We're cruising couple Kevin and Wendy, and we're sailing the world in our completely upgraded Oyster 485. We packed up everything, rented the houses, and headed for Troon, Scotland where the boat was located. We closed in late 2017 and following a major electronics refit (the first of several) headed south to the Mediterranean. One season morphed into a second, then a third. And then the Caribbean beckoned. We participated in the 2019 ARC, and have been cruising there since. The adventure continues ...
Great video! I now have renewed hope for A/C in my little Island Packet. I am thinking one 6000 btu unit should do it for me. She is just 27 foot with 10.5 beam.
Great to hear from you. I think A/C sizing is more about the volume of the space and where you're going to be using it. We're in the Caribbean (mostly) and so have a heavy use of the system. But that said, our 16,000 BTU salon unit barely keeps up. However, our 7,000 BTU aft cabin unit does great, due to the smaller volume of the room and lack of large glazed areas. For us when we got started, we took height, width, and length measurements on the rooms, averaging dims as we saw fit, to get a rough cubic volume. From there we consulted the mfr charts provided by various suppliers. These charts calc BTU requirements per cubic foot or meter, and are therefore interchangeable. Our 16,000 BTU unit is very close in size to the 7,000 BTU version, so finding the space for the extra BTUs wasn't so much of an issue, although it was a bit more expensive. Think long and hard about where your ducting is going to go, as well as your supply and return air vents. And feel free to contact us if further questions.
@@SailingTalisman Thanks for that. I was looking and the larger unit is not that much bigger or expensive so I think I would go with larger just to be sure. I will be installing in a hanging locker in the head so ducting will be quite easy and short. Up from the unit 1 foot left to v-birth a quite small space and 1 foot right to salon that is 8 X 10 just over 6 foot high and the large louvered door will be the intake. Drawback is.. Though the head is fresh water flush. However... well if you going to do # 2 turn the A/C off first LOL
Planning a similar system, but all 12V and stumbled onto your video. Thank you for posting this. Curious as to how critical the parallelling (small red thing) is.?? The Daly website doesn't have wiring instructions for those. Do they look at voltage on the other batteries to ensure they are balanced?
Thanks for watching. We've been blown away by the performance of our system, and I think assuming you size your cabling correctly, you can expect the same. As far as the parallel packs go, you are probably okay deleting them if you want. The point of them is to limit current flow between unbalanced packs. So if one of your packs starts to fail and isn't charging to full capacity, huge (unlimited) current can flow between the packs. These limit those flows. In a similar vein, it's the reason you top-balance your cells before assembling a pack. Per the video, be sure to size your BMS to be the next size above your rated Amp Hour capacity for each of your packs. This way you can set the max discharge and charging amps to exactly 1C or .5C (or whatever the mfr. specs) in the BMS settings and get full performance out of the packs. Feel free to ask if any questions.
@@SailingTalisman Thank you for the reply. Biggest hurdle (other than soaking up lessons learned on the internet - thank you....) is where to locate on my trawler (50ft commercial duty, single engine, 4,000+ mile range). The engine room is huge but can get a bit hot. There is no forced ventilation - just natural convection. The lazarette is a bit too tight. I'm considering just adding forced ventilation activated by a temperature switch. I could blow air right on the battery bank. You must have been a project manager - I am currently and can totally relate to your comments. You have a humble and knowledgeable way about you that is refreshing in contrast to many other youtubers that are more egocentric. Will be following your posts.
@@skagdaddy Thanks so much. I was a PM in a previous life, and have a couple of episodes on how to deal with yard contractors. As for our batteries, I'd probably avoid the engine room, but as for under our cabin sole, I've rarely seen the batteries get even remotely hot. The battery charger, however, is a different story. These tend to downrate as they get hot. Ours will start out at 110A, and slowly lower itself to 80 or 90 amps. This is still good, but I notice that when I put a fan on it, amps increase, but rarely back to 110A. This can also happen if you have slightly undersized wiring. When the cables get hot(ter), resistance will increase and you'll see voltage drop over that cable, generally focused on the positive side. Lack of space was the reason why we went with raw cells instead of drop-in batteries. Download the Blue Sea Systems Circuit Wizard app to your phone. This will allow you to calc conductor/wire sizes accurately. And when measuring distance for circuit runs, be sure to count both out and back (positive and neg sides of the run). If you have big amps going through a conductor, it will never hurt (except in the wallet) to go up one size from what Blue Seas recommends. And use only pre-tinned boat cable.
Thanks Ralf for being with us. And we love SXM, otherwise we wouldn't spend so much time there. But it's a place that appears safe to the eye, surrounded by impressive hills that look like they would block or redirect the wind. And that's what we were warning of, since so many followers of our channel are either other cruisers, or friends who sail. But this is mostly manageable by backing down hard on your anchor once you've set it and assuring yourself that your holding is solid. But I have to say that even this doesn't guarantee success, as we saw this week with so many clips on Facebook of dragging, and even grounded, boats in the Lagoon. Anyway, wonderful having you, and make sure to say hi if you see us out and about.
@@SailingTalisman A pleasure to hear that. I'm a sailor too. And I repeat: the lagoon is no save place, weather SXM nore the French Side. I saw you came down from Creole Rock. Grand Case is a nice place. But there are extremely heavy gusts falling down from the hills. Take care, always a pleasure to hear from you. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thanks for the beautiful drone shots, I was there with Britican end of June '18. We were anchored pretty much in the same spot you were. I recon Antigua as one of the Caribbean islands I could live and set up a business.
Hi there DG. Hope all is well with you. We saw Britican a lot last year, as she was anchored across the channel from us. Simon seemed to be there sometimes and not other times. But he rarely stops to say hi when we see him out and about. Antigua is indeed a place where someone who is good at what they do can make a living. Getting residency or citizenship is a long, but straightforward process. This can be sped up with their "citizenship by investment" program. But most people just get work visas and keep extending them (as I understand things). Once you're on the island for a certain period of time, I'm thinking 10 years, but it could be more, the citizenship comes.
Hi Robert. We're a bit behind on editing, so the footage if from Feb, 2024, so better take another look to make sure the boat's still there 😶. Which 56 is yours? Kudu?
@@robertkedzlie7654 Sunny's a rock star. Scrupulously honest and a hard worker. He looks after Talisman and does our woodwork and finishing when needed.
Thank you so much for th evideo. We got to see many of our favorite haunts in Antigua, It brings back great memories and is temping us to start plans to go back. Our favorite place is Admiral's Inn.
Admirals Inn is great. We've had several guests stay there. We also like sitting by the pool at Boom. Make the arrangements and get back there. It's never been better.
Thanks so much. I had to have put 30 hours of editing into this episode. We had fantastic footage and footage that needed some finessing. But overall, I find myself going back to watch it again and again. Which is kind of the idea. You just set this thing on loop at a bar or restaurant and let it go forever. And with Talisman on the hard in Jolly Harbour (Antigua), I'm missing her more with every day. Can't wait to get back at this point.
Have the existing motor rebuilt. There are companies online that specialize in electric motor rebuild. Absent that, ask your local car parts store for a contact person who rebuilds starter motors. It's mostly a matter of replacing the brushes. But the main thing is the mounting plate (drive end of the motor). This aluminum plate is/was fabricated by Hood Formula to fit the furler (and the motor body), and since Hood is no longer in business, these are impossible to replace.
Looks great but are ALL of those batteries properly secured in the event of your yacht being knocked down or even inverted? Thats a lot of batteries flying around the saloon just when you don’t need more trouble.
Hi Steve. It's good that you mention it since I see a lot of unsecured batteries out there. The answer for you is yes. The entire install is ABYC chapter E-13 (Lithium Battery Installs) compliant. The way it's done is a 1x1 piece of square stock along the bottom port side of the entire bank (between the house bank and start batteries), and then another along the starboard side top. There are spacers between each 8-cell pack to keep the cells from moving front to back, and the hinged plexiglass lids that the Daly BMS and parallel pack modules are adhered to (w/ 3M automotive mounting tape) are secured to the upper 1x1. The plexi lids are 1/2" thick and were fabricated in the US and brought down for the install. Any previous unused penetrations in the battery box have been sealed with West System G-Flex to make sure the box remains watertight. You'll notice that all wiring leaving the box exits as high as possible, and this is how it was done by Oyster. Wooden blocks cut to size clamp the lower lips of the engine and generator start batteries to secure those as well.
@@SailingTalisman the Southwest and West Coast of Sardinia, as well as the West Coast of Corsica are absolutely beautiful. I kept my Shearwater 45 bluewater sailing yacht (a Dudley Dix design, semi-custom) in Carloforte from 2008 until late last year.
I bought a 1981 47cb MKII 3 years ago. It's almost back to something short of Bristol but the best sailboat you can imagine in heavy seas and a graceful lady in light wind and smooth water. It takes time and it's expensive to restore a Swan. But its worth it.
Yes. Look for for the Simpson Bay Bridge (not the Simpson Bay Causeway Bridge). It's right next to the Sint Maarten Yacht Club. The Dutch side of the island is spelled Sint Maarten, while the French side is Saint Martin. Sometimes the Dutch side is spelled similar to the French, but that's a technicality. Keep looking. It's there.
It's been that way for years. Same bridge operator, and he gets really frustrated when people aren't moving along fast enough. It's all because it backs up traffic along the main drag. And I don't know what it is about ambulances in Sint Maarten, but one goes by with their lights on every 1/2 hour or so on average, and there's sure to be one wailing away in line.
Kevin, agree completely with you regarding leaving in crap conditions. Why go out and break shit if you dont have to! As for the superyacht yacht, i figured they were intentionally creating drama for Below Deck 😂
Ha! I like it. We break enough shit without even trying. Each season it's like $10k or more. As for Below Deck, we've actually been on twice, albeit in the background. They come around with a release they want you to sign (after the shooting was over). We humored them since we didn't want to be jerks about it. Once in Antigua, the other in Grenada. Plus "The Apprentice EU". Stuff to do.
For thoos of us with Lysdexia we kan't reed your black fast that screens. And for those of us (aging) with failing hearing we can't hear you over the background noise. Otherwise, love the content.
Thanks for the excellent constructive criticism. I'll work on leaving more time for the readers. Always figured they'd pause or go back if needed, but I see not and think yours is the way to go. As for the background/wind noise, every single track on this episode was exported and reworked in an external audio editing program. The overall sound went from being unusable to barely passable, which is what I ended up going with. Any more volume and a whining sound started forming. Anyway, the mics we had been using slowly died over the season through serious abuse and I've replaced them all with Rode directional mics with larger dead-cat covers. These will work on separate channels, so we hope to have markedly better audio next season (wind and speaking separated, hopefully). Stick with us. We'll get this sorted.
As you get older you respect danger a little more. Wise Captain. Seems strange to see jet skies buzzing around Talisman though. Thank you for your videos!
Isn't it funny how that happens? Seriously. I used to take a lot more risks that carried no upside when I was young and hadn't had my ass kicked a bunch of times.
So true. And the next part of it is taking a strong stand with the person egging you on so as to not miss their flight. I tell guests to make sure their flights are refundable/re-bookable, and warn them of the risk ahead of time. Expectations need to be managed.
It is a challenging bit of maneuvering. Especially when you take into account the background noise is wind. And, there is little clearance on the sides, especially with that beam. The sound of the planes overhead took me there immediately. Thank you for the time travel.
Hi Javier. Very true, but Kisses is far from the largest yacht to go through the bridge. I think what was missing was practice and communication. The captain/skipper can't see both sides of the boat from the bridge at the same time (unless cameras are involved) and so depends on crew with radios telling him (accurately) how many feet or meters are clear on each side, and whether that distance is opening or closing. These two crew need to be dedicated to the task and not dealing with fenders at the same time. I got the distinct impression that there was a lot of fear involved. I know that it's a hard job (and one I've never done myself on a vessel that size), but it's the difference between being a first mate and captain. As they say, "Everyone wants to be captain until it's time to do captain shit". Just my two cents.
@@svsalserenity4375 Sometimes. But not too often. Caribbean sun is pretty harsh, and it’s hard to argue that white non-skid wouldn’t be better in that regard.
@@ducatiparts966 James from Sailing Zingaro did for a few days, but I suspect they’d say no if you asked. James was a late arrival and all the hotel rooms were already booked for the boat show. If Jabins had balked he would have been sleeping on the floor of our room.
worried about everyone in the caribbean right now. hope u got out of there in time. worried about a couple of other cruisers i follow. hope everyone is ok
Hi Richard. Thanks for the kind words but we're far away in Colorado for hurricane season. Talisman is on the hard in Antigua, as has been the way we've done it in the past (our insurance only covers within the Caribbean). But the pics of Carriacou have looked devastating, especially the marina in Terrel Bay. Knowing a lot of cruisers, we have come o realize that a lot either can't find or can't afford full coverage. I suppose it's a risk you take, but still.
No, we have 3 flexible SunPower panels on the bimini, putting out an anemic 490W (when new). However, this output, which translates to about 8A-12A @24V during the middle of the day will keep us charged during that period. But we lose power overnight, and will need to do something eventually to recharge. Luckily, the 840Ah of LifePo4 lithium batteries have been a game changer for us, letting us go for 10 days or more on a single full charge. Monohulls like ours don't have the real estate for solar panels like the catamarans have. There are options like stern arches for more solar, but we're happy with a couple hours of generator time.
Head south to Trinidad. And do so several days in advance so as to be able to sail the 96+/- nautical miles. This because the wind usually dies in the 4-8 hours prior to the system arriving. You'll see big swells coming in for at least a day in advance, then a calm. I saw a screens shot on Facebook of all the AIS signals as boats left literally the morning the storm was predicted to hit. And while there's something to be said for having lots of sea room, the reality of being at sea during a Cat 3 or 4 storm is something people have no real appreciation of. I get asked fairly often if I've ever been in a hurricane, and I answer "no, and if I have any say in the matter I never will".
Thanks Dan. Scenes were shot on an older GoPro Hero5 in a plastic case. These cameras get better every year, especially the internal video stabilization features. Pretty much everything we do these days is 4K or higher.
Hi Kevin, great job. As I do have a similar furling system from Hood, i wanted to ask you if you can send me a copy of the manual you used. I‘m looding gearbox oul on the side where I can attach the manual crank for manualy in or outfurling the main. Would be a great help.
Hi Hans. Sorry I missed this. Do you still need the manuals? If so, get my email off the "about" page in the Sailing Yacht Talisman home page and send me a request.
Glen, sometimes when you show the hull from the inside (like at 07:30) it looks like we can see sunlight through the hull wall or seems. Is the sun that bright down there that it is visible through fiberglass?
Yes, you're quite observant. Areas above the waterline that aren't painted on the inside are somewhat translucent. However, this doesn't translate to light or thin fiberglass. Having drilled through it for seacocks and such, I can report that it's 1/4" thick at minimum, and thicker in the areas of higher stress, like near chainplates and deck transitions. Hull thickness at the angle between the upper hull and keel stub was greatest at over 10cm/4" solid glass when we cored for the refrigeration through-hulls. All boats work this way, with materials being added and subtracted due to required strength. But the semi-custom or bluewater boats are built to be heavier and stronger in this regard.
@@SailingTalisman ,,,the 485 appears to be built like a tank. That fellow on Zingaro drilled out a piece and it was more than two inches thick and solid. Wow!
@@Coleen-Love Yeah, that's James. He's stayed with us on Talisman a few times. Talisman is a rockin boat, and I have to say that while her speed tops out at about 9 knots, we keep pace with most other boats. This is because exceeding 9.5 knots or so on most boats gets to feeling like you're abusing things. And so even fast boats tend to run about 9-10 knots max when looking to comfortably cruise. Of course the bigger the boat the longer the waterline, and waterline translates to more speed. So these can go a lot faster. But Talisman holds her own on most days.
@@svsalserenity4375 There's always a point of diminishing return (not saying you've reached it). I watched a video once where a guy was talking about how when fiberglass was first introduced, nobody knew how long it would last or if it would lose strength over time. The wooden boat guys joked about cheap plastic boats. As it turned out, the stuff is nearly indestructible, and blistering was the only real problem that needed to be solved. In the intervening years it has turned out that most of the older boats (including Talisman) were way overbuilt. But the heavier displacement led to increased seakindliness, albeit at greater expense. If I had to buy another boat today I'd buy another Oyster 485, perhaps newer (they ran to 2001) or maybe an Oyster 56 (the most popular and numerous of the Oyster line).
I can't believe that the new Oyster 495 comes with a "sail drive". No wonder the 485 seems to go up in price every year. By the time you stop sailing, the appreciation on your yacht might cover your expenses LOL...
You could probably order it as direct drive from the factory. It has to be an option, and once the 495's start hitting the used market I suspect they'll be seen in both versions. But the way this works is that if the builder chooses Saildrive as the default, the manufacturer of the engine (Yanmar, Volvo Penta, etc.) will cover warranty for the entire assembly. Otherwise, Oyster ends up having to cover the stern gland, alignment, prop, and anything else not part of the engine and transmission. And as for Talisman, appreciation in price since 2017 has almost offset our investments in the boat. And that's a serious number, approaching $175,000. It's one of the key drivers of why I'd almost certainly buy another Oyster if we ever had to repurchase.
@@SailingTalisman I don't think there's a direct drive option on them - the responsiblity issue as you mention plus the design of the boat being pretty short by Oster standards. You'd have to talk ot Oyster to be sure though.
@@SailingTalisman ...for fun I emailed Oyster and they don't offer the direct drive option. That is so weird for Oyster. I know several people simply refuse to purchase that Sail Drive due to all the issues with it. Catamarans are having huge corrosion issues with them and that huge rubber seal has to be changed on every haul out (according to Yanmar's specs). The lower oil changes also require a haul out. ..and then the water leaks and risk of sinking is simply unacceptable on a blue water sailboat. Total nightmare.
@@tomriley5790 Thanks Tom. Yes, I spoke off the top of my head, but on thinking about it more, direct drive would change a lot of specs and structure around the stern area.
@@Coleen-Love I thought the service interval for the "diaphragm" was ten years (for Volvo Penta). But still, it's a massive job that involves unbolting the outdrive and possibly moving the actual engine forward to make the clearances work for removal of the drive. It's pretty known technology, but I would only do direct drive myself too.
Wow... those shot of Talizman starting at 04:47 are very cool. Not sure why but super nice looking. Maybe its the location. But it makes the sailboat jump out.
The water and the natural lighting of the Caribbean are what you're seeing. It's pretty much what you see with the eye (sometimes not, but mostly). It's why we love clear blue water so much.
@@SailingTalisman ..it would be hard to leave that place as it looks like a dream life. Do you think that you will make it to South East Asia and all those wild islands like Vanuatu and Solomon Islands all the way through Philippians and Indonesia and Thailand etc.? There is a British channel called Sailing Florence that went through there (unfortunately during that recent shut down period) and I think that Talisman would sparkle in that region :)
@@Coleen-Love We have loose plans to join a few friends of ours for a charter in Thailand. I think that's as far as we go as as far as the Pacific/circumnavigation go. I think if we were younger it would be more of an option.
That's the truth. We just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary a couple of days ago, and I'd marry her again in a heartbeat. And thanks so much for watching and being with us!
Yep. I'm half idjit when it comes to setting things up. I get so focused on the moment that often enough we miss filming entirely (even after having cameras in place). And that's actually the problem here. We had a port and starboard camera, and one died before the action started. Next time we'll do better, I hope.
Having lived, and owned a business, in the BVI for 14 years before Irma in 2017, and recently retuning with a private yacht I can only say you've hit just one of many "stupid" ideas the government has regarding yachts and visitors in general. For example, their website states that if you are an American citizen you have a 6 month vista. However, in practice they will only give you 30 days. When you point this out to them, their official response is a shrug. Recently I entered and got 30 days. But after a week I had to return to the US for a family emergency . I cleared out, and my passport was duly stamped. After about 3 weeks I returned. The immigration officer would not give me a fresh 30 days as she claimed I had 3 days left on the last entry, even though I had left the territory for over 22 days. When I tried to get a fresh 30 days I was told to leave and come back. By that they meant to wait to the last day (day 3) , take the ferry to St. Thomas in the morning and return the next day. The cost with the hotel was about $500. Naturally, this makes no sense. But making sense is not a forte of the people who populate the BVI government. They are all "Belongs" and everyone else is not. They resent just about everyone who is not a born here Belonger. I have friends who are Belongers by marriage and they get jerked like us non-Belongers. They see visitors as the enemy even though the tourist industry is the number 2 source of revenue, and of that, people chartering or bring private yachts into the BVI produce many jobs, leave a ton of money on the table, and take no social services away form the citizens of the BVI. The islands are beautiful, the sailing is great, but the government is a mess.
As you see with many islands in the Caribbean, government jobs are "good" jobs. You work indoors in air conditioned rooms, and get to wear nice cloths. But after a point you've got 30-40% of the population working in government, and the rest of the island is expected to pay for it. So they get a lot of pushback about reducing staff. But wait, a new idea comes to mind. We'll take the money from the tourists and yachties. And this is all well until the tourists and yachties go somewhere else. At least the charter companies have formed a lobbying group and have some juice. I do agree that the BVIs are exceptional, but there are other options, and one of the rules of business (immutable) is that the highest price you can charge for something is rarely the most profitable. This is because profit is margin times volume. And volume is the driver. Lose the volume, and your business will slowly fail. Finally, I believe (and I could be wrong) you're conflating the person and the boat. It's the boat they were giving us 30 days on. We would have had 90 days if we flew in and put 90 days on our immigration ticket. They would have stamped us in and all would be well. But another rule of dealing with officials is never ask questions or interact with them more than necessary. The second you start telling them about your boat and health issues, red flags are raised with them. it only goes downhill from there.
@@SailingTalisman My boat is imported to the BVI. 30 days is the max for a person as they currently apply "their" rules. My mistake was landing in Tortola other than Virgin Gorda, where they are much more relaxed.
@@robertgranafei2781 Indeed, Robert. We find that Soper's Hole is more relaxed as well. We've heard about people getting abused at Road Harbour for anchoring out and then walking over from the marina area (accusing the person of having entered the island before clearing in), and also have been personally threatened with fines for tying up, out of the way of ferries, at the ferry dock where immigration and customs offices are. We were twice charged $50 "Harbor Fee" there, even though we were obviously in-and-out. I hate that place. But on the plus side, for people reading, once you're past these gatekeepers, everything chills on the islands. The issue I feel the BVI officials should address is how bad your first and last touch can be when visiting. The negative experiences follow the guests home, and that is never good.
Let me know what happens when you do. If the gen engine isn’t starting right away, like after 10 or 15 secs after turning it over, shut off the raw water sea cock. Be ready to open it up if the engine catches, but failing to do so (absent exhaust gasses to push water through) can lead water to back up into the exhaust manifold and then into the cylinders through open exhaust valves, thus hydrolocking the engine. Doing so can bend valve push rods and even bend connecting rods. This applies to the main engine too. Like I say, report back. My email in the “About” tab at SYT landing/home page.
That Yanmar engine always sounds so good! DO you remember what the hours were when you bought Talisman and what the engine hours are now? There is a bit of a debate between Yanmar and Beta Marine for being the best marine engine. Do you have a preference?
