Technical
Read about technical aspects discovered by our members. Note some articles may appear under more than one category.
Article submitted by Darrel Walters – Maxi 38+ ‘Carpe Diem’
I wanted to put pen to paper and let others know there is a life after Ardic Heating systems.
People who own Maxi’s yachts know all to well that Ardic are no more and that there is only one company left in the Uk that you can get Ardic Spares from. I called them a week or so ago because my fan blower in my Ardic heater was making funny noises. I did back in 2009 replace said fan so I was quite surprised to think it was on its way out again after, well lets be honest know more than 100 hours worth of work. The water pump was also making noises, So asking the company for a price for both parts came to around £600.00 I know full well the parts are not worth that and I hate it when I feel I am held to ransom because of the supply and demand of said products drive the price instead of the true value.
This sort of price, you start to think if it may be worth just upgrading the whole system to something newer. Getting some prices from said company, about upgrading the diesel heater and the water heater to a dual element system, updating the blower for one more efficient and your not seeing much change out of around £4K. Continue reading
Judging by the articles on the MoA website and the Web, it appears generally acknowledged that the Ardic heater which as installed by Nimbus, is less than effective at heating the cabins. We had the heater unit serviced last winter by the local agent and whilst resolved the sooty deposits on the stern, the heating was no better. It appears that in pre heating the engine, heat the fresh water and the cabin is beyond the capabilities of the system unless also running the engine. The basic problem is that the system initially heats the cast iron mass of the engine which I believe takes 3kW, therefore the temperature of the air to the cabin is cool to say the least. The pipework diagram in the manual suggests that this should not be the case, but on a cold day working on the engine with the heating on, the engine was starting heating up but the cabin was not.
Maxi 1100 “Second Rebellion”
Navigation electronics, a cost effective option to having GPS plotters at both the navigation table and at the helm
The 2001 yacht was purchased in August 2008 and it came with a Raymarine RC530 colour plotter at the chart table, a Raytheon RL70 at the helm and a Seatalk interface which integrated the radar. Unfortunately the helm plotter was not readable in daylight, so something had to be done.
- As the yacht had the seatalk interface and all other instruments/radar were Raymarine, we only considered that manufacturer’s equipment.
- We established that the radar scanner would be compatible with the current Raymarine E80 range of plotters and we could also have AIS, however the E80 equipment would not interface with the RC530 existing plotter.
- The obvious but expensive option was to replace both plotters. However, Raymarine in common with other manufacturers, do not market a repeater for the plotter, you just buy 2 of them at around £2k each.
- However with the help of a friendly engineer in the local agent, it was revealed that you did not need a second plotter. An E80 (or E120) at the helm with a VGA cable to an inexpensive LCD computer screen (they are all 12volt), can be used to feed the screen at the chart table linked with a Raymarine keyboard, which they market for the huge screens on power boats. This option is actually better than 2 E80’s, as the PC screen can be larger and as in ours in “letter format”, which is ideal for split screen plotter/data/radar viewing. I believe that the latest “C” series plotters may also have the repeater facility.
- As it happened we had a spare PC screen so it cost us nothing, the screen swivel mount cost about £20 and the quite neat keyboard was £300 plus VAT, quite a saving on £2k and a better option all round.
- All E80 functions can be duplicated below using the keyboard and the PC screen can be swivelled to the saloon to entertain the grandchildren with DVD’s (from a player) with surround sound through the boat audio system.
- The only downside is that manipulating the data from the chart table, also changes the plotter screen at the helm.
- Both old plotters found a ready market on E-Bay, to help offset the cost of the new equipment.
The system has been extensively used for 3 seasons over 5knm without problems and a recent comment from the local agent for Raymarine was “I don’t know why more people don’t go this route”. I do…they just do not know the option is available.
Jim & Eric Sey
Pics:
-
Nav. station, Mount, and Keyboard in use
-
Keyboard parked
The following failure has been reported by Maxi 1100 owner Peter Bruce.
Maxi 1100 owners might like to know that a crack has been found in the athwardships plate in the stem fabrication where it holds the forestay. The stem fabrication is not symmetrical and a stress point occurs at the weld where the athwartships plate intersects with the inboard fore and aft plate. Peter Bruce, who owns Owl, hull number 19 says the crack was well developed, and it might have led to the loss of the mast. It is just possible to view the weld in question with the forestay in position.
UPDATE – Darryl has found the answer to the question below.
Download pdf file of the rig setup from Selden
Maxi Owners Association member Darrel Walters has provided the following phtographs and question. If you can help him please respond through our Forum.
