Maunie is safely back in the water after a relatively early (24th March) relaunch. We stayed for a couple of nights at the lovely Bull Inn in Totnes to allow us to remove covers, put sails on and finish lots of relatively minor but nonetheless time-consuming pre-launch jobs. Thankfully we had warmish sunshine for it all.
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| Folding up one of three sections of winter cover |
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| The day before launching and we were alongside another Vancouver 38 called Nimbus |
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| Nimbus is a V38 Classic, rather than a Pilothouse, one of only three built. The hull is identical to Maunie's but the deck and cabin layout are very different |
Nimbus launched immediately ahead of us and, as always, the team at Baltic Wharf Boatyard did an excellent job and had 3 boats launched in quick succession within an hour.
The spell of kind weather suddenly turned cold, wet and windy as we motored down to the mooring so we came home for a couple of days to let the gale blow through and then returned for a long weekend to celebrate Graham's birthday (with a lovely lunch at Andria in Dartmouth), finish off a few jobs and complete a shakedown sail to test all the systems.
The time aboard gave us the chance to test the new replacement for the old diesel generator that we removed earlier in the winter. Graham had spent a lot of time over the past few months researching some relatively new bits of kit, often known as portable power stations, that have become increasingly popular for boat, caravan and campervan users. They are small but powerful LiFePO4 lithium batteries with a built in inverter to deliver 230v AC. He eventually chose a Jackery Explorer 3000v2 unit as it seemed to offer the highest storage and output capacity in the smallest size. There were a number of 'January Sale' offers so we took advantage of a substantial discount and ordered a unit that came bundled with two, folding 100W solar panels.
The unit is smaller and about a third of the weight of the old diesel generator but will deliver up to 3600W of AC power (enough for electric kettle, induction hob, microwave and hairdryer) and holds up to 3070kWh of energy. We built a wooden frame to secure it in place and spent some happy(?) time sorting the electrical connections to supply power to the boat's 230v AC circuits and a 12v supply from the boat to allow us to recharge it when the engine is running.
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| The Jackery installed, with the folding solar panels strapped to the ceiling of the locker above it and new storage boxes in the void behind. The white plug and cable supplies AC power to the boat and the orange cable supplies 12v power to recharge the Jackery. |
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| Peak output from the panels actually exceeded their stated capacity. They produced more than the boat's fixed solar panels (which have a theoretic combined capacity of 380W but can't be pointed directly at the sun). |
With the experience of just a few days aboard, we think this is going to be a great addition to the boat - we'll certainly save on expensive bottled gas to heat water and make tea and the ability to run power tools and wet/dry vacuum cleaner will be very handy.
Many people are going the whole hog and replacing their lead-acid batteries with Lithium ones but it's a substantial and pricey undertaking as this requires a new charger / inverter and a new controller for the engine alternator charging system so isn't really a viable DIY job. Having only replaced Maunie's main batteries relatively recently this wasn't something that appealed so the Jackery solution feels like a good one for us. There's a useful side benefit in that we'll bring the unit home during the winter so we'll have a emergency supply in case of power cuts.
Anyway, once we'd got over the novelty of all this, it was time for a cracking sail on Monday. A cold and gusty NW'ly made for some fast sailing in relatively flat water so it was perfect for checking that everything worked and that we could remember how to sail!
Here's hoping for a great sailing season ahead!
