Merry Christmas in July from a buddy on the Wooden Boat forum. OK, knotmeter requirement, checked off!
Attachment 5624
Printable View
Merry Christmas in July from a buddy on the Wooden Boat forum. OK, knotmeter requirement, checked off!
Attachment 5624
One 150 Ah deep cycle AGM battery, or two 75 AH deep cycle batteries? If I buy two, I'll have to replace the main switch. If I go with one, the charging questions are easier...the charge controller is cheaper. But if I get two, one can fail and I still have a significant amount of battery capacity. One battery is easier to put together right now, and I'm starting to feel the crunch of time. Two months to go, to the qualifier.
The PVC models got taken to Svendsens metal shop yesterday, and an orange dry bag with shoulder straps, which I will line with flat foam for both flotation and protection of the contents, has been ordered for a ditch bag. I'm slowly working away on the list. I suspect that I will not have a windvane in September, but we'll see.
Greg Nelson convinced me to look at the flexible Sunpower 50W panels, and I'm convinced. Two have been ordered. Reading through some threads here on the forum, I'm also convinced that an MPPT charge regulator is the way to go, so now to find a simple MPPT, dual-battery regulator.
I'm gonna have questions for all you experts here, when it comes time to set them up.
Tonights "after work but before dinner" project.
Attachment 5626
Now I have to do the same thing for the plates I got for the "primary backup tiller" which is the epoxied-together bits of my former primary tiller.
Haven't seen a dual battery MPPT solar controller from the usual brands. Usually people get two controllers or since they will be in roughly the same location you could get away with one but lose a bit of efficiency. I still favor the Victron Energy models.
Those panels need to go on a twin-wall polycarbonate panel to aid in cooling and preferably something stiffer behind that.
Something like this?
https://www.acplasticsinc.com/catego...-polycarbonate
Attachment 5627
The tillers are taking forever....meanwhile, nothing else gets done.
There's no way I will have the windvane working by Sept.
Ordered the MPPT charge controller, and a 100 AH deep cycle AGM battery. That should work for September.
Item #6 on the list...check!
Attachment 5633
I gave them a quick sand and a coat of satin exterior polyurethane, too. The "backup" hatchboard is on the sawhorses, drying from two coats of exterior latex. The one I just cut out replaces the bottom two, originals. There's a really thick, clear acrylic board which is a duplicate of board #3, so with that, plus the new one I made today, I can mostly close off the companionway, even if I lose the other boards, overboard. Maybe I should put a Wildcat decal on it!
Tiller stuff....new primary tiller. Here are the side plates, still need to get them punched for the hinge bolt.
Attachment 5636
Here's the pad for the attachment of the autopilot pin. I'll drill into the center of the metal plates/red oak "sandwich" (which is epoxied together - I scratched up the metal first) and drop the ST 2000 pin in there, with some JB Weld.
Attachment 5637