Waterman technical details

This page describes what systems we have put on board and how we came about deciding on them. When we bought her, "Waterman" was already fitted out for family cruising but lacked some of the home comforts that we expected of a floating home. As with most boats, the electrics were not up to scratch so the old 24 volt generator was thrown out and a new 240 6 KVA 1500 rpm water-cooled one put in it’s place. We chose a Westerbeke and bought a silencer box in which to to install it. Being a small barge, we anticipated using the wheelhouse as living quarters so the generator needed to be quiet as it would be directly below our "lounge". This was also why we chose a 1500 rpm generator rather than the 3000 rpm which has a higher pitch of noise. 400 Amp hours of batteries, a 2.5KW inverter & a 50 Amp charger were installed with a really useful AC distribution box. This automatically switches the AC between shore, generator and inverter dependent on which of the three power sources are present. All the kit was Mastervolt and supplied by Energy Solutions. Paul Holland, of Energy Solutions, also had a calorifier made up to my specification that stores about 150 litres of water and has two immersions and two indirect copper coils in it. This gives us multiple ways to heat water. Of the two immersions, one is 1 KW and one is 3kw. We use the smaller one when on shore power and the big one when using the generator. When under way in the summer about a hour of cruising is enough to get a tank full of piping hot water from the engine cooling system diverted through one of the calorifier coils. The control for this is by means of two thermostats and a standard central heating motorised zone valve. The engine water water does not flow through the calorifier till the engine is up to heat and cuts out when told to do so by the calorifier thermostat. The height of the calorifier was decided upon so that no extra pump would be needed to pump round the engine cooling water.

The second calorifier coil can be fed from one of two sources. In the winter we run a Somy boiler for the central heating and hot water using a normal household configuration. In the summer when we are stopped for a few days and do not want to run main engine or generator then we use the solar heating panel. This is a heat exchanger on the roof that measures about 1 square metre. It is capable of generating about 700 watts of energy in good sunlight in the South when inclined at 45 degrees. As it sits on the cabin roof it cannot be raised whilst cruising nor is it necessary as there is ample heat from the engine. I soon discovered that the raising and lowering of it whenever we stopped up anywhere was a pain and that the system still performed adequately when laid flat. It is unable to heat the 150 litres tank all by itself but by the end of a day when we have not been cruising we normally have water at about 40 degrees and then whilst we walk the dog we run the generator to both top up batteries and brings the tank temperature up quickly to about 55 C. With a well lagged tank, there is plenty of hot water next morning for showers and washing up without recourse to generator or engine. The difference since installing the solar heating is that we now run the generator for far less time than before when we are stopped for a few days.

All these methods of heating water mean that I have been able to remove the Valliant gas heater. I hate gas on boats having had the misfortune to see two horrific accidents with it. The only appliance we have running of gas is the hob.

During our first season I also found I was using the generator a lot for charging the batteries even though cruising most days. This was because the engine was fitted with a 18 Amp dynamo that was not man enough to charge the 400 Amp Hours of service batteries, plus topping up the engine batteries. My Kromhout main engine runs at about 700 rpm when cruising the Midi and I did not have much room to swing a gigantic pulley on my crankshaft so I went back to Paul for an "Energy Solution". The result was a 90 Amp alternator that works well at 2000 rpm requiring me to only have a 3:1 ratio on pulley sizes. I fitted the pulley and alternator during the winter keeping the original dynamo in place. It works a treat and we now chug at snails pace round the Midi bends with 70 Amps going into the service batteries. The dynamo is relegated to charging engine batteries whilst the alternator keep the service batteries in trim. Three hours of cruising is plenty to get the hot water tank up to temperature and the batteries fully charged. This is in spite of running a 240v domestic fridge and freezer off the inverter .

We have a Hotpoint washing machine and tumble drier. The washing machine was my one disappointment as I was planning on being able to run it via the inverter whilst under way. The theory being that, once the batteries were back in shape, the 90 amp alternator could be used to drive the inverter without lowering the charge in the service batteries significantly. This works fine for all the other electric bits on the boat like the microwave and the conventional oven etc. but the original Philco washing machine did not like the inverter in spite of the apparent matching of inverter power to washing machine demands. This meant that to run the washing machine we needed either good shore power or the generator running. The problem appeared to be the spin cycle when the machine takes too large an inductive load. When the Philco broke down I changed it for the Hotpoint and this works fine on the inverter. It was bought in England where the washing machine have both a hot and a cold inlet pipe. That way we could use our calorifier stored hot water without having to use power to heat more.

So what other gadgetry do we have on board ? I installed a loo and tank from a certain Toilet Salesman near Fenny Compton . A tank was built that would both fit under my dinette but also fit in the back of my Saab for delivery from England to Dordrecht . It was touch and go as to whether it would fit in the car but after the total removal of the back seats and a lot of fiddling it finally went in. Both the loo and the tank sat on my deck all the way from Dordrecht to Avignon till I eventually got the courage to take out the old loo. The flush is assisted by compressed air from an electric powered compressor in the engine room that also powers the clutch for the bow propeller which is a hydraulic system driven from the main engine. The loo is a Microphor and, because it only uses two quarts of water per flush, we can use fresh water as a supply. It really is like being at home. A float switch alarm is fitted to the tank which failed after two months but apart from that the system works very well.

We have taken to using a product called Eparcyl in the holding tank. This is really for septic tanks to break down solids and stop build up of a crust. We use it because it cuts down the smell when you are pumping into the river following an unfortunate incident when the tank was full to the brim and we were stuck in a crowded mooring which necessitated a small volume of the tank being pumped out. The people on the opposite bank could not see who was the culprit as we were keeping a low profile but their boat was already well lit and we saw through our curtains that they suddenly started scurrying round lighting scented candles to mask our smell. We were locked up with all windows and doors closed at the time.

During winter maintenance on the boat we have fitted "Hi & Lo" float switches on our water tank. This gives us an audible alarm to warn us that either the tank is now full or that we have only about two days of water left.