I decided to run out the total chain in our marina. I did not know how much chain Sirion has.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Earlier this week, my friend Peter and his partner Gillian came round. The four of us spent the whole day on Sirion sailing up and down the river Linge. Very nice and pleasant.
We anchored for our lunch. I realised that this was also the very first time I had used the anchor. Not a problem, everything went fine. And I got to use another interesting feature on my fancy Raymarine Plotter: anchor watch. You tell it where you dropped your anchor, how deep the water is and the amount of chain you let out. It calculates the circle in which the boat can move. When it moves out of that circle, it raises an alarm as the anchor is dragging.
I decided to run out the total chain in our marina. I did not know how much chain Sirion has. Also, I wanted to make sure it has so called chain length marker attached at the appropriate spaces.
I can operate the anchor winch from the steering stand with this switch:
I also have a sort of remote device that should allow me to operate it from the open cockpit. I tried, but it did not work. Not a big problem, but I will put it on the list of things to fix when all the important things that need fixing are done.
You can also operate the anchor winch standing on the bow, with these foot switches.
The anchor and all its chain in the locker. Also two collapsible “Anchor-balls”. Your supposed to put these up in the mast if at anchor.
I dropped the anchor a couple of decimeters and lifted it ashore.
Next, I used a special wrench to release the brake mechanism. Essentially it allows the anchor to free fall, or in this case, for me to pull all the chain ashore.
In all, I pulled 50 meters of chain out of Sirion’s chain locker!
I also checked and added a few of these markers. I have one of these markers now every 5 meters. So when you are lowering the anchor you count the number of markers going out!
Last bit of anchor out of the chain locker. End of the chain tied to the boat. Very important. It is done with a bit of rope. In case of emergency, you can easily cut through with a knife. You lose the anchor unless you manage to secure a buoy or so to it.
Rewound the chain and we are all ready for the next time!!
Notice how much lighter the bow is, with the anchor and chain out?
Next, I continued with the troubleshooting of the problematic converter. You will have seen me spend a lot of time troubleshooting this device. It appears as if it doesn’t generate a WiFi signal. But why?
As you might recall, this device is hooked up in the Raymarine Network. This is a so called NMEA2000 network. So I have been reading up on these networks a bit.
I made myself some special test leads.
These devices are powered through the Network cable itself. So you need to get at least 11,5V or more. I was getting just over 13V, so plenty!
With the network powered down, you can also check the resistance in the Network. It has two special end resistors, and they should measure 60 ohms.
Look at mine, near perfect!
These are the two basic tests any NMEA Network needs to pass. So my network basics were fine. So why was this device not working?
I also noted that with the device in the network, it appears it gets power, but no WiFi signal. That is before I switch on any other equipment.
It sounds easy enough, doing some of these test. But in practice it takes a lot of time to get access, to get all the tools out etc.
I decided to make another test lead so I could power up these two devices I bought completely outside the Network, so stand alone.
I quickly drove home to pick up a 12VDC transformer. Sure enough, with external 12VDC applied I was still not getting a WiFi signal.
So I moved my test set up outside the cabin and even ashore!!
Sirion has three master switches for the electrical system. One is for the batteries and charging circuits. One is for the engine and the third one is for all instrumentation and everything else.
I noticed that with the instrument master switch off, I was getting a good WiFi signal from either device. As soon as I turn on the instrument master switch the WiFi signal is gone!!
So although this is not the root cause it is a very important finding. I know, based on all my earlier testing, no other WiFi signals are interfering. I have managed to exclude all of that.
But my conclusion is that when I switch the instrument master switch, something gets powered up that causes a total suppression/interference of this WiFi signal. Which is weird, as all of the instrument equipment has seperate individual circuits switched to put actual power to the respective instruments.
But this is an almost 20-year-old vessel. You have seen me work on the electrical bits before and it is not what you would call well laid out. In fact, it is pretty messy. Somewhere, I have a device that is hooked up directly to the instrument power.
So no solution yet, but we are definitely making progress and starting to hone in on the root cause!!
Jeroen
Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
