Trek forum posts in last 60 days

The obvious point about the SMH article is even with the best efforts of teams of engineers the batteries still seem imperfectly controllable. The BMS software is blamed in one case allowing the batteries to over charge. What??!! Obviously untested. So that's what we are relying on. Untested BMS unless there Is a certificate. In my medical work software is not allowed to control critical devices.

A very simple step the battery manufacturers could take is to make the top of the battery removable and/or the case transparent so a user can check out its basic build.

IMHO even LiFePO4 barreries can burn but are enormously safer than other chemistries. Thermal run away much less likely. Since we cant see inside a big battery we have to assume its unknown BMS and cell quality unless certified. So take precautions. Put them in a metal vented box so if they fail the fire is less likely to sink the boat. Like on aircraft that use them. And monitor their temperature. I dont have mine in a box but both batteries have temperature sensors glued on top to trigger an alarm if they get hot and isolation relays to disconnect them if that happens.Maybe Im paranoid but fires on boats are scary.

Put a Trek Transponde or similar on your boats. Same concept as an alarm in your home. Can make uninsurable boats insurable and reduce premiums and excess on other boats. My boat was doubtfully insurable but because the insurer knows its monitored they took it on. No out of water survey required. The bonus is unless something goes wrong really fast you can fix if before it costs you.

There is a list of marine insurers you can get quotes from here:

www.boatinsure.au

I like solar and lithium batteries because barring rare breakdowns it makes the boat totally independent of the mainland. We can head off any time for an "unlimited" time. Very very rarely ever need to find somewhere to fill up with diesel run the engine for electric power.

Same reason for preferring a metho stove. Don't need to lug an LPG tank around or find a place to refill it. We can pull in anywhere that has a hardware shop and get more metho. After teaching everyone how to light it, which is a scary process, we can have a meat/fish and three veg meal anytime. One 75W solar panel (and a spare) with MPPT regulator 300AH of batteries has never in 5 years got desperately low in power. And that includes warming pies and sausage rolls in our 12V oven.

The old Volvo 2003 did have an alternator on it which was a very noisely and dodgy. Full of corrosion and rust. I thought about replacing it but after finding out the cost of a new one - no way. So because the solar power system was running fine I took it off 3 years ago and never looked back. Got rid of the fan belt that ran it, got rid of a lot of noise and the boat motors noticably faster. So for better or worse Ive dumped generators.

YouTube, click on the video above

Preliminary regatta for 38th Americas Cup being sailed now in Italy. Fantastic speed and tactics. Countries there, NZx2, Italyx2, Swiss, France, UK.