Messages

Chuck,

I had a 2 blade folding prop on my 30 and have a 3 blade folding on my 34.  I have always shifted into reverse to lock the shaft after turning the engine off.

M,
I don't know if you clicked on the WIKI site that Stu posted or not, but there are pictures of various locations for the hatch boards from previous postings.  I have been very happy with my storage location (completely out of the way and not hard to do) that was added by the PO.  If you click on the wiki site and drop down to the bottom area, click on html#msg 42868 you will see pictures of what we have. Just another option.

We sleep back there and don't have a problem as we usually turn and sit down before sliding in.  I can see if your bending over and leading with your head to grab something stowed back there it would happen. I do have that (hatch not open all the way) problem though, especially in the morning I'll get up and pull the hatch open but not all the way and the first time up the ladder, bang, hopefully sometime I'll learn even though my wife doubts it.

Ron

Len,

Could you show a picture of your setup?

Thanks,

Ron

I also received the email from Sheree and also printed out the PHMSA recall information.  I emailed Michael Higdon to try to find out a little more specific information regarding what actually happened.  His response did not have any more detail than what has been described above.  He just referred me to the PHMSA recall reports.  I was also curious about a statement made in Sherees letter 'After an incident which involved a cylinder  that none of you have they did the mandatory total recall of all cylinders ever made by Lite Cylinder', I wanted to know what kind of cylinder it was, I emailed her to try to clarify what type of cylinder failed, but I did not get a response.
My unit was made in 1998 and I have had it on the boat since 1999 and have had no problems with it, still looks brand new.  Since the recall mentioned possible leakage and fire the last thing I wanted to do was leave it on the boat. It was about 3/4 full, removed it, and had it completely purged.  I am curious if the appeal will change anything.

If interested, check out sailinganarchy.com, a San Diego based sailing website.  They put out a short video this morning of Oracle sailing on SF Bay.  Put it on full screen and watch, pretty impressive.

Paul,

Good to see you figured it out and it works.  I don't leave mine on all the time as we live about 2 hours from the boat and we get over about every two weeks and usually stay for 3-5 days at a time, but when we are there and in port we keep it on all the time and it works fine. I used Johns information to install mine and I believe he said that the Alder/Barbour compressor works most efficiently at 13.2V so thats where I set mine also.
We have very good friends in Houston we visited and one day we drove down and toured the Space Center and then contined on to the Kemah boardwalk for dinner which is probably close to where you keep your boat.

Paul,

Thanks for the reply.  When I continued to have problems with the old power supply I called MeanWell, they are in the SF Bay Area.  I talked to one of their techs and he went over all the specs and readings with me, maybe they can shed some light on the problem.

Paul,

Have you connected contact 87 to contact 85 with a strap, I found these contacts not to be connected internally in the the relay and you need to do it manually.  I have the MW HRP-300 and the Tyco 4-45f11 relay and could not get power to the compressor until I added the strap and then it has worked perfectly.

Kyle,
That's interesting, the one I had that failed was the Truecharge2 40A  that was mounted vertically under the chart table with plenty of ventilation and the fan came on every time the charger came on.

Paul,
Sorry that I can't help you with any of the newer products.  What I did was reinstall my old one at the time since it still worked and I didn't want to spend the extra money at the time for another new one.  The one I have is functional and is a three stage even though it is a lower amperage and takes a little longer to fully top off the batteries, it is serving me okay and is quiet. There was a posting some time ago that went over different chargers quite extensivley with a lot of good information from very knowledgeable people. Maybe you can do a search on 'battery chargers' and see what comes up.
Hope this helps.

Paulus,
Let me share my thoughts.  When I upgraded my batterey system I bought the Xantrex Truecharge 40 charger.  It did work fine while I had it.  It does have a fan in it that comes on everytime the charger comes on. Unfortunatley, nowhere in the directions does it say to make sure you constantly check to make sure the fan screen it clear of dust collection.  Being on a boat I didn't think much about heavy dust but I was wong as the unit overheated and shorted out due to air blockage on the fan input screen.  I called Xantrex regarding this and they were quit ambivolent about the problem, stating that they do not repair their old units and suggested that I just place an order for another one. The cost of this unit is not cheap and it lasted less than 3 years.
Also, the fan is fairly noisy, and staying on the boat in port at night, if the water happens to recycle and also every time the refrigerator recycles the fan and charger comes on topping off the batteries which is annoying when your trying to sleep.
Just some items to think about.

Scotty,

Thanks for your thoughts, good luck with the new boat.

Scotty,

From somebody who has thoughts of possibly moving up in boat size, I was wondering since you did move from a 34 to a 400 if you could give a rundown on pros & cons or thoughts between these two boats.

Thanks for any information.

Mainesail,

You mentioned in a previous post:

'Marelon however, in the manner Catalina installed them in the 80's, valve on thur-hull fitting, are VERY, VERY weak. and DO NOT come anywhere close to meeting the minimum ABYC safety standards for strength.'

What is the difference in the way it was done, what was done in the 80's, what is done now & when was it changed?

Thanks for any details or descriptions.