I need your help please

We are off cruising now for the next two years. Projects on my boat have started to come to an end. I'm hoping that some of you out there will contribute some of your projects to me to post here. My email address is in the header and that is the best way while out at sea.  I look forward to hearing from you and your boat project that show's your skill, thoughts, ingenuity, and generally just makes life simpler  while on board. Catch you later after a 12 day passage.

Fridge and Freezer Temperature Monitoring

We have recently changed our method (compressors and evaporator plates)  to our fridge and freezer. We wanted a reliable method to monitor the temperatures with out extra wiring. We have tried the manual thermometer, but found them less than satisfactory due to having to open up the boxes to read the temperature. We came across these wireless "indoor, outdoor temperature monitors" on ebay for a reasonable cost. This model has one LED monitor, with two sender units. It is able to monitor two temperatures at a time. We put one sensor in each box, and the LED monitor in the galley in a convenient place. They have been going two years with only one battery change. They measure about 2.75 inches square each.

Propane Tee Fitting

One thing lead to another with these boat projects. This blog is about linking three boat projects, and each one is worthy of it's own post. But for now, I'll give a precise of the  events.
Firstly, in the shower cubicle of the boat, I had a cupboard with a large 12 gallon hot water tank that I wanted to replace with a washing machine. So I set about removing the HW tank and then installing the washing machine. Because the doors were only 18 inches wide, the WM had to be disassembled to get through the door and then reassembled in-situ. This may become another blog at some time.
Now, because I had removed the HW tank and our only method of heating water, I then set about installing a califont, or probably better known as a "heat as you go, propane water heating unit". This was a unit sold in New Zealand, but I have seen similar units sold in Camping World in the USA. The igniter is powered by two "D" size batteries, and is small enough to install in boats and RV's.

I installed the unit under the aft vanity unit on a bulkhead. I have a means of varying the temperature output and have placed some blue masking tape for the shower temperature so that we don't need to use the mixer tap to get the temperature right. The ducting is 4 feet in length and vents to the bilge. Heat at the end of the 4 foot ducting is almost nil, and one can hold your hand over it easily. I saw many units installed on other boats with out the ducting to outside, and as others have said, "it's no worse than running the stove". Propane and co2 monitors are a safety measure. Now we have hot water on tap with no need to run the generator to supply power to the old HW tank.
Finally, when installing the propane califont, I had to install a propane hose to the unit. Initially, I "Teed" into the existing propane line with the one propane cut off switch to be used to supply both the califont and the stove. This however proved to be less than satisfactory, because the califont would remove some of the gas from the stove line while it was in use. This then made igniting the stove burners, a little more time consuming as we had to wait for the gas to flow back through the line to the stove.

New Brass T to Propane Tank

The solution was to use another solenoid and regulator for the new califont and "Tee" in both solenoid/regulators to that "Tee". Each solenoid has it's own on/off switch.
We also plumbed a hot water line to the aft of the boat so that we can have hot showers on the aft deck. We also think we will use less propane, than heating a kettle of hot water on the stove to do the dishes. I'll comment on that as data comes to hand.
The "T" also allows us to carry a spare propane tank to swap to when running out on the tank in use.

Cover the ugly Electric Winch

 We had a new electric winch installed as we moved to a roller furling boom. The electric winch was the same size as the old two speed, but the electrics protruded through the aft bedroom ceiling. Also, we had a ceiling light at the same location as to where the electric motor protruded through. My only choice was to make an enclosure for the electric motor and I took the time to also add a new low profile light to the cover box.

The cover box was made from Rimu, and while not matching the Cherry wood interior was close. We will have a Cherry wood one made when we can easily source the wood. You will note the angle at one of the corners on the cover box. This was placed on the cover to allow the door to the head, to swing from it's usual locked open position to the closed position. You can just see the opening door surround, to the left of the cover box. The light was placed and some strips of wood secured to the ceiling to give the cover something to screw to. For my wife and I, it is not a head banger and is no lower than the tops of the door openings. The Electric winch is a joy!

Water Anyone?

We have a commercial water maker onboard Solace, from Spectra, and are very happy with it. But for those who like to build and keep cost down, there is an excellent site detailing building your own at http://www.albin25.eu/our-a25ak-dido/34-dido-stories/60-didos-watermaker?start=2
Here is a sample with links...

Dido's Watermaker - Build your own!

Article Index
Dido's Watermaker
Fresh Water Production
Build your own!
Experiences, Operation, and Repairs
All Pages

Page 3 of 4

How to actually build your own watermaker?

In the internet you will find instructions that cover everything for about 10 USD. To my estimation you can save this money. I have put a comprehensive instruction on the link list for download, and much other material, too.  The biggest challenge will certainly be to get all the parts for reasonable prices. This will certainly cost you hours of research in the internet. I only have European suppliers on my list apart from membrane and vessel, which I ordered in the US, as this was much cheaper although shipping and customs had to be added. But this research will save you hundreds of USD.

High Pressure Vessel for Membrane

Links:

Here are the most interesting resources that I found when searching the net for our watermaker. (Should links be broken or sites be down, let me know. I have them all as PDFs also.)

http://www.sail-world.com/Cruising/DIY---The-Worlds-Cheapest-Watermaker./33568

http://www.westward-ii.com/PDF's/How%20to%20build%20your%20own%20watermaker.pdf

http://www.svdaydreamer.com/Watermaker.htm

http://www.dow.com/liquidseps/service/lm_techinfo.htm

http://www.dow.com/liquidseps/lit/techman.htm

http://rutuonline.com/html/watermaker.html

http://www.lwr.kth.se/Publikationer/PDF_Files/LWR_EX_06_08.PDF

http://captainwiki.com/images/2/2d/Watermaker-Make_Your_Own.pdf

Below is a parts list of all the parts that I needed plus prices and where I bought them (this is a German list, as I bought everything in Germany - apart from membrane and vessel).

Some elbows, hose clamps and so on may be still necessary, according to the details of your actual installation.

The item numbers in the parts list refer to the parts on the WM Scheme.pdf

>> Parts List (Excel 2007)

>> Parts List (older Excel versions)

>> WM Scheme (PDF)