Abel Seaman

Well I followed Aardvarkash10' suggestion and bought an EPEVER MPPT controller. It does seem like the cost /quality point i was looking for. Actually it arrived today and seems to be a solid bit of gear. My next question regards series or parallel. I already have a 20 watt panel which seems to be working just fine so i would like to continue using it and add a 60-80 watt panel as well. Series or Parallel? Thanks

Thanks very much for that. That model is one of the ones that i was looking at so that is very useful feedback. Back story: If i had a fully wired and instrumented keeler with multiple batteries, i would not hesitate to spring for the best, but I have a simple, low value (but dear to me) boat with a single deep cycle battery that doubles as starter battery for my electric start, long shaft outboard. Starting the engine with the pull cord is not difficult so there is no point having a separate starting battery. Electric start is nice but the real reason i went for it was that f

Hi all I am wanting to bump up my solar on my Trailer yacht to 70 watts nominal. I don't have huge electrical installation and this amount will improve the current setup to meet my needs. (pun intended) At present i have a cheap PWM unit with my smaller panel, but want the efficiency of a MPPT and also some sort of display would be nice. I don't want to pay victron prices. Trademe etc has lots of cheap controllers claiming to be MPPT, but are they in fact and are any of them any good? Thanks

I use my non cellular S3 Galaxy Tablet regularly for GPS location using OpenCPN and the NZ chart set. I use it as an e reader so often use it on planes where if i am next to a window, the tablet will get GPS signal and i can see where we are and how fast we are going etc.

Maybe google Carrington event? Only 160 years ago and only recognised at all because there were primitive electrical systems. Similar events prior to that would not have been noticed necessarily. Another Carrington event now could/would wipe out all satellites and most computer systems. You would need the paper charts to get home to find out that your bank now had no record of your wealth as they stopped keeping paper records years ago...

Thanks for the affirmations. I didn't report them but now wish i had. I did have an encounter of another sort a few days ago. Motoring up channel at 5 knots which is max speed against outgoing tide for me, a powerboat passed me at estimated 25 knots and within 5 metres. (not 50metres!) Of course i gesticulated! Caught up with them at the ramp. Asked the skipper whether he was aware of rules. He wouldn't meet my eye, but his hatchet faced wife accused me of having an attitude problem. I used to be against compulsory boat registration and skipper licencing, but i am changing my views!

Yes! This is true in so many areas. I am the first to say that civil disobedience in the face of bureaucratic incompetence is the duty of every citizen, but most of the rules such as no dogs in national parks are there for very good reasons. I love dogs and when i retire will probably adopt one, but i wont be trying to sneak it into the national parks.

I think you mean choke chains?

Me: solo in trailer yacht arrives Bark bay (Abel Tasman) after a hard upwind sail. Him and her: in oversized tinny outboard thing with accommodation. They just get into the lagoon on rising tide before me and anchor in the north corner. (which is as far from permanently staffed Doc Ranger hut as possible to get) Now this was a spot was where i had been previous week and I calculated that I would dry out and re-float no problem on the neap. Further in the Lagoon may have been problematic on the neap tide and i did need to get home. It seemed there was room for two so after he had set up

I just made a box shaped shower dome using 5mm acrylic. Following research the whole thing is glued up using superglue. No problem.

10 years ago i bought a $100 fishfinder with transom mount transducer for my glass over ply trailer yacht. As a trial, i bedded the transducer in a wadge of vaseline against the inside of the hull. I was careful to extract a lump of vaseline from the jar with no bubbles in it. It worked so well, that it is still there and still working, and as opposed to epoxy, i can remove it and replace it if i need to with no drama. I built an open top open bottom box to put around it so it doesnt get knocked, but honestly i havent touched the transducer since i installed it 10 years ago! Whe

Combination chandler and hardware store in Greece. They had everything you could imagine in a space the size of a living room. Your challenge, should you choose to accept is to find what you want.

Both give optimistic fuel use/heat output. The maths ain't difficult: Lower calorific value of diesel is about 36.5 Mj/litre. 1 watt = 1 joule/second so for heat from 1 litre per hour of diesel =36500000 joules /3600 seconds = 10 kw Claiming 5 kw for 0.1 litre/hr consumption is a bit of a stretch!

Shower domes work, but there are cheaper options: I bought a sheet of perspex and made one using a wooden former and using hot air guns. Cost of perspex is not much, but it was suprisingly difficult to get enough heat even with two x 2 kw hot air guns. So for the upstairs shower, i just glued some hardwood battens around the shower cubicle at the same height as the door frame and have a flat sheet of 3 mm perspex sitting on door frame and battens. No complaints about claustrophobia from me or my wife. It works. Can have a shower and the unheated mirror doesn't fog up. The perspex

When i firts rigged my new full batten main i thought i had made a tragic mistake: I had to winch it the whole way. A few good squirts of silicone lube later, i could hoist the whole mainsail by hand and just use the winch for final luff tension. Figure out your friction problems and deal to them. Cheers John

I havent seen this stuff for years but it was impressive! https://www.marine-deals.co.nz/epoxy-resin-and-boat-repair/seal-once-sealant-cartridge Salesman applied a bead of sealant to a piece of polished stainless steel (that i gave to him from our stocks) while it was under a running cold water tap! we used it in wet industrial applications with good results. No relationship at all...

I bought one of these in Australia last week. Just back from Afternoon around the buoys racing where i wore it for the first time. Its been a brilliant day here and usually my face would be glowing in spite of sunscreen , sunglasses and a wide brim hat. Today my face is cool.... I thought it might be irritating to wear but it wasnt. Didnt interfere with vision nor communication. So i am very pleased. Much interest from other sailors. Some said that they felt a little intimidated when i was bearing down on them with just my eyes showing so that is also good .

I agree threads are a nightmare. As my stepfather used to say: "Everyone likes standards. Thats why we have so many of them!" Actually the BSP standard was adopted into the metric system as ISO 7 and ISO 228. ISO 7 generally relates to what used to be BSPT (British Standard Pipe Taper where a seal is formed on the thread as the male thread is tapered and tightens as you screw it in. ISO 228 relates to BSPP British Standard Pipe Parallel where the seal is not formed on the threads but on an end face gasket. Still has the classic Whitworth thread form too! (I regularly cringe as i watch

Maybe i missed something, and i am happy to be corrected, but: I downloaded the YNZ Safety Regulations of Sailing 17-20 to use as a check list for pre season boat preparation. My flare kit is well expired, so i was particularly interested in current requirements. Suprised that parachute flares are no longer needed for a Cat 1 flare kit? Even more suprised that the only requirement for parachute flares is for Trailer Yachts on open water events. Page 76 for category 1- 5 18.7 Distress signals conforming to the current International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (S

Sorry for the delay. There are no gaskets. The two faces of the mating bulkheads pull in flat to each other and there is no leakage i am aware of. Of course with beach landings , wet feet etc there is often a little watr in the bottom. Handy hint: I deliberately put the gunwhales all on the outside of the sides if that makes sense. When you tip dinghy on its side to drain out water, every last drop falls out. cheers

Sorry - not impressed. demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic physics! The ropes to each side of each swing are differnt lengths, so as per Gallileos observations will have different periods. In practice meand that the seat will twist as it goes back and forth. Makes it unpleasant to use even if decorative. To make it functional there should be a rigid extended mount downwards so that fo aech swing the ropes are the same length...

Yes i did use 9 or 10 mm ply for transoms and bulkheads. I did fit a towing eye at the lowest point on outside the forrad transom. For very short hops i have towed using the internally connected painter, but for proper towing have a floating line with a snap shackle that i hook on to the outside eye. Floating rope to minimise chance of prop wrap! I normally pull the dinghy aboard for sailing along the coast in a decent sea breeze, but i have been deliberately towing in higher wind and sea conditions to see how that goes. So far so good. I take everything loose out of the dinghy and remove

Thanks for the kind words, here are some answers; Yes Kaiteriteri. I live not far away. How I did the two halves was to make 2 bulkheads at the forrad side of the main seat /thwart. I used something like matchsticks which were same thickness as my favourite handsaw to space them apart then made the boat as per normal. I did enough on the outside with cable tie stitches to hold it all together then glassed in tape over thickened epoxied fillets on all internal joints. The moment of truth was inserting said handsaw between the double bulkheads and literally cutting my boat in half! The

D5 dinghy I built. Free plans on Internet. I believe i was first to make a nester out of it, though others have since done so. http://bateau2.com/free/D5_free_m.PDF I like it. Its actually a pleasure to row and i dont think anyone ever said that about an inflatable. It fits on the fordeck of my Young 780 so will just about fit anything i guess. It also tows really well and goes well with 3.6 hp motor. Plywood is lighter than fibreglass in this application as the thickness you need for practical stiffness makes it so, although fibreglass is undoubtably stronger thickness for thicknes