Back from Inside Passage (almost).
 

I got back from my summer trip but due to weather and crew problems we only
got as far as Queen Charlotte Straits.

It was a great trip and I have no regrets.. I don't regret any time I spend
aboard my boat.

Here are some observations and lessons learned.

Total trip= 793 nautical miles. (from GPS track)
Fuel used= 66 gal.
Eng. Hrs. = 165 hrs. (from log, engine meter was unreliable.)
Motor/Sail % = 95%
Water used (crew of 2) = 160 gal.
Trip duration = 28 days
Days at dock (Comox, BC) = 2

Comment on Redundancy of Equipment:
Prior to leaving and realizing the my Aries is worthless while motorsailing,
due to prop turbulence on vane servo oar. I upgraded my ole reliable AH3000
AP control to a ST5000 (mfg refurbished) control on an Alpha heavy duty
linear drive. I retained the wiring and mounting plugs for the old AH3000
and linear drive. During Sea Trials to calibrate the ST5000, the control
failed and would constantly trip the 15amp breaker (even with the drive
disconnected). I was unsure if the little AH3000 would survive the power
demands of the Alpha drive, but I insalled it with a 5 amp circuit breaker
between the drive and the control head. This worked fine and to my
knowledge, the breaker never tripped/reset. The control head never
complained and this Alpa Drive (looks like a domestic gate opener) handled
the very have tiller load in all conditions. (My Ingrid is close to 14 tons
with a stern mounted rudder and 6ft tiller.) I'm still planning to upgrade
my course/computer to get some of the AP interface features but now
considering a core/pack below deck computer with a handheld remote control
unit. (I already have the ST600R and plug-ins in several locations, left
over from the ST5000 installation.) I doubt I will find any electric linear
drive as power full as the Alpa Drive and I don't want the complication of
the hydraulics in the open cockpit.

As mentioned in much earlier posts, I have an 800 AH battery bank (4 ea.
Trojan LH-16 batteries). I also have a 2000watt inverter/140amp charger. The
primary load on this battery bank is a small frig and a small chest freezer.
Both have had their insulation upgraded. The frig and freezer are both
Norcold, however, the frig runs directly off 12 volts. I have had problems
getting the freezer to run off 12 volts (voltage drop and constant circuit
breaker trip) and run it on 110volt AC off the inverter.. This is a was to
power since the inverter must be left in "Sense Mode" which has some
overhead. Another reason to leave the inverter in "Sense Mode" is the for
the power converter for the Laptop. In fact any charger will cause the sense
mode to activate the inverter with even higher overhead.

I have two 56 watt solar panels with worked surprisingly well in the PacNW
and a WindBugger wind generator which can produce up to 15 amps in 25 knot
of wind and averages about 5-10 amps in less wind speed.

I have been playing around with several high amp automotive alternators for
the past couple seasons. The fields of these are controlled by a Weems-Plath
AutoMac II. It can handle any size alternator as long as the field current
is more than 10 amps. I set off with a 120amp Delco installed with twin Vee
belts. I was able to get 70-90 amps from this but the front bearing on this
one failed after about 80 hrs. I then installed a 100 amp Delco and was able
to charge at about 60 amps for another 80 hrs when it died from over heating
(I suspect). For the last 30 or so miles of the trip I ran on the old OEM 35
amp alternator which was no match for the large and partially discharged
battery bank. I kept the charge current low to prevent it from failing.
Lesson learned: (1) Look for a Balmar 200+ amp alternator.
(2) forget the freezer and carry a smaller supply of
meat in the frig (not worth trouble).
(3) Listen to the warnings from others in this
forum.

Minor problems/equipment failures: (1) Engine hour meter. I'm on my 2nds one
in as many years. The current one runs fast some days and slow others. I
have been taking totals form my daily log entries.
(2) OEM engine alarm module failed (false alarms after ~30 min.)
$140 for replacement (forget that, go aftermarket for $40)
(3) Fuel transfer meter/totalizer fails (sticks) after setting
idle for several days. I took it apart several times and suspect that an
O-ring seal is swelling up to tight around the shaft. Even though I can get
it to work, I have gone to timing the run time and calculating the amount of
fuel transferred.

I made the entire trip on the fuel I had onboard, found there were not fuel
discounts or non-road tax fuel in Canada.

OH! Yah! I should have purchase and additional supply of diesel before I
left and had it available to refill my tanks on return.. I could have saved
$64. (At departure I paid $1.95.9 for died fuel and yesterday I paid $2.59.9
some for my tractor.) I'll wait a while to refuel the boat. Still have
about 25 gals left onboard.

I still have enough canned/dry goods onboard for another trip or two. Really
overstocked. I probably took more tools that most, but then for a DIYer you
never can have too many. Never found a problem I couldn't fix with what I
had. Same with engine spares.

My Volvo MD2B ran flawlessly,as I expected. (it was installed new about 200
hrs ago). The current 3 blade 17X11 prop worked great however I may have
about an inch taken out of the pitch so I can get a couple hundred more RPM.
Hull speed of 7.5 were attainable at 2000 rpm (not bad for 25 hp pushing a
full keel 14 ton boat).

Well that's enough for now. Good to be home but I do regret that I couldn't
visit the sites in Alaska. I plan to revisit Queen Charlotte Straits next
year and beyond.

"A good traveller has not fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." Lao
Tzu

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Welcome back Steve,

Sounds like you did a lot of motorsailing. Were the winds too light to let
you just sail?

Steve wrote:

I got back from my summer trip but due to weather and crew problems we only
got as far as Queen Charlotte Straits.

It was a great trip and I have no regrets.. I don't regret any time I spend
aboard my boat.

Here are some observations and lessons learned.

Total trip= 793 nautical miles. (from GPS track)
Fuel used= 66 gal.
Eng. Hrs. = 165 hrs. (from log, engine meter was unreliable.)
Motor/Sail % = 95%
Water used (crew of 2) = 160 gal.
Trip duration = 28 days
Days at dock (Comox, BC) = 2

Comment on Redundancy of Equipment:
Prior to leaving and realizing the my Aries is worthless while motorsailing,
due to prop turbulence on vane servo oar. I upgraded my ole reliable AH3000
AP control to a ST5000 (mfg refurbished) control on an Alpha heavy duty
linear drive. I retained the wiring and mounting plugs for the old AH3000
and linear drive. During Sea Trials to calibrate the ST5000, the control
failed and would constantly trip the 15amp breaker (even with the drive
disconnected). I was unsure if the little AH3000 would survive the power
demands of the Alpha drive, but I insalled it with a 5 amp circuit breaker
between the drive and the control head. This worked fine and to my
knowledge, the breaker never tripped/reset. The control head never
complained and this Alpa Drive (looks like a domestic gate opener) handled
the very have tiller load in all conditions. (My Ingrid is close to 14 tons
with a stern mounted rudder and 6ft tiller.) I'm still planning to upgrade
my course/computer to get some of the AP interface features but now
considering a core/pack below deck computer with a handheld remote control
unit. (I already have the ST600R and plug-ins in several locations, left
over from the ST5000 installation.) I doubt I will find any electric linear
drive as power full as the Alpa Drive and I don't want the complication of
the hydraulics in the open cockpit.

As mentioned in much earlier posts, I have an 800 AH battery bank (4 ea.
Trojan LH-16 batteries). I also have a 2000watt inverter/140amp charger. The
primary load on this battery bank is a small frig and a small chest freezer.
Both have had their insulation upgraded. The frig and freezer are both
Norcold, however, the frig runs directly off 12 volts. I have had problems
getting the freezer to run off 12 volts (voltage drop and constant circuit
breaker trip) and run it on 110volt AC off the inverter.. This is a was to
power since the inverter must be left in "Sense Mode" which has some
overhead. Another reason to leave the inverter in "Sense Mode" is the for
the power converter for the Laptop. In fact any charger will cause the sense
mode to activate the inverter with even higher overhead.

I have two 56 watt solar panels with worked surprisingly well in the PacNW
and a WindBugger wind generator which can produce up to 15 amps in 25 knot
of wind and averages about 5-10 amps in less wind speed.

I have been playing around with several high amp automotive alternators for
the past couple seasons. The fields of these are controlled by a Weems-Plath
AutoMac II. It can handle any size alternator as long as the field current
is more than 10 amps. I set off with a 120amp Delco installed with twin Vee
belts. I was able to get 70-90 amps from this but the front bearing on this
one failed after about 80 hrs. I then installed a 100 amp Delco and was able
to charge at about 60 amps for another 80 hrs when it died from over heating
(I suspect). For the last 30 or so miles of the trip I ran on the old OEM 35
amp alternator which was no match for the large and partially discharged
battery bank. I kept the charge current low to prevent it from failing.
Lesson learned: (1) Look for a Balmar 200+ amp alternator.
(2) forget the freezer and carry a smaller supply of
meat in the frig (not worth trouble).
(3) Listen to the warnings from others in this
forum.

Minor problems/equipment failures: (1) Engine hour meter. I'm on my 2nds one
in as many years. The current one runs fast some days and slow others. I
have been taking totals form my daily log entries.
(2) OEM engine alarm module failed (false alarms after ~30 min.)
$140 for replacement (forget that, go aftermarket for $40)
(3) Fuel transfer meter/totalizer fails (sticks) after setting
idle for several days. I took it apart several times and suspect that an
O-ring seal is swelling up to tight around the shaft. Even though I can get
it to work, I have gone to timing the run time and calculating the amount of
fuel transferred.

I made the entire trip on the fuel I had onboard, found there were not fuel
discounts or non-road tax fuel in Canada.

OH! Yah! I should have purchase and additional supply of diesel before I
left and had it available to refill my tanks on return.. I could have saved
$64. (At departure I paid $1.95.9 for died fuel and yesterday I paid $2.59.9
some for my tractor.) I'll wait a while to refuel the boat. Still have
about 25 gals left onboard.

I still have enough canned/dry goods onboard for another trip or two. Really
overstocked. I probably took more tools that most, but then for a DIYer you
never can have too many. Never found a problem I couldn't fix with what I
had. Same with engine spares.

My Volvo MD2B ran flawlessly,as I expected. (it was installed new about 200
hrs ago). The current 3 blade 17X11 prop worked great however I may have
about an inch taken out of the pitch so I can get a couple hundred more RPM.
Hull speed of 7.5 were attainable at 2000 rpm (not bad for 25 hp pushing a
full keel 14 ton boat).

Well that's enough for now. Good to be home but I do regret that I couldn't
visit the sites in Alaska. I plan to revisit Queen Charlotte Straits next
year and beyond.

"A good traveller has not fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." Lao
Tzu

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Sounds like you did a lot of motorsailing. Were the winds too light to
let
you just sail?


There was enough wind to sail but most all the passages were through narrow
bodies of water or near shore to stay in a favorable current.

Speaking of current, these can reach considerable strength and it is routine
to schedule each days passage to take advantage of this.. Such planning can
add considerable number of miles to each days passage. In extreme cases, the
current can run at dangerously high speeds and create rips and rapids. I was
leery of Seymour Straits which can have currents of 12-14 knot but found, on
the return trip, that I could handle them at about 8 knot and keep the boat
under control. There were others that were not that friendly and I tried to
avoid them. Johnstone Straits (about 50 miles) was an interesting passage,
each way and I was able to cover that distance one tide (SOG 8-10 Knots).
While Deception Pass, with it's current and counter currents can be so
frustrating and should only be attempted at slack or near slack water. (I
just never learned how to 'read' the surface to determine which was which.)

However, all this is really a lot of fun, when you consider the navigation
challenges it presents. Especially when you arrive at your destination 3
hours before sun set/ahead of schedule.

I would guess-omate I rode the current for 80% of the tip since most
anchorage to anchorage passages were accomplished on a single tide.

Back to your question--- I could have sailed more but with an inexperienced
crew (and my habit of motorsailing) we usually had the engine going, if for
nothing else, to keep the battery bank charged.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Steve wrote:

Here are some observations and lessons learned.

Eng. Hrs. = 165 hrs. (from log, engine meter was unreliable.)
Motor/Sail % = 95%

I don't know if you found this statistic surprising. I did not.

Typically along-shore coastal cruising where some kind of schedule is
involved results in heavy engine usage. Long ago in the days when we took
the usual 2 week vacation cruise along the New England coast, we could
pretty much rest assured that we would be using the diesel quit a bit.

One example that stands out was a long-ago cruise in southern New England
during which we experienced almost ideal conditions for the entire 2 weeks.
We sailed at every opportunity and made 2 overnight passages largely under
sail. Still at the end of the cruise and during the following winter when I
looked at the statistics, I found that the engine was on nearly 80% of the
time we were underway.

What seems to happen to many folks is that they somehow forget to include
the hours used for picking up the anchor, coming alongside, fetching fuel,
moving around the anchorage, making that final long entry into and out of
the harbor, etc. When the _real_ numbers are examined, the hours add up
to surprisingly large totals. BTW, I am talking specifically about along
shore passages rather than an offshore leg of several days duration.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

Steve wrote:

There was enough wind to sail but most all the passages were through
narrow bodies of water or near shore to stay in a favorable current.

Speaking of current, these can reach considerable strength and it is
routine to schedule each days passage to take advantage of this..
Such planning can add considerable number of miles to each days
passage.

I think you meant to say "subtract" rather than add miles.

In extreme cases, the current can run at dangerously high
speeds and create rips and rapids ...
...
However, all this is really a lot of fun, when you consider the
navigation challenges it presents. Especially when you arrive at your
destination 3 hours before sun set/ahead of schedule.

I would guess-omate I rode the current for 80% of the tip since most
anchorage to anchorage passages were accomplished on a single tide.

This is quite true for me also. Many places in Maine and Nova Scotia also
provide an opportunity for such "fun."

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

"Armond Perretta"
Such planning can add considerable number of miles to each days
passage.

I think you meant to say "subtract" rather than add miles.


What I was meaning to say was "add considerable miles to a days run." .

I try to make anchorage, especially in a strange anchorage, in daylight
hours. If I have a favorable currents, I might continue another 20 miles to
a more distant anchorage.

I generally start in the early morning to catch a favorable tide. This
didn't make my crew very happy since he liked to sleep in and before I could
haul the anchor in, he had to move his bedding to open the chain locker
hatch. (this never kept him from going back to sleep after the anchor was on
deck). That's what you get when you invite a kid brother (53) along. Nothing
has changed since he sailed with me 40 years ago.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Steve wrote:
"Armond Perretta"
Steve wrote:

Such planning can add considerable number of miles to each days
passage.

I think you meant to say "subtract" rather than add miles.

What I was meaning to say was "add considerable miles to a days run."

I see what you mean. I generally set a destination, and the earlier I get
there the sooner the fun (eat/drink/make merry) begins. So currents can be
helpful in getting the festivities underway sooner.

... That's what you get when you invite a
kid brother (53) along. Nothing has changed since he sailed with me
40 years ago.

Well, I reckon you both spend less time in sailor bars by now (smile).

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare

"Steve" wrote in message
...

"Armond Perretta"
Such planning can add considerable number of miles to each days
passage.

I think you meant to say "subtract" rather than add miles.


What I was meaning to say was "add considerable miles to a days run." .

I try to make anchorage, especially in a strange anchorage, in daylight
hours. If I have a favorable currents, I might continue another 20 miles
to a more distant anchorage.

I generally start in the early morning to catch a favorable tide. This
didn't make my crew very happy since he liked to sleep in and before I
could haul the anchor in, he had to move his bedding to open the chain
locker hatch. (this never kept him from going back to sleep after the
anchor was on deck). That's what you get when you invite a kid brother
(53) along. Nothing has changed since he sailed with me 40 years ago.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions


That's what you get when you invite a kid brother (53) along.

Hey, don't complain too loudly. Neither of my kid brothers (49 and 51) are
interested in sailing.

28 days and only 2 days in a marina. Now that's what I call cruising. Way
to go.
Maybe you could list a few of your favourite anchorages for those of us
hoping to get up that way in the future.

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:09:43 -0400, "Armond Perretta"
wrote:

What seems to happen to many folks is that they somehow forget to include
the hours used for picking up the anchor, coming alongside, fetching fuel,
moving around the anchorage, making that final long entry into and out of
the harbor, etc. When the _real_ numbers are examined, the hours add up
to surprisingly large totals. BTW, I am talking specifically about along
shore passages rather than an offshore leg of several days duration.

The question also becomes one of what are you trying to measure? The
percentage that matters to me is how much of the time am I motoring
when I would rather be sailing? The answer is still too big a number,
of course.

Also, a lot of the incidental engine hours are low load, low fuel
consumption and low noise, so they don't add as much wear and tear on
the engine, the budget or the crew.

I've put on about 1500 miles this summer, with a good chunk more
needed to get the boat home. I think the mix of power to sail has been
similar on both longer passages and short days. We encountered
entirely too much flat water out in the middle of the Lakes and are
eager enough to hoist sail at just about every opportunity.

Ryk

Ryk wrote:
"Armond Perretta" wrote:

What seems to happen to many folks is that they somehow forget to
include the hours used for picking up the anchor, coming alongside,
fetching fuel, moving around the anchorage, making that final long
entry into and out of the harbor, etc. When the _real_ numbers are
examined, the hours add up to surprisingly large totals. BTW, I am
talking specifically about along shore passages rather than an
offshore leg of several days duration.

The question also becomes one of what are you trying to measure? The
percentage that matters to me is how much of the time am I motoring
when I would rather be sailing? The answer is still too big a number,
of course.

Quite. However sailors tend to think that they should, in general, _always_
be sailing. This is apparently some kind of romantic and impractical notion
that still lingers, and that has little relevance to sailing as it is
practiced by most people. Most people have to get back to work on Monday
and they need a diesel to do it in the vast majority of cases.

Also, a lot of the incidental engine hours are low load, low fuel
consumption and low noise, so they don't add as much wear and tear on
the engine, the budget or the crew.

They still count as engine house no matter the load, and it is the ratio of
engine hours to hours underway (in the strict sense) that surprises those
people who have never kept detailed records.

I've put on about 1500 miles this summer, with a good chunk more
needed to get the boat home. I think the mix of power to sail has been
similar on both longer passages and short days. We encountered
entirely too much flat water out in the middle of the Lakes and are
eager enough to hoist sail at just about every opportunity.

My reference to coastal versus offshore was made in my own context. Here on
the East Coast the offshore destination most people like to do is Bermuda,
and most sailboats simply cannot motor to Bermuda (although they invariably
motor a part of the way).

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare