Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Sometimes I am not alone
November days like this are rare. Today we paddled the Seward Park shoreline. It is nice to be under the big trees... it gives one the feeling of being out of the city. Of note, we saw a bald eagle in the top of a high snag. It looked like a good nesting spot.
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
NEMA oops I mean NMEA
Language is a wonderful and changeable thing. Acronyms, and our attempts to pronounce them can bring about decidedly weird effects, so today we are discussing the National Marine Electronics Association, or in its acronym form NMEA. This is not to be confused with NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the National Emergency Management Association, or even the New England Multihull Association.
Somehow over linguistic time, the acronym NMEA has ended up being universally pronounced, such as acronyms can ever be pronounced, as Nee ma. This verbal utterance has become so pervasive, that the marine populous, has actually changed the spelling of the acronym NMEA to NEMA to reflect how we actually say the acronym. If you search "NEMA 0183" -NMEA, Google finds over 24,000 references. I did some snipping off the web of examples, and noted that even the Installer himself has screwed this up at times, and boy I'm not alone. I have purposely not changed it as a personal reminder to myself.
The rate of change from NMEA, to NEMA has been increasing rapidly over time. There are a few references in the eighties, even more in the nineties, and in this decade using NEMA in place of NMEA is almost common place.
So there are are three options available, do nothing, and continue to pronounce NMEA as Knee ma, change the name of the National Marine Electronics Association to the National Electronics Marine Association, or change the way we pronounce it to "NA Me Ah. My vote is to be diligent about spelling it correctly, and to continue to pronounce it Knee ma, or Knee maw if you live in the south. Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto. Nmea, (it is a word, sort of) that is a cool electronics network on your boat bro.
By the way this was all triggered by attending the NMEA conference on Sanibel Island (almost). I am just about done with the piece.
The photo above was taken by Canadian Phil Boisse.
Monday, 21 September 2015
The S M I T E Awards
A hush falls over the crowd in the large hall, as the president of S.M.I.T.E. (Society of Marine Installer Technological Entrepreneurs) walks up to the microphone holding three large envelopes. "Thank you for your patience, I know it's been a long night, but at last we are ready for the final awards." "As you all know, the prestigious, and coveted "Ron Popeil" awards are given to the applicants who have installed a chart plotter in a way that makes it theft proof. The judge's criteria is that it should be virtually impossible to remove, and survive in a console overnight, in the Mogadishu, Somalia "Thieves Market."
"Our esteemed judges have done their due diligence, and reviewed over a hundred contestant entries. So without further adieu, we will start with our second runner up. So let's give a big installers hand to Steve Stickus. The judges were very impressed with the massive amounts of 3M 5200 applied everywhere, and his technique of using a hair dryer to fully cure it, especially in areas where it was almost three inches thick. Steve wins a $200 Harbor Freight gift certificate, and the "Spray Hair" in a can trophy."
"Our first runner up is John Spawl, and the judges have noted that his finesse, and attention to detail, is alway a joy to see. John's talent is in making the install look perfect in appearance, while retaining all of the subtle security measures he is famous for, such as screws driven into slightly undersized holes, insuring the heads will snap off when removing them. The rounding of Phillips head screws with undersized bits, and his personal specialty of driving cross threaded nuts all the way down on the bolts. John wins a $500 Ace Hardware gift certificate, and the "Pocket Fisherman" trophy."
"Okay, I see the bar is getting ready to open, so let's get to the grand prize, and this year's first place winner, is Ian Sidious. Let's all give him that big installers congratulations, and a standing O."
"The judges were amazed at Ian's ingenuity. Starting first with placing the chart plotter as close as possible to the console's edge, and doing the actual install prior to having the console mounted in the boat. This insured that the two outboard fasteners could not be reached, or seen at all, and further making sure lots of extra bonding putty was used, to reduce easy access."
"Ian also used excessively long bolts, and managed to damage the threads just enough, to guarantee that two people would be needed to remove the nuts."
"This clever approach created a triple threat, causing the potential thief to drill out the bolt heads, in a time consuming, irritating, and messy process."
"But to the judges delight, Ian had two additional treats in store to make thievery all but impossible. The first was the use of epoxy glue to seal the edges, and the "coup the gras" was a hole cut out that was just slightly smaller than the chart plotter, requiring a rubber hammer to beat it into place."
"Congratulations Ian, you will take home the 1st place Ron Popeil "Veg-o-Matic" trophy, a $1000 gift certificate from Tractor Supply, and a collection of colorful designer Tyvek suits, which will give you that professional appearance you're looking for. So what do you have in mind for next year Ian?"
"Well I am proud to be a member of S.M.I.T.E, and of the contribution we all make to the world of marine electronics, and the theft protection we provide to our owners. I am experimenting with grade 8 bolts. They're really tough to cross thread, but with my new Tractor Supply gift certificate, I think I can now buy some hydraulic equipment to do the job. Thank you my colleagues, for this magnificent honor."
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
R I P Dora the Explorer
July 5 2015
When we arrived back in Oz after nearly three years sailing in South East Asia and Europe, we had visions of just getting by with our motor bike for transport but soon decided we really did need to buy a cheap car. Karen found us a 1998 Ford Explorer on a Facebook garage sale page for just $2k. Quickly christened "Dora" for obvious reasons she has been an integral part of the family for almost two years now. Not only has she transported us all over the place, she has been a fantastic shed on wheels as we have done all the work getting “Our Dreamtime” ready to cruise and our rental property sold.
At different times, she’s been loaded up with anchors and chain, full wardrobes of sails, outboard motors, pallet loads of line, all sorts of assorted parts and provisions and towed trailer load after trailer of ‘stuff’. In fact her back seats have rarely been in the up position as she was normally to packed to allow that luxury. In all that time she just kept on keeping on and never required anything more than two new tyres.
Dora’s version of air conditioning may have been to wind the windows down, her armrests may have been replaced with unique pine versions hand made by the old farmer who owned her previously and she may have been a bit noisy but she really has provided outstanding return on investment through her loyal service to us. Karen became quite fond of Dora and despite the fact that in our pre-cruising days we have owned a number of ‘nice’ cars including Porsche, Nissan Z car, Range Rover and HSV Commodore, came to describe her as the best car we have ever had.
Then last Friday, just weeks before we are due head off cruising the Great Barrier Reef and Dora was due to be given a well earned rest she broke her heart. A loud noise indicated a problem which was followed by a fairly rapid loss of power. Karen was fortunately able to will her to keep going a short distance longer and made it into a nearby shopping centre car park where she was left for the night.
Starting up the engine the next morning revealed absolutely ZERO oil pressure and awful noises under the bonnet. No doubt about it. Dora’s condition was terminal. It took quite a while to actually empty everything out that she was carrying and cart it back to the marina in a small hire car. The next task was where in hell to put it all on the boat.
Sadly she’s headed for the wrecking yard where she’ll be an automotive version of an organ donor and hopefully parts of her will live on in others.
Thank you Dora for your awesome service. We would of loved it if you’d just kept going for another four weeks and why couldn't you blow up just before we filled your fuel tank with $100 worth of fuel instead of just after.
All is forgiven though. We'll miss you.
 |
| Dora's final parking spot. So sad! |
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If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
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Monday, 14 March 2011
Raymarine or Garmin I cant decide!
There is always a way. In this case the client has best of both worlds. A Garmin 5212, and a Raymarine E=120. How can you lose, or get lost.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
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Saturday, 4 December 2010
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Saturday, 16 October 2010
Local boats I like Route 66
This is the first of the "boats I like series." These are vessels that catch my wayward and mercurial eye. Since Sarasota has such a diverse boating community, these can range from something stashed away in a garage, to vessels hidden in plan sight in the many local marinas and canals. The one thing they have in common is their uniqueness, and personal appeal to me. With most of these boats, I don't know the owners, and have never boarded them. We're starting today with "Route 66" that is currently residing in the Longboat Key Moorings marina.
You can miss the nearly 80' of elegantly crossed braced mast and swept back spreaders on Route 66 designed by B&R Designs (Lars Bergstrom, and Sven Ridder). If a sailor isn't familiar with these names, just look look up at the Windex atop your mast. This is one of their many sailing innovations.
Lar's, an experienced pilot passed away in 1997 due to a tragic powered sailplane accident. One of my favorite possessions is one of the carbon fiber water tank test hulls of Route 66 I bought when his Sarasota facility was closed and it now hangs from my living room ceiling.
Route 66 is the product of the many lessons learned from the Warren Luhrs's ocean racing sailboat children, Tuesday's Child, Thursday's Child, and Hunter's Child.
Hunter's Child's hull shape was an improvement on Thursday's Child's designed by both Paul Lindenburg, and Lars Bregstrom, and built by B&R Designs. Thursday's Child was already a big winner, and broke the New York, to San Francisco record held by the clipper Flying Cloud since 1854, along with other records.
Two things are of note are here. Hunter's Child, and Route 66 have semi-circular hull sections over most of the their length. This allows the hull to heel with out changing its waterline shape.
This is also I believe one of the tallest of what is now known as the B&R rig used on a cruising sailboat. Lars Bergstrom had been evolving what would eventually become known as the B&R rig years earlier. The oldest example I have found to date is the B&R designed Tailwind 38 built by Hurley Maine in the UK during the early seventies.
If you look closely at the pictures you can see the B&R rig on both Thursday's Child, and Hunter's Child. Lars Bergstrom designed the rigs for all three of the Child boats, and spent enough time sailing them to decide what could be improved. In the case of Thursday's Child, he and Warren Luhrs both sailed her to Plymouth England for the start of the 1984 OSTAR race. Lars also crewed for Warren Luhrs on Thursday's Child during the record breaking New York to San Francisco run. I'm sure the 80 day 13,000nm plus run gave him plenty of time to contemplate the vessel's rigging and design.
I never found a picture of Tuesday's Child, but the other two Child boats have struts running from outboard to the mast. These are the two side legs of what would eventually become the tripod on Route 66, and used later on some Hunter boats. Both vessels also have the distinctive swept aft spreaders with the diagonal cross bracing. The small oddity in all of this is Hunter's Child had a backstay, while the rig on Thursday's Child did not.
Other design innovations carried over from the Child boats design efforts that were applied to Route 66 were the adjustable canting rudder, and water ballasting, The air slot that feeds air to the rear of the Route 66's hull reducing friction, was retrofitted into Hunter's Child after the fact.
Route 66 is a powerful cruising boat with an extreme racing pedigree and is capable of speeds in excess of 20 kts. With the simple cockpit layout, however I think she would be very easy to sail.
A barn door Park Avenue boom with no sail tracks, and a furling head sail. The bow has two retractable poles one to push the anchor rode out and away from the bow, and the other for an asymmetric spinnaker. All lines and sheets go to the cockpit.
Route 66 is a stunning and extraordinarily creative design. She is gorgeous to my eyes, and like her earlier predecessor Thursday's Child, she has a long way to go yet.
To learn more about Route 66, here are some additional links.
Route 66 home page.
Comments By Lars Bergstrom on the design.
http://www.yachtroute66.com/YW.html
Route 66 is the product of the many lessons learned from the Warren Luhrs's ocean racing sailboat children, Tuesday's Child, Thursday's Child, and Hunter's Child.
Hunter's Child's hull shape was an improvement on Thursday's Child's designed by both Paul Lindenburg, and Lars Bregstrom, and built by B&R Designs. Thursday's Child was already a big winner, and broke the New York, to San Francisco record held by the clipper Flying Cloud since 1854, along with other records.
Two things are of note are here. Hunter's Child, and Route 66 have semi-circular hull sections over most of the their length. This allows the hull to heel with out changing its waterline shape.
This is also I believe one of the tallest of what is now known as the B&R rig used on a cruising sailboat. Lars Bergstrom had been evolving what would eventually become known as the B&R rig years earlier. The oldest example I have found to date is the B&R designed Tailwind 38 built by Hurley Maine in the UK during the early seventies.
I never found a picture of Tuesday's Child, but the other two Child boats have struts running from outboard to the mast. These are the two side legs of what would eventually become the tripod on Route 66, and used later on some Hunter boats. Both vessels also have the distinctive swept aft spreaders with the diagonal cross bracing. The small oddity in all of this is Hunter's Child had a backstay, while the rig on Thursday's Child did not.
A barn door Park Avenue boom with no sail tracks, and a furling head sail. The bow has two retractable poles one to push the anchor rode out and away from the bow, and the other for an asymmetric spinnaker. All lines and sheets go to the cockpit.
Route 66 is a stunning and extraordinarily creative design. She is gorgeous to my eyes, and like her earlier predecessor Thursday's Child, she has a long way to go yet.
To learn more about Route 66, here are some additional links.
Route 66 home page.
Comments By Lars Bergstrom on the design.
http://www.yachtroute66.com/YW.html
Thursday, 10 June 2010
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