Current location for King Malu

Sunday 21 February 2016

Short sail forecast wrong... And right!



Yesterday we decided on a sail today. The forecast was for light winds and sunshine. Erika checked a different forecast and predicted rain. Sadly she was right and we were wrong! Still it allowed us to put water under the keel as they say!

This is what it was like after we came in!

Saturday 20 February 2016

Battery systems

We had 4 battery banks on King Malu: Domestic, Engine Start, Navionics and Bow Thruster. We started the transition to the new distributed system today... The engine start is no longer needed (we have a totally electric drive system now) so we added it to the domestic bank. We have the Silentwind generator with 300W solar working now, so we would like to charge both Navionics and Domestic and Bow Thruster. So what we did was to merge (temporarily) the Navionics and Domestic and then use a Sterling Battery Maintainer to top up the Bow Thruster battery bank.

This is not the final solution, as I hinted at in the beginning we aim to have a distributed battery system. More of that later. Watch this space as they say!

Sunday 14 February 2016

Silentwind


We upgraded our Silentwind generator on King Malu this weekend to the new boost version. The boost version delivers more power at lower wind speeds, which is particularly useful in the Mediterranean where we have more sun and less wind. The upgrade involves two parts: a new generator assembly and a new charge controller.


Having made the change we took out King Malu today in minimal winds. 

We had Beaufort 1-2 and although we didn't get world shattering results we were seeing the wind generator delivering power. Unless your batteries were very flat that would not have happened prior to the boost controller.
The charge controller also integrates solar power and we have installed 300W in six 50W panels. A large number of small panels is better for a sailing boat because the rigging often creates a shadow on the solar panels reducing the output for that panel. All the panels that are unshaded should still deliver full output. Note... remember you need Schottky diodes for each bank or you'll damage the panels that are shaded. 


We have added a stainless steel frame to the back of the boat, made for us by Technometalliki  in Larnaca. This enabled us to mount two 50W solar panels on the stern plus a Webcatcher Antenna.

We are working on some new solar panels for marine use based on an affordable array of small panels to get over the shading problems. We will also be supplying small marine panel combiner boxes using Schottky diodes. Watch this blog for more information.


We have also been doing tests on the Webcatcher Antennas in Larnaca marina. We provide an free access point there in partnership with Cablenet Business.

Webcatcher has three different antenna versions: 8.5 dBi, 10 dBi and 12.5 dBi. The 8.5 dBi works best in a marina close to a high Access Point, but has a more limited range. The 12.5 dBi works best long range but is more limited if you are close to the Access Point on the second story or higher of a building.