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DrWatson

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Everything posted by DrWatson

  1. hahaha, appreciate the effort, Jon, but I'm too tired to bite
  2. I heard liquid luck weighs less than a 6 pack of Heineken. anyone got some specs on that build? Length, beam, dips etc? Pipi, single handed, came in a touch after liquid luck. Second mono over the line. Great effort for single handed!
  3. Nah, no idea what you’re talking about….
  4. Sailing is the most expensive way to go somewhere slowly…
  5. Well I worked out it costs me €1 per NM to sail and about 80c per mile to motor…
  6. Thing I’m most happy about with my electric motor is the removal of the petrol and the stinking outboard from my lazarete I think I will buy the next engine size up when and if this one craps out tho. A bit more oompf would be good.
  7. I wired a gas detector into the fridge circuit, reasoning that if I’m onboard the fridge is on. As soon as I get onboard I turn on the power/fridge so I can have a cold beer after hauling all the sails out of the way etc. The alarm screams bloody murder 5x as it does its start test - which always scares the bejesus outta me, then I remember wtf the noise is. Later I go out to the gas locker and connect the gas bottle to the gas line. The detector sits in the bilge between the keel pump and the back of the fridge in the cabinetry that the saloon table is mounted on. I reasoned that a
  8. I change ours out every 100h, Keeping the old as a spare (and also have a new spare available) We only do about 70-80h a year. Reminds me to do a preseason engine service in the next month or two.
  9. Wow. That thing is getting down to Pogo displacement - could go like a scalded cat if used well. this would be my pick for coastal cruising - fast boats make great coastal cruisers because you can effectively increase your range while still keeping your job, lol.
  10. I suspect those ones have already gone. But there are plenty of others. Most are really just junk. But they could be broken up into their parts and recycled carefully rather than being munched up. And buried as a homogenised mass. Some might have a fair bit of copper or bronze fastenings in them - if you wanted to painstakingly extract each nail etc. ….
  11. Makes sense here. The boom is low and if you douse the sail the whole lot incl yard drop into the boat. No need to ruin a family Sunday afternoon with screaming kids and a trip to the hospital. further, in the early 2000s I was the tallest crew member and in wed night races I did bow on a 727. I kept an old bike helmet on board and used it. More than once it allowed a screwup to be nothing more than cussing out the cockpit. although sometimes that cussing want only coming from the foredeck - I think it’s fair to cuss the skipper out after he clacks the boom into your head while he’
  12. DrWatson

    SailGP

    Loving that you fixed that
  13. DrWatson

    Clouds

    Bahaha, we had sleet last weekend. Today it was bright and sunny but I made the mistake of going outside in a t-shirt….
  14. 19y. Don’t miss it a bit. Can’t understand why people still tune in. radio? Haven’t listened to a radio station since probably last century. Inane drivel with advertising. Last station I can consciously remember tuning into was National radio to get the marine weather forecasts at 0530 in the morning sometime around 2000.
  15. Yes record breaking. Ie since records were kept, which was probably after the great storm. “Highest winds ever recorded at pointe du Raz.” That equals exits breaking, or record setting. No doubt there have been more vigorous storms in the earth’s/Europe’s/Brittany’s history but none with recorded wind speeds.
  16. Well, the primary reason in terms of litres of water used is washing dishes. But the most important reason is comfort, especially for my wife. The deal is simple. Hot water = happy wife = get to keep pogo. Also having an element means we can plug it in when we’re in a marina, and run it off the inverter when the sun shines enough. We also run a zeolite dehumidifier (6.5kg draws 280watts) for an hour at night after bedtime, and again for an hour upon waking. Warm dry boat. No manky corners. All boats should have one. Arrive at boat after 4 months away - warm dry non-mouldy boat and
  17. Firefly's hot water uses a calorifier like this. Only needs 10-15min running to get hot, and the engine also stores quite a bit of heat - so it seems that we get more than 25l hot water - don’t know how much of that residual engine heat is subsequently pulled into the hot water tho. It also has a 220v 700w element - which is nice because when you’re in the marina you can have hot water - we just run an extension cable - likely not a possibility in NZ. works best in busy anchorages and marinas where you motor more. In isolated and less busy anchorages we tend to sail off and on the an
  18. How did you fare in Concarneau?
  19. It’ll be less there…
  20. Never had the keel rattle. Haha! Yes I suspect that could make the keel rattle a little… especially as one got thrown up onto the cliffs! A friend who lives nearby checked lines and fenders and toile the dodger of this morning. I’ll stay home…
  21. Coupled to better weather forecasting is that you can more easily afford the time to sit out bad weather - catch up later. If and when you get caught out, you can turn and run more safely, and you can still heave-to, should you need to. If you’re running from bad weather - sitting on 15knots for six hours will move you a fair way from where you were - hopefully to a better spot on the ocean. Firefly easily sits on 15-18kts with 30 behind, reaching more than 20 in the gusts with a bit if surfing, with reefed main and stays’l - an easy sail plan. The bow has not threatened to dig in at
  22. Consider the actual water plane surface area of the boat pictured in this angle of heel. My experience in rough sea in Firefly, which weighs 20% less and is 20cm wider than the first 36, is limited to the very short nasty wave sets that kick up around Ushant and some larger stuff during one crossing of the English Chanel. I’ve found the motion to certainly be more violent than in a large displacement vessel, but even beating into 27th in very large swells with a rough sea on top it didn’t kill us. We did have a couple big bangs that made us cast an eye below, though. when hard
  23. Won a race d88ec426-448d-4b13-a0c6-79c69df203d8.mp4
  24. The elephant in the room is that we insist on suburban sprawl, and we insist on commuting silly distances to work. There are better ways. Our current approach is simply unsustainable.
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