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If you are thinking of managing a conversion of your own existing, all lead acid system over to one with a Lithium iron phosphate (LFP or LiFePO4), house bank, there are a few things that you need to understand about the charging of LFPs. As we have discussed in previous articles, LFP’s have their own unique characteristics, distinct from both lead acid and other forms of lithium-ion battery. One of the principal distinctions is its charging characteristics.

You do not really need to understand the full chemical process, but a very high-level summary of the LFP charging process is that lithium-ions de-intercalate from the cathode, travel through the electrolyte, and intercalate into the anode. Discharging is the reverse of that process. The goal is to do this as quickly as possible, without at any time triggering anything that might limit how many times this can be repeated, and/or without any long-term loss of capacity, and—most importantly—risking any safety concerns.

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One of the most important rules while out on the water is to always lend a hand if possible—without risking your own crew and boat, of course. It is a kind of Good Samaritan rule. Over the last 40 years, I’ve lent a hand countless times. From a serious situation, where a power boat hit rocks in the dark of night and began sinking with six people on board, to simply towing boats to safe harbor after running out of gas or having engine trouble, to pulling a few boats off rocks, etc.

For all these acts of helpful seamanship I was not out there patrolling the waters looking for people in trouble. All of these opportunities to help fellow boaters arose while I was out on the water enjoying a nice day and I had my VHF radio on channel 16.

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After nearly three years of sailing the Pacific in the 1980s with my family, land life in British Columbia became a placeholder—by 1999, the ocean was calling again. I decided to custom-build my dream boat on my own—I’d since separated from my husband. The boat could have been named Wish List; every amenity I wanted had been recorded in the back of my Pacific logbook under that heading. She was steel, and precious metals mattered in my business world, so I gave her a name that joined both lives: Precious Metal.

Witnessing Precious Metal come to life was a thrilling experience. Builder Reg Whitman and his team were knowledgeable, competent and wonderful to work with. We became a family united by a shared passion, working side-by-side through every detail until my dream vessel became a reality.

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In “How to Charge Your LFP Battery the Right Way” we explored the charging needs of LFPs and how smart chargers, fed from shore power, deliver that charge profile.

The reality, however, is that you may be charging your LFP with a different device, such as a DC-to-DC converter or solar controller. Are these devices “smart” and do they deliver the same charge profile? The simple answer is that it depends on technology, cost and quality. It may also depend on when you purchased the device, as specifications change rapidly.

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Clip on your safety tether. Far out in the North Pacific, solo sailor John Campbell was about to face the kind of ordeal most mariners hope never to encounter. The Vancouver Island, British Columbia sailor was voyaging from Hilo, Hawaii, to Vancouver aboard his Vancouver 27, April Alice, when an otherwise familiar passage became a nightmare. I have heard and read many accounts of survival at sea; few compare with his.

At 73, John was no novice. He had logged roughly 30,000 nautical miles in his lifetime and was making his third ocean passage from Hawaii to Vancouver. Water had shaped his life ashore as well: he built his career as a swimming coach. In our conversations for this article, I was struck by his meticulous approach to seamanship and his deep affection for April Alice. The boat was named for the previous owner’s mother, Alice, who was born in April. Yet this passage pushed both sailor and boat to the brink. Without the coordinated efforts of his brother Clark, the cruise ship Silver Whisper, and the U.S. Coast Guard, the outcome might have been tragic.

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If your anchor chain is too light, your boat is on the rode to perdition. Forgive the pun, but an inadequate anchor rode (whether all-chain or a combination of chain and line) is a sure path to “utter ruin,” the third American Heritage Dictionary definition of “perdition.”

To get the selection right, Practical Sailor has put together this 10-step guide on choosing the right anchor chain or anchor chain-line combination for your anchoring practices and conditions. We include images, diagrams, tables and pros/cons to help you make an informed decision. As we note above, this piece concentrates on the crucial link between anchor and windlass—where a lot can go wrong.

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A new Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery is sold as having a stated storage capacity, such as 100-amp hr. In practice, however, there will be a footnote to that figure stating that capacity is measured at an optimum temperature, usually quoted as 25 C (77 F).

Similarly, the manufacturer will quote a figure for how many times the LFP can be recycled (capacity retention over multiple cycles or life cycle longevity). That number is also qualified by a provision that the LFP be operated within specified temperature parameters.

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The East End of New York’s Long Island shelters within its North and South “forks” popular cruising destinations including Greenport, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor, and Montauk. What keeps many sailors hailing from the populous western end of the Long Island Sound (The Sound) from ever reaching these destinations is the sheer length of this tidal estuary, at nearly 80 nautical miles. Then there’s the psychological and very real nautical challenge of passing through Plum Gut or The Race.

Plum Gut and The Race Jitters

Every six hours and twelve-and-a-half minutes The Sound, estimated to hold some 18 trillion gallons of sea water, shifts from a northwest flood current to a southeast ebb. At peak current, the narrow bottleneck at the western end of The Sound, appropriately named Hellgate, boils with 4-to-5-knot flows into or out of New York City’s East River. The bottlenecks at the eastern end of The Sound, Plum Gut and The Race, aren’t nearly as narrow as Hellgate, but bottom depths abruptly plunge from 35 feet to nearly 200 feet in spots, and these passages routinely see currents of 4 to 5 knots and sometimes as fast as 6 knots.

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Every season, for as long as I’ve owned my current boat, I’ve had people compliment me on my canvas and inquire about who made it and how it was designed. Luckily for me, the previous owner of my boat was of the same mindset as me. I adhere to a philosophy of not relying on product providers to make something and trust that it will be fully what I need.

Next to new sails or a new engine, choosing the design of your canvas can be one of the most important investments you will make for your boat. And like new sails or a new engine, it is one that you will have to live with—whether you’re happy or not. So, doing your homework before deciding on new canvas can make or break your investment.

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If you are contemplating installing or operating an LFP installation, you will need to become familiar with Battery Management Systems (BMSs), as they will have effective control over your new system. Especially inconvenient are BMS shutdown events, which happen when the LFP is disconnected due to the BMS detecting a condition that it considers to be potentially damaging to the LFP. To avoid these, and potentially recover from such events, it is necessary that you invest some time in understanding how your BMS operates.

We can classify these devices into three broad categories i.e. (i) a simple BMS, internal to a single LFP; (ii) a single LFP internal BMS, with communications capabilities to an external device; (iii) a larger, multi-LFP pack, with external BMS system.