In order to free up space at the helm, and because we will have a Maretron system, I wanted to relocate several "indicator" units from the helm to above this DC panel area which is visible from the helm. In process everything looks good. But with the door closed, it looked funky. Half of each indicator would be visible. So, yep, they moved them! Here is the AC panel in case you are interested. I should have taken some pictures of behind the panels - works of "wiring art!"
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If you have read the Meet Mahalo page (menu choice above) you know that we chose this name for our boat because we are grateful for our good life and that Hawaiian word expresses it beautifully. On our first trip to China in December of 2017 I felt several emotions along these lines. Although we have traveled to many countries (my count is 30 something), China wasn't really on our radar. And because of building the boat we got to experience this wonderful country and the people. Interacting with the people at the factory led to a different experience than if we were simply in Shanghai as tourists. By asking questions when we were driving around, having meals, and so on, we learned quite a bit about China, her people, doing business there, etc. I was also reading a lot about the country's history. It's a fascinating place. One of the aspects I really enjoyed is that Chinese ascribe meaning to literally everything. Each number has a special meaning, as does each color. In ancient times, anyone but the emperor wearing yellow would be instantly killed, for example. Every animal has it's own meaning (turtles are symbol of long life, yaaay!). And on and on. I learned the Chinese words for "thankful" or "grateful." Towards the end of that trip I asked factory owner Jeff Chen if we could exchange presents. I asked him to have these words painted in the traditional way, and framed. We would place this on Mahalo in a location of his choosing. He agreed. When we walked around the boat looking for a place, he chose the exact place I hoped he would. My present to him would be one of my photographs. Arriving in Shanghai in April 2018, we did our present exchange. At home, I had taken a long time to decide which image to present to him, as I wanted it to be meaningful, not just a pretty picture. Reviewing some of my koi pictures, several appealed to me. I looked into the Chinese meaning for koi and found that they are the symbol of prosperity. And gold obviously has a similar meaning. Bingo! I had the print made on aluminum by the always amazing www.bayphoto.com and they shipped it to Shanghai (get this: $40 for shipping, arrives in a week). This particular image has another sentiment for me as it is one of the images on the walls of my software company, which is what enabled us to do this boat project in the first place. And here is Jeff's gift to us and Mahalo. It's just beautiful. This location is next to my "desk" in the salon, immediately on the right as you enter through the aft door. He found a university professor who is a calligraphy master to paint this for us. (And a few other beautiful pieces we will place elsewhere.) China has more than 200 dialects. So within the country these words are pronounced in a variety of ways. In Shanghai, it is pronounced "Gawn Shen" (about the closest I can get in English). For the April 2018 trip, Deb and I decided we wanted to see more of China, so we did eight days of touring before heading to Shanghai. While in Beijing, we had a private guide for a few days. Here in a shop in the Forbidden City she shows us how to pronounce "grateful." Note in the Beijing dialect, it sounds more like "Gaw En" with no "S" sound.
Our guide's name is YumYum and at the end Deb as a little fun with her as the one English word she can't seem to pronounce is "envelope." Ah, life is good! Here at the aft end of the salon, we have the stairs going down to the lazarette or crew quarters, depending on how the boat is configured. This shot is of another hull, not Mahalo. What you see there at left and up top is a closing "door" setup. When we were underway on the spec hull, I asked HYG's Scott Hauck to show me how it closed. It's a nice bit of engineering, but is a bit "fiddly." (Love that English word,...) You also have to move the chair at right out of the way to open or close the "doors." Although the Hamptons are very quiet boats, closing this door off did make a noticeable difference in the salon noise level when underway. That's when we decided we would ask the factory to design and build a door at the bottom of the stairs instead. In previous blog posts you have seen how in our December 2017 we jointly designed the door and the laz space. Here's that door in the completed laz space. Having the door here also means if I'm generating any smells working in the laz or engine room they don't have to go up into the salon. I took this shot at the factory in during our may visit. You can see that eliminating the previous door mechanism opens up the space, and we were also able to build some handy little shelves into that cabinet. It's great working with a builder that has this flexibility.
If you have been around boats for a while, you know how important it is for there to be a way of locking refrigerator/freezer doors. Without it, the contents of your fridge at some point will inevitably wind up on the floor. Hampton uses full size home refrigerators, typically those designed to be "built-in" to the cabinetry. The hulls we have seen use a lock like above. It is spring loaded, and it works great. But it has to be actuated every time you want to open a door (or drawer if that is how your fridge is designed). A boat spends most of its time at anchor or at the dock, where a lock isn't required (let's hope). So Debbie had the bright idea of asking them to make a different style of lock to work with this idea. Our fridge has a door above, and two drawers below. Beautiful panels they made, aren't they? So these are the locks, in their locked position. And here they are in the open position. Just a quick flick will change from locked to unlocked or vice-versa. There is no spring. All these little things add up to more convenience and enjoyment of our time on the water.
If you are thinking these are pretty similar to the lock they designed for the swim ladder, you are right! Just a 90 degree turn. Mahalo is on board the ship bringing her to Seattle. Left Shanghai several days ago. But is stopping at various ports in the South China Sea. Currently in Busan, South Korea. Come on Captain, point that thing East and go!
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