2012- out with the old, in with the new
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Fri 20 Jan 2012 11:46
|
We're here in St Maarten getting the boat ready for
the Pacific where shore support is much less readily available. There is a
seemingly unending list of jobs to do. A major task was replacing our batteries
which have failed again after only two years, probably due to an inadequate
charging regime. There are 12 of them living under our bed and they weigh about
40kg each so shifting them is no simple task. I hit upon the idea of building a
travelling hoist which was able to lift them directly out of the rear hatch and
then traverse across the rear deck to the stern where they could be slid along a
gangplank (we're in a marina for the first time in nearly a year for this
reason). Piece of cake, and far far easier than the struggle we had last tim
carrying them into and through the boat.
Here is a battery going up (note the essential cup
of tea; this operation had real echoes of 'Right Said Fred'):
 And here it is the deck side of the
operation:
 The picture is not as clear as I'd like, but you
can see Alison holding the lifting rope at the top of the block and tackle. The
top end is attached to a snatchblock which rolls along a horizontal rope
stretched between the rear of the boom and the backstay, enabling the traverse.
You can just see this arrangement at the top of the picture.
And here is the finished product all neatly
rewired:
 The new batteries are smaller than the old ones
(why can't they be standardised???) and slightly taller which caused some fiddly
capentry work. The bars of wood over the top of the batteries are to keep them
firmly in place in the event of a knockdown when the boat may roll to the
horizontal or even further. That's bad enough; but it's an order of magnitude
worse if the batteries come loose in the process!
|