Mischief Managed
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2018
- Messages
- 678
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Mischief Managed II
- Vessel Make
- 1992 Tollycraft 44 CPMY
I'm very impressed with my Tollycraft so far, but I discovered a really strange lapse in engineering quality that really surprised me last weekend.
My windlass has always easily tripped its breaker if loaded down for more than a couple of seconds. It was easy to live with since the boat was more than capable of breaking the anchor free, but it was something I intended to address in the off season. Well, the boat forced me to address it much earlier than planned as the breaker started tripping with no load at all when we were attempting to retrieve than anchor. Fortunately, I was anchored in really shallow water and we were able to get the (60 lb) anchor aboard manually without a lot of effort.
Anyway, I dug into the breaker panel, pulled out the offending breaker, and learned that it was rated for 100 amps (these breakers don't have a capacity label on the front). That seemed a little low so I looked up the specs on the windlass which stated that the normal working current is 110 to 135 amps. The specs also called for only 6 AWG wire in my application (which seems kinda small at 120 amps in rating). Interestingly, Tollycraft used 2 AWG wire (good for 210 amps) but why they only used a 100 amp breaker is beyond me. That said, the boat is 27 years old and the breaker is original, so I guess it worked for a long time....
When I was shopping for a new breaker, I discovered that the maximum current possible in a single pole breaker of this physical size (Blue Sea C-series) was 100 amps. The only way to increase the current over 100 amps is to go with a double pole set of 2 ganged breakers that take up two slots in the panel. This is where it gets interesting, the panel had an extra breaker in it that was unused, so doubling the size of the windlass breaker was easy. With the 210 amp wire and the extra breaker slot, It's almost as though Tollycraft had planned on a 200 amp breaker all along and there was a mistake in the build.
I got a 200 amp breaker by mail on Friday and had it installed and working on Friday evening. The new one has a label on the front stating that it's 200 amps, which is nice. This is the second breaker failure on the boat since May. I will be getting a few spares over the Winter.
My windlass has always easily tripped its breaker if loaded down for more than a couple of seconds. It was easy to live with since the boat was more than capable of breaking the anchor free, but it was something I intended to address in the off season. Well, the boat forced me to address it much earlier than planned as the breaker started tripping with no load at all when we were attempting to retrieve than anchor. Fortunately, I was anchored in really shallow water and we were able to get the (60 lb) anchor aboard manually without a lot of effort.
Anyway, I dug into the breaker panel, pulled out the offending breaker, and learned that it was rated for 100 amps (these breakers don't have a capacity label on the front). That seemed a little low so I looked up the specs on the windlass which stated that the normal working current is 110 to 135 amps. The specs also called for only 6 AWG wire in my application (which seems kinda small at 120 amps in rating). Interestingly, Tollycraft used 2 AWG wire (good for 210 amps) but why they only used a 100 amp breaker is beyond me. That said, the boat is 27 years old and the breaker is original, so I guess it worked for a long time....
When I was shopping for a new breaker, I discovered that the maximum current possible in a single pole breaker of this physical size (Blue Sea C-series) was 100 amps. The only way to increase the current over 100 amps is to go with a double pole set of 2 ganged breakers that take up two slots in the panel. This is where it gets interesting, the panel had an extra breaker in it that was unused, so doubling the size of the windlass breaker was easy. With the 210 amp wire and the extra breaker slot, It's almost as though Tollycraft had planned on a 200 amp breaker all along and there was a mistake in the build.
I got a 200 amp breaker by mail on Friday and had it installed and working on Friday evening. The new one has a label on the front stating that it's 200 amps, which is nice. This is the second breaker failure on the boat since May. I will be getting a few spares over the Winter.
