New to me 21 EC Maiden Voyage

[BoxCanyon]

Hi, I'm new to the site and new to Ranger Tugs. I've admired them for years but I'm a Trailer Sailor so afraid to dip into the "Dark Side". I dipped and "Misty" and I enjoyed our first adventure on the Columbia River the past few days. She's a 2014, but for a couple of sad reasons (happy for me) she only had 23 hours on her, and those when she was Sassy Girl in PA. Second owner brought her to the west coast (I did the same with a Chesapeake Bay Horizon Cat a few years ago so appreciate the effort) but, sadly, developed some health issues that precluded his ability to even get out on her once (although she was stored inside in his shop for the year he owned her). Anyway, she's essentially brand new and I'm putting some hours on her so I can change out the "Break-In" oil before a planned trip up north (San Juan/Gulf Islands) the second half of June. I'm up to 40 hours after my three day cruise, the First Service is scheduled for June 6th and Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner (with a marvelous forecast) so no worries getting to 50 hours!

My "adventure' trips are generally solo... but with other solo boaters (sailors, that seemingly will let me still tag along - probably for the cockpit). Last summer with the Horizon Cat I traveled with two other guys (a Montgomery 17 and a San Juan 21 to Princess Louisa Inlet - a life time adventure, even if our plans to continue on up Malaspina Straight to Desolation Sound were thwarted by that freak sustained wind event (the Race to Alaska guys remember that). But the 21 EC travels at 55 knots on the highway (somewhat slower on ferries) so maybe September will find her in Desolation Sound.

One problem emerged immediately on my maiden voyage... the Garmin 541S won't get bright enough to see anything. Straining I can see the image is there, but following the book I can just make out the brightness control but even adjusted all the way up on "daylight" nothing can be seen. Is the monitor fried, did this happen to anyone else, was it a 2014 lemon, did Garmin help... all the usual questions, just no answers??? Appreciate any feedback on how to proceed (I'd like to add Radar if that enters into the equation).

A longer term issue is the "fridge". Seems like a waste of space in my opinion... a deep ice box would be much better. I hate to destroy a new boat, but how have people made that work???

It also has an alcohol stove, which was fine when I had my Sun Cat, but am I mistaken that the Origo boiled a tea pot faster than this one???? The Horizon Cat had a butane stove and it was much quicker. Is there an easy conversion without screwing things up.

The boat worked great and we ran with the tide on the way down the river and against it on the way back... may plan that the other way next time... not sure how to post pictures, but if it's easy and folks are interested I'm glad to do it.

Appreciate any and all feedback, especially about my problems.

Cheers,
John

 

[baz]

John: Someone else here is wanting to swap out the Fridge, so go find that posting as it should be high on the forum's new posting list.

Yea. the alcohol stove is a bit of a joke IMO. I've not ever used mine, as it's covered up by the Nav seat. 😱

I suspect that Garmin 541S is still under warranty so give Garmin a call and see what they have to say.

If you're going to be traveling on long trips, especially in and around the San Juan islands a radar would be useful as fog descends expectedly during many mornings I've been up there, as would be an auto pilot. 🙂

Yea...call Garmin and get that 541S working properly.

Hope to see you on the water up here in the PNW sometime.

[EDIT] Post is here for the Fridge swap out.... -> http://www.tugnuts.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7564

 

[BoxCanyon]

Thanks Gill, appreciate the feedback and I'm sure we'll cross paths as you are evidently out of Edmunds.

You bring up my third question (that I was afraid to broach with the others) and that's of course the auto pilot. I asked Andrew about it but he said they don't work on used boats. Interestingly, I found on my maiden voyage that I could set the rudder midships and, in still conditions of course, steer the boat by weighting one side of the cockpit or the other. Positioning on the port side of the engine box would steer right and moving to the starboard side would turn it to port. Depending on the degree of movement I could turn sharply or almost imperceptibly. Nice if you want to get some sun but still monitor all the debris coming down the river!

Let me know if you have a good solution to the Auto Pilot question, or where I can go to get it.

Cheers, John

 

[Two killicks]

Hello John,

Sounds like you are going to have some great adventure ahead of you with your trips that are coming up! I wish that I would live on the West coast and cruise there...

I was wondering about your Garmin if you actually got connected with a technician by email? I did so a couple weeks ago for my 740s and they were able to resolve a problem for me.

About your screen, I saw this on mine a couple times just after I turned on the machine, I could see that it was on but could barely see the display. What I did, I hold the power button for a few seconds and when it reloaded, it was fine, might want to try this if you have not done it yet... But, I strongly recommend that you get an update done to your chartplotter (use a blank SD card and download the software from the Garmin website on your computer and make the update in the chartplotter with the new version, you said that your boat is a 2014, so the chartplotter is most likely 2 years behind in update, many bugs will be fixed and perhaps it will fix your problem as well... My problem was fixed this way (with an update to the chartplotter)

As for the fridge, I am just about to remove mine as discussed in my post see the link that Barry published in his post reply. I am going to remove it next week, and I will put 2-3 shelf inside with a louvered door made of wood custom made. The lower shelf will have a hinge so that I may put more stuff underneath. I will post pictures in my album once it is done...

The stove, well we are going to use a portable butane stove instead, less hassle and quicker to cook.

If you want to post pictures in your own album, you must request the admin to do so, very simple to do. follow the instructions here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3

 

[BoxCanyon]

Thanks so much for the good information. Turns out a lot of the Garmin marine tech guys are at a facility just down the road in Salem, OR. You know the community... I know a fellow sailor, he has a granddaughter, her coach works there and he used to work in the Marine Division. Great guy and I drove down to hand it off -got some chicken curry from the lunch truck while I waited and he returned about 20 minutes later with the bad news... the backlight was indeed burnt out (I wonder if the first owner (who evidently owned a warehouse full of boats didn't swap it out). Anyway, being more adventurer/cruiser than fishing guy I really don't need the new tech with angled broadcasting and shape definition and water temperature (where I go the water's cold) so I just send it away to be replaced with a refurbished unit (which I assume would come back fully updated. I look forward to pictures of your conversion and hope I figure out this site well enough to find them. I think most of my cooking will be done on the grill, but I'll probably opt for a faster camp stove of some sort for boiling water.

Cheers,
John