Online Help Desk for yachts and fishing boats

HELP DESK - TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Yachts and fishing boats get complicated. Do you need help? Do you need urgent advice? Do you need answers or some clear directions? This is my own very low cost Help Desk offering good advice to difficult questions for sailing yachts and motorboats, and fishing boats. If you are looking for good equipment go here to West Marine- America's Favorite Boating Supply Source

ONLY $5 Dollars for an ANSWER to a hard QUESTION that could save you thousands!

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Just $5 to answer your question! That is cheaper than a long phone call, faster than the postal service, and you will help keep this site running. Really large questions such as designing or assessing a whole boat and or a yachts electrical system I can only so on an agreed consultation rate basis. So if you have problems on yachts, motorboats, fishing boats, trawler yachts or anything with wires, ask me.

Do you need technical information on SIMRAD, STOWE, NAVICO, KODEN?

Then this is the place to find it! SIMRAD are the owners of Navico and Stowe. For technical advice and information on SIMRAD company products and KODEN use the form below and it will be answered by Frank Leyvraz of Quin marine, who are leading agents and installers of Simrad equipment

FAQ

The following questions and answers were taken from my other site marineelectrics.org This will be updated frequently. The questions vary from small yachts and super yachts to bass boats.

QUESTION 1

I need to know if it is possible to run a 24 volt trolling motor and to be able to charge 3 batteries at the same time or with a switch, from the main engine charging output. I am familiar with how a) voltage readings and b) specific gravity readings are used to measure battery state of charge. My query is this: how does one know that a 400a/h battery bank is full, i.e. has 400a/h available? I have recently fitted a BEP battery monitor which, amongst other things, tell me the battery capacity (as a % and in a/h). My batteries are brand new, I have a new Sterling 40amp charger (Adverc on 90 amp alternator on engine) and, even after a week on (shorepower) charge, can't get close to 400 a/h (100%) charge. I have very carefully installed and calibrated the BEP monitor. Is there another way to measure capacity, other than voltage & specific gravity?

QUESTION 2

I recently installed in my boat a Icom 402 VHF also I have a Raymarine 265 fish finder , the problem is this: when the signal is caught by the VHF near the noise limit, a pulse noise pop out the speaker, the solution is power off the sounder, but this option is not acceptable by me I already put a ferrite noise suppressor , but just a small amount of noise is dimmed out, try to move the cables, is already done too. Do you have an idea to how I obtain a clear and crystal sound from my VHF, without power off the sounder. PS: sorry about my English, I am from Argentina

ANSWER 2

This answer applies to most yachts and fishing boats.

1. Ensure that power cables are well separated.

2. Ensure that signal and aerial cables are well separated, where they cross make it at 90 degrees

3. If you have two batteries switch the VHF power supply to the other battery and see what happens

4. If all else fails you may need a filter on the power supply and not just the ferrite

QUESTION 3

I recently installed a small fire alarm panel into a fibreglass hulled vessel. I�m kind of new to marine electrics so excuse me if my questions are naive. The problem is that I cant get rid of an "Earth Fault" that keeps showing on the panel. I have tried to get some information from the suppliers however they wont support this panel despite selling it to us!! They suggested the ship may have the wrong type of Earthing System. As I understand it there are two types - floating Earth and negative grounded Earth. I am assuming the negative grounded just attaches the negative wire from equipment to the chassis at an earthing point (prop shaft?), like a car, while the floating Earth is independent of the DC live and neutral. When I asked an electrician about this he told me there was no earth on the boat but I could run a wire to the anode and connect this to the enclosure chassis. I didn�t want to connect the chassis to the negative in case it carried a current so I left it until I found an answer. Given this information can you suggest what type of Earthing system this vessel would have?

ANSWER 3

Yachts tend to have these type of issues all the time. There is no such thing as a naive question and my books may also help you a lot and unsure how big this boat is? are we talking about an AC or DC powered fire panel here?. In all probability on any GRP yachts or boats the battery DC negative is grounded to the engine and by default this polarizes the system via propulsion to water via prop shaft etc so this is your ground. This means that you ground the unit as you suggested. I am perplexed about your electrician saying there is no earth, that cannot be true. If you have no grounded system them all circuit breakers would be dual pole, and in GRP boats this is almost unheard of. You must not get AC and DC earths, grounds and neutrals all mixed up and the same goes for bonding of zincs. In any case grounding chassis to this ground will not hurt. Do you have other electronics, i.e. radar etc as these also have a ground. Many yachts have this same problem.

CLICK HERE TO START LEARNING ABOUT EVERYTHING ELECTRICAL and ELECTRONICS for YACHTS, MOTOR-BOATS and FISHING-BOATS. THIS IS THE ONLY ONLINE SCHOOL FOR MARINE ELECTRICS

QUESTION 4

I have a 14ft boat with an 18 hp Nissan electric start. I have a small Minnkota hand controlled trolling motor on the front of the boat. Can I just buy one deep cycle battery to run the trolling motor and to use to crank the outboard? I have a wiring system ran where I could keep the battery in the rear of the boat. I was hoping to save some cash and lighten the load by not buying two separate batteries. Any help would be greatly appreciated

ANSWER 4

This is not recommended, you may end up with a battery to dead to start the engine. Also deep cycle batteries are not designed for starting outboard engines. In any case you can mount the new battery close to the trolling motor and this is cheaper than running large cables forward which would be required to avoid the voltage drop. The outboard doesnt have enough charge really to top up the trolling motor so you will charge it and that will be at home with charger. My new fishing electrics book would give you all the options on this

QUESTION 5

I have just purchased a 2nd hand Furuno GP-31 GPS for my yacht. I wish to know about grounding the unit. I have the power with 1amp inline fuse going to my connection block and the earth wire connected to all the other earths from sounder, interior light and navigation lights. Now there is a separate ground connection point on the GPS unit at the back. Do I run an earth wire from this to join my other earth wiresor do I ground it to the hull. The manual shows to ground to what looks like hull, picture only shows a wingnut/bolt/cross section of plate. The manual also says Caution! Ground the equipment to prevent mutual interference. and in the section for grounding it says. The signal ground and frame ground are separated, however the power line is not isolated. Therefore, do not connect the signal ground to the frame ground when connecting other equipment to a positive ground battery. Starting to get confused about which way to go? any help appreciated

ANSWER 5

I used to have the same model myself and many yachts do, good units, simple, and easy to use. To answer the question I grounded mine to the hull, when I had it on metal boat. On a GRP one I had a common ground point for all the electronics and ran a larger cable down to the common ground point for battery negative. It is important to ground it though and a lot do not. You see this in my books. RE the instructions on a positive ground battery. This is often a warning however relates to arrangements (which I have never seen yet in 30 years on any yachts) where the positive is grounded and negatives are protected with fuses etc

QUESTION 6

Q1 - I need to locate and purchase a speed transducer for a Dataline speed instrument. The existing one has no markings on the cable or transducer. The only thing I saw was that it was white and had T handle on top running fore and aft. Simrad got me this number but I would question it's validity. Q2 - I am wanting to replace a masthead unit for a Stowe windspeed and direction indicator

ANSWER 6

I used to install this equipment on many yachts. Contact Alan Williams of A.W.Marine, Marine Electronics in the U/K. http://awmarine.com as they have recently purchased all spares and main line products of Stowe Marine from Simrad, and now supply most parts, service and repair the following ranges :- Navigator, Micro, Dataline and IS11, and the Navico range. They are also back into manufacture of many spare parts for the mast head units, transducers etc. Any enquires please do not hesitate to contact Alan on the main Stowe number +44(0)23 9250 4253 or e-mail info@awmarine.com

QUESTION 7

I am rewiring an old sailboat. Here is my problem: There are running lights, cabin lights and an anchor light. Between the three types of lights, there are four colors. All for colors run back to where the battery is. If it is any help, the four colors are red black blue and white. How do I connect four colors to three switches on the fuse panel and the battery?

ANSWER 7

A common scenario for many yachts. You have to trace out where each wire goes, you cannot do this connection based on the colors, as it doesn�t represent anything that can be relied on. There will be positives and negatives, and you need to know which is which. To trace where each wire goes, and draw that on paper. You might also work back from the running lights, cabin lights and anchor lights and do the same. Then when you have that you will be able to see which is positive, which is negative and then connect up. Normally a wire running back to a battery is an auto bilge pump or similar otherwise all should be from switch panel with fuse protection.

QUESTION 8

My 41 Gulfstar sailboat has a battery setup I think needs changing. House bank is 4 -6v gels series/parallel for 12v output, the starting is 2 12v deep cycles, only one hooked up. Alternator output (150amp) is directed thru battery selector switch. I was thinking of: Truecharge 20+ charger, smart regulator, and wiring the batteries as follows: the 6volts into 2 banks on a selector switch(house), and the 2 12volts on another selector switch(starter). Alternator output thru the house switch, and using 2 Xantrex echo charge units from house to starter banks. Battery charger output ( there are two outputs) directly to each house bank. Does this make sense or is there a better way????

ANSWER 8

This applies to most yachts. Breaking up the battery banks is fine however what are you hoping to gain by having two house banks, as you have to charge them anyway, only good idea if splitting the switch panel and electronic and electrical loads. I would keep it simple by having one house bank and one engine bank (although not normal to have deep cycle on starting, when they finally fail put in start battery) but I would steer clear of using switches as they are so unreliable. Smart regulator charging all battery banks via either a diode isolator system or battery bank combiner such as Echo unit is better option. Alternator outputs via switches is common cause of alternator damage or destruction on many cruising yachts. Best advice is keep it simple. My book Marine Electrical and Electronics Bible is specifically for yachts and has all the info on these suggested arrangements. The Xantrex charger is not an issue, and is straight forward enough. Keep it simple!

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