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Only 230? Pfftt! The ElectroMaax can do 269. hehe. Any moment now, Integrel will enter the chat ... :-O I watched your video. Nice and short. Thanks Dan. Big Edit: Dan, I've just realised that your Kimpower alternator is your own design and is water cooled. Wow! Congratulations from me. I'm really impressed and wish you well with further developments. I'll be looking for further technical information. Naturally, I do wonder about the added complexity and installation cost of water cooling, but apart from that, this is impressive work. 🙂 There is benefit in keeping the rectifiers cooler, hence the remote rectifier unit with the Electromaax GenMaax 250A RR model. It can have a fan for even better cooling. Your water cooling system should provide similar benefits. I like how quiet your engine is. There's pros and cons with different designs. Regards, Rick. 🙂

@@SailingSnowGum Hi Rick many thanks for your nice words 🙂 I have worked with small electric motors sinze 1989 as sales engineer and alternator are a like a motor but backwords. You understand what I mean. I bought my brothers Jeanneau 42 from 2012 when he ordered a new Bennetau 55 (named Meribel) He had equiped my "Damen" (Lady) with 540 LFP from Victron and the alt get extremly hot. He equiped his Meribel with 1400 Winston LFP and he got problem with the alt. I told him about water cooled alt and he sugested to try that on Damen and if everythining works out I have to equiped his Meribel. This was 6 yers ago. Both of us have been obsest of alt. We have invested about 20.000€ in RD Of course we are engineers out to the fingertips. (my brother is 74 years old and I am 64 BTW) Water is cooling down 250 times better then air. Porsche needed more performance on their cars and their last air coold engine was build 1998. Thats 27 years ago. Water cooled alt in a car is super, BUT only when its freezing cold outside. When you start up you have a lot of load and it produce 2000 watt to heat up the water that go directly to the heat element inside the car. But a stunning hot summerday the alt have huge problem. No car manufacture use water cooled alt today. BUT al sailors have the ocean that could cool down the alt throw a Bowman heat exchanger. Every year I have improved the alt and nowdays it charge about 235 amp continuosly and the temp is 42C or 107F The engine compartment is cooler nowdays then I had a air cooled alt. My brothers Meribel I have equiped with two alt. This year they will produce nearly 500Amp! I am dooing al this on my spare time until next year, then I will be retired. Last try I heated up 25 liter of water and the load was 240Amp or 3,15kW during a test during 30 minutes. 4,17J or Watt/sec for 1 gram and 1C this mean 2000Watt of losses I got. The alt is tuned for more improved forced airflow. I dont now how much that is. But the rectifier losses is about 250Watt to 300Watt. We are handfull of sailors that have water cooled alt and its absolutly the best solution for sailors. Please contact me on dan.kimblad@gmail.com I can give you more info and picture and I want to know more about your set up. :-Dan

​@@dankimblad1521 Hi Dan. I've read through your notes here a few times. Fascinating! I'm imagining a high latitude boat that uses heat from the alternator for cabin heating. A simple coolant circuit to a small radiator and fan would do the job. Or perhaps a more sophisticated setup, including a water boiler for showers. I can see how you, your brother and your boat friends have enjoyed developing this technology and applying it in your boats. It's not for everyone of course, even though they would all enjoy the benefits. Cost, complexity and great performance will be balanced against simpler, cheaper and inefficient solutions, as is always the case with consumer products. I wish you all the best with your product developments. You'll soon need a 1000A fuse and BMS setup! Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum Hi Rick I have measured up the losses or the heat dissapation in the water. It is exactly 2000 Watt that I am cooling down at 240 Amp charging. To use a small radiator and fan will not make it easier and. One man on the west coast (USA) have tried that and got huge problem whit air in the system and after a while to hot and burned alternator. I use a small heatexchanger from Bowman for marine use mounted directly on the strainer for the water to the engine. Thats much simpler and cooler. I will make a picture how everything looks like today. Its not complicated this system. You can se on this film that I have only 3 hoses and thats al. The rectifier is also cooled down by water. I hope you can se how simple everything is on this video from my test facilities. I have tested up to 50C or 122F on the cooling water and the performance is then 236Amp, at 40C or 106F its 240 Amp Enjoy :-Dan ruclips.net/video/m0jMB9BDsz4/видео.html

Hi Adrian. In some places it’s not the prettiest welding, but it is certainly safe, effective and functional. It’s an exploration boat, not a marina Queen. This boat has now crossed the Atlantic, sailed up the coast of North America, to Greenland, then through the North West Passage. It works. Let me know if you would like recommendations for yachts with neater welding. They cost more though, so bring extra money! 🙂 Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum watching as a welder the gaps they left themselves to fill were on the larger side and with a extra 10 minutes of fettling would have fixed the appearance and a little bit more nice on the eye. the welds are strong but could of been done better with no extra work.

No argument from me on this. The welds are strong and proven, but untidy in places. Boy did we prove them, going around Lands End against a Force 7 coming out of the Atlantic. If the boat was going to break, that would have been it. It was fine. Thanks for your comments Adrian. Regards, Rick.

Hi UR. An owner of the same boat and Webasto unit recently removed the water pump only, without spilling much coolant. He used two coolant hose clamps to pinch the hoses either side of the pump, which limited the coolant loss to about half a cup. Without these clamps, a lot of coolant will flow into the bilge and make a mess that needs to be cleaned up. But I have a question for you - are you sure the Webasto in your car is a model that uses coolant to distribute heat throughout the vehicle? Many of the models installed in cars/vans simply heat air directly, which is then blown via ducts to the outlets. Worth a check. 🙂 Regards, Rick.

@ yes it heats up the coolant and therefore underside of the engine. The car’s a/c system uses the hot coolant to warm up the air that it blows in the cabin!

Ah, I see. Yikes! It must be a cold place where you live. Well, the amount of coolant that will spill when removing the heater depends on where it is mounted (in terms of gravity drainage) and the length of the hoses. The hose clamps I mentioned will help keep coolant loss to a minimum. If the problem is the pump, you might be able to remove it while leaving the heater in place. You’ll still want to use the hose clamps.

Thanks for the advice. It’s not that cold here, it’s just how VW / Webasto work on cars I believe. The hoses are pretty thick and have these locking clamps around them. I don’t know if it’ll work with clamps like you suggested. Will try to hold the inlet up so it leaks less.

The trick with using hose pliers/clamps is to apply them far enough away from the pump and ring clamps so that the hose can be pinched comfortably and completely, without risk of cracking the plastic spout of the pump. You might be able to improvise hose clamps, such as using woodworking G-clamps and two small pieces of wood, to pinch the hose about 15cm from the pump housing. Good luck with your work. 🙂

Hi Keith. I've just heard myself say @ 0:12 'and here's how it's mounted under the mast ...' Ha! What a laugh. Perhaps you've noticed - we are (well, were then) novice sailors who carefully chose a yacht to go sailing in, including teaching ourselves how to sail. Did you know, the very first time Carolyn ever stepped on to a boat (other than a Sydney ferry) was when we took delivery of Snow Gum? That's a gutsy move. Our purpose with these videos was to provide answers to people who wanted to know more about the boats, given how little effort Garcia was putting into providing detailed information. We found the videos by Sailing Chloe to be really helpful and so did much the same. We had a lot of fun and met very many nice people who said thanks for the videos. I'm sure if we met you in real life you would not be so rude. Would you like to start the conversation again, this time being your normal self instead of grumpy Keith? What's happened to you recently to put you in such a bad mood? There must be something. Anyway, have a look through our other videos about the Garcia Exploration 45 if you're interested, in case there's something that might be useful. Note also, we made this video about the Walder Boom Brake in direct response to a request from another owner, who wanted to install one using the factory layout. We were just trying to be helpful. If in the end you remain completely unsatisfied, be assured that you will receive a 100% refund of all funds you paid to us for making these videos. LOL! Regards, Rick.

I’ve just had a look at pics and video I took at the time. I can see that the six tabs of the coupling were pressed directly against the flywheel. So, there’s no spacers between the coupling and the flywheel. I don’t actually recall there being any spacers for the coupling bolts. I think there were some washers for the gearbox-flange-to-flywheel-housing bolts.

Hi miscreanity. Wow. But I don’t understand why it wasn’t fixed by Volvo? Did you call Volvo Penta Action Service? They were fantastic when we needed them. I will say, I still like these D2 engines. Some of my Garcia and Allures boat friends are having spectacularly good runs with them. Very high engine hours with few problems. Can you call Volvo again and give them another chance to fix your engine? If not, if you’re handy with a spanner, it’s not a difficult job. Regards, Rick. Hello again. It looks like you’ve already fixed your engine, which is good, but wow, why didn’t Volvo help you? I’d like to hear more on this, as I’m looking at another boat with a Volvo engine.

@@SailingSnowGum The drive failed two days before we were to depart and leave the hurricane zone. We had tried contacting Volvo and they told us all they could do was direct us to the closest dealer. Of course, the delay caused us to be in the path of a tropical storm, so we were desperately trying to get a mechanic. A former employee at the dealer who was in good standing had availability and it was agreed that the warranty would remain intact with his work being approved. After he came to do the assessment, he sent the information to the dealer. First they said the issue was covered by warranty, then they said said another tech had to verify. So far all out of pocket. Finally, the dealer said Volvo wouldn't approve the work because it was not done by a direct employee. Since it was only a dealer agreement, Volvo refused all liability. At that point, I tried other routes to contact Volvo and was able to get in touch with someone and he did what he could but nothing changed. Without a catastrophe, it isn't worthwhile to sue over a ~$20k engine that would probably take years to replace. Volvo and the dealers know this, so I'll be going with rebuilt since warranties are barely worth the paper they're printed on. There is a proven technology that is a viable replacement. It would still use diesel fuel but is much simpler, nearly silent and offers greater flexibility. Nobody has successfully commercialized it yet, though.

@@miscreanity Yikes. Those circumstances would feel like being stung, but as you say, better to just get on with it. Thanks for the background; I'll be keeping it in mind wrt any future warranty work. As for the alternative propulsion source, bring it to market, become a billionaire, buy Volvo Penta and fix the company so owners are getting good service all the time. We did, every time we asked, so clearly it's possible. Regards, Rick.

That’s engine cooling water. It’s salt water sucked in by the engine through a hole in the bottom of the boat which takes heat out of the engine, is then mixed with the engine’s exhaust gases and squirted out, as you see. It’s working well. 🙂

Hi Colin. Thanks for your kind words. Carolyn and I had a lot of fun showing the ins and outs of this boat, to people such as yourself. I’m glad it was helpful. If you let me know when your build is starting or when you’re launching, I’ll pass on some thoughts on getting the best outcome. Our email address is in the About information. Regards, Rick.

Olá Diego. Este barco maravilhoso está indo bem, nas mãos de um novo dono, que o levou pela Passagem do Noroeste. Obrigado pelo seu comentário. Atenciosamente, Rick.

Ha. That makes me think, ‘Wire brush that volcano or it won’t work!’ The anodes were working very nicely, at the right rate to show that they were doing their job to protect the boat. Not too fast, to indicate there’s an electrical problem and not too slow, which would suggest they’re electrically isolated from the hull. Have a look at later videos when the boat’s out of the water. They look as they should do for their age, without any brushing. :-) Regards, Rick.

Thanks Khotic. There’s plenty of talking in most of our other videos and I wanted this one to be just the sounds of the boat, the wind and the sea. Regards, Rick.

Ha! Hello Lewis. We did indeed pay close attention to the tide heights, timings and what the weather would be doing. Would you believe, we were so lucky to have a very gentle breeze helping to blow us onto shore and then it reversed just before we needed it to, to gently blow us back off the beach once the water rose and floated us off. We simply drifted out about 70 metres and dropped the anchor. It was a perfect day, all rather well planned by us, I might add. We did have a few little surprises though. The bow was a long way up in the air and I strained my ankle when I had to jump off in a hurry to catch my drone, which wanted to land right at the water’s edge. Silly things, drones. The emergency ladder was much more difficult to use than we expected. But the biggest lesson was that every single visitor to this popular beach came up for a chat, along with their dogs, which kept splashing water over me while I was trying to do careful work with Loktite and small screws, etc. So much for getting work done! But it was fun to talk with people and their incredulous kids. ‘Well, tonight when you’re asleep, a rather large helicopter is going to come and lift our boat back into the water. Come and look tomorrow and you’ll see us out there in the bay.’

Hi Frank. Yes, you can see an anti-gybe device attached under the boom. It’s a Walder Boom Brake. Unlike a preventer it doesn’t try to stop a gybe, but allows the gybe to happen in slow motion. It can also be used to hold the boom in a fully eased setting when sailing downwind in light air, when the sails and boom can flap and crash due to passing waves and rolling motion. Here’s a link to a video we made that looks at how it’s installed. Regards, Rick. .ruclips.net/video/pKF3lrF-2g8/видео.htmlsi=mdVYGR_OH0OaNtTK

Could you tell Mark Skier that we haven’t owned this boat for over two years now? But thanks for the tip. Are you able to nominate a time code where this trimming problem is best visible? Which sail are you focusing on? Keep in mind, it’s not a racing boat! Thanks for your tips. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum I was talking about the headsail, and you can see the inner telltales are stalled most clearly at 0:42 and 4:20.

@@SailingSnowGum and race boat or not, proper trim is still important.

Thanks. I’ll look closely, once I’ve fired up my computer with its big screen. Can’t see the telltales on my iPhone.

I totally agree. In one of our other videos I picked up a knot by easing the solent (as Garcia call the big foresail), but we were on a broad reach that time. More curve in the sail helped. Racing training would carry over to sailing heavy exploration boats. This Garcia is well set up for sail management and flexibility. Jimmy’s influence is a bonus, but he didn’t get all that he wanted. Racoupeau insisted a cutter rig would be better than a solent rig, which I agree with, having experienced the benefits of that much smaller furling staysail close to the mast in tough conditions. And it was still possible to tack the solent through the gap. Tricky, but possible. 🙂

Hello Evin. You might have seen in my replies here and with later videos on this subject that I actually think this engine is a good choice for this boat. I ordered the boat with a good understanding of the benefits of the Volvo Penta D2-75 engine. Fundamentally, it is easy to maintain, repair and keep working while underway. It is a simple and yet well engineered engine. It is relatively quiet for a marine diesel of its size - important to me. The problems we experienced and which are made evident in this video were all to do with the original installation, done under very difficult Covid restricted circumstances, and then with some unexpected arisings during the repair work by Volvo's service agents. Let me now address these specifically. Firstly, the engine and propeller shaft were not aligned properly during installation. There was a lot of vibration around the 1200 to 1400 rev range, along with more than is desirable at lower and higher revs. This led to fatigue of the coupling bolts, along with stretching of the bolt holes in the flywheel. The latter problem was not noticed with the first two repair attempts, which replaced the coupling and bolts, and later replaced the gearbox. Due to the flywheel bolt holes having been damaged, the first two repairs failed almost immediately. For the third repair attempt Volvo left nothing to chance and stripped the entire drive train, with only the engine remaining in place. Everything was checked. New items installed were the flywheel, flywheel housing, coupling, coupling bolts (a new, high tensile specification), a new gearbox, the original shaft (which had been checked on a long lathe), a new PYI PSS shaft seal, a rebuilt propeller, and a checked cutlass bearing and rope cutter. Then a very thorough alignment was done. The engine has worked perfectly since and is covering some serious territory. The point is, for anyone taking delivery of a new or old boat with any kind of engine, be absolutely sure that the engine to prop shaft alignment is perfect. Know what to look for! One last point. Another factor in us being happy with our Garcia having a Volvo Penta D2-75 engine was the excellent and extensive world-wide service network they have. We needed support from Volvo in Milford Haven in Wales when heading north and in Cherbourg as seen in this video. We had to wait less than a day and a quarter of a day respectively before we had a technician step onto our boat. While the work in this video was being done, a boat next to us was stranded for weeks, waiting for a Yanmar guy to visit. The owners couldn't do the work themselves because the engine was too complicated. Summary - I would be happy to have a Volvo Penta D2-75 in my next boat. 🙂

Hello Arnaud. To answer your question, the reason we sold an almost brand new Garcia Exploration 45 is because it was almost brand new! 🙂 Let me explain. We ordered our boat at the start of November 2019, about a month before Covid 19 started. Lockdowns and social distancing in 2020 made building boats far more difficult than usual. We were glad to see that Garcia stayed open, kept working and delivered our boat, though it took three months longer than planned; not a problem to us. It was a difficult time, as I'm sure you recall. Our original plan was to sail our boat for three years, part time; about six months on the boat and six months off, back home in Australia with our children. After three years we would either sell it, or keep going. Because of Covid we could not fly backwards and forwards between Europe and Australia, so we ended up living on the boat for 18 months in one hit. This was as much time on the boat as we'd planned to do and it was only a year and a half old instead of three years old. We knew it would be very easy to sell. Garcia had worked closely with us to iron out a number of technical problems, typical with new boats, but possibly a few more than usual because of Covid. Once Volvo had done a good job of rebuilding the engine, the boat was in very good shape. It really was the perfect time to either keep it, or sell it. On top of these factors, Carolyn and I were having some health problems, some of which were related to the design of the boat and the sail plan. It's a boat that needs quite a bit of manual physicality to sail. Carolyn broke her ribs several times, from being thrown against the cockpit coaming while winching. Not fun. I was getting severe sciatica from pulling hard on the foresail and Code 0 furling lines, amongst others. Carolyn was getting seasick more than we hoped for and was losing far too much weight, noting that she didn't have a lot to start with. After 18 months we had achieved what we wanted to do and had a boat that was almost new. We weighed everything up and decided, 'Now is the time to sell it.' One of our reasons for buying this boat was that we knew it would be popular and easy to sell. We feel good about having got that right. 🙂 If you are thinking about ordering a Garcia, send me an email and I can talk with you about the technical aspects of the boat and whether it might suit your sailing plans. The address is in our About information. Regards, Rick.

​@@SailingSnowGum Thank's Rick for your swift and exhaustive answer. I'm not looking to buy a boat right now and your testimony confirm that a push button type of sailing (HR or Amel) is more suitable if you are not in your 30's anymore and short handed. I really hope that your health problems are behind you and that your sailing career is not over. Regards.

You’ve understood my point about the design and sail plan correctly. We wanted to learn to sail in a boat that had all the lines and was manual in its operation. We achieved that. But it was tough on our bodies. When the wind picks up and it takes time to deal with a manually operated sail handling system, you can soon be in a situation where you both have to use all your strength while furling, reefing, winching, trimming, etc. A push-button electrically powered system is so quick that the sails can be reefed or put away without delay, before the wind becomes a problem. We watched skippers doing this on their own when coming in to anchor near us. They sailed right into a bay, faster and closer than boats with manual furling and slab-reefing, then put their sails away without any fuss. Wow! Manual systems are great for expedition boats and ours worked well, but we’re looking at push-button systems now. We’re fit for our age, but not young anymore. As you’ve mentioned, HR is a good example of a boat with electrically powered push-button sailing. Amel is another. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum Agreed (am 47), the perfect boat would be a Garcia with in-mast furling and push buttons operations, OR a beachable HR with aluminium hull and retractable keel.... You can't have it all (unless loaded with money and patience to design your own boat). Fair wind to the both of you and thank you for all your videos.

Well, this will interest you. There was an HR44 named Castella, owned by a Swiss gentleman. I’d seen photos of it participating in the HR Rally at Ellös. A couple of years later when we were in Cherbourg with Snow Gum I was walking along the dock and saw a new Allures (from the same yard as Garcia, 51 foot IIRC) also called Castella, with the same unique font that was used on the HR44. It was the first Allures with in-mast furling. And it was the same owner; he’d sold his HR within a year or two of delivery. I was told by Allures/Garcia people that he hadn’t been entirely happy with his HR and asked for an aluminium boat, with a lifting centreboard, that could be beached and with the addition of in-mast furling. The naval architects needed to adjust the design to cater for the weight and balance changes. So this is close to your description of the ideal boat; a production boat at that! Or, look at what KMY in the Netherlands have built with the new boat Canada/MicMac. It’s a lot like a Dutch built Garcia. Bring money!!

Hola. Buenas noches a ti Paul.

Hi Valentin. Thanks for your nice words. It would be nice to sail with Tom on Snow Owl as we call her sometimes, and he has offered. The scene with us sailing Snow Gum is from 2021, sailing between Fishguard and Milford Haven, off the coast of Wales. It was a bit lumpy. I dare say you’ve seen it before in an earlier video. Sorry for the confusion. I actually mentioned this in a rehearsal of the voiceover, but forgot in the take I used. Oh well … 🙂 Regards, Rick.

Hi Renato. That's very nice of you. Well, we are doing some boat shopping and we think it would be fun to use the name 'Snow Gum' again. Time will tell. :-) Regards, Rick.

Thank you Phil. I get to see Carolyn's smile every day. Lucky man. 🙂 Regards, Rick.

Hi Mike. Thanks. It's nice to have a good story to tell about Snow Owl, or Night Gum, as Tom and I tend to call the boat. Regards, Rick.

Hello Robson. 🙂

Hi Steffen. Titanium has good corrosion resistance in salt water environments. It is much less susceptible to corrosion than steel, which is the material used in standard Brompton bicycles. It's been a while since I looked at Brompton's website and I don't know if they have released the titanium framed bicycle they were talking about a few years ago. If they have, it's sure to be expensive. A couple of points to note are: on the Brompton Superlight 'titanium' bikes we bought in 2021, only a couple of parts were made with titanium. These were the front and rear forks. The rest of the bike's frame, seat post, stem and handle-bars were made with steel. The weight saving was useful but not huge. The cost increase actually was huge! The second point is, we didn't see any problems with corrosion with the steel parts on the bike in the year that we were using them and keeping them with us in the boat. We were careful not to get them wet with seawater, but there's always sea spray about. We used a dehumidifier in the boat routinely, which probably helped. We spoke with others who had owned standard, steel Bromptons much longer than us, using them from their boats and they were impressed with how little corrosion they were seeing on their bikes. I'm now going to take a look at Brompton's website ... Regards, Rick. Edit: Yep, they now make bikes with a titanium frame and carbon front forks and handle bar. Very light and very expensive. Happy shopping!

thanks a lot for this thorough and exhaustive answer! Really helpful!

Hi Phil. Why? It's not a race boat. It's a solid, cruiser of a boat that makes up for not having blinding speed (does any boat?) by being comfortable over long distances. I think your boat will be the same. Even if you feel your boat is fast, there's plenty out there that are way faster. When do you plan to win the Sydney to Hobart? Now, have you noticed our video where we offered Snow Gum for sale, almost two years ago? I'll bet my boat was quicker to sell than yours! ;-) hehe. Or than yours would be, if offered. I claim that we sold our Garcia in zero seconds, as it was sold before we even got to the point of advising a price. Beat that! 🙂 Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum. Hi Rick it's not so much her 200 mile days, it's just how bloody comfortable she is while doing it. About once a year over the last dozen years somebody wants to write a check out to bye Windora. Many friends would say to Lynda if Phil dies I would like to purchase Windora. Before Lynda passed away she told me I could sell the kids or house but never Windora. I don't know about doing the Sydney Hobart we prefer to do offshore racing. Galapagos to Easter nineteen hundred miles in eleven days, South Georgia to Cape Town 3,000 in 19 days including 5 nights hove to because of the ice. Devils Island, Tobago 612 under 3 days Trinidad Bermuda 15 days days and so on.Phil

@@philandlyndachristieson8808 There's no doubt, Windora is a solid boat. Have you been watching the build by Johan and Malin on RAN Sailing?

Hi Steve. It's good to hear from you. Finally someone is asking about this - and has a setup we can use for further testing. Good. So the background is: I was concerned about how my engine start battery would be protected from discharge, given that the battery positive is connected to the Smart BMS CL 12/100 and thence to the positive bus bar. I saw in the instructions for the BMS that it only allows charge to flow from the alternator/starter battery pin and through the BMS to the positive bus bar and the house batteries if voltage detected at the alternator/starter battery pin is higher than 13V. (By they way and as a side comment, this means that the BMS allows the engine start battery to be a source of charging for the house batteries, if starter battery voltage is above 13V and house battery voltage is lower. However, this will very quickly equalise, or voltage at the alternator/starter battery pin will fall below 13V, bringing this flow to a halt.) After I noticed the BMS had this voltage protection threshold of 13V I started taking measurements with the system in different states. With the engine off, the MultiPlus off and shore power disconnected, I found that the voltage at the starter battery positive terminal (and of course at the alternator positive, starter motor positive and the alternator/starter battery pin on the BMS) was the same as the output voltage from the MPPTs and at the positive bus bar. The MPPTs were the only source of voltage higher than the house battery level, which was 12.8V. I was seeing 14V+ at the starter battery. The BMS was allowing the MPPTs to keep the starter battery topped up. That's handy. It's not a documented feature. Not all customers would see this as a good move; to have a connection between the starter and house batteries, even a managed one. But that's what this BMS does; it connects the two. So, could you please replicate my tests? Make sure the engine start battery has been off charge from the MultiPlus for a day or so, for capacitance to dissipate. Then measure the voltage at the starter battery positive, in circumstances where solar is the only possible current source. Thanks. Regards, Rick. I'll get back to your other questions shortly. 🙂 Edit - to answer Questions 2 & 3. Q2. Victron’s Smart LiFePO4 batteries do not have a built in BMS. I think this is good; better for a BMS to be outside the battery, where it can easily be fixed or replaced if needed. Victron lithium batteries are like babies that rely upon a parent (a BMS equipped with Smart Battery Protect cut-offs) to protect them. All the batteries do is tell the BMS if they are too hot or cold for charging or discharging, at too low a state of charge for discharging or too high a state of charge for charging. I’ll assume you have a suitably sized Smart Battery Protect to cut the loads if one of your batteries’ cells tells the BMS it’s too low. But what is going to stop the MPPTs from firing charge into the batteries if they are too full? Sure, you can set a charging limit within the programming of the MPPT. And, you can have an alarm that will make a sound if the voltage gets above a set level. But neither of these is going to do the ultimate job of protecting your incredibly expensive batteries from permanent damage if for some reason charge keeps getting blasted into them. So, I installed (edit - I told Garcia to install) a Smart Battery Protect 100 to cut the charging from the MPPTs if needed. It acted on advice from the BMS, which acted on a scream from any single battery cell. I selected a Smart Battery Protect for this role instead of a Cyrix-Li-Charge due to the better performance characteristics, in particular standby power consumption, which could be enough with the Cyrix to drain a house battery at critically low state of charge to the point of damage. Q3. Re the Orion DC-DC device: the need for that was actually identified by Garcia, through experience with earlier installs of the Scheiber wireless lighting system. They explained that it provided the steady voltage that the lighting blocs needed, to work reliably. I have no way of knowing if it was effective (elephant repellant?), but we had no problems with how the wireless light switches and the lighting blocs performed.

@@SailingSnowGum Wow, Rick! I couldn’t have asked for a more detailed reply and I am very thankful for the time and energy that you put into your very detailed response. Although I have been extremely happy with my Victron installation, there have been a few nagging questions in the back of my mind. I relied upon the wisdom and experience of a couple of very smart men to design a LiFePO4 system around the Victron CL 12-100, as opposed to all of the other very elaborate (and I’m sure effective) systems that keep starting batteries and LiFePO4 batteries separate. I had no interest in potential boat fires caused by faulty BMS’s that were integrated into other brands of less expensive LiFePO4 batteries, and I appreciated Victron’s elegant solution to the problem of overworking the engines alternator while charging my house bank. As much research as I did at the time, I didn’t find anything that was a better mousetrap than the Smart BMS CL 12-100 for my size of a system, but I didn’t find a lot of real world examples of installations on boats. Furthermore, I found that the help I did get from well meaning Victron representatives and salespeople went straight over my head. I’m a professional classical trombonist and although I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, there seemed to be a communication gap present. However, it was working. And it was working extremely well. After I set up the solar panels and MPPT I left the boat for a week disconnected from shore power with the fridge on and it performed beautifully. One thing that was always lacking for me, however, was some non-electrical engineer reasoning for WHY it was working. Your explanation has helped to fill that gap in my mind. I will do the tests you requested as soon as I have a moment and report my findings back to you. In the meantime I have acquired an additional Battery Protect (a 12/24 100 as is in your system) to place in between the Smart Solar MPPT 100/50 and the positive busbar on my system. I didn’t go with a MultiPlus inverter/charger because my boat doesn’t have anything that requires a huge draw like a microwave, and although I did replace the boat’s original Lewco charger, I wanted to keep things relatively simple (and inexpensive) and went with a Phoenix Smart IP43 (1+1) charger and single outlet Phoenix 12/500 inverter in case we absolutely had to plug anything in. Cheers, Rick! More later… Steve

@@stevetrapani Hi Steve. Thanks for getting back - and for the background. I'm a muso too. There's not a whole lot of difference between musician smarts and science or engineering smarts. You'll be fine. I know the Phoenix charger and inverter you've mentioned. They're good. I wanted a Phoenix charger for keeping the bow thruster batteries in good shape, but Garcia already had one from Sterling they intended to use. It was OK. Yep - the Smart BMS CL 12/100 is a great solution for a specific problem I'd been sweating over. Victron released it at the perfect time for me, along with the Cerbo and the Touch 50 dislay. I'll look forward to seeing the results of your investigations. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum Hi Rick! Sorry for the delay in responding. We’ve had a bit of an unusual weather event in Southern California and I haven’t been able to rely upon the solar panels to charge my system reliably until the last few days. Unfortunately, I am not seeing the same voltage at the starter battery + terminal (or any of the other places that you listed) as the house LiFePO4 battery busbar while the MPPT is pumping in power from the panels. After disconnecting from shore power, my readings at the starter battery + terminal are consistently under 13v - right now it’s 12.74v. Did you ever (and I mean this with absolutely no snarkiness whatsoever) receive confirmation from Victron that this “magical” connection exists? You’re obviously a very intelligent man who has certainly done his due diligence, and the last thing I would want to do is offend you. However, as much as I want it to be true, I’ve been pouring over the Victron forums and can find no other reference to the CL 12/100 BMS providing this feature of topping off the starter battery with MPPT controllers. Otherwise, I can only think of a couple of reasons for the discrepancy in our readings, although there could very well be other explanations. Again, I’m a professional trombone player, not professional boat electrician. The first is that maybe there is a separate connection from your MPPT’s to your starter battery that bypass the positive busbar in your system? Perhaps Garcia put it in there when they realized that there was no way to charge the starter battery while the engine wasn’t running or when not connected to shore power? The other is that we may have slightly different versions of the Victron Smart BMS CL 12/100. I’ve come across some posts that mention there being two different versions of this BMS - one earlier version that gets its power from the starter battery and one more recent version that gets its power from the LiFePO batteries. Mine is for sure the one that gets power from the starter battery. Other than that, I really don’t know. To do my own due diligence, I will let the boat sit for a few days disconnected from shore power and see what happens. Right now, however, the only way I can seem to get a charging voltage going to my starter battery is to run the engine or to turn on the Phoenix IP 43. Otherwise it just sits there - actually it’s at 12.73v now. Probably because of the small power draw from the BMS. If I have revealed my ignorance with anything I’ve said, please forgive me and be gentle. I’m just trying really hard to not have my boat burn to the waterline, and I can’t afford a marine electrician to do all of this work for me. Thanks again for your input and I look forward to your response. Steve

@@stevetrapani Hi Steve. Thanks for getting back with your test results. Your info on the version change for the Smart BMS CL 12/100, from year 2021 week 10 onwards is particularly interesting. I can understand why Victron made this change: most sailors would insist on having a setup where the engine start battery is completely protected from discharge once the battery isolation switch is thrown open. It’s clear that the first version of this BMS, which you’ve pointed out is powered from the Alternator/Engine Start Battery terminal, will draw on this important battery to keep it operating and ready to do its job, which is to protect the expensive lithium house batteries. The expression, ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul,’ comes to mind. The result of this Version 1 design is that turning the engine start battery isolation switch will inadvertently kill all DC power in the boat. And, that’s exactly what happened the first time we used this switch! :-| Imagine our surprise. An electrician from Garcia made a quick visit and put things right. At the time I didn’t know how he did this. Carolyn and I are digging into our memories and records to see how I found the potential for this BMS to pass current to the engine start battery from the house battery positive bus bar (and thereby from the MPPTs). Your words have tickled out the memory described above, along with that of a later activity where I was studying the terminals on the rear of the engine start battery isolation switch. I found exactly what you hinted at, being the cable installed by Garcia’s electrician, to ensure power was provided to the BMS even after the isolation switch between the BMS and the engine start battery was opened. The source of this power was from the house battery positive bus bar (and thereby from the MPPTs). I became concerned about the BMS continuing to draw on the lithium batteries if they were ever almost empty, which could ruin them, so I disconnected the cable. Of course, the BMS shut down, which caused the Smart Battery Protects to shut down, which cut power to the MPPTs and everything else. It was quite a trick to get it all working again! I’d accidentally repeated the outcome of the first time we used the switch. I talked with Garcia’s electrical engineer about whether this cable was a good idea. Whlle he was thinking about it and talking with his electrician I did my own analysis and concluded that it was the right approach, though the owner/operator would need to be cognisant of the implications, the dangers and the opportunity. It was this analysis that led me to see how this cable would operate as a trickle charger for the engine start battery, provided that the lithium house batteries didn’t get too low and cry out to the BMS to cut all loads. The solar panels and MPPTs would normally keep the house batteries at a very healthy state of charge, so the risks seemed low. Garcia’s engineer came back and confirmed my thinking, advising that the cable needed to be there, for the reasons outlined above. I let him know I’d put it back, replicating the original fix the electrician had made. Sheesh! Victron have solved this with their redesign and Version 2 of the Smart BMS CL 12/100. Do you still have your Version 1 BMS or have you managed to swap it for a newer version? If you now have the newer one, I think that’s a good outcome. Treating your engine start battery as an absolute bilge queen is important. You simply must be able to start your engine(s) when you need to. Risking its state of charge by having it provide power to a small device, albeit an important one like a BMS, is a no-go situation. I was comfortable with my setup, but understood that I would be disconnecting the house batteries if the boat was unattended. I no longer have the opportunity to crawl around in Snow Gum but I will discuss what you and I have teased out with the new owner. I want to ensure that there’s no potential for unwelcome surprises of the battery voltage kind. That pun was deliberate. I think a certain professional trombone player should be awarded an honourary doctorate in electrical engineering. The big floppy hat could be just the thing for summer in SoCal. Please let me know if you’d like me to try to explain this background more clearly. I’m keen that records of what we learn are available for others to benefit from. Thanks again for engaging with me on this. Regards, Rick.

Hi Phil. So you’re not a fan then? You need to provide a bit more information when you make a sweeping statement like that. Reasons for having such strong views. Good technical reasons, investigating design faults and the like. I actually think they’re a good design for an exploration boat, being reasonably modern but still fairly simple. I’m in two minds about the turbo though. An engine needs to be simple to fix and the Volvo Penta D2-75 is. What engine do you have in Windora? What’s the biggest failure you’ve had? Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum HI Rick I got your attention, I'm very impressed with your reply and the thought that went into it. I wish we were anchored next to each other in Patagonia or Greenland be nice to be on board your yacht having a RUM together. What's a little hard for you is Lynda and I have owned Windora now for over 30 years, she was designed by Athol Burns a Naval Architec who in his lifetime designed over 700 vessel's. For some unknown reasons Windora is very unique. Engineered in wood, at 43 feet, non turbocharged 6B Cummings, 5 water tight bulkheads, easily sails 200 mile days, very very sea kindly, no Lee cloths, never worn a life jacket or harness on deck. It would be easier for me if you would put yachtwindora into RUclips,Google and Instagram. My background, l trained as a marine engineer followed by a degree in mechanical engineering. Don't get me wrong I like your yacht and have two friends with them. Please tell me more about yourselves and backgrounds. You're always welcome at Wairangi. Cheers Phil

@@SailingSnowGum Hi Rick, got your attention, non turbocharged 6B Cummings. Thanks for you well thoughtful reply. Be nice to be anchored nearby and have a RUM together. Lynda and I have had 30+ years of sailing Windora about the planet, it had an impact. ⛵️🌏🌊🌏⛵️ Kind Regards Phil

⁠@@philandlyndachristieson8808 I’ll totally agree on not having a turbo. A ticking time-bomb, those things, in a low speed diesel. I’ve watched your videos. Strong boat - Windora. But these days I question the wisdom of going to places where, if things go wrong, chances are there won’t be enough help. What’s the point, when there’s lots of interesting but still remote places to visit, where mutual assistance is possible? You did well in Sth Georgia. You were well prepared and had some good fortune. It can so easily tip over the edge into being catastrophic. A single injury could change everything. So I feel the wise approach is to eliminate the high risks up front and sail in company with others or within reach of others. Thoughts? It’s more fun too. 🙂

@@SailingSnowGum Morning Rick, as you've worked out I'm measuring your vessel against Windora, which isn't fear to you. What took place in South Georgia, in Lynda's words was only a minor incident because as she told people in on this occasion we were never going to die, not like the other 5 situations we had been in. Very sadly Lynda passed away 4 months ago, after being together since were 9 and 10. Most of the people who choose to sail in these latitudes are good friends, after thousands of miles we have all had to face death it comes with the territory. For Lynda sandy beaches and parm trees just didn't do it for her. Cheers Phil

Hello Araz. There is no symmetry error. The edges of the cockpit bulkhead and shelf are not horizontal. However, the chartplotter and instruments are installed horizontally. 🙂 It’s all good. Regards, Rick.

12mm. 🙂 Edit: Actually I think it was 14mm It was rather thick in the self-tailer of the winch.

Edit: I'd written that the Walder Boom brake line was 12mm, but no, it was 14mm. It was 12mm for the solent, stay sail and Code 0 sheets.

​@@SailingSnowGum Many thanks for the advice. Were new to sailing and I made a point of buying a walder boom brake. We own a ketch with a shorter main so I don't know whether to run with a 10mm boom brake line or a 12mm. The resellers said would be trail and error...

@@davidsowens Hi David. Geez, 'trial and error' is not a great answer is it! LOL. I've just watched my video and I didn't nominate the size of the line, but it was 12mm. Or 14mm. Thick and strong stuff. Let me go and dig in the Garcia lines chart, to see if I can confirm this. Hold on. Yeah, when I wrote that it was 12mm I was thinking, 'Nah, I think it might'a been more than that.' Because, it was 14mm! I've checked by looking at the list of the Garcia Exploration 45 lines. It says, 'Frein de bôme - 14mm'. The brand of rope is Callisto and it's 17 metres long, but that's for this boat. Yours is sure to be a different length. We liked the functions of the Walder Boom-Brake, overall. The safety dividend from making crash gybes far less violent is the big one of course. It could save you from destroying your rigging in an instant of inattention. Other benefits are holding the boom all the way out and in place when sailing down wind in light conditions, along with stopping the boom from whacking from side to side when at anchor or in a marina. Some downsides are that when you're tacking (or even gibing sometimes) in light conditions, the brake works a bit too well and stops the boom from going all the way over easily, when you want it to. You have to stand up on something and push the bloody thing.Try not to fall! Loosening the boom-brake line helps, but not entirely. Then there's the way the boom-brake's line goes down to deck level where you want to walk along the side decks. You'll need to step over it often, along with juggling your tether to the jack-line around it as you move forward and back again. A bit awkward; a bit annoying. The price of safety. In a marina (on calm days when you don't want to hold the boom steady) you can untie the line from the deck shackles. No more stepping over it. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum Exactly, I was surprised too at their nonchalant response. It appears good help is rare to find these days. Before I'd seen your response. I'd gone ahead and ordered 10mm double braided so I guess will see. Our ketch has a smaller main so 10mm may do but I wont know until I do a trial run. My wife and I are working towards doing a blue water crossing. So we are trying to iron out all the kninks first. Your chain plates your boom brake line is attached too is that pronounced Ycart chain plate. Many thanks in responding

Hi Dave. A child could sleep up there. Let me look at the measurements we made of those shelves, for when we were shopping for storage boxes. Hang on. OK, I've found a picture showing 154cm along the inside of the tie down rail. So that's the length. But I have a second pic showing 145cm for that same dimension, which must account for the non-rectangular shape of the shelf, in terms of buying rectangular boxes. So the mattress for the shelf will not be rectangular. The widths are 62cm at the aft end of the shelf and 58cm at the fore end of the shelf. Plenty of room for a child. You'll need a good lee cloth or net! Garcia can provide a pipe berth to go up above that shelf. It's good for storage, of kids or vegetables or other stuff. I've seen pics by another owner of children sleeping on the shelves under the dodger on either side of the companionway! Kids are good at sleeping in small spaces. 🙂 Of course, there is a configuration of this boat with a full size cabin in the starboard aft location. In this case the aft heads compartment is smaller, without the separated shower. Jimmy Cornell's boat, number 1 in the series, had this cabin setup. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum Hi Rick, thanks for your quick reply, yes I thought it would be short for a full bunk, but I guess I was just hoping for the best of both worlds, full tech room and spare bunk! 😅. I’m seriously looking at the 45 but the lead time now is about 3 years! Anyway, I’m off now to look for a tape measure to check my son when he comes home from school. Thanks again..Dave

Hi John. Prices have increased since we placed our order in late 2019, due to general inflation and labour cost increases but also aluminium has gone up. A boat configured like Snow Gum would now be at least 800,000 Euros; probably more. You’ll need to call the sales staff at Garcia to get a better figure. Enjoy your shopping. 🙂 Regards, Rick.

Hello Á. A few thoughts have come to my mind. Surely the repair work for this should have been covered by the Volvo Penta warranty? The normal warranty is for two years and then there is an extension to the warranty for major system failures, which applies if the first service at 50 hours is registered on the Volvo Penta database. Perhaps we were lucky with Snow Gum that our coupling bolt failures started happening only 14 months from delivery. Other thoughts I'm having are: - Volvo Penta have changed the specification for the coupling bolts. High tensile bolts are now specified and these were installed in the final rebuild for Snow Gum. - the first coupling bolt failure on Snow Gum involved just one bolt. All six bolts were replaced, but using the original flywheel, which has the threaded holes into which the coupling bolts are fastened. The second coupling bolt failure happened within a minute of the boat being put back into the water. We were slowly maneuvering to our pontoon in the marina. All six coupling bolts failed when the engine was running the next time. They failed while the engine was warming up in neutral, as we prepared to motor across to the boat lift for another round of repairs. The problem was that the flywheel's bolt holes were damaged during the first failure event. Something to consider is - was the flywheel replaced when your repair work was done? If not, consider carefully what your sailing plans are. If you are thinking of heading to a very remote area, changing the flywheel and using new, high tensile coupling bolts could be a good idea. If you will only be doing coastal sailing, the consequences of another coupling failure are a bit easier to deal with. 🙂 I like this engine, because it is easy to work on and can be very reliable. The final part of our repairs was a careful alignment of the engine and the propeller shaft. The alignment was way off, causing a lot of vibration which surely caused the coupling bolt failure in the first place. If there is noticeable vibration of your engine/gearbox/propeller shaft, then aligning the engine to eliminate this is very important. Regards, Rick.

Hi Coleen. Geepers I don't know where you get your 100% figure from but that's just not accurate. I'm in touch with lots of owners (as at Oct 23+) and there's many who are still originals. Sure, a few of the higher profile owners have sold (Jimmy Cornell on Aventura IV, Pete and Tracey on Pearl of Penzance, Peter and Dawn on Chloe and Carolyn and me on Snow Gum), but each described their personal circumstances at the time. These particular boats all sold quickly, as have the others that have been offered. Pete says he sold his boat in six hours after listing it. Carolyn and I say we sold Snow Gum in 0 seconds, as we hadn't even named a price yet! Let me move on to your specific questions. I don't know who thinks there are corrosion issues but I can tell you that it's not a topic that owners have been chatting to each other about. We had no concerns on Snow Gum and other owners have not mentioned concerns. We talk about all sorts of other problems and concerns like any other group of boat owners; corrosion has not been a topic. Only the anodes corrode and they do so beautifully, which is what you want. 🙂 One of the problems I've discussed with a couple of owners has been some incidents of condensation, which aluminium boats can be especially sensitive to. Keep in mind though - any boat can and will have condensation in the right (wrong?) conditions, although aluminium is a touch better at making water out of thin air than other materials. But there's not that much in it you know; non-aluminium boats will still have condensation. With Garcias or similarly built boats, if the foam insulation in overhead areas has gaps between sections, then warm, moisture laden air can make contact with cold aluminium and in certain climatic conditions can create water droplets. These can wet the upper surfaces of overhead panels and in time can support growth of mould. Again, keep in mind, this can and will happen in any boat, particularly if they're lived-in through the cold, damp months. Serious effort is needed to counteract condensation and mould in all live-aboard boats. With aluminium boats the trick is to inspect the foam panels in the overhead areas and use Sikaflex or expanding foam to seal any air gaps. We did this with our boat and it was very effective at stopping condensation from forming. There's a key point here: condensation happens in boats - it's a fact. The challenge is to minimise the extent to which it happens in areas where it could be a problem, for which I've provided an example - the overhead areas. If condensation occurs on hull plates below the sole, it's not a problem. It will evaporate as daily air temperatures rise and ventilation is provided. You always lift your mattresses don't you, to make sure the under-berth areas get lots of ventilation? 🙂 Some people avoid any noticeable condensation problems by blasting away with their heater. That'll help, until you turn it off and things cool down, when the moisture suspended in the warm air falls out as it cools, forming droplets on the nearest cold surface. The best aids for dealing with condensation are dehumidification, or ventilation, or vacation. Re the last one, leave your boat in a nice, secure yard over winter and go skiing instead of living aboard when the weather is miserable. I'm actually going to offer a contrary view and point out that many owners are holding on to their Garcias even when the usual and inevitable 'welcome to boat-life' problems start to emerge, such as toilet hoses needing periodic replacement, toilet pumps needing periodic rebuilding (let me give you some tips on that!), black water tanks leaking from the level sensor hole (there's been four I know of, all fixed), a fridge wore out, some centreboard bearings needing a refresh after several years, ... . The owners out there are taking these things in their stride, as boat owners do. So Coleen, in response to your request to PLEASE tell us why this is happening, 🙂 there isn't an answer to match your question. Perhaps a different question is needed, such as, 'If I find, after careful analysis of my needs, that a Garcia is the best fit for who I will sail with and where we will sail to, is there a reason why I shouldn't order one or buy one?' From me (and most or all other owners I believe) the answer is, 'No, there's no reason you shouldn't order one, assuming you know what's involved with owning and cruising in sail boats, being all the usual joys and hassles.' These are very safe boats with an extraordinary set of wonderful features and good sea-keeping qualities. There are other boats that play in the same space with varying features (which in some specific instances might appeal to me or you) but when I did my analysis, the Garcia was the easiest one to choose. If you want to dive down into particular technical features, feel free to point at those here in the comments under respective videos. Or, if you want to look at a more personalised comparison, with your needs in mind, feel free to contact me via the About page on our Sailing Snow Gum channel. Regards, Rick. p.s. Carolyn and I just proof read this. We talked about how these are good, strong, safe boats. For a second I pretended I was talking to you and I said, 'Are you sure you want a boat? They're all nothing but trouble you know. Apart from when it's lovely. Then they're great. A bit like kids.' Ha! 🙂

Hi trip. The Multiplus charger/ inverter is shown a few minutes into this video. We can’t see how it is ‘grounded’, but you can download Victron’s manual for the inverter you’re considering, to see what they specify. I will go away and take a look at the electrical wiring diagrams, to see if there’s anything unusual. Look again for more info later. Regards, Rick.

Hello again trip. So I've looked at the electrical schematics for this boat and what is shown is that the Multiplus inverter/charger is not 'grounded' as such. It is connected to the battery bus bars, for delivery of shore power charging current to the house batteries (there is also a small connection for charging the engine start battery) and for receiving current from the batteries for inverting to 220V AC. Then there is a connection from the Multiplus to the 220V AC distribution board, where shore power or inverted power (or a combination of both) is delivered to the boat's AC consumers. So, no grounding. However, our boat has another Victron box called a galvanic isolator, which is the first device that shore power passes through. you might see it referred to as an isolation transformer. I see no grounding with it either. After that, it goes to the Multiplus inverter/charger. So I think you need to study up on whether you want to install one of these - a galvanic isolator. The Victron website and in particular their discussion community will be helpful. 🙂 Regards, Rick.

Yeah looking like an isolation transformer is best way to go. Thanks for the information.

Hi Coleen. Your boyfriend is both strong and good looking but this engine will indeed rip his arm off if he gives it a chance. Getting appendages, hair or clothes caught in the works or belts is a very bad idea. Tell him Rick says he’s officially banned from trying to stop it with his hands. Might work. Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum ....Thank you for the reply. I mentioned this and he said to save me he could stop it with his bare hands because he is very determined and strong. I have no idea. He has always made me feel safe and he is trying to get me to feel safe around these engines but maybe he is a bit stronger than you imagine? We play wrestled one time and I was so shocked how much stronger a guy is than me. I was brought up to think that it was about even but now I don't think so. Way way stronger than me. But stronger than a smallish engine?

Hi Airstripper. Did you hear the dolphins talking? At 21:50 they slide under the bowsprit from starboard side to port and one of them says, ‘Move away’. Sure, it sounds like, ‘Squeakitty squeak squeak,’ to our ears, but the Delphinate dolphin translating app is amazing. It’s only one way so far but the developers are working on two way. Worth every cent. Regards, Rick.

Hi Constantine. It's Rick here, from the Sailing Snow Gum Channel. Um, ... did you post your comment to the right channel? I don't know who Dave is, but he might not see your thoughts on this subject if this is the only place you've posted them. Regards, Rick.

Thanks Rick! Your video must have started after the one I was trying to comment on and my comments got misplaced. I had watched your video when checking out aluminum boats and found it very informative. Thank you for your channel and for being so polite and letting me know!

@@constantinealexandrakis Hi Constantine. It's always a pleasure to talk with people who watch our videos. I'm glad you got some value from this one and perhaps some of the others. We enjoyed making them. Regards, Rick. 🙂

G’day Lord. Thanks for your kind words. We stopped uploading videos because we stopped being owners of the boat.🙂We handed over the keys a couple of weeks after this last video. As you can imagine, we learnt a lot about the Garcia Exploration 45. It’s a design that’s packed with useful features for the long distance, cruising sailor. It has many good points and a few not so good points, but that could be said of any boat I think. Let me know if you have any questions that we haven’t already covered in our videos. Regards, Rick.

Hi Paul. No, there wasn’t a way to use a phone or tablet as an extra display with this Scheiber system. However, it was easy to include an additional display/control panel within the network. Some owners have a second display mounted at the companionway, for easy access from the cockpit. You’re probably aware that some other systems on board this and other boats can be accessed via a linked phone or tablet. Our B&G Zeus3S chartplotters allowed our devices to connect and we used this capability a lot, eg, for watchkeeping and for monitoring our anchor swing patterns in rough weather, from bed. One thought I’ve mentioned before - this Scheiber control panel is not one that you’ll routinely be using, after it has been set up the way you want it. There’s a lot of interaction at first while you’re learning and programming, but after that the activity settles down and it gets touched less and less. This reducing level of use helps cope with the fact that it’s not a good screen to look at. Overall, it’s a good system, once you get the hang of it. The user instructions are ridiculously brief, but this adds to the sense of achievement when you do figure out how to make adjustments. 🙂 Regards, Rick.

@@SailingSnowGum thanks Rick! We cracked (won’t take touch I put now) ours and we’re looking at alternate ways to access the fuel/water levels.

@@scuman01 On this, a thought is to see if any other monitoring panels you have installed have the capacity to display tank or voltage levels. At one point we were using our Victron Cerbo controller and it’s Touch 50 display to show the third fuel tank’s level. We switched this around with the black water tank a few times, for testing glitches. It’s handy to have different ways to display values of sensors. 🙂

Hi Coleen. No, the rudders do not contact the 'ground' when drying out. You might be thinking of a Bestavaer Pure 45, with the centreboard option, where the twin rudders are part of the tripod that takes the ground. But if the mud is really soft, one of them can spear down into it, putting the boat on an angle. With the Garcias and Boreals, the underside of the fore and central part of the hull is flat and supports the boat well, on sand or mud. As you can see in the video, we chose a beach with a nice slope, so the deck and sole inside would be flat after driving onto the beach. That was fun and I wish I'd had the drone in the air to film the approach. We planned it meticulously, but it was really easy and low stress in the end. Getting off the beach was super easy. We didn't even need the engine. The tide lifted the boat off the sand imperceptibly, then a gentle wind blew us out to an ideal spot to drop the anchor. It was a great day. And a funny one. Every person on the beach stopped by for a chat, not knowing that every person before them had done the same. I started giving them scrapers to help clean the hull. Some of the kids thought nothing of being boat slaves for a few minutes. 🙂