2.9 Knots @ 17 Amps... Electric propulsion nitty gritty

We are just getting into the testing phase of our Electric Yacht propulsion system...

Doing low power tests with just a "kiss" of throttle we had sustained speeds of 2.9 knots while only using 17 Amps. Just to give you an idea of the power and thrust range though you should keep in mind that the Electric Yacht drive is quite happy running at 110 amps...

We are also VERY impressed with the accuracy of the monitoring system.

Oh yeah, IT"S QUIET!

Picture me doing the happy camper dance!

More soon come...

Another short list Schooner...

Another boat from the short list Jean-Pierre Tutard's aptly named "Jolie Môme" (which translates loosely as a fine bit of stuff) is a boat that resonated the minute I saw it...

An interesting design on several levels it is a more modern hull form than most schooners sport as well as twin rudders, twin keels and other "modern" ideas mixed with a very Gallic interior arrangement with a serious dash of "out of the box" thinking that makes for an interior that simply makes all kinds of sense. At 12.80 meters (42 feet) this just may be the best interior for its size anywhere...

One of the big problems ... NA's don't get, since almost none of them actually live on boats or even in a lot of cases sail them very far, is the ergo dynamics of actually living on a boat. Not that they don't do all sorts of clever and crafty new ways of doing interiors but most simply don't work for voyaging and living aboard. Which is what I call the "lots of beds, no storage and no livable space tango". Tutard is not one of those guys... He is the real deal and his boats make sense.

Case in point... Just look at this interior plan!
Its accommodation is on two levels and includes a dining area below as well as a dinette on the upper level which makes for a great place to navigate from and do the watch out of the elements... Who needs a wheelhouse?! But the real beauty is the ergo dynamics are spot on... Sure I'd lose a bed in there somewhere and do something else with it but as a builder that is easy and the spaces available unlike some designs (the DIDI 38/40 comes to mind) are actually of a size and location that you could do something with them... Instead of coming to the conclusion that the only thing that actually fits is, well... another berth!

One of the other things you will find in French designs is that the French are into cooking and entertaining and that this is a core part of life so there is actually space to have a bunch of friends over for drinks and a feed, with space to pull out a couple of guitars with the brandy and play music. Sounds kind of nice, sort of like home!

For those with rig issues... Well the rig is well thought out and a lot easier to sail than most people would think. Easily single handed and a breeze for a couple... No rocket science involved!

For a smaller boat of Tutard's you might want to check out is his P’TIT HOM (Little Man) which packs a serious amount of boat into 36 feet!

another dinghy cam...

Go Pro makes a very cute and able little still and video camera that is so small it can actually be worn on your wrist. Plus they have all sorts of mounts that allow you to put it on everything from the handlebars of your bike to your surfboard. Waterproof and cheap so for around a boat makes all kind of sense... 5 Mega Pixel and now available with a wide angle lens!

Not Happy With NRS Splashwear Jacket... Not BTYQ after all!

Sometime back, being disgusted with so called "Yachtie" foul weather gear, I bemoaned the fact that North Face no longer made their Cagoule which I had used for all my Pacific cruising and sailing. Looking over what was available I had a short list of various possibles but when it came down to the finish line it was down to the Patagonia "Skanorak" (no longer available) and a similar splash jacket by NRS...

Because I could not find a Skanorak in my size I wound up buying the NRS splash jacket. When I got it I was very impressed with the jacket and it was well designed, had great freedom of movement, a hood that worked so I found I could actually see what I was doing... all in all a great piece of gear... In fact, I said as much when I gave it the BTYQ seal of approval.

I do realize having designed this sort of gear before for a living that little details like zippers become very important. Because I have a whole lot of years living in a salt environment, the zips were all oiled and waxed from moment one and part of the gears ongoing maintainence was zipper care but the zipper on the NRS jacket within days became problematic So much so that for all practical purposes it became unuseable. I did write NRS a couple of times but never got a response. So it goes. I filed the NRS gear in my "I'll write about this one of these days when I am no longer pissed off" but never got around to it.

Someone I know also bought a pair of the NRS jackets on my recommendation and had the same results but as they are closer to real phones, communication and in a place where shipping the gear back for repair did not cost more than a new jacket and with the fortitude to deal with a company who seemed a lot less helpful once you bought the product than when they were selling it to you. Here is their experience with NRS...

You remember those NRS jackets you recommended a couple years back? Amy got a pair of them.

They were the bomb, except for one thing. Within weeks the main zippers were seizing up with corrosion. No amount of cleaning, lubing with t-9 or anything else would keep them running free.

When we got back in April, called NRS and told them, "These work great, except for the zippers. Can you replace the zippers?"

NRS: No

Me: Can you give us new jackets?

NRS: No, those are the old jackets. If you want new jackets you need to give us another $100 each for the new jackets?

Me: Really? You sent us on a three month trip with jackets that failed inside a month, and now you want to charge us?

NRS: Those were the old jackets. They are discontinued. The new jackets cost $100 more.

So a year later I get the NRS catalog and what do I see? The same damn jacket! I call up NRS. Again we go around and around with the saltwater thing. Again I ask just what sort of care a Sea Kayaking jacket is supposed to get on a daily, weekly, monthly basis when being used in an expedition? Rinse, clean and lube every week? Every day? And how long should it hold up? 2 weeks? Two months? Two years?

Finally they see my point, issue an RMA and I send the jackets in for a replacement.

Today the phone rings. The jackets have arrived. They are moldy. We'll no shit. They've been sealed up in a box from Montauk for a month. And guess what else NRS is upset about? The zippers are massively coroded, which is where the whole damn problem started!

So I bitch for another hour. I tell them about the O'neil wetsuits I have with zippers that are 5 and 10 years old. I tell him that the other zippers on the jacket pockets are fine. I tell him the frigging problem is the main jacket zipper is not suitable for a Sea Kayaking garment.

So they agree to send replacement jackets.

But here's the stinger

The phone rings. They are sending jackets, but "salt water eats everything" and they don't want to hear about it if these zippers also fail.

I am not fastidious, but I am not an idiot either. Those frigging zippers were crap and failed after 2-3 weeks, getting a little salt spray, a lot of rain, and nearly daily fussing over with hot water, tooth brushes and Bo-frigging-shield.

I'll let you know how these next ones hold up.

Which seriously sucks... Obviously a product not suitable for anything but fresh water and a company that simply does not have an idea about after sales service... I'll be doing some serious testing of various Sea Kayaking Splashwear in the coming months for an alternative product that actually does the job ... More soon come.

Phil Bolger

When I first heard the news, I needed a bit of time to process both my feeling about Phil's passing and the fact that I'd most likely never see a new design from Phil. I've actually lost track of how many boats I've built that Phil Bolger designed. We go back a fair bit and numerous smaller designs I've built and our "Loose Moose" and "Loose Moose 2" were designed by Phil as well. When a man designs two of the boats/homes you built yourself there is something of a connection...

Unlike a lot of NA's Phil knew how to design a boat that was simple to put together (and I'm not talking about just his "Box" boats either as the more complex boats all went together like a dream) and for want of a better phrase his designs always made sense... If he drew something in, it was needful.

Over the years I have been pretty vocal in the Bolger builder groups on the fact that madness lies trying to make one of Phil's designs better as any "improvement" would cause untold problems elsewhere in the design as both his simple and more complex designs were in such a state of balance that changing any one thing would throw it all off, much like one of those domino chain reactions!

Of course Phil, had his share of foibles... If there was ever an Olympic event for selective amnesia Phil would have owned the Gold medal! If he did not want to do something on a design it simply went into the memory hole and as much as you may have brought it up back in the memory hole it would go!

One of the best parts of having Bolger design a boat for you was the ongoing correspondence... Notes on everything from the rig and how you wanted your galley to notes on writing fiction and questions about film making. Fun stuff... Really brillant people are a lot of fun to get letters from!

Fact is one of the reasons we waited so long to begin the next Loose Moose was hoping that the stars would align and Phil's epic work load would allow a window for him to design it... Sadly that did not happen. It's too bad as he was the one guy who would have understood exactly what I want, saw the challenge and would have taken it to a whole higher level of performance and livability. He was that kind of guy.

So it goes...

Philip C. Bolger... 1927-2009

Covered in paint...

Painting the bottom, just another chore for folks on boats. Though you'd think that there would be a better way to keep critters from growing on your hull than toxic paint... On the bright side with a copious amount of paint I seem to be wearing it looks like I'll be critter free as well for the foreseeable future!

Thank goodness we splash tomorrow!

Help someone...

Go to the Animal Rescue Site and click on the Give free food button. By doing so you help a homeless animal and it is at no cost to you. That's it... Do the right thing!

The sky may not be falling, but the earth moved... Earthquake St Martin.

As if being on the hard and painting my boat was not bad enough department...

Last night it felt like someone backed their truck into one of jack stands and I thought the boat might actually fall over. Turned out that it was not some idiot in a car but an earthquake!

Fun stuff!

The sky is not falling...

There has been a lot of talk and panic about the fact that a lot of the GPS satellites are reaching their "sell-by" date...

Me? I'm not worried as I have a sextant, reduction tables, a watch and know how to use them. Plus I am not worried as the GPS system failing would cause a lot of big business types to lose money and the folks in Government would not let that happen. They would however let it happen to hapless sailors who need to know where they are but lucky for us the Exec's bonuses at Garmin and suchlike is important so we will continue to have GPS.

That said, I have no plans to sell off my sextant anytime soon because one thing you can never underestimate about folks in Government is their ability to screw things up. And, since the current crop of public officials have not made me think they are any more able to organize a "piss-up at a brewery" then the last crop, it just might be a good time to buy a cheap plastic sextant and actually learn how to use it! Hey, it's not rocket science...

The real deal...

I know I keep mentioning that we all need to improve our skills and a good place to start would be for me to mention that Tom Cunliffe has a couple of new books... "Inshore Navigation" and "Coastal and Offshore Navigation"!

Seriously if you are a sailor, cruiser and have some salt in your veins Cunliffe is your kind of guy. Doubly so if your proclivities run towards the gaff rig. His "Hand, Reef and Steer" deserves a spot on every ones shelf and for those who want to improve their sailing you could no better than "The Complete Yachtmaster". Just off the top of my head I cannot think of a proper education in sailing and cruising that does not contain the voice of Tom Cunliffe... He IS the real deal.

I should also mention that Mr Cunliffe has three podcasts up and running that are very much worth a listen...

‘The greatest instructor of all is your own humility.’

In this, the first of three sailing podcasts, Tom Cunliffe talks about his own experiences in learning navigation, lifts the lid on what he calls ‘the real black beast of navigation’ and shows that even the best can make the odd mistake… ‘for all I know I was only yards from destruction’.

GPS, electronic revolutions and fish and chips

In the second of Tom Cunliffe's navigation podcasts, Tom talks about the revolution in navigation GPS has brought, he weighs up the comparative benefits of paper, raster and vector charts and finishes off with the influence that good passage planning can have on your nautical social life.

‘I ran away to sea on an old Baltic trader, bound for nowhere with a crew of no hopers and not a penny in the pot’

In the last of the three navigation podcasts Tom Cunliffe talks about his sailing career, from gaff cutters on the Norfolk broads, Baltic traders and how he narrowly escaped becoming a barrister. Tom offers experienced advice on how to make a living from the sea.

Boatyard and the Ipod...

Still doing the boatyard thing.

I really don't know how I ever built boats or worked on them before my Ipod! Yesterday was a sand the hull from bow to stern (I'll be painting the hull tomorrow) and once I got started with the Ipod on shuffle it just went till all of a sudden I ran out of boat to sand!

As far as I am concerned the Ipod has reached tool status...

Hell as we know it... Boatyard blues

On the hard is never fun...


Of course since I need to paint rain has been a daily part of life as we know it and much attention is spent with the weather reports... None of them good! But we are making progress and the new self-built composting head is almost a reality though the process of installing it has the interior of "So It Goes" something akin to a bomb site.

The other less than good stuff is that the mosquitoes here are pretty amazing and I have bites in areas I'd as soon forget and then of course there are the chickens.

Living in the Caribbean, one is accustomed to goats and chickens pretty much everywhere. In the boatyard I have a Rooster who is way too up close and personal and crows pretty much 24/7 and all I'll say about that is...

Buffalo Chicken Chili (from one of our favorite food blogs)

Overheard...

While waiting for the deluge to stop so I can try and finish sanding my hull... Boats are not designed to be on land!

This mornings cruisers net had a conversation about a fellow cruiser who had SAILED to the Turks and Caicos islands. The operative word being... SAILED! Sadly with a lot of cruisers the idea that you can actually sail somewhere as opposed to motor and sail has reached the point that the idea is often greeted with the same sort of amazement as if the person sailing had done something either real special or real crazy/scary.

Sailing, simply a way to get from one place to another...

An electric propulsion thought...

Yesterday we hauled the boat, so a week of mayhem and evil jobs that can no longer be put off is the order of the day!

Yesterday we also had gusting winds and getting into the boat yard marina where we were hauling I noticed one BIG advantage of having electric propulsion on "So It Goes" is that unlike an internal combustion engine the Electric Yacht drive delivers 100% of its torque at all throttle speeds and it makes low speed maneuvering in tight corners with high gusting winds a whole new ball game!

Who needs a bow thruster?

A quick second thought on the Dinghy cam....

Joey over at Good Morning Gloucester wrote regarding the Flip dinghy cam and pointed out that for about the same price you can get a whole lot more camera and suggested the Sony H10 which is a small still camera that also shoots video (but does not shoot HD video) and the Sony H20 (which does support 720P HD video) and he is right either camera would be a better choice if image quality was the only criteria...

The fact that they are just that little bit bigger so they won't fit in a small pocket is problematic and while they will accept a baggie style splash housing (IE waterproof bag) for about $50 or so it is not as bombproof as the hard housing for the flip.

Maybe I just need bigger pockets?

You might want to take a look at Joey's website as he has some neat video up which shows just what the little Sony can do... Take your time as the whole site has a lot to offer!

The short list revisited ... 3

OK here is where it gets a little complicated...

So far we have been looking at boats that would be suited to the purpose and easily handled by a couple.

Melquiades by George Buehler (of "Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding" fame) handles the same set of needs but does it in a different and in some ways... "Better".

Gone are all of the extra berths... Have you noticed that no one designs real stowage these days? There is a whole lot of difference between stowage and berths that you can stick/cram things under! For those of us who live on board, things like tools (and in my case camera equipment and diving gear ARE tools), gear and other things which while normal to own are just too problematic for yacht designers to consider (books, musical instruments, skis, golf clubs, bicycles or whatever) so they either are stuck on top of a berth or as I have been advised by a "NA" or two to simply leave them behind at "HOME".

Now let's reconsider the whole live aboard thing again... BOAT = HOME! Seems pretty simple to me... Not sure why certain NA's don't quite get it.
Which brings us back to "Mel" a cargo schooner with plenty of space to put stuff, a great galley/ living, area and a bedroom and head you could swing a cat in. Which is just what most live aboard cruisers actually need and all those extra berths never actually get used. However if you really needed an extra cabin the hold is big enough that it could be scaled down for a bit more accommodation.

The schooner rig makes sense as it keeps the rig manageable and as Buehler is loath to design around expensive gear all of the various hardware and suchlike can be self built or found at flea markets and consignment shops for pennies on the dollar. So while at fifty foot "Mel" is bigger than a lot of people might consider for a couple, it is a cheap fifty footer cost wise.

Of course it is not perfect, fifty foot means you are going to be anchoring out as the cost of marinas and such start eating into the important stuff (like more guitars and cat toys!) but as we never go into marinas (high priced slums) that only leaves the cost of hauling out and with its long keel I'd be just as inclined to make sure every year or so I'd sail someplace with enough tidal range and simply dispense with that particular brand of marine trades piracy!

"Mel" also looks seriously wicked (and that's a GOOD thing!)

A better pump?

As the old saying goes... " Nothing works better than a panicked man with a bucket" and while there is a lot to be said for buckets you'd think that there would be just a little improvement in bilge pumps over the years!

The D Best Pump looks interesting and as soon as I get a chance I'd really like to get my hands on one and do some serious testing/comparing with the basic diaphragm pump that we all use.

In the meantime take a look at their website as the video is seriously impressive!

Saving money provisioning the galley...

Since we keep talking about sailing in hard times department...

Harmony House Foods who sell all sorts of neat foods of the dried and freeze dried variety that work finest kind on boats is having a Mothers day sale and in hard times who can't appreciate a discount? Just add the coupon code MOM for a 15% discount (good only through Sunday!)

What's nice about the HH stuff is they sell in a variety of sizes from small sampler kits to sail around the world non stop size! We find that for cruising having a supply of dried vegetables, beans and fruits is a great way to keep costs down and our waterline happy.

What makes me happy is NO RUSTY CANS!!! Not only is the food good but the packaging is perfect for boats...

Narrow boat and Peniche...

I'm getting ahead of myself, but one of the reasons that the next Loose Moose is not going to be a catamaran or trimaran is simply that multihulls are problematic for the European canal system as the beam is often too wide for various locks.

While building one of our first boats we lived on a Peniche just outside of Paris and discovered in the process just how special the canals are... After we built both Loose Moose's we took them both on longish canal trips that pretty much covered all of France, a very civilized way to travel the countryside!

One of the projects I have on the back burner is to design a canal boat for home builders with live aboard and charter potential. Something that would be easy to build, have a lot of character and be an exercise in "Green" thinking. A lot of my working with various electric propulsion systems on "So It Goes" is research for the canal boat project.


In the meantime for those who are eager to get going on a canal boat project, you might want to take a look at CKD Boats who are coming out with one of their excellent computer cut plywood kits for a English canal type "Narrow Boat" which looks just the thing... I'm already thinking how I'd handle the needful and traditional Narrow Boat art in a Mooseish theme! Rocky and Bullwinkle meets Moose Drool with Tulips! Narrow boats are not just boats they are ART!

For those who'd like to experience the canals without having to build a boat you might want to consider a Peniche charter in the south of France! Our friends Rene and Liz on the Peniche Emma would be more than happy to show you just how civilized the canals can be!

A good time to sail away...

Latitude 38 (our favorite sailing rag) in their Electronic Latitude had some interesting thoughts on why the Baja Haha cruising rally is filling up so quickly. On the whole I'm not a big fan of cruising rallies but I make an exception where the Baha Haha is concerned as they get it right!

Most people don't realize that bad times are pretty good for cruising. Most of the places we tend to cruise are really a lot cheaper than home waters and for someone with their head on straight it is actually an enjoyable way to save money. Latitude 38 makes a strong case for Mexico... Check it out!

Dinghy camera...

I've been looking for a dedicated dinghy camera. Sort of a do everything video camera that would be cheap enough not to shed tears on the day it gets lost or destroyed. Small enough to throw in a pocket and add in the fact that it would be nice if it were waterproof and I could dive with it deep enough to be useful.

Nope not an easy want list to solve.

Enter the Flip UltraHD camera which sells for less than $200 and has an accessory underwater housing good to 30 feet which sells for less than $50... Now we are talking!

The problem with the Flip of course is it is something of a toy. It does shoot HD (High Definition) of a sort but there is a huge difference between HD Flip footage and HD footage taken with a Panasonic Varicam for instance ( which is the sort of camera I use for work) ... But then you'd expect that with a price difference of $58,000 or more!

But for a disposable camera for the dinghy, well the Flip kinda rocks!

Actually I plan to buy a few of these as I have a video project where I plan to loan out cameras for POV footage which I will incorporate into the production so while still a toy, it does have some potential as a useful tool!

Me I'm just hoping to be in the neighborhood and grab some footage next time Maltese Falcon gets T-Boned!

A good idea for the summer....

Bill over at Knockabout Sloops has the right idea... My Summer Goal - Becoming a More Proficient Sailor

Seriously folks, awesome idea! Sure sailing is one of those sports anyone can pick up in a couple of hours (but takes a lifetime to master) and we all need to continue to set the bar higher for ourselves.

"Get better" is our mantra today!

Things I want, the GEAR hunt...

I'm hauling and painting next week and one of the tasks involved will be cleaning the Raymarine impeller for the log so that it will work a few minutes when launched until some stray molecule of some sort fouls it until the next haul out... an ongoing FUBAR situation.

Fact is, any paddle wheel sort of impeller is problematic at best and most of us rely on our GPS units for speed these days, So it goes!

Our racing brethern are lucky in that there is something of a war these days on who can come up with the best tactical instrument system for racing dinghies and not being tied to the same old same old. We are talking about some pretty neat stuff!

Rock City Marine (has a nice ring to it does it not?) has the aptly named "Rock Box" which is a battery powered big digit speed/log/VMG/Heading that seriously rocks for $599.

Velocitek on the other hand makes the SC-1 ($449) which pretty much does the same things and seriously rocks as well. Velocitek has also come out with the SpeedPuck which handles speed/compass/windshift for a mere $339!


Fact is,any of these offerings blow the standard log and VMG systems made by Raymarine (you know the folks that made mine that seldom works?) and all the ususal suspects, out of the water on everything from price to performance. My boat needs one of these and so does yours!

So why did I not buy one yesterday?

Well there is the rub... As these products fill a niche that the big boys thought unneedful to fill, they are oriented to the smaller boats and day sailers where double A batteries make sense. The problem with all of these is that none of them work on 12 volts! Bummer! Hacking the units would be fairly staight forward but it would be oh so much nicer if one of these products was available in 12v for us cruising type of folks who don't want to be bothered having to change batteries everyday or so...

HINT!!!

Glow in the dark from OZ...

I spend a lot of time sailing at night and I'm not alone as anyone who makes longish voyages finds him or herself doing the night watch thing. So color me impressed what some folks from OZ have come up with...

It seems I spend a lot of time with a flashlight clutched between my teeth as I take in a sheet to trim a sail and trying to see what a sail is doing on a moonless night is always problematic. Enter Glowfast who make luminous draft tape and telltale patches which makes trimming a sail in the dark all kinda easier!

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on some in the very near future and testing it. Glowfast lists a couple of stockists in the USA but I don't see them listed on the stockists, websites (Layline Marine & Annapolis Performance Sailing) but it also appears that you can buy direct from Glowfast from their website.

Good stuff!