Frank
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Posts posted by Frank
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I would have needed brown underpants for that crossing, but then why bother ?
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Its just great to see another generation of NZ sailing talent rocking it on the world stage, gotta keep the production line moving !
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14 hours ago, harrytom said:
Problem with Rahui is no one can stop you taking scallops but if the ban was put in place by fisheries different ball game.I believe part of the Whangaroa may closed to scallops next season.fisheries
Have your say on a proposal to temporarily close the scallop fishery in Whangaroa Harbour and coastal waters shown in the map.Nga Hapū o Karangahape marae, Whānau pani, Ngāti Kaitangata and Ngāti Kauwau have requested closure of the scallop fishery in this area for a two-year period to allow time for scallop stocks in the area to replenish and regenerate.Email your submission to FMSubmissions@mpi.govt.nz by 5pm Monday 10 May 2021. Comments on this post will not be considered submissions.To find out more, and have your say, visit: https://bit.ly/30JbM7QThe non legal status notwithstanding its Interesting that the local Iwi seem to be more proactive than MPI, good on them I say !
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21 hours ago, ex Elly said:
And now a 3 year ban on shellfish at Cockle Bay from MPI
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/cockle-bay-full-year-shellfish-ban-begins/
I live in Cocklebay, those beds have been hammered for years, a ban was long overdue.
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The boat is strictly a
boozer... cruiser so marginal sailing conditions are verboten since the risk of ethanol spillage is unacceptably high , the rope shall thus be put to a better use. -
I was rummaging through a locker on our ex US boat when I found a rats nest of seemingly unused but nice quality racing braid, it was labelled Spinnaker Net. I've never heard of such a thing but the web shows that it is hoisted to occupy the fore triangle to prevent a spinnaker wrap. I cant see us ever using this thing and clearly the previous owners didn't, also it looks to be a potential nightmare to rig. I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this before I re-purpose the rope.
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Carpenter 29, Fri night depart Cocklebay for Blackpool Waiheke, 45 min under motor or sail, any wind condition/direction except a gale.
Blob out all weekend watching netflix, walking the dog, and visiting the irish pub, reverse process and de-blob Sun arvo.
When we are feeling lazy we just sit on the mooring all weekend and pretend.
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32 minutes ago, wheels said:
Yep. In fact it never will. The energy content of a litre of liquid fuel is so huge, there is no way a battery is ever going to come close to storing such energy. There has to be some other rather large advantages.
If it is just about in and out of Marina so to speak, then electric is going to work. But it is a lot of money and complexity just to travel short distances.I read somewhere that your typical hydrocarbon fuel is in a range of 35 to 45 times more energy dense than the best battery, pretty hard to close that gap. Also a battery does not get lighter as it discharges which is a bummer for electric aircraft. TallyHo at the Sampson boat company is installing a hybrid BETA diesel.
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On 30/03/2021 at 10:31 AM, syohana said:
We have one Torqeedo 1103C left in stock, that's equivalent power to a 3hp petrol outboard. Priced only a little higher than the Chinese ePropulsion clone but it's actually made in Germany and to a very high quality.
We also have Combi outboards from the Netherlands which are bulletproof, solid aluminium, no plastic parts. they will run for longer than the whole lifetime of a petrol outboard before the first quick service to change seals and bearings. They cost a little more to buy but the lifetime cost is far less than any other petrol or electric outboard, especially if you use them every day. Lifetime means not just your lifetime but the grandkids lifetime too!
You do need to overcome that initial big spend but then you reap the benefits of zero maintenance and no fuel or oil to buy. If you use it every day it can pay for itself in one year. You can keep the initial spend down by using lead acid batteries if the boat will take the weight.
Mmmm... looking at a few NZ outlets the 1103c is about $4900 , presumably a fair chunk of that is the Lithium battery, the 2hp Yamaha is $999. I get the bit about the cost saved in fuel etc but at nearly 5 x the cost its a big ask. I'm guessing prices will come down in time as they will for electric cars. With the brushless motor in the hub and a much reduced parts count overall the skin would look to be much cheaper to manufacture at scale.
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5 hours ago, syohana said:
CarpeDiem wrote in another thread:
Disclaimer: I run electricboat.co.nz up in Kerikeri. We sell electric propulsion systems and lithium batteries. We also do installations and run our own fleet of five electric hire boats so I'm well placed to answer the questions. I hope it's OK to post useful replies to questions here without being considered spam. If anyone buys anything from us as a result of reading my posts here then please mention crew.org.nz and we'll donate to the site.
So, some good questions!
How has the technology progressed? Electric motor technology is already mature and there's very little room for improvement. It's 100% reliable and highly efficient. It has been mature for 30 years or more. Electric launches were fashionable in the 1920s if you were wealthy enough. The inboard propulsion technology developed in submarines was already mature by the 1940s. Electric propulsion went out of fashion again for other boats to some extent as diesels got better. It remained popular on the inland waterways of Europe where pod type outboards took off in the 1950s (with the motor mounted underwater for direct cooling, no gearbox losses, a perfectly horizontal shaft and complete silence). That simple but highly effective technology has been continually refined ever since and is the basis of all modern electric outboards and smaller saildrives (apart from some really cheap rubbish). Using a pod drive outside the hull on a yacht frees up the internal space completely, there is no engine compartment and the batteries can go anywhere (preferably low down as ballast) so you can really get creative with the layout.
What we do see happening is prices are coming down as sales volumes are increasing exponentially. We are also seeing bigger and bigger pod drives, up to about 30hp equivalent this year. Larger motors still hve the motor on top, requiring a cooling system. We expect to see even bigger systems move underwater into a pod to eliminate the cooling system and make them truly silent. As production volumes increase, another new development is there are some cheap Chinese copies of the European motors coming out. ePropulsion is the best of those cheap copies but not good enough - if you are thinking of sustainability you need to buy something like a Combi which truly lasts a lifetime. If the motor will only last a few years then the emissions involved in manufacturing a new motor will negate the benefits.
Battery technology on the other hand is a fast-moving field. Currently two main options. Conventional lead acid batteries are still cheapest if you don't use the boat that frequently, don't need huge range and weight is not an issue (most non-racing displacement yachts). Lithium batteries are a topic in themselves and we sell some high quality brands. Watch out for the cheap rubbish - the battery management system is the important part and some of them don't even have one! Most lithium batteries on the market are technically illegal to use on boats in NZ and might invalidate the EWoF if the inspector is paying attention.
Every boat is different, but generally you can get a whole day of running time with a total system cost not much more than a good diesel install.
Then you factor in that this system will be virtually maintenance free for life - no fuel, parts, servicing or oil to pay for, ever.
We are currently doing a conversion on an H28 with a 5kw motor and 10kwh of quality NZ made lithium batteries. Total weight of the system about 160kg - less in total than the old diesel, gearbox, fuel tank and start battery. It'll have more power than the old diesel, especially low end torque and acceleration. You also have total control at low speed, there's no clunking into gear already at 1000 revs, you control it precisely from one rev upwards. It's always ready - no need to start it.
So for a typical cruising day sailor who will use 2kw of power at cruising speed that will give 5 hours continuous running time. How often do you need more range than that? For those rare occasions you can carry a portable suitcase generator which only costs $500. If you're ok spending a bit more and want something built in then we also have an extremely compact, silent lightweight 48v marine diesel generator. Kubota based and marinised in the USA. On the whole we try to discourage the use of generators for obvious reasons.
What's really needed is a small adjustment of mindset - if you've got sails use them. If not then cover the boat in solar panels. Your "auxiliary" motor is for getting in and out of marinas and sticky situations. If you want to go a very long way then wait for a wind. As a rule of thumb, your range under electric power will double if you reduce the speed by one knot. So reduce the speed by two knots if you have a long way to go. You can put enough solar on most boats to give you unlimited range at 3 knots on a sunny day, or massively extend your range at 5 knots. Rigging can interfere with this on a sailing yacht of course.
Mostly we are sailing for pleasure not because we need to be somewhere at a particular time. Plan your trip around the wind and the capabilities of your propulsion system.
Electric propulsion is best suited to marina-based boats which can plug in to charge or designs which have space for lots of solar. We do have a client who just converted a sailing yacht which lives on a mooring and only has small solar panels. He is a real sailor so he only uses the motor to pick up the mooring or enter a harbour, otherwise he sails, heaves to or anchors.
Most people over-estimate the power requirements of electric propulsion. Electric motors are much more efficient and most diesel installs these days are very over powered - as you push hull speed you just waste power making more waves and don't actually go any faster. Our hire boats run happily all day long and some of them have enough solar that they usually come back with full batteries! It's unlikely you really need a generator. If you do need one then you may only need a cheap little thing.
Silent electric motoring is a pleasure like sailing, you'll want to slow down and enjoy the relaxing experience. A blaring, rattling, vibrating, smelly diesel means you just want to get home quick and turn the damn thing off!
Also bear in mind that internal combustion engines will likely be illegal within 10 years and diesel fuel taxes will be astronomical even sooner, so re-powering with a diesel now just doesn't make sense. With electric you might have to think a bit more about planning your itinerary for the next 5 years. After 5 years I think battery prices and weight will have come down so much that you can upgrade your batteries and have all the range you want. For this reason, most customers who are not weight sensitive are choosing lead acid (which will easily last 7 years of moderately frequent use). Commercial users and racers are mostly going with lithium due to the cycle life and the weight respectively.
An electric propulsion system can cost the same as a diesel system or up to three times as much depending what you spend on batteries. For a vessel which is in daily use, the system will generally pay for itself in savings on fuel and maintenance within 1-2 years. All commercial vessels should be electric already for this reason alone. In large areas of the Netherlands internal combustion engines have been banned for 10 years or more. There are tens of thousands of electric boats there and nobody is looking back. NZ is very, very late to the party!
So coming back to your system CarpeDiem, not enough detail to be sure but you were probably specified something way more expensive and complex than you needed. Using a 10kw pod motor ($15-25,000) in place of your saildrive the installation cost is negligible, just bolt it on and there's nothing inside the hull except batteries, control box and charger. You could have a battery bank for $7000, $14,000 or $28,000+ depending on range requirements. From $1500 for a charger. From $400 for a portable emergency genset. So a complete system to replace a 29hp saildrive inboard starts at well under $25,000. All ballpark figures only of course.
As an aside, we are developing our own NZ made 5kw propulsion systems and looking for a shaft drive yacht or displacement launch around 24-33ft as a test bed if anyone is interested? We'd provide free mooring for the winter in Kerikeri while we work on it and you get the motor very cheap afterwards if you want it, no obligation.
Great information there, many thanks, I'm just waiting for a reasonably priced 2hp electric outboard.
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On 24/03/2021 at 9:16 PM, Bradz said:
Ye we did ours pretty much the same though was up in a craddle on the hardstand. We used a rigging lifting strap thrown over the boom and chain block. Got it to xyz position, released tension, shimmed the strap further out, hoist push out, repeat. We have a 3YM30 so similar in weight. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again with the boat in the water.
2 person job but saved a Hiab in and out.
Ditto removing a 160kg twin cylinder volvo on a Carpenter 29, piece of cake.
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On 20/03/2021 at 8:09 AM, AJ Oliver said:
Both of those were blocked in the US - after the race was over about an hour later there sometimes was a 60 second or so short highlight vid, longer highlights available the next day. Full replay not available until days later if at all.
To get it live, one had to pay a $130 USD fee to NBC
Not your fault, of course - I was only foolin' about that.
I thought some of the commentary and analysis was quite good. Outridge (sp?), Robertson, that sailing professor guy (what a dream job that would be!!). One of my sailing mates sailed in college with Ken Read - says he's a decent bloke.
Again congratulations on once again showing the rest of the world how sailing is done.
Kenny Read was brilliant , I think you can use a VPN service to get around the geo blocked You Tube feed, its quite cheap.
We had the same problem in NZ with the racing in Bermuda which could only be viewed on Sky, but we eventually were able to watch it on Cricfree.
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On 19/03/2021 at 8:42 AM, alibaba said:
Yep- I think TVNZ did a poor job compared to the fantastic commentary during the last America's Cup in Bermuda. Nothing beats commentary from people who know what they are talking about, rather than TVNZ celebs. Thank goodness we had some sailors in the room as well
Agreed , commentators after Bermuda said get rid of the "Old Man TV " coverage model aka Sky Sports. Ken, Nathan and Shirley were outstanding, the only issue was I could never get enough bandwidth to watch it on my ph without buffering even with the bit rate dialled down.
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1 hour ago, Winter said:
I bought a stainless one for my 3gmD from these guys : https://hdimarine.net/product/gm-stainless-steel-mixing-elbow/
Seems pretty good so far (5 years)
Ditto for our Perkins, great service too.
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I wonder how much the mussel farms contribute to the Schnapper biomass as a convenient non mobile feeding station full of yummy Molluscs
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The beachmaster wheels come in two versions, one of which is removable
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Does anyone know where I might source a complete burner assembly for an alcohol fuelled SS marine stove ?
Its a primus burner I think but the manufacturer was Seven Seas Marine, alternatively if someone has some spares or an old one they don't want let me know ?
P. S I'm aware of the outlet in CHC but they have limited parts.
Chrs
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Rosenfeld and Kidson in Mt Wellington usually have teak https://rosenfeldkidson.co.nz/. prepare your wallet for a shock though as its damn expensive. I use Iroko when replacing old teak parts that are left to be weathered such as handrails etc, its more affordable and just as good for strength and durability in my experience.
I was in Belize a few years back where the coach driver pointed out a teak plantation, the trunks were maybe 100 mm in diameter at the most , he said they were panted when he was a child and he was 44 yrs old at the time.
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13 hours ago, aardvarkash10 said:
BBC. Stiff upper lip, but straight up.
New York Times (partially paywalled, but worth it)
The Guardian. Telegraph for balance.
The Atlantic (paywalled, but worth it) for its long-form journalism
Al Jazeera, with provisos
Stuff - distinctly improved on its earlier incarnations
Newsroom has interesting mix of opinions and has added to local investigative journalism
The Spinoff. Its miles from balanced, but open about it and doesn't keep trying to sell me a house
RNZ news - but it can be a day or two behind
Scoop- Scoop.co.nz
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On 4/03/2021 at 4:58 PM, armchairadmiral said:
Good job. We banned the Herald from our home years ago. Read about GD in the local cafe and what a terrible person the Herald says he was/is I must be a terrible person also because I really enjoy the spectacle provided by ETNZ and GD is an integral part of that. IMO the Herald is a 3rd class gutter rag and why they would pursue a hatchet job defies belief except their editorial policy/journos appear to be radically leftie woke socialist syncophants. GD is a toughie and I'm pleased he came out of the hit job with his credibility intact. And he'll reap the benefits,as he should do, when ETNZ retain the AC. Be interesting reading the Herald when that happens. Maybe when it's used to wrap Fish'n'Chips !
No self respecting chip would allow itself to be wrapped in the Herald, shocking !
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Looks like my old Bri-Ski, they were made in NZ and are still in business just google Bri ski propellers NZ. I sold one the other day for $150 which cost me $1500 new, never had a problem with performance fwd or reverse.
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On 9/02/2021 at 3:21 PM, Island Time said:
Interesting concept! I reckon 8-10 $ a mile for me...
I try not go there, its like calculating how long it took to earn the money as I glug my favourite craft beer, best just to enjoy the experience.
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How did a topic of boat rage segue into prison reform ? this is not sailing Anarchy,
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No excuse for his behaviour but I have heard speeding powerboats are a particular PITA in Tairua, its not a large harbour, we all have our breaking point.
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One step acrylic window goop
in TechTalk
Posted
+1 for the Dow Corning 795, excellent stuff