November 12th 2011. 

Hi Martin,

I´ve just read the latest report from the Kingstons with interest, nostalgia, a little laughter and an overwhelming sympathy for the technical issues which are all too familiar and are the number one and most boring topic of conversation amongst long term cruisers, as their boats age and as they distance themselves from civilisation and often run low on money.

This email becomes more and more addressed to the owners of Quarante about her systems and what I would do first.  Perhaps you could forward this to them.  I hope it will be of some assistance.

The Kingstons are right that they absolutely must get all systems running perfectly and with every conceivable spare on board, multiple spares in the case of filters and impellers, etc. before they leave mainland Europe.  It can be frustrating enough there, but once you leave, you are on your own or you put yourself at the mercy of the merciless.  The merciless are often untrained, incompetent, lack basic English, are connected with the mafia and will have a wonderfully carefree Latin work ethic, or worse.  Much worse.  The least competent are the most confident.  The Kingstons are sensible to have a quality boat in the first place, on which the basic electrical installation should be to a high standard and will remain serviceable for many years in the merciless marine environment, if maintained properly.  However, it´s the equipment installations which owners have fitted afterwards, or fit themselves if they feel up to it, or don´t want to pay a professional.  Of course, true professional small boat electrical engineers are as rare as rocking horse dung.  Rarer actually.  Almost non-existant.  But there are hundreds of people who purport to be that or other specialists and who prey upon the unfortunate yachts which visit their island, with an intermittent auto pilot issue or an alternator which keeps blowing diode modules.  Often the yacht leaves, happy at least to have their problem fixed, albeit at enormous cost with air shipping, customs agents, customs clearance and local shipping charges (which can equal or exceed the airfreight - I know, I´ve paid and if I didn´t I wouldn´t have seen the parcel) on top of the cost of the new part.  However, their stay in Madeira or Isla Graciosa or wherever was completely consumed by the technical issue, dealing with the mafia and spending money.  Then the system fails again before they reach the next island, where the vultures are already circling.

The vultures sometimes roost under a sign saying ´Agents for Raymarine, Navico, Furuno, Mastervolt, Victron, etc.´  Marine electronics companies appoint agents through their sales departments and not through their technical service departments.  From many of the stories I´ve  heard, it appears that to become an agent you have to demonstrate a proven track record of utter incompetence and indifference towards your customers.  The Canary Islands in particular are notorious for the general attitude that once a job is done and paid for, that´s it.  If it doesn´t work you must pay again.  And again.  And again.

The only way to avoid your entire life on board becoming an endless circle of aggravation is to become self sufficient to as high a degree as possible.  Know how all the boat systems work and what maintenance needs to be done, on a daily basis in the case of batteries and keep on top of it.  If you don´t have maintenance manuals with maintenance schedules for major equipment like generators and main engine, furling gear, windlass, winches, download them from the manufacturers websites.  I had to buy a set from Onan.  I realise that electrical and electronic systems have even less appeal than unblocking toilets to most people.  Sightseeing, eating and drinking with new friends and watching the sunset is what it´s supposed to be about, but if you´re going to have systems on board you need to maintain them and improve them and integrate and adapt them with new systems as your style of cruising adapts to the new ground..

For me fault finding on Quarante needs to start with the batteries.  The 12V system begins and ends there.  Piecing together the evidence, we have a boat which appears to rely on shore supllies, a generator and the main engine alternator for battery charging.  The generator recently had its impeller fail.  This is usual.  Impellers fail.  The Onan genset on CHENG FENG has impeller replacement as an annual service item.  I am carrying 8 spares.

The alternator is a long saga with no clear picture.  I don´t see PV panels or a wind generator on the photos and generators ruin the tranquillity of an anchorage, so it´s possible the domestic batteries on Quarante have been having a hard time recently and need checking with a load tester.  If they are wet cell type they need topping up and charging first, if  ´maintenance free´ gel cell, just charging before testing.  How old are they?  Have they been deep discharged many times?  Particularly for gel types, have they been overcharged when the boat was stored?  Does Quarante have a state of charge meter such as a Xantrex Link for monitoring   If it´s a large bank, what state are the connections in?  All heavy cable connections need to be checked regularly as a fire risk apart from the loss of use of equipment due to Volt drop.   Check each cell or each battery in the bank for open circuit terminal voltage.  One could be pulling the whole bank down.

The recent cruising, with frequent marina stays on shore power and perhaps running the generator at anchor, could mask batteries which have developed a low capacity due to age or to continued use at low states of charge or overcharging.

I see no reports of difficulty starting the main engine so the start battery may be O.K.  Depending on how the domestic and start batteries are connected, the domestic batteries could still be near to failure or part failure.

The fact that the replacement alternator failed immediately is suspicious.  It may suggest a load problem.  Again, this points to the batteries or perhaps the means of split charging.  I don´t like the report of temporary fixes or of mechanics touching electrical equipment.  Fatal.

The autopilot problem is old.  Does it coincide with the alternator problems?  I suspect you have the popular auto helm drive which is not hydraulic, it´s a worm drive driven electrically via a magnetic clutch.  These drives tend to fail and you should carry a spare if that´s the type you have.  I think they are often worked too hard under unbalanced sail because they cope with a lot of conditions so well that attention to sail balance is neglected.  I´ve learned how poorly I was sailing CHENG FENG since fitting and using a wind vane self steering gear.

I agree with Raymarine that it´s likely to be a power supply problem causing the auto mode to be dropped but maybe caused by the batteries.  What have they found wrong with the drive?  One problem with most small boat electronics is the repair by replacement strategy with no fault codes given to help identify the problem.  Most of it becomes obsolete in 5 years too, if it survives that long.  The latest generation equipment based on fast microprocessors is the least reliable especially when operated from less than adequate supplies and with electrical noise or supply glitches from pumps, inverters, wind generators, fridges and radios causing intermittent interference and dropouts.  The SIMRAD autopilot system on CHENG FENG, fitted in 2008, occasionally alarms with a ´course computer missing´ fault when the control head loses the status bit on the SimNet network, due to noise.  It always resets automatically and I just have to acknowledge the alarm.  I live with it.

Quarante no doubt has a Selden mast and furling gear as on CHENG FENG.   It´s necessary to regularly grease the bearings at the top of the foil and the bearings and gears at the bottom.  There can be a problem on the Algarve/Andalucia and the Canaries with dust and grit building up in the bearings.   Was it the top bearing or the halyard swivel which seized?

I hope they don´t feel that I´m shouting at them but they do need to be shaken up before they head off for Madeira and the Canaries or they will be flayed alive and the boat will be degraded, as they don´t seem to have much confidence in their own technical abilities, though there are definite positive signs of a willingness to learn.  Most people find that if they read the manual a few times and have a go, it´s not very difficult.

I also think that April is usually way too early to be heading for Madeira, just as it is to be cruising the Algarve.  The Canaries are a different matter as the cold fronts don´t often extend that far south by then.  There´s a reason why the Madeira Archipelago is lush, green, beautiful and friendly and the Canaries are barren and brown.