The dreaded call in the night...

[ancora]

Got a call from a dock mate that there was an alarm going off on our boat. Drove 44 miles to see what was wrong. Went right to the high water alarm but it was silent. Now what? Finally the Admiral found the sound was coming from the starboard engine battery alarm. With batteries close to dead I went below to check the charger and found water coming out of a parted bilge pump hose connection which had sprayed sea water on the Xantax charger causing it's demise.

 

[Moonfish]

Yowsa! So good you (and your dock mate) caught all that before something catastrophic happened!

 

[kthoennes]

Boats. I feel your pain. I just posted a new thread elsewhere asking about cold-tolerant clear vinyl. We went to check on the boat last weekend at just above zero degrees and almost all the clear vinyl panels had shattered to pieces. Spent thousands just two years ago for new panels. All under shrink wrap but they broke to pieces anyway, had shards of vinyl all over the helm and upper deck like broken glass. The pieces would snap like the toasted crust on a creme brulee until they warmed up to room temp and then they're all nice and flexible. There goes a few thousand. Stinkin' boats.

 

[Shrew]

Boats. I feel your pain. I just posted a new thread elsewhere asking about cold-tolerant clear vinyl, We went to check on the boat last weekend at just above zero degrees and almost all the clear vinyl panels had shattered to pieces. Spent thousands just two years ago for new panels. All under shrink wrap but they broke to pieces anyway, had shards of vinyl all over the helm and upper deck like broken glass. The pieces would snap like the toasted crust on a creme brulee until they warmed up to room temp and then they're all nice and flexible. There goes a few thousand. Stinkin' boats.

You left them up?? Consider taking them down and bringing them home. that is what shrinkwrap is for. The alternative is to lay them flat on a berth. When we do this we lay sheets and blankets in between each panel. It's not the cold that is breaking them, it's the movement while they're frozen.

 

[kthoennes]

Yeah, it's an acre of canvas and not easy to remove or re-hang. We've had the boat since 2015 and always left it up. The previous (old) vinyl never cracked, but it was so cloudy and tired we had it redone.

(Just bought a new battery charger to be installed this season. Ancora's story hits home, it would really stink if some freak malfunction fried that new charger.)

 

[backinblue]

I've never heard of that happening. In New England we often get below zero temps. I wonder if they used something other than what they should have when you had them replaced a couple years ago.

 

[Comodave]

Yeah, it's an acre of canvas and not easy to remove or re-hang. We've had the boat since 2015 and always left it up. The previous (old) vinyl never cracked, but it was so cloudy and tired we had it redone.

(Just bought a new battery charger to be installed this season. Ancora's story hits home, it would really stink if some freak malfunction fried that new charger.)

What brand of clear vinyl was it? I have heard of Strataglass going that.

 

[Bmarler]

What brand of clear vinyl was it? I have heard of Strataglass going that.

i've been through some bitter cold with strataglass without issue. pnw isn't as cold as back east though.

 

[sailormike]

Got a call from a dock mate that there was an alarm going off on our boat. Drove 44 miles to see what was wrong. Went right to the high water alarm but it was silent. Now what? Finally the Admiral found the sound was coming from the starboard engine battery alarm. With batteries close to dead I went below to check the charger and found water coming out of a parted bilge pump hose connection which had sprayed sea water on the Xantax charger causing it's demise.

WOW your lucky our dockhouse staff is too drunk and never walks the docks your boat would have been doomed! I have a smart system that alerts me temps, high water, motion detection, and door contact sensors that also turns on the lights on the boat and sets of a siren and strobe light on fly-bridge on. I also have Wyze cameras in bilge x2, aft deck, salon, and pan tilt zoom on fly bridge I can see whats going on. I had a notification one time the alarm was going off turned out to be condensation on sensor from when I had washed the bilge out the day before. Siren was going off and strobe flashing and dock house staff just stayed up at dockhouse smoking and drinking according to cameras. I turned of alarm after looking at cameras to verify no immediate issue. I went down and verified after work.

 

[O C Diver]

Got a call from a dock mate that there was an alarm going off on our boat. Drove 44 miles to see what was wrong. Went right to the high water alarm but it was silent. Now what? Finally the Admiral found the sound was coming from the starboard engine battery alarm. With batteries close to dead I went below to check the charger and found water coming out of a parted bilge pump hose connection which had sprayed sea water on the Xantax charger causing it's demise.

I have an app for just that reason.

I installed a Siren 3 Pro boat alarm to keep track of those things more than break ins. It texts or emails me within a minute if any of the following occur:

Loss of shore power (with settable time parameter)
Low DC voltage ( with settable voltage and time parameter)
High water or bilge pump running to long.

It works off of cellular or wifi. Sends me a report every morning to remind me to check the app for activity that might not have reached the alarm threshold.

https://sirenmarine.com/

Lots of peace of mind!

Ted

 

[Slowmo]

This is one nice thing about being on the hard off season - it can't sink!

 

[slowgoesit]

Thanks for relating your issues! At least it didn't do any permanent damage, or sink you boat. Just boat $$ for new charger . . . .

 

[catalinajack]

i've been through some bitter cold with strataglass without issue. pnw isn't as cold as back east though.

Define bitter cold. That is a relative adjective. Bitter cold to this New Englander is anywhere between 0 and 20 degrees below zero.

 

[diver dave]

Define bitter cold. That is a relative adjective. Bitter cold to this New Englander is anywhere between 0 and 20 degrees below zero.

Scuba diving might adjust those numbers.

 

[Frank60]

I have a Xantrex charger that I thought was dead from water spray from a failing shaft seal. The technician did something to 'reset' it. Been working great for 2 years since then. One caveat is that it was lake water, not salt water.

 

[BruceK]

Define bitter cold. That is a relative adjective. Bitter cold to this New Englander is anywhere between 0 and 20 degrees below zero.

Fahrenheit or Centigrade?

 

[phillippeterson]

Fahrenheit or Centigrade?

Kelvin

 

[Datenight]

Kelvin

 

[ancora]

WOW your lucky our dockhouse staff is too drunk and never walks the docks your boat would have been doomed! I have a smart system that alerts me temps, high water, motion detection, and door contact sensors that also turns on the lights on the boat and sets of a siren and strobe light on fly-bridge on. I also have Wyze cameras in bilge x2, aft deck, salon, and pan tilt zoom on fly bridge I can see whats going on. I had a notification one time the alarm was going off turned out to be condensation on sensor from when I had washed the bilge out the day before. Siren was going off and strobe flashing and dock house staff just stayed up at dockhouse smoking and drinking according to cameras. I turned of alarm after looking at cameras to verify no immediate issue. I went down and verified after work.

Our yacht club marina has at least one live aboard on every dock to act as dock captains in the event of an emergency.

 

[High Wire]

So the bilge pump ran the batteries down? Must’ve been running a long time. Good on your dock mate.

 

[backinblue]

If I understand the situation correctly, the hose from the outlet of the bilge pump was leaking which means no water was leaving the bilge so the pump probably just ran non-stop once it started. It doesn't mean that water was flooding into the hull from a broken water inlet hose for instance and the pump was running to try to keep up with the water coming in. So it's great that someone noticed and reported the alarm but it doesn't necessarilly mean the boat was in imminent danger of sinking or doomed if nobody noticed unless you have a very leaky hull.
Unfortunate that it took out the charger.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. p. Re: Your post #17. There are NO below zero readings on the Kelvin scale. O Kelvin is absolute zero. At least as far as current knowledge goes.

 

[backinblue]

Just like RTF to ruin the fun with facts!

 

[ancora]

If I understand the situation correctly, the hose from the outlet of the bilge pump was leaking which means no water was leaving the bilge so the pump probably just ran non-stop once it started. It doesn't mean that water was flooding into the hull from a broken water inlet hose for instance and the pump was running to try to keep up with the water coming in. So it's great that someone noticed and reported the alarm but it doesn't necessarilly mean the boat was in imminent danger of sinking or doomed if nobody noticed unless you have a very leaky hull.
Unfortunate that it took out the charger.

The hose completely came off the fitting and sprayed salt water everywhere, killing the battery charger. The sea water just kept recycling, back into the sump, with no danger of the boat sinking.

 

[backinblue]

Thanks, that's what I thought but I think some here misunderstood and thought your boat was in danger of sinking.