Salty Kisses

family sailing adventure blog with vlog

putting her back together

by Filed Under: Galley/Cooking, Refit

IMG_1805[1]Tomorrow Carl plans on leaving out for Louisiana so we can haul her out to complete the paint job. You can pretty much see yourself in her reflection! Finishing up putting on her cleats and blocks so she can be tied up at the dock. When she comes back from Louisiana we’ll then put the masts back on with the brand new rigging. She won’t be so naked anymore.

The fridge isn’t turned on in the picture but it works brilliantly. It was crazy how much better it worked with the new vents under Pri’s bed. Night and day.

Mike installed our new custom sink in the aft cabin, marvelous. We had planned for the bathroom to be our hanging locker for foul weather gear and lifejackets but it also has a working shower and loo.

We converted the hanging locker next to the nav station into a pantry for dry goods. It was a waste of space set up as a hanging locker, all our gear would have gone moldy within a week stuffed in there. IMG_1804[1]IMG_1807[1]IMG_1808[1]IMG_1809[1]IMG_1811[1]IMG_1810[1]IMG_1813[1]

Carly

coming along

by Filed Under: Galley/Cooking, Kids, Refit

Slowly she’s coming along. The interior trim has been scuffed up and ready to varnish. The stove is in and doesn’t look so “easy bake oven” anymore. The new sink for the master and counter around the galley sink have also been installed and they are AWSOME!

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Best of all the girls LOVE their rooms and can’t wait to move on. Pri said she didn’t even need a mattress, just a blanket. For some reason little wags was more excited over the head then anything.

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refit 8.21.13 from Carly on Vimeo.

master 8.20.13 from Carly on Vimeo.

Sorry about the sideways videos, I haven’t put our video editing software on the laptop yet – and who knows where it is in this mess of a house, we move out tomorrow. Just crook your head and enjoy 🙂
 
Also got a few bubba things in the mail via amazon, love you amazon! This is the bumper bed that will be in the upper sea berth in the salon, it’s going to work perfectly to stop a bubba from squirming around. Not to worry we are also going to make a lee cloth so he/she will be 100% contained.

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fine fine floors

by Filed Under: Refit

We weren’t very kind to our floors when refitting the “mega yacht” and I thought they would never come good, but check them out!

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I really like that they have that nice worn personality.

The rest of the boat is coming along, shelves are being built, bilge painted, emergency bilge pump installed, painters working in the cockpit area. Less then a month before we have to leave our home. We may have to look for somewhere else to live for a month because I don’t think we’ll be able to get her finished. We need to install tanks and get her hauled out before we can move on so I don’t think that can all come about in a few weeks…. but I have seen crazier things happen!

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With the painters in the cockpit, we have to enter via a hatch in the master.

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Carly

wind generator woes

by Filed Under: Refit, wind generator

I am about ready to gouge out my eyes from looking at a computer screen for too long. I’ve been given the task to find a good wind generator. We have pretty much no room on the boat for solar panels – we may try and squeeze in two on our bimini but they won’t be that efficient 100% of the time because of our mizzen boom. So we need a bloody good wind generator. Oh and a quiet one, we wouldn’t want neighboring boats throwing eggs at us!
I have narrowed down the winners to: Ampair 300, Superwind 350 and the D400.

Ampair 300
wind gen ampair 300

We currently have an Ampair 100 installed on our mizzen and it is so quiet that we forget it’s there but unfortunately it’s had it’s day and doesn’t produce anymore amps. I checked out the specs on it and apparently never really produced a lot of amps in its hay day. Step up from the 100 is the Ampair 300. Only 3 blades so it will be louder that the 100, I haven’t been able to find any youtube videos on it but it has to be louder due to having only 3 blades. It is expensive ($2909) but there are a lot of retailers out there for parts. Ampair has been around for a long time and has a great reputation. Puts out great amps in low wind even tho it has only 3 blades, cut in speed is 6 knots. At 20 knots you’re looking at roughly 200W.

Superwind 350
wind gen superwind

I found a few youtube videos on the Superwind and it sounds whisper quiet and got a good review from the “Practical Sailor” . The Superwind has also got a pricey tag attached at $2399 and I’m not too sure how easy it will be to get parts. It has 3 blades so it probably won’t be that great in low winds but high amps in high winds. Cut in speed is 7 knots. At 20 knots you’re looking  at 350W. From what I’ve found this wind generator plateaus out at 350W I guess for safety (don’t know a lot about this stuff).

D400

wind gen D400Carl originally wanted to go with the D400 and of course I had a heart attack at the price tag so of course I thought he was going for the mega high tech over the top super model of all generators. Thought I could find a better deal – HA! Well it turns out the D400 gets top reviews on Cruisers Forum. They are the beast amongst the 3, weighing in at 15kg (33lbs). Price tag $2495. The D400 has 5 blades and from what I can tell off youtube it’s super quiet. Cut in speed is 5 knots (because of the 5 blades). At 20 knots you get 200W.




Conclusion

The Superwind is a mega amp creator but doesn’t start working until 7 knots. I haven’t read of a lot of people owning them but seems to be quiet. Ampair 300 doesn’t pump out mega amps compared to the Superwind but starts working sooner. It has a huge price tag so I think that one is crossed off the list. The D400 is a whale and would make our poor mizzen mast cry but it has the lowest cut in speed, got rave reviews and is pretty good with the amps.
Because of the D400’s 5 blades and low cut in speed we probably will be going with it. Lots of people mount it on their mizzens so I’m sure our old gal will handle the extra bulk. My tail is between my legs and after hours and hours of research I will be going with the wind generator that Carl originally suggested. Bastard!
I’m sure you’ll find more sophisticated reviews out there on wind generators, I recommend going to Cruisers Forum and asking around. The Rutland 914i got great reviews and super quiet but we will be requiring more amps then it can provide. It’s got a great price tag and if we had a good solar bank I’m sure we would be going with them.
I will of course do a follow up when we install the wind generator.
Carly

Hanging at North Sails in NOLA

by Filed Under: Refit, rigging, sails

All our sails are ready and so is the new tides track system. Replaced our half battens on the main to full, hmmm how am I going to fit it all in my car??!
Dropped off all our standing rigging. Don’t they usually do vessels of our size but we’ll give them a go. We’ve also started to sand down the masts to prep them for painting. They have a fair bit of corrosion but hey nothing that the do all husband can’t tackle.