03 Jun Stabilizer Blues
Sunday June 3.
The port stabilizer is making more chattering noise, where the torque arm is reversing direction in incremental amounts several times per second rather than making long smooth strokes. The starboard stabilizer is making a similar noise but to a lesser degree. I have reduced the Naiad Datum sensitivity settings to bare minimum with better results. The Velocity is at 40 and Angle, Acceleration and Heel are at zero. The port stabilizer is now out of the system and pinned locked into its center position. Doug James at Pacific Yacht Management, is in my opinion one of the best Naiad technicians and trouble shooters, thinks our problem might stem from slack in our ram trunnion bearings and the ram rod end bushings, thus causing the potentiometer to receive an inaccurate position feedback from the stabilizer. We can’t tell how much slack is in the bearings; Doug may be right, but the fact that we are also getting chatter from the starboard unit as well suggests that the Datum controller may also be contributing to the problem.
I’m glad that we have the Inmarsat FBB250 phone so we have good talk and receiving reception. The Iridium Go is great for texting and emailing but not-so-good for holding an extended phone conversation, frequently cutting out much of the time so we only hear fragments of a conversation until the satellite is in just the right location, then the reception is fine…..(for a few minutes).
In the meantime, for the next couple of days we will be getting some slop with up to 20kn winds and wave on our port side, and may reactivate the port stabilizer. We should get into Dutch next Thursday, the 7th, with one low in front of us and another one coming in right behind us.
For any of you who might have the fix please email me at don@sbmc.com and we will get our emails when we get to Dutch Harbor.
Thanks
Don
The port stabilizer is making more chattering noise, where the torque arm is reversing direction in incremental amounts several times per second rather than making long smooth strokes. The starboard stabilizer is making a similar noise but to a lesser degree. I have reduced the Naiad Datum sensitivity settings to bare minimum with better results. The Velocity is at 40 and Angle, Acceleration and Heel are at zero. The port stabilizer is now out of the system and pinned locked into its center position. Doug James at Pacific Yacht Management, is in my opinion one of the best Naiad technicians and trouble shooters, thinks our problem might stem from slack in our ram trunnion bearings and the ram rod end bushings, thus causing the potentiometer to receive an inaccurate position feedback from the stabilizer. We can’t tell how much slack is in the bearings; Doug may be right, but the fact that we are also getting chatter from the starboard unit as well suggests that the Datum controller may also be contributing to the problem.
I’m glad that we have the Inmarsat FBB250 phone so we have good talk and receiving reception. The Iridium Go is great for texting and emailing but not-so-good for holding an extended phone conversation, frequently cutting out much of the time so we only hear fragments of a conversation until the satellite is in just the right location, then the reception is fine…..(for a few minutes).
In the meantime, for the next couple of days we will be getting some slop with up to 20kn winds and wave on our port side, and may reactivate the port stabilizer. We should get into Dutch next Thursday, the 7th, with one low in front of us and another one coming in right behind us.
For any of you who might have the fix please email me at don@sbmc.com and we will get our emails when we get to Dutch Harbor.
Thanks
Don
No Comments