Salty Pelican here!

Hi there! New to the forum. Thanks for having me.

The mss. and I have always had plans to cruise the world (or at least parts of it). Kids and business came in the way, but with the children growing up and our businesses doing well, boating became in focus again.

We own a steel displacement boat. A Bruijs Spiegelkotter 11.50 AK. A seaworthy (yet not ocean-going) ship of 41 feet. Sturdy build. Magnus Master stabilizer. 300 gallons of fuel. Racor fuel cleaning / filtration system. New suite of Raymarine plotter/radar/autopilot/AIS.

We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves learning the ropes on the rivers and lakes of the Netherlands, where we live. We are dreaming of building our own passagemaker, based on what we have learned so far. A feasibility and initial design study is on its way.

Will keep y'all posted!

Welcome! I look forward to hearing of your adventures around the Netherlands.

Welcome aboard.

Welcome. Glad life is treating you so well, and you future plans sound like a lot of fun too.

Trying to upload a picture of our boat, Salty Pelican. Hope this works:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2868664890114468&set=pcb.2868664933447797

Howdy.
I did an internet search on the Bruijs Spiegelkotter 11.50 AK.
Nice boat.
Does it have a CE rating? If not, no big deal.

Trying to post a pic, but it somehow needs an ok from the mods? Yeah, it's CE-B certified.

Salty Pelican said:

Trying to post a pic, but it somehow needs an ok from the mods? Yeah, it's CE-B certified.

Click to expand...

"Patience grasshopper. All things will happen at the proper time."

Salty, below is the data for a CE-B rating.

B up to Force 8 (39-46mph) Wave height up to and including 4 meters (about 13 feet)
Close the windows and doors, get the "throw up" bucket, this may not be a fun ride. Might want to get a helmet too.

How come no one installs a seat belt, for the dude steering the boat?

I would not go out in that kind of weather except to escape from an unruly mob carrying flaming torches.
Knowing the CE rating is nice to know incase you run into rough weather. The wind speed, I can read inside the pilot house. I want to know who's going outside the boat to measure the wave height.

Haha! Patience is a great virtue! I'll try and exercise some.

We had a Force 7 on the nose on our first trip, when we sailed her back from Friesland over the IJsselmeer. It wasn't fun but doable. What was really bad, was the oversized speedboat that sailed up next to us and then opened up full power. It sorta sucked a hole in the water and in we went. We recovered, but not much was left standing inside or outside.

Moreover, it "loosened" the diesel bug in the tanks that we had become aware off only two days earlier. We managed to get the boat back on inland waters before she stalled out.

Hence the Racor filters and stabilizer system. After some extensive tank cleaning.

Dan, might the weakest link on the boat not just be the captain? Going out in crazy weather is a bad decision. If it can be prevented.

Salty Pelican said:

Haha! Patience is a great virtue! I'll try and exercise some.

We had a Force 7 on the nose on our first trip, when we sailed her back from Friesland over the IJsselmeer. It wasn't fun but doable. What was really bad, was the oversized speedboat that sailed up next to us and then opened up full power. It sorta sucked a hole in the water and in we went. We recovered, but not much was left standing inside or outside.

******* Did you call on your VHF and "thank" the Captain??

Moreover, it "loosened" the diesel bug in the tanks that we had become aware off only two days earlier. We managed to get the boat back on inland waters before she stalled out.

******** A good reason to have a fuel polishing system.

Hence the Racor filters and stabilizer system. After some extensive tank cleaning.

******** Think how bad the situation would be if it were not for the Racor filters. Do you have dual Racors?

Dan, might the weakest link on the boat not just be the captain? Going out in crazy weather is a bad decision. If it can be prevented.

Click to expand...

Prevented?? I guess it all depends on how many folks with torches there are in the mob and how fast they are moving

Dual system with pressure gauges.

Salty Pelican said:

Dual system with pressure gauges.

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Both filters clogged up? You have more than bugs in you fuel tanks. Any cats missing in the marina ??

No, this happened before the Racor install. 300 gallon tanks and the previous owner ran the boat on a 30 liter jerrycan ... Oh, and he had the two 150 gallon tanks connected by a hose that was mounted wrong, so that the hose (and not the tank drains) became the lowest point in the fuel system.

After all the diesel bug idiocy, we had everything cleaned and filtered. Then we installed dual Racors and topped the boat up with GTL.

Salty Pelican being equipped with a Vetus engine complicated things. They use diesel to also cool the piezo injectors on the engine. To prevent any gunk getting in there, ultra-tight engine fuel filters (I think 5 micron) are used. Meaning that if there is as little as a fart wrong with the fuel, the filters will clog up. Especially since the engine draws like 30 gallons of fuel per hour (and returns most of that to the tank). We had the system work in our favor by adding the (30 micron) Racors like this: now the 30 gallons (minus actual use) is nicely filtered before it goes either into the engine to combust or back into the tank.

You installed the Racor filters on the return line.
It should be installed on the supply line. Maybe I read that wrong.
It's nice to have clean tanks and clean fuel.
I still recommend a polishing system.

To the best of my knowledge, all diesels use the returning fuel to cool the injectors.

They are on the supply line.

Salty Pelican said:

They are on the supply line.

Click to expand...

Correct.