Hi Gene, Glad you're back on the water. I so enjoyed reading of your previous exploits.
With respect to your power problem. I don't recall your battery complement but that will have a lot to do with your max current from the alternator. The battery size/type/number regulates the amount of current as much as the max from the charging source. A battery will only accept a certain amount of current, depending on the state of the battery. If you try to force it to accept more by increasing the voltage, the battery tends to boil. Another possibility, the wiring may be too small or have a high resistance connection somewhere between the output of the alternator and the batteries. At 50 amps 0.1 ohms resistance will drop 5 volts which will pretty much limit the current a bunch. Be sure you check the voltage at the battery at the start of the charging cycle with low batteries and make sure it is somewhere greater than 14 volts. If this is a 3 stage charging system, it should be 14.5 or greater. A third possibility is a bad battery bank. Just some possibilities. Jim. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Well, we have no exciting stories like sometimes in the past. But, for > us, it's a breakthrough. > > We've had this boat 2 years and finally made it out into the open > ocean. Not far, just 5 miles out. But, as far as I can determine, it's > not only the first time for us to go out in it, it's the first time > this boat has been in the open ocean - ever. And, for a 1974 40' Cheoy > Lee, that is quite a deal. > > Now, after spending a few days on the hook, we're evaluating what > we've learned. We learned that good working autopilots can quit at any > moment. I should have realized that, as I can't recall any deliveries > where the auto pilot worked the whole trip. Wait - I think the one on > the boat I took from Long Island sound to Jacksonville, Florida just > before 9/11 still worked when I got off. > > We learned we are big power hogs. I thought our 550 watts of solar > would come close to keeping up. It probably would for real > conservationists, but that is not us. Our 125 amp alternator that puts > out about 65 amps doesn't do enough. So, we're scratching our heads > and sharpening our pencils trying to decide what is the best next > step. We're about solared out - it would require covering the entire > cockpit to do much more, and that has been veto'd by the first mate. > Carrying our little Honda generator might help. But, I think I need to > build a jackshaft and hook up the big old 180 amp alternator Lew > talked me into buying some time ago. That would certainly help. > > We learned that, although the draft is listed at 4.5', when the depth > sounder says 5.3', brace yourself. > > We already knew that putting this 13' beam boat in a 13.1' slip is > quite a chore, so that wasn't new. > > We've noticed that the fridge runs about 95% of the time, and don't > see why. > > We learned that our new fuel tank and fuel system works very well. > > Nellie learned that, away from shore power, we can't run the tv, > microwave and toaster at once. > > We learned that downwind sailing without an autopilot is quite a bit > of work. But, we learned that on any other point of sail, balancing > the boat with the 3 sails (ketch) is just a joy. > > Anyway, more new lessons to come, I'm sure. > > Gene Gruender > Sun Chaser _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
