Tips for saving diesel on an old trawler (and installing a Victron Orion for Alternator Charging) 

Thanks T Mac! A wild windy day!

Ollie loves her hug 😁 Super cool about Kent Island and Kent Island Narrows! We've been around that area when we were in Crisfield last summer and headed to Annapolis a few times... thanks so much for the tips!

Add Libby's and Adam's Grill to your restaurant list.

Haha 😂

Thanks y'all!!

Thanks Lori!

Thanks Ben! Wow 12 batteries - quite a bit 😁 Sometimes its hard just understanding and tracing the existing systems nonetheless actually fixing and/or upgrading!

Thanks!!

Thanks Harold!

Thanks Dennis! We didn't notice it - any tips for cleaning it out? Cheers!

Very nice! Seems like a good set up! I think the big difference is that balmar alternator set up - they make some really great products. Maybe we will cross paths in the Chesapeake! Cheers!

Nice! That's still super fuel efficient 3 gal / hr - thanks for watching Randy!

Oh yea?? Haha looking forward to hearing it one day! Cheers David!

It's always a tradeoff! At ~$3 / foot that's basically $100 considering you can even find a slip.... BUT that being said we are extremely confident in our anchor and slept through the night even this night! We have our anchor alarm that wakes us up and in this case the boat that was coming close was no longer close due to the wind direction... Thanks so much for commenting and watching Steve!

Thanks Stephen! 7.8 knots theoretically would be great in practice... we've found roughly .5 knots with each 200 rpm but I need to redo my calculations... so 1600 would give us 6, 1800 6.5, 2000 7.... This is with a very full and heavy Pivot though so I wonder if that changes things. Our anchor is 35 kg so roughly 77 lbs - practically a hurricane anchor 😁

True! Wide open throttle can happen naturally in normal cruising. Cheers!

Right on man! Thanks for checking us out! Cheers

No doubt! Thanks for watching Dave!

Nope, when we painted our bottom, we taped over our transponders so we made sure not to put any antifouling on them... Interesting to hear that you can paint them with a specific paint - thanks for sharing Shawn!

@@SchoandJo Yes. I'm getting Raymarine. It's all in the solvents of the paint. I was thinking about that when you said you had barnacles on then. Here pretty soon it will be pretty cold to swim under and clean them.

Great point!

Thanks Buck! If you have any questions on Solar let me know or send me an email... I spent a lot of time figuring out our setup and have been pleased so far 😁

Interesting! Nope, never considered it but would be curious to see whats involved. Thanks!

It attracts seagulls like crazy! The smell of yummy French fries and all. Sorry I had too. Me bad. Cheers rl.

We used to convert Delica vans and Diesel Jettas to run WVO. For our own use. It was the bomb for saving $$ on fuel. However, as more and more vehicles have more digital air care/monitoring systems, it became difficult to find newer than 20 years old to convert. We ended up moving to another province and not having vehicles at all. My husband (he's the one who converted to WVO) says that it is possible to do that with our boat engine (also a Lehman 135) but the hassle of finding oil on the Loop would make it not worth it. When we had the van, we had firm suppliers. Anytime we travelled it was a scramble to line it up and then to be where we said we would be to pick it up. Looping would make that harder. But, if it is something somebody wants to try, he felt the engine was a good candidate. Cheers, Sandra

We haven't found the need for dropping a second anchor yet... I think they are most helpful when you don't want to swing but if you are the only boat not swinging in an anchorage where all the other boats are swinging it could create a problem... We are confident in our anchor and if we would've done anything, it would be to slightly put out more scope if we started to drag. We do have our old CQR with a bit of rode on board in case we need it, but our mantus anchor, chain, bridal, and method of setting has been great so far. In our winter we stayed at this harbor through a gust of 45kts and were equally fine!

@@SchoandJo Any decision to set a second anchor will primarily be driven by how all the other boats are anchored. In No Name, with everyone swinging on a single hook in a crowded anchorage, you pretty much have to follow suit. That said, I dragged there once on the third night, no change in wind conditions. It happens.

@@snowgoose9322 Good points!

Thanks Todd! We use Nebo (nebo.global) we used the app only last year but now that we have the hardware hooked up directly to our ignition it turns on automatically 🤙

Thanks you I will download it and give it a try on my boat. Thanks for the tip. Looking forward to your next video.

@@toddthompson4307 Sweet! Thanks Todd!

Thats some really fantastic efficiency for your generator! Good luck for 6 knots, seems very doable - thanks for watching Brian!

Thanks for the write up as always! So according to that equation Pivot's theoretical hull speed is 7.37 kts... However, we haven't ever seen this, unless we have it right around 2200 which is way past our optimal torque which seems less efficient. Now this is when Pivot is very heavy (full fuel & water) but I wonder why its less? My assumption has always been the prop pitch and design and that our boat's most efficient operating speed is between 1600 - 1800 (referencing to the torque curve alongside fuel consumption). What do you think? We have never felt the stern starting to sink at any RPM lol Even running at 1600 our thermostat does open up and we see a good operating temperature (right around 180 ish deg), so it sounds like dry stacking shouldn't be too much of a concern for us?

​@@SchoandJo Weight will play a big part in how much fuel you use, but hull speed is strictly dictated by the waterline length due to its relationship with the bow wave length. Because I feel we may be using the word efficient differently, I should have clarified: I was using it in the sense that it's the fastest speed attainable before you start seeing diminishing returns on your speed increase vs. power added. Like I said before- throttling back will ALWAYS save fuel and if that's your primary performance objective, slow it down as much as you want. But hull speed is the optimal speed if you need to make distance without excessive fuel burn. Your boat doesn't have enough power to get up over the hump and on to a plane, so anything beyond hull speed is just wasted fuel as all you're doing is pushing more water. As for the prop- you bring up a good point that'll baseline your setup: When running WOT, fully loaded, what's your indicated RPM? Your engine should be able to turn 2650-2750 RPM. If you can't reach that, then you're overpropped (if you hit that RPM before the throttle stop, then you're underpropped). Open up to your performance curve page and look at the prop curve and max power curve (I'm looking at the Super 135 data sheet on boatdiesel). Notice how they converge at max rated RPM? That's so the engine can make max rated RPM without overloading. Being overpropped (too much pitch and/or too much diameter) isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you need to be mindful of where the prop curve intersects the max power rating. Say you're not able to make more than 2200 RPM. That's your new max rated RPM, which looks like it'd be right around 75 HP. Pushing the throttle any more forward will overload the engine. Then you shift the prop curve over to the left (but not down or up) so it intersects the max rating of 75 HP. Following the curve down to 1600 RPM, that shows you at a hair over 40 HP being required to maintain that RPM. That doesn't mean that you're still burning 1.3 GPH, though... that means that you're burning 40 HP worth of fuel at 1600 instead of 1800 RPM as indicated on the published curve, so your fuel burn is really going to be 2.25ish GPH. If you're always running at low speeds, this condition is OK, but it's not any more "efficient" than it'd be if you had the right prop on there and needed to turn 1800 RPM to get that required 40 HP. Same speed, same fuel burn, just 200 RPM up the scale. Yes, operating an engine at the RPM where the peak torque is made (even though you're not using peak torque at a steady speed) will always be the most efficient in terms of specific fuel consumption (quantity of fuel per HP produced). But the difference between the highest and lowest point is very minimal. Your performance sheet doesn't show specific fuel consumption, but if you're able to find one for another engine somewhere (older Yanmars come to mind), it'll show it as grams of fuel per HP per hour. A gallon of diesel weighs 3220 grams, and the usual difference between peak and bottom of the specific fuel burn curve is somewhere around 100- 200 grams. Or, a range of .19 to .38 ounces of fuel per HP per hour. It's nearly insignificant on the scale we're talking about here, but makes a huge difference in the shipping industry (they'll fall over themselves to spend millions on shaving a couple percent off the fuel burn rate). If your temps and pressures are good at 1600, then you really only need to give 'er a hot supper maybe every other week or so, but if you're throttling up on somewhat regular occasion to make a pass or to buck a head wind or current, I'd never sweat doing it on purpose. Detroits are the only ones I can think of that you absolutely want to run up every day if constantly run at low loads. But backing up a bit to the prop... I want to reiterate the need for the max RPM number. Next time you're underway, put the throttle to the stop and let me know what you end up turning. We have no idea if that's the original size prop for the boat, but generally OEM props are sized for the light ship displacement figure. IE- minimal crew and stores, empty water and waste tanks, and half-ish fuel. Fill the tanks, add all your stuff, throw a slightly dirty bottom on it, and you'll need to repitch the prop to hit max rated RPM. But again- that's only if you're spending most of your time at 80% load. Anyway, sorry for the book, but I love nerding out on this kind of stuff.

@@Prototheria This is an amazing write up... Thanks so much! I feel like you really helped explain some of the inter-connectedness between prop pitch, RPM, and speed that I wasn't fully getting.... Interesting to know that the torque curve isn't as impactful as I thought. I think our max RPM is about 2400, I'll double check on our next cruise! Again thanks so much for sharing so much knowledge!

@@SchoandJo You're welcome, and any time! I appreciate the videos you upload, so it's the least I could do! If you guys are still cruising East of the Mississippi in a few years, we'll see you out there; grub 'n brew's on us.

Good thoughts Mark, thanks for sharing!

Oops typo. Lost 100rpm at WOT, not 1000.

That's true! Reducing drag as much as possible would help too

Wow, didn't realize that the price of boat fuel varied so much. Great advice there.

The varying prices are super surprising! The next day, cruising through North West Palm, we say 7.22 and then literally 100 yards after the next bridge 5.20... Thanks for watching!

Haha!

That's super interesting Jan - we haven't heard of that before! During tomorrows cruise I'll check what speed our wake curls off the boat, thanks for sharing!

Around 3-4 knots the water behind the boat should be pretty flat then around 5 knots the wake should form angling out away from the boat with just a bit of a curl to it. I'll be curious to know want rpm you notice it happening. It varies by CHB because folks run different pitched props.

Oh good to know - thanks for watching!

One day if we can afford to pull out and adjust it that might be interesting, I’m pretty sure we are slightly over propped because our max RPM is a bit low.