Official 380 Thread

Just a mention here about the cockpit fridge, guys. I also switched the cockpit ice-maker to a refrigerator. I had to cut the fiberglass but it isn't a big deal. I went with the Cruise 65, so I also had to build up the bottom a little bit so I didn't have an open space at the TOP of the fridge, and instead it is on the bottom, so not easily seen. I ran the 12v to the panel in the engine bay. I had to add a breaker, but there was an open spot. It saves you some time and effort in running the power.
 
Just a mention here about the cockpit fridge, guys. I also switched the cockpit ice-maker to a refrigerator. I had to cut the fiberglass but it isn't a big deal. I went with the Cruise 65, so I also had to build up the bottom a little bit so I didn't have an open space at the TOP of the fridge, and instead it is on the bottom, so not easily seen. I ran the 12v to the panel in the engine bay. I had to add a breaker, but there was an open spot. It saves you some time and effort in running the power.

I ran the electric the same as PHJazz, worked great! Thanks for that info

the previous owner put the NovaKool 1200 in, holds 36 cans of beer, but i believe the cutout is the same as the factory ice maker
 
Like PHJazz and Chris-380's installations, I did contemplate pulling power from the engine compartment. One consideration to running the power from the cockpit refrigerator to the panel in the cabin was I would have the ability to turn that power on and off in the cabin, instead of having to go down to the engine compartment. The refrigerators use a lot of juice, more than I expected, so I started shutting them down for the hours we are asleep. Saves a lot of battery power, and the fridge temp only rises ever so slightly overnight. So for me, because I was doing so many projects and had everything torn apart anyway, it made sense to run to the cabin panel.

Btw, one of my projects was to install the Balmar SG-200 battery monitor system. I did that to protect and preserve my new Rolls battery bank. As it is not good for battery health to run them down below 50% on a regular basis, I wanted to know what their status was at all times. The recharge time from about 70% full to full is almost 4 hours, which is a lot of generator run time on a daily basis. Minimizing battery consumption at night by shutting down the fridges is very effective for us. I am also changing out the 40 amp charger to a 60 amp charger this spring in order to get the recharge times up and minimize generator run time. We spend at least one night a week on a mooring, usually two, so tweaking the house system to be as effective as possible and maximizing battery life was a priority to us.
 
Hi amajamar,
I am very interested to know exactly what you did with your batteries to help with the overnights. We spend many nights on the hook and you seem to have a concrete plan for dealing with this. As I understand it, I have two batteries together for my port engine and half of the house (port side), two batteries together for the starboard engine and half of the house (starboard side) and one battery for the genny. I have the boat for two seasons so far and I think I am due for new batteries this coming season so I would appreciate any advice on how to get the best bang for the bucks and keep as much battery life on those overnights. I don't mind running the genny to charge, but it seems that my starboard side is pretty low in the morning. I do have an inverter to run tv in the master that probably pulls the most power.
 
Hi amajamar,
I am very interested to know exactly what you did with your batteries to help with the overnights. We spend many nights on the hook and you seem to have a concrete plan for dealing with this. As I understand it, I have two batteries together for my port engine and half of the house (port side), two batteries together for the starboard engine and half of the house (starboard side) and one battery for the genny. I have the boat for two seasons so far and I think I am due for new batteries this coming season so I would appreciate any advice on how to get the best bang for the bucks and keep as much battery life on those overnights. I don't mind running the genny to charge, but it seems that my starboard side is pretty low in the morning. I do have an inverter to run tv in the master that probably pulls the most power.
PHJazz,
I don't really have a concrete plan, but more like a work in progress!

None the less, one important note on the boat's battery bank configuration to keep in mind is that, unless your boat is wired differently than mine, your assumption of the cabin power feed is incorrect. Pg 12.42 on the 380 owners manual indicates the layout of the main buses in regards to the battery banks. The starboard battery bank feeds the starboard engine and the ENTIRE cabin panel, not just the starboard side of it. Essentially, all house power is coming from your starboard battery bank. The port battery bank feeds the port engine and the electronics at the helm station and helm station power.

The double 6v Rolls battery bank I installed has a total of 250 AH of power. In order to preserve it's life, it's generally recommended to not draw them down below 50% prior to completely recharging them. Which means that you are really only able to use about 125 AH of power at the most prior to recharging. I am experimenting with ways to keep the charge level at about 60% prior to recharging. I usually run the genny twice a day, breakfast and dinner time. Those run times have been about 2.5 - 3 hours per. Frequent partial recharging is not great for the batteries health either, so I try to do full charges as much as possible.

So keeping that in mind, during your day on the mooring, basically both of your refrigerators (which draw like around 16AHs combined, plus minus, especially when the weather is hot and you are opening and closing the door often) any cabin lighting, vacuflush system, bilge pumps, domestic water pump, stereo system (btw, the lowly factory Clarion stereo draws around 7 amps when cranking away, never mind any upgraded stereo system), etc. are drawing down the starboard battery bank. If you do the math adding up all the different loads in amp hours, you will notice how quickly it adds up to the target discharge of 125 AH (50%).

As I stated in prior post, I installed the Balmar SG-200 battery monitor system. It's a great tool to monitor charge and discharge information, along with state of the battery health. You can watch it and listen for sounds in the boat to find out exactly how much power anything is drawing at any particular moment. It's pretty eye opening as to how much power you actually use in a day. Refrigeration is a huge part of the load. Towards the end of the season, we have been shutting down the refrigerator breaker when going to bed, and switching it back on first thing in the morning. That makes an enormous difference. The refrigeration load is minimized at night anyway, as it's generally cooler outside, so as long as you don't open the fridges at night, they don't really lose much cooling. My rough math on the savings was that the two refrigerators use about 8-10 AH at night (as they are not running as much) but if you multiply it by 10 hours, you can see that overnight you can drain your battery bank down to 60% easily.

Also, I have changed out all incandescent laps in the cabin to LED. Prior to doing that, all lamps on in the cabin would draw about 20 AH or so; LED conversion allows that load to drop to about 2AH. The LEDs that I found are a touch less bright than the incandescent bulbs, but they serve the purpose well. Huge savings, and we don't have to be so concerned if we leave the cabin lights on accidentally when we leave the boat in the evening.

One more thing that we do is to use a battery operated bluetooth boom box during the day, instead of the stereo. We have a nice Altec-Lansing that sounds pretty good and runs for like 25 hours on a charge.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I hope you can find it somewhat helpful! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
 
Guys, thanks for the input!!! It is an obvious statement but everybody benefits with the sharing of information.

I was on a forum 10 years ago for Porsche and specifically the 993 model. It was very supportive and a great community of enthusiasts. The interesting thing with boats is there is a very uneven availability of service and supply of parts and accessories. It is symptomatic of the boat world vs. the car world.

By banding together and sharing solutions and trick and tips we can avoid pitfalls and wasted time. Not to mention big money! Boat stuff is expensive because of limited production numbers and increased functional demands.

We will be going to the Sea Ray rendezvous in the San Juan Islands this year and I am going to invite any 380 owners to jump in on this forum.

amajamer, thanks for your great description of the logic on your wiring solution. It got me thinking and I know that I have extra slots for breakers on the main panel. I think I will use one of those slots for the cockpit fridge. That way I can choose to shut off one or both. Of course, there is also an option for a switch right by the cockpit fridge...

Cheers!
 
Here are some pictures of the bow thruster painted black. It is far less obtrusive but still is somewhat of a wart!

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Running gear all painted with Pettit Barnacle Barrier.

I am finally done with the work in the yard and we are moving the boat back to our marina tomorrow...weather permitting. It is supposed to be blowing...

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Wow man, it looks really good under there. Hopefully I can get mine close to that over the next couple of weeks.

Oh, and I suspected what your user name meant.
We work on quite a few at my shop.
 
Running gear all painted with Pettit Barnacle Barrier.

I am finally done with the work in the yard and we are moving the boat back to our marina tomorrow...weather permitting. It is supposed to be blowing...

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Did you strip the paint off the rudders and exhaust ports prior to spraying with the galvanizing paint? Or go over existing bottom paint? BTW, did you add the swim platform support angles for a particular reason, or do you have an aftermarket swim platform?
 
Ha, bracketracer...you are the first one ever on a mumber of forums that has guessed my user name meaning!

I had a '96 993 with the usual mods: Bilstien PSS-9 Kinnesis wheels RS motor mounts and the "between the in and out" muffler bypass...AKA LPMM. Loved it and it was fun at the track.

As far as the running gear...There was no bottom paint left to scrape off...just barnacle calcium deposits. I had to use a sharp nail puller that had a curved end on it to scrape those buggers off. Then I sanded with a wet 3M Scotch Brite pad to scuff up the surfaces. I could have had the yard wire wheel them but I chose to DIY.

The brackets are for the lift for the tender.

Most of it shows here along with all the growth...

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Interesting, the rib was swinging wildly and I found the manufacturer at the Seattle Boat Show. I was informed that the tender should be ratchet strapped straight back and cross strapped. I did that and also use a strap to take the load of the outboard loading the transom of the RIB.

If you think about when when hanging the rib on the crane, the above the swim step part of the crane is loading the brackets bolted to the 380 transom...the ones in the running gear photo.The mechanical leverage is huge. I feel much better with the load taken up by the straps. The crane is a Roskelly Olsson. Mr. Olsson made it clear that the RIB is to be strapped...
 
At some point I would love to see an entire pick of this crane/mount without the RIB and also with it mounted. Really intriguing

Ha, bracketracer...you are the first one ever on a mumber of forums that has guessed my user name meaning!

I had a '96 993 with the usual mods: Bilstien PSS-9 Kinnesis wheels RS motor mounts and the "between the in and out" muffler bypass...AKA LPMM. Loved it and it was fun at the track.

As far as the running gear...There was no bottom paint left to scrape off...just barnacle calcium deposits. I had to use a sharp nail puller that had a curved end on it to scrape those buggers off. Then I sanded with a wet 3M Scotch Brite pad to scuff up the surfaces. I could have had the yard wire wheel them but I chose to DIY.

The brackets are for the lift for the tender.

Most of it shows here along with all the growth...

picture.php


Interesting, the rib was swinging wildly and I found the manufacturer at the Seattle Boat Show. I was informed that the tender should be ratchet strapped straight back and cross strapped. I did that and also use a strap to take the load of the outboard loading the transom of the RIB.

If you think about when when hanging the rib on the crane, the above the swim step part of the crane is loading the brackets bolted to the 380 transom...the ones in the running gear photo.The mechanical leverage is huge. I feel much better with the load taken up by the straps. The crane is a Roskelly Olsson. Mr. Olsson made it clear that the RIB is to be strapped...
 
I found a picture showing the old RIB on the davit system. New RIB is new hull and tubes...moved every thing over.

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The crane leaves room to get on board and move around. This set up has 2 cables in the stern and one up in the bow. The new hull has two up front so I need to get another cable made. The brackets underneath the swim step arer the mounts for the base of the crane. There is an electric motor that lowers and raises the crane operated by a tethered remote hidden in the aft locker.

When I hook up all the SS ratchet straps, the RIB is tight up against the vertical of the crane and the load is supported by the cleats above the locker door under the canvas. There are opening for getting the straps through.

Cheers!
 
I found a picture showing the old RIB on the davit system. New RIB is new hull and tubes...moved every thing over.

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The crane leaves room to get on board and move around. This set up has 2 cables in the stern and one up in the bow. The new hull has two up front so I need to get another cable made. The brackets underneath the swim step arer the mounts for the base of the crane. There is an electric motor that lowers and raises the crane operated by a tethered remote hidden in the aft locker.

When I hook up all the SS ratchet straps, the RIB is tight up against the vertical of the crane and the load is supported by the cleats above the locker door under the canvas. There are opening for getting the straps through.

Cheers!
Well, that explains the angles under the swim platform... Pretty cool system! Did you install it or did you buy the boat with it?
 
Very cool, thank you!

I found a picture showing the old RIB on the davit system. New RIB is new hull and tubes...moved every thing over.

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The crane leaves room to get on board and move around. This set up has 2 cables in the stern and one up in the bow. The new hull has two up front so I need to get another cable made. The brackets underneath the swim step arer the mounts for the base of the crane. There is an electric motor that lowers and raises the crane operated by a tethered remote hidden in the aft locker.

When I hook up all the SS ratchet straps, the RIB is tight up against the vertical of the crane and the load is supported by the cleats above the locker door under the canvas. There are opening for getting the straps through.

Cheers!
 
We bought the boat with the davit and RIB already on it. It also had the ice maker but it has failed and as we have been talking about, it is going away to be replaced with a cockpit fridge.

We budgeted 20k for davit and RIB as most boats were pretty bare. Our 380 also had 45 hours on replacement engines. Previous owners spent a bunch on getting it right and then sold it. I am OK with replacing the hull and tubes on the RIB, adding the thrusters and adding a second redundant Chart Plotter. Oh, the cockpit fridge is icing on the cake...!

In the past on OPB (Other Peoples Boats) we have used the Weaver davit system. Every time we went to hook it up all I could see is somebody's fingers in there...out in the middle of nowhere.... They are light weight and keep the boat length down but...
 
Amajamar,
Thanks so much for the great write up about the batteries and your setup. I hadn't thought that one side was for the helm and one side for the house. That makes things seem a lot clearer now that I know just what is pulling down my starboard side so much overnight.

I can't thank you enough and to everyone else that posts here as well, a great a big thank you. It is really great to see what others do with the same model.
Thanks again,
Paul
 
Amajamar,
Thanks so much for the great write up about the batteries and your setup. I hadn't thought that one side was for the helm and one side for the house. That makes things seem a lot clearer now that I know just what is pulling down my starboard side so much overnight.

I can't thank you enough and to everyone else that posts here as well, a great a big thank you. It is really great to see what others do with the same model.
Thanks again,
Paul
I've learned so much from this forum about my two different Sea Rays and Sea Rays in general, that it is nice to be able to give something back to the community here. It's all "my pleasure", and if you have any other questions for me, please don't hesitate to ask!
 
We are putting the boat back in the water today...it's 28 deg F. Cold for us but mainly, no wind! It's been blowing a lot here.

My electrical guy is going to use a ACR (Automatic Charging Relay) in the system so I will have start batteries, separate house and a way to use the two start batteries for the stern thruster. And, they will get charged properly.

Another item we are working on is the carpeting. The cockpit was looking pretty shabby and worn with stains. We went with the Corinthian poly weave with a rubber backing that is good for the exterior. We templated the areas and they matched them up with their patterns. The cockpit area is all in place except I pulled all the snaps and need to fill the holes. Then clean the area with alcohol for the 3M stick down hook and loop fastening system.

The interior is the same weave and color except it has a felt backing and is to be glued down. The felt is for sound and temperature. The roll is still in the salon...need to find an installer.

My wife did all the research and this carpeting really updated the look and feel of the boat. It does not stain like regular carpet.

Cheers!
 
We brought the boat back over to our marina and it was snowing a little and the swim step was like an ice rink.

The port engine fired right up but could get nothing for the starboard engine. The battery swap out has not been done yet so I am still on the stock configuration. I have 6 new batteries on board so it was a simple task to jump one of the new 12V start batteries to the house bank to get the starboard fired up.

Those were the only problems. I lined up perfectly to our slip and thought, well...I just got thrusters and I know I won't need them. Right...we headed in and sure enough about half way in all of a sudden I was 4 ft from the finger pier. What the hell...oh, current...gets me every time. So I used the shifter and got the bow back over and then just succumbed and used the thrusters.

With it being slick with snow and ice, I did not want my wife having to do anything sketchy between the boat and the dock. I was able to hold the boat perfectly up against the finger pier and we were all set to tie off with frozen lines...ha!

Money well spent!
 

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