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bow thruster shaft removal tool
jamescromie@...
Hello everyone - I'm directing this email to Amel owners in Martinique - I need to change out lip seals on my bow thruster and I'd like to remove the lower unit with the boat in the water. To do so, I would need the wooden shaft that attaches to the lower unit to lower it out of the hull. Does anyone have one on hand that I could borrow for a day or two? I will be in Le Marin between 1/9 and 1/16. Good evening to you all. James La Bella Vita (soon to be Soteria) SM347 Le Marin |
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Generator charging question
Stephen Morrison <steve_morrison@...>
If I am running the generator just to charge the batteries, meaning I have no other load on the generator, is there a downside to engaging both the 100 amp and the 30 amp dolphin chargers? As an example, tonight I was at 88% (-71 amps) and when I engaged the “battery Gen” charger, I was putting in 45 amps, but when I added “battery shore”, I was putting in 70 amps.
My question is, why is this a bad idea? Is it a bad idea? Are there negative trade-offs to running both? Thoughts? All the best, Steve Morrison SM380 TouRai Hope Town, Abaco |
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
Stephen Morrison <steve_morrison@...>
As a Bimini option I would throw out Bimini Sands on South Bimini. It was simple to get in and out, has nice floating docks, doesn’t have a tide running through it, and has a resident cluster of Bull Sharks that meander about as we discovered while our daughters were on their paddle boards. There is power and water at the dock and customs was a short taxi over to the airport and back. I think we paid 1.50/ft.
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Steve Morrison SM380 TouRai Hope Town, Abaco
On Jan 8, 2018, at 7:43 PM, greatketch@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
greatketch@...
John,
We'll second the vote for Browns. The only downside is that right now they don't have shore power on the docks, so if that is important to you, Bimini Big Game might be the better choice. They are working on it...on island time. Everything else is in very good shape. Bimini Big Game looks nice on a walk through, although this time of year (between fishing seasons) everything here is really quiet. Right now there are three boats in Brown's, maybe a half dozen in Bimini Big Game. Might change for the weekend, there is a big wahoo fishing tournament.
If you do come to Brown's and you want the restaurants and bars at Bimini Big Game, they are just a short walk away. We're pulling out of Brown's tomorrow, and anchoring in Nixons Harbor for a day or two, then heading up to Freeport, then to the Berry Islands... then south... Watch for us on AIS! All the marinas here have a very strong tidal current that runs through more or less parallel to the slips, so be ready for it. The entrance channel has plenty of water, and the buoys are in place and correctly mark the channel, although they don't match the chart exactly. Trust the buoys more than the chart. Except...there was one errant red nun that was sitting right on top of the sand bar that wasn't on the chart at all, and looked to have drifted in from somewhere else. Enjoy! Bill Kinney SM160, Harmonie North Bimini, Bahamas ---In amelyachtowners@..., <mcerdos@...> wrote : John, ref: Bimini Big Game Marina – wouldn’t recommend it. It has gone way down-hill since Guy Harvey sold his interest in it, really not worth the money. I would suggest Browns. Easy in and out, not at all fancy but the price is right. You will find most cruisers stop at Browns. From Browns it is a 5 min walk to Immigration at BBGM and then Customs is a litter further up the road in the pink building (police station).
With best regards,
Mark
Skipper Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275 Currently cruising - Martinique www.creampuff.us
From:
amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Hi Bill, we are planning to leave St.. Augustine later this week and head to Bimini, then slow cruise thru Bahamas...continuing south.
We are planning on checking in at Bimini Big Game Marina and staying for a day or two.
John
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Side Windows loose screws
James Alton
JPG,
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You mentioned removing the balsa. So the cabin sides of the SM are cored with balsa as opposed to being just one solid laminate? It would be nice to know the construction since window replacement is on my short list as well. Actually if there is core in there I am going to move it to the top of the list! I used to use cut down allen wrenches shaped and sharpened to form cutting edges (in place of the bent nail) to cut out a core but found a better solution. You can get small saw blades for your dremel and these make core removal fast and you can also use the blades to abrade the inside edges of the glass to give your epoxy a good bond. It’s a bit of a pain but you can extract essentially all of the water that entered the holes by using vacuum. You can use the same basic supplies and set up that is normally used for vacuum bagging, just add a good water separator to protect your pump. It is always better to get the water out before sealing things up if at all possible. Kept completely dry, balsa lasts pretty much forever, good stuff. I hope that you are having a great time in the Bahamas! Best, James SV Sueño, Maramu #220
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
John, ref: Bimini Big Game Marina – wouldn’t recommend it. It has gone way down-hill since Guy Harvey sold his interest in it, really not worth the money. I would suggest Browns. Easy in and out, not at all fancy but the price is right. You will find most cruisers stop at Browns. From Browns it is a 5 min walk to Immigration at BBGM and then Customs is a litter further up the road in the pink building (police station).
With best regards,
Mark
Skipper Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275 Currently cruising - Martinique www.creampuff.us
From:
amelyachtowners@... [mailto:amelyachtowners@...]
Hi Bill, we are planning to leave St.. Augustine later this week and head to Bimini, then slow cruise thru Bahamas...continuing south.
We are planning on checking in at Bimini Big Game Marina and staying for a day or two.
John
On Jan 8, 2018 12:24 PM, "greatketch@...
[amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...>
wrote:
Colin,
We actually use the second battery charger much of the time when we are charging with the genset. Our new batteries can easily take over 100 amps of charging current for much of the charge cycle. Adding another 50 amps to the 70 the Victron makes, just makes things faster.
Anything we can do to reduce the genset duty cycle make our lives more enjoyable and the boat more self-sufficient.
So far our solar installation, charger upgrade, and switching battery types has dropped us from about three hours a day, down to an average of a bit less than one hour a day, with many days of none at all. Which should drop even further as the sun returns to the northern hemisphere :)
Bill Kinney SM160, Harmonie North Bimini, Bahamas
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter Replacement
James Studdart
Just to join in with the chorus. We also have a Victron Multiplus 24/3000/70 and it’s awesome. We’ve had it for a couple of years and so far not a single issue. I’ve networked it with a Color Control GX which also shows the solar (Victron mppt with two 330w Panasonic panels) and battery state.
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Cheers, James. SeaBean, SM344 Moorea, French Polynesia.
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
John Clark
Hi Bill, we are planning to leave St. Augustine later this week and head to Bimini, then slow cruise thru Bahamas...continuing south. We are planning on checking in at Bimini Big Game Marina and staying for a day or two. John On Jan 8, 2018 12:24 PM, "greatketch@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Side Windows loose screws
Herbert Lackner
Thx JP, will visit you on your boat to check that :-)
Herbert, Dock D |
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Side Windows loose screws
Jean-Pierre's MacBook Air <jgermain@...>
Hello Herbert,
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I encountered the same problem on my SM when I recaulked the side windows. First option: The screws are not long enough to traverse into the wood trim on the inside of the cabin. Procure various length M6 screws and drill through to the inside. Pack with lots of Sikaflex and finish the work with a nice looking ball nut on the wood trim. Other option: this is what I did. Make the hole bigger, but no larger in diameter than the width of the SS strip (about 14 MM if memory serves me right), clean out the wet balsa with a nail bent to 90 degrees on the end of your drill, fill with epoxy then drill a pilot hole where needed and reuse the original hardware. Good luck, Jean-Pierre Germain SY Eleuthera, SM007 Shelter Bay Marina
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Side Windows loose screws
Herbert Lackner
Many of the screws that hold the stainless frame of the side windows are loose on our Santorin and some are not holding good enough to allow tightening. It looks as they are just screwed through to wooden panel that is used as a packing plate at the inside. Did anyone replace these screws already? What is the best solution to fix that?
thx, Herbert SN120 KALI MERA, Shelter Bay, Panama |
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Haul out southern Sicily or Malta
Bill & Judy Rouse <yahoogroups@...>
M, Please forward a bounced email to brouse"at"gmail dot com, and you can use the gmail address anytime On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 3:15 PM, 'Mohammad Shirloo' mshirloo@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
--
Best, CW Bill Rouse Admiral, Texas Navy Commander Emeritus Amel School http://www.amelschool.com 720 Winnie St Galveston Island, TX 77550 +1(832) 380-4970 |
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
greatketch@...
Colin,
We actually use the second battery charger much of the time when we are charging with the genset. Our new batteries can easily take over 100 amps of charging current for much of the charge cycle. Adding another 50 amps to the 70 the Victron makes, just makes things faster. Anything we can do to reduce the genset duty cycle make our lives more enjoyable and the boat more self-sufficient. So far our solar installation, charger upgrade, and switching battery types has dropped us from about three hours a day, down to an average of a bit less than one hour a day, with many days of none at all. Which should drop even further as the sun returns to the northern hemisphere :) Bill Kinney SM160, Harmonie North Bimini, Bahamas |
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Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
greatketch@...
All properly designed marine battery chargers and inverters will use an isolation transformer to do the voltage step up/down. This keeps the DC Negative separate from the AC Neutral.
A connection between AC Neutral and DC Negative from poorly designed equipment is potential corrosion problem on an Amel, and a serious disaster waiting to happen on any boat. If it is connected to a shore power plug that has reverse polarity (Hot and Neutral swapped) the entire DC system is now charged with AC Power. I am not sure what would go wrong first, but it wouldn't be pretty! If you haven't come across a marina with wiring like this, keep traveling, you eventually will! It is always good to have to think about these things carefully enough to write them out... Bill Kinney SM160 Harmonie North Bimini, Bahamas
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Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
John Clark
Bill, I just opened up the genset and found she is wired as in column "C" with T2 and T3 connected to ground. I traced the ground strap to the frame of the genset and the Amel bonding system. So you were correct that the generator is connected to ground.
Based on this, I still want to think about it more, but it seems that it might be ok to connect the inverter neutral to the bonding system. I think I read that the raw inverter output is passed first though an isolation transformer before leaving the unit. If this is the case then a DC leakage current is unlikely.... Thanks for the brain help Bill!
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Re: Inverter/Charger wiring advise
John Clark
Yes I agree the thread was getting confusing. I pasted the part I am focusing at the moment below:
Bill: When the generator is running, it connects the AC Safety Ground and Neutral together inside the generator.
John: RIGHT AND NOW THAT YOU REMIND ME I NEED TO VERIFY THE CONDUCTIVITY BETWEEN THE AC NEUTRAL (BLUE) AND AMEL BONDING (GREEN/YELLOW) WHILE THE GENERTOR IS RUNNING. WHEN OFF THE TRANSFER SWITCH REVERTS TO SP. SO WHEN I CHECKED IT I WAS READING RESISTANCE OF THE SP CABLE UNPLUGGED.
Bill: It can be a little tough to measure by resistance, since you have to measure with the generator running, and small voltages can make the ohm-meter nuts. I checked voltage readings with the generator running between hot and neutral (220V) and between Hot and Safety Ground (220V) and then between Neutral and Safety Ground (~0V) which is what I'd expect.
John: This morning I fired up the generator and checked the voltages, here is what I got with no loads energized:
Hot(brown) to neutral(blue) 226VAC as expected Hot(brown) to ground(green/yellow) 113vAC Neutral(blue) to ground(green/yellow) 113vAC
My interpretation is the generator is internally wired internally as split phase(115/230) but connected to the boat only at the two hots(L1&L2 yielding 230) as in column “C” of the drawing attached below. As far as the question, is it grounded, we cannot tell from voltage readings because we are just seeing the voltage across the working generator field windings. I will have to open up the generator control head to see exactly how it is wired.
I am not inclined at this point to tinker with the internal connections as the genset has been in service like this without issues for ten years. My receipts indicate the unit was installed in France where the 230/50hz power scheme should be well understood.
More cogitating. |
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Any owner with a Rocna 40?
VLADIMIR SONSEV
I have Rocna 40. It works well. SM 345 "LIFE IS GOOD" Vladimir On Jan 8, 2018 08:35, "Porter McRoberts portermcroberts@... [amelyachtowners]" <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Any owner with a Rocna 40?
Ditto here!
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Great anchor The S/S did fail us a couple of times. Hence the switch. Porter 54-152 On Jan 7, 2018, at 9:56 PM, Sailing Island Pearl colin.d.streeter@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:
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Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] Amel decals replacement
Jean-Pierre's MacBook Air <jgermain@...>
If I may add a word of caution…
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Ensure the cuttings are done with TOP quality SS and that the cutting is done slowly to reduce heat production. Mine tend to rust quickly…. I polish them but… Jean-Pierre Eleuthera SM 007
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Re: Amel decals replacement
Stephanie We are interested in SS decals, so if you get a price let me know, maybe if we are a few you get a better price.Paul on SY Kerpa SM 259, Spending the winte ashore in Lagos, Portugal
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