Moving Aboard - the systems

Concurrent with moving all our stuff aboard Positive Waves, we had to learn all the systems on the boat. Positive Waves has a lot of systems. Since she is our permanent, long-term home, we outfitted her for comfort and liveability. We have a washing machine, hot water, an electric toilet, amazing lighting, a diesel heater, and a big fridge. We also have a watermaker that Hans will install in the future. In addition to the lifestyle comforts, we have an array of electronic devices to aid in sailing and navigation. All these creature comforts require lots and lots of power. We have a 400 watt solar panel, a wind turbine, and a hydro generator we can tow behind the boat to produce power whilst sailing. The power produced gets fed into a lithium battery system which is managed by a couple different controllers. Finally, when we’re plugged into shore power at the dock, we have a massive inverter and something called an isolation transformer to keep the electric inputs clean. Basically, we have a mini-power plant in a locker next to Freja’s cabin.

12V DC panel. Located just off the galley, we use it to turn power on or off to various systems on the boat and also monitor our battery and charging status as well as tank capacity (fuel, water, gray water, black water).

Two more battery and usage monitors, located just off Freja's cabin.

Our power plant. Lots of instruments, lots of flashing lights, super sophisticated and impressive. Everything is so neat and clean. No bundles of wire marked off with electrical tape in here. Like all the installations on the boat, everything is done to 110%. Even in the small details--this corner is located in the engine room just forward of the engine. There is a light that automatically turns on if you open the main access point to the engine room, but if you access just this side (via Freja's room), there is also a little switch to turn the same light on. Sometimes it's the small things that can make a big difference.

The information above is my general understanding of the whole system. For better or worse, during the build and design process of Positive Waves I shirked away from planning the electronics and power because I’m such a technophobe. I have a general grasp on where and how we get our power and how it is distributed and I’m forcing myself to learn more because it’s *rather* important to know how stuff works on the boat in the event that it breaks. Hans will be off the boat for two weeks at a time so if a fuse blows or an alarm starts going off, I’ll need to be able to troubleshoot it. It’s not a basic system, but, as with anything on a boat, the more we use it the more we’ll learn.

Our second tour of the boat was with Brice, our electrical engineer and mastermind from TEEM. He spent an entire day with us walking through all the systems. I frantically took notes and willed Hans to understand and memorize everything. We learned how to run the heater, what all the different colored flashing or solid lights mean (or don’t mean), how to program the fancy gyro autopilot, how to run the inverter, and a lot of “what not to dos.”

We’ve had a few glitches with the systems as it gets warmed up and used, but that is precisely why we’re staying in Treguier for a couple weeks before we sail away. We need to use all the systems, both while connected to shore power or while on battery power alone, so we can see how they’re working and understand how all the systems talk to each other.

With wind, solar, hydro-generation, and a watermaker, our boat has the capability to be 100% off the grid, in comfort. It requires maintenance and careful observation of the systems, but it’s a great feeling to know that not only can our home take us wherever we want to go, but that we don’t have to rely on someone else’s electricity to run the boat.