400e - what extras / changes recommended

Hi, 

I'm George Huffman and will be rigging electronics and accessories on a 400e soon.  I am requesting information on wire runs and installation issues (good and bad) particularly concerning the auto pilot installation.  I am an experiences professional installer but I do not wish to re-invent the wheel here. 

 

I would greatly appreciate pictures of auto pilot drive unit installations.  So far I’ve heard of using a PYI drive and the Jafa drive. 

 

We are also installing a Webasto Heater.  Any direction here would also be appreciated.

 

Thanks very much in advance.  I’m looking forward to getting started cutting holes and filling them with neat toys.  In return I’ll be taking a lot of photos and documenting the work to post here for others to follow up on.  Perhaps we could even get a Wiki started? 

 

Also there is a good chance that I’ll be privelidged to get some cruising in on the boat in the Abacos this spring.  I’ll be happy to share particulars of that experience as well.

 

Best Regards

 

George Huffman

Make sure that the Webasto can breath.  I've had a simular problem with an Espar (very like the Webasto) and it was due to poor ventilation.  They need a pretty good supply of air from the outside. 

I agree about your compass location.  I always install them as low and close to center of boat as I can. 

If you don't mind my asking, what autopilot drive unit did you install, do you happen to have any photos?

Oh and make sure and re-swing that compass once you move it.  Directions to do so should be in the installation literature. 


Thanks

George


Edited by thatboatguy - 13 November 2006 at 00:59

The Jefa drive is tough to beat, recomended by 2 competitors. Go to http://www.jefa.com/News/hanse/hanse.htm

to see pics and drawings.

A Dutchman track (which we make - www.mvbinfo.com) or Strong track is essential - much simplier and less expensive than an electric winch, and allows the sail to drop more quickly. Both are UHMW - a durable, low friction plastic. Ours has a little less friction, will not let the batten fitting hit the mast when off the wind, and is lighter.

Since we are not keen on lazy jacks, we altered the Hanse cover to work with our sail flaking system, which works pretty well - no catching the leech or having to be head to wind. It also looks much better, unless you like the cover always out there while sailing.

Speaking of our products, we were testing our boom brake on the 400 in about 20 knots of wind. The standard Sparcraft pad eye mounted under the boom ripped out (the bail bent together). This bail should not be used for brakes or preventers. Sparcraft has an upgraded bail with a welded strut to keep the bail from folding together and popping out.   Anything that keeps the 2 legs of the bent ss bail from coming together will help.

One of our most successful mods was to mount Bose speakers on adjustable Ram mounts in either aft cabin under the hatches. Point up for cockpit speakers, point forward for interior speakers (with the doors open).

Also, get rid of the stupid spring holders on the nav panel access doors - much easier to open and close without them. Thought this was a mistake, but it seems every Hanse has them. The doors will not open when closed with the supplied hardware and the spring holders removed.

The rubber bumpers on the folding transom platform need to be upgraded with washers to keep from marring the transom.

You can see our Hanse 400 on yachtworld.

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatFullDetails.jsp?boat_id=1604354&checked_boats=1604354&ybw=&units=Feet¤cy=USD&access=Public&listing_id=75584&url=

(Or just search for Hanse 40's - boat in Norwalk CT)

We will have photo's of some of these mods also on our Hanse section of our website.

Sound Sailing wrote: A Dutchman track (which we make - www.mvbinfo.com) or Strong track is essential - much simplier and less expensive than an electric winch, and allows the sail to drop more quickly. Both are UHMW - a durable, low friction plastic. Ours has a little less friction, will not let the batten fitting hit the mast when off the wind, and is lighter.

I’m only responsible for a portion of these upgrades but it’s a big portion.  The owners of Rocinante were true team members and often team leaders in this project.  Without owner involvement the chances for everyone to be happy at the end of the job are not as good.

 

It’s only a little more difficult to run wires inside of tubes.  The results speak for themselves.  This is the GPS mounted on one of the braces for the wind generator pole.

 

 

We have also made use of that pole for making a crane for the outboard motor.  I hung my own nearly 200 pounds from this crane and even bounced a bit with no negative effects. 

 

 

The arm is swung over in this picture to get a good view of it.  With the arm in useful position the hook will strike the engine cover right in it’s center.

 

 

 A Danforth anchor is essential for those who wish to anchor in these waters and those of the intracoastal waterway of the Eastern U.S.  I had to weld a ring onto this one to get it to ride correctly in the bow roller.

 

 

Here it is in place.

 

 

Full time cruising means a need for more amp hours.  The pre-made battery boxes would have taken up too much space.  I built this one in place with wood epoxy composite method.  It’s encapsulated in West System epoxy and fully tabbed to the boat.  

 

 

 

And a perfect fit.

 

 

I wanted to show the Jefa Drive unit installed with the helm centered, then hard over one direction and the other.  Some other photos of installs don’t look right to me but not being on the boat I can’t really say why.  One thing of note is that the tiller arm on the rudderpost is not perpendicular to the boat’s line of travel when the rudder is centered.  You can see by the alignment of the slot on the tiller arm of the Jefa unit with screws in the case, that it’s making even travel from side to side and centered when the rudder is centered.  We only had to correct the rudder angle sender 3 degrees with software at the dock, and no further adjustments needed to be made even on sea trial.  I’ve already posted pictures of my choice of location for the rudder angle sender.  It’s nice and dry in the lazerette area and screwed to the underside of the cockpit sole.  We did have to reverse the red and green leads at the computer to compensate for the sender being physically hooked up backwards.

 

 

 

 

I don’t have a picture of the compass location but I’ll describe it.  We put it under the forward nav station seat in the salon.  The worry I had concerning the ferric material in the seat swivel was unfounded as illustrated by the photo below.  I did leave all of the compass wire lead in a service loop in the event that we needed to move the compass.  Can’t argue with sea trial results like these though. 

 

 

The next set of  photos are the Webasto heater installation.

 

 

 

 

 

I had nothing to do with the interior upgrades.  These were mostly attributed to the art of Maria Mendoza.

 

 

"The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat." -L. Francist Herreshoff

 

 

 

 

Best Regards

 

George Huffman

Mana Marine