Blue Angel, Rome Marseille delivery trip

[BartW]

WE "weigh in" at 42 tons (full of fuel and water) - as indicated on the travel hoist.

coincidently today they were lifting in a Guy Couch here in the harbour, similar size then BA,
when she was on the crane she seemend huge,
when she was on the quay, a few boats further, she was app 1m shorter then BA.

I asked the crane man, about the weight,
"she weights 48T, just below the max of the travel hoist, 50T"
so JW's weight seems in line...

about BA,
the only info I have:
on the orriginal paperwork 20y ago she weights 64,5T, not sure what's included or not, or whats added sinds then, moisture,....

Alfonze said she weigts 70T, info from a lift out,

only solution to know for sure, have her weighted
we will...

 

[BartW]

Bart .. I'm with Nick. Loads of 25m berths come available for a few months in the winter ... I'd have said starting October but splitting hairs. Easy for me to say as mine isn't big enough for Blue Angel .. St Laurent already suggested, probably the cheapest .. Antibes, Beaulieu, Cannes, La Rague all have big enough hoists as well ( I think). At the latter Arie de Boom may well be able to take you on the hard ... (I 'd have to check with them).

I'm amazed La Ciotat hasnt got room ..

La ciotat have no space was there a few months ago,
but perhaps Bandol, have not tried yet, is very big....

I was mainly choosing in function of airport in close proximity and cruising ground,
therefor first choise was Marseille Area

Hyeres and Toulon area are good aswell, (discovered here today)

but cote d'azur, no regular / affordable flights to Nice unfortunotly,
as far as I remember,

It surprised me that the Hyeres manager was very relaxed, and talking with his staff about potential places for me,
certainly not a "No Place"
perhaps due to the chocolate
Hyères is a puplic harbour, prices are surprisingly interesting ssssst

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

This argument about weight is a long one, and to be honest I always think about boats
1) overbuild
2) extra enginnerred
3) a balance

1) I think the Canados as would a San Lorenzo, Falcon, Mangusta usually mean 1.
2) Would be a Couach yachts or an Italcraft built with a mix of exotic materials like Kevlar, Carbon Fiber etc That is why Couach are usually light to there lenght, but they are strong, fast and run well. As do the Italcrafts.
3) Is a more main stream production builder; Azimut, Sunseeker, Princess, Fairline, Ferretti etc All have more or less similar weights altough the last two do usually weight a bit more.

 

[BartW]

This argument about weight is a long one, and to be honest I always think about boats
1) overbuild
2) extra enginnerred
3) a balance

1) I think the Canados as would a San Lorenzo, Falcon, Mangusta usually mean 1.
2) Would be a Couach yachts or an Italcraft built with a mix of exotic materials like Kevlar, Carbon Fiber etc That is why Couach are usually light to there lenght, but they are strong, fast and run well. As do the Italcrafts.
3) Is a more main stream production builder; Azimut, Sunseeker, Princess, Fairline, Ferretti etc All have more or less similar weights altough the last two do usually weight a bit more.

interesting vieuw,
today that Guy Couch,
and yesterday in Antibes a Italcraft moored next to us,
both seem fine boats

 

[AndieMac]

This argument about weight is a long one, and to be honest I always think about boats
1) overbuild
2) extra enginnerred
3) a balance

1) I think the Canados as would a San Lorenzo, Falcon, Mangusta usually mean 1.
2) Would be a Couach yachts or an Italcraft built with a mix of exotic materials like Kevlar, Carbon Fiber etc That is why Couach are usually light to there lenght, but they are strong, fast and run well. As do the Italcrafts.
3) Is a more main stream production builder; Azimut, Sunseeker, Princess, Fairline, Ferretti etc All have more or less similar weights altough the last two do usually weight a bit more.

Interesting comments PY, thanks for elaborating.

When Bart first mentioned the speeds of BA, it all seemed a little slow comparing them to our P66 (extended) with similar engines.
The dry weight of the Princess is 34 tonne, so about 40 T loaded, so a long way short of the Canados's indicated weight.
No wonder BA carves up the waves.

 

[BartW]

fuel consumption

I know it raised some eyebrows in another thread,
but all figures we have add up that the BA uses
<=300l/20nm, or just below 15l/nm

alle figures and trips are in the logbook,
distances are taken from the paper map's (not from the GPS)
but fuel amounts are the liters I payed for.
might measure the distances a little bit more accurate...

The total amount of Fuel I used on BA until today is 10.000l
and the total distance is 712nm, (including some may - june trips)
yes I know this equals only 14l/nm,
but this is including approx. 30nm poodling at 10kn

when on the plane, average cruising speed is 18.5kn (around there I saw most of the time on the GPS) I tried to stay exactly on 2000rpm,

later when I haver more confidence on engines and reliablilty...
will do some trips at 20kn, just to see the diff on fuel cons.

and for the statistics, engines were running exactly 50hrs

generators have almost not been running, 2 or 3 hours max

 

[BartW]

about the engines,

we alway's see some white smoke on the port engine,

this was already noticed during the june trip,
this is combination with a misreading of the temperature gauche in the E/R, by a crew member, (slightly higher temp on the P engines )

sinds then I was concerned about this P engine,

while sailing the last week, I went looking myself in E/R,
and the temp's of both engines are nicely around 75°, never over 80°
both engines ran 50hrs without a glitch, and with moderate fuel consumption.

(the temperature meters on the FB are totally wrong)

oil and cooling water level have been checked a few times, and are OK.

any idea about this smoke,

could it be possible that the flow/ different mixture of the raw cooling water / exhaust gasses create this ?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

any idea about this smoke,

could it be possible that the flow/ different mixture of the raw cooling water / exhaust gasses create this ?

I'm no expert but IMHO white smoke usually means that water is being turned to steam somewhere. Are you absolutely sure that this happens on one engine only? With underwater exhausts its very easy for sea conditions to expose one exhaust more than the other which gives the impression that one engine is smoking and not the other. Sometimes a permanent list to one side or another can cause this too. Did you have a full engine survey and oil analysis done on BA?
Nice website btw but very strange language

 

[MapisM]

Are you absolutely sure that this happens on one engine only?

Exactly my first thought, while looking at the above pic.
Btw, Bart, the navigation wake is evidently asymmetrical.
Since the sea conditions don't seem bad enough to affect the wake/rooster tail shape, makes me wonder if whatever affects the wake (flaps spring to mind, frinstance) doesn't also affect the exhaust flow.

 

[BartW]

today I've fitted a brand new and shiny winch.
first went to the Do It Yourself shop for new drills and screws and stuff,
half a day work,
and now ready to go on anker, tomorrow at Porkerolles , red dot bay
or first lunch in St Tropez bay,
and have the super rich admire BA


side note

I discovered that teac dekking of BA was orriginally 11 or 12mm thick,
3 to 4 mm of that is scrubbed away,
so at least some 7mm left,
that will do for a while

 

[AndieMac]

I know it raised some eyebrows in another thread,
but all figures we have add up that the BA uses
<=300l/20nm, or just below 15l/nm

alle figures and trips are in the logbook,
distances are taken from the paper map's (not from the GPS)
but fuel amounts are the liters I payed for.
might measure the distances a little bit more accurate...

The total amount of Fuel I used on BA until today is 10.000l
and the total distance is 712nm, (including some may - june trips)
yes I know this equals only 14l/nm,
but this is including approx. 30nm poodling at 10kn

when on the plane, average cruising speed is 18.5kn (around there I saw most of the time on the GPS) I tried to stay exactly on 2000rpm,

later when I haver more confidence on engines and reliablilty...
will do some trips at 20kn, just to see the diff on fuel cons.

and for the statistics, engines were running exactly 50hrs

generators have almost not been running, 2 or 3 hours max

I reckon anything after 2000 rpm's is going to burn too much fuel Bart.

What does Alfonso say about the best rev range to run in, and also about the white smoke/steam?

 

[BartW]

just updated the itinery in post #1

for sure we need one extra crew member next year!
some work involved to keep the boat clean and running,
arrange for the shopping
do some planning
and entertain the guests
busy busy busy

 

[Mr Googler]

Pictures...Pictures...Pictures !!!!!!!

 

[PowerYachtBlog]

Pictures...Pictures...Pictures !!!!!!!

yes cannot wait for these

 

[BartW]

After a week real holiday in region Porquerolles, Port Cros, Ile Levant, cap de Brégançon, Borme les mimosas etc…
We continued our delivery trip last Sunday, along Bandol, and now two nights in Cassis.
Sea State is here now really bad, (F6-F7) bud we don’t mind as we have a mooring in our favourite SOF harbour.
Tomorrow we will do the final leg towards Port St Louis du Rhone.
There BA will stay for one month, we are looking at a few options for a winter mooring.

 

[BartW]

FLAT BATTERY’s ALL of them !

After a long day moored in a bay on port Cros,
At evening with the high power underwater lights, (no leds )
Late at night we discovered that toilets didn’t work and that lights where half dimmed, and battery’s were almost empty.
Only then I switched on the generator, and we all went to bed,
I had too much wine at that moment to notice that the charger didn’t work.

At 6 am I woke up, and immediately went checking the battery’s,
And discovered that not only the Utility battery’s, but also the engine battery’s were below 15V DC, and that the two banks are linked together,
And the charger was in “error” mode
Really bad news as the boat engines could not start.

After a few minutes of big concern, I decided to investigate the charger cirquit, because the generators could still run (apparently on separate battery’s)
After some search I found the (hidden) high current switches to disconnect the two battery banks, and then I could reset the charger, without going in error again.

Then with the generator and charger on, and all fuses / loads switched off, I connected just one battery bank, and luckily the charger didn’t go in error anymore,
Some time later I could also connect the second battery bank, and after a while all was back to normal.

Pffff that was a relief,
Still have to investigate why and how the two battery banks are linked

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

After a week real holiday in region Porquerolles, Port Cros, Ile Levant, cap de Brégançon, Borme les mimosas etc…
We continued our delivery trip last Sunday, along Bandol, and now two nights in Cassis.
Sea State is here now really bad, (F6-F7) bud we don’t mind as we have a mooring in our favourite SOF harbour.
Tomorrow we will do the final leg towards Port St Louis du Rhone.
There BA will stay for one month, we are looking at a few options for a winter mooring.

Let me guess? That'll be a F6-7 from the W/NW ie a mistral wind? Back in 2005, we spent 2 weeks on that part of the coast of SoF in August and most of the holiday was spoiled by mistral winds. But I guess that wont worry you in a boat as big as BA
Have you visited Iles des Embiez on that coastline? Interesting little island which was originally owned by Paul Ricard. Nice marina and lots of good walks

 

[MapisM]

Still have to investigate why and how the two battery banks are linked

Bart, just a thought: the connection could be meant to put the battery banks in parallel, to be able to turn on the engines also with the engines battery bank flat.
Actually, along such connection there should be also a normally open relay, operated by a push button somewhere on the dashboard.
If the labels are in Italian, it should be marked as either "parallelo" or "parallelatore".
Maybe such relay, which as I said should be normally open, is actually closed for some reason.
Other than that, it would be pointless to link the two banks...

 

[BartW]

after spending 2 heavy day's and nights with our friends in Cassis,
and visiting the callenques and all that...
last wednesday evening we finished the last leg to Port St Louis Du Rhone,
on a perfectly flat sea,
On thursday we used al day for cleaning, and fitting a few things,
Friday (yesterday) morning we flew back home.

this is the end of a fantastic adventure,
BA behaved very good, we got to know her now much better, and appart from a few small issues, we love her even more then before.

wil try to get the pictures, and post some of them, as soon as time is available,

 

[BartW]

Bart, just a thought: the connection could be meant to put the battery banks in parallel, to be able to turn on the engines also with the engines battery bank flat.
Actually, along such connection there should be also a normally open relay, operated by a push button somewhere on the dashboard.
If the labels are in Italian, it should be marked as either "parallelo" or "parallelatore".
Maybe such relay, which as I said should be normally open, is actually closed for some reason.
Other than that, it would be pointless to link the two banks...

Yes M, you're right,
main switches for the B-banks, (that I have used) are the original ones,

but after investigating the DC cirquit I discovered a manual switch, just to link the two banks,

there is also another switch for the 12V Battery bank (for generators, and some instruments) to link these with the center point (12V) of the 24V engine battery's. I'm not sure if such a connection is commonly done, or could create issues ?

both switches were "on"

Alfonze didn't give an explanation about these switches, they were fitted in a period when he was off duty.