Everything is working!

So far, and though admittedly we haven't gone very far or been in anything particularly rough, I have to say I am very happy how well all the systems are working on the boat. Of course, most of it is brand new, but in a way this has been the shakedown for a lot of it, and it's performed perfectly.

Getting the radar installed was a pain but it paid off on day one, as we likely would not have been able to even leave Port Hadlock without it in the fog. We dodged a number of boats and ships we wouldn't have been able to see under normal circumstances.

The integration with the chartplotter, overlaying the radar picture on the chart, is also invaluable for confirming position and visualizing the situation. The chartplotter itself is something else we wouldn't have been able to do without, as we have a small gap in our charts between Point Roberts and Vancouver. Picking our way along the edge of Robert's Bank and through the forest of nav buoys off the Fraser River (with its heavy commercial traffic and currents) with just the depthsounder and our Mark I eyeballs would have been a real drag, especially under sail.

And having the autopilot to do the driving has been a lifesaver as well. This coming from two people who spent two years hand-steering everywhere... letting the machine drive is infinitely preferable. While we still have to have one of us on deck all the time and keeping a lookout (especially in these waters, near major West Coast harbors and full of deadheads and small craft), the AP allows that person to stay forward in the shelter of the dodger instead of in the weather at the wheel, and allows them to spend more time navigating, looking around, and performing other small tasks (pee breaks!) that otherwise would require another set of hands at the wheel. This reduces fatigue considerably. I can't imagine our 16 hour day yesterday if we had had to hand-steer the whole way.

I even got our solar panel jury rigged yesterday when it was sunny and monitored it putting a charge on the batteries (we were running down a little with heavy radar use from the day before).

Right now the only real drag is our diesel heater; it runs for like an hour then the fuel flow cuts out. While it's possible to heat the cabin somewhat like that, we have to partially disassemble it to get it going again every time, which is a problem when underway--you don't want your head down, below decks, sniffing kerosene while rolling around in chop. I need to call the manufacturer while we're in port today and see if they can give us any pointers. I've cleaned the thing, checked the fuel flow, and everything else I can think of but it's not obvious why it isn't working when I take it apart; it just starts working again after I do.

On the whole, I'm quite happy with things, though, and have an extra degree of confidence going forward that the boat is working as it ought to be.

Autopilot Problems

Our S1 Wheelpilot autopilot went on the fritz on the way up from Seattle to Port Hadlock, as noted here previously. The compass wouldn't track as the boat heading changed, an issue which manifested itself in gradual course changes off the designated heading, followed by sudden corrections in the wrong direction at odd times. It wasn't a big deal to hand steer and we had other things going on so I didn't mess with it on that leg of the trip, but I decided to look at it Friday morning as we were taking the boat over to Port Townsend for the haul-out. I had checked Raymarine's support website before we left, and found an advanced diagnostic for the sort of issues we were having.

I pulled out the multi-meter and checked the wire pairs for the impedance values specified in the diagnostic document, and sure enough, on one of them the measurement was four ohms above tolerance--probably a short. I re-swung the compass anyway, just to give it a shot, but when we tried the AP on the way to the boat yard it had the same issues.

I called Raymarine tech support while we were waiting for the lift. The guy listened to my explanation and the results, then told me to take the compass itself apart and measure the impedance values internally; if they were still high, the compass was probably bad and should be returned, otherwise it was a wiring problem.

So I took the compass head apart and measured the values on the wire pair again and got a reading not described anywhere or by anyone. I called Raymarine back, got another tech who told me the values were whacky and I should probably send the thing back in. This was not exactly music to my ears, since their turnaround time probably wouldn't get us the component back before we were due to leave. I had absolutely no excitement about hand-steering both ways to Alaska and back (Mandy didn't seem to mind, though... I think she hasn't had to do it enough).

But I thought about it a bit after I hung up with the tech, and the readings started to make sense--they were lower than the spec, but that made sense because I was measuring inside the compass, not across the wire. So for the heck of it, I went back and measured at the wire ends to the computer again... and the value now was dead-on what it was supposed to be.

All I had done was take apart the compass head, but apparently that did it. I'm still a little worried there is a short in it somewhere but it will be hard to tell unless it has problems again. After we got it back in the water and headed back to Hadlock, I tried it again. On the first try, it gave me the disturbing message "NO RUDDER" but I was pretty sure that I did have a rudder, since we were able to steer and all. I was worried the rudder sensor had somehow been damaged, but then realized it was more likely that I had disturbed the sensor wiring at the computer when I was messing around with the compass wires. I cycled the system off, checked the connections, turned it back on and got a good AUTO function when I tried it next. After that, it held a course all the way down the bay, no problem.

On the ball in Hadlock

Well, we made it to Port Hadlock in one piece after a couple of rather trying days. The boat is on the bouy out in front of my folk's place; Port Townsend is the hill across the bay, and the crane at center right is Naval Magazine Indian Island. There's a designated foul weather explosives anchorage just off the piers there... there are frequent jokes in the family about the likelihood of being on the receiving end of various terrorist and/or missile threats as a result, but in fact the base is a pretty sleepy place.

We had a heck of a time getting out of the marina on Tuesday. I replaced both our fuel filters, bled the engine, and started it up to warm up... whereupon it promptly quit after about two minutes. I bled it again, blew out the injectors, checked the fuel flow, etc, etc, to no effect. Finally, Bobby, one of our helpful neighbors (and former diesel mechanic), came over and took a look. He said it looked like air in the lines to him, so we kept cranking and bleeding, and sure enough, it fired up eventually. It bothers me that I can't always tell what the problem is. Marine diesels are simple things, but after bleeding it and changing the filters multiple times (expensive filters!) I would have sworn that it was something other than air in the system. But Bobby immediately ruled out compression problems just by listening, and bled it out differently that I had, and that took care of it. One more technique for the toolbox, I guess.

I got a lot more intimate with the engine after we tied up at Shilshole for the night. While Mandy went to work, I went into preventive maintenance mode, changing the transmission fluid out, replacing the engine zincs, and replacing the impeller. The zincs and impeller were all in bad shape, so I'm glad I got to them. I had a whole other list of things to do but ran out of time... maybe this weekend.

I was a little sad to leave Lake Union for probably the last time; Commercial Marina is conveniently located and chock full of friendly people and knowledgeable sailors. We've learned a lot from them and have always felt safe with the boat there. We're on the list for a slip at Shilshole, though, and hopefully it will be open by the time we get back (was supposed to be open in March! popular place). We're sick of having to get through two bridges and the locks every time we want to sail someplace, though. I have always waved at the bridge tenders as we've gone through before, on the theory that they would be more inclined to open fast for us the next time if we were friendly; this time, the last time, I had to suppress and impulse to flip them all off as we passed by. Bridge tenders in Seattle have been a mixed bag; Fremont is usually friendly and fast, Ballard slow and obnoxious, and the railroad bridge... well, they are a bit of a mystery there. Anyway, I'm happy to be done with them, and the locks as well. I don't mind locking through so much, but in the summer it's a drag, and it's always fraught with potential for problems--odd currents, other boats in close proximity, and a lot of eyes on you increase tension considerably.

After all that, we had quite a nice sail up to Port Hadlock. We had south and east winds the whole way and a nice ebb tide to ride and made good time--about eight hours. The autopilot went goofy on us after about the first hour--I think the fluxgate compass needs to be recalibrated, or the connections are loose, or it's shot--but steering was easy in 5-10 knot winds. During the last reach south of Marrowstone Island, the wind kicked up to about 20-25 knots and we almost got to make the rare passage of the Port Townsend canal under sail. Rare because you need a brisk wind out of the north or south, a favorable turn of the tide, and some luck to have room to manuever. The channel is narrow and the currents strong, but we had a good strong southerly behind us and had a shot. The current, however, was such that we made it about to the south breakwater and ended up basically stalled out--our five knots under main alone (I had furled the genoa as it was just being masked anyway) held us about steady in the channel, but couldn't put us under the bridge. We fell off, dropped the main, and motored through as usual. Maybe next time.

Outfitting - Autopilot

We actually installed this some months ago, but a spate of recent posts on HunterOwners.com has convinced me there aren't enough step by step install guides for either this autopilot or these boats, so I'm putting this up as a public service. It's not exactly a step by step guide, either, since we did it long enough ago I don't remember it all very neatly, but hopefully it fills in some gaps for someone.

Both based on pricing and in order to stay consistent across our electronics suite, we elected to purchase a Raymarine S1 Wheelpilot (I see that this has about to be superseded by the new MX-5... so goes the marine electronics industry). We wanted something that would interface seamlessly with our chartplotter and not require a terribly complicated installation and the S1 fit the bill. The Raymarine wheel pilots have received mixed reviews going back several generations, with some reports of wheel slippage, inaccuracy, excessive wear and breakage, but they are quite widespread so we decided to give it a try. Then, too, there is relatively little selection available for wheel pilots on the market. The alternatives beyond that are complex below-deck ram hydraulic units, which are overkill on a boat our size, and which are just as prone to breakage but more complicated to repair.

The Raymarine installation instructions left something to be desired. On the face of them, they look extremely comprehensive and accurate, but as you go through them you find that they seem to be missing the bits of guidance which would be most helpful (or at least helpful to someone who has never installed an autopilot before). So I started with the easy part; the Smartpilot ST 6002 module installation.

The brain of the system, this has to be positioned somewhere without excessive electro-magnetic interference (EMI), which can be difficult on a small boat. It also isn't very amenable to liquid, so it pretty much has to be somewhere in the cabin proper. As it happened I had a suitable patch of open bulkhead over the chart table, which had the added advantage of being convenient to the battery panel and fairly close to the cockpit. I slapped it up and ran the spaghetti mess of wiring right down through the table into the engine compartment and wired it up. (Ignore the wiring on the overhead there; it goes somewhere else and just hasn't been secured yet.) The little snap connectors took a little practice to jam the wires into just right; I'm still not sure I have a lot of faith in their holding power but there shouldn't be a lot of strain, either. I used an awl or screwdriver to hold them open, much easier on the fingers.

After I got the Smartpilot installed, I had to put up the fluxgate compass. This was also pretty straightforward; they want it as close as possible to midships and centerline (you know, every piece of electronic equipment seems to want to be there--boat builders should just center a massive server rack or something in the middle of the cabin for all this junk [except then that would violate the other ubiquitous stricture to not place any of it anywhere near any other of it... easy enough to follow if you are installing things on the Queen Mary, I suppose]). I found a nice spot forward of the head and snaked the wire down and around to the corepack without any issue.

The actual wheel and motor weren't terrible to install, either. The wheel clamps on to the spokes of your existing wheel and the motor fits into a slot on the back of it. The only iffy bit is mounting the motor bracket properly on the binnacle. You can see it in the photo at right (covered in a plastic baggy, starboard side of the binnacle just where it curves inward). I let Mandy handle that part--she measure more often and more accurately. Also, I loathe the binnacle and anything to do with it.

Part of the reason I hate it is also the reason we didn't do the tidy thing and run the power cable up through it for the motor: it's jammed full as it is and absolutely inaccessible. The binnacle is an Edson and they have a good reputation but I'm not thrilled with this one. The interior layout is bizarre and unwieldy, and we had enough trouble snaking a tiny new transmission cable down it a couple years ago to warn me off even attempting to route the fat power cable through it. Also, the bottom is glassed in pretty good and clearance for the cable to come out would have been minimal (without drilling--but I like the thick glass there and don't want to go punching holes in it). Anyway, our less elegant solution is to run the power cable out the engine control panel and under the cockpit grating, and secure it on the outside of the binnacle and into the motor.

We mounted the control panel next to the engine control panel for convenience to the helm. We had to put a hole in the boat for this (horrors!) but it is a tightly sealed one and looks good (Mandy did it).

That left the rudder position sensor. This doohickey measures the rudder angle directly and allows the pilot to steer more efficiently rather than simply yanking the wheel back and forth and waiting to see what the compass winds up at. This was also the most complicated bit of the installation. The sensor is spring-loaded, so it's difficult to keep it in a neutral position while working on it. It has to be attached with a metal rod directly to the steering quadrant, so your install locations are limited to those within reach of the rod. The quadrant itself is not horizontal, but the sensor has to be in a plane with the movement range, so it has to be intentionally mounted at an angle as well. Finally, you are doing the whole thing jammed up in the narrow bit of the stern, upside down.

It's possible to mount the sensor itself upside down and calibrate for it, but that seemed complicated and fraught with potential problems. Our solution was to build a platform for the thing and attach it to an L-shaped bracket mounted to the underside of the deck. Here are the results:

The angles are all correct and everything is hooked up right, but only after a lot of measuring (by Mandy) and swearing (by me). Recently, I ran across a number of other photos of sensor installations and by far the most common way of doing it is to glass a platform to the hull and build a post or something up to rest the sensor on. This allows a much simpler platform for fiddling with angles, attaching the rod, etc, etc, and is probably the way to go. You'll notice from the photo that we simply used wood rather than starboard or metal for the mount, and this is why: I'm always considering how to install things in a way which will leave my options open to reinstalling things differently. None of the wiring got cut, we didn't thru-bolt or glue in anything, it's all sturdy enough but still easily disassembled. I figure I can go back and glass it up, rebuild it with starboard, whatever; but I want to give it a trial run before I make it permanent. So we may redo it with the hull-mounted platform. Then again, maybe not--I like having the space beneath it available to shove stuff in. We'll see how it goes.

After all that, we took the boat out on the Sound to commission it (not a lot of swinging room on Lake Union, certainly not uninterrupted). For some reason, perhaps as a private joke, Raymarine insists you circle the boat in 360s for long periods of time as part of the commissioning process. You do this until the autopilot tells you to stop. My impression is that it does so only after it has had a good laugh at your expense and senses that you are about to give up, because it gave me the nod bare seconds before I was going to pack it in anyway.

After all that, I incorrectly specified that it was calibrated on a true heading rather than magnetic. As it happened, this hasn't made much difference since I just plug in the adjusted value, and the pilot shows a "T" after it and the chartplotter an "M" but as long as the number is the same they are both happy. I imagine that happy state of affairs won't continue once we start to change declinations, however, so I'll have to re-calibrate it again before we go.

So far it has worked great, but we have yet to have it out and on while under sail, which is probably the real test. We'll have to be much better about balancing the boat properly. Under power, however, it's terrific. Holds a good course, doesn't use much juice or make excessive corrections, and has an excellent interface with the chartplotter. Indeed, we can simply set up camp under the dodger and give commands to the autopilot from there, without ever having to touch the pilot control panel. It follows waypoints or headings as you request.