Malo Factory Visit, January 2008
I have just completed an intense two-day visit to Malo to review the test boat progress to date and deal with any outstanding issues. Much of the carpentry is done. I arrived at the factory in time to buy a load of spray-in-foam cans to fill in the empty spaces around the Frigoboat freezer unit before the Corian countertop goes on. I was able to more-or-less double the insulation thickness, which will, I hope, get a similar insulating value to what there would have been with the Glacier Bay vacuum panels I had hoped to use.
Among other things, I delivered four Nicro ‘Day/Night’ solar-powered ventilation fans (www.marinco.com). There will be an exhaust one in each head and over the galley stove, and an inlet one in the main sleeping cabin. They provide a substantial airflow in all conditions, and ensure that the boat stays well ventilated when not in use which keeps mildew and other damp-related ills at bay. They are not only effective, but also easy to install (no wiring)!
Malo and I met with the Swedish Raymarine people (www.navship.se). Raymarine recently released its ST70 instruments, which are compatible with the new NMEA 2000 ‘plug-and-play’ networking standard. The underlying idea with this standard is that you will be able to buy equipment from any manufacturer, add it to the network, and have it self-configure. It’s a terrific concept.
To implement the standard, you have to run a trunk, or ‘backbone’, cable through the boat, with all the devices T-eed into this backbone. The backbone cable and connectors are very rugged and waterproof.
The system is a linear one, which is to say you cannot have multiple backbone cables connected at a central point, but must have a single cable with a device known as a terminating resistor at each end. The maximum length for the ‘drop’ cables that tie devices into the backbone is 20 feet. This creates an issue on sailboats, because if you want to add the masthead instruments (wind speed and direction, etc.) to the system, and the mast is higher than 20 feet, then you have to run the backbone up the mast and put one of the terminating resistors at the top of the mast. I just don’t like this idea (for example, what if the mast went over the side? – it would disable the entire network).
Fortunately, Raymarine has not yet fully implemented the standard, so their masthead instruments need a ‘black box’ to get on the network. So we’ll run the traditional cabling down the mast to the black box, and then tie into the backbone at this point. The backbone cable will run the length of the boat, with a terminating resistor at the transom and in the forepeak. Other devices Malo will put on it are Maretron tank senders and a speed/depth/temperature unit (www.marteron.com), a FloScan fuel consumption meter (www.Floscan.com), the two Volvo Penta engines (main engine and generator), a Maretron display panel, the Raymarine instruments, and the Raymarine autopilot when the NMEA 2000 version becomes available (later this year). All running on one cable!
As and when the opportunity arises, Malo and I will add devices from other manufacturers to see just how well they play together. To add another device you unscrew the backbone cable where it connects to an existing T, screw on another T, reconnect the backbone to the new T, and screw the drop cable onto the new T with the device connected to the other end. You are done!
Aside from the simplicity of the installation, one of the great benefits of such a system is the fact that so much different data is running on a single network. You can then let the software folks loose on it to derive all kinds of information and diagnostics not normally available. For example, given the fuel tank data from Maretron, the fuel consumption data from FloScan, and the engine data from Volvo Penta, we should be able to get miles per gallon, miles per engine rpm, miles to empty tank, time to empty tank, etc. We’ll be collecting all this data as part of our analysis of the relative efficiency of a conventional propulsion installation versus a diesel-electric.
While I was at Malo we also finalized the design of the bow platform/roller. We are testing a Rocna anchor (www.rocna.com), because these scored the best in extensive anchor tests conducted by West Marine, Sail magazine and Yachting Monthly. It’s a big bugger with an awkward shape. Typically, I like to have two anchors on the bow, either of which can be launched and retrieved independently of the other, but the shape of this one would require a large bow platform to make this possible, so we’ve sacrificed the stowage for the second anchor. We’ll have a second bow roller for a Fortress (my favorite kedge anchor, because of its light weight), but we’ll stow the anchor on the pulpit rather than at the stemhead. Not ideal, but then if the Rocna works out as I hope it will, there will rarely be a need to set a second anchor.
I also delivered the electric panels to Malo. In keeping with the distributed power concept of this boat, and the goal to minimize cable runs, there is a main battery panel within a few feet of the batteries, a separate panel for the electric winches at the back of the boat, and a third panel up forward for the bow thruster, windlass and watermaker. This has removed a great deal of heavy, and expensive, cabling from the boat as compared to the last one.
Mark Rogers of Mobile Marine Electrical Services (www.wewrieboats.com) made the main panel, as he did on the last boat, while the other two have come from the new Blue Seas semi-custom ‘360 Series’ (www.bluesea.com). The small AC panel is also from the Blue Seas ‘360 series’. Not only are all four panels really good looking, but they are also extremely well engineered. I’m impressed.
Over the next few weeks Malo will install the panels, and mount all the pumps and other electrical devices in the boat. I will return in February with the Capi2 people (www.Capi2.com) to install the power distribution bus and hook up everything.
Meantime the Polar Power generator (www.polarpowerinc.com) has been going through some intensive testing at the Victron facility in Holland (www.victronenergy.com). This turned up some Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) issues, which are being resolved, but also demonstrated that the generator is considerably more efficient than any of the 20 AC generators Victron tested in October 2007, which is very encouraging. Based on the Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) data, and the SFC data I already have on the Volvo Penta D2-75 main propulsion engine for the full load and propeller curves, I have been doing some crude back-of-the-envelope analysis and it looks to me as if this confirms the prior analysis that the diesel-electric will be more efficient up to about 7 knots of boat speed in calm water, with the conventional installation being more efficient above that. But there are still some big question marks, notably concerning the real losses through the transmission in the conventional installation, and whether or not the constant torque of the electric motor can be converted to efficiency gains at the propeller. Hopefully, we’ll get our EU funding to investigate these things in depth.
Speaking of the EU project, we are all meeting at the Dusseldorf Boat Show in a week or so to see if we can finalize the content of the proposal.
The harsh cycling test of an Odyssey PC2250 battery continues at the EnerSys factory in Wales (www.EnerSys.com). The battery is holding up extremely well and confirming it’s incredibly high charge acceptance rate, which will be key to optimizing the electrical systems on the boat.
Overall, despite a few hiccups, the pieces of this project are coming together extremely well, especially considering the wide range of new technologies and systems we are implementing. The boat is starting to look really beautiful. I can’t wait to get it in the water!