E43 Refit

Date: February 4, 2000
From: John & Deborah Gerber bayhunt@x-press.net

Paul
We are looking to modify our E-43 for extended cruising and would like to hear what modifications other owners have made to their boats. Some modifications would be the installation of a washer/dryer, coversion of the icebox to a refrigerator/freezer, watermaker, SSB, davits, life raft, adding shelf between the galley and main salon, etc.

I read in the forum that one of the members has a damaged rudder and I contacted him and am sending him drawings that came with our boat, so I would say the Endeavour Owners forum works!! Thanks

Date: February 9, 2000
From: Dick Jewell SailorofSJ@aol.com

Congratulations on your Endeavour 43. My name is Dick Jewell. I live in San Jose California and our 43 is in San Francisco.

We were wondering if you have modified your boat and if so what you did and how you did it. Any information you can provide would be appreciated."

We have an Endeavour 43...1980 hull #175 named MaLu. We are presently are back working but have had two years cruising down the Pacific coast and thru the canal to Columbia, Honduras, Belize..Florida, Alabama, Louisiana...and then had MaLu trucked home to San Francisco. We are rearing to go again...but will work for a while first.

Before we left we performed many modifications and along the way made other changes. Relative to your particulars:

The water maker we chose was the Village Marine "no frills" 450 GPD water maker. We chose that because we learned the higher capacity meant you did not need to run the generator that long...it basically created 20 GPH and this reduced our run time. The membrane was mounted on the outside of the fore/aft port side joist? between the port side aft hatch in the salon. the membrane was then positioned aft of that hatch ..ending under the sole in the galley area. It was mounted in such a way to allow two filters (one carbon and one two micron) to be mounted and accessible under that particular hatch. The pressure control on the membrane is accessible under this hatch as well. Also mounted was a centrifical pump to bring raw water to the filters. The controls were mounted where the trash bin was located. We threw the trash bin away and mounted a wooden panel in that area from the backside onto which we mounted the controls (electrical switch for the pump(s) and the water valves.....). We did save the face of the trash bin and made a door to conceal the recessed controls. The big high pressure pump was mounted in an area on the port side of the generator ...a very tight fit...)... The cost of the installed system by a Village Marine dealer in San Diego was around $6500. We have an 8KW generator and the water maker worked fine. Incidentally we added 3 thru hulls under the hatch nearest the nav station. One for the water maker, one for the generator..we added that..and one for the air conditioning. Each has its own raw water strainer.

We added the Heart Freedom 20, a 2KW charger/inverter. This has worked like a champ. We use it to quick charge the batteries and then to provide ac for the toaster, microwave, stereo, other low power ac devices. We modified the power panel to allow isolation of the water heater, washer dryer and air conditioners from the inverter output. We mounted this inverter in the engine room under the lip of the forward door. We had a battery charger there before and it made sense and it fit perfectly there. It also was in close proximity to the batteries...

We did not increase the batteries from the original 4D's we had. I just added a starter battery for the generator and Perkins. I don't know if you have this battery...it mounts in the same location as the 4D's but in that aft hole of the battery boxes. I put a battery switch (to isolate the generator/main or both) on the joist inside the engine room of the aft starboard side engine room door. This is real close to that starter battery. As for the 4D's I bought two Blue Seas 9001 switches and rerouted the wiring to them from the 4D's. I mounted those switches thru 3 3/4" holes I cut in the vertical side panel of the nav seat (so they are exposed to be switch quickly). They are wired so each has its feed from one of the batteries...then for the position "2's" on the switches I wired that to the inverter/house DC distribution panel.... for the position "1's" I have that connected to a bus to the SSB. That allows me to have switch choices...one battery for the SSB...two batteries for the SSB...one battery for the house/inverter ...two batteries for the house..or in the both position...everything connected. When using the inverter for charging I can thus isolate one battery if needed. The batteries are also main engine alternator charged thru diode isolators directly to the terminals..... Using the engine alternator for battery charging allows us to make bread in the bread maker thru the inverter without running the generator...(we've not tried the bread maker on battery power alone..toaster yes...and the coffee pot).

As for the washer and dryer...we have the unit that does both... We selected the kind with the water "dried" dehumidifier. We thought that would keep us from having the hot vent ducting issue. This was a mistake. We find the water consumption to be very high and the drying time to be very long. If I could do this over I would choose the ducted vent model and figure a way to vent the dryer..even with a temporary duct to the outside though a port. We really found the other system does not work well. We mounted the washer/dryer in the starboard passage way nearest the aft stateroom. We have the model that had the two bunk beds in that passage way. I cut out part of the lower bunk to make room for the machine. I mounted blocks to retain the washer and dryer. I brought up ac (with GFI) and h/c water to the area behind the machine. The drain is mounted about 9" above the waterline thru a valve.... The balance of the boat is to starboard... I have two old 4D's mounted under the galley sink for ballast...in the future they might become live batteries for house power....

The SSB we chose was the SGC2000 with remote head. The remote head is at the nav station and the power unit mounts under the vanity in the aft cabin. The antenna tuner is mounted on the headliner in the aft cabin nearest the back stay of the main mast. We use the insulated backstay as an antenna ....37' long from isolator to isolator. I would buy the power talk head with the adaptive filter and knob tuning. We bought the basic one at the time because it was cheaper...I'm thinking now of replacing it.

I will continue to give you information if you find this helpful......

Date: February 10, 2000
From: Wolfgang Harms Wolfgang@pioneer-research.com

We bought our E43 Ketch 1982 five years ago and had her completely overhauled. Spending one year in the Bahamas, then doing a 2000 mile trip around the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos and then 3 months around Bahamas, Cuba, and US East Coast, now just completed another major overhaul. Would be glad to answer some specific questions. This was island and coastal cruising, but not arctic, or circumnavigation, although we met a lot of those boats.

No washer/dryer, lifelines work well, lost a pair of pants in towing. Icebox was already a freezer oem

Original refrigerator: circuit board shorted once. Heat exchanger in engine room caused repeated breakdowns due to excessive pressure. We kept the case, but installed new air cooled compressure, DC only under sink, works great.

No watermaker. Would like one.

SSB used a lot. But weather fax was difficult to receive.

Davits: Previous owner backed against concrete wall. Our dinghy is too long. Keep on foredeck.

ABF 6 person liferaft, never used, supposedly the best.

There are many items we installed and many others we had problems with.

Sail: Would need a small working jib. Or a sturdy PRO FURL roller furling genoa that can be used partially furled.

Electric power: Never enough. Four Winds Wind Generator does not deliver what promised. Average only 3 to 4 Ah wiht 10 to 15 kn undisturbed wind. Now we installed new 100 Amp alternator, 1000 AH AGM batteries, 60 Amp battery charger. New heat exchanger for generator. At least we can generate enough power with diesel. Tendency of V-Belt to slip with high power demand caused water pump wear out. Needed spare pumps (fresh and raw).

Raytheon Autopilot for "up to 48 ft. length" broke twice in following seas due to design problem. Upgraded to higher size hydrolic Raytheon. So far OK.

Bought 150 % genoa instead of 120. This is overpowered in most winds.

We have much more in our log book but not directly related to long distance.

Food: Had good success in making yoghurt from dried milk and baking whole grain sour dow bread.

Date: February 11, 2000
From: Stuart Phillips StuP@aol.com

I own the endeavor 43, Stargazer. She is located in New Orleans at the municipally yacht harbor. I have owned it since 1978. It is hull No. 8. I bought it new.

The stargazer has been completely refitted. We have put a 12 volt refrigeration module into the old icebox. We have used the Aldler Baruber (spelling?) Unit. It has worked for 15 years with the need to replace the fan once. The compressor is under the sink. It fits fine. I would definitely do this way rather than an engine driven compressor or a water cooled system. It draws about five amps and runs about half the time so it is not a large draw of the battery system.

The we removed and discarded the old 110 volt refrigerator. It really never worked when the motor was running because the heat exchange unit was in the engine room and engine room heated up under power. We converted this area into a pantry which works great and which gives great access to the engine compartment when you really need it.

We have installed a second battery system in the wet locker. We have three batteries (gel cells). They are connected in parallel.

I have installed an icemaker under the sink. It faces forward. It fits fine and runs fine. It is 110. So it only runs when the generator runs.

We have installed feathering prop which increases the speed and improves the sailing characteristics under sail to a remarkable extent. If you go to do any serious sailing in your cruising rather than motoring this is a handy but expenses upgrade.

We have added 2 air conditioners, one of the main cabin and one in the aft cabin. That works fine even in New Orleans of the summertime.

We also have a Dodger, but I probably would rather a Binniny top with curtains around.

We have added two power witches. These are really necessary if you are going to handle the boat shorthanded and your 60 years old like I am. You can also use these to raise the anchor and the main sail.

We have added removable davids. They were not easy to add but they worked great. If you are interested I will send you a copy of the manufacturers recommendations and a picture of how we installed them.

If you are interested and can get to New Orleans, I would be glad to show you around the stargazer and share with you my twenty years of interested upgrading this boat. It has been rewarding and we have cruised the entire Gulf of Mexico without any serious problems in all sorts of weather.

Incidentally, we also race the stargazer in the cruising class it has a PHRF rating of 162. And we have won our share of races.

R E P L Y