THE HAUL-OUT AT ANNAPOLIS, MD

September 23, 2011 Friday

"Solstice" was hauled out @ 1430 hrs this afternoon.  Annapolis was chosen as the place for repairs and improvements because it was on our route and has everything a "yachtie" could want or desire.  It is truly a boaters paradise.  There is expertise and services at every level of boating.  Additionally, one of the former owners and yacht broker of Rogue Wave Yacht Sales lives here and knows this Valiant 40 and  others as know one else.  He owned lived-aboard and sailed "Solstice" for 10 years.  How wonderful, assuring and unique to have a yacht broker that extends service beyond the sale and becomes a friend.  Bernie Jakits is one of those special people the lives, breathes, sails and sells high quality yachts.  When I called him and stated that we were coming to Annapolis, he immediately arranged a reputable shipyard and attended the vessel with recommendations.  Then we were invited to his home and a restaurant.  Since then, in our absence, he has gone to the shipyard and supervised on-going repairs on the keel and mast.  It doesn't get any better than that!  Anyone looking to buy a top quality yacht would be fortunate to have Bernie as a broker.  We have been blessed to have him as the broker that sold us our yacht.  It was a great first step on our voyage.

So, at 1430 hrs Solstice was lifted out of the water and we were able to see the damage that resulted from hitting that underwater obstruction (rock?) in Port Austin, MI.  The leading edge of the keel was dented about the size of a slightly flattened grapefruit .  The aft end or trailing edge of the keel had some lead missing in  a section about 4 inches long x 2" high:  No other visible damage was seen.  I was really surprised since we came through all of that debris on the Delaware River.  All in all this is an easy repair with fiberglass and will never be be a cause for concern.  That's one of the perks of having a lead keel: stability and protection from groundings.  Every yachtsman will ground the yacht at some time in their sailing life.  Hopefully, it won't be on rocks, reef or other damaging obstructions.  The most usual groundings are on sand and mud.

The Annapolis Harbor Boatyard has a great reputation for quality work and repairs.  Bernie Jakits doesn't deal in second rate "anything".  "Solstice" needs an alternative source for charging the batteries.  This will free us up from having to go into expensive marinas and using shore power.  Right now we have the capacity to charge the batteries using the alternator on our Volvo Penta diesel engine.  Whenever we are motoring, we are charging the batteries.  Diesel fuel isn't cheap so we have decided to add a solar panel and wind generator on the yacht to produce the energy needed to charge the batteries.  We have two separate battery banks: house battery and engine cranking battery.  The reason for this is to ensure that the engine battery is never discharged.  It will always have the power needed to star the engine and charge up the house batteries if they become undercharged.  The cranking battery is isolated by electrical switches so that it can't be used for anything other than cranking the engine.

The solar panel chosen to go on top of the Bimini (canvas cover that gives shade and protects the helmsman from the sun) is a BP 220 Watt that measures 69" x 39" x 2" and weighs about 45 lbs.  This unit will put out a max of 220 watts under full sun and ideal conditions.  In practical terms, this never happens.  A more realistic figure would be to cut that in half to 120 Watts or less.  Still this is constant energy being fed into the battery during sunlight hours.  In the tropics, it is significant.

The second jewel in the production of electrical DC energy in a D400 wind generator.  Using wind energy to generate electricity, this unit has the capacity to crank out 500 Watts, however, 100 watts is more likely in a 15 kt tropical trade wind breeze.  The beauty and practicality of this unit is that it is working in unison with the solar panel and keeps on charging after the sun goes down.  With these two units, we should have enough DC electricity generated to handle our freezer/refrigerator, microwave, running lights, radar, SSB  and VHF radios, AIS, Auto Pilot, and reading lights.  Not all of these units are on at the same time.  Our house battery bank consists of three 200 amp hour batteries: 600 amp hours.  We can reasonably expect to utilyze 300 amp hours.  That's quite a lot of DC energy if it's monitored and used efficiently.  We have a monitoring system aboard that indicates how many amps are coming in and going out.  Should we need more amps, the engine is there with two 50 amp alternators!  We should never have to count on that resource.  Our solar panels and wind generator will keep the batteries fully charged under most conditions.  We will be able to anchor for days, weeks, months and use our dinghy and outboard motor to go to shore for shopping, water and other needs. 

The next item to checked out is "precious" our 2003T Volvo Penta 43 hp diesel engine.  She is running beautifully but spitting out some oil in the raw water exhaust system.  This puts a sheen on the water that is unacceptable.  I have a Volvo specialist that is determining what is causing it.  Right now the thought is that the oil cooler core is the culprit.  Anyway, he will continue  until it is solved.  It is illegal to run a system that puts an oil sheen on any waters in the USA and many other countries.

The SSB (single side band radio) is our means of keeping in contact with the world, friends and family, when we are on long ocean passages with no other means of communication.  We can use it to send email, make calls thru the Ham Radio network to our family and keep informed on Wx systems and news.  It's our window to the world.  It's not working right at the moment and to my chagrin as an Amateur Radio Operator, I don't know how to solve the problems.  Therefore, an expert is needed to get it up and running flawlessly. It may have to be replaced with a more modern unit.

That's where we're at in the big haul-out before the long voyage to the South Pacific.  It won't be cheap but absolutely necessary as we won't get another chance to have the expertise and facilities at hand in one place.  Since these improvements and repairs will take time, Phyllis and I will be traveling South to visit our friends, family, Doctors and Dentists and any other things that we need to take care of before the long voyage.  We plan to be back in Annapolis for Oct 14th to finish off the Annapolis Boat Show and attend a Valiant Owners Get Together sponsored by Bernie Jakits and his partner Kate Christensen of Rogue Wave Yacht Sales at their private docking facilities at their home.  This should be very interesting since several Valiant Owners will be there and we'll get a chance to see other Valiants and get information on systems, routing and places to go.