Voyage Sponsors—No we haven’t sold our souls (John)
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Those of you who have visited www.morganscloud.com lately will notice a new ‘Voyage Sponsors’ side bar. This is where we display the logos of companies that have gone the extra mile to help us with our next planned voyage to the Arctic. Sometimes it was a discounted price on their products, sometimes exceptional service, or a combination of both. In one case (C-MAP) it is a company we will be working with on an ongoing basis to add information to their charts.
The thing we want to make clear is that there is still no way for a company to buy its way onto www.morganscloud.com. We are not selling advertising: these are companies that make good products that we would have used even without the extra help they gave us; displaying their logo is a way for us to say thank you.
The other reason for taking this step is that it informs you, our readers, of which companies we have received something from so that you can take that into account when you read our thoughts on their products. If a company does not appear on the ‘Voyage Sponsor’ side bar you can be assured that we paid full price for their products or services.
Labels: Rants and Musings
Norway Photo Gallery Published (John)
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
We have just published a gallery of my photographs taken in north Norway during our two years of cruising there; a time and place that was among the best and most pivotal of my life. I hope these images will go, at least some way, towards expressing that.
We are now publishing our galleries in two formats: one for viewers using slower dial-up internet connections and the other with larger images and a slide show mode for those with broadband internet connections. Note that the “high speed galleries” require the Adobe Flash plug-in to work; most computers have this installed already. Users of computers that don’t have Flash will be given guidance on how to install it.
Labels: Rants and Musings
It Takes Guts to be a Wooden Boat Owner (John)
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Our friend and neighbor here in Down East Maine, where we have been refitting "Morgan’s Cloud" for the last three winters, is Jeff: lobsterman, talented photographer, Persian carpet dealer and, for the last two years, wooden sailboat owner. Jeff is in the throes of replacing the horn timber and several other major pieces of the stern of his boat.
This process is going on 50 yards from “Morgan’s Cloud” and involves a strange and scary mix of fine tolerances—he is fitting the new timbers to 1/16 inch—and brutal activities with a chain saw, sledge hammer, and even a truck pulling at the stern post.
After 45 years of what seems like just about continuous boat maintenance I think I know a thing or two about refitting boats, but this project awes me with the level of skill and dedication required—I quite simply would not know where to start.
Oh yes, there is one other cool thing about this: Anytime I get down about some difficult job on our boat that is not going that well, I just wander over and look at the gaping hole in the stern of Jeff’s boat that you could just about crawl through, surrounded by planks splayed like a partly peeled banana, and immediately I feel better about my own "trivial" challenges.
Even better, the project is getting to the point that it is obvious that Jeff is going to pull this off and end up with a much better boat and one that he has confidence in. All in all, I’m amazed and impressed. Oh yes, and one thing I’m sure of; I do not have the guts to own a wooden boat.
Labels: Rants and Musings
Gear Failures and Fixes, Xantrex Inverter/Charger (John)
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Three months ago our venerable Heart Interface inverter/charger bit the big one, helped along by a dumb error on my part (inverters don’t like the start surge from 10” miter saws). We could have got it fixed, but our reliance on computers for writing and photography means that we would be better off with a true sine wave inverter. Also the RF noise emitted by the Heart Interface knocked small birds from the sky.
After some research and consulting with Peter, owner of Jack Rabbit Marine, we bought a Xantrex MS2000. The installation was quite a big job, particularly securely mounting the 70lb (32kg) beast. Finally, all was done and we powered up.
The Problem:
The unit ran fine, albeit with a very noisy fan. I programmed in all the battery parameters and, at the end of the day, shut the boat down as usual by turning off the 12 volt master switches and the shore power. (We are out of the water in refit mode.)
The next morning I powered the boat up. The MS2000 immediately, and without being asked, went into charge mode at a much higher rate and voltage than what I had programmed the day before. We have expensive and nearly new glass mat batteries that do not like being abused so I was concerned. Clearly the unit had lost its memory when I turned off the 12 volt master switch.
Manufacturer’s Response:
I called Xantrex’s support department and got a technician who informed me that my problem was that I had installed the unit wrong. According to him, I should have wired it directly to the battery, bypassing the master switch. When I said that I disagreed, he became quite aggressive and then pulled out that old line “you’re the first person that has ever complained about this”—I hate it when they say that. I looked at the Xantrex manual again and sure enough the diagram showed no switch between the unit and the battery.
Now, in my opinion, this is not just poor practice, it’s dangerous. Think about it: an unsuspecting tech goes aboard the boat to work on the electrical system, disconnects the shore power and turns off the battery master switches. Now he or she is safe, right? Wrong, the inverter is still potentially energized and capable of producing a killing voltage. There is no sure way to make the inverter safe, other than to disconnect the 12 volt input to it from the battery.
This is not just my opinion; direct connection of inverters to batteries is against ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) specifications, which, although they state that a charger can be connected directly to the battery (still a poor idea in my view), do not condone doing the same with an inverter/charger. Another scary thing is that everyone involved told me that direct connection complied with ABYC. It was not until I found the relevant entry and quoted it chapter and verse that I was taken seriously.
Incidentally, Jack Rabbit Marine ships the inverter/charger as part of a kit with a switch that they suggest you install in the 12 volt feed, but leave on. This is a bit better than no switch, but still not good since who would logically expect to have to turn off two battery master switches to make the boat safe, particularly since the second switch may end up somewhere obscure?
The Outcome:
To make a long story short and after much to and fro, with Peter at Jack Rabbit Marine acting as intermediary, it transpired that there is a workaround that will make the MS2000 remember its settings. Fine, but what made this experience so irritating was that first I was told there was no solution. Then that changed and I was told that I must return the unit to be “evaluated”; no apology and no offer to pay for the shipping. Remember, this is a 70lb (32kg) unit and just getting it off its mounting and off the boat is non-trivial. It was only when Peter demonstrated, on my suggestion, that the MS2000 on his own boat exhibited the same problem, that Xantrex’s support department finally got with one of their engineers and figured out the solution—it is trivial and takes two minutes.
If I was not angry enough after all that, it transpired that the software revision on our unit is over a year out of date, this despite the fact that the unit drop-shipped direct from Xantrex. Wait, there’s more: I went from angry to incandescent when told that I would have to pay a $40.00 fee, plus a $150 deposit to borrow the necessary gadget, to upgrade our unit to the software that should have shipped on it in the first place. Say what? (Peter agreed to eat the fee, but we still have to pay the deposit and wait in line to get the gadget.)
Conclusions:
1). I’m an electronics technician by trade, albeit a very out of date one, and so knew when I was getting the runaround. How would a sailor with a less technical background have fared? Not a pretty picture.
2). In my experience, support situations are divided into two types: one, where the manufacturer’s mistake is the manufacture’s problem, and the other where the manufacturer tries to make their mistake the customer’s problem. This definitely fell into the latter category.
3). We are very glad that we bought the unit from a knowledgeable dealer with hands on marine experience who, after a bit of convincing, made our case, we suspect forcefully, to the manufacturer. It is unlikely that a deep discounter would have had the knowledge to help us bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.
4). In my opinion, it is just plain un-seamanlike to connect anything, other than the automatic bilge pump, directly to the battery. Yes, I know it is increasingly becoming common practice, but that does not make it right. In an electric fire or other emergency, or when I leave the boat unattended, I want to turn off one switch and know that everything on the boat is de-energized. It is fundamental in house wiring, why should a boat be different? Yes, I know the voltage is lower, but remember that an 8D battery can produce enough current to melt a screwdriver. Fire is not caused by voltage, but by current (amperage).
5). The Xantrex MS2000 looks like a really solid well built unit with a lot of desirable features, but because of this experience, we can’t recommend it.
Labels: Equipment
