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| Captain Change |
06/30/2010 |
You may recall our February announcement naming Capt. Stuart Sheppard as our teaching captain on Eliana. Everything seemed to be on track until recently when we received a call from Stuart letting us know he couldn't do it because of a change in family situation. Of course, we were disappointed. But the show must go on. After lengthy consideration (about 5 minutes), we decided to tap Capt. Bernie Francis to see if he would be available. We had met Bernie last year in Fort Lauderdale with favorable impressions and since then have spoken with many owners who either knew him or worked with him first hand. So, we gave Bernie a call and were elated to find his current assignment ending almost coincidentally when our requirement would start.
Captain Bernie Francis
As I have talked about before, captains that specialize in training couples
at sea is not so common. Its one thing to captain yourself or with professional staff in a permanent role.
It's quite something else to teach someone else knowing the more successful you are, the shorter your tenure is likely to be. One must be very secure in their profession to like this. The other aspect is that you must be more than simply skilled as a captain. You have to be able to teach, putting in place lasting procedures and systems that lead to a lifetime of safe, successful cruising. Boating places a huge strain on husband / wife teams as well as guests. It exposes relationship flaws that can't be ignored. They must be dealt with given the small confines of life aboard a boat. So a good teaching captain may also engage in some counseling! It all goes with the turf.
Many in the Nordhavn community know Bernie because he has been teaching and captaining almost exclusively on Nordhavns for the past number of years. But for those that don't, he is a licensed and seasoned captain and yacht maintenance supervisor with over 33 years experience. He holds a USCG Master License 100GRT and is certified STCW 95 with Sail Endorsement. He spent 20 years in the United States Navy Submarine Service as Senior Chief Machinist Mate. He has navigated waters all over the world in a multitude of roles but is unusually well qualified in systems maintenance and all aspects of vessel management.
Needless to say, we are very excited to welcome Captain Bernie Francis to Eliana.
Commissioning Update
Well, we're about 10 days into it now. A lot of the first week or two is spent just assessing all of the systems and building a work plan from that. I believe the assessment phase is nearing completion because I can see work items now getting checked off so its apparent headway is being made. I absolutely love being on the boat every day. My familiarity with things is improving and the staff seems to appreciate having my input right when they need it rather than having to track me down somewhere. I believe being present during commissioning is absolutely invaluable and ultimately improves the outcome at a lower cost.
We have found a few issues. For one, the davit (the crane on the foredeck) has an oil leak. It simply can't be used until Marquipt is able to come and service it which is a bit of a problem. Several other steps require the use of the davit. Hopefully, we can get the davit working soon.
Also, the main propeller will have to be removed. Yes, you heard that right. It needs to be re-pitched. The propeller is slightly too aggressive causing higher torque than specified. I'm not an expert in this field, but as I understand it, the engine should be within a certain RPM range at full throttle and we are running about 25 RPM less than that specified range. So, the propeller will be removed by a diver and dropped to the bottom. Then (using the davit that isn't working yet) it will be drug out and hoisted to the dock where it will be hauled to a machine shop specializing in this type of work. I'll try to get pictures when this happens.
All of the wiring aboard Eliana is being checked against the build drawings. Invariably there are discrepancies and in each case it is determined if the wiring is wrong or the drawing is wrong. One or the other will be fixed so the electrical schematics we use in troubleshooting are known to be accurate.
Checking every wire and connection against the drawings.
One interesting design aspect of Eliana's electrical power generation is that it has almost no reliance on engine alternators. I wanted this feature specifically because alternators are very inefficient power producers and they are high maintenance (and a bugger to work on). When Eliana arrived, I noticed it still had the standard 175 amp house alternator on the main engine which by my calculation would never be needed unless both inverters and the house battery chargers all failed. Rather than remove the alternator, though we decided to leave it there, but decommission it. That is take the belts off and remove the fuse that connects the electrical. Each of the engines do have a small alternator that keeps their own starting batteries topped off, but that's no big deal.
Electronics
On Monday, the electronics installation began. This is an immense project involving a lot of antenna work topside, hardware and wiring on the interior and finally programming and testing. I expect this will be full tilt for at least a month. The electronic package for Eliana is pretty much standard, but with a high emphasis on duplication. What we decide is important, we want two ready to go should one fail.
What may be interesting to some is what we didn't do. We don't have forward looking, underwater sonar which is becoming more popular for approaching uncertain anchorages, etc. We also didn't do infrared night vision camera which is also being used by a lot of captains these days.
Another missing item is we aren't installing satellite TV. We'll see how that works out, but with full time Internet either through satellite or WIFI, plus broadcast TV when we can get it, we think we've got plenty of entertainment on board. We can play virtually any radio station in the world. We can download programs and movies easily when we have a WIFI connection to be played at any time. News and current events are important to us, but television has ceased to be a credible source for factual news. We'll see.
One upgrade note of interest to you mariners. We had originally specified a network style AIS which is Class B and not standardized. Recently, the Class B AIS units have come under fire having not performed as they are supposed to for a variety of possible reasons. One spectacular accident that brought this to light is Jessica Watsons "Pink Lady" collision with a Chinese cargo ship between Brisbane and Sydney. In this case, her AIS was on and working, but the cargo ship was not receiving the signal. Sydney Harbor Patrol conducted a test afterward and found that her Class B AIS was not visible to the majority of other boats in the area. So, we're not sure what or where the problem is, but to be safe we decided to upgrade Eliana from Class B to Class A.
 First, we use paper cutouts to experiment with component layouts at the helm.
Blank panels are installed and blue taped. Then component positions are finalized.
The first three items are throttle, steering lever and thrusters. Everything else works out from there.
Antenna installation. VHF, AIS and SSB base mount on the side and extend upward 25' from there.
The round dome is the V-Sat (Internet), the flying saucer above is the satellite compass. At the far right is one of the radar arrays.
Responses to Questions
1. Are
you going to add a second tender as well or just have one for now? We plan to use just one tender for the time being. As we discover other requirements or limitations we'll consider adding something else on the starboard foredeck. Our thinking now is to really utilize Sweet Charlotte to her fullest.
2. I
would love to see a layout of your pilothouse panel if you have an
electronic copy? OK, here you go. This is my simplistic block diagram we're currently using. 2010-06_Helm_Layout.pdf
3. Are
you going to add controls to the helm chair, so you can manually drive
from there if needed? I am adding a jack on the chair for the hand held remote autopilot. I actually prefer the wired version rather than wireless and it can do about anything the panel mount can do. We are also adding a jack at the settee behind in case we're eating and need to make a course change.
4.
I've probably got hundreds of questions, but will keep it polite and
(for now) just ask about the thinking that went into having 3 gensets?
Maybe just a way to be as efficient as possible and be able to generate
only the needed power at optimum load for diesel engine? You hit the nail on the head. Generators these days are truly remarkable. Extremely quiet and efficient, but for a variety of reasons you should run them between 30% and 80% load. Our strategy is to have an optimum generator for the many conceivable loadings you can have on a boat. Don't know yet, but I bet the small one (which is the one we added) will get more hours on it than the other two. We'll see.
5.
Is a DD 60 series an American engine or a re-badged MTU? 2-cycle or
4-cycle? Inline 6-cyl? HP? The engine is an MTU, 4-cycle inline 6 cylinder. It is turbocharged and aftercooled rated at 535 HP continuous. Another distinction is that it has dry stack exhaust and is keel cooled rather than the much more common wet exhaust.
6. Are
you saving on commissioning costs by doing some of it yourselves? I believe we are, but keep in mind PAE pays the majority of commissioning expenses within the purchase price. The electronics, however, are different. We pay for that separately. Today, for example, I noticed some wire runs scheduled, but weren't needed. By catching that mistake before it happened, we saved. Also, labor rates here are high. Even if I'm not as efficient, my actual work on the boat saves labor hours, keeps me busy and available with the rest of the workers so when they have a question, I'm right there to help figure out the answer.
7. And
how much cruising speed (if any) are you losing by sticking to one
engine instead of two? I understand that two small engines instead of
one large one would cost you about 10% in fuel economy: is that your
understanding also? We may lose a little bit in maximum cruise speed with one engine, but within a realistic cruise range the single engine can easily keep pace with the twin. Fuel efficiency is a hot topic and it is very important to me because I am extremely cost conscious. I've heard the 10% ballpark, but honestly there aren't very many of the 76 singles out there to compare. I'm eager to get some accurate data with Eliana and start doing some comparisons with 76 twins.
8. A
follow up to Vaughan's question about having 3 gensets, how do you
transfer power from each set without having to shut everything down? Good question. We actually start and warm up the 'switch to' genset first. Then a simple flip of a switch transfers the load without turning anything off. After that, the 'switch from' genset is allowed to cool down a minute and then it can be shut off. Also, remember many of the loads on the boat are DC coming directly from batteries. Critical circuits (such as computers) we place on inverters so they will be powered at least for awhile even if no generator is running.
That's all for now. Please visit our site to post comments or questions. I appreciate hearing from you.
Rick Heiniger
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| Posted by Rick on Jul 04, 2010, 01:39 PM EST |
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the question and I'll be happy to answer here as well as in the next post.
The flat surface just below the main screens is dedicated almost exclusively to control panels since as you point out, they can be hard to read with a horizontal mount. There is one, almost unavoidable because we didn't have a good place close to put it. That is for the primary VHF radio which primarily displays current channel.
We have two VHF radios, one for the Pilothouse and the other for the Flybridge. Should one or the other fail, we have a remote mike that can be plugged in the PH for the FB radio and vice versa.
On the SSB, we almost didn't do one at all. I put it in the 'nice to have' category, but not essential.
R |
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| Posted by Claire on Jul 01, 2010, 07:47 PM EST |
| Thank you, Rick, for all of the updates. I'm not smart enough to ask an intelligent question about the engines but it is fascinating to learn about your adventures. You and Debbie are an inspiration! Claire |
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| Posted by Chris Hallock on Jul 01, 2010, 04:25 PM EST |
Rick,
Thanks for the layout. You going to be able to read the displays of the equipment that is mounted flat under the main screens? The contrast might be tough to see especially if you have polarized sunglasses on. I don't see dual SSB/VHF setups in the pilothouse? I see that you have a 2nd VHF up on the fly bridge.
Also you can respond as well posting a comment above too, keeps things more together, just a suggestion. :)
Thanks,
Chris |
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| Posted by Unknown on Jul 01, 2010, 01:42 PM EST |
| did you ever consider using a controllable pitch propeller arrangement such as hundested instead of fixed? somewhat surprised no one has installed such an arrangement except for the motor sailor. would eliminate pitching problems with the propeller. i can only assume the benefits are out weighed by the complexity and cost. jon |
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