Panbo

The Marine Technology Hub

Category: Green Boating

Electric Boats: Steyr HDS+, LTS Marine, Torqeedo, windmills & more 3

Green Boating

Electric Boats: Steyr HDS+, LTS Marine, Torqeedo, windmills & more

eCraftYachts_20_WOT_cPanbo.jpgThe first U.S. Electric and Hybrid Marine Expo was wonderfully educational, though I hardly knew any of the companies involved and could only understand a fraction of some seminars. On the other hand, I met a familiar fellow enthusiast before I even left the Lauderdale airport. Rufus Van Gruisen is the esteemed owner/operator of Cay Electronics, and it turns out he’s done more than just dream about quiet, efficient electric pleasure craft. That’s him in the orange cap above, showing Newport the first eCraft Yachts 20 that he helped his son to build. It looks like an excellent design to me — more detail on Facebook and in Great Lakes Scuttlebutt — and I’d presume a well-engineered power, control, and nav electronics installation.

TBF: Torqeedo Hybrid, transparent displays, DY Aqua Compact PC, Volvo screen repair & more 15

PC & peripheral / Electrical & Engines / Zany / Green Boating

TBF: Torqeedo Hybrid, transparent displays, DY Aqua Compact PC, Volvo screen repair & more

Torqeedo_Deep_Blue_Hybrid_diagram_aPanbo.jpg

Let’s begin 2016 TidBit Fridays with Torqeedo Deep Blue Hybrid, a new system I’d like to know a lot more about. It seems to be the most fully integrated electric propulsion and power management system yet, by far, and two independent gentlemen who know a lot more about these technologies than I do feel that Torqeedo has done a great job here. And it’s not just for sailing catamarans 40 to 80 feet; Nimbus 365 Coupé Cruisers are being built with twin 80hp equivalent electric inboard motors and the Deep Blue components seem to lend themselves to many configurations. I’ll know more very soon…

Gizmo’s awning AC and Muvman sit-stand stool 5

Green Boating / Good Gear (non electronic)

Gizmo’s awning AC and Muvman sit-stand stool

Gizmo_awning_AC_cPanbo.jpgToday it’s wet and gray here on a mooring float in Northeast Harbor, but we’re enjoying a distinctly non-electronic improvement to Gizmo’s gear list. It’s a new awning that stretches from the cabin brow to the bow pulpit, letting us keep the hatches open despite the rain bursts. Yesterday, when it was sunny and fairly hot, the awning shaded the forward cabin top and the main cabin’s large forward windows. If it gets really hot, I’m pretty sure that the combination of the awning plus the see-through “Florida curtains” over the other big windows and maybe a small fan will make the boat as comfortable as the air conditioning unit. Actually more so at anchor or moored, since we won’t have to run the generator (that’s no longer aboard anyway)…

Gizmo’s Ocean Armor topsides & Pettit Hydrocoat Eco bottom, the testing begins 21

Green Boating / Good Gear (non electronic)

Gizmo’s Ocean Armor topsides & Pettit Hydrocoat Eco bottom, the testing begins

Gizmo_5-2014_Ocean_Armor_topsides_cPanbo.jpgCheck out the evening gleam on Gizmo’s flared bow. I think it’s impressive for a gelcoat surface that’s seen a lot of weather over 14 years and, better yet, the pros who applied the “nano polymer wax replacement” were also impressed. There’s more detail on the new coating called Ocean Armor Pro Maxi All Gloss further along in this entry, and also my experience with an initial application of Pettit HydroCoat Eco bottom paint, which seems like another winner so far…

Panbo turns 10, and founder Yme’s Arviro 10 project 23

What's on board... / Green Boating

Panbo turns 10, and founder Yme’s Arviro 10 project

Arviro_10_courtesy_Yme_Bosma.jpgIf you browse to the bottom of the Panbo monthly archives, you’ll see that the very first entry went up on February 4, 2004. So Panbo is 10 years old today, which may be a century in Internet years?  In fact, one motivation for founder Yme Bosma was an interest in what was then the new-fangled “blog” content management format. While he soon had to focus back on his high tech work and I took over Panbo in 2005, but the boating geek bug is often incurable as many of us know. It seems more than coincidental — and very cool — that Panbo’s 120th month is also the debut of Yme’s all electric, solar powered, and iPad instrumented cruiser design, the Arviro 10.

Lumitec & AlpenGlow, LED overhead fixtures perfected? 19

Cabin & deck gear / Green Boating

Lumitec & AlpenGlow, LED overhead fixtures perfected?

Lumitec_Touch_Dome_LED_fixture__cPanbo.jpg

While I once again found IBEX rich with interesting people and products, it was a mere light fixture that may have sparked the moment of maximum excitement!  Please check out my April entry about perfect LED interior lighting before we take a gander at the new Lumitec Touch Dome seen above, plus a report on the LED’s already in use on Gizmo…

Greening Gizmo, 17 amps of solar panel! 26

Electrical & Engines / Green Boating

Greening Gizmo, 17 amps of solar panel!

Blue Sky IPN remote 17 amps on Gizmo cPanboJPG.jpg

Happy day! You may recall that I planned to put solar panels on Gizmo last summer, but in fact I didn’t know what to expect in terms of output or even if that output would support my Sea Frost refrigeration system. Well, wow, you’re looking at 17.3 amps of solar juice at around local apparent noon today, and I’m seeing 12 amps as I write this four hours later. And though I’ve been running all sorts of gear all day, and the refrigeration for two days, the battery bank is at 12.6v, which is a healthy number I rarely see unless I’ve just been out cruising. I’m thinking of having a cold beer to celebrate!…

Victron Multi in, Onan genset out…a greener Gizmo? 31

Electrical & Engines / Green Boating / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Victron Multi in, Onan genset out…a greener Gizmo?

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This is not the scene most boaters want to see in the middle of their salon going into Memorial Day Weekend, but at least I can look forward to checking out how well that Victron MultiPlus 12/2000/80 charges and inverts. It may seem crazy to replace the perfectly functional Xantrex Freedom 25 that used to occupy this spot, but it’s part of an aggressive “re-power” plan that’s had me busy recently. Besides the Xantrex has already replaced the broken one on my in-law’s M/V Brilliant — which partially subsidized this upgrade — and I’m nearly as happy pulling cables as I would be lounging on the fine settee that will eventually go back here…

LED interior boat lighting, perfection in sight? 28

Cabin & deck gear / Green Boating

LED interior boat lighting, perfection in sight?

Boat_dome_light_LED_bulb_replacements_c_Panbo.jpg

Switching Gizmo’s interior lighting to LEDs seems like a no-brainer, especially given the horridly inefficient incandescent lighting she came with. For instance, I ran that either/or dual dome light comparison at lower left all last season and it was hard to tell the difference between the light outputs of the two bulbs, except that the $30 Imtra “Tower” LED replacement bulb is slightly warmer in color and draws only about 2 Watts (.23 amps at 12.4v) while the freaking filament bulb draws 15!  But though there are more and more choices in replacement bulbs and fixtures — with prices down and LED light output up — there are still numerous issues to consider and I don’t think that boats like mine have seen the perfect LED choice yet…

SolLight solar-powered LEDs, the long test 10

Cabin & deck gear / Green Boating

SolLight solar-powered LEDs, the long test

SolLights_the_long_test_cPanbo.jpg

Daylight today was at the minimum, at least in my hemisphere, and I was also fiddling with various holiday lights (which might be related phenomenon). So it seems like a good time to write about these SolLight solar-powered LED fixtures that have been lighting up my life for years. I started testing that LightShip model in early 2007 and when Gizmo came along in the spring of 2009 I stuck it to the hatch in the head, where it’s served well for three seasons. It’s left so that the dim red LED comes on at night and then we often switch to the brighter white when using the facilities…