This one falls in the why didn't I think of that category. One of our readers sent me a photo the other day showing his solution to pushing some fuel through his diesel fuel system to get it to his fuel lift pump. He had been changing his fuel water separator filter and had drained quite a bit of fuel off. The new canister held about a pint of fuel, and he did pre-fill the filter housing before reassembly.

But in spite of doing the right thing on that end, he still had air in the system and was having a heck of a time getting fuel from the tank to his electric lift pump, which would pressurize the system slightly from that point to the engine. His solution is brilliant, but may not work on all boats, at least not without several people involved. Check the photo below:

Yes, that's correct, he's using his inflatable dinghy pump to pressurize his fuel system just enough to get flow from the tank to his electric fuel lift pump, where the pump should take over to prime the system up to the engine, where additional bleeding will probably be needed.

Now on a lot of boats, this little trick might not work due to the fact that the fuel tank will most often be vented directly to atmosphere. But, if extra hands are available, you could temporarily block the tank vent and get some pressure going. Not much is needed, just engough to get the fuel flowing. So you might need somebody down below working the bleeder either at a designed bleeder screw or by cracking open fuel attachment fittings, and somebody on deck blocking the vent. Depending on your vent fitting, you may be able to temporarily block it with a small piece of old tire inner tube to act as a seal, and tighten a hose clamp around the vent fitting. That could eliminate the extra body.

This particular boat is equipped with a somewhat unique venting system made by Seacurefill. Systems like the Seacure fill are the future for all boats as the EPA tightens things up relative to evaporative emissions from boats. You should check them out at: www.seacurefill.com

Anyhow, with the Seacurefill system, the venting and fill are essentially a closed loop, so pressurizing the system with the dinghy foot pump and an appropriately sized adaptor to fit in the fuel fill and attach to the end of the pump hose, you're in!

Last week I posted a recent service bulletin from Yanmar regarding sail drive corrosion an their take on how to mitigate the problem. I've heard from a reader since and he makes a point worthy of further emphasis.

It can't be stressed enough that one of the secrets to keeping your saildrive leg in one piece is to ensure that the anode to cathode relationship protecting the drive is adequate. In simpler terms, this means that the amount of anode has got to be large enought to effectively protect the amount of exposed aluminum on the drive.

One of the best methods of ensuring this is tilted in your favor is to use a tenacious coating of epoxy on the aluminum, effectively insulating it from the water it lives in. The Yanmar bulletin does say to use an epoxy barrier coating before applying the primer and anti-fouling paint. Our reader has spoken with several folks on this matter that have read the bulletin and apparently missed this key point.

So again, and following along with my much earlier articles here entitled "Keep Your Drive Alive", the epoxy barrier coating is of paramount importance. Further, and a step I've seen many people miss is the proper cleaning of the drive surface before applying the barrier coating. The enemy here are invisible soluable salts (assuming the drive has been in salt water). These salts must be washed away before any coating is applied. The bulletin does mention both a test kit and a bio-degradable wash product available from Chlor-rid Corporation www.chlor-rid.com use them before you attempt to apply any barrier coating to your drive to ensure long term adhesion of the coating.  

On Friday I had the pleasure of spending the day on board the Alerion 33 Electric I've been following since the first of the year. It was sea trial day and on board with me were the happy new owners Vincent and Margaret Argiro, Ed Saunders, Mastervolt North American service manager and Wayne Burkett, Pearson Composite's Engineering Manager. My goal was to see how this boat sailed, but more importantly to get a feel for the battery charge life, the noise levels while motoring and to see how well the regenerative capability of the Mastervolt system would work while sailing. Unfortunately much of my video failed due to a memory card issue (my bad), but my report follows anyhow.

The day was perfect, sun shining with a light to moderate breeze. So off we went motoring from New England Boat Works in Portsmouth, RI toward Newport, RI. We were able to easily maintain 6-7 knots of boat speed the whole way under electric motor drive. The amazing thing about motoring on the Alerion is that there is virtually no noise other that what’s being generated by the wind, and the people on board. My in cockpit noise readings came in at an amazing 78dB! I had Ed Saunders check it down below within about 24" of the electric motor with the engine box cover off. His readings were even lower at 72dB. Oh, and no diesel exhaust odor wafting through the cockpit either, nice. Keep in mind here that the powering design criteria for this boat was in contemplation of a small crew of two, not the boat load we had. As for the noise issue, most folks really don’t understand my dB values, so let me elaborate just a bit. I’m extremely sensitive to noise and I’ll bet I’m not alone. Our lives are full of noise, and I’m convinced it has a physiological impact on my ability to relax on board a noisy boat. Look over the charts below to get a feel for your daily noise exposure and you can begin to get a feel for what I’m talking about. Also consider this, in my sound emission tests on conventionally powered cruising sailboats as a judge for Cruising World magazine’s Boat of the Year competition in 2008, I recorded sound levels of between 82-98 dB at similar cruising speeds to what we were achieving on the Alerion.

Library.......................30dB

Normal converstion..60-70dB

City traffic, inside car......80dB

Level at which long exposure may result in hearing loss...90-95dB

Motorcycle....................100dB

Pain begins....................125dB

You get the idea, noise is your enemy!

 So what about the electrics? Again design criteria are important considerations when we analyze the suitability of this system on a sailboat. First, Vincent wanted to have the ability to motor 3-4 hours. The boat is after all a sailboat, and his needs dictate that he have the ability to motor to and from his berthing area, as well as to have power available in a no wind situation. It’s important to remember that the boat itself falls into a fairly new category of elegant “day sailors”, so extended range is not really a consideration. Two of Mastervolt’s lithium iron phosphate batteries with 160 amp hour capacity each are the heart of the system, powering a 7.5 kW AC motor. (The DC from the batteries is converted to AC in the motor controller.)  Did we meet the design criteria? You bet, and with some extra time to spare. One of the advantages to the Mastervolt batteries is that unlike conventional battery technology, which have historically limited deep cycle capability to 50% of capacity to ensure long cycle life, these batteries are capable of deep cycling up to 80% of their capacity. This represents a 30% gain and effectively increases their power density as a result. There are other lithium chemistries in use with greater power density, but Mastervolt chose the lithium phosphate chemistry because it is comparatively much safer and not prone to the thermal run-away issues we’ve all heard about relative to lithium ion batteries. This is an important differentiator in a marine installation and has been a cause for much worry in my role working for the industry Standards writing body, ABYC.

What about battery recharging? Again, Vincent has some specific design limitations. The Mastervolt batteries are capable of accepting very rapid re-charge rates, but in Vincent’s case he has a dock with only 30 amp service available and he has to share that with another boat. His share represents approximately 16 amps. The Mastervolt chargers used in this system are fully programmable to adjust their current draw, and have been calibrated to accommodate this short coming. Expected recharge time when plugged in is engineered in this case at 2-3 hours. It could be ramped upward with more available power. Of course the boat also has re-charge capability when sailing as well. By putting the boat in reverse gear the spinning propeller will regenerate power while underway. This was the one fine tuning adjustment that had not been maximized last week. A new feathering propeller had been installed the day before our trial, so some additional tweaking will need to be done. I have no doubt that with the Mastervolt system, which allows for computer interface to both monitor and adjust all of the various parameters of this system that issue will be resolved in short order.

So, now the boat will be off to its new home in British Columbia, CA. I wish Vincent and Margaret the best of luck with their new boat. It’s a game changer in my view, and going to the perfect home. Vincent is extremely technically minded and will be totally diligent in gathering ongoing data; to him this is the ultimate science project. So, far, he, Mastervolt and Pearson Composites are scoring an A+. I will get back in touch as the summer progresses to get some follow-up reports on this boat. I love the concept, and really want it to work! By the way, the Alerion is a sweet sailor too!

As promised the Alerion 33 Electric I've discussed several times here has just launched. Tomorrow I'll be on sea trials and testing on the boat and my plan is to interview the owner and design engineer extensively as well as shoot some video which I'll get posted to my You Tube site. So, stay tuned! Next week I'll share what I discover about this exiting new boat. Tomorrow its off to the water! Talk to you next week.

OK, as promised here's my technical update on the issues of boat damage from exposure to Gulf Oil Slicks. As mentioned in my last post Beneteau's customer service supervisor Ward Richardson came out with several strong recommendations yesterday regarding the impact to their boats as a result of sailing through the Gulf Oil Spill. I had questions regarding two of Ward's recommendations. I gave Ward a call this morning to discuss this with him.

My first question was in regards to the gel coat Beneteau is currently using on their boats. Basically there are two types of resin bases used to make gel coat, orthophthalic and isophthalic. Beneteau is currently using the isophthalic variety and further it sounded like they are taking it a step further by mixing in what is known as neopentyl glycol, an agent that will further enhance weathering and chemical resistance capabilities. The isophthalic resin itself is highly resistant to chemical attack, the additive just ups things a notch further. The bottom line here? Beneteau is using extremely high quality gel coat that is superior in every way when it comes to degradation due to weathering and chemical attack.

All this said, Ward expressed to me that he would rather err on the side of caution and leave his recommendation as it stands. Fair enough, and I agree with his position. But, to further elaborate we do need to remember that even the best gel coat is somewhat porous, and it is conceivable that exposure to the oil slick could cause some discoloration. But I'm sticking to my position here as well, I think it is extremely unlikely if the boat is washed as I mention in my Boats.com article and the oil residue is removed. In a worst case scenario, there is a product available that can help, I've used it and can attest to its ability to meet its claims. Check it out at www.oilgoneeasy.com . As for sealing your gel coat, the best product out there is probably BTS Sealant, a polymer based product that will effectively clean and then close the microscopic pores in the gelcoat. it can be purchased online at www.chemical-supermarket.com .

Finally, to the engine issue and Beneteau's recommendation, which actually came via Ward through Yanmar. Again, more erring on the side of caution. The impellars are made of neoprene, quite resistant to exposure to petrolium based products.

So, in closing, I'd be remiss if I were to tell you to ignore your boat builder's recommendations, but I'd also be remiss if I didn't share with you some of the technical facts behind all of this. We don't want Gulf State boaters going into a panic over this whole mess!