What Did You Do To Your Boat This Week?

[Bill 310]

Yikes, the expensive mistakes of “pros” are sure costly. I too have had and continue to have perplexing electrical issues. The Bluetooth Victron battery monitoring is great. I recommend the smart shunt and Victron smart charger.

The greater cost was time. I really liked the second tech, he was switched on.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Bill that's unfortunate that you experienced those issues, I always cringe when a tech who is supposed to know what he's talking about goes off script and starts making **** up.
I see that at wholesalers from time to time with a counter person claiming something is discontinued or not available, a call to the manufacturer usually clears up the issue or in your case a personal visit which was great that they were willing to have you drop in.

BTW congratulations on your retirement, I hope that goes well for you.

David.

 

[Sea Chaser]

Bill that's unfortunate that you experienced those issues, I always cringe when a tech who is supposed to know what he's talking about goes off script and starts making **** up.
I see that at wholesalers from time to time with a counter person claiming something is discontinued or not available, a call to the manufacturer usually clears up the issue or in your case a personal visit which was great that they were willing to have you drop in.

BTW congratulations on your retirement, I hope that goes well for you.

David.

I find that much of the wholesalers are getting younger generation in there which are lazy and don’t know how to dig into parts especially anything older that’s not in front of them on the computer. Gonna be sad days when some of my go to guys at the counter retire .

 

[Bill 310]

I find that much of the wholesalers are getting younger generation in there which are lazy and don’t know how to dig into parts especially anything older that’s not in front of them on the computer. Gonna be sad days when some of my go to guys at the counter retire .

This problem is endemic.

I would explain to new employees that almost every answer to a technical question or a solution to a problem they would get from an insurance company would be wrong.

About 5 years ago new hires' attitudes began to change and they were much more laisse faire about work in general and carried less about their work quality.

This is not to say that there are not a lot of fine young people doing a good job, but smart employers are recognizing these folks early and paying them above market wage to retain them..

We also had success hiring senior staff who had been retired out in downsizing situations.

 

[Rain City]

Our boat was built and rigged on the island, and we had had in June a Vancouver firm send out a tech (T1) t0 install a Victron Battery Monitor. We did this because we were were mystified that on certain occasions when we came back to the boat the batteries were not charged

Just before we left on our two week summer trip up the coast into Desolation Sound , and then over to the island our radar/depth sounder and chart plotter all failed.

So we called the same company to send us out a tech (T1) out who discovered that the cable that connected things together had been pinched somehow. Note the pinch was in a panel that had not been disturbed by the person who installed the meter.

I call this next service call the dead Furuno visit. T1 told me that we had been sold 10 year old product and that our system pieces were incompatible . The tech said he was able to patch the cable and it appeared that things would work for our trip. He could patch but not replace the cable because they were no longer available from Furuno. This both surprised and perturbed me.

Of course the patch failed in a matter of a few hours.

So we had to change our trip plans a bit (no anchoring , no trap setting, no fishing with downriggers etc.) but we still had a great trip. The writings of Bjorn Kjellstrom had taught me well years ago when I was a wilderness canoe trip guide so off we went with charts and compass. Having had our compass recently swung I was confident that North was North, etc. etc.

One of the other things I had asked T1 to do in June was draw a schematic of the boat for me.

I followed up a few times and finally we received the Schematic in, I think, early September. T1 was too busy to finish this drawing so it was given to a new person to finish. Even with just high school electrical shop I thought wtf is this when I saw the drawing..

When we got home I was pretty busy as I was retiring on Sept 6th, and I got back to dealing with the electronics issue October after a 3 week road trip including being in LA for Eric Clapton's 2 day Crossroads Guitar Festival. It was FA.

Now I was perplexed by the issues of incompatibility and that our units had somehow failed. So, now retired, I called Furuno and they were as surprised as I was that the units were incompatible and that I had been sold NOS (new old stock) .

They asked me to ship my radar dome and the chart plotter to them for inspection. Now Furuno's North American headquarters is in Camus, WA so I asked if I could just drive the stuff down and wait for it to be looked at. Not a problem I was told.

I had sent the schematic to a pal who is a P. Eng and very boat handy. He called for a meeting on the boat with his well used fluke meter. It was on this day that we took the radar dome and chart plotter off the boat for my trip to Furuno

I spent the night in Camus, had excellent halibut fritters at the Puffin Cafe in the Marina. (A nice little family owned restaurant).


View attachment 101321


From the Puffin Cafe web site:
"Welcome to the Puffin Cafe! A taste of the tropics! Now serving caribbean cusine, pirate cooking and spirits in a unique waterfront location with river and mountain views, a cozy fireplace, outdoor seating and boat docking in a casual atmosphere! Floating on the Columbia River in the Marina at the Port of Camas-Washougal."

Visit their web site: http://www.puffincafe.com/



......and then went back to Furuno the next morning about 10.

I got a bit of a warehouse/test centre tour and it is about Two Costco's in size with higher racking.

Beautiful building in a high tech Business park

View attachment 101319

View attachment 101320



First of all my equipment isn't 10 years old , and the Radar Dome and Screen are 100% compatible. Furuno also had the cable in stock (more than one)

When I got home I called the local firm and requested a meeting .

I had a 45 year career in meetings, in bargaining , correcting insurance company oversights and errors, and I have to admit I often have lunch with lawyers. I am also 6'4' and prefer meeting where people are sitting down, to lessen the height thing.

I have an idea about how to keep meeting dynamics from getting off track

Be prepared
Be Nice
Have a reasonable solution prepared.

The meeting went well, there was some surprise when I mentioned my road trip to Furuno and that the units were not old stock, and were in fact compatible.

We agreed that a different electrician would be sent out. When it was mentioned that the cable was no longer available I said that they had them in stock and my pal at Furuno had told me if there was a problem with the shop getting anything that I was to call him.

Once the cable arrived the new tech T2, another nice guy, came to the boat. Firstly he had to reinstall the dome and the chart plotter and then before he started pulling the new cable he checked what had been done when T1 repaired the cable.

T2 and I soon learned after T2 called T1 that T1 didn't have the right connectors with him that day so he patched it together as best he could.

See photo

View attachment 101315


T2 had the correct connectors and said to me, "I recommend that I just clean this up and it will be good as new".

Midway through the patch he called T1 to explain that this particular cabling had some coloured wires that also needed to be connected and they were done either backwards or missed in the original repair. (I wasn't hearing both sides of the conversation).Once his repair was done he showed it to me and what he had done was to put male and female plugs on the cable where it had been cut and patched. It now looked factory.

T2 still had time to figure out why we were having battery charging issues (see my two of my old battery switches for sale in the flea market along with the three new ones I bought that were the wrong dimensional size) .

T2 installed the correct sized switches that were unavailable during the pandemic. T2 also showed me the iPhone app to get more information from the Victron Battery Monitor.

He looked at the way a panel was wired when the boat was built as per Blue Sea and added in a new cable and things are now working correctly on the battery charging front.

T2 then made notes and sketches in order to prepare a new schematic for the batteries /engines/ dash/shore power and I expect that in a week or two.

So things take time to get things right and how the cable was pinched is a mystery and I can't worry about it.

Things are working now, the battery charging issue has been solved and we have got the bottom washing booked for late March

A bit of an aside, do you not have a phone or tablet with Navionics on it as backup?

 

[Bill 310]

A bit of an aside, do you not have a phone or tablet with Navionics on it as backup?

Yes, both an iPad and an iPhone.

 

[JWS]

Started out by sitting in it and pouting about not being able to fish today.
Pulled the batteries and tray they sit in to get at the bilge, fixed the corroded wire on the float, scrubbed the bilge, cleaned up the batteries and put it all back together. Also pulled about a bunch of crap, which I’m assuming is a soggy old bugs nest, from the air horn, so that works again.

 

[kaelc]

Got this delivered! Hopefully installed this weekend. Perfect for kids and old men reboarding. I didn’t like solo fishing knowing the ladder was hanging from the radar arch.

 

[Rain City]

Got this delivered! Hopefully installed this weekend. Perfect for kids and old men reboarding. I didn’t like solo fishing knowing the ladder was hanging from the radar arch.
View attachment 101421

How are you going to catch the boat as it drifts away?

 

[kaelc]

How are you going to catch the boat as it drifts away?

I’ve battled some pretty big waves in the surf when I was a little younger but I wouldn’t ever be caught fishing alone in weather like that. Pfd and handheld gps/dsc radio on my hip, if I’m fishing in any weather or chop but I forgot during a beautiful one spring gulf island prawning trip. Stupid. Video out in the next few days.

 

[fish brain]

How are you going to catch the boat as it drifts away?

I have tied myself to the boat a few times fishing solo in sloppy, windy conditions.

 

[Rayvon]

Got this delivered! Hopefully installed this weekend. Perfect for kids and old men reboarding. I didn’t like solo fishing knowing the ladder was hanging from the radar arch.
View attachment 101421

I think you have the brackets bolted on backwards Kaelc.

 

[kaelc]

I think you have the brackets bolted on backwards Kaelc.

Thanks. We did a practise boarding of my son climbing up on me before assembly, I better get a pro to do the install!

 

[Alex_c]

I didn’t do anything to my boat, but I did save it from my Jeep that decided to spontaneously combust 4 feet away from it. Took 3 fire extinguishers to get it out.

Happy my security camera caught it and I was home with enough extinguishers on hand. Could have been way worse. Of course the insurance had expired and I hadn’t got around to renewing it or putting storage insurance on it.

Assuming an electrical fire caused by a rodent chewing wires, but could just be that Jeep thing I keep hearing about. Anyway, got a good 15 years of trouble free service out of her and can recoup some loss parting it out.

Lessons:
1. Storage insurance, dumbass
2. Disconnect battery when vehicles parked for more than a few weeks

 

[Stizzla]

I didn’t do anything to my boat, but I did save it from my Jeep that decided to spontaneously combust 4 feet away from it. Took 3 fire extinguishers to get it out.

Happy my security camera caught it and I was home with enough extinguishers on hand. Could have been way worse. Of course the insurance had expired and I hadn’t got around to renewing it or putting storage insurance on it.

Assuming an electrical fire caused by a rodent chewing wires, but could just be that Jeep thing I keep hearing about. Anyway, got a good 15 years of trouble free service out of her and can recoup some loss parting it out.

Lessons:
1. Storage insurance, dumbass
2. Disconnect battery when vehicles parked for more than a few weeks

Step one… get storage insurance. Step two… wait 2 weeks. Step 3 “oh no, my jeep just caught on fire!”

 

[Alex_c]

Step one… get storage insurance. Step two… wait 2 weeks. Step 3 “oh no, my jeep just caught on fire!”

literally can’t go t*ts up!!

 

[SpringVelocity]

I didn’t do anything to my boat, but I did save it from my Jeep that decided to spontaneously combust 4 feet away from it. Took 3 fire extinguishers to get it out.

Happy my security camera caught it and I was home with enough extinguishers on hand. Could have been way worse. Of course the insurance had expired and I hadn’t got around to renewing it or putting storage insurance on it.

Assuming an electrical fire caused by a rodent chewing wires, but could just be that Jeep thing I keep hearing about. Anyway, got a good 15 years of trouble free service out of her and can recoup some loss parting it out.

Lessons:
1. Storage insurance, dumbass
2. Disconnect battery when vehicles parked for more than a few weeks

Holy fak

 

[seachicken]

I didn’t do anything to my boat, but I did save it from my Jeep that decided to spontaneously combust 4 feet away from it. Took 3 fire extinguishers to get it out.

Happy my security camera caught it and I was home with enough extinguishers on hand. Could have been way worse. Of course the insurance had expired and I hadn’t got around to renewing it or putting storage insurance on it.

Assuming an electrical fire caused by a rodent chewing wires, but could just be that Jeep thing I keep hearing about. Anyway, got a good 15 years of trouble free service out of her and can recoup some loss parting it out.

Lessons:
1. Storage insurance, dumbass
2. Disconnect battery when vehicles parked for more than a few weeks

Don't worry, insurance wouldn't have helped unless someone started it. A friend had a fire start in the dash of his F350 that was caused by mice, ICBC was zero help. Should have tossed a flaming bottle of gas in.

 

[Alex_c]

Don't worry, insurance wouldn't have helped unless someone started it. A friend had a fire start in the dash of his F350 that was caused by mice, ICBC was zero help. Should have tossed a flaming bottle of gas in.

Wow, sounds like I’m just extra lucky I noticed it and saved it in time.

Hopefully will make a few grand parting it out. Seems to be a lot of interest so far and the circling vultures have dropped almost a grand in my pocket in 2 days.

 

[seachicken]

Wow, sounds like I’m just extra lucky I noticed it and saved it in time.

Hopefully will make a few grand parting it out. Seems to be a lot of interest so far and the circling vultures have dropped almost a grand in my pocket in 2 days.

Ya lucky you saw it and saved all the other stuff. I'm sure the major parts will get taken pretty quickly.