Raymarine Electronics Upgrade

 We’ve been unhappy with the performance of our old ST6002 autopilot and S3 course computer for several years.  It was particularly bad about overshooting course corrections in anything but the calmest conditions. It could deviate up to 15-20 degrees from the desired course heading, particularly when sailing deep apparent wind angles. This made it dangerous to use in situations where an accidental jibe could occur or in dense boat traffic.

The new Raymarine EV1 system had a good reputation. Its marketing materials say that it is a 9-axis sensor. Well there are only three physical dimensions, so how could it have a 9-axis sensor? After some research, we determined that it senses three factors in each of the three dimensions:

• direction/orientation of the boat in X, Y, and Z - think of this as heading and attitude
• speed of rotation around each axis (roll (X), pitch (Y), and yaw (Z)) - measures how fast the orientation is changing
• acceleration around each axis - measures how quickly the speed of orientation is changing

This combination allows the system to quickly adapt to the boat’s interaction with the wind and waves. Like a good helms-person, it can anticipate changes in orientation. For example, if a wave knocked the boat's heading 5 degrees off, the autopilot adjusts the helm. Acceleration sensing tells it how fast the heading change is occurring and to begin correcting the helm before it overshoots.

Staying with Raymarine meant that we could re-use some existing equipment: the HD Color radome, the rotary drive unit, and the masthead wind instrument. We had previously upgraded the chart plotter to the Raymarine a75, but decided that we wanted the larger 12-inch display for the new installation. We also wanted the hybrid version that has the knob and a few buttons (particularly MOB) and SD card slot on the front. This required changing the helm layout because there wasn’t enough room between the engine gauges.

Prior installation with a75 display

We bought the Axiom Pro 12S, depth transducer, EV1 sensor module, ACU-400 course computer, p70s autopilot control head, three i70s instrument displays, and the iTC-5 analog interface for the wind and depth sounder. Total outlay was about $8000. We produced a schematic of the installation before we started, so we knew that we had everything.

Raymarine Upgrade Schematic

Removing the old instruments was easy. We pulled out a fair amount of old SeaTalk cabling. The only catch we encountered was the depth sounder cable ran to the ST40 depth readout mounted below the VHF radio at the Nav Station. We extended it back to the iTC-5 that we mounted under the galley sink, next to the ACU-400 that controls the rotary drive.

ACU-400 drive and iTC-5 analog instrument interface

The SeaTalk-NG buss cabling is sweet and makes for a very clean installation. The EV1 sensor core was installed near the centerline and above the headliner inside the salon sliding door to keep it away from sources of magnetic interference

EV1 sensor core above ceiling

The 12-inch display required moving the two engine ammeters.

Cutting and drilling the new layout

The final installation looks very nice and we’re delighted with it.

New installation

The third i70s instrument replaced the old ST40 depth display at the nav station. We really like the flexibility of the new i70s instruments.

What about operational results? The EV1 and ACU-400 combination is great. It holds course reliably when going downwind and we’ve held the bow into the wind to set the main by using the wind heading hold feature. It seems to be better than we can manually steer.

The one thing we're missing is a speed-through-the-water sensor. I dislike the paddlewheel sensors that require constant cleaning and a doppler sensor is $2000, which doesn't seem to be worth it for the benefit of slightly better wind instrumentation.

New instrumentation under way

  -Terry

AIS Antenna or Splitter and Axiom 12 Goof

I'm working with John and Kim on their new Leopard 45, GypseaBLU, with some electronics installation and have a couple of tips to share.

Raymarine Axiom 12 Chartplotter Chip Goof

The chart chip socket on the Axiom 12 (not the Pro model) has a small space above and below it where the case fits around it. It is easy to insert the chip into one of the spaces instead of into the chip socket. These spaces are just the size of a chip, so it seems like you're inserting the chip correctly until it doesn't click into place. It seems that missing the chip slot is a common problem. World travelers who need to regularly access and update the chart chip may want to invest in the Axiom 12 Pro or in the Remote Card Reader. At a minimum, be very careful in inserting the chip. A simple fix to prevent this goof is to add a bit of caulk around the perimeter of the chip socket. But on the late model L45's access to the back of the chart plotter is challenging, so a better solution may be the remote card reader. You don't need to ask how we learned this tip. 😞

AIS Antenna or Splitter

We're installing the Raymarine AIS700 transponder. There is a new AIS Class B+ standard that uses a 5 watt transmitter and the same transmission protocols as are used by Class A transponders. Raymarine doesn't yet have a transponder that supports this new standard (very few vendors do as of  Nov 2019).  The AIS700 incorporates a splitter, but we were prepared to install a separate AIS antenna. A bit of searching on the subject found an in-depth analysis of the various tradeoffs: AIS Overview and Installation Considerations. Another good article is VHF‐AIS masthead antenna and coax installation, selection, and test. The end result of this analysis is to use a good quality coax and that height is more of an advantage for distance than having a separate antenna. Note that VHF antennas should not be placed within 4 ft of another antenna or of parallel metal objects like masts and shrouds. These metal objects result in signal propagation distortion that can result in reduced distance in certain directions. So a masthead installation is better than a solar arch. A spreader installation is affected by the mast and shroud. Two antennas on the masthead affect each other.

We opted to go with the built-in splitter, since it has low insertion loss.

  -Terry

CAPCA: Ten Problems Tips and Tricks for Captains

I did a presentation at the Chesapeake Area Professional Captain's Association titled Ten Problems, Tips, and Tricks for Captains. Over sixty people came out on a cold, windy, drizzly January night to spend some time thinking about boating instead of the weather. We had a great time talking about the set of problems I assembled with the assistance of Art Pine and Priscilla Travis of CAPCA. A PDF of the presentation is available at the link below. It is 23MB, but Google Drive seems to do a great job of compressing it for viewing. There is a video in the original presentation and I've included a link to it on the page where it appears. You might get something from the PDF, but I said a lot during the presentation that isn't in the slides.

  -Terry

Ten Problems, Tips, and Tricks for Captains

Verifying Bridge Heights

We tried something new on this year's trip south. Due to significant rainfall this year in the Carolinas, the water at many bridges along the ICW was higher than normal. We avoided most of the high water by waiting until the end of October to head south. But there were still a couple of surprises. The first was at the Atlantic Beach Bridge at Morehead City. The air draft boards read 62ft and we were at high tide. Dave on Fifth Quarter was traveling along with us so we both anchored off the side of the channel to wait for the water to recede.

GoPole with Camera

I eventually got bored and decided to experiment with an idea that I had a while back. I taped my GoPro + GoPole to the top of our boat hook, tied it onto the spin halyard, enabled WiFi to my iPad, and sent it aloft to look at the bridge. The boat hook is one of those three extension models and is about 12 ft long when fully extended. I used two clove hitches in the spin halyard, one at the bottom handle and another at the middle of the boathook. With the GoPole, that gave me about 7ft of extension above the spinnaker halyard block, which is 6ft below the masthead instruments. The first time it went up the camera was facing the wrong direction. I noted the amount that it needed to turn, bought it down, corrected it, and raised it again. It sat about 2 inches above the wind instruments, which I could see in the bottom of the camera's view.


I knew that we were clear as long as I could see the underside of each support beam. If we came to a beam where I couldn't see the bottom, then the camera wouldn't clear it. The bridge beams are wide, so it is easy to check. We go very, very slow. Inches per second. Good boat handling skills are required to stay centered under the bridge and go slowly enough to back out if we're not going to clear. If there is much current running with us, this can be a real challenge. We also wait until any vessel wakes have subsided and make sure that there is no one coming up behind us. It helps to have one person looking at the camera display and one person driving.

With WiFi control, I was able to record the approach. To keep it interesting, I increased the video speed at the beginning and end. The transit of the spans is at actual speed, so that gives you an idea of the boat speed. The GoPro has a fish-eye lens, which creates some interesting visual effects on objects that are far away, like the initial view of the span where it looks like it dips in the middle. Only when we were within a couple of feet of the bridge could we clearly see the bottom of the supports. It looks like the camera cleared the supports by an inch or two. There is no audio for the first minute that is run in fast forward. Audio is included in the real-time video section. The vibration is the movement of the camera back and forth, because I didn't have a good way to keep it stabilized in the wind.


Link: Atlantic Beach Bridge 640x360.



  -Terry

Helm Setup Under Way

Everyone has probably customized their helm setup in some way. We would like to share what we've done on LUX.

We do a lot of ICW traveling, which requires constant vigilance to prevent running aground in the frequently narrow and thin waterway. Below is a picture of our help setup under way. There are the normal engine instruments and controls and a new Raymarine a75 chart plotter in the middle. We recently had to replace our old Raymarine 435 chart plotter and the a75 was the largest that would fit in the space between the ammeters. We could have moved the ammeters and installed a larger chart plotter, but that would have thrown off the rest of the setup.

To the left of the Raymarine a75 chart plotter, we have an iPad 2 running iNavX. The Raymarine instrumentation is transmitted to the iPad via a ShipModul Miniplex 2Wi wireless repeater. It translates the Raymarine SeaTalk instrumentation into NMEA 0183 sentences. The iPad is connected to the Miniplex WiFi hot spot and receives the NMEA 0183 sentences over the network.

You can see that we have the a75 zoomed in to show the detail of what's just ahead of us, while the iPad is zoomed out to provide situational awareness. We can see which way the waterway is turning or what AIS targets are around us. The iPad is fast and easy to use, allowing us to quickly do "what-if" analysis of our track. When on the ocean, we can see AIS targets many miles away and take avoidance action early. We can also track our position relative to our destination or waypoint with out losing sight on the a75 of local details. Team Vestas in the Volvo Ocean Race would have benefited from a zoomed-in view of their immediate surroundings to avoid running aground.

This year, we installed a new VHF radio with remote mic at the helm. We can now hear conversations that are further away than our hand-held VHF can handle. The hand-held VHF may still be positioned at the helm, depending on the situation. It is in the small box to the right of the a75 chart plotter. At the time of this picture, we were traveling with Fifth Quarter and using Ch 17 as a quick intercom between boats when needed. It also has a whistle on the lanyard, making it easy to grab to sound an alert.

The bright orange thing next to the hand-held VHF is an Shoreline Marine manual horn, powered by blowing into the hold on the side. It is very loud! And yes, we've had to use it.

Above the VHF remote mic and above the engine throttle/shifters, you'll see a red triangle and a green square. These remind us of the side on which the respective marks should appear. Southbound ICW shows red on starboard, except in some of the rivers. Northbound is reversed. It helps us remember which side is the preferred side as we approach marks. The symbols are made of foam and have velcro backing so it is easy to switch them.

Across the top are the regular Raymarine instruments. From right to left are the autopilot, compass, ST60 Graphic (set to display depth, SOG, COG, and DTW), and the ST60 Wind instrument.

Just above the binoculars, which themselves are essential on the ICW, is the handle of the fly swatter. You can't do the ICW without a fly swatter. Actually, you shouldn't try to do the ICW without at least four of them. Black flies and green-head flies are worse than mosquitos because they are out in the day and they hurt when they bite.

We did a similar post about our setup for running at night. See Rigged for Night Running.

-Terry

The LUX ICW Bridge Log

One of the reasons for selecting the Leopard 40 was that it was one of the largest catamarans that we could find that would fit under the ICW bridges. The specifications list the mast as 61ft 11in above DWL. LUX tends to sit bow-high in the water, so the actual mast height above the water with our typical load is a few inches more. As we use water, the height increases an inch or two.

We performed two measurements on LUX to determine the overall height, which includes the metal whip VHF antenna. Both measurements came in at 64ft 10in. The whip antenna is like the Shakespeare Classic 5242-A, which is 3 ft long. That correlates with the masthead at 62ft.

We read about the variations in bridge height on the ICW and decided that the best way to approach the trip was "carefully." When we approach a bridge, we make sure there is no other boat traffic (sometimes a challenge) and slow to a dead crawl (slow enough to react if the bridge is too low for us to pass, which we can tell by the wind instrument that's out front). We call it the "Bridge Dance." Having two engines to allow slewing the boat to adjust for wind and current is really nice. There is a big challenge when there is a strong current running with us and we have to use a significant amount of reverse power to counter the current.

Another idea that we've toyed with is running a GoPro up the mast on a boat hook, rigged as a gin pole on the Spinnaker halyard, to get it above the mast. With the wifi capability, we'd get to see the oncoming bridge on our iPad.

We have logged the bridge passages from Annapolis, MD to Ft. Pierce, FL. We are mostly successful in recording the following items:

* Bridge height board readings (when there are boards showing).

* The state of the tide and sometimes the height of the water on the bridge, based on past high water marks on the bridge fender boards.

* An estimate of how much we cleared or touched a bridge.

We keep the log in an Excel spreadsheet. It is provided below as a Google Sheets format so that you can download it and keep all the formatting. (There doesn't seem to be a way to upload a .xls file and make it available for download.) Any log entries where we have touched a bridge are noted in red. The log includes all bridges, even those that open, simply because they were in the original listing that we found online. The original listing shows the charted height of each bridge. We ignore that now and instead pay attention to the log entries we've made and the current state of the tide (or the wind if we're inshore where wind is the primary force that changes water height).

You are welcome to download and use it, but like any good mariner, you're responsible for your own actions in using anything in it. In other words, we're not responsible for your use of it. If you select all rows+columns, copy it, then paste into a spreadsheet, it will retain the formatting.

LUX Published ICW Bridge Log (updated 12/02/2019)

You can also use a GoPro camera on a pole to check the bridge clearance before attempting to transit a span that looks close. See our other post Verifying Bridge Heights.

  -Terry

Stop The Work and Just Go Cruising!

I was just reading a post in The Boat Galley about their plans for the first few months of owning a new boat and deciding when they are ready to cruise: http://theboatgalley.com/shakedown-barefoot-gal/. We've done several trips between the US and the Bahamas and have developed a process that we follow for determining when we can leave. The first trip was pretty substantial: Tortola, BVI, to Florida and the first leg was a 500 nautical mile run from Tortola to Turks & Caicos. For this first trip, we spent many evenings planning the trip and deciding what needed to be done to LUX prior to departure. In our version of the above article, we took a trip to the BVIs to create a list of tasks for the big trip and to enjoy sailing LUX around the islands.

The decision process to leave is a method for addressing all of the things that prevent us from leaving. (Does that make sense? Once we have removed all the reasons to stay, we can leave.) Having a checklist is essential. There are simply too many things to track to rely on memory alone. (Check out the departure checklists by the Commuter Cruiser: Going Cruising and Leaving the Dock). Our checklist is oriented towards deciding whether we're ready to depart for an overnight trip. It is divided into sections that allow us to focus on particular areas of preparation:
Deck, Engine, Safety, Interior, Misc, Under Way.
For example, Safety includes things like check weather, install jacklines, PFD and harness for everyone, Ditch bag review, check horseshoe ring and light, MOB process review, chart selection, EPIRB mounted, liferaft review, night sailing procedure and rules review. Deck includes things to check like standing rigging, running rigging, sailbag, genoa, traveller, lube blocks and track, tramp rigging, running lights, anchor system, dinghy motor and fuel storage, boat hooks.

Do we leave when there are unfinished things on our TODO list? Sure, as long as they aren't critical to safety or important vessel functions. There are always things that need to be done on a boat. As long as the items don't compromise our safety, they can be delayed. We might have to compromise our comfort in some way, such as the time when we spent two days trying to get the refrigeration system working. We eventually got an extra cooler and more ice and went cruising, changing the menu to allow us to work from ice-cooled food supplies (i.e., no freezer). Another example was our problem with the port fuel tank. We started having problems with it on the leg from Turks & Caicos to Georgetown, Great Exuma and didn't resolve it until we were in Florida. Several of the shorter legs were begun with the knowledge that we had one reliable engine and one flaky engine. Staying somewhere wouldn't help us resolve the problem and we felt confident in our ability to manage the situation without compromising our safety. The weather was good, so we continued through the Bahamas and eventually made it to Florida where we were finally able to diagnose the problem. (The whole story is in at set of posts: http://svlux.blogspot.com/search/label/fuel.)

Back to the Tortola trip. Before we left, we accomplished all the major tasks on our checklist. It took us two additional days of work than we had planned. We needed to depart by 4pm to clear the islands in the daylight or we would wait to depart the next morning. The "must do" list was accomplished around noon. We reviewed the list and asked the question "Is there any reason why we should not depart?" We had four hours to review our preparations as a group (there were seven of us aboard). Everyone had time to carefully review what we had done and whether we were genuinely ready. No one could come up with a reason to not leave and we left about 4pm. We had a great trip to Turks & Caicos, with great weather, flying fish, porpoise, catching mahi-mahi, and viewing the stars at night.

When we go cruising, we make our checklists and divide the tasks into "must do" and "nice to do". The "must do" list is the gating factor on when we can leave. This way we're not stuck in a marina trying to finish a seemingly endless list of TODO items.

Happy cruising!
  -Terry

Rigged for Night Running

We have to make overnight runs on LUX from time to time, especially when we are going between Marsh Harbor and Annapolis. The older Raymarine chart plotter doesn't have a night setting that we find acceptable. The brightness and contrast can be modified but there is no setting for changing to a much darker screen or to a red screen for night use.

Our solution was to purchase a sheet of red theater lighting plastic (known as gel in the theater business) from an art supply store. We cut it to fit over the Raymarine chart plotter display and hold it in place with blue painter's tape. This simple modification makes a big difference in our eyes' ability to adjust to low light conditions.

We also have a black mouse pad that we cut in half to keep the compass light from reflecting up onto the wind screen. Half of it is below the compass and the other half is above the compass, on the plexiglass sun shield.

If you've done the ICW a number of times, you'll also note the red triangle and green square, which Gee cut from colored foam. The backs have velcro, so that we can change the indicators that help us know on which side we should see each color marker.

  -Terry

Annapolis to Marsh Harbor Navigation Update

We left Saturday 10/20/12 at 5pm and we're in the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal today. We've been making very good progress. We did an overnight sail down the Chesapeake, arriving at Great Bridge VA at 4pm Sunday (23 hours for the passage). We were off my ETA by +1 hour - not bad for that long a run. We were able to sail part of the trip, but because the wind was directly astern, we weren't able to set the Genoa because it doesn't fly well when blanketed by the main. The auto pilot didn't like the waves and unbalanced rig, so we had to hand steer. We slept well Sunday night! We averaged almost 7kn down the bay. We saw up to 11kn while surfing down some of the waves!

Our next leg took us to the Alligator River Marina, where we stayed last night. Today, we made it past Belhaven, NC and tomorrow will be Oriental, NC. We are able to make 7kn in the flat water that we had today. We'll get to Orientail in time to visit the used boat store. I've been there numerous times, but always when they are closed. I'm not taking bets on whether they will be open.

It was sunny, about 78 degrees F, with a light southerly wind today and a forecast to be a bit warmer tomorrow. This is fabulous weather.

The reverse cycle A/C units have done great at keeping the boat comfortable at night. We were going to try out the Honda EU2000i generator that we bought for the trip, but it is warm enough that we're not going to run it. Besides, we'd have to go outside where the mosquitoes are waiting to pounce on us. We're planning on a fixed genset for next year. The Victron 3KW inverter/charger has been doing a great job too, allowing us to run a microwave and charge all our mobile devices whenever we wish.

So far, both engines have been running smoothly (knock on wood), even in the waves while running down the Bay. Perhaps our tank cleaning has solved our fuel supply problem to the port engine. I'll feel better after it performs smoothly in the Gulf Stream crossing.

I'm getting a lot of boat projects completed while under way in the smooth waters of the ICW. Mike and Carol have been driving and navigating while Gee and Peggy have taken care of meals. So I've been able to work on my long list of things to do.

We were able to use our new Rocna 25Kg anchor tonight. It set quickly and held solidly when we backed down to set it. We've never had that experience with the original anchor (a plow design that regularly would not set). It fits LUX like it was custom made. We'll see how easily it comes up tomorrow. The cruising guide suggested using a trip line, which we rigged. The float is a water toy that we happen to have on board.

We are anchored in Eastham Creek at 35* 17.8'N 076* 36.2'W. We started at 39* 00'N 076* 26'W. So we're ten nautical miles west of where we started and 222 nm south. We will be about 800 nm south of Annapolis when we head across the Gulf Stream to the Abacos.

  -Terry