Wrote this up for customer of Atlantic Arch...

Wrote this up for customer of Atlantic Arch...  

My solar/wind choice was mostly an uninformed economic decision.  I researched online and read reviews but am not a trained electrician so when I saw the hybrid kit for solar/wind on http://www.emarineinc.com which included controller, all cabling, and mounting kits, I decided to go that way.  Knew I would be in boat yard and tools would be mostly hand tools.  Oh ya, the kit was the first thing to arrive in the boat yard and the last thing that we installed!  Moved it a couple hundred times in between!

We bought the boat in August last year in Alameda, CA.  Took her up to a yard in Napa CA, 40 nautical miles north, 30 thru the bay and 10 up the Napa River in a wonderful blow. She had a loose rudder, chunk of the keel missing, small hole in the freeboard, poorly fitted running rigging and suspect standing rigging.  Name was "Just Ducky", she had a rubber duck taped to the pulpit. The duck was retired just before the re-naming ceremony...  

Spent 7 weeks camping and working on the boat, probably put close to 500 man hours direct labor into her "my time" and another 200 spouse time, plus her support hours cooking/laundry, errands, parts runs, etc made up the other 300...

BOAT SONG:

 

She had blisters so we took the 6 or seven coats of paint off with sand paper down to the surface coat and built her bottom back with 5 coats Interlux Interprotect 2000E Epoxy Marine Barrier Coat  and 2 coats Interlux Micron 66 Antifouling Boat Bottom Paint...  Hated the racing stripes so we sanded them off. Had to cover the repair of the freeboard hole, so we painted the freeboard - gunnel to waterline with Brightside Polyurethane Marine Paint - rolled and tipped.  Was our first time, but the paint worked well and boats sides look very respectable!

Rudder problem was that the pintle bracket was bent and corroded and had worked loose at the bolts thru the hull.  Pulled it out and got a machinist to make one out of 1/4 thicker SS bar with a backing plate 1/8 thicker than original. And used 1/8" larger diameter bolts trying to take some of the slop out of the thru hull holes, also captured the backing plate in a 4 sided pocket build-up...

Re-made standing rigging at local shop, replacing running rigging as we go, halyards and main sheet done, just the jib sheets and jib furller line left to do.  Replaced the broken out haul in the boom.

Pulled the mast, it was painted blue and had ample galvanic corrosion, we sanded and chipped and primed and repainted it blue!  It's easy to find in the marina, only blue stick here!  Re-wired the mast while down. New shieves, that was interesting - had to press proper size brass liners into shieves that we could buy at chandlers.  Chandlers had proper width and diameter, but wrong ID liners, found right size and pressed them through (pressed the old one out using the new one) on drill press in boat yard. It's always something!  

Head was a nightmare, we replaced head with composting toilet and the tank is removed to make room for a watermaker... 

Pulled all the 33 year old plumbing and replaced, new hand pumps for salt and fresh water. 

Installed 24 breaker panel and tried to clean up wiring a bit.

Wind instr, put in tacktick wireless, kinda pricey, but a great joy in pulling the wire from the mast and NOT replacing it with new...

Chart plotter was last years Garmin 3260, I think I would run raymarine if I had it to do over.  

Big break on autopilot, friend in yard installed new so I got his old linear actuator, another friend had demo S2G Smartpilot and I bought a ST6002 head unit.  Works like a charm with the old flux-gate compass and rudder feedback arm which came with the actuator.  Friend also had the ST7000 course computer/motor control unit which is heading for the second hand shop...  Starting to play with course tracking from chart plotter to autopilot.  This may take a bit to get comfortable with.  Unit draws like 4 to 7 amp in operation.  

Boat had a monitor wind vane installed, but not rigged to operate, I just added a couple double line blocks one at the stern rail and the other at the base of the binnacle so the lines run from the monitor straight forward to the wheel. Straped the drive wheel to the boat wheel tied up the lines that were hanging on the monitor... and seems to work well close hauled to close reach maybe beam reach, but not so much on down wind points of sail.


Here are links to emarineinc.com
http://www.emarineinc.com/categories/Wind-and-Solar-Hybrid-Kits/

I thought why not?  It was $3120 plus shipping. 
http://www.emarineinc.com/products/HYBRID-Air%252dBreeze-200W%7B47%7D270W-Solar.html

Here is the kit with the 400 Watt Air-X for $3125...  
http://www.emarineinc.com/products/HYBRID-Air%252dX-400W-Wind%7B47%7D270W-Solar.html

 I've seen 9+ amps from the Kyocera panels and it is only spring here in San Francisco bay.  38th parallel and all.  Wind is an Air Breeze 200 watt.  It may be a bit light for this areas winds, been blowing pretty good this winter.  I read somewhere if you get sustained winds above 15 knots the Air Breeze is not a good option???  

There are also battery bank size to consider.  We have been "off grid" and living on the boat, except for the electric heater, since January. My house bank is 4ea 6 volt GC2 golf cart batteries (the little ones).  Got them at Sams or Walmart for $70 each!  I agonized over the gel and other hyper expensive batteries, but decided on lead acid, and a vented battery box...  Put the box aft of the engine on the platform that held the water heater, put in an on-demand marine propane water heater which was much smaller, making room for house bank there...     Also found mail order marine battery cable made to order. http://shop.genuinedealz.com/Marine%20Grade%20Wire/Marine%20Battery%20Cable/ The company name was strange, but their service and quality were excellent... It took a bit to work up the order, measure twice and all that, but worked out very well.  Had to redo the welder cable the prior owner had used to cable the battery system and replaced with marine grade...

Things are getting close.  Putting windlass in this week maybe next week.  Working out if i have room to split the chain locker for the second bow anchor rode... Still have to get life raft.  And figure out how to secure the dingy on the bow.  May get the float kit for the Walker Bay 8 dingy.

We plan to head south end of the year, til then trying to learn to sail here in bay...

Hope this helps, I may just web site some of this stuff, I've been so busy with the boat project that I haven't taken time...  Always thought that those guys who listed all the "stuff" on their boats were a bit off...  But I think I get it?  I found lots of help from boat yard folks and on-line bloggers and the like, I guess it is that giving back thing...