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DrWatson

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Posts posted by DrWatson

  1. On 2/03/2024 at 1:07 AM, Jon said:

    Got asked to go two up with Steve but couldn’t make it

    looks like a top effort for a euro trash production boat

    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. 14 hours ago, Guest said:

    Conversely When I get a new sail I feel like a kid with a new toy a cannot stop admiring it. Do I have a problem?

    Nah, no idea what you’re talking about….

    IMG_4123.jpeg

    • Upvote 1
  4. 13 hours ago, K4309 said:

    It is just like fishing.

    The most expensive way of catching free food.

    Sailing is the most expensive way to go somewhere slowly…

    • Upvote 1
  5. Just now, MartinRF said:

    This is supposed to be a sailing forum and all you discuss is motors of various types...

    :-)

    /Martin

    Well I worked out it costs me €1 per NM to sail and about 80c per mile to motor…

    • Haha 2
  6. 19 hours ago, K4309 said:

    Personally, I think worrying about how much diesel a sailing boat burns is a nonsense. Quoting Aa's example as a good example of relativity.

    I'm constantly reading boat reviews in the magazines about launches, fizz boats what not. The amount of diesel or petrol those things burn is eye-watering. Just reading about the latest fishing boat, innovative design and what not, they recon it is fantastic fuel economy burning 2.65l per nautical mile. It is designed for day trips and has a 550l fuel tank. You can upgrade that to an 800l fuel tank!?!?!

    If you are going electric drive purely for environmental benefit on a yacht, you need to be very careful the environmental cost of the batteries and associated ancillary's don't outweigh the amount of fuel you'd burn over the life of the boat.

    Then there is outboards. I've got a little 2hp Yamaha. It's 2 stroke which is not great for the environment. I know people look at electric outboards for various reasons, one of which the impact on the environment. I use my outboard for dinghy fishing missions regularly and am putting a lot of hours on the outboard. But the thing is, 1l of two stroke oil has lasted about 2 years so far. Sure the 2 stroke motor puts oil into the sea, but the actual amount is very very minor. It doesn't take much new consumerism / consumption of new batteries, motors etc to offset any environmental benefits you'd get from ditching the 2 stroke. I know there are other benefits like power autonomy in remote pacific islands, or the stealth factor for fishing (reportedly makes a difference), but in the environmental element, I don't think the benefits are there.

    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 any gas leak is more likely either at the stove, or at the bottle, and not along the copper line. Any leaking gas will flow downhill to that point where the detector is. I think it cost me about 120euro. 
     

    I also have a CO monitor/alarm mounted about waist height in the stb cabin entry - which should pick up any fumes leaking from the engine room, any CO leaking in from the diesel heater (this is the first outlet in the ducting) and anything from poor cooking combustion. This runs on a 12y non-replaceable lithium battery. When it’s done I’ll chuck it and buy a new one.

    i mounted a nice expensive smoke detector up in the standing head space of the technical cabin. All switches and so forth and engine access are here. It had a 10y battery life. After 4 months it went off at 4am while we were gunkholing in a rather less than optimal place/weather. In about 2sec two mostly naked sailors and the crewman on watch were on deck with torches trying to figure out wtf was going on - all of us having mistaken it for a positional anchor alarm. There was no smoke, the thing had just fritzed out. Just have a cheap one now. 

    • Haha 1
  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. On 28/01/2024 at 5:32 PM, colin said:

    How do we go about acquiring one of these yatchs 

    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. ….

     

  10. 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’s trying to pump the battens though without giving notice to the crew. 
     

    I understood that on the Volvo boats it’s more to reduce head injuries from high speed crashes and from flying fish…

    IMG_6700.jpeg

  11. 19 hours ago, MartinRF said:

    Very cool!

    We have sleet here as a warm front moved in. Not cool at all.

    /Martin

    Bahaha, we had sleet last weekend. Today it was bright and sunny but I made the mistake of going outside in a t-shirt…. 

  12. On 9/11/2023 at 1:34 AM, Black Panther said:

    7 years without tv. Happy Happy. 

    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.

    • Upvote 2
  13. On 3/11/2023 at 9:47 PM, MartinRF said:

    Record breaking?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_storm_of_1703

    Daniel Defoe's compilation of the damage is fascinating stuff.

    /Martin

    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.

     

  14. On 6/11/2023 at 7:06 AM, K4309 said:

    What do you guys use all this hot water for?

    I've got a kettle. Goes on the stove. If we want instant hot water, we fill a thermos. If we want lots of hot water, we fill two thermos. Very handy if you want a cup of tea but can't be bothered turning the gas on etc. Always have hot water for washing the dishes. Zero faffing.

    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 comfy feather duvet. Cheap luxury.

    • Like 2
    • Upvote 1
  15. 7 hours ago, LBD said:

    Pulled out the Gas Califont, in preparaition of installing a 25L engine heated hotwater cylinder. We always motor about an hour a day to and from anchorages and moorings... should be enough. Does anyone have experience they would like to  share?

    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 anchor - running the engine only for the 1-2min of raising the anchor unless we’re trying to keep the kids asleep in the aft cabins when we don’t start the motor at all and just let the Li work a bit harder. 

    • Like 1
  16. 15 hours ago, Frank said:

    Those figures are amazing ! do you ever get any case rattle or movement of the retractable keel ? and what are the polars when fully powered up, hard on the wind in a decent sea ?

     

    Never had the keel rattle.

     

    2 hours ago, darkside said:

    Heading out this evening Dr?

    A good breeze to check those polars

    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… 

    Screenshot 2023-10-31 at 18.25.22.jpeg

    • Upvote 1
  17. 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 any point (yet). The unofficial record for a pogo 36, so I’ve heard, is just under 25kt, set by a factory crew delivering hull No 1 to the La Rochelle boat show - just two weeks after launch. I believe the A2 was outside it’s recommended range..

    Sure you need sea room - but we’re talking about offshore, yeah?

    But for sure beating into even 22kt from Quiberon to Lorient for a few hours made the majority of the (inexperienced) crew reconsider their choice to book non-refundable non- changeable tickets for the next morning -  Safe, but uncomfortable. 

    • Upvote 1
  18. 22 hours ago, ex Elly said:

    ASF36-4428

    Beneteau First 36

     

    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 on the wind it’s not comfortable- but what is? 
    when tight reaching it’s bloody fast and you are jumping off things. The bow sections in the pogo at least are quite broad - it stays on top of the water. If the waves are from behind or quartering you just accelerate away from them - the wave starts to lift the stern and as it does the boat slides away  accelerating. 

     

    • Upvote 1
  19. 6 hours ago, K4309 said:

    That said, if there are fast commuter trains from Papakura, why does Te Huia need to go into the city? I understand there is already track capacity issues?

    This.

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