Other peoples boat projects...

I've been helping a friend with a Catalina 38 sort out his wandering bulkhead and chainplate situation. As long as we were at it, the decision to dump the starboard settee in favor of a galley which would better suit their lifestyle and remake the old galley as a dedicated sleeping berth for their youngest daughter...

The thing is, with the older classic plastic, it really is pretty easy to change things around if one feels the need. The hard part is simply making the decision and doing the deed. In this case, the actual labor was less than a couple of days but took more like a week. The hard part was simply sorting out what was really wanted and getting past the having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too syndrome we all fall err to from time to time.

All in all, the new galley works with a big increase in accessible storage which the original C38 layout was sorely lacking in. While maybe a trick of scale, the entire salon now seems quite a bit larger as well...

You might notice the Camp chef stove which is easily the best bang for the buck that you can find with a boat friendly stove at less than $200... One of the new galley tasks was to sort out a gimbal for it which was quite an easy process and the stove balances quite easily with its new gimbal with no added weight needed.

On not sailing the farm and making water...maybe, maybe not!

Some time ago there was a book that caught a lot of people's attention (and still does) called "Sailing the Farm" by Ken Neumeyer. Mr Neumeyer proposed a very self sufficient system where a boat could sail and grow its own food (for the most part) harvest from the sea and even make your own water... The problem is that most of what he proposed simply did not work in a practical sense. While the book did have a lot of interesting tid-bits that were valuable (his information on seaweed and kelp for instance) for the most part it is a book that is best left on the shelf.

For example, his methods of making water (solar still) sounds enticing but simply is not a system that works well on boats, nor does it produce enough water for even the most water frugal cruiser and as for those with a forepeak full of tomato plants that requires watering... well it is simply not going to happen.

If you do need to search out a book on the whole self sufficient sea-steading gig you'd be much better off going with Jermome Fitzgerald's  "Sea-Steading: A Life of Hope and Freedom on the Last Viable Frontier".

Speaking of solar stills department ...


Sailing Anarchy (01/18/10) had an interesting bit about a "marine" solar still by Sea Panel that bears looking into. Off hand, my experience with solar stills is that the available room on a cruising sailboat does not give you the water production needed to make it worthwhile and while the information is sketchy, I don't see anything keeping the unit from cross contamination of the the freshwater product and the saltwater which is a big problem for solar stills on boats and liferafts in anything but dead flat seas. That said, this could very well be a good investment for an emergency source of water for some scenarios and I'll be looking into it. 

The exception to the rule on the cross contamination problem, would be the old GoreTex solar still that never seemed to catch on... but maybe one of our readers has some information about it?


PS... Just in from Mike at Sea Panel...


"The cross-contamination problem is mostly solved because the water in the evaporation tray does not slosh around, but is actually held inside special open cell foam, which is then wrapped in evaporative wicking material. So we get the benefit of protecting the water from slosh, and we also get the benefit of the increased efficiency of a wicking still, rather than just a passive basin still. This is covered by pending U.S. Patent.

Normally you would be correct that the water these things make is not worth the deck space, but our tests indicate that in hot weather, the Rapid Deploy Marine will make up to 2 gallons/day, which is a good rate for a 6 foot x 2.5 foot system. Plus, the unit folds up, which is good when you need the deck space but not the water."

Less really is more...

I tend to get a lot of emails to the blog about what sort of gear to buy for various boats and most of my advice on the subject boils down to "Don't buy stuff unless you really need to".

But, just maybe, I'm not the guy to be giving this sort of advice because I simply don't enjoy spending money (remember I'm Mr Cheapseats) and, if a ten-year old piece of gear on the boat is working and fulfilling its purpose, the idea of replacing it with a newer piece of gear (albeit lighter/sexier/more featured) just does not compute.

For instance, the winches on "So It Goes" both date from 1969 when the boat was built. They work and will, no doubt, continue to work till the next millennium... So why replace them? I certainly don't need self-tailing or electric winches and while I really admire the stainless and lightweight Andersen winches, I just don't see saving a few pounds to be worth the large chunk of money involved, so the old winches are here for the duration.

On the other hand... I sure would like a new VHF and my AIS receiver is a first generation unit and just a bit clunky so the purchase of the new Standard Horizon GX2100 starts making some sense as it would give me a cockpit mounted VHF and AIS where I could actually use the information. As it stands now, both the VHF and AIS are inside and I simply don't use them most of the time. So it would seem that the GX2100 would be a good thing when all is said and done but you won't see me rushing out to get the first one in my corner of the Caribbean as I'll wait to see how the model actually fares in the real world (face it everything is perfect while it's vaporware) before I trundle down and buy one.

Anyway, to recap on the buying stuff for your boat advice thing...
  1. Don't buy it if you don't need to (and a pathological need to spend money does not count as NEED)!
  2. Wait and see how it really performs before you do buy...

Stuff that works... CDI Furlers

Way back when, I used to work at a marine store that did a lot of consignment sales and I can't think of a better way to see what works and what does not than a constant stream of stuff people want OFF their boats!

For instance... We had dozens of dead macerator pumps (for parts) and it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out when watching one of our customers bring in the third macerator pump of that season that just maybe this was not the way to do the marine MSD thing!

We'd also get lots of furling systems... Either ones that had broke or that could no longer be maintained simply because the companies that built them no longer supported their older products (there IS a special place in hell for companies that do not support their products!) and expected their clients to simply buy all new every few years. Plus we had no shortage of gears that "worked" just fine except that they just never worked very well.

Which brings us to the recently departed roller furling system we had on "So It Goes". When we decided to go with roller furling my first decision was simply not to buy any of the systems we had in the shop because if they were any good (spelled trouble free) we would not have them in the shop on consignment...

The most notable (by its absence) furling system in the shop was the CDI Flexible Furler and I started asking folks who had their furlers just how they liked them and the response was a 100% customer satisfaction. Everyone was a happy camper... Which, of course, was more than I could say for those folks who had Hood, Profurl, Plastimo, etc gathering dust on our shelves not being bought.

The CDI was also cheap in comparison to those other systems and me being Mr Cheapseats decided this is our kind of furling system!

Years later with the rig and mast now gone, I've had the chance to reflect some on how the various parts worked out and the CDI furler was easily the most trouble free part of the rig! It worked perfectly... In all the years we had it we never had a single problem and its furling was as friction free as the day we bought it.

The new rig will not have any head-sails so we won't be in the market for a new furling system but for those who are I'd give the CDI a serious look!

Radio, radio...

I don't really like talking to people via electronic means much these days. So much so that when my last cell phone died I have not bothered to replace it. I never bother to talk to anyone on my Globalstar Sat phone and so far I have survived!

"So It Goes" has a ICOM M600 which is now surplus to requirements as we only would use it to receive, and as it takes up space and is somewhat power hungry, we decided to replace it with a Sony ICF-SW7600GR which allows me to get weather and the various cruising nets on SSB. Since I seldom have anything to say to folks on air, there's no real need for anything more than a receive-only unit. Add the fact that it takes up almost no room and hardly any power, you can color me with the happy camper crayon.


The big question everyone asks is "But what about asking someone for help in an emergency?" and my answer is two fold... I'm much more of a fix it myself and self rescue than ask for help kind of guy. And in the event that I do need help severe enough (FUBAR) to ask for rescue I am most certainly not going to spend time futzing with an SSB!

As I mentioned in an earlier post the SPOT I have is a great way to call home when needed and let them know all is OK or Not OK or HELP! Add an EPIRB/PLB like the new McMurdo which is under $300 and you have a pretty bombproof system that costs less than the ICOM it is replacing.

Such is the state of electronic communication on "So It Goes" as we head off towards Bermuda...

As long as I'm in the galley...

Another item I came across in my great galley quest is a portable oven by Coleman which looks perfect for boats that either don't have the real estate for a standard range/oven or simply don't want to dedicate that much space for one.

In the tropics ovens don't get used all that much as they have a way of heating the cabin past most peoples comfort zone.

This one makes a lot of sense as it is small enough to stow away but still big enough to cover most peoples baking needs and it comes to mind that when you want to bake this unit would be quite happy in the cockpit where it won't turn the cabin into an... well the word "oven" does come to mind.! Throw in the fact that it does not cost much more than a single replacement burner for most marine ovens and it is something of a no-brainer!

Like most things done by Coleman the build on this is impressive and I'd stake money on it outperforming and outlasting any of the "marine" units on the market. Good stuff!

A rig of note...

Gary Hoyt is one of those guys that people love to talk trash about and then turn around and steal his ideas...A really bright man who does not suffer fools gladly. But then again we'd all be a whole lot better off if we did not suffer fools gladly!

Hoyt's new Hoyt Offset Rig is for all practical purposes a simple Balanced Lug rig with a bit of improvement and like all good improvements they are quite simple. Now whether the Balanced lug rig really needs much improvement is a question for later...But for now I can safely say that this rig makes a whole lot of sense and those who are sniping from the design sector could not find their ass with both hands, a map and a flashlight...This rig will work and makes a lot of sense.

Of course for it to actually do more than be a talking point some designers and brave souls are going to have to get with the program and put this rig through its paces by actually sailing with it up close and personal.

Any takers?

CAL 34 Electric drive and the cost of fuel in Trinidad...

While not as sweet and pretty as the Electric Yacht propulsion system that Ferdinand sports on his CAL 40 the Electric propulsion on our CAL 34 "So It Goes" does work and as long as I'm throwing out pictures of electric drives it is only fair to show my own modest effort.

One of these days I will most likely spring for a toothed belt and sprockets but as the chain has been there for several years and still works with nary a sign of rust ( Thank you BOESHIELD!) it will most likely be later rather than sooner...

While on the Amps instead of diesel subject ...I just heard from one of my charter captain buddies that Trinidad long a source for fuel at around a $1.50 TT a Liter has now decided that foreign flag boats are no longer entitled to fuel at Trinidad prices and will be charged at "real world" pricing which is now in the $6.00 TT a Liter range...Which is still cheap at being just a kiss short of $4 US a gallon in a world where $6 a gallon no longer raises an eyebrow.

...Now most of the boats I know tend to get at best about one hour of running time to a gallon of fuel which if you have a mid 30's foot boat means about five or six knots under power...and that equals a Buck a nautical mile or damn near close to it...OUCH!

Tell me again why electric drives don't make sense...

CAL 40 Electric Drive...

One of the things I like about the blogosphere is that it allows you the comfort of realizing you are not alone in your ...umm...madness. For instance just the other day I got a note from a guy in the Philippines who has a CAL 40 and recently pulled out his Perkins diesel which was past its sell by date and replaced it with one of Electric Yachts drives which is capable of being driven at 72 Volts but for the meantime will be run with a 48 Volt bank.

This is not an unimportant consideration...If Ferdinand ( my CAL 40 friend in the Philippines) needs more oomph he can easily upgrade his electric propulsion simply by adding some batteries to the battery bank which is something you can't easily do with the internal combustion side of things. Which makes a lot of sense if your boat is on the border line like the CAL 40 where a 48V system just might be pushing the envelope a bit more than you'd like but then again just might be OK.

I'd bet that the CAL 40 will work out just fine with the 48V bank as it is such an easily driven hull but it is really nice to have the option to add more HP if needful just in case.

Take a look at just how little space the Electric Yacht drive actually takes up... For people who are looking for more space in a classic plastic the electric drive option really does open some serious cubic volume.

The rant free boat

My goal in this whole living aboard a sailboat gig is to have a rant free boat and the fact is there is light at the end of the tunnel...Well I can always dream!

The fact of the matter is there is a lot of great gear these days, stuff that just does its job and works...and not requiring fixing spells no rant in a big warm way!

Case in point our Coleman fridge just works and works keeping the beer cold and being quite frugal on the power in the process. The Sterling cycle as a means of cooling is really a great system in that there are no compressors or evil ozone destroying freons to leaks out ( and make refrigeration folks rich in the process) and the fact that it costs less than so called marine stuff makes the Coleman fridge/freezer a no brainer...

Another cool point is that when I took it all apart to see how it was put together it was quite apparent that if one wanted to build it in sans its plastic outer box it would be a very simple if not elegant build in installation. Fact is I am seriously considering buying another and building them in side by side to add a dedicated freezer to better be able to freeze the odd Mahi Mahi filet's and of course the required ice cream stash!

Now if only Forespar could makes its damn evil crappy winches work half as well as the Coleman Sterling cycle fridge/freezer we would be another step closer to the rant free boat...

Coleman Stirling Power Electric Cooler : Thermoelectric 26-Quart Portable Cooler W/ DC Power Cable & Household Power Supply: about $449 from Amazon (click link )

The real deal

There is something very neat about getting up in the morning and being the only boat in an anchorage. Add the fact that with WIFI you can actually check your email and peruse some boat design issues while having your morning coffee and you have to admit that progress is a good thing...But too often progress is a very rare thing and much of the so called "Progress" is simply old tech dressed up as new tech but today I happened on the following tidbit and it is the real deal!

One of the sites that I find oh so interesting is Craft A Craft (thanks Navagear for turning me on to it ) as though he is something of a power person still shares many of my interests like alternative propulsion such as Electric drive and other stuff of boat building ilk of the sort of Bolger mindset...Lots of good stuff. ..For example this really knocked my socks off ...a link to a new type of wind generator YOWZA!!! Be still my foolish heart...More info can be found on http://www.humdingerwind.com/

This is good stuff...Though the folks who make prop driven wind generators may not think so...

Australian catamaran designs and refrigeration systems

The web can be a funny place... In my search for the new Loose Moose design I kept hearing about a designer down in Oz by the name of Bob Oram who I might like but, as much as I searched, the best I could do was to find enticing snippets about his designs and nothing that was by the designer or actually about the boats... Frustrating with a capital F.

I had a nice note from Ali and Pat of Bumfuzzle fame (or infamy?) the other day, who pointed me in the direction of a pair of couples who were building cats in Oz. And, as it happened, one of the couples was building a boat by the designer in question and had a link to his site. Before you can spell serendipity I finally had an introduction to the designs of Bob Oram which bear some serious looking at.

One thing I have noticed is that there seems to be some serious boat building going on down in Australia and it makes me wonder why boat building seems to be on the rise in Oz and on the wane in the US of A? George Buehler had some interesting questions on this subject in his book about boat building but no answers as to the why... Maybe someone out there has a clue?

One thing I can tell you about the Antipodeans is that they seem to have a practical tilt that makes for successful cruising and boat building. And, if I may digress a bit, here is a small story to illustrate the point...

When Sheila and I arrived in the Med, we found it almost impossible to find ice for our icebox on Loose Moose 2 so we started looking into refrigeration systems. I was quite boring asking every fellow cruiser we met how they liked their system and how often it broke down, etc. To make a long story shorter, most of the cruisers we met seemed to sail from one anchorage or marina to the next in search of getting their fridge systems serviced. So much so, that it was not surprising if the first question you had from a fellow cruiser was "IS there a good fridge mechanic here"? Of course, Sheila and I had lived in Europe for so long that we thought for awhile that in sailing circles "Could you tell me where to find a refrigeration guy" had become the new "Hello, glad to meet you " back home in the USA...

The surprising thing was that most of the cruisers in the USA fleet seemed to think that their fridge systems worked just fine and getting them worked on in every port was just a normal part of having refrigeration on boats. All these years later we have noticed that this is still true in the Caribbean.

The Aussies on the other hand, seemed to understand that beer was meant to be cooler than ambient temperature and seemed seriously surprised that I would be asking questions about how often their fridges were down as all of their's seemed to work just fine. And, as one Aussie cruiser pointed out to me, it was just a refrigerator and not a lot of rocket science involved! The fact of the matter was that in that particular group of Antipodean cruisers, they all seemed to be using portable fridges designed for the outback and they all worked like all the time... This is certainly a practical approach to the whole keeping stuff cold philosophy and one that we have followed, as the factory-built and -shipped units seem to be gas tight, don't leak, use less power, and run pretty much like the fridges most of us grew up with at home, in that they work and work and work... keeping those Polar beers cold cold cold which is how it is meant to be! How many times have you had to get your home fridge or freezer serviced in the last year?... decade? I rest my point.

We really like our Coleman Stirling Power Electric Cooler which is a proper fridge/freezer using the Sterling engine to produce cold with no ozone-destroying gases to leak out and power frugal to the point of 0.9 amp an hour. Better yet, the sucker is available at Costco etc. for under $400 which makes it an incredible bargain. As a matter of fact, the small unit we have is also sold under the name Tropikool who specializes in Sterling-driven marine refrigeration. They also do a build-in unit for existing ice boxes for those who need more capacity.

Now, if I could just find a working email address for Bob Oram...