Spruzzo Technology

If you are not interested in technical stuff you probably should skip this post. I promise you won’t hurt my feelings….only because I won’t know 😉

When sailing here in the Med, I often think about people hundreds of years ago navigating between the islands. No radios, no maps, no GPS, no weather information. This made me think about all the technology we have on Spruzzo…..and there is a lot. I’m going to make a big list roughly in order of what I think is the most interesting for you….so you if you make it to the bottom you are a kindred soul 😉

Watermaker: where does our fresh water come from?

Our boat has a Dessalator 180l/hour watermaker. A watermaker works by putting sea-water under very high pressure against a filter that is so fine that only fresh water can pass through and salt-water and other impurities cannot. This is amazing technology. We run the watermaker for 1 hour every 2 or 3 days to make the freshwater we drink and use on the boat. Not all boats have a watermaker and they need to visit ports to fill their tanks as needed.

AIS: broadcasting your position on the water

All commercial vessels both broadcast and receive AIS: Automatic Information System which uses VHF radio to broadcast and receive a lot of useful information: boat name, heading, speed, MMSI (to call the boat on the radio), length, etc. Not all private boats have this system, but some can receive the information.

Spruzzo has an AIS transmitter/receiver that receives AIS information from boats within about 20nm, and displays these boats on my Chartplotter (the moving map display of the boat).  I can move a cursor over the boat symbol, and see the AIS data.  This can be very useful, especially when the boat that is far away is a high-speed ferry moving at 40 knots.  

When we see a Mega-Yacht, I almost always look it up to see who owns it.  We’ve crossed paths with Rupert Murdoh’s yacht Vertigo (67m) and many others.  Still looking for Jeff Bezos’ yacht!  It kills me when the yacht contains a smaller boat that is bigger than our boat!  

I use an app called MarineTraffic that shows AIS data worldwide to see how busy ports we are going to might be.  It doesn’t show all boats but is still useful.  

Satellite Distress System

We have an EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon shown in the main photo) that when turned on, or makes contact with water, broadcasts our position and boat information on 406Mhz to satellites that notify rescue authorities.  You need to register and configure your beacon so your boat information is linked to your particular unit.  I think this is amazing technology also.  I believe the signal will be picked up within 30 minutes.  Hopefully we never use ours.  

VHF Distress System

We have 2 VHF radios on our boat:  a ‘main’ unit with an antenna on the mast that can broadcast and receive over a long distance, and a handheld unit with a shorter range.  Both units have a button you can press that broadcasts an emergency distress signal on channel 16, that includes your GPS location.  Both units have their own GPS receivers.

GPS/Digital Maps/Satellite Photos

GPS is so ubiquitous now everyone takes it for granted, but truly it is amazing and makes navigating on the water so much easier.  Our chartplotter has its own GPS and its own digital maps.  My cellphone has its own GPS, and I have 2 different sets of constantly updated maps of the Mediterranean sea I constantly reference:  Imray maps and Navionics.  I just started using Navionics this year when I noticed that they seemed to have more detailed depth information.  My chartplotter maps are not updated automatically so I always reference at least one of the other digital maps as well.  We also have physical maps for most of the Mediterranean, but I don’t use them anymore but could in an emergency.  

I use a GPS based app on my phone (Anchor) as an Anchor alarm. I get notified if our anchor starts to drag.

Satellite Photos of an area are much more useful than you might think.  You can see areas that are probably sand (look light), probably rock or grassy (look dark) and where boats have anchored in the past.  I look at a satellite view before going into any harbor.

Solar Power

We have 2x400W solar panels that in the summer produce roughly 3KWh of power, which is usually just enough to fully charge our batteries during the day.  For most of the summer we are 100% off the grid self-sustaining for electricity.  Right now we need to replace our main battery bank so we are needing to run our generator more frequently….but we are replacing the battery bank soon.  

We have 2x3000W Victron charger/inverters (for backup and possibly joining in the future for 6000W of power), 2xVictron solar charger controllers (best if each panel has its own controller), a Victron battery monitor and a Victron monitoring device that sends all of our power data to a website so I can see it anywhere. 

Radar

Radar is amazing technology.  This is a great video about how the magnetron was invented during WW2.   The magnetron creates radar waves and also microwaves your food.

Spruzzo has a mast-mounted Raymarine radar unit. Amazingly it seems to work out to about 20nm!  Boat radar sends radio waves in a circle around the boat of either 3Ghz or 10 Ghz and looks for the bounced back signal.  It will show you land or other boats on the chartplotter.   I’ve used this for fun during the day, but obviously you can see things during the day.    It would be most useful at night for seeing fishing boats without lights or AIS, but this is not really much of an issue.  You can also use it to see approaching squalls (little local storms) but they don’t really happen in the Mediterranean.  

Here is a youtube of a guy making his own phased-array sonar (radar with sound), which is more sophisticated than the rotating unit we have…there is no need to rotate anything.  I’d like to build one of these when I’m on land for a while.

Cellular Data/Boat WiFi

Spzuzzo has a cellular modem router on the boat with its own unlimited data plan so the boat has WiFi with unlimited data.  Victoria and I both have data plans on our phones as well, so we have 3 data plans running.  More than 95% of the time we have internet while sailing here.

Auto Pilot/Self Steering (magnetic fluxgate compass)

Spruzzo has an autopilot control system that works off of a digital compass.  I set the heading and the boat follows that heading.  I do 99% of boat steering using the autopilot, I only hand-steer for fun, when anchoring or in a port, or in very bad weather.  The autopilot system can also steer based on the wind direction to optimize sailing speed but I don’t use this setting.  

Spruzzo has 2 separate autopilot control systems:  one chain based just behind the helm and the other pneumatic system close to the rudder.  

Weather Models

We look at weather daily using both apps and online sites.  There are many different weather models, and most systems let you pick which one you want to use.  I cannot imagine sailing without seeing what the weather would be for that day and the next few days after.  Weather technology is now usually very accurate for 3 to even 5 days out….but the Mediterranean is very complicated and has local effects that can make winds and waves 2 or 3 times stronger than forecast.  The Greek weather service tries to capture some of these local effects but they are not always correct either.  Victoria and I have had a few fun rides through areas that have funneled wind and waves so they were much, much greater than forecast.  We won’t go through those places again unless the weather is dead calm.  

Internet information for harbors/anchoring

My biggest question before sailing in the Med was ‘how am I going to find places to anchor?’.  I imagined I would look at the maps and wind and pick a harbor.  I didn’t know this was a solved problem.  Navily has lists of all the anchorages, and suggests which are better based on the forecast weather (winds and waves) and also has user comments on the bottom-condition (sand, mud, grass, hard, soft, etc).     We use Navily to pick anchorages for our trips.  

Diesel engines

Spruzzo has a 4-cylinder 100Hp Yanmar inboard diesel engine.  The engine has just under 4000 hours of use, some diesel engines have gone for 40,000 or more hours.  It makes me very happy every time the engine starts immediately when I turn the key.  I like sailing much more than motoring, but  it is nice to know that the ‘iron-wind’ is available.  When we cruise at 5-6 knots we use about 6L of diesel/hour.  

I took a diesel engine course before we left Canada which was a very good thing to do.  I’m not an expert but I can now look at an engine and know what all the parts do.  

Alternating-Current Electricity Generator

We have a smaller Kubota 3-cylinder diesel engine connected to an Onan 3000W AC generator.  We need to run the generator when we charge the batteries , run the watermaker or very rarely run the Air-conditioning.  Usually we do 2 or 3 things at once:  we make water and charge the batteries at the same time.  The Generator likes to be fully loaded so I try to make as much use of it as possible when it is running.  It uses about 2L of diesel/hour.  

Direct Current Motors

Spruzzo has several DC Motors.  DC Motors are surprisingly simple machines:  they contain magnets, wire-wrappings and carbon brushes.  The carbon brushes can wear out and need replacing, and carbon dust can cause problems, but you can open them up, clean them and they will work again (I’ve done this, I fixed the jib motor when a seal failed and it filled with water).  

Spruzo has DC motors for:  furling and un-furling the jib, powering the bow-thruster, pulling out the main sail, furling and un-furling the main sail, one each for the large power winches on each side of the boat, raising and lowering the anchor,  and finally the powered winch on the mizzen (you can use this for a few different things).  I count 8 DC motors!   All of these motors run off of the main (or house) battery bank.  Amel boats use a lot of electricity.  

Gas Motor

We have a 20hp gas outboard for our dingy.  It is very heavy and a pain to deploy as it is a 2 person job.  It is great if we ever need to push our boat into a harbor but otherwise a smaller motor would be fine.  We might get a much lighter electric outboard for daily use.   

Modern rope/lines

You might think there are one or two different kinds of rope/lines for boats.  You would be very wrong.  Sometimes you want lines that stretch (i.e. dock-lines), sometimes you want lines that don’t stretch (i.e. halyards for sails), sometimes you want lines that float (for a dingy or lines to shore) and sometimes you want lines that ‘feel good’.  Dyneema is a new material that is as strong as steel…..but is so slippery that normal knots don’t work!  How crazy is that?  I made a few ‘soft-shackles’ from Dyneema when I first got on the boat because it seemed so neat, they can replace metal shackles….but I haven’t used one of them yet.  I’m still amazed at the material.  

Chain Counter 

The chain counter is mounted beside the windlass (the machine for moving the anchor and chain) and works by detecting a piece of metal that sticks out from a hub moving past a sensor.  

I’m familiar with this particular part because I might need to replace mine.  Our chain counter sometimes decides not to work (I count steamboats dropping the chain which is pretty accurate) and probably this sensor needs to be replaced.  

Auto-inflatable life-raft

We have a 6-person life-raft that will auto-inflate if I put it in the water.  Hopefully I never use it.

Auto-inflatable life-jackets with AIS

Victoria and I both have very nice auto-inflating life-jackets.  I only used mine once when I solo-sailed to Turkey and had to go on deck to change the Greek flag to Turkish (Turkey takes this seriously).  We both have an automatic emergency AIS transmitter in the life-jacket that would show our location in the water….or show Victoria which direction to sail away from 😉

Air Conditioning/Refrigeration

We have air-conditioning for the 3 major cabins in the boat which we usually only use when on shore power and even then very rarely….although when you need it (say it is 40+ degrees outside) you are glad you have it.  We also have 2 fridge/freezer units.  I had to replace one of the refrigeration control units last year which I’m still proud of fixing.  

Espresso Machine/Dishwasher/Clothes Washing Machine

We use our espresso machine with a very expensive hand grinder every morning.  I can’t imagine sailing without one.  We always have a 1+ month supply of espresso beans onboard (sometimes they are hard to find in the islands so we stock up).  Victoria insisted that we have a small dishwasher on board, so we have a small portable unit in the kitchen that Victoria named ‘Bobby’.  The boat came with a decent sized clothes washer.  

Glass-reinforced epoxy 

GRP Boats (Glass Reinforced Plastic) are no big deal now, but I have to say I really love epoxy.  Epoxy resin is a clear fluid in a jug.  You put it in a container (an exact quantity ideally by weight) and add a precise amount of hardener (again by weight) and stir thoroughly for a specific amount of time.  You now have a magic fluid that will become rock hard in time depending on the current temperature and humidity.  You can make the fluid thicker by adding shredded fiberglass, and make it stronger by layering it with fiberglass sheets.  

This is a magic material and I find it fascinating.  One of my first repairs was filling a few holes left after I removed an old TV-Satellite dish from the back of the boat.  In one of the holes I added a bit too much epoxy and it got very hot and smoked a bit!  The hardening reaction is exothermic (i.e. it gives off heat as it cures, and heat makes it cure faster, so it can start a fire if you use too much).  

VHF Radios

I mentioned before we have 2 VHF radios on board.  One is attached to the mast and is longer range (probably 20-30 miles) and a hand-held unit that only works for a few miles.  

One cool feature we have is MMSI (Maritime-Mobile-Service-Identifier), our number is 316044738, that acts like a VHF telephone number.  I can look up a boat’s MMSI (say on AIS) and call him up directly on my radio.  We’ve only used this for fun with a friend’s boat but you can see it would be useful if you are trying to make sure a big tanker sees you at night.

One crazy thing is that the VHF ‘channels’ are not the same frequencies between the US and Europe….and if you want to navigate the rivers in France you need a special radio…..LOL

HF Radio

We have an ICOM IC-M710 on board, which is a MF/HF (medium/high frequency) radio.  This can be used for communicating over hundreds of miles, but no-one in the Med uses it.  They are a bit complex to use and complicated to setup.  There is a modem attached so you can use this to receive weather faxes to a computer (say when crossing an ocean) or to send short e-mails or even to make a distress call.  I will almost certainly just get satellite internet or some other satellite based communication system if we ever cross the Atlantic or Pacific.  

Future Technology Nice to Have

Satellite Internet

Obviously Starlink.  We don’t really need it in the Med as we have internet 95% of the time now but if we cross the Atlantic we will get it.  

Drones for navigation/underwater

Lots of people have drones for taking pictures, but I would like to have a drone to send ahead to give me an overhead view of where I am going.  I have a map view, but when you are looking at boats from the side (say when entering a bay) your depth perception is not very good….you need to sail into the bay to get a better view of where everyone is anchored.  If I could send my semi-autonomous drone ahead to give me a real-time updated overhead view it would be helpful.  Might be a good winter project!  

Similarly, every time we anchor either Victoria or I will get a mask and ‘dive on the anchor’ to see how it is set.  This is good exercise for me and I enjoy doing it, but it would be nice to send an underwater drone down to check out the anchor too.  One issue is communicating with the drone underwater…..radio doesn’t work very well through water so the drone probably needs to be tethered, and obviously everything needs to be watertight.  I might try making an underwater drone as a project for this purpose.  

Smarter Anchors

Our anchor works quite well.  It has no brand on it but I think it is a French anchor called a Brake.  I would guess it is 30 or 35kg.  Occasionally it will land on its back, and we either need to raise and re-lower it, or I dive down and flip it over (I do this very carefully).  Sometimes I will give the anchor an extra push down when I check it to help the tip dig into the bottom (if the bottom is too hard the anchor doesn’t dig in).   If the anchor is deeper than 6m it is hard for me to do too much as I can probably just barely swim down 10m and then go back up (with flippers).

There are more modern anchors that I think work a bit better than ours (of course the user is more important than the tool).  Essentially they have added more weight to the anchor tip.  I’ve given some thought to a smarter anchor that detects what kind of bottom it has landed on, and does something different depending on the environment.  I’m not sure this is practical…and obviously would be WAY more complex than even a complex-shaped and weighted piece of metal (a current anchor) but it is interesting to think about…..an anchor as a machine that you drop to the bottom that digs itself in!  

Other Items

I didn’t discuss sails, as I’m not much of a sail expert, or keel-boat technology (keels needed to be invented to make sails work better)…..but I think this post is long enough. I enjoyed writing it! I hope you enjoyed reading it.