Why a bow thruster is useful in the Bay of Biscay.

[capnsensible]

Imagine you are on a yacht that's less than 3 years old and in excellent condition.
You set off on a 1100 nm trip and have to motor for 35 hours which puts you out into Biscay 40 something miles past Ushant.
The wind fills and off you go on a nice broad reach.
For two hours until beepy beep, low voltage alarm. 10.2v.
You find one house battery is definitely shagged and suspect the other two might be as bad.
Hey presto! Take the two bow thruster batteries and off you go.
So far, so good but.
To be continued.....

 

[GHA]

..... add to check list...."turn everything on for 6 hours to see how the batteries stand up"........

 

[capnsensible]

..... add to check list...."turn everything on for 6 hours to see how the batteries stand up"........

Or deal with it.

 

[Neeves]

Or deal with it.

That's what the man said.

Some of us do not have 'extra' batteries.

I assume the issue is running the auto pilot - our trailing water gen would fill in the gap - but we might need to turn everything else off.

Jonathan

 

[Blueboatman]

Well, as well as the wind generator and solar panels , I carry a suitcase generator and some 10l ofpetrol , just to be able to ‘bump start’ the main engine /batteries and fire up the emergency power tools . All while the wind vane continues to sail the boat and the taffrail log does it’s thing .
As ya do .
But we are fast cruisers and def not in lightweight racing or delivery trim ?

Of course the OP on his own boat would be waaay ahead of the curve too?

Great that CaptS posts this sort of real world heads up , as sharing experience to others with a few less sea miles under their keels, a win win .

 

[GHA]

Or deal with it.

so much easier not having to...... IMHO sailing is a constant learning process, more fun for it

 

[Skylark]

To be continued.....

How are you dealing with the building stress of knowing that you'll be unable to park without the bow thruster

 

[capnsensible]

so much easier not having to...... IMHO sailing is a constant learning process, more fun for it

These are new modern yachts, not manky old rustbuckets.
How do you load the batteries for six hours with the autopilot before you go anywhere?

Before you go to sea, do you spend two days shaking your sails vigorously to make sure they dont split? Run the engine for a week? Spend three years welding it?

Will wave when we pass the Algarve.

 

[Stemar]

I presume you have also checked that the alternator was actually doing its stuff. If so, had issue, dealt with it.

Real nasties are usually a series of little issues that weren't dealt with. Duff batteries when you've got spares, is only issue no 1, to be dealt with when we get to the destination. A duff alternator could be no 2, but I'd be working out where to go to put that right at my "earliest convenience", before no 3 comes along, which might be becalmed at night in a separation zone and unable to start the engine or use the VHF

 

[capnsensible]

No probs alternator fine. We are on top of it. The owner will sort it at destination.

 

[Homer J]

Wow Capnsensible I don’t suppose you expected that much flack from your OP. Good luck with the trip, sounds like you made a good logical decision to me.

 

[fredrussell]

Do you mean to tell me that as a seasoned delivery skipper you do not always bring a large set of oars and some special rowlocks that clip on the toe rail? Pah!

 

[capnsensible]

Wow Capnsensible I don’t suppose you expected that much flack from your OP. Good luck with the trip, sounds like you made a good logical decision to me.

Thanks. I got broad shoulders and I'm in Bayonna on a yacht.

 

[Neeves]

My fear would be if the main batteries were shot -

But first up:

Why are they shot?

If they are shot what is the state of the fall back, in this case the bow thruster, and then the engine starts batteries.

And if the case is owner negligence

What else has he not bothered to do.

It must have been real fun moving the batteries around. Usually the cables are too short and you need to remove the primary batteries to connect the back up. If the yacht has a bow thruster I'd expect the house batteries to be pretty massive, easily a 2 (fit healthy) person job. I hope the owner fits the description.

If the owner is there? why does he need a delivery skipper? When he gets to the Med? if he needs a full time skipper and hostess and he is this free with his money - just send us a couple of tickets, (its winter here some summer warmth would make a nice change )>

Jonathan

 

[capnsensible]

It was interesting rather than a big problem. 38 foot Beneteau really doesnt need full time crew....

 

[GHA]

How do you load the batteries for six hours with the autopilot before you go anywhere?

Turn everything on and go for a couple of beers. See what the voltage is after a while. Not that hard. Bet you do that next time

 

[capnsensible]

Turn everything on and go for a couple of beers. See what the voltage is after a while. Not that hard. Bet you do that next time

The autopilot doesn't do anything when the boat is tied up...

I never drink before going, or at sea.

 

[GHA]

The autopilot doesn't do anything when the boat is tied up...

So what, turn everything on and see what happens to the voltage. If they went down to 10.2v in 2 hours they're seriously shot, wouldn't have taken long to figure that out watching the voltage. Try it next time instead of digging your heels in , every day's a school day

 

[capnsensible]

So what, turn everything on and see what happens to the voltage. If they went down to 10.2v in 2 hours they're seriously shot, wouldn't have taken long to figure that out watching the voltage. Try it next time instead of digging your heels in , every day's a school day

School is when you learn something new.

 

[laika]

School is when you learn something new.

I hope I can express this without giving offence as you are obviously highly experienced and a great contributor to this forum but....
You've posted this thread to demonstrate a good solution to a problem encountered at sea. In my field of (paid) work, when a problem is encountered, a quick solution is obviously valued but then we sit back and say "how could we have prevented this happening in the first place?"

I apply that methodology to most things in life, including sailing.

In some cases the "cost" of checking may vastly exceed the product of the "cost" of the problem and its likelihood.

GHA's suggestion is not a :"You should have..." criticism and doesn't detract from your good solution to a problem. Rather than take it as criticism and trying to think of reasons why you couldn't have done it, think how you *could* have (leave the fridge open for 6 hours?). It may well be that "cost" of the check may be impractical or exceed the cost of just dealing with the problem. But it's really not a bad exercise to think that stuff through to arrive at that conclusion.