www.iFourWinns.com

Revisiting the voltage/battery situation i posted recently. Recap: the gauges had always shown 13 while underway. After genny repairs and following tech's advice to shut off battery switches, gauges started showing 12 or a tad less. checked batts with meter - readings were OK.

Yesterday, noticed port engine meter was around 10 - we had been cruising slowly for about an hour. i knew this wasn't good. the admiral brought the boat to idle in neutral while i went below to start the genny. when i hit the starter button, there was beeping, clicking and clacking and the port engine shut down. tried restarting the engine but there was not enough juice. i checked things out, collected my thoughts and started the genny. naturally, gauges were at 13. after a period of time, started up port engine.

power drained again on the way back to the dock. tried checking the alternator output but not convinced i got a good ground. meter read 0.01. will try again today.

so L&G, i ask you - W t F, O?

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2006 348 Vista
"some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield"

Well hello all.

Just back from 9 days of fun, sun and burning (fuel that is) We went from the mid-Potomac out into the bay which is about a 3-plus hours ride all the way to a tiny island called Tangier. It has about 586 people living on it who principally derive their living's from crabbing and tourism. The marina we stayed in, Parks Marina is run by Milton Parks. His family dates back a long, long time on the island.

Any way, blah, blah, blah about that...I thought I would tell you how the boat handled and performed on our journey. The first hour was slightly choppy but typical for us. Then as the river bends, the seas smoothed right out. Once we were about 1.5 hours from the Chesapeake the water did get even choppier but we dropped the bow down, tucked the engines all the way in and kept going at about 25 MPH and the boat handled itself pretty well.

Once out in the bay we were hitting 1-2 foot seas and the boat handled them pretty well. We got a little spray over the bow depending on the type and size of the waves but all in all pretty decent. We learned how to REALLY use the GPS (C-80) and now I really want an auto-pilot too. Setting a course and setting an auto-pilot sounds appealing to me instead of making constant course corrections.

Our next day in the bay was up to Solomon's Island, Maryland and that was a tad rougher pretty much 3-4 footers. Again we just tucked the drives in and the tabs down and we went at a leisurely 21-23 MPH to keep the bouncing down to a minimum. We went to several other spots back in the Potomac and if you want to know more just PM me, I really wanted to share our impression and experience of the boat.

Fuel wise we burned roughly anywhere from 22-28 GPH combined and we probably put on about 18-20 hours on the boat in our nine days. We never paid more than 3 bucks a gallon.

Living on the boat was great. We started with frozen meat in a cooler with dry ice on top of it and it stayed that way for 3-4 days. Between the two fridges we had plenty of space for milk, juice and perishable food items. We were able to put the balance of our frozen food into the both freezers after the dry ice was gone. So cold storage was not an issue. The other cooler we had we kept beverages in. We kept the coolers on the floor in the aft cabin and wet ice would usually last about a day.

We had two umbrella/camping chairs tucked into the closet aft of the head and other than our 4th of July decorations, eisenglass and the filler cushion for the cockpit sun lounger our gear was stored away and we still had lots of room for more if the need arose.

We were somewhat unsure of what to expect being out for so long and never having stayed more than 3 nights on the boat at a time and we were pleasantly surprised. We lacked for nothing, the a/c is freezing cold, the head is ample sized and I never felt penalized by showering in it. Most of our fellow travelers would trudge to the marina restrooms but we used ours and it was fine.

The boat met or exceeded our expectations in nearly every way, we had no mechanical issues with the exception of the a/c condenser freezing up and that was easily resolved by turning it off for an hour or so and going to the pool! I understand that the more you open and close the cabin door or actually leaving it open can cause this to happen.

Overall we are very sure we have made a good choice of boats and this trip confirmed that. My new Optima house battery seemed to be working fine as well.

One thing we did notice is that while under way, after about a half hour or so we would hear the beeping of our CO detectors. We were always traveling with the cabin door closed and had no eisenglass up. At first we thought it was our new battery but we had plenty of volts on the DC panel 12-14. Our portable CO detector never made a sound so not too sure why that all happened but I bet some one here knows why and is likely going to tell me to send them in to be renewed!

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2008 Four Winns V358 (T 6.2L Merc Bravo III's with DTS and SeaCore)
2006 Sea Ray 340DA
2006 Sea Ray 320DA
2005 Maxum 3100 SE

Steven - glad to hear you got out and did some real cruising! It really is a terrific boat for staying on board for stretches at a time. As I have mentioned before, I did a 13 day trip last season and at no point felt like "I can't wait to get off this boat." Autopilot is a great tool, particularly in open water when you have waypoints that are a good distance apart. It can save time and fuel and really opens up your ability to stay focused on other aspects of running the boat and keeping watch. I'm not sure how the interface with i/o's is but I strongly recommend it (and before anyone feels the need to say it - it is a tool like any other navigation component, not a substitute for your full attention and proper seamanship).

As far as the CO2 detectors, mine would occasionally go off last season when underway without the camper top. That no longer happens. As you know, the threshold of the alarms is very low. I was anchored out this weekend and in the middle of the night the boat rafted up next to me fired up their genny. My main cabin door was open with the screen closed and about 20 minutes later my C02 detectors went off, first the mid-cabin than the forward berth. I checked my handheld and the reading was hovering between 18 and 30ppm, well within safe parameters for limited exposure (although I prefer to have no exposure at all). But they are obviously and thankfully very sensitive. Did you go below and take a reading?

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

THAT'S ONE SEXY BOAT! Pics from last weekend.

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2008 Four Winns V358 (T 6.2L Merc Bravo III's with DTS and SeaCore)
2006 Sea Ray 340DA
2006 Sea Ray 320DA
2005 Maxum 3100 SE

Looking really good
Interesting to see the forward bimini on an '08 (never noticed that in your pix before). I thought that was phased out before our model year. Maybe it's not used with the stainless steel header (it doesn't appear that you have one) or it's just related to when the boat was built. Do you know your build date?

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

Don't think it's been phased out, it's part of the camper canvas kit (that's a standard feature on the boat). It attaches to the forward face of the radar arch via a 'valance zipper' (basically a zipper with a round tab that fits into a channel on the arch). Then it has a flap that zips over an arched bimini pole that connects to the windshield.

We like having the added shade so we generally leave the top panels (fore and aft of the arch) up all the time.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

If it hasn't been phased out it is clearly no longer universal on the V358. My boat doesn't have a forward bimini. The forward canvas pieces zip into a small piece of canvas in the forward track on the arch. If you scan what's for sale, many '08's don't have it and I have yet to see an '09 with a forward bimini. That would suggest to me they stopped using it beyond a certain build date. As you see, I have no poles attached to my windshield.

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

It was a changed introduced in 2008... Coincidentally, my 318 does not have a forward bimini either. It's all window.

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

I think my build date is December 2007 but it is an 08. I did not have the blinds down below, I had curtains and I also do not have the collapsible radar arch that was part of 2008. According to what I know, they made changes that were phased in during the model year.

According to my research, the 9th character of your HIN indicates the month of manufacture, mine is an "L" the 10th character indicates the year of manufacture, mine is a "7". The last numbers indicate what model year, mine is "08". So my boat was built as an 08 in 07. I think mine may have been the first hull of the new year because of some of the numbers in my HIN.

Looking at some of the pictures from the online catalog for 2008, My galley does not have a cabinet door for the coffee maker, it is open. My TV is not a Sharp, it is a Sole. I do not have the blinds as already mentioned. My galley porthole is non-opening and is opaque in color.

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2008 Four Winns V358 (T 6.2L Merc Bravo III's with DTS and SeaCore)
2006 Sea Ray 340DA
2006 Sea Ray 320DA
2005 Maxum 3100 SE

Ah, so they just slope the forward panels all the way back to the arch. Hmmm, not sure I'd prefer that setup on the 348/358. I like the shade the forward bimini provides at the helm when underway. That and the headroom. Seems to be it would be a bit intrusive to have the canvas sloping back at that angle on the 348. I can't imagine they moved the bow edge of the arch forward, did they?


That's not a bad thing. We never open ours. That's where we stow the paper napkin holder and some placemats. It seems like the portlight only serves to 'backlight' all the junk stuffed in there. Word of warning though, the shelf edge at the back of that space is not connected to the hull. There's a gap there. Enough for all sorts of small bits to fall down into the cavity behind the galley. I think they leave it open for a couple of reasons, one being ventilation. The heat of the fridge has to get out from under that cabinet somehow. That and attaching it to the hull might present some rigidity issues.

A gap like that is also present in a couple of other places like behind the sofa cabinets and next to the forward berth. I've been meaning to find a way to deal with the gaps to avoid losing stuff down there (and having to pull lots of things apart to retrieve it). Perhaps some sort of foam in the places that don't need ventilation. For the galley I've been considering some sort of screening. It's on that never-ending To Do list...

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

All of those features were new in '08 and not reflected in the catalog.

I don't know how they did it but the angle of the forward panels feels exactly right and headroom is not impeded at all - the panels do not intrude into the cockpit/helm area in any way. Perhaps this was a change made when they implemented the collapsable arch. I'd love to heard from FW how they did it.

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

My Dec 2007 build, 2008 model year is the same. It has a forward bimini. No blinds, no folding arch, no door for coffee maker, Sole TV, fixed and translucent galley porthole. And also only one table storage under the v-berth.

Can someone post a picture of a later model with the full canvas up, so we can see how the new front eisenglass works?

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

Hey... any excuse to post pictures. These should give you an idea of how the front section of canvas works. There is a relatively thin piece of canvas with a zipper that is in the forward track and snapped to the arch. The front panels zip into that...







I would be curious if it appears to anyone that this newer arch comes further forward and if the area of the aft side panels subsequently seem larger on the newer style. I received an incorrect replacement panel from the factory for one of my aft side panels and it was smaller than the panels I have. A change in the arch would explain that.

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

I'll be out at the boat today and I'll take a measurement.

Update: I checked and at the center it's 49 inches from the top of the windshield frame to the arch.

Those aft panels do look different, the zip open window looks to be smaller than the ones on our 348. The forward panels are definitely smaller, but that's to be expected given the change to not using a forward bimini top. The panels are bulky, FWIW having smaller ones might make them easier to stow. But then I'm always griping about effective storage, and the lack thereof...

The boat's out of the water due to catching a ghost crab pot in the props last Sunday. $1100 later and it'll be back in the water, but not until next week. Grrr...

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

There's got to be a story and some pictures for this!

What happened? What kind of damage?

I'd be soooooo pissed?

Crab pots out here have to be tagged with contact information -- any way you can track down the owner of that pot and have a healthy conversation with him?

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA