Season’s endings
In November the boat underwent a small refit-session. During training in October there was a misunderstanding with the Pogo2 514 during a tacking duel, they took our priorty and we T-boned them. Luckily for the 514 we hit the hull/deck joint so they remained unharmed, we however took quite a hit under the forestay, also the metal “V” that is used to unfold the bowsprit was ripped off.
While Younn took care of the gelcoat- and underlying laminate-damage I took care of some other things on board:
– sanded the rudders and applied new gelcoat
– new tillers adapted to the rudders, drilled and installed
– repaired the solent-light (soo cool when trimming at night, also awesome to be seen by fishing vessels)
– re-waterproofed the mast where it leads through the deck
– re-waterproofed the pushpit & stanchions
– re-waterproofed the engine mount at the transom
– small service on the fuel cell
– changed the speakers in the cockpit (again proper music!)
During the week I also kept the dehumidifier and heater running and completely cleaned and dried the boat on the inside.
Around 5pm on friday Younn & me worked hectically – kindly supported by Erwarn – to finish the installation of the pushpit and the forestay fitting to get the boat back into the water before 6pm 
.
Saturday morning I started getting the boat ready for training but a look around already indicated bad news: thick fog (visibility 200m?) and no wind whatsoever.
To make the best of it, we did a “mast trim day” and measured all boat’s stay tensions and prebend, then did a long theory session in the meeting room to discuss mast trim, sail combinations for the transat and a deep-dive into pilot settings.
That was it for this year – the boat is now in hibernation for about end of january when training will resume.
new gear: fuelcell
Voilà! My brand new fuel cell! The probably single most expensive piece of equipment which should hopefully resolve my power problems (see e.g. MAP 2012) for good.
The fuelcell itself, a Efoy 140 Comfort (which by the way was not provided but I paid for myself), is installed in the “tunnel” under the companionway. A good spot where it’s protected from water and not in the way.
It’s connected to the batteries and monitors their voltage constantly. If the voltage dropy below 12.3V it automatically turns itself on and begins charging the batteries with about 11Amps.
Once the batteries are back up to 13V it automatically turns itself off again.
Should the fuelcell ever fail I still have my solar panel at the transom as a backup on board.