First year of cruising full-time - new boat owners migrating from Sail to Power

[MVTara]

I had posted in this forum a year or so ago, when we were making a decision on which boat to buy. We chose Kadey-Krogen 60 Open Hull#1,
Bravery or foolishness? Verdict is still out. The boat took a while to be delivered. We got possession last May. In a way, the delay was good since it gave my wife a chance to get her work in good shape and retire.

The first year has been both painful and exhilarating. Had our house and out some of the furniture and other belongings in a storage. We did buy a small condo unit in Florida just so that we have base from which can make medical doctor appointments.

We learnt a lot and are continuing to learn about the navigation, docking, anchoring and man, I will start posting on those experiences.
Hemant Kanajua.

 

[PierreR]

We wait in eggar anticipation. Second year should be much better.

 

[chanprr]

A beautiful trawler and congratulations!!

 

[Jklotz]

Nice boat! Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[READY]

Welcome back. Love to hear more.

 

[Don L]

I found the biggest difference between the first year and the later years was that expectations got more in line with how it really is over "the dream" cruising. It was interesting the places we didn't like the first year that later became favorites.

 

[MVTara]

I will continue with my first year experience chronicles in this thread. Hope people find it interesting read.

We took possession of our boat, named Tara (after a budhhist and hindu godess), in May 2025. As they say, our stars must not have aligned on that day. Because we were a first time boat owner, migrating from a sailboat of smaller size (40’ Freedom) to a 60’ trawler, Insurance required that we have a training captain they approve of for 50 hours of training. So, the captain, me and spouse, and a Kadey-Krogen person started off from Stuart marina to go to North Palm Beach for a day run. Barely out of Marina, while passing under the bridge, we lost power and engine throttle controls were dead and so was the navigation stuff. Panic on our part. Fortunately, that day we had much more experienced folks onboard. Someone went into engine room, paralleled engine start battery to house batteries so that we got control of engine back. And, then we limped back to Stuart Marina to investigate, WTF happened. It turns out that we had chosen to have a lithium battery system as our house battery. Very impressive looking, compact installation but it comes with a BMS that will shut the battery down if it detects something funny like over or undervolatage, current spike beyound limits, temperature etc. And, the electrical design of the boat had engine throttle tied to house battery (but the engine start batteries are AGM). Anyway, back in the marina, few more days went by while people tried to find out why BMS shut down. I am an electrical engineer by training but it was all theoretical (PhDs are kind of useless for such practical things!!) so all I can do was to observe and learn. Ultimately, a temporary fix was made. The shutdown was a result of spike generated by engine alternators trying to charge batteries and going from bulk to float mode - apparently not too smoothly.

Few days later we set out again. No more battery problems - one would hope. Well I do have more of battery saga but there were other interesting things that happened so more of that in due time. We have been on the boat more or less continuously from late May to November and have gone from Palm Beach Florida to Camden, Maine and back in that time. Put 530 hours on each engine (we have twin engines). And there have been many “fun” learning experiences along the way. My spouse did wonder many times, if we should not have bought a used boat instead of a new one and certainly not hull #1.

 

[Don L]

I think you had an alternator regulator problem. Hope they did a real fix.

 

[slowgoesit]

We need pictures! Sounds like a really nice boat.

 

[MVTara]

I think you had an alternator regulator problem. Hope they did a real fix.

Yes. It was a wakespeed alternator regulator. I discovered (by listening to the tech who fixed the problem several months later) that it does not play nice with Mastervolt systems. Has no interace to Mastervolt bus so it is kind of guessing as to when the batteries go to float mode. The fix was to swap them out for the one that works well with Mastervolt - I think it is Alpha Pro.
I still have some lingering problems that have to do with bad shore power (220 V or a bit lower) that ends up shutting down BMS. Have yet to fully understand how to avoid that. Our onboard power boosters do not seem to work well with mastervolt inverter / charger. Tech from Mastervolt who was very good claims that newest firmware he installed will fix that problem. Let see. Right now I am off the boat to visit my parents but will see if the fix worked when we are back on the boat in February and head to Bahamas.

 

[MVTara]

We need pictures! Sounds like a really nice boat.

Here are some pictures of interior including our massive engine room.

 

[Don L]

Has no interace to Mastervolt bus so it is kind of guessing as to when the batteries go to float mode.

I still have some lingering problems that have to do with bad shore power (220 V or a bit lower) that ends up shutting down BMS.

The alternator regulator sense wire needs to be at the batteries. And it should be set to below that BMS setpoint, These are LFP batteries and 98% charged is just fine. Even the manufacturers still I don't feel understand this.

Same thing with the battery charger for when on shore power.

This is my opinion as a boatless ex cruiser

 

[nwh10]

Just gorgeous! I think the engine room photo is my favorite!

Nancy

 

[proudsailor]

Despite owning our boat for two years, we are on our inaugural cruise having left Baltimore in October and now in St Augustine. Running the boat consistently (vs day trips) has revealed electrical gremlins that were always there, but seem to be much more active. And like you, those gremlins have caused me panic but we've been able to power through- pun intended. Slowly figuring it all out, but to me, electrical issues are the most challenging- between 20 miles of wiring to chargers to battery banks and inverters or regulators/alternators or fuse sizes or capacity or generation or amp hours or dc vs ac or...... How do I put in an exploding head emoji here?

 

[lwarden]

Beautiful boat @MVTara. You bring up an interesting question about wiring of critical systems to a mix of AGM and LiPo battery systems. Generally, the recommendation is to wire critical systems to the house, but I'm not so sure about that when you consider a BMS can shut things down abruptly so things like bilge pumps and engine controls could be shut off at a very bad time.

 

[rslifkin]

Beautiful boat @MVTara. You bring up an interesting question about wiring of critical systems to a mix of AGM and LiPo battery systems. Generally, the recommendation is to wire critical systems to the house, but I'm not so sure about that when you consider a BMS can shut things down abruptly so things like bilge pumps and engine controls could be shut off at a very bad time.

Generally I go with anything critical to engine operation runs off that engine's start battery to make the engine systems as self-contained as possible and minimize exposure to failure in other systems. I don't want anything that's powered with the engine keys off to run off start batteries, however. So bilge pumps, etc. go to the house as starting power is considered safety critical and nothing should be able to inadvertently drain the start batteries. With twin engines and electronic controls, the control system MUST be able to have multiple power sources and should be powered from both engine start batteries. If a third source is possible, then run that to house power (although with electronic engines a power failure on both engine circuits means the engines won't be running anyway).

As far as a BMS shutdown, it should never happen outside of a major failure in the batteries, charging system, or an over-discharge situation. Appropriate configuration of charge sources, etc. is critical to make sure that in normal operation you never drive the system into a condition where a BMS shutdown will occur.

 

[Carvelli]

Hello MVTara and thanks for the post. I thought I had posted earlier but I don’t see it anywhere in the thread.

Congratulations on the boat! I toured your vessel at the KK Open House last year and it’s amazing.

I’m essentially a year behind you as I’m awaiting delivery of a 50 Open in May (hull #7, which we’ll be naming Seventh Heaven).

I would love to hear more about your experiences so that I can avoid potential mishaps and seek out the pleasant surprises! Thanks for sharing and hope to read more.

 

[Jklotz]

Generally I go with anything critical to engine operation runs off that engine's start battery to make the engine systems as self-contained as possible and minimize exposure to failure in other systems. I don't want anything that's powered with the engine keys off to run off start batteries, however. So bilge pumps, etc. go to the house as starting power is considered safety critical and nothing should be able to inadvertently drain the start batteries. With twin engines and electronic controls, the control system MUST be able to have multiple power sources and should be powered from both engine start batteries. If a third source is possible, then run that to house power (although with electronic engines a power failure on both engine circuits means the engines won't be running anyway).

As far as a BMS shutdown, it should never happen outside of a major failure in the batteries, charging system, or an over-discharge situation. Appropriate configuration of charge sources, etc. is critical to make sure that in normal operation you never drive the system into a condition where a BMS shutdown will occur.

Sounds a bit like a BMW car I had for a while. It was a "mild hybrid", which was basically a 40v battery bank that powered everything except the engine, which had it's own 12v system.

 

[lowtidebites]

Have you considered a BBMS (battery bank management system)? Take a look here if interested...

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0568/1011/1110/files/MANUAL___BankManager_3.X.pdf?v=1730313977

I run this on my boat with mixed batteries, Lithium and AGM.

 

[MVTara]

Have you considered a BBMS (battery bank management system)? Take a look here if interested...

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0568/1011/1110/files/MANUAL___BankManager_3.X.pdf?v=1730313977

I run this on my boat with mixed batteries, Lithium and AGM.

Thanks. I just looked at this. Seems quite interesting. Project for DIY someday. The boat vendor had installed a mechanical switchover in the engine room that would parallel AGM battery of Engine startup battery with house battery bank (LiFoPe). So, we can recover from BMS shutting down house battery while underway (or at anchor). It is just me and wife cruising fulltime and I did not want spouse to rush to engine room that is hot to do switchover mechanically. In panic that could result into a safety issue. So, I had recommended the boat vendor to find a solution to do this switchover automatically. My (theoretical) knowledge of electrical system suggested that it would be easy to build such a device. So, I am glad that you pointed me to a device that does such a thing. When and if I install Solar power, I will make this upgrade. Seems easy to do, given that I already have mechanical throw switch installed in my engine room.

 

[lowtidebites]

A couple pics of my wire job... not pictured is the Victron controller.

 

[rgano]

I really like hearing of your travels and travails of Tara and your good attitude about it all.

 

[Ithaka7]

Please, continue sharing your stories, much appreciated. Great boat.

On the battery issue, it is worrying, because it can happen to anyone at any point in time. In the good old days, when I had a simple 12V sailboat, with an A/B switch, you could always switch from bank one to the other or both at will. On the larger boats, it is not that simple. I would suggest the following:

1. Most electronic engine controls have provision for two battery sources to avoid exactly this issue. Make the start battery primary, the house secondary, the unit will switch over automatically.

2. Have completely separate electrical systems for each engine. My boat came this way (separate start batteries, separate controls, alternators diode separated). It is not that much extra weight to have two sets of 24V starting batteries, they can be quite small actually and the redundancy is worth it.

I could share a similar incident: wet cells starting batteries, the water had evaporated, I started at the dock ok, went to the fueling station, then attempted to start again, the starboard starting battery exploded, and I lost power, no start, no control, dead. Switched to the port bank and continued without my guests even noticing. Soon or later this will happen to any of us.

MV Ithaka

 

[MVTara]

As I chronicle our experience of owning a hull #1, also being new to boating, I will be constantly talking about challenges we encountered and how it educated us. As one of our friend in the KK world said to me, he only knows well those systems that have failed and had to be repaired. One particular challenge we as a novice boats (and full time cruisers!!) had was to understand what is normal versus unusual that happens as the hull #1 works out its kinks. But, one thing I do want to emphesize is how supportive our boat vendor has been. As and when problems arose they rose to the challenge of foguring our solutions. True that many things were under warranty but they went beyound call of duty in trying to fix things. I would say that in making a choice of which boat to buy, one should take this part - after sale service - into account. In that regard, Kadey-Krogen comes out with a flying colors. For instance, we discovered that transom door leading to Swim platform was too heavy and awkward (needed really tall person) to open it from the swim platform. Without making any fuss, the KK actually redesigned it and made it not only for hull #2 but also replaced it for us. Now, that is going beyond call of duty, The same attitude while we were struggling to get the Lithium battery related issues.

 

[MVTara]

Things resolved and we finally got possession of the boat with a temporary fix on the battery issue. By that time it was last week of May and out insurance required us to be north of hatteras by June 1. So, we spend a day or two, provisioning for the long trip ahead and also doing some docking practice in Lake Worth, Florida. Then we set out to go to Camden, Maine. Why Camden Maine? That was our favorite sailing place when we owned a sailboat and we kept our sailboat there for several years.

So far, we had no clue on how to read weather or plot courses (we were moving from Raymarine on our saiboat to Furuno) but having a very experienced Captain with us was a great help. We learnt so much about navigating and docking from him. But, also about various things about maintaining the boat in a good shop. I would heartily recommend, Bernard Francis, if you are ever in need of a captain for a short duration. He lives in Florida but will travel.

We set out from Lake worth outlet to go off shore towards charleston. The boat was behaving well. It took a while to realize that unlike in a sailboat, you depend so much on having a autopilot. I am glad that we made a call to have two autopilots. Our boat is full of such redundancies.

The first night at sea was an interesting experience. My spouse loves boating as much as I do and is not afraid to navigate in the dark so we had 4 hour shifts with me, her and our captain. As the night came on so did the winds and the rain. At one point (I think around Cape Canarval) the wind speed was 25knots constant with gusts of 30-32 knots. Wind was on the beam and heavy rain was falling practically horizontally. We had stowed things around but not having had enough time in Florida to test things, that was far from perfect. All night we had pantry items making noises, drawers opening, oven door opening, saloon table supports etc. But, there was no reason to panic. It was just annoying to hear all that noise and occasionally go secure drawers nd stuff towels all around the place. The most annoying part was some water leaks but overall waves were 3’-5’ with decent period intervals and following seas. Also, it seemed like that the heavy rain had a dampening effect on the waves. I think it was a positive confidence building night experience in terms of our boat weathering a small storm-like weather and also us handling the boat through that.

Two overnights to Charleston and then on to Beaufort, NC offshore and we were in to ICW. That was a different type of experience. To be described in my next post on this maiden voyage.

 

[MVTara]

Please, continue sharing your stories, much appreciated. Great boat.

On the battery issue, it is worrying, because it can happen to anyone at any point in time. In the good old days, when I had a simple 12V sailboat, with an A/B switch, you could always switch from bank one to the other or both at will. On the larger boats, it is not that simple. I would suggest the following:

The same thing for us. Sailboat we had (40’ Freedom) was similar. A/B switch.

1. Most electronic engine controls have provision for two battery sources to avoid exactly this issue. Make the start battery primary, the house secondary, the unit will switch over automatically.

I have to investigate our engine control system to see if that is true for us. But, honestly I prefer a system which prevents Lithium based battery banks from shutting down when underway due to going from bulk charging mode to float charging mode. I think we have that now. And, the device suggested by @lowtidebits does that well too.

2. Have completely separate electrical systems for each engine. My boat came this way (separate start batteries, separate controls, alternators diode separated). It is not that much extra weight to have two sets of 24V starting batteries, they can be quite small actually and the redundancy is worth it.

We have two engines and every thing separated as you suggest.

I could share a similar incident: wet cells starting batteries, the water had evaporated, I started at the dock ok, went to the fueling station, then attempted to start again, the starboard starting battery exploded, and I lost power, no start, no control, dead. Switched to the port bank and continued without my guests even noticing. Soon or later this will happen to any of us.

MV Ithaka

 

[rslifkin]

I have to investigate our engine control system to see if that is true for us. But, honestly I prefer a system which prevents Lithium based battery banks from shutting down when underway due to going from bulk charging mode to float charging mode.

Making sure the batteries won't shut down in normal use is definitely the right way to do it. But even once that's done, making sure you have appropriately redundant power feeds to the engine controls is a good idea.

In my mind, if you have power available to make the engines run, there should be power to the controls. Basically the controls should only drop out if you either have a major failure in the control system itself, or if things have gone wrong to the point where the engines aren't running anymore and it no longer matters if the controls work.

 

[MVTara]

ICW for the first time ..
From Beauport, NC we ducked in to ICW. Instead of stopping there, we pushed on to anchor at Pungo Creek, because we were already at June 1 and had to be beyound Hatteras, NC. In May-June days are long so we could comfortably motor till 7:30 pm and anchor in day light. I had no clue how muddy and sticky too is the bottom in most of ICW. I discovered that next morning when trying to raise anchor. Stood on the bow platform, with washer hose ready to clean the mud as chain was being pulled up. Made so much mess as I did not know how to do it well. The captain we had with us is into instagram and he took a video of that and posted it in his feed. What a popular video it become 550L hits at the last count. People love to point out how badly someone else is doing things, I guess. Fortunately, the video showed on me knees down and no face visible, so I am safe from smirks that I would be sufferring had the face was feasible. I do not know how to post Instagram reels but if you are curious, I have attached a QR code which if you scan will take you to that video clip.

The next stop after that day was stopping at Coinjock. It is a lovely marina. Cheaper fuel, helpful dock personnel and very good restaurant. Next day we pushed past the Norfolk and anchored in Deltavile. From there we were off to Annapolis. That was our home for 15 days. We had been fro DC so a bunch of friends we caught up with in that period. Port of Annapolis marina has a great service staff. They helped us figure out the source of water leaks we had, There was also a minor oil leak on port side engine coming from Air Filter. Local John Deere distributor sent some people to look at it. No help. We still have that leak. Hope we find a solution before we head out to Bahamas in February,

Going through ICW was an experience. We used aquamap and bob423 treks all the time. Kept that iPad right on the helm alongside our furuno dispaly.

Next destination for us was Camden, Maine. We started from Annapolis in late June to make our way to Maine. Mostly stopped every day except when we got to the other side of Cape Cod Canal. Then, it was 36 hour straight shot to penobscot bay. We did not intend to spend time in any marina except eot overnights but ended up making an emergency stop for repairs at Newport. More om that in my next stop.

 

[Carnutdallas]

Here are some pictures of interior including our massive engine room.

Engine room is spectacular! At 6’4”, I would love an engine room like that. Well done and enjoying the information, pictures and stories. Happy New Year!

 

[PNK]

Congratulations, your boat is beautiful. I'm sure you will work out the kinks quickly.
I have a question about the batteries, though; I have been thinking about lithium, but don't have them yet, and was told by a couple of different providers that mixing lithium and AGM would create problems. ( maybe they were just trying to sell me more batteries!)
Was this ever discussed during the build process? KK builds wonderful boats, and I wonder if there were reasons for mixing the two on your boat?
Taking your boat up to Maine, and not needing to stay in marinas, must have been fabulous; that has always been my favorite area to boat.
Peter