New skills and tools earning their keep.

Three weeks ago we had 52knots tear through the marina. The only damage I sustained was the loss of the cover from the Westerbeke Admirals engine panel. This cover was nothing more than a rectangular section of plastic bucket, sprung into the opening of the panel. It did work, keeping the sun from fading the panel.

With its disappearance I was forced to develop a long term solution. 

With my 'new' industrial sewing machine I was able to easily create a Sunbrella cover, double-stitched with 6 layers of fabric at the corners (don't try this with a domestic machine). 

I applied stainless steel snaps (riveted) and fitted it to the cockpit over the panel. I am well-pleased with the result. 

I made sure to use sealant on the studs screwed into the fibreglass, and counter-sunk the holes to avoid future cracking.

It took about 6 hours from start to finish, a lot of which was spent fiddling with the riveted snaps. 

LED lighting upgrade

My yacht came with two fluorescent light bars installed over the galley. These were not original, the manufacture date was 2006.

They both started to play up a few months ago, so I have been searching for alternatives. 

I found two 60 LED light bars with a 4.8w rating and some 351 lumens (cool white). They installation was straightforward, and the results remarkable. The output is visually double that of the fluorescent units.

To compare:

• Dual-tube fluorescent units - 16watt/12volt = 1.33amp
• 30LED units - 4.8watt/12volt = 0.4 amp

The fluorescent units use 3.5 times the amount (amp) of energy that the new LED's use, for what appears to be less than half the visible output.  The LED units produce NO heat at all.

I got two of them for $100, they are very well-made.  I bought them online in NZ from Dualcom Technology, and they come with a 2 year warranty.

Highly recommended upgrade. 

UPDATE 1/11/14

I have continued the theme of ridding the boat of incandescent, fluorescent and halogen lighting by replacing my ancient chart table overhead light. It was white/red, but you can see the red bulb was just dipped in red paint. It was old and antiquated. 

I replaced the fixture with a white/red LED unit, drawing well under one half of an amp, or 1/10th of the previous unit. 

I am very pleased with the outcome. The new unit was on sale for $40NZD.