Cupcake is a 1986 Pearson 36-2. The crew is Ellen, Jonathan, and Moss. We are preparing for a year aboard. August 2018 we will drop the mooring in Freeport, Maine and sail south to the Bahamas. The plan is to be back in New England by the summer of 2019.

LOA: 36'

Beam: 12' 3"

Draft: 4' 3"

Requests?

If there are any questions about systems or other aspects of life aboard Cupcake that any of you dear readers have, send me an email or write a comment and I will do my best to make up an answer. Until then, you get this:

Ship's systems

The plan for this section of the website is to share information about the various major systems aboard the boat. I know when I look for sailing blogs, I am very interested in the hardware, the maintenance, the clever ideas that experienced sailors have added to make their boats work better.

One little project of which I'm particularly proud is the lights I put into the fuse panel. I decided that I would color-code the lights for each switch. So now the basic systems that should always be on show green (radio, water pressure, fridge, etc.) so if I walk by the panel and only green lights are on, I know there's nothing that needs to be shut off.

Power hogs are wired for red lights. Watermaker, gas solenoid, radar, cotton-candy machine, etc. Other items like running lights are in amber. So if anything with those colors is showing, it makes me take another look at the panel to ensure nothing needs to be shut off.

Solar

Here's the skinny: three 120 watt flexible panels. Two on the bimini, one on the dodger. They connect to a solar controller and make more than enough power to run the fridge and everything else. There's no watermaker yet but last summer when we tried out a Torqeedo electric outboard (failed to work after about 10 days) the panels made enough power to run the boat and charge the battery for the outboard. We are hoping that a 10 amp draw for several hours of battery charging will be no more challenging than an 8 amp draw for several hours of watermaking.

UPDATE May 2018: The price was right so we bought a fourth 120 watt panel. Not exactly sure where we will stow it underway (maybe stacked under the panel on the dodger), but at anchor we hope to affix it to the filler piece between the dodger and bimini. With that fourth panel we ought to have more than enough electrical generation. Thinking of what we can use our spare electricity on. Right now the top contenders are a saltwater aquarium and a cotton-candy machine. 

UPDATE UPDATED July 2018: There was just no place we could put that fourth panel. Tried it all over the boat but just couldn't make it work. In any event, today (July 20, 2018) I realized there is no need for a fourth panel because Cupcake made all the power she needed with the three panels feeding the water maker.

EVEN MORE UPDATE: 

Solar nitty-gritty. Probably a little bit detail-rich for people who might not care as much about solar as we do. (Oh boy, don’t get us started about anchors…that’s a whole other obsession.)

Yesterday was a big sun day so I tracked how much power we made. One interesting thing about solar power generation on a boat is that if the batteries are full, the panels stop pumping out the power. It was a good day to track solar generation because I was running the water maker most of the day, that meant the batteries weren’t going to fill up too quickly. In any event, I don’t really know how much power we make during the course of a full sunny day because the batteries get filled up well before the sun sets, even on a day when I run the water maker most of the day.

Here’s what I saw from the solar panels over the course of the day:

7am    2.0    amps/hour

8am    4.5     a/hr

9am    8.0     a/hr (this is when I started the water maker)

10am   11.5     a/hr

11am    12.9     a/hr

Noon   14.2     a/hr

1pm      14.3     a/hr (I turned the water maker off at 1:30 because the tank was full)

2pm    13.6     a/hr

Peak output came at 12:37pm with 14.7 amps/hour (wow!)

And by 2:30 the batteries were full so the panels dialed back and just made enough power to meet immediate demand like the fridge.

It looks like we made in the neighborhood of 81 amps over the course of the day while the batteries were filling and the water maker was running. There is probably the ability to make another 10-20 amps on a good sunny day if we had the demand. We are pleased.

UPDATE: April 2019

Look back at the Jonathan Blog in March to read about the failed solar panel. I’ve since installed a replacement 175 watt panel and we make plenty of power when the sun is shining. Today we hit a maximum of 16.6 amps. My concern is that the flexible panels are clearly not built to withstand the ravages of time. The two on the bimini that I attached to the aluminum rails are definitely getting sun-damaged. They look hazy despite now-regular application of Armor All and wax.

The panel that failed did so because saltwater got into its junction box and shorted it out. So when we return to Maine I may eventually switch back to hard panels since they seem to last much longer (and since I have a pair of them waiting for something to do).

Engine

It's a Westerbeke 44 something. I'll check the manual and update.(UPDATE 44-C Four.) I did install an oil change pump. I may regret this decision, but rather than buy an oil change pump for $100+ I got a $15 diesel fuel lift pump. It's plumbed to the oil change tube and worked fine when we changed the oil in the fall. The oil in the engine was warmish, so I am assuming the pump will work even better when the oil is hot. Check back here in about 100 engine hours.

This winter I noticed a coolant leak and think there's a hose telling me something. 

UPDATE April 2019:

Turns out there was no coolant leak that couldn’t be stopped by tightening some hose clamps. The engine has been running like a top…burns no oil, makes no funny noises, has all the power we want, and consumes a miserly amount of fuel if run responsibly.

The alternator hasn’t been impressing us, but now that we have a spare on board and there’s a lot more solar charging through the panels, I am disinclined to change it until the problem gets worse.

UPDATE August 2020: The engine continues to run flawlessly, start reliably, and consume very little fuel.

Watermaker

Didn't buy it yet. Would love to hear what people have to say about watermakers. We know water is cheap and available most places, but what we realized on the last big voyage is that it's water that keeps bringing us back to port. If we are water-independent we figure we can go where we want and stay there for weeks and weeks before heading back to civilization. Also, our friends Tom and Delwyn (formerly of Mahalo) had a watermaker and showered after swimming. That kind of decadence appeals to us.

Last summer Ellen and I started doing laundry in the kitchen sink instead of aa bucket on deck. Used hot water (when the engine had been running). It doesn't sound civilized to landlubbers, but it's the height of luxury to sailors. We didn't have a water maker then, but we were the only people aboard so we had a bit more water to spare. Also we were sailing in Maine and that meant more motoring which meant more stops at marinas for gas and that meant more opportunity to fill the water tanks. (With water, silly.)

UPDATE May 2018: the boatyard is installing a Spectra 150.

MORE UPDATE July 2018: 

We are getting more familiar with the water maker. Our system feeds the 50 gallon aft tank and we draw our domestic water from the 50 gallon forward tank. When the forward tank runs dry, we pump the water in the aft tank to the forward tank and then start refilling the aft tank again.

This week (our first week running the water maker) we’ve made 15-20 gallons at a time, generally every other day. So far our production is greater than our consumption. But because we have use of the showers at the marina, our water use is lower than what will be typical once we are at anchor to the south. 

Ellen is pretty militant about water conservation aboard but we have been profligate this week. I like a daily shower (again, ashore), so we will see how that desire meshes with water production in the weeks ahead when we are no longer enjoying the bounty at Brewer South Freeport Marine.

September 1, 2018

OK, maybe I know why the water was nasty. When I ran the water maker in the Harraseeket River back in Maine, I probably shouldn’t have. That river was a little icky and much of that ick got caught in the 5 micron filter. So the filter in the system started growing a culture of stinky bacteria. Then I neglected to change that filter until last week because I mistakenly thought the filter would keep smells out of our fresh water. I cleaned it two weeks ago, but the stinky fishy sour milk smell remained. 

I finally put in a fresh filter but the damage was probably already done to the tanks. (I am hopeful the water maker membrane is not damaged. I’ve been flushing the membrane with clean water every few days to keep it happy.) 

Because we are on the ICW where the water is the color of root beer, we are not running the water  maker. We have the option of pickling the water maker (pickling is a way of preserving the water maker’s membrane during weeks of inactivity) or of flushing the membrane with fresh water every four or five days. We are choosing the flush option because the membrane doesn’t like being pickled and because we will have ample fresh water from marinas and gas docks and free docks over the coming weeks. Also the membrane could probably use all the flushing it can get after the indignities visited upon it early on in the trip.

Interesting fact: the way we test our water to ensure it is fresh enough to drink is by checking the parts per million of total dissolved solids. (We have a TDS meter, of course.) The TDS of the water in our stern tank, which is the last batch of water maker water - made off the coast of Virginia before we got too close to Norfolk, is 200 ppm. The TDS of the water from the Dismal Swamp dockside tap is 380. After running it through the Brita filter on the sink faucet the TDS is 300. I don’t know what significance this information carries, but there it is.

UPDATE April 2019:

So having lived with the water maker for the better part of the year, I have some observations. First, the system with the valves and the pump that was installed by Brewer in Freeport is the absolute definition of cockamamie. The water maker product line should have been plumbed to a selector switch that allowed it to feed either tank. I was told by Brewer that the machine didn’t have enough pressure to push water all the way to the forward tank, but having seen the same Spectra 150 setup on other boats, I now know this assertion is patently untrue. It’s possible that the task of running a waterline to the forward tank was unappealing to the installer. It’s an explanation, not a good excuse.

The pump and valve setup inserts a lot more expense, complexity, and failure points into the system. I don’t like it one bit.

Also the installation has a drain (gray opening that looks like an upside-down top hat) under the sample tube (short blue hose in the picture above) so when the machine is first started it can drain the too-salty or untested product water out of the boat until it is ready to be diverted to the tank.

Rather than have a thru-hull dedicated to this purpose, the sample line should have been run to the galley sink or head sink. That way we could close the big thru-hull permanently (and do away with another potential failure point). I’ll tackle this job when we are back in Maine, I think.

UPDATE August 2020:

This spring I removed and glassed over the thru-hull that had been dedicated to the sample tube. In its place I installed a long piece of tubing that coils up in the coaming box when not in use but extends to run over the rail when the water maker is running. It is a simpler and easier solution. I wish I had done it much earlier. Incidentally, the removal and glassing of the hole in the hull was kind of fun and now I am pretty confident that it is the strongest part of the boat.

I was apprehensive about the winterizing process last fall, and even more nervous this spring when we fired the water maker up for the first time in half a year. But after following the directions, the machine is back to making clean fresh water without any drama or hassle.

We found, over the course of the Bahamas trip and again this summer of cruising in Maine, that if we run the water maker every day or two there is ample water for a crew of three.

Refrigeration

Two or three years ago I installed a fridge. I will tell you what kind the next time I am aboard. I installed a digital thermometer in the fridge box so I can monitor the temperature in there. It was lots of fun for about a month. Now, less so.

What I'm most proud of is the way I isolated the compressor so it draws its cooling air from the bilge (benefit: it's the coldest air aboard, the fridge fan keeps a flow of air through the bilge and under the floorboards so that area stays fresh, and the compressor runs cooler - using less electricity and running less often). The old fridge compressor had terrible air circulation and spewed its hot air under the guest berth. Our friend Christopher still complains about how hot the bunk was when he slept there in 2012. Build a bridge and get over it, I say. (It wasn't such a bad experience because he is eager to sail with us again on this adventure.)

Propane

Because we were not fond of having our second propane tank strapped to the rail on the side deck, In February and April I got a horizontal propane tank and installed it under the helm seat. Next step is to re-plumb the two tanks to a double regulator, add a propane sniffer (insurance company insisted) and a new solenoid. The old stuff is pretty rusty and sketchy. Pictures some time in June 2018.

UPDATE July 2018:

I installed a two-stage propane regulator so we can run two tanks at once and not have to carry a spare propane cylinder strapped to the rail. (There are already enough fuel sources on the rail - 20 gallons of diesel, ten gallons of water, twelve gallons of gasoline.) 

The new system draws from both the vertical tank in the propane locker and the (absurdly expensive) horizontal tank under the helm seat. It was nice replacing the nasty, rusty, sketchy regulator and solenoid that were on the boat previously. (Can’t bring myself to throw them away. Spare parts.) 

Now we’ve got two tanks securely attached. When one runs out, the system can automatically switch to the other, but because we want to know when a tank runs dry, we will keep the reserve tank shut off and switch manually when the first runs out. That way we will have about a month to refill before things become dire.

What I have not yet installed is the bilge sniffer. When I get to this innovation it will only turn on the solenoid after first sampling the air in the bilge (propane, in addition to being flammable, is also heavier than air and collects in the lowest part of the boat...waiting waiting to ignite). If the air is propane-free, the solenoid will open and gas will flow to the oven. If there is propane in the bilge, we will get a warning light and buzzer, but no gas. Safety at sea.

UPDATE April 2019:

After some teething problems early on (burst a hose on the horizontal tank where it chafed on the seat, kinked a hard line after fussing with the regulator to finally get the kinked hose replaced) the propane system has been working flawlessly. The horizontal tank, not as much. Turns out it is a challenging tank for most places to fill. Some simply can’t do it at all. So when we are down to just one tank, Ellen gets nervous. She likes knowing there’s a backup.

There is an adaptor we are looking into carrying on board. It’s just $30 or so and will allow anyone who can fill the vertical tank to fill the horizontal tank with ease. We borrowed one in Georgetown and the guys at the propane filling station were jealous of it. I don’t know why they don’t have one of their own.

When that hard line kinked, it leaked propane into the bilge. But because the propane sniffer works like a charm, it wouldn’t let us light the stove. Instead it shrieked at us. So now we are firm believers in those propane sniffers. If you have a boat with propane tanks, get a sniffer and install it.

                                                 Composting Head

I'll expand on this section in the future as we get to know the system a little better. But briefly: the toilet is a composting head called AirHead. We fill the bin with coconut fiber and that's where the poop goes. The pee gets diverted to a tank so the poop stays dryer and less stinky. As it turns out, the whole thing has no smell. At all. 

We dumped the bucket after about three weeks. I wouldn't say it was a pleasant experience, and I didn't even do the work. Ellen made all kinds of unpleasant, retchy noises while moving the poop mixture to a trash bag. But the boat smells fine and the toilet is actually fun to use. Except for the emptying part. 

Here's Moss breaking apart the coconut fiber we added to the now clean bin.

UPDATE August 2020:

The composting head is the system on the boat that we would be most likely to recommend. It does not leak, smell, clog, or take up much space. Emptying the pee container is not a big deal and although we dump it daily, it can probably go two or three days between emptying. The solids bin is not as disgusting as you might think. Also, Ellen is in charge of that task. It got emptied about every 10 days with the three of us living on board. This AirHead is an excellent product. I am surprised how simple and easy and trouble-free it is. There is no scenario I can think of where a marine head can compare.