Boater’s Picks for Favourite App on the iPad – Part 5

Posted on May 16, 2012 by admin

The great app ideas just keep coming! Thank you for your suggestions and recommendations. As a reminder from Parts 1-4, I gathered a bunch of my boating friends and we talked apps. If an app was mentioned by three different boaters then it made the list. Many of these apps provide a free version; however, I have included the price for the full version.

Zillow Real Estate by Zillow.com (Free) – Have you spotted a beautiful house while cruising the shoreline, and wondered, “How much?” Well now you can have the answers at your fingertips. Voted the #1 real estate app on iTunes, Zillow uses GPS technology to locate the listing and provides the value of home for sale, recent listings and rentals. The current version is only available for US listings, but the company is working on a Canadian version.

Sunseeker Brokerage by the Sound Pipe Media (Free) lists Sunseeker vessels for sale and Yacht Finder by Score Media (Free) offering listings for new and used yachts around the world. If you know of an app similar to Zillow that applies to yachts so you can not only identify some of the vessels that cruise our waters, but also find out some details about the vessel and owner, please let us know about it!

iBoatShows by Derek Trauger & Associates, LLC (Free) is your guide to boat shows around the world.

- Written by Melissa Gervais, Office Administrator at PYS

Tagged app, favourite, free, GPS, iPad, iPhone, itunes, marine electronics, navigation, vessel

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Summer Yachting Destinations: Conover Cove

Posted on May 14, 2012 by admin

One favourite marine park anchorage is Conover Cove on Wallace Island. The island is 72 hectares in size and is located in the Trincomali Channel between Galiano Island and the northern tip of Saltspring Island. The Island consists of the Marine Park with two anchorages (Conover Cove and Princess Bay) and two private residences. The book “Once Upon An Island”, written by David Conover, talks about the trials and tribulations of building a summer vacation resort on Wallace Island during the 1940s. The book is a great read, and if it arouses your interest, it’s just another reason to visit this beautiful location.

The Island has a great trail that leads through the campsite to a large field with an old tractor and is a great place to walk your dog. The highlight of the island is a small cabin where boaters leave placards with their boat name and when they visited. You could be in there for hours reading notes left by visitors from far and wide.

The island was originally charted as “Narrow Island” – named after Captain Wallace Houston, who first surveyed the area in the 1850s. There are a couple of old fruit trees which mark the remnants of the garden and orchard planted by Jeremiah Chivers, a Scotsman who retired there after unsuccessful adventures in the interior gold rushes. Chivers lived alone on the island, never marrying, and died there in 1927 at the age of 92. After the Second World War, David Conover and his wife, Jeanne, purchased the island. Together they built a bed and breakfast style resort called the Royal Cedar Cottages. In the mid to late 1960′s, the Conovers sold the majority of the island to a group of teachers from Seattle. Disagreements amongst the owners led to court proceedings and the property was again put up for sale. Wallace Island was purchased through the court ordered sale and became a provincial marine park in 1990 through the cooperative efforts of the provincial government and BC Marine Parks Forever. This historical information can be found here.

The entrance to Conover Cove is quite narrow, shallow, and flanked by a large unmarked reef – so watch your chart and tides. On a zero tide much of the edges of the cove are dry so the favourite stern ties are located towards the middle of the cove and on each side of the dinghy dock, there are rings painted orange.

Tagged anchorage, boating, destination, Pacific Yachting, summer, Wallace Island

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How Simple DIY Battery Connection Checks Can Help Your Boat

Posted on May 1, 2012 by admin

Are your battery connections the best they can be? Here are some simple do-it-yourself checks that you can perform to help maintain the connections to the heart of your boat. These are simple checks and tasks that take no more than 10 minutes and will lead to peace of mind when you are at sea. Next time you are on your boat, take a look at your battery banks and their connections, and check for the following:

• Do I have nuts and lock washers on ALL my terminal connections?

• Are the cables on tight? Can I pull on them without them budging?

Just these simple questions and their solutions can help keep your boat on the water for longer. The best connection for a battery post is a nut and spring washer, no two ways about it! Wing nuts and nuts without a spring washer are not ideal, since they have a reputation for coming loose. When motoring, your boat is also sending vibrations throughout your vessel, causing items to shake; this leads to rattling but hopefully not rolling. These vibrations along with waves slapping your boat can cause connections to come loose if not done properly the first time. It won’t cost much to replace them and it doesn’t take long. If you do replace the connections, be sure to do them one at a time to avoid reconnecting a cable to the wrong post.

So this brings me to my next point. How tight should the connections be? How much force can I put on these posts? If you have both feet on the battery and you are hanging off the wrench, you’ve gone too far. Approximately 10-12 Nm of torque is ideal (depending on the quality of your battery). As a rule of thumb, just tighten the nut till it feels firm, then try to wiggle the cable. If it wiggles, tighten it some more and so on. When you have finished, NO cable should move. These two checks will also help with getting the most out of your batteries. Also, don’t forget to keep the tops of your batteries clean and clear.

Tagged bad connections, battery, battery bank, cable, connection, connectors, DIY, lock washers, long lasting, safety, simple, terminal, wing nuts

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Where Is Your Ignition Key Power From?

Posted on April 11, 2012 by admin

I come across this fairly regularly; the ignition key power is coming from the wrong place. I see it more often in boats where battery systems have been modified at some point, more so than with factory wired setups.

If the ignition power is coming from the house battery and the house battery is dead, disconnected, or a main fuse is blown; the engine is not going to start even if the engine battery is full. If you are running the boat and the house main fuse blows, the engine will die and you’ll be stranded mid water until you figure it out, even though your engine battery system is fine.

I have also seen dual engine/dual engine battery setups where the ignition power for both keys is taken from the same engine battery. For example, say both are connected to the port engine battery. Now if the port engine battery is dead, disconnected, etc., the starboard engine won’t be starting even though the starboard engine battery is full.

Just because you have ignition breakers on your house panel doesn’t automatically mean they are powered from the house battery. If done right, the 2 breakers are fed separately. The best way to test your system is to disconnect the house battery and see if the engines still start. If you have dual engine batteries, disconnect one at a time and see if the correct engine still starts ex. if you disconnect the port engine battery the starboard engine should still start. If your engines won’t start with the house battery or the opposing engine battery disconnected, your systems are not properly isolated. Your boat’s reliably is compromised and the chance of being stranding with a non-starting engine is higher. It defeats the purpose of having multiple battery banks if all of them have to be on and working in order to be able start the engine(s).

Tagged battery, battery system, engine, fuse, ignition, key, safety

Posted in Marine Electrical, Power, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ways to Take Care of Your Batteries

Posted on April 9, 2012 by admin

Taking care of your batteries is worth every minute you spend on them. After all, an upset battery can ruin a great day very quickly. There are a few things that should be considered when you are maintaining and caring for your batteries. These are the main questions I ask when looking after batteries.

Are they secured?
As I’m sure we are all aware, batteries are heavy and can be quite large. Making sure they are properly secured is a must. If a battery was to become mobile, it could not only make contact with a metal/conductive object and short out, causing it to possibly explode, but it could hit against other equipment and damage it. Guards around the base and a strap over the top will help prevent this from happening.

Are the connections tight?
Making sure all connections on the battery terminals are tight helps reduce voltage drop which is a big problem with all DC circuits if not properly taken care of.

Are the tops of them free from fluids, dust, etc.?
Engine rooms are often dirty places and as most batteries are in this area they too can become dirty. Grime can build up over time or form from water left on top of the battery from refilling the cells. Electricity has a funny way of getting to where it wants to go and it can travel through the grime. This won’t cause a dead short but it can slowly drain life out of your battery over time if not cleaned properly.

Is there enough water in them?
The final inspection that people know of but seldom perform, is checking water levels whether you’re using the boat or not. Even when getting a trickle charge (float charge) the battery will lose water. There is a constant chemical reaction going on inside the battery to stay at the right voltage and a result of this is the loss of water in the cells. Heat and large load draws play a role as well, but even when the boat is tucked away and shut down, the water levels in your batteries still need to be checked regularly. So the next time you have a chance, spend some time checking in on the items that make your days on the water possible.

Tagged battery, chemical reaction, connection, DC circuit, DC system, dirt, drain, electrical short, electricity, safety, secure, terminal

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Connector Size, It Matters

Posted on March 28, 2012 by admin

I was on a boat recently and every connector on the batteries, distribution bars, and DC panel were the exact same ring hole size, despite being connected to 3 different size studs. It looked like whoever did the work simply went to the store, bought a big bag of the same connectors, and used them everywhere. This is the simple and cheap way to do it, not the correct way. Using the appropriate ring sizes will improve the electrical connection, and reduce the chances of the nuts coming loose.

This ring was way too big for this breaker stud. They should be a perfect fit.

To connect a DC system properly you need a huge inventory of connectors. With 7 different sizes of main DC wire (8awg to 4/0) and generally 3-5 different hole sizes of rings for each wire size, it adds up quickly. However, it is important to have an inventory that is big enough for a job. If someone is doing work on your DC system and doesn’t have 100s of connectors with them; they are probably either going to be doing it wrong, or will be making many time consuming trips to the store during the job.

Tagged bad connections, battery, connection, connectors, DC panel, DC system, DC wires, distribution bar, nuts, size, studs

Posted in Marine Electrical, Power | Leave a comment