Under way, eventually (a 1200+ Nm cruise around Italy)

Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

PowerYachtBlog said:
I am sold with the 70-80% load principle.
The principle does not stand when an engine does not have any whistles, starting from turbos and going on to more modern magic as 4 vales per head, common rail etc etc

In my experience when an owner runs always under that principle year in year out, someone in the long run will pay a price, and the more modern and more gizmos the engines have the higher the price to pay.
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Exactly
Here’s why

https://imgur.com/a/zD2ms

It’s to do with getting enough temp into the rings to get the best seal .
When cold or at D speed sub 300 degrees they are not sealing as well as optimum 580degrees .

So nasty products of combustion get under the rings into the oil .Your oil gets more acidic quicker so kills bearing surfaces even when it’s not running switched off .

You oil change interval is just an empirical figure , a finger in the air either 12/12 or x hours .

Oil turns black on diesels because the rings don,t fit when cold ,they have to expand up to 550/600 ish degrees to fit best .
Detergents added to the oil help a bit ,but give your oil a chance and don,t bleed anymore crap down from the combustion chamber than you have to by runing @ low Cylinder temps .

The crap is also abrasive so it’s like adding sand in the oil filler running below temps .

This is just a diesel thing - your petrol engines don’t have the huge temp range in combustion so your lub oil mostly stays a nice honey gold colour because the ring temp range is a fraction of that of diesel .
 
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Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

Portofino said:
Exactly
Here’s why

https://imgur.com/a/zD2ms

It’s to do with getting enough temp into the rings to get the best seal .
When cold or at D speed sub 300 degrees they are not sealing as well as optimum 580degrees .

So nasty products of combustion get under the rings into the oil .Your oil gets more acidic quicker so kills bearing surfaces even when it’s not running switched off .

You oil change interval is just an empirical figure , a finger in the air either 12/12 or x hours .

Oil turns black on diesels because the rings don,t fit when cold ,they have to expand up to 550/600 ish degrees to fit best .
Detergents added to the oil help a bit ,but give your oil a chance and don,t bleed anymore crap down from the combustion chamber than you have to by runing @ low Cylinder temps .

The crap is also abrasive so it’s like adding sand in the oil filler running below temps .

This is just a diesel thing - your petrol engines don’t have the huge temp range in combustion so your lub oil mostly stays a nice honey gold colour because the ring temp range is a fraction of that of diesel .
Click to expand...

The clyinders of a new engine come out of the boring machine with perfect shiny surfaces. The surfaces are then honed with deep scratches in a cross hatch pattern to retain oil on the walls of the cylinders to lubricate the piston rings as they go up and down in the bore.

Slow running creates a lot of soot and carbon which you can see coming out the exhaust, this cloggs the cross hatch honing on the clyinders which means there is no oil retained in the bores: the rings wear rapidly and allow the clyinders pressure to blow past the rings into the sump turning the oil black with carbon.

....that's why we often re-hone the clyinders of agricultural tractors if they have only been used to tow light trailers. The big ploughing rigs never suffer from this problem.
 
Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

Portofino said:
Sport fishing community in particular rack up hrs in the 1000 ,s
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Yup, but most of them are at trolling speed - i.e. at ridiculously low load, even if it's true that they also hammer the throttles like there's no tomorrow regularly, both on their way to the fishing spot and back home.

Anyway, enough of engines malarkey. As I said, I don't think I'll use the DP at D speed a lot, even if for reasons that have nothing to see with rpm/load, so I actually hope that yourself, PYB and RB are correct. Time will tell, I reckon!

In order to bring the thread back on track, I'll post a few non-boating pic - actually not in real time, since we moved further South in the meantime, and we are now in Lastovo, the last HR island from where we will cross towards Apulia, going then round the heel of IT, and then Messina Strait, etc.

But a few days ago, while we were moored in Trogir, we visited the old town, which on top of being very conveniently located near the Split airport, is indeed lovely. Here's a few pics of the historical center, whose Venetian heritage is rather evident, as it is in other HR towns located along the mainland coast, Dubrovnik being probably the most representative.
lQ9qZQ51_o.jpg


fB5BMViK_o.jpg


ZR3Argkp_o.jpg


cahLL12w_o.jpg
 
Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

Trogir used to be a regular destination for us. It is lovely but we found it a bit touristy and somewhat blighted by planes landing and taking off from Split airport. Like many Med hotspots we liked it better out of season when you can moor overnight on the town quay. If you are in Lastovo now, then I look forward to hearing about lobsters;) Shame you arent going further south before crossing to Italy. I guess you have missed Korcula Town and Mljet? I guess you just can't wait to get back to Italian cuisine and wine;)
 
Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

Hi P & S,
I'm only catching up with this thread now.

WOW... i'm very envious, not going to lie! Enjoy!
 
Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

Deleted User said:
If you are in Lastovo now, then I look forward to hearing about lobsters;) Shame you arent going further south before crossing to Italy. I guess you have missed Korcula Town and Mljet? I guess you just can't wait to get back to Italian cuisine and wine;)
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Yup, we stopped in Korcula, but only in Vela Luka, the W tip of the island, so we missed the main town.
Which as I recall is very nice indeed, but often very crowded in the summer peak - which btw is what some boaters we came across confirmed us.
They were coming from there, and even had their boat slightly damaged while moored in the marina... :ambivalence:

Otoh, we used to love Mljet, and we would have liked to see it again, but it would have made the route a fair bit longer.
And so far we spent a lot of time around HR overall. So, yes, time to move on soon, and crunch some miles...! :encouragement:

Meanwhile, we are enjoying Lastovo anyway, which is always lovely.
We actually preferred to have a beautiful ricciola for dinner yesterday, which our onboard chef rated as catched not later than a few hours before!
Though he only rated the recipe average, and he even asked if we could buy some slices, because in his view that fish deserved a better treatment...
But their sources are just enough to cope with the restaurant needs at this time of the year, so no luck in this respect!
I took the following pic on your behalf, anyway. No prize for guessing from which dock it was taken... :cool:
PTl5w3zz_o.jpg
 
It just popped to my mind that I didn't yet upload the brief video which I took on the night when we enjoyed the thunderstorm already reported in post #110.
Better to see it from your armchair, rather than while anchored somewhere!
Though actually it wasn't as bad as it looks, 'cause the thunderstorm was very close, but not enough to practically affect us - aside from keeping us awake.
In fact, eventually all we got were just a few rain drops, and also the sea was pretty flat, as you can see when the lightnings illuminate the sea surface...
 
Re: First (miserable) drone attempt...

MapisM said:
Yup, we stopped in Korcula, but only in Vela Luka, the W tip of the island, so we missed the main town.
Which as I recall is very nice indeed, but often very crowded in the summer peak - which btw is what some boaters we came across confirmed us.
They were coming from there, and even had their boat slightly damaged while moored in the marina... :ambivalence:

Otoh, we used to love Mljet, and we would have liked to see it again, but it would have made the route a fair bit longer.
And so far we spent a lot of time around HR overall. So, yes, time to move on soon, and crunch some miles...! :encouragement:

Meanwhile, we are enjoying Lastovo anyway, which is always lovely.
We actually preferred to have a beautiful ricciola for dinner yesterday, which our onboard chef rated as catched not later than a few hours before!
Though he only rated the recipe average, and he even asked if we could buy some slices, because in his view that fish deserved a better treatment...
But their sources are just enough to cope with the restaurant needs at this time of the year, so no luck in this respect!
I took the following pic on your behalf, anyway. No prize for guessing from which dock it was taken... :cool:
Click to expand...
Yes no prizes. I take it that is the owners RIB in front! Yes Korcula Town can be a bit of a bunfight. The marina is tight. there is often a Bora wind whistling through and it is on the charter boat circuit so the boat driving can be a bit haphazard. Fun to watch so long as its not your boat they are crashing into;)
 
scubaman said:
For some reason the video doesn’t load for me?
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K, that's weird, considering that some others were able to see it, as I understand.
Maybe it has something to see with local restrictions connected to the soundtrack I used...

The straight link is the following, just in case:
https://youtu.be/oHb755wP2GA
Failing that, can you possibly access the web using some IP-changing tools?
As a last resort, just shout and I'll upload another version with no music...
 
AndieMac said:
Are your friends staying aboard for the Adriatic crossing or are you and S doing it alone?
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Yup, they are.
Well, they were actually, because they just left to take their plane back to Sardinia.
Which was our main reason for crossing yesterday in less than ideal conditions, as per poll about speed deviations...

Btw, I'm quite happy to confirm that speed deviations aside (which according to the first poll results are more normal than I would have thought), the boat didn't mind the conditions one bit.
Actually, when I tried for a few mins to push her at 26 kts or so, she kept going as a freight train - even better than at low 20s, actually.
I just preferred to keep the engines at 1700 rather than 2000 rpm, in conditions where I didn't want them to overheat or whatever.
The old lady would have ploughed through that sea at 8kts as stable as a rock, but going off the plane with the DP wouldn't have been fun...
 
P Your so fast in your P boat, i can’ t keep track. ;-)
We were in san foca during our round South Italy trip, yes was ok, the restaurant overlooking the marina was just average ( which is still very good for us Ital food fans). You skipped polignano ? We liked that very much!!! And some exceptionally good resto’s
Good going, you’ll be soon reaching Ital islands...
 
MapisM said:
Yup, they are.
Well, they were actually, because they just left to take their plane back to Sardinia.
Which was our main reason for crossing yesterday in less than ideal conditions, as per poll about speed deviations...

Btw, I'm quite happy to confirm that speed deviations aside (which according to the first poll results are more normal than I would have thought), the boat didn't mind the conditions one bit.
Actually, when I tried for a few mins to push her at 26 kts or so, she kept going as a freight train - even better than at low 20s, actually.
I just preferred to keep the engines at 1700 rather than 2000 rpm, in conditions where I didn't want them to overheat or whatever.
The old lady would have ploughed through that sea at 8kts as stable as a rock, but going off the plane with the DP wouldn't have been fun...
Click to expand...

Depending on the sea conditions of course, but the old Princess at 1200 HP each and cruising at 24-25 knots would be drawn back to 20 knots and shot forward to 30 in bigger conditions.
The AP was set around midway to allow the boat to yaw slightly in quartering seas and not course correct too savagely, making the passage as comfortable as possible for the crew.

I agree with your "old lady's" comfort level in a sloppy sea, she was very impressive from my experience
 
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MapisM said:
K, that's weird, considering that some others were able to see it, as I understand.
Maybe it has something to see with local restrictions connected to the soundtrack I used...

The straight link is the following, just in case:
https://youtu.be/oHb755wP2GA
Failing that, can you possibly access the web using some IP-changing tools?
As a last resort, just shout and I'll upload another version with no music...
Click to expand...

Thank you, got it now! Don't know what the problem was but couldn't see it on my mobile.

Very nice thunderstorm and you did a very nice job capturing it. That closing shot is beautiful.
 
A short progress report

Sorry for the lack of real time updates in the last days, but after crossing the Adriatic, since we already know reasonably well the Southern IT coastline, we've been pretty much pedal to the metal, clocking about 500Nm in 4 days.
Btw, while the heel of Italy is VERY interesting in more ways than one, and well worth a trip for those who have never been there, actually from a boating viewpoint it's nothing to write home about.
Anyway, the bottom line is that we are now in Sicily, in a brand new (and really beautiful!) marina in Capo d'Orlando, just S of the Aeolian Archipelago.

One thing worth mentioning of today leg - aside from crossing Messina Strait, which is always a nice sight (pics to follow!) - is the bit of math I just did:
After cruising in the low 20s for 9 hours, burning around 7L/Nm, we wasted in one day the equivalent of what used to be our fuel budget for a whole season.
And as I understand, I can consider myself lucky, because according to other owners I spoke with, our new toy is actually a tad more efficient, when compared to other similar boats.
Still, these bloody planing boats are obscene, and should be banned, imho! :ambivalence:
 
Re: A short progress report

Yup, that has always been the idea, from the beginning.
Then again, it still hurts, when updating the costs file... Maybe I shouldn't do it at all! :rolleyes:

PS: for comparison's sake, when we did almost exactly the same trip with the old lady, back in May 2006, we refilled in Lastovo as we did now.
We reached CF with that Croatian diesel, and then we used the boat for the whole summer.
In 2007, we began the season with some of that fuel still in the tanks, which lasted till July or thereabout...
 
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