Letitia - The Mechanical Part

Letitia - The Mechanical Part (This page is still a work in progress, visit later for more views)

Lets take a look at the 'Stuff' that makes Letitia go and the 'Stuff' that keeps us comfortable - the mechanical part.
*(Click on the Row headings for pictures. As a warning to the bandwidth challenged, they are 800x600).*
Electrical System	As you come down the steps into the Salon from the Sundeck you will see the semi-circular stairs leading down to the aft cabin. On the forward side of these steps is the main electrical breaker panel. There is also a small AC-only panel mounted on the lower portion of the Lower Helm. Follow the link to the left to get the specifics.
Engine room	As you can see from the drawing, access to the standing headroom Engine room is through a hatch in the Salon. The ladder (not quite as vertical as in the drawing) descends to a grating which rests on the keel itself. Although the space below the grating is the main bilge, below each of the engines is an independent bilge to contain engine fluids. Letitia is powered by a pair of 160 hp Perkins 6.354T engines with 2:1 Velvet Drive transmissions. She normally travels at ~1,500 rpm at a speed of 8 kts. I did calculate some fuel consumption data for our cruise from Pickwick Lake to Knoxville and then back down the Tennessee to Green Turtle Bay and up to Chicago in 2006. We used 464 gallons of diesel while clocking 116 hours on each engine. This gave me a total fuel burn of just about 4 gallons/hour, before including the 30 hours on the generator.
Pump room	Again, access to the Pump room is via a hatch in the Salon floor. To Starboard is the Northern Lights 12 kw Generator and the Trace 2,500 kw Inverter. To Port are the 8 6-volt golf cart batteries which comprise the House Battery Bank which roughly has an 880ah capacity. Also to Port are the two reverse cycle air conditioners. And to justify the name 'Pump room', the water heater and on-demand freshwater pump is here as well.
Galley	As part of a remodeling of the Galley, Corian countertops were installed and the deck was replaced with real teak and holly flooring. The galley also has a 20 cu.ft. Roper 110v refrigerator/freezer which runs off either the inverter or shore power. A 110v Princess 3 burner stove and a microwave provide the cooking apparatus.
Office	Another part of the remodeling effort was to convert the forward head into a very functional office and expanded galley pantry area. The Office provides computer and radio communications work space and additional galley and office storage. The Office is wired with Cat5 ethernet to a 4-port wireless router with connections in the office, upper helm area, the salon, and to an onboard Laserjet printer. A second color dot-matrix printer is also onboard.
Navigation & Electronics	The Simrad/Robertson AP21 autopilot is interfaced to two different GPS/Chartplotter systems as well as to the Furuno Radar. An option avail at any time on the autopilot control specifies which navigation information source to use. Letitia is equipped with a Northstar 951X GPS/Chartplotter with its own GPS and Differential GPS recievers/antennas.The Northstar provides GPS coordinates for the DSC functions of the ICOM 502 radio and is used as an on-line backup to the primary PC-based navigation system. Primary ship's navigation is performed on a desktop computer housed under the upper helm. This system uses a USB-connected DeLorme Earthmate GPS and displays to a 17" LCD monitor mounted at the bridge. The software used is Nobeltec. The computer system is powered by a circuit fed from the inverter. Depth information is provided by a Furuno sounder.
Entertainment	Included aboard are a DirecTV reciever connected to a Follow-Me-TV antenna mount, two television sets, a VCR/DVD player, a Sirius radio reciever, and a cellular phone antenna and amplifier.

The Capt'n