Island Time

Good Story, based on real events, published in several books. Kind of hard to duplicate in film/TV I would think. Be interesting to see how well TVNZ has done it....

Darwinisim - let him go.....

Messaging works fine. However, MANY users still have full mailboxes, as the new platform has less space than the old, and the messages were imported. PLEASE EVERYONE CHECK (and preferably empty!) YOUR MAILBOXES!!!!

You can do it with the OB. Tie the dingy alongside (or between the hulls aon a cat? ), set the motor straight ahead, cord to the kill switch. Use the cat rudders to steer. It will work ok if it is calm, but of course you have limited maneuverability, and no reverse! It's way better than trying to tow it!

BP, the answer is sometimes. Often if no wind there is sun. If no sun there is wind. The windgens come into their own in the tradewind zones, and work 24 7. So it depends. Solar is great, silent, and can be powerful if you have enough panels. If I had to have only one, I guess it would be solar, but both is best!

AC, I've had flexible solar panels on Island Time for about 15 years, mounted direct to the canvas Bimini. It's these that I'm replacing, as their output had dropped to an unacceptable level, and they are now old tech. I did add an additional stainless support tube through the middle of the bimini to prevent sagging and support the original panels. It has worked fine with no issues at all, for many years, so same again this time. Just been down to the boat today to look at the output. Only one panel mounted so far, and we are appraoching the shortest day now, so a less than ideal sun angle

Just wide velcro to the canvas. Velcro glued to the panel, sewed to the canvas. As they are only 3mm thick, virtually no windage. You can use the little round locks with the drop lock like on manu dodgers as well/instead if you want...

BP, I just got semi flexible ones for my bimini top. 140w each, 1.4m x 0.56m 3mm thick. $350.00 each, I got one, getting another...

Some info on Cabinet design on my site here http://www.neptunes-gear.com/index.php/cabinets Feel free to ask any questions if I can help?

It's running windows 7. But it can be linux or mac as well, whatever OpenCPN supports, so Whatever you prefer. Windows 7 is pretty stable, I've run it for a week without an issue. Intel Atom D2800 dual core....

Hey Beau, very soon I'll show you all some more "Stuff" - new to the market, a small (7"), low (ish) cost plotter, can be immersed to 3 m for 30 mins, sunlight view-able, good charting, and Sailsteer - shows you lay-lines allowing for set and drift, so has polars, and will have a startline feature as well. Designed for small - medium race boats, and local sailors that don't require radar etc etc... It's pretty cool and should prove popular. I don't like tablets as primary navigation devices. They are too vulnerable, get dropped, sat on stood on, wet, flat, etc, and most are no good in dire

Nothing wrong with SOTP sailing - it's sure how you learn the most about boat handling! . However, given a rough night, with crap visibility and a bit of traffic around, approaching an unfamiliar coast, it's just safer and less stressful than DR. Emphasis on the "D"! Yes, you can heave too and wait for daylight, but you can still be run down! It is not a substitute for good seamanship! I'm sure not saying that every vessel needs this stuff - be pretty difficult on a PT!! The idea of this stuff is to give you information. Information to make better decisions. That's all.

No reason not to have bigger drives if you want. But 64GB is heaps for the programs, and all the worlds charts, all your boat documentation, etc. I use a couple of external 1TB drives for Movies when I want them. The PC can be ordered with any size drives you want....

I know nothing about this, the current process, or the history. I have stayed in the camp several times, mostly for sailing events years ago. I was a great place to stay. I presume the council rented the ground to the motor-camp, as they will do for YNZ. In both cases, the public were/will be restricted access. Seems to me the camp ground was used by more of the general public than YNZ facilities will be, and I would have thought that an area that can be used by boats larger than dinghies would be better for YNZ. I do not like the appearance of deals "behind closed doors" which are rumored

The PC is not waterproof, but otherwise is solid state, incl two 64GB SSDs. It is very small footprint, 220x190x60. I'm waiting on some high res pics so i can list it on my website, but here are the best I have now. This is the NMEA0183 version.. Comments welcome. Matt

Is there a link, or how does the poll work?

Update. The Airhead has been installed for a month now, and has been in use every weekend, incl Easter. Here are my current thoughts. The unit is, as advertised, completely odor free inside the boat (see below). I still find this quite remarkable, but there it is!. It works very well, and even my parents - in their 80's - have used it and commented how easy it is compared to a normal marine toilet. There is a little learning curve (using the paper liners prevents skid marks, and the cleaning they require, but it's not essential) and new guests require a minutes "potty training". I made an

Yep, you can use any AIS, including the vesper with this system. The AIS does not need to be WiFi, but if it is not, it will need to be connected to the primary PC. Either with NMEA0183 or NMEA2000. The PC will then broadcast the AIS info to any device on the Intranet. A Vesper wireless ais can simply joint the intranet.....

I've been working on a marine PC out of the USA. It can speak either NMEA0183 or 2000. It comes with a long range WiFi antenna, and a small one for a boat intranet - that is a WiFi access point for the boat, for those who don't know. This allows the connection of any WiFi device to the boat's WiFi, AND the sharing of the long range connection if available. The PC draws only 10w!! The touchscreen (15") another 20w. That makes this more power efficient than many laptops, and better than many plotters. The PC can broadcast any of the instrument data provided to it over the wifi, enabling you to

You guys want to send me a screen shot of the display problem? Works fine for me on Chrome, but I can pass on any issues to Karl... Thx Oh, and on this Keel issue. IMO the standard mounts are only safe for the standard keel, unless a real naval architect tells you otherwise. As mentioned above, a deeper and/or heavier keel puts more stress on EVERYTHING not just the Keel mounts - as it increases the righting moment, and makes the boat more powerful. After all, that is the point of the new keel, right? The boats whole structure needs to be considered....

TimB, that depends on the size of the pic, and the resolution of the screen you are using to see it. Your pics fit fine on my screen, at 1366x768, usinf Chrome. What screen resolution and which browser are you using that gives you issues? Matt

Welcome aboard Bubblehead, congrats on the new boat! IMO Spencers are still cool! If you are coming out for a while, might be worth looking at Weiti - cheaper lift and hardstand. If you are around Gulf Harbour, come say hello!

Whats wrong with singlehanded? Anyway, I could probably find some mug to go with me!! November in Wellington is likely to be NW gales... I may be interested....

What he calls Cowboy Bowlines are not safe IMO. They come undone in cyclic loading situations much easier than a real Bowline does.

Grant that's pretty cool! Obviously some serious practice time gone into it!