Cutting the Boom
Weather helm is the tendency of a boat to turn itself into the wind (weather). Too much weather helm and she’s not only hard to steer but slower than if balanced. How do you counteract the tendency for the boat to turn into the wind? You turn the rudder. So, the more weather helm the […]
Taking Out the Trash
There are a lot of things I never thought I’d get excited about until we moved on a boat, and the trash can is one of them. The trash can has been a problem since we “remodeled” the galley. The old trash can was a hole in the middle of the countertop. It wasted a lot […]
Which Cabin Fans Work Best?
We’ve had three Caframo Bora fans installed in the boat for about 4 years now. On the plus side, they work. On the minus side they’re noisy (they rattle) and they’re hard to clean. And when they get dirty they get noisier. It’s a vicious cycle. We have one Hella brand oscillating fan over the […]
Tank Tender, Dorade Guards and Mast Pulpits
Tank Tender One of the previous owners installed a Tank Tender for checking the level of the diesel tank and the single water tank that was original to this boat. The Tank Tender uses air pressure through a little tube that goes into the tank. The excess air pressure bleeds off until the air pressure […]
Power Management (Victron Multiplus)
Victron Multiplus We bought a new Victron Multiplus 3000 watt charger/inverter in November 2017 and finally finished installing it. Here’s a little video of what we did. CO Detectors Rich had a little time off work so he was able to finished up a few little projects as well. We have two carbon monoxide detectors […]
Rebuilding the Bilge Pump
Several years ago we took the very large manual bilge pump out of the bilge so we could clean and paint the bilge. Then we forgot about it, as it was tucked away in the shop. Last April I decided it was time to take it apart and clean it up. Bilge Pump Rebuild We […]
2017 Projects Recap
Sometimes it’s hard to remember all the work we’ve done on this boat. I’m glad we document pretty much everything we do, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to remember it all. As this year was coming to an end, I was excited to look back at our posts and videos to see what we had […]
LiFePO4 Batteries
LiFePO4 vs. AGM Plan A for our batteries were the Firefly International Energy AGMs (absorbed glass mat). Earlier this year we heard about a this newer technology for AGM batteries called Microcell which is a carbon foam. Originally it was developed by Caterpillar, Inc. for their heavy machinery. They sold the patent to Firefly International […]
Installing Water Tanks
When we bought SVRO it had one stainless steel water tank with about 100 gallons capacity. Unfortunately, it leaked. Before we moved onto the boat full-time we took the leaky tank out and ordered two poly roto-molded tanks from Ronco. Time ran short and we never fully installed the water tanks.
Perkins 4-108 Diesel Update
Here’s a quick update to some work we did on our Perkins 4-108 diesel. We recently had two different people ask us the same question about the K & N filter we put on the air intake of our Perkins 4-108. After looking into it, it’s obvious some info was left out on the description of […]