After spending hours coordinating with Arco Zeus to purchase and ship a new alternator, it became clear that working through one of their distributors would be the faster route. The team at Yacht Riggers in Florida stepped in and made the entire process effortless, handling the purchase and shipping quickly and efficiently. What had been a frustrating task was resolved with professionalism and speed.
The Arco Zeus alternator arrived in just four days, which meant it was time to roll up my sleeves and tackle the replacement of the “old” one. Truth be told, the old alternator wasn’t really that old, so rather than consigning it to the scrap pile, it’ll be stowed away as a spare—because you never know when a perfectly good backup might save the day!
Once again, I found myself tackling a job I’d never done before. Replacing an alternator was completely new territory, but that seems to be the theme of this voyage—every project is a learning experience. With unwavering support and advice from Kevin, now back in N.A., I carefully disconnected the wiring and began removing the old alternator, one step at a time.
My hope was that the new alternator would simply slide into place where the old one came out. Of course, boat projects never seem to work that way. The power stud on the new alternator was positioned slightly differently, which meant I had to pivot the alternator away from the engine. That small adjustment created a bigger problem—the existing belt was now too short. What I thought would be a few hours of work quickly stretched into several days, thanks to the weekend and the inevitable wait for shops to reopen.
Looks like it is time for some fun…
Sailaway Sarantium 
Hello Ulrika,
Dave here(IP380 owner…friend of the Hardy’s in Nanaimo) . I occasionally check in to see how things are going. I notice your Zeus Regulator is mounted on the engine compartment door…Not sure why its there, as it would be subject to very hot conditions, and performance issues. It may be the source of your charging issues… we experienced that our old regulator , when it was in the same place.
We now have an Electromaax alternator, Wakespeed regulator (mounted in hold under aft bunk). No issues.
good luck and fair sailing
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Yes, my new one came with a longer harness and I will install it next. I will check out the hold in the aft stateroom! Thanks for the tip! Hope you’re having a good sailing season in Nanaimo!! Thanks for reading!!!
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Aahh yes, “project scope creep”, I know it well 😄 Hope you get it all sorted out.
When I hear all these regular complaints about (apparently) how difficult it is to get parts sent to sailors from the USA to destinations all around the world, it makes me think of setting up a marine supply company here at my base in Florida, from where we could do exactly that.
Why? From 2010 to 2015, I was the US ‘agent and fixer’ for a business colleague who started an air charter company, and later a flying school, in Indonesia. My job was to source and supply his companies with literally every single thing they needed to keep operating smoothly – aircraft themselves, aircraft parts of every kind imaginable, flight training materials, books and manuals, software, even flight instructors and maintenance engineers. My assistant and I became experts at (1) sourcing the goods all across the USA and Europe, (2) having them shipped from the USA-based supplier to our office in Florida, (3) re-packing and consolidating all the items for each shipment to the customer (which saved them more than 10 times what they would have paid versus shipping individual parts from the USA to Indonesia), (4) making sure that all the documentation was done right (not an easy task when sending aviation-related goods to a country like Indonesia!), and (5) then shipping the shipment via the most effective method possible (which included courier, USPS, and consolidated air or ocean freight shipment).
My client often said that if he had not had our services, he could never have operated his business. So when I hear all these problems about parts being sent from the USA to sailors worldwide, I cannot understand why no-one has set up a ‘global sailor supply’ business, in order to provide this service, at a reasonable & fair cost? Or am I missing something?
PS: My son is a mechanical engineer, and we could even get many older parts custom-re-designed and machined if required, or 3-D printed. For example if the part/s are no longer available from the OEM’s. Or if older parts were made of materials that had a high failure rate, we could make the same parts in a different material, such as brass -> stainless steel, or plastic -> brass or stainless, for example. Think bushings, shafts, bearings, couplings, locking pins, etc. I’d be interested to know what you or your sailing friends would think about such a service. Just ideas. ☺️
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