Practical Boat Owner - June 2018

Readers share their thoughts and opinions

Letters

Email [email protected]

or write to us at the address on page 5.

Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited.

Kass Schmitt and damaged Zest

■ Here is a photo of our seadog Archie, a

six month old Jack-a-doodle, at Peterhead

Marina. He is fi nding his sea legs ahead of a

busy sailing season aboard our Offshore 8

Metre Teazle.

Cameron Walker, Laurencekirk, Scotland

SEADOG OF THE MONTH

Send us your seadog photos for our web gallery

http://www.pbo.co.uk/seadogs and your pet may be lucky

£30 enough to become Seadog of the Month and win you £

■ Please mention to Rupert

Holmes what an excellent job I

felt he’s done with his ‘Freak

encounter’ piece (Learning

from experience, PBO May

2018). I feel it’s certainly one

of the best articles for many

years on dealing well with

losing a mast (ie good

seamanship, well offshore, at

the later end of the year); how

he and his partner Kass

solved their problems quickly

without calling out any rescue

services, etc. Both are very

fi ne seamen...

I can see you’re improving

PBO each month – keep

doing what you’re doing!

John Simpson

Inveraray, Scotland

See our follow-up starting page

86 this month on the repair job

Rupert and Kass completed to

get Zest back on the water – Ed

■ In my Learning from

experience article (PBO

March 2018), I recounted

problems with my boat’s

VHF radio refusing to work

properly when I called up the

coastguard to ask for help.

The problem was that,

within a minute of selecting

high power to make the call,

the radio switched to low

power. I mentioned in the

article that I’d checked that

the radio worked shortly

after leaving the boat’s home

berth, but didn’t mention that

the engine was running at

the time.

My battery bank is rated at

305Ah capacity and the

individual ages of the

batteries vary between 7 and

9 years old, but they’ve been

cosseted by never being

discharged as low as 50%

and always being kept fully

charged whenever possible.

To confi rm they were OK I

used a hydrometer before

the cruise. It suggested they

were holding around 75% of

the original 305Ah capacity,

so a loss of voltage to feed

the radio never crossed my

mind. It should have done.

When I fi rst tried the radio

as part of the fault-fi nding

exercise, it had the benefi t of

shore-power feeding the

batteries and it worked

perfectly. Trying again, this

time with no shore-power,

the radio duplicated the

problem I had when calling

the coastguard. It worked

properly for about a minute

or so, and then reverted to

low power. After much

messing about, followed by

checking and checking

again, a surprising fact

emerged that I couldn’t

initially believe. I found that

there was a 1.24V drop

between the main switch

panel and the radio. I’d

installed it using the wires

supplied with the radio by

the manufacturer, and had

diffi culty convincing myself

that there was a 0.62V drop

down the length of the

positive wire, and a similar

volt-drop down the negative

wire when the radio

transmitted at high power.

The visible ends of the wires

looked bright and entirely

corrosion free, so I could

only guess that the rest of

the cores are OK.

Only a little less surprising

was the way the old batteries

rapidly dropped their power

output from 12.8V to about

12.3V. And, having done so

when I tested the radio on

high power, the voltage didn’t

rise again rapidly. I didn’t

check the specifi c

gravity of their

electrolytes at

the time.

The obvious ‘cure’

is to replace all the

batteries, which will

happen before

Emma next leaves

the marina. The

annoying thing is

that the NASA battery

monitor had been trying to

tell me for several months

there was a problem with the

batteries. I’d assumed it had

lost the plot when it started to

claim that the fully charged

batteries were down to a 60%

charge after delivering

perhaps 15Ah, or 5% of their

initial capacity. Then, as the

voyage continued, the rate it

dropped became more

reasonable.

Colin Haines

■ In your feature ‘Coasting

around West Devon’ (PBO

April 2018) you have a photo

captioned ‘The historic port of

Morwellham Quay’ when in

fact it is Okel Tor. Okel Tor is

formerly a copper and tin mine

located on the Cornish side of

the River Tamar and about a

mile and a half downriver from

Morwellham which is on the

Devon side.

Jeremy Flooks

Plymouth

Still learning from experience

Colin Haines’s Learning from experience

Great seamanship

Clean

antifouling

■ Regarding Talking Point on

antifouling pollution (PBO May

2018) The Green Blue

provides online advice for

boaters, clubs and

organisations with regards to

renewing antifouling safely.

On our ‘Guides posters and

activities’ link we have a

section called ‘Go green on

board’ where we publish ‘The

Green Guide to Coastal

Boating’. The subsequent

section is ‘Guides for Clubs,

Training Centres &

Businesses’ in which we

publish the ‘Green Guides’ for

marinas, clubs and for boat

washdown. Search the Green

Blue website for ‘Antifoul Best

Practice Advice’ and ‘Antifoul

and Invasive Species’ for

further guidance.

The British Coatings

Federation also have the ‘DIY

antifouling initiative’ with best

practice advice for boaters.

In addition we advise

boaters to:

■ Use a tarpaulin under the

boat to capture scrapings and

paint drips when removing or

applying antifouling. All debris

and residue to be disposed of

in hazardous waste.

■ Know your drains – prevent

contaminated runoff entering

rainwater drains.

■ Choose a marina or club

that has a washdown facility.

Kate Fortnum

Campaign manager,

The Green Blue

Photo error

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