SV Gallant Fox

"Tho' much is taken, much abides;"

"...and tho’ we are not now that strength which in the old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are….”

So.  Here I am, performing a kettlebell squat* with our 20Kg/44 lb. anchor.  The smaller anchor at my feet is our 10Kg/22 lb. stern anchor.  Look how shiny.  Malö sure makes purty ground tackle, don’t they?

This demonstration of lifting a dangerously asymmetrical weight over my head with one hand may very well be the pinnacle of my physical training.  A 20Kg/44lb. lift is considered fairly light in the world of kettlebells, but I have worked very hard to be able to do this and I have 3 MDs, a physical therapist, and 2 rehab trainers** to thank for getting me this far.  This here kettlebell lift is classified as Not Bad, for a middle aged hypertensive asthmatic with a bunch of spinal problems & one leg that sometimes doesn’t work right.  (Like for 14 months at a time.)

All modesty aside, it took a lot of demanding work to achieve a lift like this.  Kettlebell lifts in general are advanced weight training maneuvers, and are very challenging in terms of breath control and form.  In other words, fun and gratifying.  I encourage every one of you to play around with kettlebell style lifts, but study a little and lift light in the beginning.  I’m talking, do a kettlebell squat starting with no heavier than a 5lb. dumbbell.  Many people – especially men who fancy themselves real bully-boys – think that if an old broad like me can lift 44lb., so can they.  I say:  lift heavy at your peril.  If anyone out there tries this lift without a full understanding of how to move, and that most of the power comes from your lower abs, obliques, lats, quads and glutes working in harmony, you will most likely tear up your rotator cuff and probably rip up an elbow joint or your erector spinae – and you might also drop the weight on your own head/foot or someone else’s.  I do not lie.

Anyway.

I am so happy to be able to do things like this.  My advice to all of you:  be aggressive in maintaining your good health, all the time, every day.  It slips away when you’re not looking.

*Kettlebells are used for kool old-skool full body weight training.  Can be performed in a standard gym with standard dumbbells.  Hands down the funnest weight lifting tool ever.  See, e.g., that nut Pavel Tsatsouline or the crazy-faced fellas at Dolfzine.

**Deborah Klein MD, Stan Herring MD & Ray Baker MD [thanks for the neurotomy; may I have another?]; Jan Schaeffer; Todd Pratt (fmr) & Tim Nausin, Athletic Engineering [those guys are animals].

Skymate 100 - Boat Projects Gone Bad

My sophisticated new antenna mounting system - note the carefully constructed tower made out of a boat hook and electrical tape....

We wanted to have some sort of e-mail on the boat.  Most people are installing an SSB and using a modem - this is a $4,000-$6,000 project, depending on how much of it you can do yourself.  Also - its old technology - like 1960's.  Their are a lot of problems getting it to work right.  Grounding issues, installation of copper gounding plate, high voltage antenna tuners, etc.  We had originally decided to go this way, so had the boat built with a sea ground plate (dynaplate) and an insulated backstay.  However, the more people I talked to, the more they sounded dissatisfied With this system, especially in relation to the cost.  The SSB was great if you wanted to talk to people underway, or participate in long range cruising nets.  Well, we don't like to talk to people, especially on the radio.  We always argue about who's turn it is to have to talk on the radio.  So we decided to try the Skymate.

MY new Skymate 100 satellite e-mail system promised ease of installation - why do they all say that - we all know nothing is easy on a boat!

The first problem was mounting an antenna.  When you first read about the Skymate - you get the impression that you can use just any old VHF antenna.  I thought I could hook it up to an existing antenna and use a two way switch.  That might have worked - except the problem was the antenna mounted on the masthead uses Euro style fittings.  I was not able to locate adapters here in the USA.  Maybe they are around, but the places I looked did not seem to have them or know about them.  American antenna come in a range of fitting styles, "B" fitting, Motorola, RCA - there are three or four different types.  I now have a small box full of these fittings......

The Skymate folks recommend using their proprietary antenna - it is tuned to a 140 to 170MHZ band.  This is a different wavelength than an antenna tuned to receive HF broadcasts - these are in the 2-30MHZ range.  They recommend it be mounted up high, and three feet away from any other antenna.  I tested this around the stern of the boat with their antenna tapped to a boat hook.  Guess what - it works a lot better up high, above the radar dome, then it does mounted low on the rail.  The computer allows you to evaluate the reception  (this is a really neat device, by the way).  The Skymate folks are really nice - they get back to you right away with e-mail (I mean in less than 1 hour).  They dropped shipped me an antenna cable and actually called me on the telephone!  E-mail "Chris Irwin" <cirwin@skymate.com> - for skymate information - he was of great help.

As you can see here - the Skymate involves quite a few wires - I usually keep a small libation inside the electrical cabinet to help get me through these sorts of problems.

The Skymate itself is a smallish sort of unit.  One of the problems is that it came with a 9 pin serial output.  I had to get a serial adapter to get the unit plugged into the USB port of the computer.  Why such a sophisticated piece of equipment came with a 1980's style of hookup I will never know.  Getting the computer to talk to the Skymate was a bit of a hassle.

The installation is starting to get a bit under control here...

The navigation station comes apart into many pieces - no wonder I drink all of that gin...(Marianne gets scared when this happens - but I have always gotten it back together again.

The Skymate has a dedicated 12 volt connection with an inline 1 amp fuse.  You leave it turned on at the nav station, and it acquires satellites.

This is the finished installation.  It fit quite nicely up on the wall of the station.  The connection to the USB port goes through the bottom of the cabinet.  There is a little light that installs on the outside of the cabinet to let you know when there is an incoming message.

I will be finishing this up this weekend and post about how it seems to work.  Right now, we have contact with the satellite and have received our first weather forecast from NOAA - it took about 40 minutes.

The Alaska Eagle Experience - Part 1

The Proud Parent - "Gallant Fox" wrapped in plastic, newly arrived from Sweden.

The Alaska Eagle is a 65' Sparkman and Stevens designed cutter that was in the Whitbread around the World race sometime in the 1970's or so.  Its original name was "Flyer'  The boat is now operated as an ocean going classroom for would be cruisers by the Orange Coast College of Seamanship.  http://www.occsailing.com/pages/eagle.html.  We sailed on the leg in 2001 that went from Easter Island to Puerto Montt, Chile - a distance of about 2,400 miles.  We would recommend this type of training to anyone thinking about going offshore.  We picked this leg because we knew it would be very frisky, since it was early spring, and it ranged between the Horse Latitudes at Easter Island - 27' South latitude - down into  42' South latitude where we could pick the Westerlies.  Needless to say, we had both calms and gales on the trip.  Our view about sailing and heavy weather were profoundly altered by this experience.  Here is a copy of the thank you letter we sent to the Skipper and First Mate - Rich and Sheri Crowe.  They are both still skippering the Eagle over the Western Pacific for some part of the year.

Underway in the Gallant Fox off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.

July 25,2002

Dear Sheri, Rich, and Vito:

Marianne and I wanted to write and thank you for the great experience we had sailing on Alaska Eagle from Easter Island to Puerto Montt.

October 2001 seems like a long time ago now.  We have been following Eagle, and you three, through her adventures on the web site since then.  In some ways, its almost like we were still there.  Crews repeatedly reported about Vito’s wonderful cooking, Rich and Sheri’s patience, and the great efforts you three make to ensure a successful voyage.  MS and I would agree with all of this.

Rich told us that a lot of the things we learned on the Eagle would not be apparent, but might come to fruition several years down the road.  It’s not like a manual, or a class that you experience for a few hours.  I remember being on the pitching foredeck in the storm right at dusk, when Rich told us that if you go overboard, you are lost. Period.  Or the way Sheri constantly monitored the running backstay tension through the night as we nursed the boat and its cracked mast through the storm.  I remember how hard all three of you worked to keep our spirits up during the storm – watching your behavior during this dangerous time, and how you all calmly dealt with whatever came along, was the best lesson of all.  I will always remember when Sheri was hit in the middle of the night by something resembling a fifty-gallon barrel of seawater thrown sideways.  She laughed long and hard while driving the boat up a thirty-foot high wall of water.

The wind and waves of Puget Sound are not the same anymore.  After 35-foot waves, 50 plus knot winds, and the white waves of water hitting the Eagle, there is very little that frightens us about the Sound anymore.  We look at each other and smile knowingly - this is not the roaring 40’s.  And our mast is not broken.

These lessons have helped us as we put together our new boat – Gallant Fox.  We both know we are prone to seasickness, so we will prepare accordingly when we next go offshore.  In looking back at my own experiences on Eagle I feel a lot like the Homer Simpson of offshore sailing.  I always seemed to be about a half a beat behind the rest of the crew - MS always said I had a unique way of learning.  From the Eagle though, I took a set of experiences and impressions that continue to resonate. 

We wish you all best – may we meet once again in the fjords of Chile.

MS speaking, now:

Rich, Sheri, Vito - you and the Eagle taught us many lessons, but you also taught us a different way of seeing.  Gary and I continue to experience the vagaries of sailing (shackles loosening, lines fouling, weather suddenly shifting), but it seems that after our time on the Eagle we are able to learn more from the things that happen to us.  We each seem to have internalized broad principles, rather than having simply learned specific ways of doing specific things.  We now understand better what is happening, and recognize more of what we need to do, when things go awry.  For broadening our minds, and allowing us to better understand what is going on around us, Gary and I continue to thank you every time we go out on the water.  Our new sailboat, Gallant Fox, would also like to thank you because after having sailed on the Eagle, her skipper and crew are now better able to understand what she is trying to tell them!  So, for all your generosity, patience, and attention to the mistakes and fumblings of two novices, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you."

MS underway at the Broken Group, Canada

Galley Essentials: Part 1

This is the start of a rambling and highly opinionated series of essays about stocking a galley the propane chef way...

Every modern offshore cruising book I have every read contains a section called "Galley Essentials".

Why do they call it this?  Usually this section is packed full of good and not so good information about preparing a galley for cooking offshore. There are sections on storage, needed equipment, needed food stocks, and usually some recipes.  These stocks and recipes often reveal the writer's taste in food.  If you find lots of can goods, prepackaged meals, and culinary shortcuts - well - it reveals if you are dealing with a gourmet, or just somebody writing a section in a book.

You can tell a  lot about how well a person cooks by the types of vinegar they have aboard.  In our old house - my long suffering wife once counted 11 different types of vinegar - several types of balsamic of various qualities, sherry vinegar, raspberry vinegar, red vinegar, rice vinegar,cider vinegar, white vinegar, champagne vinegar - you get the idea.

Living aboard now, though, I usually have only about 4-5 - these are - balsamic, red, cider, white, and rice. (The white vinegar is mostly for cleaning the boat).  These meet all of my needs.  Vinegar can be used to marinate meats, make sauces, and enliven vegetables.  A tablespoon of balsamic, mixed with olive oil, capers, chopped green olives, and a tiny bit of shallot or garlic - makes a delightful sauce for almost any cut of fish or meat.  I always have these ingredients on board.

I have talked about Bill Seifert's Offshore Sailing book.  He has a smallish section in this book about galley essentials, and a lot of lists.  Under his "staple supplies", he lists balsamic, cider, and capers.   He is the offshore gourmet, and clearly no poser!!  He gets negative marks for listing bottled teriyaki sauce (lets not even mention the bullion cubes) - since this sauce is so easy to make, and homemade tastes so much better than bottled:

1/2 cup high quality soy (no Kikoman here), 2 tablespoons Sake, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 tsp of arrowroot starch, and 3 minutes of propane yields a great teriyaki.  You can use leftovers to make other sauces - add a bit of butter and some dry wasabi (Japanese horseradish) to make a pan sauce for salmon, or black cod, or pork cutlets.  We love to drink Sake' - so I cook a bit of Japanese something every week or two.  But I don't use so much teriyaki that I want to store a bottle of it around in my precious storage space - also, the botttled stuff tastes like salt.  I think Bill only sails on large yachts with big crews though, since he is such a rock star and has a book and everything.  So maybe its alright for him to buy bottled teriyaki sauce...

So - I think these galley essentials sections are about offshore cookery most of the time.  This makes no sense to me.  I really don't intend to cook offshore much - sailing offshore is my diet plan!  I have found that offshore, I have little appetite.  The days and nights are long, the sleep infrequent and usually unrestful.  I was three weeks offshore once and lost 12 pounds - boy it was great.  Nothing like a lot of seasickness to really clean a body out.....(more on offshore food later).

These books are largely written by people whose business is to sell you an idea - to get you to go offshore sailing - or buy a boat, or  go to their classes or use their services.  They are not gourmets  (except for Bill).  They have a vested interest.  I have been to a lot of classes, and they are wonderful for preparing you to go sailing - to a point.   But here in America, where our entire culture is based on consumerism - you have to be a little mistrustful of anything anybody tells you when there is something they want to sell you -  be it a product, like an expensive class, or a dream, like sailing away and going cruising.  They want you to believe that you can live on a boat just like you lived on land, and that offshore sailing is within the reach of everybody - Poppycock!

I went on the Alaska Eagle for an offshore training cruise once.  A wonderful experience I would recommend for all wannabe offshore sailors (provided you pick a windward leg).  The advertisement said the cook prepared fresh bread while on board.  I asked Vito the cook about this and he laughed and laughed and laughed.  So, the next day, I baked up a batch of beer bread with a couple of the cans of beer out of the case I had brought aboard - but was not able to drink because I was seasick.  We want to preserve truth in maritime advertising, I told Vito, and he thought that was so funny....

When preparing a meal I ofter use 3-4 different types of knives - for chopping, boning a meat, or trimming a vegetable.  I like to keep them out of the way, and this magnetic knife rack works really well on a bulkhead.  Naturally, when we are sailing we take them down and store them in a knifeholding type of bag and in the drawer.

Fuel Filter Upgrade

The primary fuel filter on a diesel engine has always been a mystery to me.  On my old sailboat, a 1985 Hunter 34, which I co-owned with my good buddy Larry, it was a thing of mystery to both of us.  Once, he decided to clean the filter right before we left on a trip to the San Juan Islands.  Larry took the whole filter apart and cleaned it right up - unfortunately, neither of us knew anything about bleeding the engine.  We started the boat up alright, let it idle for a bit, then started to cast off right when the engine quit.  No fuel.  That led to a whole cascading series of event too embarrassing to relay here, but ended with the engine filled with salt water, and, nither of us knew it!  Some lessons must be learned the hard way.

Another time, MS and I were off the coast of Marrowstone Island, about 25 miles from Seattle.  We were in fog, the GPS was saying that we were two miles inland, and a big tanker was barreling down on us and honking.  Of yes, we were surging in the waves, kicking up all kinds of gunk in the tank and, naturally, the filter clogged at the worst possible moment.  The engine stopped running right, and billowed white smoke  (what the hell does that mean!) and we had no engine power.  I thought it was a filtering problem, but had no idea what to do.  We raised sail in about 5 knots of wind, drifted out of the way of the tanker, and pondered the fuel filter.

So, our beautiful new Malo 39 came with a fuel filter called a Lucas filter.  It was solid, round, and did not look easy to open.  Nobody in Seattle had heard about it.  Mike explained to me that the Lucas met EU specifications because it was solid and fireproof.  Nobody I talked to knew about replacement filters.

Also - it was English ( as in British).  I had a British motorcycle once (1966 Triumph 650 cc Bonneville) which I spent my entire youth trying to keep running.  Since then - I have a distinct mistrust of British engineering  ( I also had an Italian espresso maker that tended to explode and send coffee everywhere, but that is another story).

So - that filter had to go.

We choose to go with a Racor 500 MA.  This is a quick change filter where the element drops in from above.  This keeps problems with bleeding the engine to a minimum.  We also installed it with a vacuum gauge.  This allows for reading the back pressure on the filter.  When it gets up into the yellow area, you need to watch out because the filter is getting dirty.  You probably can not see this happening, even though it is a glass filter in which you can see the diesel fuel.  I think that if the fuel is so dirty you can see the dirt in it, you probably have a bigger problem than changing the filter element.

This was a very easy, $200 upgrade, and the Racor slipped right into the area where the Lucas was.  The little aluminum bowl at the bottom is a flame guard for meeting US Coast Guard regulations, not draining the filter.  To do that you open a drain on the bottom and spill the fuel everywhere, like you have to do with every other filter.....

Another problem was bleeding the engine.  We solved that by installing an inline automobile fuel pump.  This $80 pump goes right in line with the fuel line.  Flick a switch and it pressuries the filter and bleeds fuel down through the secondary filter.  I got this idea from a great book by Bill Seifert  (former editor of Practical Sailor) called "Offshore Sailing - 200 Passagemaking Tips".  This is a great book full of all kinds of practical information.  He is a gourmet, and even has some recipes in the book which the Propane Chef approves of -  though they are a bit simple, and velveeta cheese is in one of them!

The pump is the copper looking cylinder to the left of the circuit box.  The switch is mounted in an external outlet box.  I took a diesel maintenance class in which the instruction recommended this sort of arrangement, though he preferred it on a bypass  (two - three way valves connected by a bridging line)  As you can see, there is no way to do this, since the space is tight.  If this pump fails, there is a sight possibility of line blockage, though it is very slight.

The Iron Palate

The most ironic aspect of GB's and my relationship is my lack o'taste buds and food memory.  I have dined well with this man in many countries, but I have a limited sense of smell and therefore taste (I blame my asthma).  As such my recall of meals past is hazy, at best.  In contrast, the Propane Chef remembers every detail of every meal he has ever had, or has seen others enjoy.  GB has gazed lovingly across his martini glass at me, and said, "Baby, do you remember when we were in Toledo, Spain, in 1985, and we had that magnificent dinner at that restaurant by the river?  You had that really terrific partridge; do you remember what I had???"

"...."

One cannot fake a reply to such a query.  Thus the poor Propane Chef becomes crestfallen, and my soul aches at the spectacle of his loneliness.

Propane Chef has married a woman who, when left to her own devices, eats meals like "fat free cottage cheese with a side of steel cut oats," and "pouch tuna, with an apple chaser."  In other words, the worst possible match for the extraordinary cook that the Propane Chef is.  But I try to please, oh yes.  His meals are both wholesome AND toothsome.  Very high yummy factor.  Which is why I'm about 20lbs. above optimal weight [more like 30lbs. - GB].  Nevertheless, despite my limitations, I try very hard to appreciate all the wonderful food the Propane Chef prepares for me - it is a great gift, and in exchange I need only give him all my money.  [Don't be fooled. I have watched MS eat for the past 2 decades or so, and it's never been a struggle for her - she can unhinge her jaw so far, she looks like a Burmese python eatin' a salt water crocodile - GB]

Despite my lack of food sophistication, I can vouch for the fact that all the photos he takes of his culinary work are unretouched, and his descriptions completely accurate.  Follow the Propane Chef, and you, too, have the potential to cook incredibly good food on a boat, on a hibachi in your back yard, on a single-burner stove while backpacking -- heck, even in a conventional kitchen.  Let the hedonism continue.

Some People Describe Their Lives as Soap Operas -

Ours is more like a sitcom.

GB has written some very impressive posts in this here blog.  I can assure you that everything he says is true.  However, I should like to add a bit of perspective, lest a reader or two assume that GB is an infallible genius not only at the culinary arts but at maritime mechanical engineering as well.  Please keep in mind, Gentle Reader, that GB is also the man who:

(1) stated - in public:  "Never count coup until your chickens crow in the morning."  [We believe he meant to say, "Never count your chickens before they hatch," but when we asked GB to explain, he confessed he himself hadn't been listening to what he was thinking.]

(2) almost walked into a bear - twice.

(3) set his own pillow on fire.

(4) failed to notice I had slipped and almost fallen overboard, and was hanging only by the grab bars on the outside of our boat's cockpit, WHILE HE STOOD LESS THAN THREE FEET AWAY FROM ME.

So the hilarity and hijinks are pretty much 24-7 here on the Gallant Fox.  I am the Ethel Mertz to GB's Lucy Ricardo; the George Burns to his Gracie Allen; the Squiggy to his Lenny.  These are our stories.

MS in one of her most fetching outfits  (GB).

KISS Wind Generator Installation

To genset or not to genset, that was the question.......

I studied this issue for close to two years before making a decision.  I looked at specifications.  Talked to dealers.  Talked to owners of gensets and would be owners.  Talked to Marianne (my wife) a lot - this decision had the potential to creat a lot of trouble for me....

Tom - owner of a beautiful Malo 42, installed a genset and he helped with insight and advice.  Anyway I looked at this though, it was going to cost about $10,000-12,000, and take up a large amount of my port lazerrette space.  That's a lot of money - about what I needed to spend to finish outfitting the boat.  But more important was the space.  Also, the permanency of the installation.  Two new holes in the boat (big ones) for water and exhaust.  New fuel lines.  Holes in the cockpit for instruments! Foul smoke in anchorages, and another way to annoy your cruising neighbors.  Powerboat people have gensets, and they are evil.....

If you make this decision, there is no going back.

Also, what about the oil changing every 100 hours.  Do you want an AC or a DC genset.  Then - there is keeping the damn thing going.  I knew AC was out - the regulators are far to complicated.  I followed a number of cruisers for a couple of years who had AC genset - they all had problems in far away places....  So it would be DC - wait - what about the sound blanket- can't have all that pesky noise aboard - opps - that's $1,500 - but wait - won't that sound blanket make any high output DC alternator overheat.  Right, you need some sort of cooling system, with fans, and hose, and an air intake.

I really wanted a genset though.  All that power at the push of a button.  Its hidden below, out of the way.  I could make hot water with it.  Besides, its not that hard to maintain - those single cylinder Kubotas are foolproof!!

Well, I knew we needed something.  Don't want to run a 56 horsepower engine every other day to charge my batteries.  The biggest mistake people make is to underestimate their power draw while at anchor.  Up here in the northwest, with such iffy winds, we motor a lot and that keeps the batteries charged.  Also, we had never had the time to hang out someplace for more than a few days.  When cruising, ideally we would be someplace for weeks - and we wanted to be at anchor.  We don't like marinas (except when we are out of gin).  So, we needed about 100 watts of solar power, and a wind generator, or a genset.

So- we choose a wind generator.  Its cheap (relatively).  It's reliable.  If I don't want it anymore I can take it off the boat and sell it, or throw it away.  But which wind generator?

That parts easy - spend a year walking, or paddling up to, every wind generator you can find and listen to them.  Which ones won't drive you crazy with the noise it makes?

We choose the KISS because it is quiet.  Many other cruisers have chosen the KISS, because it makes a lot of power, and is relatively quiet.

Here is a longish view of the generator on the boat.  We mounted it on a 9.5' pole manufactured for us by Island Marine Products in Florida - http://www.islandmarineproducts.com/wind_generator.htm

These guys - Arnie Swanson - were great.  They were also very affordable compared to the costs here in the northwest.  They build a pole with a custom strut for $650.  It is a great pole - polished steel with 1" struts - no cheesy aluminum pole for this boat!

A view of the three part strut.  The struts form a triangular base for the generator.  I must confess that I designed the smaller strut you see.  This attaches to the top rail on the stern.  The rails on a Malo are really impressive - heavy 11/4" highly poliched steel - and I wanted to take advantage of that strength.  This is a really solid installation that cuts down on the vibration from the generator.  We have had it going in 20 knots - the generator makes a good loud whoosh, - the the vibration is hardly noticeable in the cockpit and not at all below.

The generator will start to put out about 4 amps at 10 knots.  This goes up progressively higher as the knots increase.  We don't have a good sense about this now - but we seem to be getting about 10 amps at 15 knots.  The output runs into a Trace 40 charge controller.  This charge controller bleeds off excess current into a resistor bank.  This bank is mounted near the stern of the boat where the shaft leave the hull.  (There was a lot of space back there.)  We needed the controller to prevent an excessive charge from getting to our gel batteries.  It's a mult stage charge controller, so it has a bulk, absorption, and float voltage range, and temperature compensation - fancy talk for a thermometer on the battery bank that senses if it is getting too hot.

Typically, the charge controller will rarely be used, since your batteries are hardly ever fully charged when cruising, and tend to float in the 50-80 percent full range.

We got the KISS from Hotwire - http://www.svhotwire.com/index.html - John and his wife Libby are great - they actually carried my generator across the county from Florida to the Oakland boat show and mailed it to me from there.  A part had been delayed in arriving.  Now - that is customer service!

We call the wind generator our "spinny".  The specifications provided on the Hotwire web site are correct, and John and Libby provided a lot of help during the installation.

The package came with good instructions, and was not hard to install (relatively).  All of the struts need to be thru-bolted.  There is a lot of heavy 8 gauge cable (for the resistor bank) and ten gauge wiring for the current.  I had to tap holes in the toerail, since the rails are backed by steel, and thread the mounting bolts through. The nice thing about the installation is that the spinny output can run in parallel with the output from the alternator.  In other words, I did not have to string 4 gauge wiring from one end of the boat to the other, but was able to tap into a common terminal with the alternator output.  The charge controller does not divert current below 14.85 volts, so that the alternator output is never diverted (it is on its own controller).  The spinny volt output is above that, so it's properly diverted, as necessary, when the controller reads the battery voltage.

We love our spinny.  The sound it makes is free power, creating ice cubes for my martini.  Once this summer, we were motoring and going to windward in about 20 knots, and boy, with the alternator and wind generator running we made some amps in a very quick time!

I still want a genset though.....think... all that power... (I just can't help myself).

I love this place - Despair.com - the posters and cards are called "demotivators" - it sums up my whole attitude toward offshore sailing....

Electrical Service Upgrade

Marianne and  I had the first Malo custom built for the American market.   In that sense we got a great deal on the boat.  But also, Malo and Discovery Yachts were just learning to work together.  It probably did not help that our boat broker quit right in the middle of the project, and the owner of Discovery, Mike Locatel, jumped in to help.  Everything turned out fine, and it was a great experience in international finance for me.

One of the issues, however, was installation of the electrical service.  Malo had a stock service they sold for a very small amount of money,  Unfortunately, they were used to doing it in 240 VAC, which is the standard in Europe.  They obligingly did ours in 110VAC, the American standard.  I knew I would be upgrading this system when I bought it.  Here is what happened:

The first step was an upgrade in the entry service.  My original service came with two circuits.  I upgraded the box to the maximum that would fit in the space, but keeping with the European look.  The entry cabling was upgraded to 8 gauge.  ( I did not do this work, but contracted it out).

The new five circuits include a heating/AC circuit at 20 amps,  two 10 amp circuits for the water heater and battery charger, one five amp circuit for the computer, and one 10 amp for general outlets.

We also installed a very neat thing called an automatic transfer switch, which Malo kindly provided us.  This switch senses the current at the main - either AC or DC, and switches the circuits from the entry service to the inverter.  This switch does not switch the water heater or the charger circuit from AC to DC, only the plug circuits. 

I then strung a lot of 14/3  and 12/3 marine grade cable throughout the boat.  (I did this part - it took forever).  All of the plug circuits were placed on Ground Fault interrupter (GFI) circuits.  Up near the headliner is a 20 amp circuit to take an AC unit in the midships hatch, without having to dangle electrical extension cables everywhere.

Taking things to an extreme level, I also installed electrical boxes in each of the forward and aft lockers.  These are dedicated to installing "golden rod"  heating elements.  These are tiny little heaters that produce a small amount of heat to keep mildew out of lockers.  They work on AC only, and feel slightly war to the touch.  If clothing accidentally brushes up next to them there is no danger from fire.  We lost quite a bit of expensive clothing to mildew the first year living aboard, until we discovered these rods - we have three forward and one aft.  They have solved all of our mildew problems.