Originally Posted by
jamottep
What have I done to get Jim's attention?!?! S**t s**t s**t!
Kidding aside ... Thanks for the nudge. I'll admit again that I'm not an expert sailor. I'm barely a beginner, who's enough of a fool to teach ASA101 to newcomers. I've also said before that I'm a bit of a dummy who needs to be told/showed what to do. "Monkey sees monkey does" very much applies to this man. Maybe that'll be my boat name. I am struggling with sail evolution (poling out jib) and learning others (spinnaker). I'm barely an 80% sailor and, even though this is a race and I'll be in company of some serious sailors who know their boat inside out, I have no expectation for myself, besides getting to the finish line (regardless of what I read in Andrew's book on this topic). I have limited experience and this event is part of hopefully a longer learning curve to get me places. I do welcome any help though, including used equipment that makes sense or donated time :-)
I have two 92 Amph batteries and a 100 W solar panel. Do I feel 100% confident this will be enough? No. Do I have a backup if I drain all batteries and can't charge? No. I won't spend more on a generator and do not like the idea of having fuel on board. I was looking at a small wind turbine but was discouraged by others. I looked into water power generator (drag a prop) but price is prohibitive. That leaves one alternative: a 3rd battery. I thought of getting a separate Li battery just for the auto-pilot. What do you think?
I was able to balance my energy budget but that's just a spreadsheet, which everyone knows can be adjusted to say whatever one wishes. If I play a worst case scenario (auto-pilot 24 hr on drawing 4 Amps then my batteries will be empty in less than 48 hrs).
Well, I have two. I'm not sure that a Raymarine ST-1000+ qualifies as rock solid. I may have a spare Pelagic tiller wand.
I am working on that. But maybe I won't go into the slot. I don't see myself flying the spinnaker in 25 kts of breeze. Not yet. I'd rather be slow than break stuff at this time. Don't take me wrong; I will try to bolster my skills single handing the spinnaker but it'll be baby steps and if it blows 20kt all the way down maybe they'll just be a good bag to rest on when tired. I do love seeing the spinnaker fly and enjoy my time every time it's up.
I have that ... Pfeww, at least one pass!
At this time my budget is cooked, burned. I'm not contemplating a $500 chart plotter. I'm not challenging the benefit of having one. What I'll have is SailGrib on a Nexus 9 Android tablet (with laptop and cell phone as backup) and paper charts. As everybody knows ... None gets wet fingers on an Olson 30! Maybe if there's another deep promo I'll get a handheld chart plotter.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've reached out to them ...
I am only planning to do the SSS races (again $) ... And that's if I do get a life raft in time. I will go out though, for sure.
I stopped caffeine a while ago, just for this stuff ... But sugar is much harder, especially chocolate!
If my experience with Clipper is any indication ... it's more likely going to smell poorly in Double Espresso after a few days, especially if I get a knock down while taking a dump :-)
I very much enjoyed the nights during my qualifying cruise and look forward to more nights at sea.
Ok so I was looking into a mini bilge pump because during the first seminar I attended someone (George?) mentioned that Stan H.'s advice to him for small boat racers was: stay warm, stay dry.