What do you call two sailboats in the water? A race

Blue Pacific Yacht Charters is currently working on bringing in a 2011 Beneteau First 36.7 to the fleet. The 36.7  is a Farr designed boat that  has become the fastest growing One-Design Class in North America. A perfect balance between quality, performance and value. Check it out, charter it and spend your vacation smiling. Check out our website for more info or phone the office for availability.

FantaSea performs in False Creek

Pangaea coming into Coalharbour

Last week while doing some pre charter sailing with Migrator the new Lagoon 400 we spotted this very big sailboat coming into Coalharbour. At the office we had heard that some company wanted to hire a boat to take photos of some boat that was coming to town. The photo charter deal fell thru but I am thinking this was the boat that they wanted to get photos of. Panagaea is a meter vessel that was built for polar exploration.

To read more about this incredible boat check out http://www.mikehorn.com/en/pangaea/pangaea-the-sailboat/

Knock Knock

On Saturday, Jennifer Lee was out on charter doing some fishing and crabbing. Just off the west cardinal near Stanley Park we found this guy inside the trap dining on salmon heads. Overall the fishing aspect of the afternoon came up short but the clients were very happy with the crab they caught.

Burnt boat connection

Over the last 2 weeks we have had three shorepower outlets burn out. With the wild spring winds pushing the boats around in every direction it is very hard on shorepower and boat electrical connectors.  If these bad connections are not caught in time the outlets will overheat, burn the cord contacts and possibly cause a fire.  If the one particular boat did not have somebody onboard a fire just may have

Burnt cord

occured. When the boat end of the connector was pulled out to be serviced all the wires were burnt for 3 inches into the boat and the wood was chared.

What can be done about this problem?

Now enters the SmartPlug technology.  The twist type of connector has been around since the late 30′s. The SmartPlug was introduced in 2008 and now is becoming very popular. Below is more info about the SmartPlug.

The Problem
Contrary to popular belief, the #1 cause of shore power failure and fires is not electrical shorting, but rather overheating caused by poor electrical conductivity. How does this happen? The problems with many plug designs are that the shape of electrical pins allow for very little contact area, and the pins themselves are also largely responsible for bearing any physical stress placed on the cord (from constant movement of the boat, someone tripping on the cord, etc…) This results in the pins working loose, further lessening the precious little contact area they had to begin with. Furthermore, such loose connections allow for moisture intrusion and ultimately corrosion of the pins. Arcing occurs and the connection heats up, scorches, and in some cases, catches fire. Because the current draw is unchanged, all of this happens long before a breaker or a GFCI can cut the power. Additionally, the old design can be very difficult to use in low light or hard-to-reach scenarios since the “L” shaped pin must first be located and then oriented before connection.

SmartPlug

The Solution
SmartPlug’s 4-Stage solution protects against overheating every step of the way. Loose connections are addressed by a Sleeve Design and Multi-Point Locking System which take all the physical stress off of the pins while securely fastening the plug to receptacle. Pin contact area is increased by more than 20x and protected behind three weatherproof seals for a dry and corrosion-free connection. Finally, an integrated trip thermostat cuts power at the first sign of overheating. See all SmartPlug features.  http://www.smartplug.com/index.html

Installation is fairly straight forward and can be done in about an hour if no hull modifications have to be done. At this time only 30 AMP solutions are available. Cost for the combo plug kit is under $200 dollars

Discussions have been held with  our  insurance companiy and it is possible that insurance rates can be reduced if the SmartPlug is installed in all fleet boats.

Designated work areas?

Two days later the work on Prairie Wind is really coming along. The bottom has been painted with Micron CSC. The gelcoat work on the bow is on its finishing leg and the hull is getting the cut and polish.

The aft two sections of the toe rail have been removed with a lot of sweat and effort. It turned out that the aft rail was put down with 5200 after a previous repair was made on the crack in the seam.  Once the second wooden rail section was removed you could see

The source of the leak

the remainder of the split seam that was left open after the previous repair.  The area of repair will be cleaned, dried out and caulked to form a water tight seal.

Prairie Wind on the hard

This week Prairie Wind, a Beneteau 423 sailboat  is being hauled out for bottom paint, cutpolish and some other work. The boat was not taken out last year because it had a very good quality of bottom paint. The only growth that that was noticeable last year and even today has been right at the water line. After a quick powerwash and the boat being blocked, Superstition Boatworks started to do some repair work on a void that showed up lastyear underneath the bow roller. At the same time a couple of other knicks are being taken care of on the bow.

Diane from Superstition Boatworks fixing up a void

Prairie Wind has had trouble with a leak in the aft cabin for some time now. The plan is to flood the toe rail and stantions, find this leak and fix it for good. Lets see what the crew from Superstion come up with.  Check out Prairie Wind online at http://www.bluepacificcharters.ca/specs/s_oceanis423.htm