Greetings all,
The last round of responses have been particularly helpful. Thank you all.

Update: Tuesday late afternoon I reconnected the A to B connection started the generator and ran the air conditioning with all 3 Climma units on. From the sound of the generator engine, it was clear that when the water pump came on, there was a considerable load. Much more than the heaters or battery charger. We ran the air conditioning for a while and went below to experience the cooler cabin. After about 45 minutes of run time, the generator pulled down further and stopped. I turned off the air conditioning breaker on the 220 panel and restarted the generator, to make sure the generator was OK, which it was.
Yesterday morning, I found the 5 Amp fuse in the Climma relay box was blown. I replaced it but could not get the pump to come on. I isolated the 3 Climma units and one at a time checked how they were delivering there “go” signal to the relay box. I found some inconsistencies, and the aft unit (which may have had water damage from rain leaking in through a not completely closed head hatch) both the blue and brown wire went to 226VAC when the unit was turned on. This is a separate issue which I’ll check out later.
In the process of all this checking, I went through 3 of the 4 spare 5A fuses on board.
Everything seems to be pointing to the pump motor, so before using my last good fuse I’ll isolate the pump motor and go through its internal grounding. Most likely I’ll be waiting to do this in our next port (Vallarta) There is an electrician there I trust, and the chance of getting a replacement pump motor is better. Not to mention more fuses.
Starting tomorrow we’re off the boat for a week long excursion inland, so the next post may be in a few weeks.

BTW: the recommended local electrician here had never encountered 220 VAC delivered by one hot and a neutral, so he was on the boat for less than 20 minutes (a mutual decision fortunately)

Thanks again all. I really appreciate the suggestions.

Peter
La Querida SM#207
Barra de Navidad, Mexico.

Hi Michael

To build a new roof from scratch is probably easier than renovate one. To shape the roof use either polyurethan insulation plates or Divinycell sheets and then laminate with 2-3 layers of epoxi and grp matt.
After that its time to shape the rail which is done using polyurethan insulation plates in small pieces, when the shape is ok, laminate the rail with 1 layer epoxi and grp matt.
Sand the roof and then put on epoxi filler to get a smooth surface, sand. 

Mill lines for cables and lights. Fill the space above the cables to create a smooth surface.

Paint with 2-component paint (International Perfection as one example) primer, 2 layers and sand. 2 or more layers of top paint Perfection.

How long time for this production, probably around 100-200 hours, much depending on the place of work. For us it took far more but much of that was down to the renovation part. 

Hope this will give you a hint of producing one your self.  Feel free to come back if you have any questions.

Regards,
Jonas

Thanks for sharing.  Could you please advise on the approximate hours to construct your own?

Thanks, Michael, Nebo sm251 

On Wed, 3 Feb 2021 at 2:53 am, Ann-Sofie

<ann-sofie@...> wrote:

As per request we have made a short film about our cockpit roof on our SuperMaramu S/Y Lady Annila.
Please follow this URL https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i9dzki9zbz2s4mv/AAA1Nv70ovxLvpMuDCQHAUG1a?dl=0

Regards
Annsofie & Jonas
S/Y Lady Annila, SM 232, 1998
Present in Algarve, Portugal

-- 
Ann-Sofie Svanberg
Edificio Pluma
Rua Teofilo Braga 17-6a
8500-668 Portimao
Portugal

00351-914 879 021

Hi everyone,

In FP and Hawaii, we were averaging 5500-6000wh per day. Most I've seen is a handful of days approaching 7000wh. As Mark mentioned, we have a lifepo4 bank (2.5 years now) and that makes a huge difference as you can see when you compare my data to Porter's with similar solar output and similar environmental conditions. I'm sure you all see that once you take a lead battery above 80%, the charge acceptance drops like a rock. And worse, you're supposed to keep lead at high SOC to prevent sulfation so a lot of your solar output will be wasted. With my bank, the full output of the solar (or the 200amps of AC-powered charging) is taken up by the batteries until the upper 90% SOC. And I try to keep the batteries between say 50-80% to maximize longevity, so literally every watt is being put into the batteries.

Another thing that Mark didn't mention, but makes a huge difference is that lifepo4 charging is much more efficient than lead charging. With lead, you lose about 20-30% of your the charge current through inefficiencies. read: heat. With lifepo4 over 2.5 years I'm losing about 2-3%, based on the cumulative data on kWh in compared to kWh out that is provided by my Victron MPPT.

Billy - I suspect something is wrong with your battery monitor? We have 450ah and with 2 fridges and a freezer running, we drop about 8% overnight or 36AH. Not sure if you have water cooled fridges on the 55, but the homemade Frankenstein brushless pump (detailed in another post) has reduced power consumption considerably. Freezer is colder, too! You also stated that you figure about 5kw a day, which should be 5000/25.6v = 195AH, which sounds more realistic. Or are you running other items that we're not? In any event, I don't think your 750w on gel will be enough to eliminate genset usage most days if you are anything like us. 2 fridges plus a freezer and computers on, electric kettle, microwave and plus, the admiral has gotten addicted to Ozark, so the TV is on quite a bit. :) That said, we also run the water maker off our batteries and the 2.2kw scuba compressor if the batteries get too full. But I still suspect 750w on gel won't be enough.

Dan - have you considered adding more AC-based charging capacity? If you have to run the genset, since you have lithium, which can accept high currents, might as well add as much charging capacity to reduce genset runtimes. Your calculated figures on $/hr for genset usage frightened me into looking at more solar! And it's not just the money, I am consciously trying to reduce ongoing maintenance. With our 200amps charging capacity, on the rare instances we run the genset, it's almost always for less than an hour. I suggest rewiring that water heater. We do, in fact, run the water heater on battery/inverter. Our heater is only 700w and I run it for say 20 minutes prior to each shower, which gives me just enough hot water for 2 people.

Eric - no need to add extra ventilation, at least on our passage berth mounted batteries. I have monitored individual battery temps via bluetooth and they rarely get above 30c. They only get hot (40c or so) when I'm running AC-based chargers at 200amps and try to take them to 90%+ in order to balance out the batteries and help the battery monitor reset.

Justin - do you have the hardtop panels on a separate MPPT? Once you get on your boat, I am really really curious to know how many AH you get out of them, compared to your aft panels. Another boat we met in FP has 2kw of solar on their decks and they produce about the same kWH per day as we do with only 960w of arch mounted solar. Much of that inefficiency is probably related to shading, but if you look at the specs on most panels, the power output drops about 0.3-0.5% PER degree C increase over 25degC. I measured the panel temps on mine and it's not much above ambient since they get cooled by the breeze blowing underneath them. I would love to add them but it would be a lot of brain damage for me, so I want to make sure it's worth the effort or maybe I just accept I'll have to run the genset every few weeks.  

Ken is very right with the weight balance issue! I am sick of scrubbing the port side gelcoat! 

At the end of the day, energy is like money - the more you have, the more you use!


--
Scott 
2007 A54 #69
SV Tengah
http://www.svtengah.com

Could it be water in the fuel?
I had a similar issue on a previous boat....would run but wouldn't idle.
The cause was a small amount of water in the fuel because I had left the boat in Fiji over the cyclone season and the #2 fuel tank was empty.
The condensation from the high ambient humidity contaminated the fuel when I filled it. 
Solution was to empty the tank, clean it, refill, bleed the fuel line and injector pump and presto, all go again.
Cheers
Alan
Elyse SM437

--
Tom Peacock
SM 240 Aletes
Chesapeake Bay

Peter,

The circuit breaker that is tripping is an RCD or Residual Current Device.  It trips when it detects a even a minute difference between the current in the (normally) Hot leg and the current in the (normally) Neutral return.  In a properly functioning AC electrical circuit, the current would be the same in the Hot and Neutral return.  If the Hot was somehow shorted to ground at the appliance (like to the appliance case) the current would be returned to the source via the Ground wire instead of the Neutral wire. The RCD breaker would trip when it detected that the current in the HOT wire was NOT returning to the source via the Neutral wire.

Obviously, you no longer have a Neutral return but I am fairly certain that the RCD still works with two Hot legs.  So assuming your RCD is working properly, then it appears that you have more current on one Hot leg then you have on the other WHEN ON SHORE POWER ONLY.  Given that your voltage readings were the same, that would mean that the resistance of one Hot leg is higher than the other.  In my experience, the most likely cause of higher resistance in a circuit like this is usually a bad "mechanical" electrical connection.  Think bad crimp or a loose screw terminal.

Given that everything works fine when you are running on the Generator, I would be looking at every "mechanical" electrical connection in the Shore Power wiring including:

• Wire Connections inside the Automatic Transfer Switch
• Wire Connections at Shore Power Plug

If everything looks OK, I would probably try to bypass the Automatic Transfer Switch and see what happens.

Usual disclaimer that I am NOT a marine electrician and I do not even play one on TV!  Good luck.

--
Mark McGovern
SM #440 Cara
Deale, MD USA

Hi Dan,

sorry about the starting issues, as I know how frustrating it can be. On a non electronically controlled engine like yours, it is most likely a fuel issue. If your fuel is clean, and no air in the system, how about a bad fuel pump. I have a newer Yanmar with an ECM, and have a fuel pump on mine, and assume you do as well. Can you crack the injectors, and have someone turn the engine over with the throttle full open, while you monitor to see that you have good fuel flow? This is a bit messy, so have some rags around the injectors to catch the fuel. 

Good luck!

Steve Davis
Aloha SM 72
Port Townsend, WA

My Amel 55 is a 230v boat. I am using a us 240v pigtail to power my boat in the manner you describe in the usa. The heater and climma work on shore power. The 2500w inverter must be on for dish washer and washing machine or microwave. My pigtail is wired as bill describes in his book.

Billy.

Bill,
my Firefly bank is installed and in use.
Q: How often do you do the discharge? Would my standard 100Amps AMEL54 original Dolphin Charger provide the 0.2-0.5C that you mention? Is it something that you would normally only do when you have access to shore power?

Also, I'm planing to buy and install a battery equalizer system. I hope that frees me from the periodic discharge. (as my understanding is the purpose of it is to equalize the batteries)?

Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Alex

Dear Amelians,
I'm looking for recommendations for a propeller.
Please share your experience with yours, why you think it was a good choice for your Super Maramu or 54.
Also, I appreciate your thoughts in regards to price/performance. Good props can be very expensive, but are they worth their money?
Thank you!
Alex
s/v NO STRESS
AMEL54#15