Hey, until this thread who'd thunk there was such a tight relationship between sailors and horseshit ... apparently damn near inseparable. ;)
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14 years ago
O/T: Abby Sunderland
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14 years ago
Those were some interesting birds. Gnat on a fly's ass ...
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14 years ago
Turns out it wasn't so deep ... :(
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14 years ago
Depends on how many flies it attracts ...
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14 years ago
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:55:35 -0500, the infamous snipped-for-privacy@teksavvy.com scrawled the following:
We all acknowledge that, but some of us choose to live life in spite of the wisest, most mature, most sane options. _Spice_, mon!
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14 years ago
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:39:27 -0800, the infamous "Lew Hodgett" scrawled the following:
Oh, good. It wouldn't be right if he were to profit from some scam like that.
My 25th AA birfday is on July 10th, when I'll celebrate a quarter century without any moon shinin' in me.
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14 years ago
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:09:17 -0800, the infamous "LDosser" scrawled the following:
Yeah, we all had entirely different versions of sats in mind. Hmm, was any of us right? (one implied)
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14 years ago
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:58:20 -0800 (PST), the infamous Robatoy scrawled the following:
Wouldn't that be cool?
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14 years ago
Just outside the harbor at Gustavia in Saint Barts I saw a 15m catamaran (demasted) and being decked over completely with solar panels. I've wondered ever since how well that worked out...
...and whether the mast was replaced once the electrical work had been completed. Interesting solar project.
Might also be able to do something interesting with fuel cells. :)
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14 years ago
------------------------------------------------- A Cat makes a great platform for solar panels, and yes I'm quite certain they restepped that stick when they were ready.
Biggest problem is trying to keep them oriented for max effiency which isn't easy on a moving platform such as a sailboat.
Bottom_line.........................................
When designing a system you seriously derate the panels to CYA.
50% will get you in the ball park.Lew
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14 years ago
What would salt spray and evaporation do to the panels?
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14 years ago
Salt spray will make them salt encrusted. You need to rinse them off regularly. Even a rinse with salt water (if that's all you have available) will help.
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14 years ago
RE: Subject
She's under way.
After a week's weather delay, she eft Marina Del Rey today, escorted by a flotilla of sailboats, headed for "The Cape" and points east.
Lew
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14 years ago
RE: Subject
Per her blog, she is off Guadalupe and getting settled in.
Lew
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14 years ago
RE: Subject
Per her 01/30/109 blog, she is headed into port at Cabo for repairs.
Looks like all those electrical toys are consuming more power than she can generate.
Lew
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14 years ago
And she's learned an important life less. Never trust the specs on _anything_ if anything important depends on it meeting them.
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14 years ago
Arrrgh. Life less_on_.
And thinking on it--it never occurred to me that she needed all that generating capacity just to carry the load--I assumed that she had redundancy--that she could run on any one of her sources, not that she needed all three in order to function. If that's the case then I'm with the doomsayers.
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14 years ago
Per her 02/06/10 blog, she is outbound from Cabo after some serious electrical repairs along with some tankage issues.
Solved electrical short in mast problem.
Added battery capacity to 885 AH which more than doubles battery capacity.
IMHO, should have been that much in the first place.
Added 70 gallons of diesel to 130 gallons to supply engine to drive alternator.
I guess this is still classed as a sail boat.
To reduce drive belt wear, chose to derate alternator output rather than replace single belt drive with dual belt drive required to truly get full output on a sustained basis.
There is still no windvane steering, even as a backup, on this boat.
Bottom line....................................................
This is a boat full of electrical toys dependant on keeping an engine system operative to regenerate DC power without any real backup system.
If she loses the engine, will she be forced to hand steer?
The rather modest solar panels and dual wind mills MAY BE able to supply enough power for the autopilot, but probably not much more.
I bid her well, but I have this feeling in my gut.......................
Time will tell.
Lew
-------------------------------------- Lew Hodgett" wrote:
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14 years ago
Per her 02/16/10 blog ============================= Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Skype and Wind! Today has been a really good day. It started out much like all the others, 90 degrees while pouring rain and rolling around not going anywhere. I'm officially in the doldrums, and they are not fun. But today the wind picked up to 20 - 30 kts and it made today one of the best I've had in awhile!
-----------------------------------.
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14 years ago
Guess she'll have to return to Cabo San Lucas to acheive her record, then up to Cali to go home. Good luck to her. Tom