420/44 DB Owners Club

[boaterholic]

Curiosity question; has anyone gotten boat weight off the travel lift? I forgot to check mine when I had it surveyed.

 

[Irie308]

Curiosity question; has anyone gotten boat weight off the travel lift? I forgot to check mine when I had it surveyed.

Have been told 35k with dingy and hydraulic platform.

 

[boaterholic]

Have been told 35k with dingy and hydraulic platform.

Any idea what the hydraulic platform weighs? I don’t have one.

 

[Irie308]

I would guess around 1500 lbs with my AB dink installed so maybe 1k lbs.

 

[Mark.60]

Have been told 35k with dingy and hydraulic platform.

Is that 35k with beer and ice ?

 

[Irie308]

Is that 35k with beer and ice ?

Was mid summer so very likely

 

[boaterholic]

Are any of you using solar panels on the 420/44’s so you can anchor quiet, give genny a break? If so where did you mount them?
I was watching some videos of trawlers in the exumas and could see they had solar panels and thought how nice to enjoy anchorage without gen running.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Are any of you using solar panels on the 420/44’s so you can anchor quiet, give genny a break? If so where did you mount them?
I was watching some videos of trawlers in the exumas and could see they had solar panels and thought how nice to enjoy anchorage without gen running.

I explored that option for mine as I had a solar array on my 350 Rinker. I had four 70 watt panels that I installed on a SS tube frame secured to my radar arch. It was enough to help keep the batteries up while on the hook for the weekend. I was on an inland Lake and had no radar or Satellite dish, so I had plenty or real estate on the arch for the array. On the 44DB there was no room on the arch and attaching to top was going to be difficult. I was thinking of making a piece of canvas to overlay the aft section on the top that could be either snaped or zippered in place and buying some flexible panels to attach to the canvas. No permanent holes made in my top that way. I see sailboats with these panels attached to their biminis all the time. I never pulled the trigger as we found we preferred dock to dock boating to spending nights on the hook.
Carpe Diem

 

[boaterholic]

Thanks for the info Rusty. i had thought about the flexible panels to just lay on the canvas aft of arch. Possibly try attaching using Velcro as I think there is adhesive tape made for attaching to fabric without sewing. Then run the wires into arch and route to where ever from there.
we plan to anchor a bit out in the Bahama islands so that’s why the interest.

 

[Tomco]

Last summer I added two 170W SunPower flexible panels on the aft arch. They are held on with rare earth magnets - no holes in the canvas or sewing involved. After a night at anchor the panels will fully charge the batteries by noon (assuming it is sunny), the two panels (340W) is enough to offset all our usage. I did size the equipment to add a third panel on the forward part of the arch if we feel it is necessary. The weak link in the system is our batteries and they are on the list to be changed this spring (AGM deep cycle).

I did a lot of research last winter and there is some confusing and incorrect information on some of the sites. If you go down this path let me know and I'll share my results.

We are setting up our boat for remote travel, hence the solar panels. One other thing you might consider is hooking up the water heater loop to the engine - a 20 min trip from one anchorage to another will give you a tank of hot water without having to run the generator.

 

[boaterholic]

Last summer I added two 170W SunPower flexible panels on the aft arch. They are held on with rare earth magnets - no holes in the canvas or sewing involved. After a night at anchor the panels will fully charge the batteries by noon (assuming it is sunny), the two panels (340W) is enough to offset all our usage. I did size the equipment to add a third panel on the forward part of the arch if we feel it is necessary. The weak link in the system is our batteries and they are on the list to be changed this spring (AGM deep cycle).

I did a lot of research last winter and there is some confusing and incorrect information on some of the sites. If you go down this path let me know and I'll share my results.

We are setting up our boat for remote travel, hence the solar panels. One other thing you might consider is hooking up the water heater loop to the engine - a 20 min trip from one anchorage to another will give you a tank of hot water without having to run the generator.

View attachment 118373

View attachment 118374

That’s perfect! Yes can you please share all the setup info please. Feel free to pm if you rather.
Thank you!

 

[Mark.60]

Has anyone used the strut pro tool to remove a cutlass bearing ? I removed props today to have them tuned and found stbd bearing a little sloppy. It doesn’t look like there is much room to get a puller behind coupler to pull shaft. The tool is about. $400.

 

[Irie308]

Has anyone used the strut pro tool to remove a cutlass bearing ? I removed props today to have them tuned and found stbd bearing a little sloppy. It doesn’t look like there is much room to get a puller behind coupler to pull shaft. The tool is about. $400.

I’m a few weeks from buying one. Just got my bearings in.

 

[Mark.60]

I’m a few weeks from buying one. Just got my bearings in.

Are you going to buy it from City Marine in florida

 

[Irie308]

Are you going to buy it from City Marine in florida

I saw you could purchase straight from the strut pro site.

 

[Shaps]

@AEO What did you use for between panels (not the glass)?

 

[Mark.60]

Aeo, beautiful, your boat looks better than new.

 

[Tomco]

THAT is a tedious job! They did a very neat, tidy and professional job. Very nice.

On a slight tangent, other than the black cover for the front windshield, are you or have you done anything to improve the privacy at night. At night with the lights on our front cover does nothing to limit the view into the boat. We dock bow first so anyone on the dock have a good view in.

 

[Irie308]

Tom, I don’t have a pic of it up but have the same issue as we vacation at a spot that is a public bulkhead within feet of a a very public sidewalk. We go bow in and at night it’s a free show. Our improvised setup is 3 sections of a black out material with holes for suction cups.
The trick is not to try to adhere them to the glass rather to the fiberglass above the windows then let them hang down like a curtain (saw this on a trawler). From the outside it looks like a curtain is drawn. Takes 5 mins to setup, full privacy in the interior and we just take them down in the morning. We like looking out the front windows so didn’t want anything permanent. Not fancy but cheap and it does the job.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P651RG..._dl_AYF1N13DDS70EBET582Y?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Havana Shamrock]

I’d like to add to the privacy issue, before we brought the boat to Fla we had the windshield tinted with ceramic tint it’s awesome not only for privacy but also cutting down on heat and UV rays. Visibility is pretty good at night looking outside.