Jerryca sh

[Samual S Seahawk]

Hi all
I'm hoping to have a crack at the 2020 Azores jester challenge.
I don't have any other means of battery charging than my engine at the moment.
I'd like to carry extra diesel in cans to allow me to charge my batteries as needed.
Metal jerrycans or plastic jerrycans in 20ltrs, just throwing it out there, any thoughts.
Cheers!

[Nick]

.
From personal experience, 10l plastic jerrycans are lighter, easier to handle and easier to stow. Get an easy to operate (pump or jiggle-ball) syphon and practice filling your tank with it before you have to do it in a big sea.

Rather than having to run the engine unneccesarily I would invest in a cheap solar panel and get an LED bulb for the tricolour. (I am assuming you already have LED lights for any internal illumination). This should help minimise your power consumption.

What boat do you have?

[Samual S Seahawk]

Hi Nick
My boat is a colvic searover 28. I have two small battery powered pumps designed for pumping from jerrycans and they work very well. I have LEDs inside boat and a masthead tricolour. I don't have windvane steering but do have autohelm for tiller. I'm told they are power hungry although as yet I haven't tried it out on a long trip yet.

[cpedw]

The dacoblue 10l plastic backpack looks a good idea until you see the price - £85. My preference is for 10l plastic cans. They are much easier to handle than 25l when full and they don't corrode.

Derek

[mm5aho]

I've used 25l plastic jerrycans (roughly square cross section, handle on top) for times when I wanted to take a lot of fuel. I suspect that the 10l ones would be far easier, though the 25l ones are easy to secure on deck. They're juts manageable to retrieve and bring to the cockpit for emptying into the tank where I use a syphon as recommended above.
I have 3 x10l spare water cans in plastic, and these are very easy to stow below somewhere (cockpit lockers).
But it would take say 10 x 10l ones to replace 4 x 25l. That's a lot of plastic floating about somewhere.

[ash]

If you have a look around HGV fuel pumps, you will likely see discarded 20 litre square shaped plastic containers. They used to contain AdBlu.

They might be a bit thin skinned for your purpose, but worth a look if you want cheap.

Cheers

Ash

[ash]

If you have a look around HGV fuel pumps, you will likely see discarded 20 litre square shaped plastic containers. They used to contain AdBlu.

They might be a bit thin skinned for your purpose, but worth a look if you want cheap.

Cheers

Ash

Apologies, after further thought, the capacity might be 10 litre. I'll check. Found one, it is 10 litre.

Ash

[spuddy]

No experience of autopilots, assuming that's the below decks type but 3 tillerpilots have given up the ghost on me, despite several varieties of covers intended to keep water out. I personally wouldn't depend on a tillerpilot for offshore sailing, especially not single-handed.
Before the Jester Azores you'd have time to make a Hebridean vane steerer. I've sailed a few thousand miles with one and am a big fan.

[Aja]

Whether two up or solo you are going to need an auto helm or self steering gear. I don't know your previous history but have talked to previous entrants who's autohelm (brand new and fitted in Falmouth by Raymarine) was totally hopeless.

Engineer in Azores tried to fix for return journey but failed. Result was two very, very VERY tired crew. Not for the faint hearted.
Donald