Category: Maintenance

Mold in the V-Berth

by Jenay Hansen, posted in Maintenance, Sailing

Sailing Forum Answers20161104_151343

So…mold. Biggest problem so far to solve. There is carpeting around my v berth and the whole sides of the boat. Its time to deal with the condensation problem. Its moved beyond just the carpeting and the moisture trapped behind it but also anything metal is dripping with water.

20161104_131019  I have to strip out all the carpeting to make sure that mold dont build under it. The next step would be finding a way to insulate the boat besides new carpeting because that seems like a dangerous temporary solution that has gone on too long. So I have two different options I am considering besides just getting a good dehumidifier which I am already doing.

One: Use a marine safe foam=Armaflex. Pros- comes in self adhesive/ easy to install strips. So this would be super easy to mold to the curvature of the boat walls and ceilings. Mold-proof, made for marine boats, flame retardant, lasts a long time, help keep boat warm and cold in different climates… All and all a great option. Cons- Super expensive….

Two: Insulate like a house. Reflectix with spacing between the different layers, fiberglass sheet over that then wooden battens over that. I would be gluing the battens on not drilling holes into my boat. Pros- would look beautiful to have wooden battens lining my v berth. Insulates well if i can install it all right. Cheap. Cons- need to install everything right with just the right spacing between each layer of insulation or it doesnt work. Cant put insulation directly on fiberglass so the layers of everything that needs to be installed will take up space which I dont have a lot of. Difficult to form all the wooden battens to the ceiling. Make sure everything is glued well so I dont get a batten falling on my face as I sleep. Wont know if mold is growing under all the insulation…

So the obvious best solution is the armaflex… But they only sell it in bulk! I would have to buy $1500 worth of it!

Ugh… what to do…

First thing first is stripping out the carpet and cleaning the fiberglass underneath. Here is what it looks like after I stripped one piece

Posted in the sailing forum hoping for ideas:

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/269481-mold-my-v-berth-carpeting-new-post.html

Boiling Batteries!

by Jenay Hansen, posted in Maintenance, Marine Electric, Sailing

Ever heard your sailboat batteries start to boil? Well I did! I have two 26 Group Batteries on my boat. Both were hooked up to what my friend likes to call a ‘Battery Maintainer’. It is a solar panel that has a slight trickle recharge to my batteries throughout the day. I have been living aboard the boat on and off the last month and have now unintentionally drained my batteries. I found this out after trying to start my engine with no success. Apparently you are supposed to have one battery for your engine and then your house batteries separate but this was not how my boat was set up. So the ‘battery maintainer’ wasn’t charging my batteries well enough. Even though I was only using it for my cabin lights (cabin lights aren’t LEDs yet).

So after realizing that they weren’t charging I went and bought a battery charger or battery converter. Something I didn’t realize or understand is that even though you are plugged into the dock your dock power comes in 110 volts and your batteries are 12 volts. You battery cant use that energy unless you get a battery converter. Battery converter is needed if you want to make 110v into 12v. Not to be confused with a battery inverter which does the opposite. It turns 12v into 110v. All this has come from lots of reading and asking questions. 20160927_203340

After buying the battery converter I then wired it to both my batteries and plugged it into my 110 outlet which is where I would get the 110v to charge my batteries. It lasted about a 20 minutes, my cabin lights were incredibly bright, and everything was working well except for a boiling sound coming from my batteries. That was my ‘oh sh*t’ moment. Obviously boiling batteries are not ideal and even my untrained mind knew that was a bad sign.

I unplugged the charger and the cabin lights worked for a small period of time and then went out. The power wasn’t sticking! Now I take a second glance at my batteries… They were from Costco and were car batteries…Ugh so next step for me in this process was new MARINE batteries. I bought two new batteries from Fisheries Supply in Ballard, rewired the batteries to the charger and turned the converter on. Success! To be honest it was worth it to just have new batteries anyways I don’t know the last time they were replaced and now I know they are good quality. I have learned a lot from the experience and hope if anyone else has similar problems this will help!20160927_203423