Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
great writing, David. Was it cold out there?
A good shakedown and glad to hear you are back. Any signs or indications of smoke from afar?
TAZ is fond of the soft feed buckets BTW.
How was the ULDB experience compared to the Wilderness 30?
I actually have a soft bucket, though I didn't bring it this trip. It would have at least served as a backup for bailing.
however, it doesn't afford much for one to squat on, if you get my drift.
By comparison to DOMINO, HEDGEHOG is a wetter and faster ride.
Once I got my stack worked out, HEDGEHOG actually tracks a bit better; I know from experience DOMINO can't maintain the angle we sailed home at.
In terms of basic living, there is less overall interior volume, but in terms of how I use the interior when the going gets rough, there's not much practical difference.
In both cases I prefer to mostly move around on my knees and mostly live in the middle of the cabin sole, on the floor. In practice, my most comfortable sleeping position is on my bean bag, near the base of the companionway.
DOMINO had a sweet little nav desk to port, which I miss a little for a laptop surface, but since I am now running most things on a tablet, meh.
DH
I understand about the soft buckets, a bit short and too collapsible for the biological business.
Though, I sometimes envy standing headroom, the lively ride of an ULDB has great performance benefits when the wind and waves kick up.
There is something comforting about being "nested" in small space on hands and knees. Most things are within easy reach and there's not much distance to fall.
Glad you plan on hand holds. I thought my natural hand holds were sufficient for a long journey, but my shoulders disagreed by Hanalei. If done again, I would condition my shoulders more.
For a nav table, I used my backup hatchboard as a lap desk. Some plastic or metal binder clips helped affix the main paper chart.
JB
Nice write up! I'm glad you got it done, and now you have a nice little "list" of things to do, right? Me, too.
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"
DH- Excellent report! As one who has observed your very thoughtful and thorough preparation, I’m not surprised it went so well.
Question: Will you tell us about your VHF/ AIS/ Nav system? You were “visible” on MarineTraffic.com from land-based stations well beyond the Farallones.
Tom P.
Hi Tom,
Glad it works so well!
I am basically running the same system, with mostly the same components, that I had on DOMINO.
The VHF/AIS set up consists of the masthead 15" Shakespeare antenna, the coax cable, A SI-TEX AIS/VHF Splitter amplifier, a SI-TEX AIS Transceiver , and a Standard Horizon GX2150 VHF.
The Transceiver has a switch to mute my AIS transmission, but I can't recall ever using it.
In terms of seeing other vessels:
I use the NMEA 2000 tap from the splitter to feed AIS targets to a B&G Zuess3 7" chart plotter that lives down below.
This is a small upgrade from the model I had on DOMINO, notable mostly that it has wifi and Bluetooth, which allows me to see and "drive" the display on my phone or a tablet in the cockpit.
I also have the mic display from the radio in the cockpit, which is more convenient in practice.
At least when I haven't busted the connector by sitting on it!
DH
Last edited by DaveH; 09-14-2020 at 10:19 AM.
Thanks for these details - I'm planning some upgrades on my own boat soon and still trying to sort all these techie bits out.
I assume the GX2150's AIS receiver provides a backup receiver in the event your SI-TEX+Zeus setup fails, but are there other advantages? Just debating if I should go with a non-AIS VHF and put those bucks toward other gear. Also wondering if there's any noise from the SI-TEX to the GX2150, but presumably not since it sounds like the setup works well.
Last edited by Lanikai; 09-15-2020 at 07:10 PM.