She's finally home!! Rickk's 230

[RickK]

I will talk with my canvas guy about the bimini being continuous when I get it done this spring.

I think you'll like it like that but make sure you spend 30-60 minutes talking to the guy, bouncing ideas off him to make it work for the way you fish and relax.  Don't be afraid to voice your ideas - may be something he never thought of.

[JimCt]

Anything new?  Taken any trips or over-nighters? Would like to see some pictures of her in the water

[RickK]

Nothing besides a couple hour cruise/hang out/fishing last weekend - the biminis were a blessing as the sun was brutal that day.  This weekend we were going to go out but the wind is 20+ gusts after sunrise and all day :cry: .
We are going up to where the get-together will be, on Easter weekend, for a dry-run campout for the weekend.  Will be the first campout on the boat and I can't wait.
Waiting for some 150 amp CBs to arrive so I can finish the battery switches/ACR/dual bank charger system- like the one Wart did.  Layed it all out on a 15x15 peice of 3/4" plywood.  5200'd 4 - 3" sq blocks of plywood to the inside of the hull, back where the batteries are, yesterday.  Will pull the braces off this morning and check them out.  Then I'm going to coat them in resin to protect them - figured I'd do this last to allow the 5200 to get a good grip on raw wood.  The 15x15 board weighs maybe 10 pounds, so I need some solid areas to screw this board to.  Then I'll remove the A+B switch that the previous owner bolted through the side of the hull    and screw on /connect the new system.

[JimCt]

I'd forgotten about those bolts through the hull for the switch...  Please shoot some pictures of the system as you put it together.

[RickK]

I guesstimated the weight of the board with components a little light, I think.  Seems the board probably weighs closer to 20lbs with the dual bank charger included and I don't think 5200 will support that much weight vertically, even if it is spread over 4 - 3x3 blocks. I'm going to put a bottom brace/support that will go to the bottom of the hull sidewall in that area to support the weight and then the blocks will only have to keep the board tight to the hull.
After writing the post this morning I went to work on the boat, got another of the pumps working - the raw water washdown - seems one half of a double pole-single throw switch went bad AND while trying to figure out the wiring found that one end of the wire was labelled #21 while the other was #14.   Both wire tags looked original.
Bought the BBQ I needed for the boat last weekend, started to assemble it yesterday and got to the part where it told me to verify the spark - nothing, go figure.  Called Boater's World, they told me to bring it back in, which I did today and verified that the spark was working on the new one while I was still in the store.  I guess sometimes it is worth paying a little more for an item knowing that you can walk back in with a problem and they'll fix it while you stand there - no fuss, no muss.  Sure beats having to box it back up and ship it back to the vendor
The next thing I need to figure out is a fresh water source.  I think I'm going to try to fit some kind of tank behind the fish well in the bilge area of the boat.


Should be able to get a 50 gallon"ish" tank back in there somehow.  Gonna need some fresh water to live comfortably on the boat for a few days - you know, showers, coffee, wash dishes, brush teeth, water for the dog, raw water to clean the boat - fresh to rinse it. Will go fast - a few days worth only.

[JimCt]

Can you use that empty well as the tank itself?

[RickK]

After tossing it around with Dave, I'm starting to think that pulling the fishwell out totally and dropping a square fresh water tank in there, is the way to go.  Just need to figure out how to brace it from sliding around. Seems after a quick search, I can get a 55 gal poly tank for around $160 on average.  Just need to get the measurements of the bilge area and then find a square tank.  I'm gonna try to get the measurements tonight.
If I design it right, I can take it out and put the fishwell back in if I need to.

[RickK]

I need to call on the team here - My bilge area is 28.5Wx25Lx16H max and would like to put a rectangular poly water tank in there.
I've been surfing and found one here and it is about the closest I can find.  There is no room to fudge anything larger either.
Can you guys check your favorite sources and see if you can come up with anything better please?


The bilge is wider at the top on 3 sides and I guess I could foam it in on those 3 sides - the toughest thing I can see is to brace it in from the rear so it doesn't break free on takeoff and wipe out my thru hulls in the back   I may even be able to strap it around to the front and anchor it there. Just don't want to even think about 300+lbs sliding to the rear at ......

[JimCt]

I hunted around some but that tank you found looks pretty close to your dimensions and they offer installation  of the fittings where you want them.  Securing it shouldn't be a problem with some heavy web strapping.  You could glass in some 1" battens to receive the tank base then strap it down.  Whatever you put in should be easily removable so you can access the thru hulls & etc. that's in there.

[RickK]

I have just about completed the battery control board for this boat.
First of all I want to mention that it was instigated by Wart and it made sense to me to do since I want to use this boat for camping and need to protect the starting battery.  Thanks for the inspiration Wart.

I've mentioned that I only had about a 16" sq area to work with, so that being said I needed to make it tidy and useful and this is what I came up with on a 15x15 board:
To keep everything close I realized I couldn't use wire - no way.  Close connections are impossible due to the bend limitations of heavy wire. I decided to use 1/8" aluminum pieces to connect what I could, to keep everything within the constraints of the board size.
Here is the house, the "combine" and the starting switches connected - from the back....


and the front (hey I can still see my feet   - BTW those are Floridian snow shoes I'm wearing)


Here is the Blue Seas ACR with required 150 amp CBs (or slow blows which I couldn't find) attached:


Then I resin coated the board and the 4 mounting 3x3s in the boat - after cure, I then gelcoated the board and the 3x3s.  Here is what I came up with:

To explain it; from the top left, I have the ACR with required CBs attached.  
The switches below control the batteries. From the left: house sw with the 30amp cb on the output, combine sw, starting sw.
The connection stud to the left is for the house battery "IN", the connection stud to the right is for the starting battery (engine) "OUT".  I am going to buy another stud tomorrow for the starting battery "IN" connection, which will be mounted right above the charger.  I could connect the starting battery directly to the the left side of the right sw but figure it would be easier in the long run to have a separate connection so I don't have to lift the switches from the board if I need to disconnect anything.
Bottom right is a dual bank 12V charger.
Tomorrow I will get it installed in the boat.  I'll predrill a hole in each corner and screw this board to the 3x3s already mounted on the boat. One more "Check" on the list.
PS: For all you sharp guys; Yes, I'll have to remove the charger to do that.

[JimCt]

Looks good Rick!  Nice thing about your layout is it's easy follow exactly what's going on.  Another example for my reference scrapbook for when my project gets wired.

Did you fabricate the aluminum busses or are they commercially available?  Do you put a conformal coating on the connections to protect against corrosion?

[RickK]

Looks good Rick!  Nice thing about your layout is it's easy follow exactly what's going on.  Another example for my reference scrapbook for when my project gets wired.

Thanks, it took a few tries at the layout to get it where it made sense.  It also took a few tries, using wire, to find out wire was not the answer.  That's when I came up with the aluminum bar approach.

Did you fabricate the aluminum busses or are they commercially available?

Fabricated them from some 1/8" stock I had.

Do you put a conformal coating on the connections to protect against corrosion?

Since JJ works around some HEAVY DUTY voltages in his line of work, I ran my design past him after I made and installed the bars.  He told me that I should get some of this to coat the connections. He also told me the terminals are tinned brass and that brass and aluminum don't like each other.  This will help protect the aluminum. I'll pick some up while I'm out today, coat everything and then install it permanent.

[RickK]

I pulled the batteries, put the support board in and then mounted the battery control board - sure looked nice in there
Next was to get the batteries back in and then wire it up - the support board is 3/4" thick and it was slid behind the main bundle of wires coming down the side of the boat.
After about a half hour and many different tries, I found out that the batteries will not fit back in because the wires are sticking out too far now :cry:
So I had to pull the support board back out - sure hope that 5200 on the back of the 3x3 backer boards holds it up - it "set" for a week before anything was attached to it.

[JimCt]

Were you finally able to get the batteries in OK?  Is there room for tie-down strapping? 5200 will be holding long after the both of us are gone.

[John Jones]

If both surfaces were clean it should hold.