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High From Amsterdam

Ramblings
I wish flights could be quicker though, but there is no supersonic service any more now that Concorde has been mothballed, and Coastal Climate Control couldn’t afford that luxury anyway. So, we’re stuck with flying commercial airlines at subsonic spe...
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Opps My Mistake!

Ramblings
Back in 1999, after a journey lasting 10 months, the $125m Mars Climate Orbiter which, as its name implied was supposed to orbit the red planet and gather climate and other information, was seen to venture a little too close to the planet surface for...
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Fake News in The Pipeline

Ramblings
There were all sorts of strange war-related artifacts left around after the second world war in the area of south east England where I grew up. This was in southeastern Kent, which was given the nickname of Hellfire Corner due to its proximity to the...
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Beware of the Speedy Meanie!

Refrigeration
Observing these two got me to thinking how this speed disparity relates to the variable speed compressors we have now in both refrigeration and air conditioning systems. If there’s not much work to do, then why not slow the compressor down and run it...
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Current Affairs - Making the Right Connections

Battery
For my testing I connected five brand new Group 31 batteries in parallel with equal length straps. The first set of tests was with Firefly AGM’s, followed by identical tests with RELiON lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, as I was curious to ...
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A Re-Volting Thought

Battery
In theory, as the 12v battery is depleted it will be recharged from the traction battery, and when the traction battery gets low the built-in generator will kick in and charge it up. So, in theory if I leave the Volt switched on I could have 110v AC ...
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Magnetic Personalities

Ramblings
Outwardly, the only sign of anything untoward was a small blister in the top foil, but an autopsy revealed a connecting track beneath the blister reduced to cinders, and two tiny zap holes in the aluminum backing plate. Where the lightning went from ...
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RIP Holding Plates

Refrigeration
Holding plates are basically a tank containing a solution that is designed to thaw at a particular temperature. Included also is a coil of tubing through which a refrigerant circulates at very low temperatures when the refrigeration system is running...
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Air Conditioning + Your boat + Batteries = Great Summer!

Air Conditioning
For overnight use in sleeping cabins, where the loads are a fraction of those during the day, running air conditioning units from batteries is often a realistic option. With that thought, Coastal Climate Control offers the very energy efficient Climm...
Read more

Power Basement

Battery
With these six transfer switches set at Mains, power is diverted from the main Breaker Panel, through these transfer switches, then back to the Breaker Panel and on to the circuits. With the transfer switches set for Inverter, the mains power is deli...
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Decisions: Smoked Phish or Byrned curtains?

Ramblings
1) it has only four strings,2) you plonk along playing only one note at a time, and 3) if you make a mistake no one notices! Perfect. The choice was made. So, now that I’d settled on being a plonker, I needed to see some live action in order to analy...
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What a Week

Ramblings
Commissioning Week is a week of events, almost entirely within the Academy grounds, that culminate with the Midshipmen 1st Class graduating and receiving their commissions as Ensigns in the US Navy, or 2nd Lieutenants in the US Marine Corps. For the ...
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Making the Most of Bank Charges

Battery
Charging Diodes. Many vessels have separate battery banks for the house supply, engine start, thruster, etc. Shore power chargers typically have multiple outputs, each isolated from the other so that separate banks can be charged simultaneously, but ...
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Something's Bugging Me

Ramblings
In my first season running a sailboat in The Caribbean I was faced with the dilemma of an approaching hurricane out in The Atlantic. It was September after all, so not unexpected, and it was forecast to eventually veer northwards and again not bother...
Read more

10 Signs it’s Time to Replace Your Boat’s Refrigeration

Refrigeration
3. It’s using too much energy The older DC powered systems using the Danfoss BD3.0 and earlier compressors (or even the humungous, clunky holding plate systems that pre-date the 12v revolution) were great in their day, but their day has passed. Syste...
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Solbian Solar Panels on Hylas 54 Genevieve

Solar
So, we had a curved frame of stainless rail welded to the top of the Simpson Davits which matches the existing Hylas rails. Over that is a GRP [fiberglass] panel color matched to deck GRP to act as structure to attach the semi flexible solar panels (...
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Get used to it

Ramblings
When backing up I’m nonchalantly expecting a radar device to start beeping if I get too close to anything, a luxury that’s usually non-existent in the level of rental car I’m lumbered with. The first sounds of contact I’d hear would be the scrunch of...
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Solar Myth Busters - Revisited

Solar
MYTH 1 - Glass solar panels with aluminum frames are the most efficient. BUST - No, no, no! The type of cell determines how efficient a solar panel is, not how it is constructed. Coastal Climate Control offers three types of panels: aluminum-framed g...
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A Good Whacking

Refrigeration
The Frigoboat Keel Cooler refrigeration system is a case in point. The actual Keel Cooler component is a condenser/heat exchanger that is the external component of a thru-hull fitting and is mounted on the exterior of the boat, under water, and is de...
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Off to the Moon? Don’t forget the Sextant!

Ramblings
In the lead-up to the Apollo 11 moon landings, the Apollo 8 mission has been described as the most dangerous while carrying the most risks of the unknown. Apollo 8’s mission was to get to the moon, orbit it ten times, and return the astronauts safely...
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Full Speed Ahead!

Air Conditioning
While perusing the promotional material published by what appears to be the sole manufacturer of marine variable speed self-contained air conditioning units, the claim of 50% energy savings leaped out at me right away. But on reading the small print,...
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A Burning Desire to Help

Ramblings
On one such occasion the tranquility was interrupted by the sound of emergency vehicles; mainly fire trucks judging by the sirens. Something was afoot close by, and human nature being what it is, I searched the internet for a means to listen in to th...
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I Think, Therefore I Am ... I think

Ramblings
Just imagine: a glob of air is sitting there in the sky, just enjoying life and looking at the clouds, when all of a sudden it is assaulted by a blade travelling at high speed and is split into two air masses. The lower air mass sees the wing passing...
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Introducing RELiON Lithium batteries

Battery
We are proud to offer RELiON Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, dedicated to high performance energy solutions for serious yacht and RV owners. They are available in standard industry sizes. Custom sizes available upon request. These batteries ar...
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Frozen Dreams

Air Conditioning
  Then the scramble starts in earnest to get the boats commissioned and all extra gadgets and gizmos installed ready for a Spring/Summer launch. This has been known to be followed in the Fall by buyer’s remorse and a realization that this boatin...
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Breaking News!

Refrigeration
These bills would also require manufacturers of high-end appliances to allow any service company to repair their products, not just those sanctioned by the manufacturer. This sort of regulation will be welcomed wholeheartedly by geeks like me who jus...
Read more

Diodes DeMystified

Solar
Although some specialized large panels may incorporate a number of By-Pass Diodes in an attempt to mitigate some effects of total shading, that is not their primary purpose. They are there as a safety device to prevent heat damage to cells if those c...
Read more

Love Hertz

Air Conditioning
Typically, onboard generators are synchronous devices. In other words, they must run at a fixed speed to be able to maintain the correct frequency of alternating current (AC). That’s 60 Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second, in North America, and 50 Hz in...
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Shining Some Light on Lithium Battery Systems

Battery
Prismatic cells with lithium iron phosphate chemistry (LiFePO4) come in many shapes and forms, but a popular size is of around 100 amp/hours with a voltage of 3.2 volts or thereabouts, so four are required wired in series to make a nominal 12 volt 10...
Read more

Flexible Solar Panels - Are They Any Good?

Solar
But what all those people are saying in effect is, unfortunately, that the flexible panels they bought were of a lesser quality than desired for marine use. At some point we all have succumb to advertising claims that make a product sound too good to...
Read more

Ay Caramba!

Ramblings
The turning point came as I was working on the side of the engine and could not banish the image in the corner of my eye of the owner sitting on the settee, leaning forward and scrutinizing every move I was making. This couldn’t continue, and soon it...
Read more

Hurry Up and Wait

Ramblings
And that is what I got, a long wait, only realizing the joke when the sniggering reached a level that triggered my suspicions. Another long wait back then was at Easter each year preparing to launch for the yacht club’s first dinghy races of the year...
Read more

Start 'Em Up!

Air Conditioning
Part 1 Electrical motors powered from single phase alternating current (AC) have one big dilemma, and it’s because the current is alternating between positive and negative. If no provision is made to encourage it to do otherwise, the rotor of the mot...
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Mummy, the batteries have melted!

Battery
Apart from greatly reducing their life-span, storing and/or cycling batteries in elevated temperatures can greatly enhance the possibility of a thermal runaway situation in AGM batteries, as can using incorrect charging parameters. But thermal runawa...
Read more

Trouble in Paradise

Refrigeration
A capillary tube (cap tube) refrigeration system contains a very precise amount of refrigerant. There is no reservoir or holding tank for excess refrigerant, and over-charging will inevitably result in poor performance. The system will be either perf...
Read more

Sun-Day Racers

Solar
By connecting a solar panel to a battery (for simplicity this blog will ignore the presence of a controller/regulator or blocking diode) we create an electrical circuit, which by definition suggests something that starts and ends at the same place. A...
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Time is Now for Lithium Batteries on Your Boat

Battery
Lithium batteries have far more useable capacity than lead acid; charge much, much faster; offer better support for heavy loads; are about half the weight; and have a cycle life many times that of lead acid equivalents; to name just a few attributes....
Read more

10 Steps to a Perfect Refrigerant Charge

Refrigeration
2. Do not have someone attempt to asses refrigerant charge level by weight. These small systems contain a ridiculously small amount of refrigerant, and it is impossible to weigh in refrigerant accurately, especially if the boat is rocking. Moreover, ...
Read more

On the Road Again

Ramblings
Interest was high, but the level of customer participation, the actual act of making a purchase, is too early to gauge. There were many “oohs” and “ahs” for the Solara walk-on panel that we had laid flat at the foot of the steps on our display, and a...
Read more

Holiday Spirit

Ramblings
If past years are anything to go by, this office will soon be awash with requests to supply parts and organize repairs to systems on moving-targets of vessels that are flitting from island to island day by day. Our efforts will no doubt be exacerbate...
Read more

Air It Up!

Air Conditioning
We can break down the process into three stages: Application – Installation – Operation Application: Do you want it to be a meat locker down below at noon on a 100° day? Or do you just want a bit of cool, dehumidified air for sleeping at night? Hopef...
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Gauge Talk

Air Conditioning
The following refers specifically to MarinAire products, but the principles apply to all marine air conditioning units. There are two actual gauges; one connected to the high pressure side of the compressor, and one to the low pressure side, and they...
Read more

What a Wallop!

Solar
So that’s that. Until further notice, Coastal Climate Control will no longer be offering Solara Standard Series panels, from 12 watt through 80 watt. It’s a shame really. We only saw a small return on these small panels as they were quite expensive t...
Read more

Won't Get Cooled Again

Air Conditioning
This article will focus on small air-conditioning systems that are suitable for sleeping cabins or for small boat applications. With a small air conditioning unit, the DC current draw is low enough that they can usually be powered by an engine altern...
Read more

Pissing in the Harbor

Air Conditioning
The objective of the cooling water discharges on these sailboats seems to be quite the opposite to the powerboats. Now the trend appears to be to install mini cowlings over the discharge thru-hulls in order for them to be noticeable in various ways, ...
Read more

Parallel Thinking Blown Sky High

Battery
In “traditional” flooded batteries, two lead plates, one positive and one negative in each cell, are suspended dangling in a bath of electrolyte with nothing but liquid between them. In this type of battery, there is indeed the possibility that the p...
Read more

A Walk on the Wild Side

Ramblings
England in November can be a tad cold and claggy, but walking in the beautiful countryside at this time of year proved be a pleasant experience, having donned suitable attire and being prepared for a drenching without warning. However, it was soon ev...
Read more

My Mate Chris

Ramblings
Now, I am as much an admirer of Jimmy Buffett as any other boatie, but there was a time when you couldn’t set foot on a beach or tie up at a dock without hearing the strains of Margaritaville and other favorites. Quite frankly it all got a bit too mu...
Read more

Well Blow Me Down!

Refrigeration
  This bit may be a tad difficult to comprehend, but whereas the heat that the evaporator removes from a fridge or freezer is very cold, that very same heat magically transforms to become very warm at the condenser. That’s why I love this stuff ...
Read more

A Whisper among Friends

Systems Control & Monitoring
This RV Whisper allows one to check temperatures (fridge, freezer, bilge, main cabin, etc.), battery state, propane levels, and shore power status remotely from a smart-phone, tablet, lap-top, etc. There are also sensors available for door/hatch open...
Read more
High From Amsterdam
Opps My Mistake!
Fake News in The Pipeline
Beware of the Speedy Meanie!
Current Affairs - Making the Right Connections
A Re-Volting Thought
Magnetic Personalities
RIP Holding Plates
Air Conditioning + Your boat + Batteries = Great Summer!
Power Basement
Decisions: Smoked Phish or Byrned curtains?
What a Week
Making the Most of Bank Charges
Something's Bugging Me
10 Signs it’s Time to Replace Your Boat’s Refrigeration
Solbian Solar Panels on Hylas 54 Genevieve
Get used to it
Solar Myth Busters - Revisited
A Good Whacking
Off to the Moon? Don’t forget the Sextant!
Full Speed Ahead!
A Burning Desire to Help
I Think, Therefore I Am ... I think
Introducing RELiON Lithium batteries
Frozen Dreams
Breaking News!
Diodes DeMystified
Love Hertz
Shining Some Light on Lithium Battery Systems
Flexible Solar Panels - Are They Any Good?
Ay Caramba!
Hurry Up and Wait
Start 'Em Up!
Mummy, the batteries have melted!
Trouble in Paradise
Sun-Day Racers
Time is Now for Lithium Batteries on Your Boat
10 Steps to a Perfect Refrigerant Charge
On the Road Again
Holiday Spirit
Air It Up!
Gauge Talk
What a Wallop!
Won't Get Cooled Again
Pissing in the Harbor
Parallel Thinking Blown Sky High
A Walk on the Wild Side
My Mate Chris
Well Blow Me Down!
A Whisper among Friends

Stats &

Fun Facts

0
Estimated Aquatic Animals in the Ocean
0
Boats 131' or Longer are Considered "Super Yachts"
0
Sailboats Manufactured in North America Per Year
Cruising vs. Retirement Home
A 2004 study has confirmed that joining a cruise ship after retirement is cheaper than retiring to a retirement home.
  • Overview of Marine Refrigeration from Coastal Climate Control
    Overview of Marine Refrigeration from Coastal Climate Control Marine and RV refrigeration offered by Coastal Climate Control and made by Frigoboat and Vitrifrigo in both DC and AC/DC power supplies.
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  • Coastal Climate Control offers MarinAire and Climma
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  • Coastal Climate Control offers Solara and Solbian solar panels
    Coastal Climate Control offers Solara and Solbian solar panels Coastal Climate Control offers two brands of solar panels - Solara from Germany and Solbian from Italy. These are both designed for the rugged environment of mobile applications - your boat, car, RV o Read More
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  • Coastal Climate Control offers - Firefly and RELiON
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  • Frigoboat Keel Cooler demonstration
    Frigoboat Keel Cooler demonstration This demonstration rig has been used at many boat shows over the years as well as for training and sales purposes. The water in the fish tank can be set to any temperature, and is cooled by operating Read More
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  • RELiON Charging Video
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  • RELiON LiFePo4 introduction from Coastal Climate Control.
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  • MarinAire 16K Start Load Tests
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  • MarinAire Air Conditioning Part 1: Units
    MarinAire Air Conditioning Part 1: Units A detailed look at the MarinAire reverse-cycle air conditioning units now being offered by Coastal Climate Control, Inc.
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  • MarinAire Part 2 : Controls
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  • Tech Tip - Compressor Controller Connections
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    • Frigoboat
    Vitrifrigo
    Solara
    Solbian
    “I must frame this review in light of the pandemic. Jeannette and I drove to Coastal's Office, calling on the phone we were introduced to Maureen. She explained their new policies so we placed our order through the glass, paying over the phone... Maureen was a jewel, helping us every step of the way.“
    Rauf Bolden
    Rauf Bolden
    “These folks will bend over backwards to make things work for your systems. They have the critical parts and they know how they work. Great customer service. Nothing in life is perfect but with integrity, knowledge and patience you can solve the hardest problems.“
    Redwood T
    Redwood T
    “I had a fabulous experience purchasing marine batteries from Coastal Climate Control. Maureen was a pleasure to work with - lightening fast responses, courteous, professional and knowledgeable. When I picked up the batteries, the staff went above and beyond by confirming the charge on the batteries and helping me get them into my car. I will be repeat customer for sure!!“
    Rheanna Sinnett
    Rheanna Sinnett
    CLIMMA
    MICRO AIR
    VICTRON
    MARINE AIR
    Image