A clear acrylic cover was fabricated to prevent accidental shorting of this very high amperage system. As a Navy Electrician, I saw a man blow the head off a crescent wrench shorting out a larger diesel starting system. This system has greater discharge capability.
Each pack has an isolation switch, which allows you to disconnect the pack from the system or bypass the disconnect relay in the event you are willing to risk the pack for navigational concerns.
Components of the Manzanita Micro System are connected in a buss formed with standard telephone cable.
The Manzanita components are:
The regulator board mark 3x4SMT:
The regulator board has voltage taps for each cell of the “battery”. Temperature sensors are also available. I have not installed these because the pack does not fluctuate in temperature at all when charging. With our system we rarely charge at more than 200 amps and this pack will absorb 800Amps/hour. The board has a telephone jack that allows it to connect to other components of the Manzanita system. The regulator is programmed through the display. The interface is pretty clunky but once you’ve done it, you will never be back.
The Robb II Regulator relay output board:
This Black box, it’s aluminum actually, plugs into the telephone buss system and provides a low current set of normally open or closed contacts that will actuate in the event of high or low voltage. These contacts are used to trigger a high current relay opening the battery circuit in the event of High or Low Voltage.
Rudman Buss Display:
A pair of monitors, one for each pack independently, is also connected to the buss. This product is discontinued. Theoretically one display can monitor both packs, but I was unable to make that work, so I have one display for each pack. There is also a USB Dongle available which allow you to monitor the pack with a computer. Per the owner, Rich Rudman, these monitors are replaced with a system that uses a cheap Android pad as a Monitor. In my last conversation with Rich, I think I finally understood that one monitor could be used by renumbering the cells, 1-4 for the first pack and 5-8 for the second pack. Since I want each regulator to turn off one pack only, I have two independent BMS systems so that only the failed battery is disconnected.
In addition I used 2 Gigavac GXL14 high current latching relays to open the battery circuit in case of High or low voltage state… These guys are expensive $400 each give or take. And on first reading of the ROBB manual you might think you need two, one for the high voltage state and one for the low voltage state. Making 4 if you have two packs. Luckily, if you access the regulator board, you can set up the high voltage ROBB contact to act for both high and low voltage states.
Clock wise from upper Left. Fuse, Gigavac, Disconnect, display, ROBB, Fan, Regulator, Voltage Leads
The connections for the 400 amp CALB cells are very large. I had difficulty finding a termination that would fit over the bolt and provide a solid High current connection at this high torque connection. I made my own termination by soldering the voltage sensor wires to pieces of copper ground strap. I then punched a hole of the size necessary for the battery bolt. If you use this method you should be certain that your copper connector is small enough that it cannot short to an adjacent post….. (Don’t ask how I know this). During the assembly each connection was cleaned with fine sandpaper and then immediately coated with antioxidant grease. Oxidation or poor connections will adversely affect the regulator operation. It is also a good idea to complete all connections to the pack before plugging in the voltage sensor plug as the Regulator board is very sensitive to voltage surges.
Before final assembly, each pack was balanced. The cells were connected in parallel with a digital power supply. I used a BK Precision 1688B set at the individual cell charge voltage of 3.4 volts. Interestingly, the pack took the max current for about 40 hours and then quickly tapered to nothing over the course of an hour or so.
Starboard pack is not balanced
My system works great although I haven’t seen any failure modes. The battery temperature is always at ambient. The batteries charge at full current with a short taper at the end perhaps one hour. On the gen set, I don’t usually complete the cycle. Another great feature is that it took about 500 lbs. out of my cabin. The waterline raised about an inch in the bow…
Manzanita Micro is closely managed by Rich Rudman, an early innovator in Electric Vehicle performance components. His interest is in extracting as many watts as possible from a smaller pack. To meet this need, his system provides a high level of adjustability and monitoring.
From a boaters perspective, however, it is needlessly complex. As a boater, I want a big pack charging and discharging at less than 1C to provide a long time between charges. I also want redundancy, so 2 packs, to allow me to isolate a bad pack. Trouble tends to come in batches so I want a safety for a dark night in a crowded foggy channel, like the time my radar stopped in the mouth of San Francisco bay with heavy traffic and fog.
I have encouraged Rich to develop a boat-specific product. To me this is a single card/box with the following features:
Rich believes this market is too small for the investment required. I paid about 6000 dollars for my 800 AH Lithium pack with all the bits and pieces. The current West Marine catalog shows a 12v 180 AH Mastervolt pack at about $5000 and a 360ah at $9000. I would think there is a little room for profit in that mix. If you are interested, I think Rich would entertain an investor.
Michael Cope is a fellow Catana owner. He used components from EV Power. Doing it again I might consider this method simply because the Manazanita system is more “geeky” than necessary for boats. With that said Manzanita Micro gave me excellent support, delivered components quickly and were a pleasure to deal with. Rich is a fountain of knowledge regarding Lithium power. I had originally planned to follow in Mike’s footsteps, but in 2014, when I called EV Power to order, the owner (These seem to be small companies) told me he was switching to a surface mounted design and had no inventory, and no product availability date.
That is my experience to date. It is not a recommendation, in that you should proceed at your own risk, but hopefully my experience can help others with their process. I would certainly do it again.
Michael Britt
Footloose
Catana 471 #28
