Yard yarns

Progress progress progress! We are picking up pass as winter is in its second half! Most of the welding is behind us now, and more and more paint finds its way on to the ships side and interieur. Most important now: Insolation. We went big on this! Together with a proper ventilation system it will extend the hulls live and make ours a more comfortable one!

The 3 layered insulation is going directly onto the epoxy painted steel to keep the condensation at a minimum! Al seams are taped down to eliminate air leakage! A lot depends on this system! The new forced ventilation system should carry of al damped air and make for a comfortable stay down stairs! This system will not only care for the boat and its occupants but also keep our diesel use down! Diesel is becoming a dirty word and nobody wants to use to much of it. That is also why we opted for a new heating system. It will burn its own fumes twice reducing its output by 85% and use 25%  less diesel! We will run the return water from the heating system passed the cooling water from the generator for optimal use of energy!

That is not all! Electrical heating is becoming the thing now. We have not got the capacity for an electrical heating system and al electricity on board is made out of diesel any way… But what this smart system allows us to do is to preheat the water in the boiler with a simple little electrical element only when the generator is running! Not bad I think! We also have a second water maker!  To be able to make the best of the time the generator is running! At a water temp of say 18 degrees they make a hundred litres each.

However the sea water is not always 18 degrees… so we will preheat this to have maximum output! Last but not least the galley will be run on electricity! Bye bye gas bottles! So happy with that! On our little Tecla we try to keep our foot print as small as possible. For now it is still not possible to sail without fossil fuels. Al systems on board depend on electricity made by the generator!
Although we primarily sail, we still need our Scania every now and then. Emergency situations we don’t like to think about, would require swift action and for that a strong and reliable diesel engine is necessary! I’m sure that in the near future there will be an option to make deep water passages without diesel run engines and when it is time, we will be ready for it! For now back to painting ballast tanks…

Have a good weekend Gijs