Disperser
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Posts posted by Disperser
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There was a story published in the Christian Science Monitor in about 2010, an editorial by a young woman who was doing a study abroad or similar in Somalia. She revealed that the Somali Pirates were no more than fisherman who had no choice. Their government collapsed, and the WONDERFUL international community saw fit to fish out their waters and dump toxic chemicals en-masse, permanently destroying their way of life.
These once-peaceful young men turned to the only thing they knew: piracy.
Piracy is a noble profession. In the days of the conquistadors and colonies in the "new world" pirates were defenders of the indigineous peoples. They raided the merchant vessels and redistributed the wealth. They served as the only means of defense against the maurading colonial invaders, you know...your ancestors.
So for me, Somali Pirates are something I understand. And what it means is that thanks to the International Community, I cannot safely enjoy the waters off Somalia and a few other places.
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Let the prop spin and connect it via a belt and manual clutch to a small generator to keep your batteries topped off.
It's gonna spin. Use the energy instead of wasting it.
I had thought about a system whereby a battery bank could be charged up with the prop and then turn the energy back around and spin the prop slowly when the bank was charged, allowing the prop to return some of the previously stored energy.
Hell, such a setup on the right boat would be all that was needed to charge a battery bank to run the prop off an electric motor. Cruise for a few weeks, then motor with the charged batteries to anchor or the dock at the end of the cruise.
It's your boat, and your world. Don't wait for some manufacturer to come up with a product. Make this yourself. Find a way to attach a belt to the shaft. Mount a generator. Install an easy clutch. Wire up some batteries. Done.
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I'd like to see if someone could find a study showing the accuracy of GRIBS in any way. This is simple. Just a comparison of GRIB data and observations where possible to compare accurately (i.e. GRIB versus nearby physical observatory) how accurately the GRIBS predict conditions.
I tried a quick search and found nothing in the way of scientific documentation. It need not be a scientific study as it's easy to do with software.
This is, by the way, an excellent exercise for anyone considering or using GRIBS. And you should do this yourself. Manually if you have to. Just get GRIBS for your area and compare with observations. Record the values. Accumulate data, and analyze to show yourself how well GRIBS work and thus how much you should rely on them.
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Here in Mexico, cruisers cannot have guns (I advocate an exception for cruisers as long as the guns remain on the boat). So, we must take alternatives to deal with piracy and theft; a rampant problem here (last summer in La Paz, dozens of boats were robbed by men who were later found and who had guns!)
What is recommended is wasp spray. This is a toxic mess of petrochemicals that sprays out the can in a stream meters in length. It is quite useful as a deterrent. And if you get the right kind, you just put a lighter in front of the can when you spray, and instant flame thrower.
My advice for situations where strange boats come along side of you is to have your wasp spray ready, as well as a white flare. If the boat is unmarked, the occupants ignore commands to stay away, then shoot a white flare into the boat. This will distract them significantly, as if they do not remove the flare, their boat will sink. You can then get out of reach.
One important piece of advice: do not be afraid to kill. Pirates are usually quite desperate, and if they are not deterred by wasp spray or flares, they will certainly have murderous intent, and you should take the initiative.
Curiously, the most egregious acts of piracy have been carried out by Israel and the European Union in their "anti-trafficking" efforts in the mediteranean. International law prohibits interference with vessels in international waters. Yet these nations routinely violate these well established and vital laws with impunity.
To be honest, I'd feel safer in the Phillipines than near America or Europe. There, you can fend off the pirates. In the US and Europe, they have much bigger boats and call themselves the military.
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Why not just rely on your 12V system and solar to maintain it so you can run your equipment without shorepower.
Dehumidification is easy to do yourself: simply run a hose below your boat but above the low tide mark to draw water through a coil of copper tubing, pumped with a 12V pump slowly. Run a 12V fan to blow air through the coil and drain the condensed water into a bilge to be pumped out by your bilge pump. The whole system uses a LOT less energy than a commercially availble dehumidifier, and it will only function when it will do any good: when the air temperature is above the dew point - when the sun is shining.
If you don't have a solar system to charge your batteries...well, get one.
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You have to scroll through 9 photographs to see the true nature of the damage.
This is not a boat that should be sold, it is a boat that should be stripped and junked. It's too fragile. It cannot be repaired. It is good for scrap only, and while I don't know about the laws for scrapping glass fiber there, its probably too much expense.
I guess you Kiwis are about as industrious as 'Mericans... If I were there, I'd be talking to the insurance company and the yard about how I can alleviate their difficulties by stripping and cutting up the hull with my only payment required being what I can remove from the boat and use myself.
But I have to imagine that your business are about as selfishly stupid-greedy as 'Merican busienss and wouldn't budge, preferring to sit on the pile of junk until they have no choice but to pay someone to come and haul it away...
Anyone else anxiously awaiting the final death knell of industrialized society and capitalism?
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The moon is at its closest point to earth that it will be until 2034. It is 14% closer to earth than normal, meaning the tides are larger. This was a new moon, the full moon will be on the 14th, and tides will be at their highest range in most places than in many years.
This happens because the tides are created primarily by the moon, but also by the sun. The gravity interacting between the two means that there is less gravity on the side where the moon and sun are, biased according to the difference in their position directly overhead of the planet's surface. This "pulls" the water towards the moon/sun or combination, leaving a deficit 90 degrees either side, and another bulge on the opposite side. Tides are of course not regular due to the flow of water around land masses and other flow dynamics. But regardless of where you are, the tide moves about 50 minutes per day.
The moon always has a bigger influence on the tides.
Thus why the so-called "supermoon" (gotta have a stupid name for everything don't we, thank you idiotic mainstream media) creates bigger tides...the moon is closer, more gravitational influence.
If you are a sailor, you better damn well know this stuff, without having to read it.
I have started using my own solar/lunar calendar - sort of. My year starts on 25 December. Months start on the full moon. "Weeks" are based on the phases of the moon. I can tell what day of the "week" it is by the moon, as I've tuned my ability to see the precise phase of the moon so well, that I can actually predict the time of the full moon usually within 6 hours.
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Find a way to extract it. If there is no electrical connection to the bronze/cast iron, it will not function and your engine may rot away from the inside out. Also, the zinc will oxidize, expanding, rather than shrinking the diameter. Be sure you use zincs with a good 3-4mm clearance diametrically (2mm each side) to compensate for oxidation.
Don't mess around on the zincs. When I buy zincs, I buy enough to replace them all TWICE, so that if they wear out prematurely while I'm not where I can replace them...well, you know.
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Pawls seem to be pretty universal. Check ANY old winch. I have three different brands and the pawls interchange between all three. I think one is Brit, one Aussie, the other 'Merican. Sorry to say, but the Merican one is the best I have. Stainless body, bronze workings. Damn fine build quality too. Universal brand. (I think they're Merican.)
Pawls are a standard "tool" rather like Woodruff Keys. They are difficult to machine so manufacturers are better off on their bottom line to just order them en-masse rather than machining their own.
Springs vary, but all work the same if the pawls are the same.
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Gribs are probably one of the best tools out there that we have, why not use them? I'd rather spend more time sailing and yes like all tools use them in conjunction with your own analysis and knowledge of the area.
At the end of the day spend the time ensuring your vessel can handle the weather that may occur rather than spending time reinventing the wheel.
I am not a weekend sailor. I live aboard my ship and will sail the entire world many times over. And in doing so, I, not NOAA, not the NHC, not anyone else, will make weather predictions.
For you, GRIBS are probably just fine, most of the time (I really love how everyone just glosses over the fact that this thread admits that GRIBS are only accurate "most of the time.") But if you rely on GRIBs, you are gambling, and "most of the time" you will be okay.
But in the world I live, most of the time isn't okay because of what happens in those other times. Most of the times that the GRIBS say the wind won't be dangerous, it will be right. But what about the time the GRIBS are wrong? Without disciplining yourself to predict the weather, to confirm what the GRIBS say, you will become dependent upon them. And that one time that the GRIBS say 30knots and you end up in 70knots of wind, may well be your last time, ever.
I don't want to sail safely and soundly "most of the time." I want to sail safely and soundly ALL THE TIME. And for that, I will rely on my skills and observations.
Oh, and I have neglected to incorporate one VERY important element in my reasoning for not using GRIBS: Global Climate Change.
You see, GRIBS are based on climate modeling software. Supercomputers and even regular computers churn out models all the time, and they are meant to accurately predict weather conditions based on observations and trends.
For example, did you know what a percent chance of rain means? It means that under the observed conditions, it rains that percentage of the time. Meaning, the models used to predict weather conditions are based in large part on past weather and the corresponding observations.
But these observations are not complete. If they were, they would be flawlessly accurate. And in my study and observations of weather, I have seen a disturbing trend: that the models are no longer valid in any reliable sense. And this observations correlates very strongly to my observations of global warming and the predictions: which are grossly flawed because they fail to consider all factors, most especially the result of the models, of the warming itself. As a result they show a linear, rather than geometric progression (and which is why I am anxious to get to the Southern Hemisphere.)
So we have a situation where inaccurate models are being relied upon even as they grow more inaccurate. So, the "most of the time" that GRIBS are accurate is becoming less and less often. And that doesn't sit well with me in the least.
For those interested in learning how to predict weather, I suggest starting with Donn's Meteorology and go from there.
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Yeah, right. People often didn't live to 50. And had no teeth by then.
"Yeah right?"
And this from an administrator?
I don't write something unless I know it is fact. And that same philosophy holds true for my sailing. I don't make decisions based on what someone tells me or what I hear or see on TV or wherever you get your "information." I make observations. I research. I confirm, and I verify everything I know so that when I make a decision, it is the right decision. And when I write something down in a place where others can read it, I make damn sure I'm right. And I know for a fact that by and large, people's teeth were in a hell of a lot better shape than they are today, because they didn't eat gobs of refined sugar, a toxic substance that doesn't actually taste sweet (again, research, "sweet" is a cascade effect that is in reality a warning - try not eating ANYTHING sweet for three months and then eat a butterscotch candy or something and see if you don't spit it out instinctively...you know, verify what I am telling you...) Of course, you'd play hell trying to get to the point where sweet acts as a warning, because you have been addicted to sugar and sweet things for your entire life. And coming off sugar will give you the same, though more mild, symptoms as coming off of heroin. I know, because I went through those symptoms when I found out I was allergic to sugar.
Ask yourself why no other animal on this planet needs dentistry (apart from our pets, which we feed the same crap we feed ourselves.) My dogs do not eat dog food, they eat pure meat, and their teeth, like mine, are perfectly clean and do not need brushing.
I challenge ANYONE here to confirm what I say. Try not eating anything but meat for three months.
Your dentist will hate you.
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Toothbrushes are only necessary if you eat sugar or carbohydrates.
For those who believe these are a natural part of our diet, please ask yourself how mankind 'brushed his teeth' before the introduction of sugar into our diet a little over 500 years ago by the West Indies Corporation. The answer, you will find, is that he didn't need to.
(Dentistry, therefore, is an unnecessary industry.)
I can lose my toothbrush and wait until I get to harbor to buy a new one. Because I am allergic to sugar and grains.
So, the ideal solution is to simply not need the damn thing in the first place.
But, if you're going to insist on putting that poison into your body, then I would suggest you tie a loop of twine or string on the handle and affix the opposite end to a point where you can reach to brush your teeth, but prevent losing the brush into the loo. You might also consider flushing before brushing...
By the way, sugar was introduced into the human diet at the same time massive slavery was introduced into the human condition, at the same time capitalism was gifted to mankind.
Coincidence?
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Disperser considering that most shipping traffic relies on GRIBS, that is a huge call you are making. I've found them to be very accurate in the majority of cases and getting better all the time.
Also I'd have to say the pain of using a Ham / SSB getting good propagation and the time make this tech on the decline. The initial investment cost of a SSB/Ham is higher than an Iridium, the extra abilities to actually call anyone in the world, suppliers of parts, pre planning and entry into countries I think make it a no brainer.
I am not most shipping traffic.
Allow me to convey how I decided never to rely on anyone else or any entity or product to predict weather for me. And anyone who, in the past 4 years, has traversed the coastal reach off the Oregon, USA coast, can likely attest to what I experienced.
In 2013, I arrived in Bodega Bay after a 3 day voyage, my absolute first time on my ship on the ocean (after only two hours acquanting myself with sailing on my 67' ketch rather than the 24' sloop I had learned on). I had just experienced gale conditions for the entire day, conditions which had been predicted by NOAA to be "small craft advisory" of winds between 20-25 knots.
At 9am, the wind was 35knots.
Halfway to Bodega Bay, I and my green crewman were toss to the side as my 48 ton ship was swamped from 2 points off the bow by a freak breaking wave. I was forced to run from the subsequent waves as my hydraulic steering, which I had installed, proved inadequate (it was immediately upgraded to 100% additional capacity), and consequently, I was pooped and lost my dinghy.
Aside from realizing that I had learned to sail without ever setting sail on my ship, and that my hydraulic steering was inadequate (which I had suspected but could not remedy, I later found a replacement Teleflex Capilano system cylinder in Bodega Bay), I learned not to trust NOAA predictions.
But, it would be a full year at Bodega Bay which seared the message into my brain as sailboat after sailboat arrived from northern shores with the same exact story: the weather was far, far worse than NOAA predicted. The highlight was some months after my arrival when two men on a 27 foot sailboat arrived under Coast Guard escort on a particularly blustery evening. They had sat down with NOAA in Eureka for 3 hours going over every possibility for the weather, upon which they decided to go ahead with their sail with the NOAA predictions showing nothing close to what they encountered. By the time they were within range of Bodega Bay, they were under 60knots of wind.
And it didn't end there. I have since been in Mexico at the southern end of Baja California, for two years. Here we know that the GRIB files are useless. The rule of thumb (after "dont' trust the damn GRIB files) is that you can easily add 5-10 knots to their wind predictions; which cannot account for supposedly unusual (yet strangely regular and recurring) events such as chubascos and small storms which usually include strong downdrafts (which they recently discovered as the source of the mystery of the "Bermuda Triangle."
And my own predictions and tracking of hurricanes as almost always proved more accurate than the National Hurricane Center's predictions.
I am not most shipping traffic. I am a survivor. I am self-sufficient. I have learned how to read and predict weather, and as I have done so on my own, I am not bound by the preconditions and prejudices of trained weather professionals.
Predicting the weather is merely a matter of understanding the underlying physics and fluid dynamics. While I am still working on the fluid dynamics and hoping like hell to find a way to create my own three-dimensional satellite imaging using multiple satellite views in order to better view the fluid dynamics which define our weather, I am quite sufficiently well versed in meteorology in order to safely navigate the seas. I also understand my limitations in my understanding and thus my limitations for predicting weather, and will not act upon what I am not sure of.
Since my first voyage, I have NEVER been caught in weather. My cruise down the California Coast for example, had me sailing past Point Conception, solo, without autopilot, on 5 knots of wind and almost no swell.
GRIBS make you lazy. They do for you what you should be doing for yourself. If you understand what conditions create what weather and what causes what kinds of winds, you are far, far better placed than someone with a GRIB sheet which may, or may not, be accurate for you that day.
As to HAM. I paid $250 for all the equipment I need to be able to use HAM for all forms of communications, including connecting to my computer, with the noteable exception of "aluminum," that is, antennae. However; I have since come across the insulators I need to erect at least a triatic and a backstay antenna, more than sufficient for all bands I would need.
No, it is not "modern" equipment with all the fancy gadgets. This eqiupment works, reliably, and will forever. It is not subject to the education of a bunch of geeks who don't even have the common decency to tell us what they are doing inside our machines (software.)
And best of all, I don't have to pay for ANY of the time I use HAM, not for talking with someone halfway around the world, and not for downloading satellite images as often as they are available.
Oh, and I can also receive Weather Fax as well, which includes one product I do use (but not rely on) and that's the isobar (?) maps.
The problem with relying on GRIBS, downloads, and even weather fax, is that they require someone to maintain a system to provide those downloads. If war breaks out or budgets are cut or something else happens, I will ALWAYS be able to get satellite images. And while they may not contain isobars, they can certainly be interpreted. After all, I have predicted hurricane strength and movement based solely on IR Satellite loops - only!
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My solution will not include GRIBS. These are intepretations, and that's MY JOB.
So, this is my alternative for those who wish to predict their own weather.
I will be connecting a HAM modem to my computer, and downloading the GOES satellite images directly from the satellite. No need for internet. No need for sat phones. No cost. VERY reliable. And I get to make the interpretations and not rely on someone whom I don't know and thus cannot fully trust.
And considering my experience with weather predictions (the NHC and I are in fisticuffs on their lax methodologies regarding the Eastern North Pacific) and especially the woefully innacurate GRIBS for the Sea of Cortez, I'll trust an IR satellite image over a GRIB file any day of the week.
The book I am using as a source for how to set this up is:
"Weather Satellite Handbook" by Taggart, 5th edition.
Unfortunately I don't have it set up yet and won't for some time.
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Having been in the bay area during the time of the America's Cup, I was much unimpressed.
My single greatest impression was that the whole thing was a joke made so by money, greed, and the worst enemy of any sailor: ego. And the win, the "we found another gear" issue was the biggest farce of the whole mess, in my opinion.
What struck me most about the America's Cup is that it has nothing to do with sailing in any practical or real sense.
The America's Cup is about sailing. It's about national pride in the art of what used to be (and, ahem...will be again quite a lot sooner than any of you likely imagine) the best and only way to get around this big old world of ours. We race to test our ability to efficiently capture the forces of wind and sea. And we race to test ourselves.
We NEVER raced to test how well we can cheat, or how much technology and money we can throw at something, damn everything else.
Until the America's cup got crazy that is...
So my humble little proposal takes the Americas Cup back in time to when we raced to prove ourselves.
The America's cup should be a national team of seasoned sailors who have worked together and learned a single vessel. Thus, the boat, and crew, must have logged several months and miles together to even qualify for entry, with the official cup crew consisting of at least 75% of the same crew who logged the qualifying distance.
And the boats must be sailed in a circumnavigation, at least, before qualifying for entry. And they must be sailed to the event.
This eliminates any possibility of the farce that was the last America's cup. No more fragile technological showcases where the engineers and crew have no conversation whatsoever. And no more slapped together crews either.
That's it. Quite simple. Boats must sail around the world with at least 3/4ths of the racing crew present on the circumnavigation. If the boat can't survive a circumnavigation, it's too fragile for the America's cup. If the crew can't get along enough for most of them to remain together for the cup, then they won't qualify.
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I assume your dinghy is for a sailboat...
If so, why not use your mast and some block and tackle to increase the options you have for dinghies?
A simple setup can easily be created to attached easily to hardware installed on the boom. The setup can be completely manual: a pair of fiddle blocks, hooks, and attachment points plus a harness on the dinghy and there's no fuss (and no risk of falling overboard while retrieving a dinghy that perhaps got some water and is weighed down - I lost a good friend to a dinghy retrieval in-harbor some years ago).
This allows you to choose from a much broader range of dinghys. And if you find the right kind (I have an 8 foot mahogeny pram that would have been ideal had it been made right and didn't fall apart yesterday) you can create a setup which allows you to invert the dinghy as you bring it up and store it upside down under the boom.
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Have you ever considered making a dinghy?
Your specifications are quite specific. So, make something that meets your specifications. It's not nearly as hard to do as you might imagine, and the money saved can likely be used to justify the extra time off work to build it.
The greatest part is, you'll get exactly what you want. You can build in any and all features you like. And when your are done with it, and have put it to service for about a year, you'll be anxious to build an even better one. And someone will be happy to buy your first dinghy - if you can stand to part with it that is.
Engine in gear?
in MarineTalk
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Really, I'd like to see a study that defies the laws of physics. Drag is what causes the prop to rotate. So if the prop is locked and not allowed to rotate, then the drag component of the prop itself goes UP, not DOWN.
Surely you are misquoting the study. I mean, I know yacht designers aren't exactly interested in physics over profit, but they can't violate the laws of physics, and they certainly can't expect us to believe they can.
Please quote the study so we can rest our minds that there aren't idiots designing yachts who don't even have a grasp of basic physics.