Electrical issues

Too much wind for a sail in the Wayfarer so it's down to the marina again to work on King Malu.

We have been having problems starting the generator - the engine battery is very old so it's not surprising. Starts fine when we use the domestic battery bank. So we bought a new engine battery today.

When we plugged in the new battery it started taking charge, unlike the old one. So we charged it up, but it still wouldn't start the generator. I am thinking that there wire is too long or there is something not good connection so higher resistance than allows enough current to flow for starting the generator. Chris and I will investigate more tomorrow.

It's possible that the wire from the battery, through the shunt, over to the isolation switch, back round the sail locker to the generator is too long for the very high current needed to start the generator. When we doubled up with the second battery bank we were halving the resistance too.

Later this afternoon I started updating the CAD drawing for the electrical schematic and (grrrr...) Windows lost it over dinner tonight, so will update tomorrow and remember to save since the 'autosave' on the CAD system obviously doesn't work.

We heard the PSUs for the electric drive are, or should be, on their way today... and that as soon as funds clear in Italy, the new electric drive itself will be on it's way. Hopefully tomorrow, so that it arrives early next week.