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Thread: Interested in a boat for 2018 TransPac

  1. #421
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    907

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    Quote Originally Posted by jimb522 View Post
    As some of you may recall, I was actively putting together a 36 foot trimaran, The Prodigal Son, for the 2016 SHTP. I had to drop out when 6 months before the race my wife, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. As a result of that ongoing battle, I have not had time to spend one minute on the water, and have decided to sell that boat. I will be posting an ad within three weeks, in the classified section of this website. The boat has demountable Amas, and comes with its own trailer, and can be delivered anywhere. Its a highly modified hot rod, that can actually be cruised, and has a $15,000 NKE autopilot, still in the box. It would not be realistic timewise to get it ready for the 2018 SHTP race, but there is plenty of time to get it ready for the 2020 race. I should have time within the next three weeks to post the ad.
    Jim Bates
    I'm sorry to hear that ... I wish you well.

  2. #422
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    907

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    Yet another trip to the boat ... another series of slow projects ...

    1. Inserted a switch between the trickle charger solar panel and the controller to allow for the prescribed sequence of connects/disconnects (load, battery, solar panel).

    2. Removed the battery isolator/combiner, which is for sale now: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/bpo...487955961.html

    3. Removed the 800 W converter, SOLD

    4. Removed the spare engine bracket, also for sale: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/bpo...487931914.html

    5. I bought a cheap ammeter that I put into the circuit to get a sense of consumption. With everything turned on I couldn't get it up to 5A. Of course I wasn't doing much charging nor was the auto-pilot drawing much in standby. However I feel a little more confident that I will be able to get through as long as I manage energy consumption.

    What's next?
    Last edited by jamottep; 02-08-2018 at 04:56 PM.

  3. #423
    Join Date
    May 2015
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    907

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    About setting that poled out jib ... Someone had mentioned gybing the main, setting up the pole behind the main then gybing again. Some say it's best to attach the pole to the jib clew ... I prefer to the sheet as it seems to allow for more flexibility ...

    A bit of research shows that an alternative is using a setup similar to what you'd do for a symmetric spinnaker but with two afterguy sheets: one to bring the pole back and one to pull the jib over. Three lines are used to keep the pole in place (topping lift, foreguy and afterguy) and one sheet is run through the pole jaws to the jib clew. That's a lot of lines for a single guy :-)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II589dqAzLo

    Now ... sail changes take time. Let's think through this. It's day time and I've got the spinnaker up (do I?), cool. Night's coming with its suit of squalls. I want to "simplify' to a poled out jib. So I bring out the #2, lay it on the deck, rig the jib sheets and the jib's afterguy sheet, knowing that I'll have to put it into the pole jaws. Ok, so down goes the spinnaker, flawlessly of course. I now run the jib's afterguy sheet in the pole jaws. I rig a second afterguy sheet and position the pole out there, maybe at 45 degree. Next I hoist the jib to leeward and then pull it to windward with the jib's afterguy sheet. Voila ...

    Wait ... I want a longer pole for this ... Darn I need to switch poles!

    Let's resume this exercise. Jib on deck, jib sheets on, long whisker pole on deck but not attached to the mast, jib afterguy through the whisker pole jaws, whisker pole afterguy rigged (where it goes I have no idea as I'm running out of choices there). Down goes the spinnaker, back on deck to drop the spinnaker pole, move the topping lift and foreguy to the whisker pole, secure the whisker pole to the mast, move the pole out to 45 degree. Ok, hoist the jib to leeward and pull it through to windward. And voila ... Yes?

    I'm probably down to the main for 30 minutes there ... Maybe once the spinnaker is down, I hoist the jib and head up a little to keep some amount of speed.

    Just thinking like a racer is tiring ... Cruising anyone?
    Last edited by jamottep; 02-08-2018 at 04:57 PM.

  4. #424
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

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    I don't have enough experience with my boat (or in general) to think that I could do everything with my eyes closed, unlike some folks here!

    So I've decided to write down evolutions so I can refer back to these instructions before starting a new evolution.

    I'll print and laminate ...

    Feel free to poke at my stuff :-)

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...17370338380000

  5. #425
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

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    A birthday gift ...

    Name:  BeanBag.jpg
Views: 459
Size:  72.0 KB

  6. #426
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Arnold, CA
    Posts
    586

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    Happy Birthday!

    Bean bag is terrific!!
    With all the hard surfaces and corners, it'll provide some needed comfort.

  7. #427
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daydreamer View Post
    Happy Birthday!
    Thank you :-)

    I've been researching alternatives to the laptop setup that's in Double Espresso. Instruments data is fed into a Raymarine iTC-5 network converter (NMEA 2000). An Actisense NGW-1 USB plugs into that and spits out NMEA 0183 in a USB male end. Then the VHF provides GPS/AIS over NMEA 0183, which comes out USB male as well. It's a great setup to get everything into a laptop. I've been looking into an alternative solution where everything would go on a tablet. I'd need a wifi NMEA multiplexer apparently. And none of these work with USB input. I don't feel like re-wiring everything ...

    There are DIY projects out there with Raspberry Pi. However these are using too much power.

    A couple findings on eBay (I know that there are plenty of other options, but much more expensive):

    www.vela-navega.com Portugal: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273055846081?ul_noapp=true
    Yakker Yakbitz Australia: https://www.ebay.com/itm/NMEA-to-WiF...cAAOSwUKxYiG30

    Both vendors have been responsive and helpful with my questions ...

    Why am I looking for an alternative? Well ... see next post.

  8. #428
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

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    I like to think of myself as a smart man, capable of good decision making. In practice I'm a bit of a dummy who needs to be told what to do. Every time I need to make a choice I resort to the Internet hoping to find the elusive answer to my question. I spend hours browsing, finding nothing really and generally speaking making zero progress. I'll admit that this behavior is borderline manic.

    One of those topic that confounds me is weather and navigation. In short I need to figure out a reliable setup, a workable process, and what to make out of that information so that I can sail safely and maybe faster. And I need a backup plan or two. A not so quiet part of me is saying: "screw that, rhumb line it". That's easy enough and very appealing. I reserve the right to fall back to that simple plan and enjoy the blue water instead of scratching my head looking at tiny arrows on a tiny screen bent down on my knees in front of the "oh so large nav table" in an Olson 30 heeling 30 degrees, trying not to throw up all over the laptop. The only downfall to this approach is that I read that small ULDBs can harness 0.5 kt out of every knot of wind. I'm guessing that's downwind (yeah) and fully crewed. As far as I'm concerned I think I should say that above 15 kts it's more likely going to be 1 kt of speed for every 3 kts of wind.

    Let's use Stan Honey's 10 miles to the South example (see resources section on the main SSS site). Let's say that I realize that I should be 10 miles South and decide to bear away 20 degrees. It'll take me an extra 1.8 miles to get there. Say I was doing 8 kts and now do 8.5 kts. It'll take me just under 4 hours to make up the extra distance sailed. Is this complication all worth it?

    Anyways here's how I look at the different components:

    1. Communication channel: how to request and get weather forecasts.
    2. Requesting weather forecasts: this seems to revolve around downloading grib files but there's other stuff too.
    3. Interpreting GRIB files, i.e. visualizing them on a chart.
    4. Making routing decisions based on forecasts and boat capabilities (polar, wave polar).
    5. Monitoring current conditions: I guess I'll need a barometer.
    6. Tracking the boat's progress as compared to the plan.
    7. Go back to 1.

    Double Espresso came with a satellite setup for Iridium GO so I'm going to stick with that. There's also a setup that allows to get instrument data and AIS/GPS (from VHF) on USB for a laptop. All of that seems to say that I should run everything out of the laptop. Besides the fact that I don't like the idea of having a laptop always on in an Olson 30, getting emails from the laptop through Iridium GO requires an extra bit of SW: Xgate ($50 for 30 days) or SailMail ($275 for one year). Most apps go for less than $50. So all that got me going for a spin.

    I have a cheap Windows 10 laptop, an Android phone and an old Nexus 9 tablet. The phone will remain as backup of last resort and to communicate with the race committee in Hawaii. That leaves the laptop and the tablet. The tablet does have a barometer.

    The laptop has a 3900 mAh battery and reviews say the battery lasts 9 hours. So a full day is about 11 Amph. The tablet shows 6700 mAh and as my sail up from Santa Cruz attested this lasted for more than 24 hours (easily 36 hrs) with Navionics ON. The winner is the tablet in terms of energy consumption.

    However I can't get USB stuff into the tablet, which means no AIS no instrument data (see previous post).

    There are two apps that I know of that work straight with Iridium GO: SailGrib and qtVLM. Both appear similar in terms of capability, except that SailGrib seems to do chart plotting too. Both vendors responded to my questions.

    If I go for one of these and make the tablet my main device then the laptop will be the backup. Since I can't email via Iridium GO from the laptop I need a backup plan for GRIB emails. I could use the phone at that point to send "manual" GRIB emails, get the attachment and transfer to the laptop.

    I really like the idea of a wifi tablet giving me a good view on everything. I could rest and monitor conditions from the berth, instead of crouching at the foot of the nav table altar.

    I've got paper charts and a pencil so I can and should use that, leveraging the GPS position from the VHF (at a minimum log it regularly).

    This is probably more than I bargained for. And I've not even touched the "making sense of this stuff" part.

    Oh, news flash: Double Espresso was inspected today (who keeps messing this up) and passed.

  9. #429
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    296

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    Quote Originally Posted by jamottep View Post

    1. Communication channel: how to request and get weather forecasts.
    2. Requesting weather forecasts: this seems to revolve around downloading grib files but there's other stuff too.
    3. Interpreting GRIB files, i.e. visualizing them on a chart.
    4. Making routing decisions based on forecasts and boat capabilities (polar, wave polar).
    5. Monitoring current conditions: I guess I'll need a barometer.
    6. Tracking the boat's progress as compared to the plan.
    7. Go back to 1.

    Double Espresso came with a satellite setup for Iridium GO so I'm going to stick with that. There's also a setup that allows to get instrument data and AIS/GPS (from VHF) on USB for a laptop. All of that seems to say that I should run everything out of the laptop. Besides the fact that I don't like the idea of having a laptop always on in an Olson 30, getting emails from the laptop through Iridium GO requires an extra bit of SW: Xgate ($50 for 30 days) or SailMail ($275 for one year). Most apps go for less than $50. So all that got me going for a spin.
    Springing for the SailMail membership will get you 1, 2, and 3 on your list. The SailMail client software gets you email, plus really simple way to get text forecasts covering any area you want, GRIB files by drawing a box for area you want to see, and built in GRIB viewer. SailMail support is excellent. My use of it has been only via SSB, but plenty of folks using it with Iridium seem to like it too.

    And congrats on passing inspection!
    Lee
    s/v Morning Star
    Valiant 32

  10. #430
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

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    Quote Originally Posted by AZ Sailor View Post
    Springing for the SailMail membership ...
    I know but ... That's $275 ... For that price I can get qtVlm, SailGrib, OpenCPN, Navionics on Android, a NMEA to WiFi bridge and an Iridium GO SIM card ... And a fish & chips ... For my use case it's significantly overpriced ... And the laptop is still a pain in the butt in an Olson 30, power hungry and not very mobile with all the cables ... In fact if I only get one app I can probably get another cheap tablet as backup ... At this time I'm really trying to get under $100.

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