battery question... - Page 2

Cruisingdad · #11 08-16-2006

You know, I don't know why I am posting this, but Surf and camar made this come to mind:

THere is a sailor I know with a Taswell 49. Beautiful boat, and he totally customized every little bit of it... but that is for another thread.

He showed me his "AV" system. He has a retracting, full leather "Lazy boy" that faces port. Hit one button: ZIP a 50-60 inch roll down screen comes down, the lights dim, the projector kicks on, and his surround sound is like something out of George Lucas personal theatre. I am waiting for him to put in an automated popcorn popper and drink dispenser. Quite the darndest thing I have ever seen.

Sorry, just had to throw that in!! Makes my little flat screen tv look like a black and white boob tube from the 50's. God, why am I not rich too???? Oh wait, I know, kids......

hellosailor · #12 08-16-2006

Farzam, at 22 she is still young enough not to be set in her ways in the galley. Give her a week's vacation or one longer course at some cooking school that would entice her...and she might outgrow the microwave oven.

If not, she's still young enough to have a good trade-in value against some 40 year old who knows how to cook.

seabreeze_97 · #13 08-16-2006

Make it yours, and hers. How long you gonna push on a door that only opens when you pull? That is to say, don't try to sail directly into the wind, and don't tell the girl how to cook. We're in the same boat, in a sense. My GF is 10 years younger and could burn water when we met, but over time has developed enviable skills....mostly without the microwave, but it's still handy. Just smile, encourage, pleasantly offer alternatives, compliment, be seen sneaking a taste right out of the pot, and otherwise stand back and let the chef work. If she's interested at all, she will blossom. If not, there's that trade-in program hellosailor mentioned.
Just got a small microwave (already have the more traditional methods of cooking covered). Hey, it's fast, with no open flames or carbon monoxide concerns. Already have the sat. radio too. Pondering the TV.

camaraderie · #14 08-16-2006

CruisingDad...now that's my kind of boat! I have a friend who had two 20" LCD screens mounted as wings above his steering pedestal. One was connected to the PC for navigation OR surfing the Internet from the KVH dish...the other gave him 500 channels of DirecTV from a gyroscopically powered dish! He didn't like lonely night watches!! But then he didn't have a Laz-y Boy. Hey....we should do a Tool-Time thread here and call it ...THE MAN'S BOAT!

PBzeer · #15 08-16-2006

Interesting......first thing I took off my boat when I bought it was the TV. Didn't have a microwave, and I had no interest in getting one. Outside of the stereo, everything I have is boat related. Laptop for navigation, which can double as a DVD player. Have an electric kettle for use dockside, as well as a hot plate, but those will get stored when I leave TX. Between all the books I haven't read, and all the new places to go, I doubt I'll lack for entertainment.

Mkfcdl · #16 08-16-2006

The problem is confusion between being dockside with essentially unlimited power supply and away from the electric umbilical cord. It's nice to have everything at the dock--I've got the microwave, the LCD TV, the DVD player, the sound system, the blender, the watermaker, the hair dryer, the coffee maker, the oversized laptop.....

But you really shouldn't try to recreate dockside power when away with the assumption you can use everything like at the dock. Even with a generator, huge battery bank, 2500 watt inverter/charger, and a wind generator there is a need for an electrical budget. I used to not have an electrical budget because I had a nuclear fuel rod assembly embedded in my keel--but I had to get rid of it because the boat glowed in the dark.

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with having things on your boat that provide enjoyment. Just be realistic with your energy requirements and ability to supply energy away from the dock.

eryka · #17 08-17-2006

You can have whatever you want, you just can't have "everything."

My suggestion would be, to identify the thing that makes it feel not like "camping out" and find a way to address that - otherwise it's not going to work in the long run. We watch DVDs on the laptop screen as has been mentioned before, don't have a TV, and found a hand-crank blender, but my 'thing' is communication - I'll sacrifice in other areas but we spend a lot on cellphone and internet. For my friend MaryLou, it's long hot showers. You get the idea.

Microwaves aren't so bad as things go, they take a lot of power, but only for a short time. If that's what it takes to turn boating from an ordeal into an adventure, find a way to work it into the energy budget.

A note about inverters, BTW - you can find small inexpensive ones that put out "square" or "modified" sine wave AC - this is fine for battery power things like laptop and cellphone. Anything with a motor (like said microwave) needs a more expensive "true sine wave" or it will quickly burn out. We lost several power tools this way.

seabreeze_97 · #18 08-17-2006

So what's wrong with glowing in the dark? Nevermind. I wanna hear more about these long hot showers! ;-D