Hi Chris,

Congratulations on getting Mabel's Casse Tete under sail.  Your maiden voyage appears to have been quite an epic.  I was glad to hear you got your engine running again and that the problem was a relatively minor one.

When I bought my 43 (Firebrand II, ex Circe, 43/041) just over 12 months ago, she had a Perkins 4-108.  Unfortunately, the engine was not in good shape.  The boat had been partially submerged at some stage and the engine was hard to start, smoky, noisy, leaked oil and fuel and, despite new injectors and a fair bit of work, lacked power.  The engine was going to need a lot of work before I could have any confidence in it, so I ended up replacing it.

Good to hear you are underway again.  I still have a lot of work to do and am not up to the stage of venturing more than an hour or so from the marina as yet.

Good luck with it
Andrew   Firebrand II (43/041) 

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for the note and the kind words. 

Yes, despite the fact that we are sailors with exceptionally good sailing boats, there are many times when a good engine is our best friend!  What type did you install?  

My 4.108 has low hours, a new injection pump and injectors...but, as I found out on my trip up to Delaware City after the mechanic fixed my fuel problem, the exhaust system needs an overhaul!

Very exciting second half of the trip...just outside of the Sassafras river, my son Alex asked if we could sail(gotta love that).  Of course, as soon as we heeled over, he saw that the bilge was completely filled and began pumping!

Three leaks, including a crushed waterlock muffler exhaust port, had been pumping many gallons of water into the bilge.  We limped into port, but, believe me, it was no fun!

Good luck with your boat!

Chris

Chris:
You have to be very careful with the exhaust system. Originally there was a 6 inch dia muffler made from 316L and a waterjacketed pipe leading up to it. That system is foolproof. When you have a waterlift muffler it can flood and many engines have been ruined by it. Even new engines are not immune and the suppier will usually tell you that it was an installation error. Waterlift mufflers depend on a running engine to pump the water out: Sometimes, when the engine justs cranks but does not start, the waterlift floods and seawater backs up into the engine. Same thing can happen if under sail when the installation is marginal. Please be aware of these problem areas. Vetus has good instructions and you must find out where your water level is with respect to the engine and muffler. Your static water level and the water level when you are heeled and going fast. Beware!

Hi Peter,

I have been reading a lot and, of course, corresponding with the Professor.  He is, as always, incredibly helpful! 

Would you like to have a chat; perhaps this week?    I am sure I still have your number.  If you have mine, please feel free to call me anytime.

Chris 

Hi Chris,

Wow, your Maiden Voyage sounds like it turned into a nightmare; a lot more excitement than I would want.

I ended up fitting a 40 hp Volvo D2-40.  I have been led to understand that this is a Volvo badged Perkins built in Japan.  It's smaller and lighter than the old Perkins, has adequate power for my needs and, with pitch settings provided by Lars, is well matched to a Max-Prop.  Most importantly, it starts first time everytime and is quieter and smoother than the old Perkins, although to be fair, the old engine was not a good example to compare with. 

Good luck with the leaks and the exhaust.  I'll look forward to hearing of a less eventful second voyage.

Andrew, Firebrand II (43/041) 

Hello Chris,

Some comments on the Mac vs. PC: The mac is superior without a doubt. It is stable, secure; it has an excellent graphics and a friendly interface. I use to work PCs on my boat before but I got tired of all the stupid configurations problems "invented" by Bill Gates, especially on the infamous Vista. So I changed to the MAC. I have been so problem free since that I would never consider any PC whatsoever; and believe me, I am a heavy user!
So, as to using the charts software in the MAC, yes, you can do that. The MAC has the so-called BOOTCAMP through with you actually can divide the partition of your hard disk in two portions: one for the Mac software and programs and one for any Windows based application. So, you can actually load Windows (I recommend version 7 and not Vista) on the second half of your partition. Then, you can load any Windows based software there including the chart software. In this very manner I run MAXSEA on my Mac and it works like a dream! So, go ahead and bring your beautiful Mac air on board.
AS to the Raster vs. Vector charts, well, the Raster are simply a copy of the paper charts whilst the Vector are mathematically build with layers of information. It means that you can choose to reduce the numbers of layers depending on what you want to see in terms of information on your chart. There are advantages and disadvantages with both. Personally, I prefer the raster format because they are the exact representation of the paper charts.

Cheers//Philippe
(Farouche 47/50)

Here are three pics: The first showing the Mac booting and giving the choice of two operating systems. The second showing the Mac displaying the Windows 7 page with the software Maxsea on the left hand corner. The third pic shows a raster example. Details on the chart can increase as you zoom in.

Hello Chris,

Some comments on the Mac vs. PC: The mac is superior without a doubt. It is stable, secure; it has an excellent graphics and a friendly interface. I use to work PCs on my boat before but I got tired of all the stupid configurations problems "invented" by Bill Gates, especially on the infamous Vista. So I changed to the MAC. I have been so problem free since that I would never consider any PC whatsoever; and believe me, I am a heavy user!
So, as to using the charts software in the MAC, yes, you can do that. The MAC has the so-called BOOTCAMP through with you actually can divide the partition of your hard disk in two portions: one for the Mac software and programs and one for any Windows based application. So, you can actually load Windows (I recommend version 7 and not Vista) on the second half of your partition. Then, you can load any Windows based software there including the chart software. In this very manner I run MAXSEA on my Mac and it works like a dream! So, go ahead and bring your beautiful Mac air on board.
AS to the Raster vs. Vector charts, well, the Raster are simply a copy of the paper charts whilst the Vector are mathematically build with layers of information. It means that you can choose to reduce the numbers of layers depending on what you want to see in terms of information on your chart. There are advantages and disadvantages with both. Personally, I prefer the raster format because they are the exact representation of the paper charts.

Cheers//Philippe
(Farouche 47/50)

Here are three pics: The first showing the Mac booting and giving the choice of two operating systems. The second showing the Mac displaying the Windows 7 page with the software Maxsea on the left hand corner. The third pic shows a raster example. Details on the chart can increase as you zoom in.

Dear Philippe,

Vista was a disaster!  We have switched to windows 7.  I agree that Microsoft software, in general, is driven more by marketing hype than by actual performance.  And both of my sons would agree that Mac is superior.  Having said all that, I run a business that is data intensive and we use SQL Server 2008 and all the other operating systems are 7.  I don't see switching out for MAC.

With regard to the software and laptop, I am happy with the performance of windows 7 and the open source code I use - the real problem is that I cannot read the screen in direct sunlight.  That makes it virtually useless. 

My son's Apple doesn't seem to have a brighter screen - that's what I really need.  How is yours?  Can you read the charts in the daylight in the cockpit?

Thanks for replying.

Chris Mabel's Casse Tete/43/003

Dear Philippe,

Dear Chris,

The point that raise about the readability of the screens of the computers in the cockpit is tough one. Alas, I must say that even the excellent Mac does have a shortcoming in this respect. For my part, I use the Mac on the Nav table only. In the cockpit, I have a chart plotter Lowrance. Its readability is more than excellent. At the end of the day, I then have two independent systems - perhaps a little laborious but very convenient: the Mac with Maxsea on the nav. table and the Lowrance with Navionics in the cockpit.

Cheers// Philippe

(Farouche 47/050)