On A New Tack

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Everything you need to know to transit the Panama Canal

Canal Transiting Info Terms: Captain : The person that will be at the helm as the boat transits the canal. For boats under 65', this can be you. For boats 65' and over, there will be a Canal Authority Pilot that will in control of the vessel as you transit. Agent : Is a paid liaison between you and the Canal Authority. They cost non-trivial money (~$500), but they make the process literally easy. Advisor : A Canal Authority employee that will be on your boat while you are moving in the canal. They will tell you where to go, and at what speed. Line Handlers : You will need 4. They can be friends/volunteers, they can be paid, or it can be a combination of both. We hade three amateurs (Sue being one of them) and we hired one professional. Locking : The process of going up or down a lock. Basic Steps and Preparing Contact a Canal Transit Agent , well before your transit. While you can do the process on your own, we felt the expense for our agent was extre...

Victron Isolation Transformer - How to lower the output voltage

Re-configuring a Victron Energy isolation transformer This is a companion article to a YouTube video covering the same topic. What are they and why do I need one? Victron Energy isolation transformers are often used on boats that connect to shore power in order to provide a means of providing isolation between the shore power and the AC power that exists on the boat. The transformer sits in between those two worlds and isolates that two power supplies through magnetic flux and an air-gap. The reason this is needed on a marine vessel is because without it, small leakage currents can flow between the earth ground for shore power and the "earth ground" connection on the boat, which is usually connected to water through a propeller shaft, out-drive, sail-drive or sacrificial zincs. That creates a loop and that small leakage current greatly accelerates any galvanic corrosion that naturally happens. Current flows through the water because of the salt content, or even in fresh-wat...

Vision 444 - How to (hopefully never have to) use a Storm Sail

How to use the Storm Sail on a Vision 444 My fellow Visionary Pierre on Umbono reached out recently wanting to review the steps for deploying the Storm Sail, since he was forecasted to be in less-than ideal sailing conditions in the next day. What better opportunity to write a blog article! This is going out quickly to support Pierre, but I will come back and add pictures and maybe link a video later. Preparation Keep the Storm Sail and everything you need for it somewhere where it is easy to get. We keep ours in the large lazarette under the Cockpit table seating. If you think you might need the Storm Sail, you probably should have the jacklines put out too. The system we use to deploy the Storm Sail reduces the time we need to be forward, but wearing a life vest with harness and being clipped into the lazy jacks is the way to go here. Our Storm sail is in it's own bag with the following: A port sheet attached to the clew with a bowline A starboard sheet attached to the cle...

A better fresh water pump!

How to revive a failing water pump (and make it better!) This is a companion blog article to a YouTube video we did on the same topic. Disclaimer: You must be electrically and mechanically competent to complete these repairs/upgrades. If you are unsure of any step, stop and get professional assistance. You can always reach out to me and I will try my best to help. Our Vision 444 ES catamaran uses two freshwater pumps, one in each hull. Each one is a 24V diaphragm pump made by Pentair. Don't worry, the same steps apply to 12V pumps. We have one in each hull, but we also have crossover valves, which when we open, allows one pump to pressurize the water on both sides. We normally operate them this way so that we drain water from one tank, then we can switch which pump is powered up and pull from the other tank. About a year after we launched, the port side pump started acting up. It would sputter and get sporadic in running as it got close to the cut-off...

Raising the dinghy, easier!

The Davit System The Vision 444 comes with a Carbon Fiber Davit system that is used to hoist a dinghy. As time has gone on, some of the exact specifics of the davit system have evolved and changed slightly, but for our boat (Hull #11) and the ones near to it, this is how it operates. Two Main Steps First, after attaching the dinghy to a forward and aft attachment line, the davit arms are raised; pivoting on axles which mount the davit to the transom of the boat. This step is accomplished by attaching a line which runs through several blocks to the starboard, aft power winch. Pressing "2" (low speed) on the winch power buttons and raising the davit into its full upright position, where it can be lashed to the boat with Dyneema loops. Second, is to raise the dinghy to be close under the horizontal beams of the davit arms. The dinghy attachment lines, that are attached to the dinghy's bridle, run up through a fixed block at the end of the davit arms and then t...

Automagic Anchor Chain Washdown

A Clean Anchor Chain? Okay, so why would you want a clean anchor chain? Two reasons, really. First, if it's muddy, we really don't want all that muck getting in the anchor locker, and second, it's no so much clean, the goal is really to have no salt residue left on the chain. Chain is zinc galvanized, so it is corrosion resistant, but there is only so much zinc on the steel chain, so the less work that zinc galvanization has to do to protect the underlying steel, the longer it will last! Manual Cleaning Up until now, we have been able to use a fresh-water hose and multi-position sprayer set to mist, which I would lock into "On" and then position the sprayer so that it would spray down through our bridle access opening to rinse the chain on the way up. When you are in sandy anchoring spots, that is pretty much all you need; just enough to get the saltwater off. Now, there have been times where we anchored in thick mud (the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA and Cocori...