Search Results

The availability of shore power is both a blessing and a curse. It is convenient to supplement systems when in a marina or harbor. At the same time, the plethora of voltages, frequencies, and capacities is confusing. Vanguard is built to cruise worldwide and should encompass the flexibility to maximize what is achievable, but that's easier said than done. Have you ever started a project then wished you had not? That was us and "shore power", so many false dawns along the way. The illustration below is the our shore power system, there follows the story of how we understood the issues and how we arrive at this solution. Yacht power electrical system including single and three phase shore power connections with galvanic isolation. Fully independent of frequency or input voltage worldwide. The Short Version Accept shore power from anywhere in single or three phase at any voltage or frequency. Convert everything to DC, charge your batteries. Accept some inevitable transmission losses along the way and move on. Feed solar direct to 24VDC consumers to minimize transmission losses when at sea. The Problem Our XPM-78 explorer yacht, Vanguard, has some unique machinery. A diesel electric hybrid drive and huge power batteries. To summarize:* 230 VAC 50Hz Single phase 400 VAC 50Hz Three-phase plus neutral 24VDC (with the occasional 12VDC for Comms and Nav gear) These feed into systems containing: 20 kWh of LiFePO house batteries at 24 VDC 120 kWh of LiFePO power batteries at nominally 600 VDC In turn, the available power sources are: 6.5 kW of solar panels at peak capacity Two by 90kW 50Hz alternators (hybrid drives operated decoupled from the propellers and at full engine speed) Shore power vis: Single Phase: 120 VAC 60 HZ 30 amps approx 240 VAC 60HZ split phase (2 phase and floating neutral) 50 amps 230 VAC 50 HZ 50/100 amps Three-phase: 208 VAC 60 HZ Three-phase 100 amps (combined) 400 VAC 50 HZ Three-phase 100 amps (combined) One last complication in the mix is that we need galvanic protection for our aluminum hull utilizing an Isolation Transformer. The device prevents earth currents from circulating between ship and shore (for safety and to limit corrosion). Have you ever seen a circus trick known as "plate spinning"? Lots of moving pieces in the air at the same time? Well, that is how this felt at the time! Solving for Single Phase Systems. With a multifaceted problem, start by simplifying the issues. The supply frequency 50 and 60 Hz systems that are incompatible at the AC level. Also, an isolation transformer will not change the frequency. All single-phase power input runs through the same dual frequency Victron isolation transformer and charging system to feed the house batteries. A slight increase in conversion losses results, but we felt it worthwhile to pursue simplicity. 6.5 kW peak of Solar in-feed also charges the house batteries and powers the 24VDC system whenever the sun shines. Victron 3600kW Isolation Transformer. Solving for our Three Phase System The problem remained of how to cope with three-phase supplies? I refer you here to the circuit diagram on the top of the page. We wanted to maximize the advantage of a beefed-up power source to charge two by 60kWh power batteries. We have three choices here - Install a universal shore power supply that will produce clean three-phase power, voltage stabilized with input from both single and three-phase shore power, 50 or 60Hz. These are available from several suppliers, Magnus Marine, ASEA, and ANG just three of them. We found all the vendors helpful but again ran into issues. The physical size was the first problem as we have a cramped engine room. We solved this by reducing the capacity from 25 KVA to 12KVA. Still a powerful charger but at a much smaller physical size. We also needed to limit the in-feed current so as not to trip the shore power breaker when the batteries are partially discharged. That feature was not (yet) available in the size we needed and that was a deal breaker. To create a hybrid solution with 50Hz supply dropping to the three-phase bus bars and 60Hz supply is converted to 600VDC and charges batteries (Power Batteries and when they charge, following on to House Batteries). The hybrid drive installation uses large, 25KVA, three-phase transformers and powerful AC/DC High Power inverters. Inverters are bi-direction in that you can feed AC and DC to receive the opposite at the outlet end. They also have their own controllers to monitor, limit and report on the process. Power Management Controllers are ordinarily used to control and switch AC generators so have useful functions such as recognizing input frequency and triggering breakers. Notice in the diagram above that the shore power 50 & 60Hz options are controlled by this means (SHK1,2,3). This prevents inadvertent frequency contention of 60Hz being fed to a 50Hz system and the loss of a nice evening in the marina bar or worse. Two 25KVA 3 phase inverters were used to convert 400V AC 50Hz and 280VAC 60HZ to 600 VDC to charge the power batteries. This controller also limits the in-feed current so as to achieve a soft start to the connection and limiting the maximum current draw to prevent tripping the shore power breaker. Praxis Power Management Controllers (SHK-I,2,3 in the drawing) monitor shore power input and frequency, automatically setting and controlling input current. In Conclusion There is no simple, all-encompassing answer to shore power connection. (Sorry!) Relying on a single frequency is viable if your cruising area is limited. You should always fit an isolation transformer for safety, to protect your hull and machinery from corrosion and any swimmers in the marine from worse. Things become more complicated if you have a high power requirement and a worldwide cruising scope. Converting incoming AC to DC avoids this frequency issue at some penalty in transmission losses. Charging requirements for hybrid battery systems complicate the situation. For larger installations, consider an automatic shore power converter or convert everything to DC if you have the battery capacity. However, these have a cost and size penalty compared to more simplistic systems. ( * ) - all voltages quoted are approximate and may vary. Chris Leigh-Jones Acknowledgement also to Praxis Automation for their design assistance. Useful links: Praxis Automation Victron Energ y Magnus Marine

We live in changing times; what was once attributable to poor planning is now written off as "Covid-induced delays". Some of these delays are genuinely real; some are less so. Mark this, a good approach and healthy ability to network can overcome most. The expectation is we must accept that. Just roll over like a good dog. The trouble is we are not good dogs. Given we are at the point of taking deliveries to almost everything mechanical, there seem to be a few holes in the inventory to create a functioning explorer yacht. This effect has been growing for a few months now. As in the children's "Whack-a-Mole" game, we have been playing with our many suppliers. Our story is how we approached this seemingly intractable problem of vague supply deadlines meeting immutable launch dates and the results. Let us remove specific names so that no one is overtly offended; we all have a common goal. We were speaking firstly of suppliers. No one likes delivering bad news, and the typical modus is silence. So we set up a system to chase every critical supplier to confirm progress and delivery dates. Well, that was fun, and some tried hard to evade with answers most evasive. Don't accept them; try again or sometimes go up the tree of authority and ask a different way. This exercise resulted in a short list of suppliers classed as "at risk" or "a threat of failure." These suppliers had taken payment in part or full months before, which was pretty annoying. There is a time to persuade, press, and threaten, but in most cases, this is never the time to insult. Insults only justify inaction, even if they temporarily make us feel better. So we discussed the art of the possible. Split deliveries? This approach worked with the drive line supplier. The Clutch, shaft, and bearings were delivered on time with props to follow some months later but before the launch date. With the hybrid drive system, they proposed three drops as production could cope: inverters and control gear, the second battery cases, the third batteries, and hopefully, drive motors. The motors were to a new design; we will accept demonstration units for the time being, then swap them out. The main engines were troublesome; they provided no date until we found two more to the exact specification sitting in the USA and threatened to purchase and airfreight them with a full refund. Engines miraculously appeared. Someone else probably found themselves in our previous position. Engine room fans were also a problem until the supplier suggested a change in specification to an in-house manufactured unit, and we were back on track. In only one instance were we unable to compromise our way to success. The supplier of solar panels, Fly Solartech. They took the payment and appeared to have gone out of business. No one wishes that to happen, but neither do they like being lied to while it's happening. We resourced through a company local to the yard in Turkey. So where are we now? I think (fingers crossed) that we will be very close to the expected launch date of March 2023. We have retained professional relationships with our suppliers. We will need those suppliers to commission and support ongoing. The effects of Covid and world events are real and now engrained in the supply chain. But it is not the end of everything, just a new normal. Chris Leigh-Jones

I’d been a civilian for a week and was starting to have concerns for our finances. I’d been an aircraft technician in the UK Royal Air Force for almost 11 years. From 16 to 27, I didn’t even know how or want to sign on for unemployment. Seven of those years were spent as a member of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service. It filled my soul with a great deal of adventure and something I still crave to this day. During my time at RAF Valley, I’d befriended a group of fishermen in Holyhead, North Wales. They’d always said I should give them a call if I was ever stuck for work. Beaumaris looking across the Menai Straits to Snowdonia and the playground of my youth. They were the type of people who wouldn’t go back on their word, and we’d become good friends over the last couple of years. I thought I could take them up on their offer. I walked down to the fish-dock, deserted except for a battered dark blue trawler called the Cadno unloading a catch of stinking grey fish. The Cadno was a tough little French crabber built of larch on steamed oak ribs oak in Les Sables d’Olonne in 1968. She was 45 feet long and powered by a single 6LXB Gardner. Fish boxes on her deck were full of ropes, racks of anchors, and huge bamboo poles lashed to the side of the wheelhouse. They had orange buoys at their bases, topped off with black flags. Cadno 1968, credit Trawlerpictures.net A catch was being hauled up from the fish room in orange plastic baskets and dumped on the back of a tipper truck which oozed a watery red slime from its tailgate. The winch whined and hummed as the baskets appeared from the bowels of the boat. The crew under it tried to dodge the dripping slime and blood. A man in green boots (wellies) and a tweed jacket was checking the load. He peered over the harbour wall to make sure there were no more fish on board and told the driver to move off. I asked him if he needed any crew, but he said it wasn’t his boat. He was the merchant and offered me a lift to “the fish factory,” where the crew watched the weigh-in. The fish was a shark-like species called spurdog. The Cadno had landed about 500 stone (7000 lbs), or just over three tonnes, which they had caught over three days at sea. The catch was dumped on the factory floor and was being graded into small-medium-large by two crew. The whole place reeked of fish and ammonia. A guy with dreadlocks was the nearest to me, I asked him if they needed any crew? This was Trevor Thomas from Holyhead, and his jeans were covered in blood and slime from the catch. Bits of fish clung to his hair which was tied back in natural dreadlocks. “We are looking for crew,” he told me, in a gruff Holyhead accent, “but that’s the man you need to speak to over there,” he noted, pointing across the loading bay. “Gerald,” I was told and hurried over to see if I could get the job. Gerald Lewis was the owner and skipper of the Cadno. He wore a trademark short peaked, dirty blue skipper’s cap in his late forties or early fifties. He was walking out of the offices so I cut him off and said nervously, “Excuse me, mate, I’m looking for work. Do you need any crew?” Gerald looked me up and down and could see I was physically fit but asked, “Been to sea before?” I replied, “yes but only on yachts.” “Yachts, yachts?” he asked, with disbelief in his voice and I could see he was getting annoyed with me already. “I’ve just left the Air Force,” I said, hoping to redeem myself, “I was in the mountain rescue team at RAF Valley.” “Ever get seasick?” Gerald asked. “No,” I replied genuinely, “I love being at sea.” He grabbed my left hand and looked at the hard skin caused by years of manual work and rock climbing. “Okay, I’ll take you on as a tripper,” he said as my hand dropped to my side, and my heart leaped in my chest with the thought of a brand new adventure. “When do I start?” I asked. Mackrel – fish bait by another name. “Start?” He said, looking surprised. “You start right now. Help the lads sort the catch out,” he replied and walked away. I couldn’t believe it had been that easy and the “interview” had lasted less than sixty seconds. I walked over and introduced myself to the two crewmen Trevor and Don Peers and told them Gerald was taking me on a tripper. We shook hands and they showed me the sizes of fish they were looking to grade and I mucked in. As we worked they explained what they expected from a tripper and it was more about seeing if I could fit in. I quickly got used to the smell of ammonia which was caused, I was told, by the spurdog urinating through their skin. They were like small sharks and the lads pointed out two nasty spikes sticking up precariously from their dorsal fins and showed me how to pick them up without being stabbed. Menai again – I just like this picture. The Cadno was geared for longlining and each fish had been caught on an individual hook baited with mackerel. Longlining was a more sustainable method of fishing compared to stern or beam trawling and was more selective because it could target more mature fish. Each dogfish had a gaping tear in its mouth where the hooks had been ripped out. That accounted for all the blood. With the three of us grading, we finished the task pretty quickly, and I was told to be at the dock at 8am the next morning. I went home and told my wife Julie the good news. She looked doubtful but we agreed that it was, at least, a job. Her husband was going to sea, a Holyhead Trawler Man. My lifelong friend, Geoff Abbott, died of leukemia shortly after we posted his article, June 2021. He is now on his final voyage. If you want the adventure of a lifetime, save some lifetime for the adventure you want. Geoff Abbott, mate of mine.

“North of the circle” – a trip from the UK to Norway’s Lofoten Islands 66•30N and beyond is less ominous than I perceived when I dramatized the voyage in mind. The Lofoten islands were the destination for myself and my crewmate in our 29 ft mono; I forget the make now. Part of me hoped to be hacking through ice flow s with a pickaxe while my crew mate stood on polar bear watch, flare gun in hand. Returning home a year later, bearded and sick of seal meat, quite inspired me. As we know, or ought to know, timing dramatically alters our experience at sea. The Arctic in summer, under a sun which orbited our heads endlessly, was mostly pleasant… There was no darkness, therefore no cooling off period. The land was warm, and from its soil came a silent explosion of a trillion shrubs and flowers. The sea kept its arctic-ness – freezing! While not the hoped-for fields of pancake ice, it’s effectively melt-water. Our crossing from Nesna to Sorvagen began under blue skies, which quickly clouded over. A north-westerly 4 put the wind on a close haul, and the short hull inched into the chop. The near-freezing sea cooled the wind dramatically with the sun gone. It was a draining cold. The type of cold not bitter enough to turn water to ice, but energy-sapping. A bit like ‘wet rain’ – the misty type that soaks everything without really raining. It turned our faces tacky white, lips unable to pukka up to pronounce words. Twice we drove into it for 12hours before being beaten back to find refuge. Myken is a tiny atoll south of the peninsular tip we headed for downwind. There was somebody to catch a line for us. Amazingly there always is wherever you go in the world. ‘Odd’ is a way of describing this place. Quite barren, with a few locals, maybe 100. 15 are permanent. They’d suit ‘Odd’ too. But then I must have seemed the oddest of all. Perception is no finality. The island bakery was the equivalent of a community center. We found the locals gathered in there having a quiet social. One man and six women, he seemed to have an air of authority in this small world. The rest were quiet while he asked us many rhetorical questions. We stayed for a coffee and a loaf of bread before leaving with more bread and eggs. Eventually, the Lofoten islands stood over us like a Nordic gods cathedral. I usually feel a sense of ownership out to sea. I’m the tallest thing for miles around, something of symbolic importance against the relative flatness. When some land feature on the horizon draws near, that feeling morphs from one of lordly solitude to one of insignificance. I’m a component of the greater mass. A mass that’s been working all along in its own natural and unnatural processes. Approaching the Lofoten islands, this feeling was profound. I imagine it was like walking toward a boxing ring as the unconfident underdog, closer, closer and smaller.. the mountains are grand. The granite faces descend so steeply into the sea you can moor alongside them, which we did, and jumped in for an Arctic baptism. We met a group of Royal Marines in the Lofotens who were kayaking and cycling expedition covering the coast of Norway from top to bottom. For a week, we guided the kayakers through the stunning fjords. Following and documenting a WW2 submarine mission, ‘operation Musketoon’, carrying commandos who climbed the mountain ridge by night and blew up the Glomfjord power plant powering aluminum production for the German military. They navigated the unchartered waters blind. At night the marines camped on the shore while we anchored in the bay. The canned chicken bought for the trip was a smooth solidified mouse that we’d almost thrown up trying to eat on the crossing. It was fit for no man but made excellent fish food. I dropped a four hooked line of the side in Kirkefjord with cubes of this processed atrocity skewered on and pulled up 3 cod within a few minutes. We ate well on the shore over a fire that night. I have fond memories from our trip to Lofoten. I have more locked away; the vista, the silence, the stillness to be retrieved in the quiet of an evening’s repost. Sailing is my life’s adventure, my release from the pressures of the moment. My wish in writing this is that my reader knows just how accessible it actually is for those with the will to make it happen. Jeffrey Leigh-Jones Sailor by nature and previously by profession. Looking forward to having lived an extraordinary life.

Global warming? if you don’t believe it by now, why build a boat? If, as most of us do, we think it’s real, then we need to take tentative steps to play our part. When it comes to our playtime, however, energy consumption typically gets less attention. The same is not true in the commercial shipping industry, where the threat is very real. So how would you go about reducing the carbon footprint of your yachting operations? At First Glance At first glance, the picture is frankly bleak. The option of switching to alternative power sources is not there. That said, I’m assuming here that sails are out of the question? Firstly though, the reliable diesel engine is here for a long time yet. Also whilst it is fun to consider technology as a solution, the marine world is understandably conservative and slow to change. One stance here is to look at the big picture but more on that later. For now, let us consider the fuel options. Options No single option will improve the engine efficiency, but there are alternatives out there with a lower carbon footprint than refined grades of distillate marine diesel fuel. The major issues are combustibility, storability, and energy density. Comparison of energy density of alternative marine fuels – credit to DNV GTL – Gas to Liquid – this is, in essence, synthetic diesel. It burns cleanly, having a much lower propensity to develop particulates in the exhaust stream. A direct drop-in alternative to typical diesel fuel, and the exhaust smells better too! HVO – hydrotreated vegetable oil. This is going to cost a little more and be difficult to find. Should you be based in a single marina, then that’s probably less of an issue. Its made from plants, the carbon footprint is some 80% lower than the equivalent energy derived from diesel fuel. Again, it’s a shoo-in for distillate diesel; at a price and convenience penalty. Moving beyond the obvious, we have the more exotic solutions of methanol and gas fuels. I could go on, but do you really want volatile, easily ignited fuels on your yacht? Fuels with a significantly lower density that require considerably more storage space than diesel? Perhaps not. Then moving on again, we have batteries. For a few simple trips of a few miles through safe waters, electric propulsion is a good option. For silent operation and quick battery charging, the same applies. Clean, cheap, and silent. However, even with recent advances in Electric Vehicle (EV) technology, power density remains low. Hope is on the horizon in the form of solid-state battery technologies under development to rival “King Lithium.” Still, even with EVs’ advances, this technology remains 4 or 5 years off commercial visibility, maybe another ten years for marine adoption. So what’s the best option here? So, in summary, is this just a lost cause? Well, no, not really, I said we would circle back at some point. Now is where our class of yachts scores a significant victory! Hydrodynamic efficiency increases with an increasing ratio of waterline length to beam. By the same measure, for a given bunker volume , the required power decreases or maximum range increases. We recently undertook a quick comparison using a 65 foot traditional 2-deck semi-planning trawler yacht (A) and an 80-foot hull of similar internal volume but high L/B Ratio (B). The parameters were 10 knots average hull speed and 4000 miles of operation at that speed. Traditional semi-planing hull range vs speed. A – 2 by 800 bhp both engines running part load, $90,000 of fuel used for a 4000-mile voyage. B – 2 by 160 bhp one running part load, the other prop feathered. $14,000 Difference in fuel consumption = 85%. So, to my simple mind, it looks like we have two viable options if we really want to reduce our yachting carbon footprint and to assume we also select a motor yacht. 1 – slow down. Not always a viable option with a semi-planing hull form where sea-keeping ability often improves with speed. 2 – alter our purchasing expectations towards those yachts with a more hydrodynamic hull shape, though at the expense of internal volume. Happy sailing. Chris

West Greenland Ilulissat Jakobshavn Jacobshaven sky sunset I remember once pulling in to Sandy Hook Marina, New Jersey. It was pretty late at night, and we were dodging lousy weather coming in from the East River. The entrance is well defined but with unlit buoys. So one crew member (me) was holding on to the forestay in wind and rain with a giant flashlight we had trying to locate the next buoy in the channel. So that got me thinking of how best to spot obstacles in one’s path, be it fixed to the bottom or not, as the case may be. My eyes are what they are, and no point in going on about it. I’m 60 and have worn glasses all my days. Mr. Magoo springs to mind. As I see it we have a few choices: Eyeball Forward-Looking Sonar Spotlight FLIR Forward looking sonar – credit Ecopilot.com So I then looked at forward-looking Sonar. Most Sonar is of the “fish finder” variety, basically tells you where you have just been. It has its uses but is not going to give a warning of much. Go up the price tag pole, though, and they get more creative. Entry-level seems to be B&G, EcoPilot, or Panoptix, but the drawback remains their short forward range even under good conditions. Bear in mind that at 8 knots, your yacht is covering about 4m/s. A 10-second warning gives you 40m to do something less, of course, how far back from the bow the sensors are mounted. Great for following contour lines or finding the edge of a channel but not much for finding a floating container or growler. Hmm. Spend a lot more, and you get into the realms of Far Sounder. Big yacht technology and primarily out of the scope of mere mortals, but the distance issues still hold, though to a lesser extent. High beam marine spotlight – credit CFXsearchlights.com I then thought of searchlights. With modern technology, Xenon lamps, and high-power LED, there are some very bright and wide-angle sources out there. It would be like Sandy Hook again but with more light and no soaking. However, I remember a night spent on the Monkey Bridge of a general cargo ship years ago. We were in Port Stanley harbor, Falkland Islands. Russian-built ship with a colossal searchlight fixed above the bridge. A public alert as one sailor was late returning from shore in a RIB, single-handed. We spend 3 hours looking with that searchlight, time enough for all hope to fade given the sea temperature. Even with its massive scale, it simply lit a small area of sea. One operator and four sailors looking hard could not find him that night. Found dead the next day on the shore of Sparrow Cove, capsized. There is a place for search and spot lights and we will fit some but they will be supplemented by other technologies. Bridge illuminated in IR spectrum – FLIR.com Then we turned to Forward-Looking Infra-Red. In other words, the systems used by police helicopters to find missing persons and the likes. Everything not at absolute Zero Kelvin will emit a heat signature. These devices work in full daylight to total darkness. Enhancements include visible image camera overlay and both digital and optical zoom. They can also be enhanced with long-wavelength Infra-Red lasers to light up the target at a frequency detectable by the optics. I’m a newbie at this though the market seems to be dominated by the aptly named FLIR. FLIR makes units from a few $1000’s to nearly $100,000 depending on what you want, the stabilization, and the sensitivity of the optics. Marine traffic at night – FLIR.com It looks like FLIR technology is a game-changer for the short-handed sailor at my present level of understanding. They can see ice and logs in the water from perhaps a mile or two. Man overboard can be located at two miles or more, depending on sensor elevation. Other boats detected at 3 or 4 miles in complete stealth. The software can lock on and track a target. Entering Sandy Hook would be like entering it in daylight with the color removed (or not in some systems). The final decision boils down to “is the price worth it,” only you can answer that decision. But I will tell you this, there is a choice in the market, and the price is only moving one way over time. Finally – I have a sneaky suspicion that lighting up a US Navy vessel out of Norfolk, VA, with a high-power Infra-Red tracking laser might ruin one’s day. Perhaps best not aim it in that direction? 🙂

Jeffrey Leigh-Jones I’ve crossed Biscay 4 times. Had I crossed more, I’d surely have some saga to plump up Biscay’s notoriety. This one is more a saga of human error, misfortune, and technical faults, which happened to be in a storm in Biscay. If anything, I aim to make it thought-provoking in the context of problem-solving.. Intended Course ARC 2019 The fourth time I crossed, I had a near miss . With 3 crew, we set out with a fleet along with the ARC Portugal 2019. We’d torn a 2m rift up the Genoa, which had caught on the middle spreader in an accidental tack the second night. We’d binned it and swapped it out for a small Solent jib on the inner forestay. About 2/3 the way across the bay, while cruising on a broad reach, we’d received a storm warning via Navtex. A small, powerful storm cell had developed about 150miles west of Porto, Portugal, and was heading our way… well, this sharpened us up. Could we make it to shelter in time? Rassey 42 (not ours) – you can see the spreader shadow on the Genoa While standing in the galley thinking about this, I became very heavy up against the cooker as gravity skewed sideways. Looking out through the companionway, I saw the horizon up the ending and my crewmate clinging to the guardrail. A squall had come through. We were overpowered on the main. The exact opposite of what you’d want to happen in such a situation. The main furling shaft inside the mast sheared at the base, horrifyingly, deploying the sail in 35knts of wind! The boat dipped her port toerail in the water, we scrambled to uncleat the halyard and drop the main for good. We were minus 2 sails now and only had the small Solent to get us to northern Spain. Thankfully, the wind was on the starboard quarter at 15+kts, but still, we were underpowered for the heavy Hallberg Rassey 42 – and against the clock… the storm was coming… More ‘umph’ would have us surfing the swell effectively and get us promptly into port. We engaged the motor and.. clunk.. it jammed.. it wouldn’t turn over. Not now! Sailing consistently presents us with a million things we hadn’t thought of. Disasters at sea are usually the result of a human error, often very small, but followed by a series of unfortunate incidents falling like dominoes. One incident passes the baton of bad luck to the next, getting increasingly dramatic, very quickly! Within ten minutes, we’d transitioned from a stunning hull speed cruise on a broad reach, to having next to no propulsion. Hell was over the horizon while we fought lurches of seasickness with our heads twisted upside down in the engine compartment figuring out our last hope of escape from a brewing monster. The initial diagnosis was a jammed gearbox. We later discovered that the bolts on the drive damper plate were not torqued up, 3 bolts were unscrewed and got mashed up in the ring gear. Some of these bits jammed the starter motor gear. This caused the electronics to shut down due to starter motor overcurrent as it couldn’t engage and spin. The solution was to spin the prop shaft to deploy the folding blades. The boat speed would keep the blades spinning and the gearbox spinning in neutral. We had about 3kts, but thankfully a good swell, so, 4.5kts on the surf. The trick was to get the spin going by hand. I took a line about 3m long and wound it around and around the prop shaft. The next part was tricky.. I had to pull as hard as I could on the line, so the shaft would spin as it unwound and jump-start the prop, like pulling the cord on a lawnmower. I had limited room to pull, so it was hand over hand while clipping my elbows painfully on every hard thing in the vicinity. It took a few goes.. but we got it.. the prop span on its own as the water flowed over it on the surf. Banging the engine into gear then jolted the engine flywheel which dislodged the metal bits allowing the engine to start! We turned the key, and voila.. it purred away, and so did we, in relief. It was a feat I’d not have figured out alone. I’ve learned at sea that a skippers voice is good for guidance, but guidance ought to come in the form of open inquisition into the minds of all the crew. Listen, guide by questions, guide their thinking beyond your own.. It is incredible what we know without being told, but it’s not easy to access our inherent wisdom without inspiration. Just like disasters happen in a domino effect, so do good ideas. The ‘aha’ moment is interdependent. A boat is sailed by all.. We made it to Camarines; within four hours, we had 50kt gusts blowing across our Windex in the marina. It was 70kts out to sea. Half of the ARC fleet had turned west into the Atlantic and gone around the storm, adding three days to their crossing. Lifeboat leaves harbor 2019. 3 crew did not make it back. Sadly, a French lifeboat capsized in the storm that night, killing 3 crew. I don’t know who they were heading out to rescue. Perhaps someone just like us who’d not figured a way out of their situation. My hope for this article, is that it leaves the reader with a positive inquisitive attitude to work with all the crew to solve the problems we inevitably face at sea. #Sailingstorm

The time has come for us to review fuel and water tank capacities on Vanguard. We were spurred by adding a unique need for Water/Glycol cooling systems required by the hybrid drive. So to kick this off, we looked at a few similar hulls to get a better feel for what the market is looking for: 1 – first off, we looked at other high L/B ratio hulls, specifically FPB78 and XPM78-01. These were both the same length but differed in their beam and internal layout, 3 and 2 cabin designs. (Design details for the  Circa Marine 24M  are not easy to find). 2 – then, we looked at another displacement hulls with three cabins and similar internal volume –  Nordhavn 64 , single-engine, and  Bering 65  twin-engine. 3 – we looked at semi-planing hulls of similar layout and internal volume. Twin-engine  Fleming 65  and  Ocean Reef . Table 1 below displays the results for fuel and water tank storage capacities across different yacht brands. What is immediately apparent is the installed power with FPB78 and XPM78 series being significantly lower for a similar speed profile to the two other displacement hulls of Nordhavn and Bering. Even more so for the semi-planing hulls. Conversely, FPB78 and XPM78 have significantly higher freshwater tank capacities. This capacity is partly as a ballast function (see fuel tank capacities) and party to reflect their passage-making profile where convenient marina facilities are far and long apart.  Explorer Yacht Tank Volumes 3 – we looked at semi-planing hulls of similar layout and internal volume. Twin-engine Fleming 65 and Ocean Reef. Table 1 below displays the results for fuel and water tank storage capacities across different yacht brands. What is immediately apparent is the installed power with FPB78 and XPM78 series being significantly lower for a similar speed profile to the two other displacement hulls of Nordhavn and Bering. Even more so for the semi-planing hulls. Conversely, FPB78 and XPM78 have significantly higher freshwater tank capacities. This capacity is partly as a ballast function (see fuel tank capacities) and party to reflect their passage-making profile where convenient marina facilities are far and long apart. Grey And Black Water Grey and blackwater tank capacities were a little harder to find. Greywater is easier to deal with and, in most cases, can be discharged overboard unless in environmentally sensitive areas and some freshwater lakes. Discharge may become more restrictive as the legislation progresses, so we decided to install these tanks for all shower and sink drains. We will probably lead HVAC drains overboard. Blackwater is subject to pump-out requirements at marina facilities or defined distance offshore, typically 3 miles. We split our tank capacity 50% Grey, 50% black. Greywater can overflow to black if necessary but not the other way around. Greywater tanks will be marine-grade aluminum hull tanks; black water will be polypropylene fabricated tanks to limit corrosion. Eight hundred liters capacity for each seems in line with the other 3-cabin yachts irrespective of hull design. We will create an interlock in the Helm Station mimic diagrams to prevent unwanted discharge in restricted waters and install remotely operated valves in the system. Fuel Tanks We looked at the fuel tanks. In considering these it is also necessary to consider installed power on each vessel. We estimated operational engine power as 60% of installed capacity except for the high L/B hulls where the second engine provides redundancy and is not power. At 60% power, we assume that the higher-powered hulls are not yet planing. Tanks on Vanguard are smaller than XPM78-01 with similar hydrodynamic power needs and FPB78 with a slightly wider hull. However, the range remains about 7000 NM with 20% reserve , and we do not feel the need to increase this. The one change we would like to see is a reduction in the volume of the day tanks. Three-day capacity is ample, and we would like to remove a little weight from the stern of the hull and add a little more space in the engine room. Water Tanks Then we looked at water storage tanks. Some of this capacity is designed as ballast compensation to keep trim as the fuel reduces. Vanguard will have an onboard water maker additional to any shore supply. We decided to retain the large water storage capacity, it adds redundancy should the water maker fail and we will need the ballast capacity to counterbalance the fuel tanks as they deplete. Hybrid Drive Cooling System Like many EV’s, our cooling will use ethylene glycol in a 50/50 mixture. That gives excellent heat transfer performance, low freeing temperatures, and corrosion protection for any metal it touches. Due to its toxicity, the imperative is to keep it isolated from any potable water tanks and systems that minimize accidental contamination risks. Water/Glycol system could cool the batteries, inverters, EV Motors, hybrid drive gearbox, and main gearbox. Engines themselves have antifreeze coolant systems that we will leave as supplied. XPM78-02 – Vanguard Tank Storage Plan Space exists in the engine room bilge between and aft of the engines. Three frames will allow for a cofferdam aft of the freshwater tanks. Seawater in contact with the bottom skin area of the tank will cool the contents and (less efficiently) internal air contact. Being set low in the hull, any systems not operating will drain to the sump tank removing toxic ethylene glycol from the lines when possible. By eliminating seawater, we eliminate corrosion and fouling. We can also consider fitting third-party sealed plate coolers instead of traditional tube coolers with corresponding weight and size reductions. The engine cooling system can remain independent as there is a wet exhaust system installed so we cannot eliminate the seawater flow. I’d be a little nervous about this idea if the systems were either high-powered or continuously running. Apart from the engines, the operation is periodic, in the order of 1 or 2 hours. For all systems, the cooling requirements are pretty modest, in the order of a few kW. We still need to undertake a heat balance for the system to double-check, but I think we are good (see later Blog). The fallback is to add a parasitic seawater cooler into the system, which we would rather avoid right now. Conclusion For Fuel And Water Tank Capacities So the final design has: retained most fuel and water tank capacities and their effect on trim and stability. class-leading fuel range at >7000miles @ 10kn more potable water/ballast than you need to fill a small swimming pool ample greywater, and blackwater capacity. a nifty, passive water/glycol cooling system suitable for high latitude operation, removing most seawater systems from the engine room. Items 1 through 4 came at no effort thanks to work already undertaken for hull number 1 Mobius. Item 5 is our add-on to that configuration.