THIS IS A REVIEW OF ALL THE EQUIPMENT ONBOARD AFTER A THREE YEARS OF USE. 

Galley

SMEV 8000 3 BURNER HOTPLATE:
Rating:8/10
Would we buy again? Yes

We are very glad we made the decision to get a 3 burner hotplate instead of the 2 burner hotplate and use the three burners at the same
time often.  We find the Smev hotplate to be very good and easy to light.  We don't use the ignition switch on the hotplate we bought a reusable gas lighter.  The only thing we find a problem is cleaning around the control knobs and also the plastic locators that the plates actually fit into broke off (two have broken off already).  Our concern is that the unit will start to rattle once the rest of the locators break off.
Update:The screws holding the tops of the burners in totally corroded away.  They were impossible to get out and had to be redrilled. Better quality screws could have been used.  It makes it very difficult to clean the jets and the burners.


SMEV OVEN AND GRILL:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes

Our smev oven has got alot of use so far on the trip.  Both the grill and oven are very efficient and heat up reasonably quickly.  At the start we used to use the grill for toast and that took a little bit longer to do.  Instead of this we now use a stainless steel camping toaster which fits easily over one of our burners on the Smev hotplate and it works alot better.  The oven is easy to clean you just need to be careful with the controls.  When turning on the grill or oven you need to keep the control pressed in for quite along time once you have lit the gas, to make sure it doesn't go out.  But I guess this is a good safety feature so we don't really see it as a problem.
Update: This is a great unit and we get great use out of the oven.  It hasn't given us any trouble.


VITRIFRIGO FRIDGE, FREEZER & DANFOSS EXTERNAL COMPRESSOR:
Fridge Rating: 8/10
Freezer Rating: 6/10
Would we buy? Both units are working fine.  If we had to replace them we would probably consider buying a more energy efficient unit.

The fridge has a capacity of 133litres.  The freezer has a capacity of 113litres.  Both are separate units and sit beside each other in our galley.  They are very neat units with an external compressor each. We have placed both compressors through the bulkhead and sit them outside in the cockpit under the seats.  The fridge works very well and we find we have plenty of room for what we need.  However they provide our biggest worry so far on the boat in the form of power.  According to their brochures and sales rep the fridge should consum 3.6A at its maximum and 1.8 at its minimum.  The freezer should consume 5.7A at its maximum and 2.7 at its minimum.  We find that both units work to their maximum all the time therefore chewing up our power. 
The freezer is another story.  The fan in the compressor went within the first two months of switching it on.  Everything in the freezer had started to defrost.  We had some tuna which we had caught in a glad bag in the freezer and the blood spilt everywhere and the stink was just horrendous.  We found that the lower compartment in the freezer was not enclosed and the blood leaked into the inside of the unit and at this present time are finding it very difficult to get rid of the smell.  As of six months down the track both cooling fan controllers have died in the fridge and freezer.  Both cooling fan controllers had to be hot wired so they run 24 hours a day.  Otherwise the compressors overheat and will stop.  We have now put in extra ventilation to the compressors which have made them more efficient but they are still very thirsty on power.
Update: We have now found that the control units at the back of the compressor are very prone to getting moisture in them.  They need to be pulled apart regularly and sprayed to stop them corroding up.  We are on our second or third set of fans for both units now.  They are quite easy to change but if you have these units you need to carry spares. 

Sink:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes

We choose to have a double sink with washboard area.  We have no regrets choosing the double sink over the single one.  However in time we hope to make a top for one of the sinks.  Therefore when its not in use we can place it on and utilise that are more efficiently. 
Update: We still haven't gotton around to putting a top on one of the sinks.  We usually fill the sink with our plants while on passage.


Bathrooms:

JABSCO MANUAL TOILET(large bowl):
Older model - Rating: 10/10
New model - Rating: 7/10
Would we buy again? Yes

Initially when deciding on types of toilets we were going to put a Jabsco manual toilet in one hull and a TMC electric toilet in the other hull.  We purchased both  but when it came time to fit them we found the electric toilet was an awful lot heavier than the manual so decided to swap the electric for another Jabsco manual toilet.  They were very easy to fit, work very easily and come with very simple instructions on how to use them.  We choose the large bowl not because we've got big asses but it would be wise just for a comfort factor as the large bowl isn't that large in fact.
Update:  If you ever need to buy a Jabsco toilet buy the old style Jabsco manual toilet rather than the newer model.  Its far better than the new on.  We have one of each.  The new one is noiser to pump and always leaks water back into the bowl.


Communications:

Barrett 980E HF radio:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes

The Barrett is a compact unit which we sit on shelves down in the port hull.  We use one of our stays as an aerial.  The radio was very easy to fit and its quiet easy to use(even for novices like us).  It comes with quiet good information on various frequencies to use etc.
We have a few concerns about recieving, transmitting seems to be always strong but recieving seems to be weak. We are not quiet sure if this is a fault of ours and the way we set it up or a fault of the unit.
Update: Now we have had alot of experience with HF radio's and this HF is as good as any other HF radio that any other yachtie has onboard.  We have no concerns with recieving.

GME GX 548 VHF FM Marine Transceiver:
Rating: 7/10
Would we buy again? Yes, we would buy the same brand but just a model with a few more features such as scan.

This unit sits just inside the main door.  Its a very simple unit and works well.  We have put our aerial on our targa therefore restricting our transmission range.   The only pain really is when you need to go to a station other than Channel 16 you need to use an up and down button to get to the desired station.  There is no scan button.
Update: We now have an aerial on the mast and we recieve and transmit very well. 


Navigation:


Interphase Outlook Forward Scanner:
Rating: 8/10
Would we buy again? Yes

This is a good unit.  It takes a little while to get used to the forward scanning part as before we only had the downward scanning sounders.  The only problem that we have with it is the lighting.  There doesn't seem to be an option to increase/decrease the brightness of the light which makes it a problem when night sailing as it takes away your night vision.
Update:  This is a great unit and nothing has changed since our previous comments.

Garmin GPS 152:
Rating: 10/10
Would we buy again? Yes

This is another good unit.  Again the only problem we have with this unit is the fact that it doesn't have a facility to see your velocity made good which is important for a sailing boat.  It only took us a year but we have now found the VMG function and a whole lot of other really good settings.

TMQ AP55 Autopilot:
Rating: 10/10
Would we buy again? Absolutely..thats a yes.

Very easy to install.  Works very well.  Had a problem with the octopus pump blowing a seal and the immediate reaction from the manufacturers was that the fact that they didn't install it meant that it wasn't under warranty anymore.  This was very disappointing.  We had to buy a new one for $700 but they did eventually fix the old one under guarantee.  We are very happy with our autopilot.  It works very well in all conditions of sailing.
Update: This is an excellent unit. Still working...just like Guinness in a bottle....Brilliant!



Power:

AirX 400 watt wind generator:
Rating: 8/10
Would we buy again? Yes

The wind generator sits on our targa.  It was easy to install.  Compared to other units its noisy.  It starts to generate power at 6knots.  From our point of view it would be better to have a quieter model which starts to generate at lower wind speeds rather than one that has higher output at higher speeds.  By the time it reaches its peak at 25knots you just want to turn it off because of the noise and also you always think its going to fall apart and one of the propellers will fly off and hit you in the back.
Since this we now realise that it is more efficient than alot of other wind generators that we have come across on other boats.  Although been noisy still it is very efficient and we have got used to the noise.  If we are talking in the cockpit we have the option to turn it off. 
Update:We love the noise because we know that there is power going into our batteries.


Sharp solar panel NE80EJE 80 watt:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes

We have two 80 watt solar panels installed on our cabin top roof.  They are quiet expensive to buy about $10 per watt.  They put out 4 to 5 amps on full output but you need to keep the full sun on them all the time which means moving the boom around when they're placed on the roof.  Also the corners are very sharp and if you don't do something about the corners you will be missing a few toes after awhile.  We have now also purchased a 120watt solar panel as we were finding that we were not quiet keeping up with our power consumption.  As long as we have a bit of sun and a bit of wind during the day we can just keep up. If we have alot of both we do very well.
Update:A more efficient way to go would be a tilting rack on the top of your targa which can move to face the sun.


Hynautic H20 helm pump:
Rating: 10/10
Would we buy again? Yes

Robust unit fitted well and we never have any problem with it.


Hynautic RAMS:
Rating: 10/10

Easily fitted.  Had no problems at all.

Inverter 1000 watt
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? No...if we were buying again we would buy a different unit one that has a charger as well.

It is a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter.  The only problem we have is when we want to use a light load it won't except it you have to have a heavier load on it before it will work correctly.
Update: We were supplied the wrong remote to turn it off and cannot get another one to suit the unit.  This can be a pain in the arse as its lying under our settee so you have to lift the settee in order to turn it on if you don't have the correct load on it.


Deckgear:

Lewmar
Rating: 6/10
Would we buy again? No

We use lewmar winches, blocks, tracks and jammers and have found them to be very good.  We have had no problems with any of them so far.  One of the Lewmar winches the bearings seem to be failing within less than a year.  And the rope jammers have cheap stainless steel parts in them which rust.  We rang Lewmar and told them about our winch and the rust on our gear and they agreed to replace everything that we had a problem with.  This is great but the biggest pain is taking deck gear off that you have set with silicon.  This has now been done.  The gear looks great we just hope that it stays that way.  Its expensive gear so you expect good quality.
Update: The new gear they give us the same thing has happened. Rust has appeared again. 50% of our winches have too much bearing movement. The jammers are all stil good.  Main sheet traveller is a total pain in the arse as the main pin holding all parts together invariably slides side ways and ends up jamming the traveller rope.  We have tried locktite it in all to no avail.  Once every two weeks we have to pull it apart and knock the pin through. Very bad design fault.  The agents in Australia have been nothing but helpful and have gone out of their way to replace the gear we have had a problem with.  However we would not buy it again.  What would we go for? We have no idea.  The biggest disapointment is the price of the gear and the quality we ended up with.

Moonlight Hatches:
Rating: 7/10
Would we buy again? No we would buy hatches that have arms.

As yet we have had no problems with them. They seem to function and seal well.  The only drawback been because they have no arm holding them up they tend to wave up and down in any sort of breeze and we can't find any adjustment to tighten the mechanism to stop them flying open in stronger winds when they are partially up.
Update: Our hatches have alot of grazes on them from where we walked on them.  This should not happen.


Rigging:

Allyacht Spars mast:
Product Rating: 10/10
Service Rating: 10/10

The product supplied is very good.  We have a small wing section and a Seldon boom which all appears to be very well made.  The down fall of the unit is trying to extract information from Allyacht Spars themselves.  It appeared that once we had paid our full amount of money they then became totally disinterested with our queries and questions.  Quiet possible if we had lived on the East coast it might have made a bit of difference but we doubt it.  Towards the end of assembling the mast communication became so bad that we had to make fairly major decisions about the connection from the mast to cap shroud without any help from them which we felt wasn't very professional.
We have since had to get a new mast due to a failing in our spectra lashing.  Again we went with Allyacht Spars. This time around we dealt with Alan Cowardine who was very professional, very helpful and always returned our calls and answered any queries or concerns that we had.  Their product is still excellent and their service now matches their product which is how it should be.  And we would recommend them to anyone.
Update: We have no problems with our mast and rigging.  We still get concerned with the lack of tension in the leeward side but thats purely catamarans.  If we rebuilt we would go for more than a three stayed mast.

Barracouta Sails:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes, if the price was right!

We got a fully battened fat top main, a screecher, a jib and a MPS.  For one reason or another the only sail which won't have to go back for adjustment will be the Main sail.  We love the sails and the workmanship seems to be very good and back up service has been excellent.  Neil Tasker has always been very helpful and willing to accommodate us with any questions and modifications that were needed.  We have also had to get a second set of sails.  Main and Jib.  We again went with Barracouta.  We had a list of things that we required to be done differently second time around such as alot of reinforcing.  Neil Tasker is always willing to help out and modify things if needed.  Sometimes his small details need improving a little.
Update: After three years our main and jib are in very good condition.  Our screecher which is a code zero is in the 'highlight of its twilight' and will need to be replace sooner rather than later. The two longest batten in the main have delaminated where they tapered to go into the batten holder.  We've had to fix this and its an ongoing problem.

Profurl Furlers:
Rating: 10/10
Would we buy again? Yes

We have two Profurls.  One for the Jib and one for the Screecher.  Installation was fairly straight forward and easy.  They both work well.  We haven't as yet had any problems.
Update:  No problems good units.


Mechanical:


Yanmar 3GM30FCE 27HP:
Rating: 9/10
Would we buy again? Yes

We have installed two Yanmar 27HP diesel motors.  We had a problem with one of our motors. The fuel pump was gummed up when we first tried to start it.  But Yanmar sent down a engineer to the shed, they pulled it out, fixed it and put it back within a week.  They seem to give adequate power for what we need and as always are very reliable.  They are a little noisy.  They use approx 2 litres an hour at 2500 revs which gives us approx 6 knots.
Update: We have now done 1300 hours.  One motor is starting to smoke a little bit which is a concern.  Its the same one which they actually fixed at the beginning.  Because its two years after installation there is no warantee.  We still think they are a very reliable motor.
The only real draw back with the Yanmar is the saildrive.  You are supposed to change the oil every 100 hours.  If you can't put your boat on the beach it will become a very expensive hobby.  We change our as close as we can to every 100 hours.  But other yachties we have talked to wait as long as 2000 hours and have had no problem.
Yanmar should supply you with a tool to open up the oil plug because you are invariably groping around in the mud to do it.



3 blade feathering Kiwi Props:
Rating: 6/10
Would we buy again? Probably not.  However if the price was not a problem we would go for Gories, but we do like the concept of the Kiwiprop.

They work very well in forward but appear to have far too much pitch in reverse and as yet we haven't been able to work out how we can change the pitch in reverse.  We will keep you informed.  The motors will only do 12-1500 revs in reverse before they start to blow alot of black smoke.
The return springs in both props have since broken.  But on contacting Kiwi Props they sent us two springs straight away.  We as of yet haven't had a chance to install them and our props won't feather properley.  When installed we will keep you updated.
Update: We have now replaced six sets of springs.  We seem to have solved the problem now by lessening the set up tension in them.  We have had six reverse stoppers shear on one prop and three on the other.  We haven't as yet been given a satisfactory reason as to why this might happen.  If these stoppers shear again we will drill, tap and replace the originals with an 8mm shaft on them which hopefully will stop it.  All the blades have quite alot of movement in them now after 1300 hours, so not sure how much longer they will last.  We still have to be careful about stopping as we can't realistically give many revs in reverse but you get used to that.  We have been assured by the owner of Kiwiprops that ours are the only props in existence that are having these problems.  But that doesn't help us!


Johnson Waterpump WPS3.4 12V
Rating: 5/10
Would we buy again? No

We have one on each water tank which have worked very well so far.  The only thing we are considering doing is putting an accumulator in the system to prevent the short cycle times of the pump.  One of these pumps have since stopped working after four months.  When we went to try and take it apart to replace the impeller every bolt snapped because they were so corroded in the housing.  We replaced it with a Sure Flow Pump and we are waiting for the other one to give up on us.
As of twelve months the second pump has also died.  We have no Johnson pump onboard now and would never ever buy another.  Sure Flow Pumps seem to work alot better and they are alot cheaper.
Update: Johnson sent us a refurbished one which we have since reinstalled because the Sure Flow pumps (and the Johnson pumps) both have pressure limiting switch which causes the pump to cut in and out as your pressure drops that are not particularly well protected against moisture.  Therefore they corrode out and die.  These switches are available for under $5 at most washing machine centres and with a bit of fiddling about you can replace the units within the pump.

Bilgepumps Rule-Mate:
Rating: 5/10
Would we buy again? No

We have six bilge pumps installed.  All work well with no problem at this stage.
We've had one fail with a burnt out motor.  Other than that quite happy with them.
Update: We've had four now that have died on us and at $170 a unit its an expensive hobby.  We now have gone to TMC with a seperate float switch to activate it.  We will keep you informed with progress.


Simpson-Lawrence Sprint 1500 Vertical Windlass:
Rating: Unit 2/10
Guarantee backup:10/10 *(see note)
Would we buy again? No, we would go for a larger 'Muir'.

Seems to be powerful enough for our boat.  We haven't had any problem except when the chain to rope splice gets caught at times in it.  Unless you have alot of tension on the rope when its passing through it doesn't work really well.  The arms that feed and strip the chain and rope of are made of plastic and and under strain when you have rope on the capston it melts the plastic.  Its absolutley useless to you.  We believe that now they have replaced these parts with stainless and alloy parts which is a better idea.  We had to send the entire winch back to the importers in Brisbane because the winch was running out on us.  We haven't received it back yet although they have verbally told us it is all been fixed as good as new under warantee.  This is very good news!  We got the winch back and they had replaced the motor and the anti roll back gear but within a month the motor had failed.  The agents give us a new motor and we personally replaced all the bearings in the gearbox.  At that point we were still getting intermittent problems so we replaced the contactor(solenoid) and as of now we seem to doing ok.
* We've had alot of problems with this winch but every time we have the agents have always been very quick to respond and have always given us new parts to replace the ones that failed.  We are now onto the third motor we have replaced all bearings in the whole unit and we are on our second contactor(solenoid).  For the moment all things are going well but we have completely lost our confidence in this unit and will keep you posted.
Update: For a year and a half we haven't had any problems, except for the fact that the unit dispite been recommended for this size of boat is to small.  There is no way that you could rely on this unit not to trip out on you if you had to work it hard.  Other than that everything is working fine on it.

Ferrari Trampolines
Rating: 10/10
Would we buy again? Yes

Our tramps are white with small square holes and good space around the outside for water to flow through.  These tramps have been on three years, exposed to the sun and weather conditions at all times.  They are still in really good condition.  They are very strong and look good.  They allow water to flow through them quite well.


Guarantees/Warranties: 
Like everyone else who buys a piece of equipment you should get a guarantee or warantee with it.  When we bought our equipment for the boat we got guarantees with everything.  With alot of the gear the warantee doesn't start until you actually start using it, but sometimes with certain goods it starts from the minute you purchase it.  We think after our experience that realistically with alot of equipment you are better off (if possible) trying to negotiate a cheaper deal and in which case you have no waranty/guarantee.  When you are five hundred miles away from a main town and something breaks down and its still under waranty the invariable comment is 'send it back to use and we will have a look at it'.  But you can't do without an anchor winch or a water pump for the month or two or three that its takes for the coompany to have a look at itl, see what the problem is and get back to you.  You need it replaced pretty much there and then otherwise its no good to you.   So in cases like this which can be a regular occurence if you are on the move all the time with a new boat you are better off without a guarantee and prephaps buying the goods cheaper.

 If a piece of equipment breaks down on you and you send it back because it is still under guarantee.  The manufacturer of that piece of goods in some cases will not honours its guarantee if they find that you have installed the piece of equipment yourself.  What a pile of bullshit! If you are building your own boat and you were to get a professional person to install every piece of equipment on your boat that is under guarantee it would cost you a bloody fortune!  This we found out the hard way with the Octopusy pump attached to our autopilot.  When it died even though it was still under guarantee they wouldn't honour it as Ric had installed the piece of equipment and therefore there was no way that it could have been their problem that the piece of equipment failed...alot of bullshit really.