Xantrex has been busy. I just received one of their newest inverter chargers and Freedom Sequence units to check out and I'm totally impressed. This is a cool system. The inverter charger is shown here:

OK, so I know some of you that are regulars here are sitting back saying Ed's losing it.....what's so exciting about an inverter charger? Listen up, I'm not losing it. This thing is really part of a nicely designed system that has some functionality we just don't see all that often. Not that what this system does hasn't been done before, it has. But, I think the level of sophistication Xantrex has brought to this sort of system is really pretty special. To begin to get a feel for what I'm talking about here, check out the possible system design shown in the diagram below:

Not shown is the optional generator auto-start controller. Also, the Freedon Sequence is something you would probably not understand without a little explanation. Basically it is an automatic AC input source controller and programmable load shedding device.

As today's boats get increasingly more complex, in large part due to customers "appetite for amps" as I always describe it, systems like the one shown above are actually becoming commonplace. A typical RV is going to be set up much like what you see in the diagram. Swap out the land based generator shown with a marine unit and you're in. But why is source switching and load shedding important you may be asking? Several reasons come to mind. First on the source switching. Some of the equipment we are attempting to power up is voltage sensitive. As overal power grids get over-loaded, system voltages drop. Having the ability to sense this and switch to an alternate source is a good idea. As for load shedding, things like cycling loads common to air conditioning and refrigeration systems come to mind. A modern cruising boat, either power or sail will easily have multiple refrigeration and or air-conditioning systems. Block ice and open hatches are getting to be quaint memories of times gone by. But, we don't want to be tripping circuit breakers day in and day out. So, with a system like this the owner can select and prioritize circuit loads and the system will automatically shut things down if the system starts to get over-loaded for any reason.

 So, advanced power systems such as the diagram shows are rapidly becoming the norm. The programmability of this new system enables the boat owner / installer to absolutely maximize the system to achieve top efficiency and component space management; all really important considerations on today's boats.

The other hidden secret with this new system is that it can be paralleled. What this means to the boater is that if their needs go beyond what is shown in the diagram above, they can expand the system easily by adding a second paralleled inverter, effectively turning their 3 kw system iinto a 6 kw system. The goodness doesn't stop there either, big inverters need big battery banks to feed them, and these battery banks need to get recharged often too. Xantrex made sure those needs were going to be met with this set-up. The battery charger side of the inverters can also be paralleled. What that means is that with the SW 3012 as an example, by adding a second inverter charger unit in parallel the system charge capability would become 300 amps or C/5 (1/5 th the battery bank capacity in amp hours) whichever is less. That's huge! That sort of output helps to answer the fact that some of the newest battery technologies have huge re-charge acceptance rates in amps. This system output potential can help feed that need.

So, if you are looking to upgrade or working on a new build and are considering your inverter charger options, I encourage you to get a look at this system, I'm impressed, I think you will be too.

The photo below, which is a close-up view of the back side of a stainless steel gimballed stove that is fueled by LPG tells a story about something that not too many folks think of, but that needs to get shared as it could be a big problem if not attended too.

What you see in the photo is a heat shield / deflector that is installed on the back of most of the popular gimballed stove sets we see on modern boats. The unit is fueled by LPG that gets delivered to the stove via the rubber hose you see out of focus below the shield. The issue here is chafe and potential damage to the hose. I have checked quite a few of these over the years and one of the things I have found is that on some of the units the bottom edge of the shield has a razor sharp edge that can under the right circumstances cut into the hose if it has been cut too short and is pulled tight up against the shield. The hose is used of course to provide a flexible loop so that will allow the stove to articulate when the gimbal release is set and the boat is underway. Filing the sharpe edge off is not going to be easy since it is probably going to involve removing the stove to gain access. On the units I'm familiar with the shield is actually spot welded onto the back of the stove.

So, the answer here is to make sure the flex loop is long enough and is routed so that it stays clear of any sharp metal at all points as the gimbal allows the stove to swing in place.

Check yours out and be carefull! I've almost cut my fingertips several times checking the bottom edge of these shields. I don't think I need to explain the significance of possibly having an LP gas leak in your boat's  cabin, so if you have an LP gas stove, check yours out next time you're on board.

It is with great pride that I announce the publication of a new book that I and one of my good friends and longtime editors Tim Murphy have just  published through the ABYC. This whole project came about as part of a grant from the Kathy and Jerry Woods foundation and has been on-going for several years now. For those of you not familiar with Kathy and Jerry, they were the founders of the Annapolis Boat Shows and the Annapolis Sailing School. Their foundation centers on helping to educate the young and Tim and I are sure this book is going to go a long way toward that, at least in the marine field.

You see as a longtime educator in the areas of marine mechanics and electrics, one of my biggest frustrations has always been that there was no text book available to assist teachers in their work. To be truthful, that simple fact is one of the things that got me into writing books in the first place. My first book, Outboard Engines, was wriiten to fill a need for some sort of easy to understand guide to outboard engine maintenance and repair. At the time I was teaching a class in outboard engine repair at New England Institute of Technology. Of course I've written more books since then and one of the common themes with all of my texts has been to try and take what on the surface are pretty complex topics and make then understandable to a large audience. Tim always helped me in that in his role as the executive editor of Cruising World Magazine. Over the years he and I have worked on quite a few editorial projects together. In fact we're pretty much at the point now where I swear we can read each other's mind when it comes to how we will present information on a marine technical topic. This new book is a great example of that.

Although conceived as a text book for high school and post-secondary marine trades training programs, it has been pointed out to me that this book is going to really help anyone that may be new to boating. At 318 pages and 14 chapters covering everything from boat handling to how engines work and why they sometimes don't as well as shop safety and customer service we have covered a lot of ground. The book is heavily illustrated by another old friend from our Cruising World days, Joe Comeau, a master of making the complex understandable by all.

We've taken the book to a new level I think by employing some of the latest in technology. Each chapter has a QR code that when scanned by a smart phone or tablet with QR scanning software installed will bring you to a library at the ABYC website (we're still setting this up at ABYC as of this writing) that will contain a large assortment of demonstration videos showing how one might go about performing some of the tasks described in the text. This library is in its infancy right now but will grow over time to become quite comprehensive.

This new book is only available through the ABYC and is selling for $139 plus S & H in a nice full color hardbound edition for ABYC members and $169 plus S & H for non-members. Or, for those of you that are more digitally inclined, the full color digital edition is also available in PDF format for $89 for members and $129 for non-members. So check it out folks. Contact ABYC @ 410-990-4460 or go to their website at: www.abycinc.org and order your copy today.

A pair of really good and pertinent questions came in yesterday that need to get shared with everyone. The photo below is of a sacrificial anode attached to the end of a string of green bonding wires which are in turn connected to some through hull fittings on the boat in question. The anode had been stored neatly in a locker located in the head on the boat.

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So, our reader had two questions, here they are:

"Is a zinc effective when out of the water but still attached to the bonding system?"

Answer: Absolutely, positively NO! Sacrificial anodes, whether they be made from zinc, aluminum or magnesium are part of a system. The system is known to tech types as a "cathodic protection" system. In fact, the ABYC standard E-2, which is entitled Cathodic Protection Systems explains all the requirements for such a system. Anyhow, this system requires both an anode and some cathodes. The anodes, or zincs as our questioner describes them are the sacrificial component. But, it must be submerged in the SAME electrolyte as the cathodic pieces (in this case the through hull fittings in question) it is intending to protect. So, that means the water the boat is floating in. This is all a part of what is known as a galvanic cell, which is comprised of an anode, cathode, electrical connection between the anode and cathode and again, a common electrolyte, in this case the water the boat sits in.

Now, it is a little bit more complicated than that because this whole system needs to be calibrated, if you will, so that voltage potentials etc. are within prescribed quidelines; it does take an experienced technician to make these adjustments. But, suffice to say that an anode sitting in a relatively dry onboard locker, connected or not to a bonding system, is doing nothing to contribute to the protection of the underwater metal.

Second question: "Assuming a boat is fresh water cooled and has marlon through hull fittings, would the engine zinc for the raw water side of the cooling system need replacement less often if the ball valve for the water intake is kept closed when the engine is not in use?"

Answer: It probably won't make any noticeable difference to anode life. In the case of engine internal anodes the things that really impact their life expectency is the rate of water flow past them, so if an engine is run more frequently, that will reduce their life. But, still water will still be sitting in the engine whether the ball valve is open or not so I really don't think any quantitative difference in anode life could be realized.

OK, I'll admit it, I was sceptical about the America's Cup World series event just held in Newport, RI over the past weekend. I still have lingering memories of the last go around and all the rather annoying courtroom activity. Sailboat racing gone bad, rich dudes whining.... it all just turned me off to the whole thing. But, I have had a change of heart after watching the event from the water this past weekend. Check out one of the Oracle boats here:

These new boats are cool! Who can't get a bit excited watching a sailboat that can get going up to 45 mph and has to be run by 5 very athletic people wearing crash helmets. The on board cameras and live TV coverage were just spectacular!

This event brought just under 60,000 people to the city by the sea, and a few more on the water in this near shore event. We heard that NBC attracted 1,000,000 viewers to their Sunday broadcast of the final event. Those are really good numbers for a US crowd. I think that once the word gets out about how exciting this can be, more will follow. It is really fast action that will attract any sports fan's attention. As long as the promoters can keep the teams from bickering and the lawyers out of the game, I think this is a revitalized event. I'm thrilled to be able to say that.

So, to all who've heard my rant about how the whole America's cup thing is no longer relevant to anything, I take it all back. This has finally been turned into an exciting sport, as fun to watch as football, NASCAR or any other sport. Why, I'd go so far as to say it is far more exciting than watching a golf match, or an MLB game.

So, the boat you see above is around 45 ft. in length. The boats they will actually use in the America's Cup finals will be 75 ft. versions of what you see. Trust me folks, it is going to be awesome!