Hull Yeah!

We’re making those initial upgrades that we know we need, but aren’t quite sure how much we’ll need. We can do the math, which also includes some additional costs savings (math) if we purchase more now, than later. I know, it sounds like a swindle. It’s that time of year, and adding our shipment of batteries, and a genset to an existing order costs us nothing. If we were to order the batteries ourselves, it’s about 1,000e just in shipping.

So, here’s our current thinking:

What We Need, and Where We’ll Be Cruising

Location, Location, Location

We’re staring in Cyprus, as that’s where we purchased our 2023 Excess 14. I’ll share more of the purchase details once we get this commissioning done. Our plan is to move north, as the planet pivots towards the sun. We’re not big fans of the heat, which plays an important part of this discussion. We’ll likely stay in Cyprus through the end of May , then move north/west through Turkey, Greece, and depending on the heat, we may skip up to Croatia. We may, eventually traverse to the caribean, but this would be winter season, not the heat of the summer. We’ll have plenty of heat in the Med to cope with.

What Systems We Have and What We’ll Need

As we talk systems, let’s also qualify we’re EU based, so all AC systems are 230v.

It’s also good to scope that we expect we’ll most of the time be just the two of us. We’ll occasionally have 2 guests, and rarely have 4 guests, even more rare, possibly with kids. We’ll optimize for 2 and be able to stretch goal for 6 adults, and figure out the kids on the fly.

• Cooking: Hull Yeah! came with a gas oven and stove. We may swap that out later, but not yet
• A Capaccino machine – as that’s one of things Olga looks forward to in the morning, and a kettle for hot water/tea
• A microwave/convection oven: not yet purchased, but we assume this in the energy budget
• Watermaker is 12v, so we don’t have to include that in our 230v budget
• Starlink, which runs at 12v, but isn’t very efficient. Considering I’m working remotely; this is more than a convenance and will be used near constantly.
• HVAC: this is the big kahuna. We have three systems. Two for the hulls, and one for the saloon. Looking at the Wabasto website, there‘s more details
  • The hulls are each Wabasto S10 (10,000 BTUs), which are rated at 2.6 – 4.0A when running. Yes, there’s 27a max peak at startup, but since we’re running everything through an 8k inverter, I’m told we don’t need to worry about this, much… We apparently don’t need a soft start either. (start debate), but we can add a soft start later if we need.
  • The saloon is a Wabasto S16 (16,000 BTUs), which is rated at 4.9-7.1a when running, and 54a peak startup.

HVAC

Let’s talk about HVAC, as that’s the biggest draw. Assuming worst case scenario (as in its flipping hot, and the max current draw). We assume we’ll either be in the saloon, during the day, or in the hulls during the night. There’s the occasional mid-day nap. Which means we’ll need either the saloon or the owners hull on those hot days/nights. When we have guests, we’ll have two hulls running, but not both hulls and the saloon. This means we’ll need 9ah for two hulls, or 11ah for a hull and the saloon.

I’m also told by a bunch of Excess owners, they don’t need HVAC. There’s great airflow through the saloon, and the hulls have fans and windows.

We already have HVAC, so we don’t need to decide to add it, rather how much do we need to power them, and for how long?

The Consumption Chart

System	Min	Max
HVAC	4.5	11
Oven (TBD)	?	?
Hob (TBD)	?	?
Washing machine (LG)	?	?
Microwave	?	?
Capuchino Machine	?	?
Kettle	?	?
Laptop & Monitor (need to work…)	?	?
Winches (12v), engine batteries?	?	?
3 Fridges (12v, 2 in the saloon, 1 outside, which we don’t often use)	?	?
Starlink Mini (12v)	2	3
Watermaker (12v)	?	?
Steady state/lighting (12v)	?	?
Totals	less	more

There’s a bunch of unknowns, which I’ll need to fill out. But, we gotta start somewhere. My meter is home, as I wasn’t supposed to be here, buying a boat… the purchase story, coming soon…

Storage & Recharging

Our goal is to work from storage, with as much quiet recharge as possible. We don’t want to depend on a generator, or the engines just to accmplish a specific task, beyond charging.

We currently have a Mastervolt 12v 2kw inverter, with (2) 200ah 12v batteries. This runs all the 230v systems, except the HVAC which is on its own isolated circuit.

I’m on the fence whether to keep this system, and then juggle which systems run on the small bank, and which run on the big bank. It’s not just the 12v and 24v systems, but the size of the batteries. In a perfect world, we’d eliminate these, and keep all 230v systems on the house bank. I can sell back the batteries and inverter for 1k, but hmmm. Not yet committed on this, as we have a few weeks for the install to decide.

Inverter for All

We’ll plan to run almost everything through an inverter, with 24v batteries as the primary use is running the inverter. The plan is a Victron Quatro 24/800/200-100/100 (8kw inverter @ 24v). This gives us plenty of room, without having to replace the inverter. It’s a bit more than the 5kw, but I won’t need to replace if we want more.

Batteries

The plan is minimum of (4) Victron 24v 200ah batteries, totalling 800ah

Witht the 8kw inverter, we could go to (8) 24v 200ah batteries for a total of 1600ah

The current plan is choose (6), totalling 1200ah, as it costs me no more in shipping, 4 is too small, and I’m stretching my budget for 8.

Max 6 batteries out at 80%, that’s 960ah @ 24v.

Solar

Now we get into how we’re going to recharge the batteries. The Excess 14 has 3 primary locations:

• Rear dinghy davits: I’m told it’s the most effecient as these will be thick/framed panels with minimal blockage (sorta)
• Coach roof, which has a “tub”, used for stargazing. We may make this a bit of a “garden” to keep some plants. Olga has wanted a roof garden. The main point is we’re not going to cover the tub with solar, and there will always be some blockage from the sail, or at least the boom.
• Foward deck: which can also house some solar panels. These we’ll keep in reserve, as I think we’ll have plenty from the davits and the coach roof.

Which Panels to Use

I’ve wanted to use Open Waters Solar’s panels, as they’re custom sized to avoid the patchy look, have traction on them to avoid the slipping, and flush mount, wiht the wiring underneath. They’re durable enough to cover a helipad, and not get damaged.

The challenge is we’re in Cyprus. We’ll need to get a template made, and wait for shipping. I haven’t given up on this, but it’s not looking good.

Manufacturer	Panel	Specs
Open Waters Solar	Custom Marine Solar Panel	23% Effeciency
SUNBEAMsystem	Tough+ Black Solar panels	24.4% Effeciency
Phaesun	Mare Flex 155	?
?	360w 24v mono	?

The Proposed Plan

This is the discussion for tomorrow:

Location	Qnty	Panel	Output
Davits	2		24v 360w (720w)
Coach Roof	14?	Phaesun Mare Flex 155	12v 155w (2,170w)
Foredeck	0	Phaesun Mare Flex 155
		Total	2,890w

Engine Alternators

This has been my preferred method to backup the solar systems. We already have two Yanmar 57hp engines. We’ll be running them often as we maneuaver, or cross when the Med notoriously has no wind.

• How much will the stock alternators support us?
• Can we add Balmar XT high-output alternators?
  • This typically raises the question; will these void the Yanmar warranty?
  • I’m told no by our Yanmar person, with the correct brackets.

However, we’re facing the question, will the brackets fit? This is the discusison for tomorrow when Antonis comes to take another look.

Generator

This is my hated discussion. I would really like to avoid having a genset.

• A third engine to service
• More weight
• More noise, although the Onan 7kw, w/enclosure is very quiet
• More systems to manage

Why we should get one:

• The boat is pre-wired, inlcuidng all the cabling, fuel lines and filter, water pump/exhaust, sound isolation padding, and a platform. It’s about as simple as it gets to drop it in.
• When all else fails, we have the genset to power the systems.

But, what’s going to fail? And, in the worse case decision, what does thta actually mean? We’re not currently planning on doing an ocean crossing. We’re going to be in the med for at least this season. We can always find a marina and plug in, but do we even really need that?

Since the boat is pre-wired, and we can simply “drop one in”, I’m thinking we’ll dever this large expense, and see how the solar and engine alternators do.

Supporting Systems

There’s a long list of other supporting systems to add, such as the Cerbo GX MK2 battery monitor, A/C Selector, Lynx Distributor, Lynx Power In, Orion Tr 12/24v converter for the 12v systems, Victrol MPPT’s for the solar panels, wire and other stuff.

Decisions

Now, what shall I do?

• I’m going to defer the genset, as it’s a drop-in at any point.
• Starting with (6) 200ah @ 24v batteries & 8kw 24v inverter
• Keeping the (2) 200ah 12v batteries and 12v inverter
• Waiting to see what can be done with the alternators
• Waiting to see how the solar panels can get laid out.

Stay tuned…