A friend of mine was asking about installing bilge pumps on his boat.  So, I thought I’d write about that today.

My recommendation for a full bilge pump setup has a small “maintenance” bilge pump down in the lowest part of the bilge. The float switch for this pump can be integrated or separate, but it should be mounted as low as possible. This is the pump that takes care of the basic leaks that most boats have—the stuffing box for the prop shaft seal, the water that comes down a keel-stepped mast, etc., which is why I refer to it as the maintenance pump.

This pump should be on a counter of some sort, so you can keep track of how often it is cycling. This will tell you if you have any leaks and if they’re getting worse or not. By writing down the number on the counter each time you leave and return to the boat, you can get an idea of how often it is running. If the number of times it is running per day is going up, and there is no reason for that to happen—like having four really rainy days in a row—you know you have to look for a leak that is getting worse.

The reason to get as small a pump for this as possible is to reduce the cost of replacing it, as it will burn out more often than the other pumps, since it will get the most use, and to keep the back-flushing of hoses to a minimum. Small pumps have smaller hoses, and less water will sit in the hoses and back flush into the bilge when the pump shuts down.

The next pump should be the highest capacity electric bilge pump you can get. Remember, bilge pumps are rated in GPH, not GPM, and even a small hole, 3′ below the waterline lets in a lot of GPM. This is more important on a small boat than a large one, since it takes less water as a whole to sink a small boat. This one should have a float switch mounted an inch to a few inches higher than that of the “maintenance” pump. This is your main bilge pump and should handle things like your water tank bursting, the water that gets down the companionway or hatches when out sailing, etc.

You should also, ideally, have two large manual diaphragm pumps setup. One should be accessible inside the cabin, the other should be mounted where it can be operated from the cockpit. These are the emergency dewatering pumps, in case the hull gets damaged and things like that. The reason you want two of them is simple. First, if you have crew, two pumps means that two people can work on keeping the boat afloat. Second, if you are out in really bad weather singlehanded and have to either hunker down in the cabin or man the cockpit, you can still operate at least one of the pumps.

On a catamaran, you basically have to do this same thing for each hull.  On a trimaran, the setup is a bit different.  Youshould have this type of setup on the main hull. You also need some way of pumping out each ama.  Complicating this further is the fact that most multihulls have the hulls segmented into separate water-tight sections.

Electrical Centrifugal Pumps:

The most common electric bilge pumps found today are the Rule-type centrifugal pumps.  While these pumps are very common, they are not the best bilge pumps in my opinion.  These pumps are usually rated for zero head or lift—which is not realistic in most installations.  This means that their actual working rating is far lower than their nominal rating. These pumps usually must be submersed to function properly, as they can not lift water any significant distance to prime themselves.

Centrifugal pumps have very little in the way of lift capacity, and due to their design really should have a high loop with a vacuum break in the exit hose to prevent siphoning. Centrifugal pumps can run dry with little risk of damage. They can also pass small pieces of debris without damage. A strum box or screen should be fitted over the intake hose to prevent larger debris from entering the pump.

Bilge Pump Hose:

Bilge pump hose should be smooth-walled and wire-reinforced.  The smooth wall interior is essential to maximize pump output. The wire-reinforcement is to prevent the hose from collapsing under pressure. The output hoses should be looped to at least 1′ above the waterline.  While most manufacturers do not require a vacuum break, I generally recommend installing one to prevent the hoses from siphoning water back aboard the boat if the boat is heeled.

There should be no check valves used in bilge pump system.  Check valves can fail and prevent the pump from functioning properly.  One thing that is very common on check valve installations is to have the water filling the hose downstream of the check valve prevent the valve from opening properly.

Float Switches:

You can either have integrated float switches built into the pump or use external switches. Some pumps don’t have a float switch, instead periodically spinning the impeller and if no resistance is felt, shutting down.  For pumps with an external switch, there are generally two choices: electro-mechanical float switches or electronic switches.  The electronic switches generally use capacitance to sense the presence of water.  These are more reliable than their electro-mechanical counterparts, which require a float to move and close the circuit.  However, electronic switches are far more expensive than their electro-mechanical counterparts. .

I’ve also built a custom switch that uses a float with a rod and magnetic reed switches to control the pump.  The rod has a magnet attached to it and the rod is placed inside a tube.  The magnet is positioned so that it holds a magnetic reed switch open.  When the float rises, the magnet moves and allows the reed switch to close, turning on the pump. By having the reed switch on the tube, it can be mounted out of the wet portions of the bilge, making maintenance simpler.

Manual Diaphragm Pumps:

Get the highest capacity diaphragm pumps that you can.  I prefer the Whale brand of pumps.  Double action pumps are better than single action pumps, as they pump on both strokes.  While diaphragm pumps are capable of passing small pieces of debris, it is generally a good idea to have a strum box or screen on the intake hose to prevent debris from entering.  Sharp debris can damage the diaphragm, requiring the pump to be re-built. I prefer pumps that have integral handles, but many do not.  For those that do not, having the handle tied to the pump or nearby the pump is critical.  A diaphragm pump with out a handle is useless.

Who thinks that Congress should be totally revamped?

When this country was formed, having Congress meet in Washington, DC made sense. The travel times for the congressmen, especially those in remote western states, and the lack of anything resembling high-speed communication made it necessary.  However, those same restrictions are no longer an issue today.  Almost all of the business of running this country could easily be handled between e-mail, cell phones, video conferencing, and faxes.

With e-mail, video conferencing, high-speed internet, fax and the modern telephone system, there is really no need to have the Congress centralized any longer.  This would help reduce the cost of government, since we, the taxpayers, wouldn’t have to pay for separate support staffs, offices, and such for each congressman in their home state and in the Capitol.  The costs of governing the United States would drop some.

Look at the 2010 Congressional calendar.  For 2010, the Congress is in recess for over 10 weeks.  Yes, that’s right, 20 percent of the year.   They don’t start until the 12th of January.  There’s a week-long break in February.  They have a two-week break at the end of March into the middle of April.  They have a week off for the Fourth of July holiday. They have a five-week break for their summer recess covering most of August and the beginning of September.  This doesn’t even cover the long holiday recess that Congress normally takes. Nice job, if you can get it.

I’d also point out that moving Congressmen back to their home states would allow congressmen to keep their day jobs and not become parasites living off of our tax dollars.  Where in the US Constitution does it say that Congress is supposed to be a full-time job with the benefits and perks these current leeches get? Last I checked, it didn’t say anything about expensive per diem trips, excessive salaries, pensions and health care plans not available to the regular public. Did you ever notice that the people who vote on whether Congress should get a raise are the congressmen themselves? Does this strike you as a bit unfair?

Finally, this would put a lot of power back where it belongs—with the people.  Lobbyists would become far less effective, as there would be no single gathering place for them to meet with all the congressmen.  To effectively lobby would require them to either electronically or physically meet with each individual senator or representative.  It would become far less cost-effective for PACs and other groups to lobby Congress.

I don’t think that Congress would ever change things, as they have way too much to lose given the status quo.  This country is supposed to be a representative democracy, but look at how many of the Congress are millionaires… and ask yourself, how many of the voters are millionaires. Yes, that’s what I thought… the little guy isn’t really represented in Congress very much.  Just look at all the money it takes to run a campaign nowadays.

Changing the existing government isn’t really the point of this post.  Stirring up some thoughts on the current state of government and making my readers think is.

As a caveat, I am not a laminate engineer, but a just an amateur boat builder.  As such, the information contained within this post is written to be a basic primer.

Modern GRP boats often use a cored laminate construction for several reasons.  A cored laminate can be much stiffer, stronger and lighter than a non-cored laminate.  Using cored laminates can reduce the weight of the hull and deck, allowing more weight to be concentrated in the keel, at least in monohulls, and result in a faster, stiffer, higher performing boat, than the same design would be if built using uncored laminates. Using cored laminates allows multihulls to be much lighter and more rigid than using uncored GRP, which is relatively heavy and flexible.

While core materials are often more expensive per pound than resin and fiberglass cloth, proper designed cored laminates can often reduce the cost of making a boat, by greatly reducing the amount of resin and cloth needed to make the boat.  Using cored laminates can also reduce or eliminate the need for additional stiffening or reinforcement such as an interior grid, stringers, or pan liner—simplifying the construction.

Basically, there are three commonly used traditional core materials that I will be discussing: foam, end-grain balsa, and marine plywood. There are also basically three classes of resin used in making GRP boats that will be discussed: polyester, vinylester and epoxy. Finally, there are several materials that are used to reinforce laminates.  These materials range from the basic glass cloth to high-tech materials  like carbon fiber for greater strength and stiffness, or kevlar cloth for greater abrasion and puncture resistance. I will also discuss the different forms the reinforcing fibers are found in.

One thing I will only mention in passing is chopper gun fiberglass.  Chopper gun fiberglass used a mechanical “gun” to spray chopped fiberglass strands and resin as part of a boat building process. This was a fairly imprecise and primitive way of building up laminate, and is not used in higher quality laminate boat production today. It tended to yield very variable quality and strength laminate, and was highly dependent on the operator’s skill.  While many classic boats were built using this technique, it has fallen out of favor due to the highly variable results as far as I know.

Core Materials:

Marine Plywood:

This was originally used as a core material to create stiffer decks and also used commonly as a backing material for high-load areas where hardware was often attached. Some manufacturers used marine plywood as a core material only in high-load areas, but others used it as the sole core material in their hulls. While, marine plywood, or in less than ideal cases plywood, had the primary advantage of being fairly inexpensive and fairly easy to get—it is not a good core material for several reasons.

First, while plywood does have a lot of tensile and compressive strength, it is a fairly heavy material, so there is little weight savings using it. The other core materials allow the laminate to be much lighter for the given strength.

Second, it has the worst disadvantages of both foam and end-grain balsa.  Like foam core materials, it allows water to migrate vast distances and delaminate large areas over a relatively short period of time.  Like end-grain balsa, it rots and breaks down when water gets into the laminate.

Fortunately, marine plywood isn’t used very much as a core material in modern fiberglass boats.

End-grain Balsa:

End-grain balsa is one of the best core materials for making a very stiff light GRP boat.  Balsa has two major advantages over the foam core materials.  First, it is generally far easier to bond the laminate skins to a balsa core due to the nature of balsa, as capiliary action helps draw the resin into the balsa and create a strong bond.  Recently, this has become less important, as many boats are now being built using epoxy resin, which has greater secondary (adhesive) bonding characteristics than polyester or vinylester resins.  Second, the use of end-grain balsa generally localizes the water intrusion and slows the spread of the water intrusion when compared to foam or marine plywood core materials.

A second major advantage that balsa has over foam core materials is that it is generally stronger in shear and compression than most of the foam core materials.

Finally, balsa also doesn’t deform or weaken at higher temperatures, which can be an issue in darker colored foam-cored laminates.  This is more of an issue with epoxy resin-based laminates, which soften at lower temperatures than polyester or vinylester resin-based laminates.  This is one reason that many epoxy based laminate products are light colored and have restrictions about using darker colored finishes on them.

However, it has two major disadvantages over some of the foam core materials.  The first is that balsa, like marine plywood, will rot when continually exposed to water.  Preventing water intrusion into a balsa-cored laminate is a priority. This means that using balsa as a core material in the hull really isn’t a good idea, unless the construction methods are meticulous and avoid any exposure of the core to water ingress.  The second is that end-grain balsa will transfer the forces from an impact from the outer skin to the inner skin, and in the case of a collision will generally rupture.

PVC Foam Cores:

There are two types of foam core materials—ductile and rigid. Examples of the two are Airex—which is a ductile PVC foam material; and Divinylcell—which is a rigid PVC foam material—both of which have a long history of being used as a core materials in GRP boats.

Both types of foam have the advantage of not rotting when exposed to water and the disadvantages of allowing water to migrate and delaminate large areas in relatively short order, and can present some difficulties in bonding it securely to the laminate skin layers. One other disadvantage is that foam core materials can deform at elevated temperatures, and this has become more of an issue as epoxy resin based laminates become more common.

Ductile foams are best used for hull laminates.  The reason for this is that the ductile foams will often compress in the case of an impact and will protect the inner laminate from rupturing, helping preserve the water-tight integrity of the hull.  Combining ductile foam core materials with layers of kevlar cloth in the hull laminate make for a very durable hull with high resistance to being holed.

Rigid foams are often used for deck, cabintop and interior laminates.  The rigid foam cores make laying up the large, relatively flat panels easier and create very rigid and stiff structures. Unlike ductile foam core materials, rigid foam core materials will transfer most of the impact force through the laminate, which makes them less desirable for hull construction.

Depending on where in the boat structure the laminate is being used, different density foam core materials can be used to provide greater strength as needed.  However, end-grain balsa is generally stronger in shear and compression than either ductile or rigid foam core materials.

GRP Resins:

Polyester-based Resin:

Polyester-based resins have the advantage of being the least expensive of the three types of resin used in modern GRP construction.  However, time has shown that polyester resins have some issues with osmosis that are less of a problem with the more expensive vinylester and epoxy resins.  Polyester resins can also have some issues with bonding to the core layer in cored laminate construction.  Polyester resins also have the lowest tensile strength and poor secondary (adhesive) bonding characteristics, which make it less than ideal for repairs, especially of a structural nature.

Vinylester-based Resin:

Vinylester based resins came into use as a response to the osmosis problems that have been associated with the polyester resins.  Vinylester and polyester resins are very similar and are often used together in production boats, where the vinylester resin is used for the outermost layers to provide greater resistance to osmotic blistering in modern boats.

However, vinylester resins are a bit more expensive than polyester resin. Like the polyester resins, vinylester resins have poor secondary (adhesive) bonding characteristics, making it, like polyester resin, less than ideal for repairs.

Epoxy-based Resin:

Epoxy-based resins have the highest water resistance of the three most commonly used boat building resins.  Epoxy hulls tend to have far fewer osmotic blistering issues than polyester or vinylester resin-based boats.

Epoxy resin also has the highest tensile strength of the three resin types. This often means that an epoxy resin-based GRP hull can be lighter than one that uses polyester or vinylester resin. It also has the best secondary (adhesive) bonding characteristics of any of the resins, making it the best suited for structural repairs and modifications.

The two big disadvantages of epoxy resin are the cost of the resin and the thermal characteristics of the resin.  Epoxy resin is the most expensive of the three types of resin.  However, the expense of epoxy resin is somewhat offset by the greater tensile strength.

The greater problem is the fact that epoxy resin-based GRP laminates soften or deform at lower temperatures than polyester or vinylester resin-based laminates.  Some manufacturers use a combination of vinylester resin over epoxy based laminates to help offset this issue. However, it is generally a good idea to finish epoxy resin based laminates in very light colors.

Reinforcing Fibers:

Glass Fibers:

The most common and least expensive reinforcing cloth is fiberglass cloth.  This is the original material used in GRP construction, but has been supplemented by other, more expensive and specialized materials in modern boats. There are two types of glass fiber used in boat construction:  E-glass and S-Glass.  There isn’t that much of a difference between these two types of glass fibers, but cloth made with S-glass is generally about 20% stronger than regular glass made from E-glass.

Kevlar Fiber:

Kevlar is an unusual choice of materials for reinforcing GRP hulls, in that it is has little strength in compression.  It is primarily used in areas where puncture resistance and abrasion resistance are required. Combining an interior laminate that has Kevlar in its makeup with a Airex foam core can make a hull very durable and highly resistant to being holed.  It is generally only used in hull laminates.

Kevlar cloth can be a difficult material to work with, since it tends to “float” in the resin, and is hard to wet out completely for that reason. As a general practice, it makes sense to have at least one layer of glass cloth over the Kevlar layers, since this helps the Kevlar wet out properly.  Another reason to have a layer of regular glass cloth over kevlar is that Kevlar tends to sand poorly, making finishing the laminate difficult if the exterior layers are Kevlar.

Recently, Spectra cloth has replaced the use of Kevlar.

Carbon Fiber:

This material is very expensive and often difficult to get, since the aerospace industry tends to use much of it. It is often used in areas where extra stiffness and strength in the laminate is required. It is one of the few laminates that is used for spar construction, due to the requirements of high strength and stiffness.  Carbon fiber has several issues that make it less than desirable a material to work with.

First, carbon fiber can cause galvanic reactions if any metal hardware is attached to it. This is because graphite is a very noble material and special steps need to be taken to isolate any metal hardware from the carbon fiber.

Another issue with carbon fiber is that it is relatively brittle and subject to fatigue-related failure if it is not properly engineered to prevent the material from flexing cyclically under load.  Carbon fiber is also very directional in nature and if the laminate is not properly laid up, it will fail from loading that are not properly oriented to the fibers. Finally, carbon fiber-based laminates can often fail if the laminate is scratched or damaged. This was an issue that was first seen in the early carbon-fiber bicycle frames, where a tiny scratch in the laminate would lead to sudden failure a short time later.

Reinforcing Fiber Forms:

Fiberglass is sold in several forms for use in laminate construction.

Chopped Strand Mat (CSM)

The weakest material sold is chopped strand mat or CSM.  This consists of short strands of fiberglass held together by a binder matrix which dissolves in the resin as the mat is laid up.  Originally, CSM was not recommended for use in epoxy-based resins, as the binder material that held the CSM was only soluble by the styrene found in polyester and vinylester resins.  However, as epoxy resin has become more commonly used, newer, epoxy compatible, forms of CSM have come onto the market.

CSM is often used between layers of stronger material to help bind them, since it conforms to the uneven textures of roving and heavy weight cloth fairly well.  It is also often used in the outermost layer of a laminate to prevent the texture of the cloth from “printing through” the surface finish of the laminate. It is also used to build up thickness in a laminate quickly. While not as strong as longer-fiber materials, it does have the advantage that it is equally strong in all directions due to the random orientation of the chopped strands.

Cloth

The next most common material is fiberglass cloth. This is exactly what it sounds like, a cloth woven from fiberglass strands.  This is stronger than CSM as the longer continuous fibers provide the finished laminate with greater strength than then short fibers in CSM.  However, the weave of the cloth makes it weaker than the stitched mat products. The bends of the cloth weave weaken the fibers except in Kevlar or Spectra materials.

Directional Roving

The strongest material is directional mat.  This is available in uni-directional, bi-axial and tri-axial variants, which describe how many layers there are and what orientation the strands of fibers are in. Rather than being woven, like cloth, the fibers are basically held in bundles that are either chemically bound or “tied” together.  In biaxial or triaxial, each direction of fibers is a separate layer and ties between the layers hold the bundles oriented properly.

Because these materials have the fewest “bends”, they tend to be the strongest.  However, they do not conform to complex shapes as well as CSM or cloth.  For this reason, they’re generally best suited for longer, relatively simple sections of the hull and deck.

However, cloth and roving has to be oriented properly for the strength of the material to work properly.  Cloth and roving are strongest when the loads are along the length of the fibers and weakest where the loads are oblique to the direction of the fibers.

Kevlar, Spectra and Carbon Fiber materials are usually available in cloth form.  Carbon fiber is usually also available in directional roving forms.

My Ideal Boat Construction:

My ideal boat would have hulls made of Airex-cored hulls with Spectra reinforcement along the bow and keel.  The deck and cabin top would be Divinylcell-cored, with carbon fiber reinforcement of the mast step area and the akas.  The carbon fiber reinforcement would be glassed over with an exterior fiberglass layer to provide galvanic isolation for hardware installation.

Areas that were highly loaded, like the chain plate and deck hardware attachment points would be solid glass with carbon fiber reinforcement.  Areas in the hulls where the through-hulls need to be installed would also be solid glass.

The boat would be constructed using epoxy resin for the hulls and vinylester resin for the deck and cabin top.

I just wanted to wish all my readers, my friends and my family a very Happy New Year.  I hope that 2010 brings good fortune, fair winds and following seas to all my friends, both personally and professionally.

I particularly want to wish Jen and Adam Thomson a happy new year, since it is their first as husband and wife.  I’d also wish a very special Happy New Year to Brad and Cindy Parmenter, as well as their adorable daughter Emily, since it is their first as parents.

To Charles and Hilary; Amy, Arthur and their two kids; Teresa and Ben; John, Lorie and Chris; Frank and Debbie; and Glenn, I wish safe passages and good weather, since they’re out sailing.

It is hard to believe that 2010 is already here.  Ten years ago, I was working at Reuters, doing the Y2K overwatch at their Washington, DC buro.  I have never been so bored in my life.  The best part of the night was when my fiancée, Gee, and her two friends, Heather and Bethany dropped by the buro.  Heather and Bethany were there to drop Gee off.  She was back in town for the winter break, from Seattle, after having flown into Boston to spend Christmas with me and my family.

Bethany is married to my friend Brian Green, who she met at our wedding. They’re living in North Carolina and have two beautiful kids.  I haven’t heard from Heather in a long time and hope she is doing well.

Teresa is a fellow sailor.  She and her Norsea 27, s/v Daphne are headed south, with the eventual destination of the Virgin Islands.  She’s been in the press a before, like this A Landlubber’s Guide to Sailing in the Martha Vineyard Times, but this article in The Leader and Kalaskian is about her and her alone.  It’s her hometown paper, and a nice tribute to a fellow sailor. Here are Teresa’s words, from the article:

FIRST WIND

This is the first installment of an open-ended series featuring Kalkaska’s Teresa Carey as she sails solo toward the Virgin Islands.

My father and mother took me sailing every day in the summer. A Ranger 23 named Applerush was the vessel and East Grand Traverse Bay was my playground.

Every day, when my parents returned from work, my sisters and I would pile into the station wagon.

“How about some Rock and Roll!” Dad would say and turn up the volume as we bounced toward Lake Michigan, stopping once to pick up a few sodas and Slim Jims.

On the boat, I spent my time dipping my feet in the waves, coloring, or playing with my doll. But with age came an interest in the deeper workings of a sailing vessel. Of wind and sail. Of wave and hull. Of the history, lore, and allure of the ocean.

Daddy taught me the skills and Mother encouraged me to dream big. So, years ago, dissatisfied with a conventional way of life, I took mother’s advice and began dreaming big…or small rather.

I dreamed of boats and tiny spaces. I dreamed of living with few possessions and wanting even less. I lived in tents, cars, closets and canoes always with the thought that someday I would live on a NorSea 27, the boat my father began telling me about very early on.

Backpacking, rock climbing, sailing and farming were all ways I nurtured the idea that I could retreat from being encultured in one way of life, and join a movement toward a different way of life.

There was mention of a NorSea for sale on a sailor’s online forum. It was a Monday in April of last year, and I inquired immediately. On Tuesday I applied for a loan. On Wednesday I purchased the boat. On Saturday I went to look at it.

And boy was it small! The pictures made it look much, much bigger. But here I was, with an ocean-crossing boat and a lubberly job in the mountains. So, naturally, I left my job and apartment, sold my car and many of my belongings and moved myself and Dory — the cat — aboard with the plan to someday sail across the ocean.

Was it impulsive? It sure was. But so is sailing across the ocean. No amount of planning will fully inform and prepare even the most skillful sailor for a journey like that. So, in that sense, perhaps my impulsiveness is suited toward this way of life.

The life of simplicity and freedom I dreamed about was struck with a dose of reality when I suddenly found myself firmly aground in boat payments, jobless and adrift in a down-turned economy.

It isn’t as perfect as I had pictured it to be. And so, until the day comes when I can truly cast my lines, bound for foreign ports, I stay close to home as I work and save with my eyes set on that larger goal. Right now, home is the entire east coast, and work comes and goes as I wander south.

Since the purchase of my NorSea 27, named Daphne after my grandmother, I’ve dropped my anchor in more than forty different locations.

At some I stayed only for one night. Other locations were my home for many months as I worked to pad the kitty for the next venture. I’ve seen the beauty and tranquility of a red sky at dusk, calm waters, and a gentle breeze. I’ve spent days worried over an approaching hurricane.

Where should I anchor? Will I be safe? Will it make landfall?

I’ve met sailors with grand stories to tell, all the while making a personal history which in time will spin a yarn full of adventure and surprise.

Today? I’ll stay here in Norfolk, Virginia for a few days, wait for good weather and continue my migration south with the birds.

If you want to follow her adventures, I’d recommend you read her blog, Sailing Simplicity.

To honor all those who served our country, I’d like to repost this.  It was posted on a sailing forum I participate in.

*******************************************

It was the Veteran who inspired these stories:

JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded “does that include those who are buried here?” DeGaulle did not respond.

When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush. He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?” A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”

U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French Admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?” Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on… You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. “Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.” The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.” “Impossible, Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!” The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.”

s/v Felix has made it to Norfolk, which is their first major stopover point on their winter cruise south.  I understand that John, Lorie and Chris will be staying in Norfolk for a few weeks, outfitting the boat and getting her ready for the next leg of their trip south.

They’re actually only a few minutes from where my in-laws live.

s/v Felix arrives in Norfolk

I recently wrote a post on E. Coli outbreaks. One thing I did not mention in that story is how the federal government, in the form of the Food and Drug Administration, really isn’t suited to dealing with businesses other than large scale agricorps.

For instance, there is a regulation requiring that all meat processing facilities have a restroom set aside for the use of the FDA inspectors. This is probably fine if the meat processing plant is a corporate one that processes thousands of cattle a day and takes up a enormous building. However, how feasible is that requirement for a small family-owned meat processing operation that only processes a few dozen cattle a week?

The FDA has many standards for the facilities and procedures required of meat processors and other agricultural support businesses, but doesn’t set a standard for how much bacteria is “allowed”. Wouldn’t it make far more sense to let each business setup their facilities to best meet a standard of how much bacteria is allowed, rather than dictating processes and requirements that can often be costly and have little effect on the cleanliness of the meat processing operation or the processed meat itself.

Unfortunately, stupidity and over-regulation seem to be par for the course. Government spends a lot of time trying to protect us from ourselves, and in the process creates far more problems than it solves. This applies to much of modern government, which has gone from being something that protected and served society, to something that no longer serves its original purpose.

For example, there was a recent news story about a 17-year old Eagle Scout who was suspended for 20 days for having a pocket knife locked inside his car on school grounds. This is a pocket knife with a two-inch long blade—it is a tool—not a weapon, and certainly not a danger of being wielded as a weapon in an argument in the heat of the moment if it is locked in a car in the parking lot.

When I was in elementary, middle and high school, carrying a knife to school was something I did as a regular habit. I too was a Boy Scout and found it useful and convenient to have a Swiss Army Knife with me most of the time. To this day, I generally have a pocket knife on me most days. Yet, there were no incidents of a knife being used as a weapon in a fight back then. Many of my friends carried knives as well. They were tools, not weapons.

Look at Department of Homeland Security. It was setup in response to the War on Terror and in many ways it has become a bloated and ineffective government bureaucracy. Recent tests have shown that the TSA, a division under DHS, is mostly ineffective at stopping “terrorists” from getting things onto planes. In one of the more recent tests, the Red Team, or “bad guys”, were able to get 95% of the bombs, weapons, etc. aboard the planes. Of course, it seems to me that most of the government bureaucrats are more interested in keeping their cushy jobs than in actually doing the work they were hired to do.

Modern media isn’t helping the situation any either—since most modern journalism seems to consist of reporting the surface story, rather than unearthing the truth beneath what is easily seen. The watchdog function of the press seems to have dropped by the wayside over the past decade.

Both government and media need to be massively overhauled as I see it.

Given modern communications, video conferencing, e-mail, and such, there really is no need for Congress to be centrally located any longer. While having the entire Congress was a very sensible idea in the days of horse-and-buggy, where travel required days or weeks, and there was no instantaneous communication across the country, that is clearly no longer the case.

Returning Congress to the districts they serve in would have many major benefits. The primary benefit I see is that the Congressmen would be closer to the people who elected them and that they are supposed to serve. I think Congressmen who lived and worked in the states that elected them would be a bit more attentive to the real needs of their states.

Another major benefit is that de-centralizing the Congress would greatly dilute the influence of corporations and lobbyists. It is pretty cost-effective for a corporation or lobbyist organization to work Capitol Hill, since it concentrates all of the people that they may need to contact or influence. If these same people were spread out over the 50 states, it suddenly becomes much more difficult and expensive to spread influence around. I can’t see this as being anything but positive.

The media is also in need of overhaul, but I think this is far more likely to occur. Modern technology has increased the effective reach and scope of the average person. If the media doesn’t adapt to the changes wrought by modern technology, it is very likely that they will go the way of the dinosaur. The business models and practices of the old-paper based media are less and less relevant each day, and new business models and practices will have to be developed. As the technology becomes lower-cost and more widespread, the changes in the media will become even more critical.

Again, E. Coli is in the news. There was an article in the New York Times about the most recent E. Coli outbreak, which has been traced back to ground beef from Fairbank Farms. When I was growing up, there weren’t E. Coli outbreaks of the lethal nature found today. Certainly, the food-processing procedures and related precautions taken today are far more stringent than they were 30 years ago, yet E. Coli outbreaks didn’t seem to be the health problem they are today. What has changed?

Now, this may sound strange, but the advent of the modern feed lot with corn-fed cattle is really a major contributor to all the lethal E. Coli outbreaks there have been over the past two decades. The earliest E. Coli outbreak I found reported was one from August 1990, as seen at MSNBC . It appears that the lethal nature of E. Coli outbreaks is fairly well linked to the growth of corn-fed beef as an agricultural production method.

Cows did not evolve to eat corn. Cows are grazing animals and designed to eat grasses. Unfortunately, modern agricorps have found feeding cows corn to be far less expensive than allowing them to graze naturally or feeding them grass in a feedlot. The problem with feeding cows corn is that they also require far more medication and hormonal treatments, as they have serious health issues when fed a corn-based diet. Feeding a cow corn also causes the cow’s digestive tract, which normally has a fairly neutral pH, to become fairly acidic.

The acidity leads to the evolution of acid tolerant or resistant E. Coli bacteria strains. This becomes a serious problem when the E. Coli is now allowed to contaminate the food supply. Previously, when cows were grass-fed, the E. Coli was not a real health issue, since the primary defense for the human immune system for food-based pathogens, stomach digestive acids, would eliminate most of the E. Coli, since it was not acid tolerant. Now that the E. Coli strains are acid tolerant, they survive the stomach’s acid and go on to become a serious health risk.

If the beef producers were forced to pay for the increased costs to society, caused by the increased medical risks of creating acid-tolerant E. Coli bacteria species, it would probably wipe out most, if not all of the cost savings of raising beef cattle on corn. However, since the costs to society, especially the medical costs, are an externality, they are not reflected in the price of corn-fed beef at the grocery store. What is really surprising is that none of the media point out the real cause of the recent E. Coli outbreaks—industrial feed lot cattle farming.

If the media were to point out the link between industrial feed lot cattle and the health risks caused by acid tolerant E. Coli bacteria, I would imagine that the large agricorps would be called to task on it… yet there is no mention in any of the articles over the past two decades of how changing agricultural practices have essentially created this threat.

I’m happy to report that s/v Felix is headed south for the winter.

John, Lorie, and Chris have headed for Norfolk, VA, as their first major destination, with plans of heading south to Florida’s Gulf Coast eventually. Norm, my friend who captained a section of the delivery from Annapolis to Marion back in May, is along for the trip. Here’s the initial SPOT Messenger track for her so far.

The SPOT Messenger track for s/v Felix on her trip south.

Fair winds John, Lorie, Chris, Norm and s/v Felix.

Patrick Swayze recently died of pancreatic cancer. This is the same disease that Gee had fought the last fourteen months of her life. It is a very poorly understood cancer and one that is very difficult to diagnose. This is mostly due to a lack of specific symptoms in many cases. Also, many of the common symptoms, such as fatigue, abdominal pain, lack of appetite, and weight loss, have many other causes, making mis-diagnosis common. In fact, over 50% of the cases diagnosed are only diagnosed after the cancer has metastasized. To make matters worse, currently, there is no effective test for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

According to this web article, in 2006, the American Cancer Society predicted that 33,730 people would be diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, and that 32,300 people would die of it. Even though it is only the 11th most common form of cancer, it is the fourth deadliest.

Cancer Mortality for Women 1930-2005

Cancer Mortality for Men 1930-2005

Recently, researchers have linked a majority of pancreatic cancer to a mutation in the genes.  This may lead to an effective test for pancreatic cancer, and possible lead to effective, specifically targeted, chemotherapy treatments for the disease.  It may also allow people to be screened for the mutation and warn them of a possible pre-disposition to the disease.  Any of these would decrease the mortality of the disease.

I’d point out that Gee’s case was fairly unusual. Gee was in the minority, as the median age of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is 72, and less than 0.6% of the people who die from it are younger than 35 years of age.  Also, as far as I know, Gee did not have any of the risk factors that are normally associated with pancreatic cancer, such as smoking, long-term diabetes, a family genetic pre-disposition to the disease, being grossly obese, etc.

The only reason her cancer was diagnosed when it was was due to the tumor blocking the bile duct and causing Gee to become jaundiced. If that had not happened, it is very likely that she would not have been diagnosed in time for it to be operable and her life would have been cut even shorter.

The one-year survival rate for a pancreatic adenocarcinoma patient is only about 20%. One reason for this relatively high mortality rate is the advanced state that the disease is usually in when it is finally diagnosed. The difficulty in diagnosing pancreatic cancer can be seen in the statistics—almost as many people die of the disease as are diagnosed with it in any given year.  As I said earlier, over 50% of diagnosed pancreatic cases are only diagnosed after it has spread.

The overall five-year survival rate for a pancreatic cancer for the years 1995-2001 was only 4.6%. If the cancer was diagnosed while still localized, the five-year survival rate jumps to 16%.

Unlike many other forms of cancer, which are either easily detected, easily diagnosed or have an effective treatment regimen like Taxol for breast cancer—Pancreatic cancer has no really effective treatment regimen, and is difficult to detect, and difficult to diagnose properly.  The problems in properly detecting and diagnosing Pancreatic Cancer, and the lack of any really effective treatment regimen are the main causes for its high mortality rate.

What needs to be done about Pancreatic Cancer is research in two main areas, and increased patient outreach and support:

Early Detection/Diagnosis—The recent breakthrough of a mutation linked to a majority of the pancreatic cancers may lead to an effective detection/early diagnosis test for pancreatic cancers that are otherwise asymptomatic.  This would lead to increased effectiveness of chemical, surgical and radiation therapies currently available.

Effective Treatment—New medicines and targeted gene therapy regimens are really the only hope for treating Pancreatic Cancer.  Radiation therapy and surgery are often not very useful in its treatment, especially given the current difficulties in diagnosis and detection.  Once it has metastasized, radiation and surgery based treatment is mostly impractical.

Patient Outreach and Support—From my experience with Gee’s illness, and from talking to people who have had survived pancreatic cancer as well as their caregivers, patient outreach and support is critical.  Many of the patients who have pancreatic cancer are elderly, as the median age of patients diagnosed is 72 years old. Many of these patients don’t have the social or familial support that Gee had, and as such the quality of their medical care and their lives suffers.

While there is little I can do about the research side, I have started the Gee Yun Kim Memorial Foundation to help with the patient outreach and support side for pancreatic cancer patients. The foundation is still a work in progress, but I hope to have most of it up and running by next year. I am in the progress of writing a book about my Life with Gee, currently called “No Greater Love”, and all of the profits from the book, once it is published, will go towards funding Gee’s foundation.  Stay tuned for more on this…

I was over on s/v Itinerant, helping Joe with his WiFi setup, and decided to write what I did. Joe had bought a NanoStation2 based on my recommendation and was having some trouble with it.

The equipment I’ve been recommending for cruising sailboats are either the NanoStation2 or the Loco2 for monohulls and the Bullet 2HP for multihulls. All the hardware is designed and manufactured by Ubiquiti Systems, and are designed not to require any device drivers.

All three units use a wired ethernet port and a wireless WiFi 2.4 GHz spectrum radio to either create a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge or an Ethernet-to-WiFi router. The standard configuration for cruisers is using it as a WiFi-to-Ethernet Bridge.

This approach has two major advantages over the solutions that use an external amplified antenna or a USB network adapter. First, there are no coaxial cable losses, since the electronics are located at the antenna. Second, there are far fewer stability and compatibility issues, since there are no device drivers to install. Finally, it allows you to share your connection with other cruisers if you desire to do so—more on this later.

The main reason I recommend the NS2/Loco2 for monohulls has to do with their stability and the greater vertical angle of coverage that the NS2 and Loco2 have, 20˚ and 60˚ respectively. I generally recommend these be hoisted on a halyard with a control line, so that you can aim the antenna, since they only cover about 60˚ horizontally. I’ve had fairly decent success using the NS2 to setup a terrestrial link of over two miles.

For the Bullet 2HP, I’ve been recommending a 10 dB gain omnidirectional antenna, which seems to be working fairly well for most of the boats it has been installed on. The 10 dB gain antenna has a pretty narrow angle of vertical coverage, and isn’t really well suited for monohulls IMHO. Most of these have been permanently mounted.

In both cases, the higher the antenna is hoisted or mounted, the greater the range you will generally have. Be aware that you will often have less range in heavily developed areas, as there will generally be more noise sources and interference in the open 2.4 GHz frequency range, the NS2/Loco2/Bullet 2HP and 802.11 b/g/n equipment usually use.

Equipment required:

A NanoStation2, a Loco2 or a Bullet 2HP WiFi Bridge/Router with an antenna. The NS2/Loco2 have an antenna integrated into them.

A Power Over Ethernet power injector tap. This allows you to run a single wire for the data and power connections for the ethernet bridge.

A power cord for the POE injector to wire into the boat’s electrical system or plug into a 12 VDC outlet. These units can use a fairly wide range of voltages, and will generally be fine with the 12VDC system on most boats. Typically, the units will work on voltages from about 9 VDC to about 24 VDC. Anything above 24 VDC may cause a problem.

A long ethernet cable, preferably exterior grade for the connection to the bridge unit. This will be connected to the data/power port on the POE injector.

A shorter ethernet cable for the connection inside the boat between the computer and the POE injector. This will be connected to the data port on the POE injector.

A computer to configure the bridge with.

What Now?

The configuration of the NS2/L2/B2HP, generically referred to as the UBNT bridge from now on, are all basically the same, and require basically the same steps, but the steps will vary depending on what OS you are running. I am writing instructions for Windows XP and Mac OS X. If you are running Vista, then you’re on your own, since I don’t own a Vista-based machine. However, the Windows XP instructions should work for most Vista users, if the software I recommend works in Vista as it says it does. If you are using a Linux-based machine, the instructions for Mac OS X will a pretty good starting point, but most Linux users are tech-savvy enough to figure it out themselves.

If you are new to WiFi networks, you may want to read the WiFi security primer I wrote, which will give you a fairly good overview of what the different terms you will run into in the rest of this article.

Using Windows for Configuration

Since the majority of you will be on some variant of MS Windows, I’ll go over the Windows XP configuration first.

First, do yourself a favor and download Easy Net Switch, which is a shareware application that will greatly simplify this for you.

Setting up Easy Net Switch

After installing Easy Net Switch, you need to setup at least three profiles. One will be called “UBNT Configuration“, another will be called “UBNT Internet” and the third will be called “Automatic“.

The “UBNT Configuration” profile will have the WiFi card in your machine disabled. It will have the Ethernet card setup with the IP address “192.168.1.100“. The subnet mask should be “255.255.255.0“.

The “UBNT Internet” profile will have the WiFi card in your machine disabled. It will have the Ethernet card setup to get the IP address automatically.

The “Automatic” profile will have both the WiFi and Ethernet cards enabled. It will have both of them setup to get their IP addresses automatically.

Configuring the Bridge

Run Easy Net Switch and select the “UBNT Configuration” profile. This will put your computer on the same “logical” network as the UBNT bridge. Open up your web browser and enter “192.168.1.20” into the address bar and hit “Enter“. A window should pop-up asking for the login credentials for your bridge. The default username and password is “ubnt“. Enter the username and password and log into the bridge.

Selecting a Network

Click on the “Link Setup” tab, and click on the “Select” button. A pop-up window should appear with a list of WiFi networks visible to the UBNT bridge. This screen also gives you a fair amount of useful information, like the network SSIDs of the networks, the signal strength, what type of security they use and what channel they are on.

The AirStation OS Link Setup tab

Now, click the button on to the left of the network you want to use. Then click on the “Select” button. The pop-up window should close and return you to the “Link Setup” screen.

The AirStation OS Network Selection screen

Check that the “Wireless Mode” is set for “Station“. I believe this is the default choice from the factory, but you should check to make sure the correct mode is selected.

Now, if the network SSID you selected had security turned on, you will need to enter the password or pre-shared key on this page. WEP is not a secure encryption scheme, but some people still use it. WPA or WPA2 are far more secure encryption schemes.

Now, click the “Change” button at the bottom of the screen. The screen should refresh and you’ll need to click the “Accept” button that now appears near the top of the screen. A window will pop-up saying that the changes are being applied.

You should now be on the selected WiFi network, and if you click on the “Main” tab, you should see the signal strength indicator, a series of colored boxes near the top of the screen, active now.

Surfing the Internet

Now open the Easy Net Switch program and select the “UBNT Internet” profile. Once the ethernet card comes back up as connected, you should now be on the internet. However, some WiFi networks will require you to login, sign up or click a license agreement of some sort.

Using Mac OS X for Configuration

This article assumes you’re using either Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5, Tiger or Leopard, at a minimum.

Setting up Network Preferences:

Open “System Preferences” and then select the “Network” icon. You will need to setup at least three location profiles. One will be called “UBNT Configuration“, another will be called “UBNT Internet” and the third will be called “Automatic“.

The “UBNT Configuration” profile will have the Airport card in your machine disabled. It will have the Ethernet card setup with the IP address “192.168.1.100“. The subnet mask should be “255.255.255.0“.

The “UBNT Internet” profile will have the Airport card in your machine disabled. It will have the Ethernet card setup to get the IP address automatically, via DHCP.

The “Automatic” profile will have both the Airport and Ethernet cards enabled. It will have both of them setup to get their IP addresses automatically, via DHCP.

Configuring the Bridge

Select the “UBNT Configuration” profile from the “Location” sub-menu in the “Apple menu“. This will put your computer on the same “logical” network as the UBNT bridge. Open up your web browser and enter “192.168.1.20” into the address bar and hit “enter“. A window should pop-up asking for the login credentials for your bridge. The default username and password is “ubnt“. Enter the username and password and log into the bridge.

Selecting a Network

Click on the “Link Setup” tab, and click on the “Select” button. A pop-up window should appear with a list of WiFi networks visible to the UBNT bridge. This screen also gives you a fair amount of useful information, like the network SSIDs of the networks, the signal strength, what type of security they use and what channel they are on.

Now, click the button on to the left of the network you want to use. Then click on the “Select” button. The pop-up window should close and return you to the “Link Setup” screen.

Check that the “Wireless Mode” is set for “Station“. I believe this is the default choice from the factory, but you should check to make sure the correct mode is selected.

Now, if the network SSID you selected had security turned on, you will need to enter the password or pre-shared key on this page. WEP is not a secure encryption scheme, but some people still use it. WPA or WPA2 are far more secure encryption schemes.

Now, click the “Change” button at the bottom of the screen. The screen should refresh and you’ll need to click the “Accept” button that now appears near the top of the screen. A window will pop-up saying that the changes are being applied.

You should now be on the selected WiFi network, and if you click on the “Main” tab, you should see the signal strength indicator, a series of colored boxes near the top of the screen, active now.

Surfing the Internet

Select the “UBNT Internet” profile from the “Location” sub-menu in the “Apple menu“. Once the ethernet card comes back up as connected, you should now be on the internet. However, some WiFi networks will require you to login, sign up or click a license agreement of some sort.

Mounting the UBNT Bridge

I generally recommend the NS2 and Loco2 units be hoisted aloft on a halyard. You should provide some strain relief for the ethernet cable, so the weight of the cable isn’t being supported solely by the ethernet jack. The NS2 or Loco2 should also have a “tail”, which is an extra line that will allow you to “aim” the unit. The higher it is hoisted, the further the range of the unit will be.

The Bullet 2HP units as equipped with the 10 dB gain omindirectional antenna should generally be mounted as a fixed mount device. Again, these units could be hoisted on a halyard, but you’d want some strain relief to prevent the weight of the cable from being supported by the Bullet unit itself.

Some Recommended First Time Changes

I would highly recommend you change the password the first time you log into the bridge. I would also highly recommend that you change the router’s name. Changing the IP address for the UBNT bridge may also be a good idea, but that would require you to modify the directions above accordingly. These are basic security precautions and will help prevent unauthorized changes to you UBNT bridge’s setup.

Some Computing Advice for Cruisers

If you’re using WiFi to check e-mail, I would highly recommend using SSL or TLS-based encryption for your e-mail. If you don’t do this, your e-mail username, password and e-mail will be visible to anyone on the same WiFi network as you. Most modern e-mail servers support this feature, and most e-mail programs support this feature.

Using a good e-mail program can be useful, since it will allow you to download your e-mail and then read and reply to your e-mail while off-line, and then connect to send your replies over a fairly short time period. This can save you money if you use a satellite phone for internet access.

I would also recommend you use the “secure” versions of any websites you have to log into. The secure versions of a website use the “https://” version of the website’s url, but not all websites support this.

Helping Other Cruisers

One other thing you can do with the UBNT bridges is setup access for other cruisers who don’t have an amplified WiFi setup. The easiest way to do this is to plug the ethernet cable from the UBNT bridge into the WAN port on a WiFi router, like the Linksys WRT54G. Then you can configure the WRT54G to re-broadcast access to the distant WiFi network to boats near yours. This also allows you to use multiple computers on your boat without needing to have them “wired” in. Being able to do this will probably make you very well-liked in remote anchorages.

My friends Charles and Hilary were going down to Cuttyhunk for the Fourth of July and asked if I was going down. I told them I would see them there. We had invited my friends John and Lorie as well, as we thought this would be a good introduction to cruising for them.

John, being relatively new at owning his own boat, and having never been to Cuttyhunk, asked if I would come along with him, instead of sailing down on the Pretty Gee. As it didn’t really matter what boat I got there on, I decided to catch a ride on s/v Felix.

Friday—July 3rd

I headed over to Marion on Friday, and helped get s/v Felix ready for the weekend trip. One of our tasks was to fill the water tanks. This would have been much easier if some idiot hadn’t left his small runabout parked on the town water dock. Lorie asked me to back Felix into the dock. The trick was to get Felix on the dock without crushing the 20′ runabout that was parked there. I backed Felix in and left the runabout under the dinghy on the davits. This made docking a bit tight, but allowed us to get the water tanks topped off. While we were filling the water tanks, the captain and crew of the runabout came to the town dock, and started complaining about where we were docked. I mentioned that they weren’t supposed to leave boats unattended or parked on the town dock, and they went off grumbling. Rude powerboaters were going to be an issue for the weekend.

I also spoke with Patrick and his wife Michele, on s/v Cheers. Cheers is an Iroquois Mk II catamaran. Patrick is planning on launching her in a couple of weeks. Here’s Patrick and s/v Cheers.

Patrick and s/v Cheers, an Iroquois Mk II catamaran

Saturday—July 4th

Sunrise on Sippican Harbor, July 4, 2009

Saturday morning, we left Marion for Cuttyhunk. There was a pretty solid breeze, in the low teens and slowly building out of the west. As we were leaving the harbor we decided not to set the screacher. I told John that the wind would probably be too strong for the screacher, which ended up being the case. Here’s a short video of s/v Felix doing about 7.5 knots in 10-13 knots of true wind out of the west.

S/V Felix, under sail on her way to Cuttyhunk

Coming into Cuttyhunk is an adventure if you’ve never done it before. The harbor channel is fairly narrow and very close to the island’s beach, as you can see in this screen shot of the chart for Cuttyhunk Harbor.

Chart of Cuttyhunk Harbor

The island itself is much like a place out of time. There are only about five cars on the entire island, and the people on the island know each other. There really isn’t a lot to do on Cuttyhunk, unless you like walking. It doesn’t have the vast variety of bars, restaurants and such that you might find in other destinations. In fact, the island of Cuttyhunk is dry, so if you like to drink, you’d better pack what you like to drink.

There is a mooring field with public rental moorings available on a first-come/first-serve basis. We decided to pick up a mooring, since we knew we were having some problems with the windlass from our previous NEMA weekend. Charles and Hilary, in s/v Ship O’ Fools, their Corsair 31 CC, were already anchored north of the mooring field when we arrived.

Chris and Charles getting ready for a swim

Charles had seen us as we were coming into Cuttyhunk and swam over to meet us. He and Chris went swimming. The water was a bit cold for those of us not wearing wetsuits to go swimming. The reason he was swimming is that Hilary had taken the dinghy to Cuttyhunk, and she and their guests, Karen and Mark, were playing tourist on the island.

A little while later, Mark and Doug, Hilary’s father and younger brother showed up in Mark’s boat, Makani. They eventually went back out to pick up a mooring just outside the harbor, since all the harbor moorings were taken. While they were looking for a mooring, a big powerboat, which I’m going to call the m/v Obnoxious, showed up. These guys would prove themselves to be world class assholes and drunks besides.

Charles and Chris in the water.

Saturday night, s/v Felix hosted a potluck dinner. Mark, Doug, Hilary, Charles, Doug, and Karen joined John, Lorie, Chris and I aboard her. This is one place where Felix seriously rocks… I can’t imagine trying to host dinner for 10 aboard the Pretty Gee or Ship O’ Fools.

The fireworks started a bit after dinner did. The drunken idiots on m/v Obnoxious seemed to think having the world’s loudest air horn meant that they had to blow it every ten-to-twenty minutes. This went on well into the night.

Sunday—July 5th

Sunday morning, I awoke to one of the most amazing sunrises I’ve ever seen. There was an “X” formed by two jet contrails that crossed and were being lit by different shades of pink, purple and gold. However, I found that my camera’s battery was dead, as was my cellphone… so I grabbed John’s camera, only to find he had no space left on the memory card in it. ARGH….

Then, I saw the captain from m/v Obnoxious getting in his dinghy with his small yippie dog. As he pushed off to walk the dog, he yelled up to his crew that they should fire off the air horns again. This was before seven in the morning on the 5th of July… fortunately, his crew was too lazy to do that.

Charles ferried the crews of s/v Felix’s and s/v Ship O’ Fools to shore and we went and had breakfast. We walked up to the bed & breakfast and had a very nice breakfast. After breakfast, Hilary took Lorie, Chris, Karen, and Doug on her 30 minute walking tour of the island. Charles took John and me back to Felix.

After Lorie and Chris got back, we headed out. Originally, our plan was to go to the Martha’s Vineyard, but for various reasons, we decided to cut that side trip out and headed up to South Dartmouth, where we were going to stay on a mooring that Charles and Hilary owned. We met up with Ship O’ Fools in Clarks’s Cove and went ashore.

In South Dartmouth, we met Greg and Mara, friends of Charles and Hilary’s. It turns out that several of Mara’s friends are also friends with John, Lorie and Chris. What a small world it can be at times. Even though Greg and Mara had to go off to a dinner engagement, they were gracious and generous enough to let us use their home for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to s/v Felix for the night. John and I would take her back to Marion the next day, while Lorie and Chris went to Marion by car, so Chris could get to Tabor on time.

Monday—July 6th

No wind on Buzzards Bay.

Monday, we awoke to a very calm morning. If there was any wind, it had gone elsewhere for the morning. Charles ferried Lorie and Chris to shore and headed off to work. John and I got underway, and it looked like sailing wasn’t going to be an option. This was during the 8:00–2:00 dead spot you see on the graph below. Motoring back to Marion wasn’t too bad, but both John and I would have preferred to sail. Oh, well…

Sailflow Wind History for July 4-7, 2009

Once back on the mooring, in Sippican Harbor, John and I had a list of things to get done. We dropped by R&W Enterprises to get some better docklines for s/v Felix and some new lines for s/v Pretty Gee. If you need running rigging or docklines, I would highly recommend you see them. We also dropped by West Marine and picked up some carbon monoxide detectors and other gear that John needed for Felix.

I think John, Lorie and Chris have been bitten by the cruising bug pretty badly. I know that Chris is looking forward to his father buying an outboard for their dinghy.

Monday Evening—July 6th

Monday evening, I drove over to Falmouth to meet Michele, her husband Bruce and their friends PJ and Becky. Michele and her husband are a couple I know via the Anything-Sailing sailing forum, which was setup by my friends Alex, Chris and George. The five of us went out to the Silver Lounge, which was recommended by PJ. The four of them are some of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Here’s a photo of Michele and me.

Dan and Michele

Michele and her husband, Bruce, are restoring a wooden motorsailer, named Quidam. I look forward to seeing their work progress…

This post is dedicated to my friend, Margee, who was stuck at work on the day we were sailing. I promised her this post and wrote it so she could sail vicariously through me. I’d like all my readers to wish her congratulations as she recently graduated from veterinary school and is now a Doggy Doc.

Well, Friday, I went down to s/v Felix to see if I could help with a few of the issues we discovered on the delivery trip. When John got to the boat, we took her out for a short sail. As you can see from this photo, it really wasn’t looking to be great weather for a sail.

The view aft as we were leaving the marina.

On our way out of the harbor, we saw three Optimist dinghies training. This reminded me of my friend Alex’s son, Fred, who competes in the Optimist class back in Portugal

Optimist Sailing Dinghies with a chase boat.

The afternoon sail started out with fairly heavy fog…. oddly, there was still wind, which is fairly unusual for foggy conditions.

Sailing into a foggy afternoon on Buzzards Bay.

This did not bode well for the afternoon’s sail or what conditions would be like out on Buzzards Bay. However, conditions and sailing turned out to be much better than one would expect. The sun tried to break through the heavily overcast skies and fog several times.

Detail of sky, as sun tries to break through overcast skies.

The pale sun tries to make an appearance.

However, all afternoon, the sun kept trying to make an appearance, and at one point we were sailing with sun above and only about a 1/4 mile of visibility all-around due to heavy fog down low.

We were not alone. Off and on during the day we would spot a ghostly sailboat companion.

Another sailboat was a ghostly and silent companion.

I was curious as to how a smaller monohull sailboat, with only a mainsail up and towing a dinghy was able to keep fair pace with us. Well, as we got closer, it was pretty clear, they were motorsailing.

They were motorsailing.

The fog got heavier and lighter as the sun and clouds battled it out during the day. At times the clouds and fog were winning, as you can see here.

The fog overpowers the sun...

The heavy fog reminded me of a Stephen King novella called The Mist. It was one I gave my twin brother just before he went on a ski trip to Maine, and the heavy fog they had during the trip had him pretty freaked out. Psychological mind-games on your family and friends can be so much fun.

The fog deepens

The strangest part was that during even the heaviest fog, we still had a decent amount of wind, varying from about 5 knots up to about 12.

Returning to Marion, we decided to see whether we could pick up the mooring under sail. On the sail back to the mooring, the sun finally won the battle for the day.

Sailing into Sippican Harbor

Clearing blue skies and light winds were our companions as we ghosted along at two knots.

Clearing blue skies as the sun wins out.

John at the helm under light conditions as we ghost along Marion harbor.

We failed at picking up the mooring under sail. It was my first attempt to pickup the mooring on a Gemini catamaran, much less under sail… but we did get pretty close. Oh, well… I’ll do better next time.  One of the more interesting boats in Marion Harbor is this Newick influenced home built boat.  The boat’s owner’s brother designed the boat and worked for Dick Newick prior to designing the boat.

An interesting home-built Newick-influenced Trimaran

I headed off to have dinner with my extended family, which is a Friday ritual. Unfortunately,when I called to let them know I was headed up, I found that my aunt had to cancel, so I called John and headed back to the marina to have dinner with John.  When I was heading back out the s/v Felix with the launch to meet John, the sun had clearly won out over the fog and overcast skies of earlier in the day.

The sun clearly won out at the end of the day.

We went to Margaret’s, in Fairhaven, which is a regular stop for the crew of my boat and led to one of the big surprises of the evening.

As we walked in the restaurant, a man sitting at a table near the door asked who I was. When I asked him why he wanted to know, he asked if I owned a Gemini Telstar. I replied, “Yes, I have a Telstar 28, and it is made by the company that makes the Gemini catamaran.” He said, “I’m Walt.”

I knew immediately knew who he was now. He and his wife Carolyn own a Gemini 105 Mc catamaran, and we’d been in e-mail contact off an on for several years. He had sent me some photos of my boat under sail, but we had never met in person. Walt was one of the Gemini owners that I had been wanting to introduce John to, since Walt keeps his boat a short way down the harbor from mine, and has owned her for quite some time and has done some excellent video of his boat under sail.

After dinner, and speaking with Walt and Carolyn a bit more, we headed over to the Brady Ice Box for dessert. They had just closed for the evening, but opened to let us buy some ice cream. One of the young ladies working there is one I remembered from previous visits. Here she is , on the left, with one of her co-workers from a trip to the Brady Ice Box three years ago.

The crew at the Brady Ice Box, summer 2006

It really seems to me that the signs that John and s/v Felix were meant for each other are all showing up this summer.

Well, this past weekend, had me working on three different boats on three different days. Three days and three different boats—Saturday: an O’Day Javelin; Sunday: an O’Day 302; Monday: a Gemini 105Mc Catamaran.

It started out on Saturday, when I was helping my friend’s son and a friend with the O’Day Javelin that they bought a couple years ago.

One interesting thing that we found on the Javelin was the smallest whisker pole I’ve ever seen. It is about an inch in diameter and about four-and-a-half feet long. Of course, it is for a 14′ boat, so that’s pretty much the right size.

O’Day Javelin Whisker Pole

Saturday afternoon, I drove down to Connecticut, to visit Denby. After meeting Denby and his wife at their house, Denby and I headed down to the boat, which is kept in Milford Harbor. Here is Denby’s boat, tied up to one of the docks near the parking lot.

Denby’s O’Day 302, s/v Slight Breeze

At first, I wasn’t sure why Denby named the boat as he did, but after seeing what the conditions on Long Island Sound are like… that’s probably all he ever sails in…

Denby’s O’Day 302, s/v Slight Breeze

His boat has a CRT-based Furuno Radar that is almost as old as me… and the radar mount is, at least according to his friend, the original prototype for a gimballed radar mount. PYI has come a long way from this, if you’ve seen Gui’s radar mount.

An old gimballed radar mount

Here’s Denby prepping dinner.

Denby cooking dinner

Not a bad cook, but his boat lost points for not having fitted sheets in the v-berth. He did gain a point back for the sailing motif on the comforter.

The v-berth on s/v Slight Breeze

Here’s s/v Slight Breeze motoring out to where we anchored overnight, behind Charles Island.

s/v Slight Breeze on the way to Charles Island

On Sunday morning, we went sailing. The weather goddess was kind enough to give us about six knots of wind… here you can see Denby resting… old guys like him need lots of sleep.

Denby asleep in the cockpit

Denby decided to take over the helm, and the wind immediately died. The weather goddess did not approve of his helm technique, seen here.

Denby asleep at the helm

We got back into Milford Harbor and walked over to the car. On the way to the car, we saw this little submarine.

A small submarine in Milford Harbor

After a quick trip to West Marine, to pickup some supplies, we headed back to the boat, and Denby went up the mast. He was using a pair of ascenders, a bosun’s chair, a spliced foot strap and I was using the new main halyard as a safety line.

Denby up the mast

Well, a few bugs need to be worked out so that his self-ascending system will work. As it is, the ascenders dig too deeply into the line for him to be able to release them without me taking up his weight on the main halyard. If he had gone up by himself, he’d probably still be there.

After getting Denby back down, we headed to the house for dinner. After fixing Denby’s WiFi network and his computer, so that he doesn’t have to steal his wife’s laptop.

The next morning I headed off to Defender, to pickup a few things. While I was there, I called my friend John, owner of s/v Felix and asked if he needed anything. He asked me to pickup some SOLAS flares and a shore power cable for him, and asked if I wanted to drop the stuff off at his boat in Marion. Since I could go sailing if I did that, I did.

I drove to Marion and met with John, Lorie and Chris and off we went. Here’s John looking aft on s/v Felix.

Looking aft on s/v Felix

On our way out of Marion, we had about 10 knots of wind. After being out for a while the wind got very light and fluky, and then stopped almost completely, so we fired up the iron genny, so we could back in time to make the last launch.

Heading north to Marion in s/v Felix

Lorie took the helm and as we got closer to Marion, the wind picked up to 17-18 knots, and we dropped the engine into neutral and unfurled the genoa and sailed back into Marion. Here’s Lorie at the helm and a photo of the run into Marion.

Lorie at the helm, on the way to Marion

Looking south as we head back to Marion

After we got back into Marion, we went to dinner at the Mattapoisett Chowder House. As we were going into the restaurant, I got a call from Denby… he was wondering why I hadn’t been online yet… and my excuse was a good one—”Sorry, I was out sailing in 18 knots of wind…” For some reason Denby started swearing…

The s/v Pretty Gee, under sail, on the long way to her mooring.

Yesterday, Johnnie Jr. and I went down to the marina to setup the mooring I’m using for the Pretty Gee this season. We got out the inflatable dinghy and rowed out to the mooring and attached the mooring pennant. I’m using a fairly heavy mooring pennant, 3/4″ x 15′. It’s attached to the boat via the port side bow chock and then looped over the foredeck cleats. I think this should work quite well. The pennant is too thick to come out of the bow chocks by itself, so I haven’t lashed it down.

After rowing back to the slip and tying the dinghy to the big boat, we had to move the big boat to the mooring. So, we warmed up the iron genny and headed out for the swing bridge. As we were motoring out to the swing bridge, I showed Johnnie the easy way to stow an inflatable dinghy—I hauled it up on to the ama deck—fully inflated and tied the bridle to a padeye on the deck. Beats towing it, trying to horse it up onto the foredeck, or deflating it and stowing it.

Johnnie Jr. looking off at the Elizabeth Islands.

After passing the swing bridge, we raised the main and unfurled the genoa. It was time to go sailing. We woke up Otto from his winter hibernation and set off for a day just sailing on Buzzards Bay.

Otto at the helm, leaving nothing but a wake while under sail.

We didn’t have any plans or destination, just wanted to be out sailing on such a beautiful day. We sailed around the bay for about five hours and decided it was time to head back and try out the mooring. As we motored up to the swing bridge, we passed two catamarans in the mooring field just south of Pope’s Island. Neither is a particularly sleek looking boat, but the one on the right looks like it sails like a dog—it definitely falls into the floating condo variant of catamaran, rather than the ones designed to sail well.

Two catamarans in the mooring field south of Pope’s Island.

We had tried the mooring pennant out on the boat before going out to attach it to the mooring, so I wasn’t too worried about how it would fit. It looks like she’ll lie to the mooring without the need for a bridle. Somehow, it took us over seven hours to get the boat on a mooring that is only five hundred feet from the dock the boat was in.

The s/v Pretty Gee finally on her mooring.

Note: I’ve been tweaking the lazy jacks, the mainsail furling system and the reefing systems on the boat. I added blocks to the reefing cringles on the mainsail and have run the reefing lines up to the blocks and then back down to the mast base and then aft to the cockpit. I’ve also added stopper knots in the reefing lines, so we know how much line needs to be let out to hoist the main fully. It looks like the halyards led aft project is really going to pay off this season. This sail was to shake down the modifications I’ve made to the systems over the winter.

This past Christmas, I received a SPOT Messenger. I didn’t activate it until just recently, when I was helping deliver a sailboat from Annapolis to Marion, Mass. The reason I decided to activate the SPOT service was so that several of the families and friends of two of my fellow delivery crew would be able to keep an eye on them, since this would be their first major passage.

The SPOT Messenger is a small GPS-based satellite transponder that uses the GlobalStar satellite network to transmit location and time data as well as one of four types of messages. The four message types are:

1. I’m OK
2. Help
3. 911—send help
4. Tracking update

The first three message types are included in the basic $99 annual service.

The “I’m OK” message is basically just that… to let people know where you are and that you’re okay.

The “Help” message can be tailored via the SPOT Messenger website to be a “call me” or “send money” or some other type of message, that requires some action on the part of the persons monitoring you.

The “911″ message will result in the SPOT Message service center calling the authorities to respond… and should only be used in a true emergency.

Please note: While some people think that the “911″ feature will replace an EPIRB, I disagree. First, the SPOT Messenger relies on the Globalstar satellite network, which has some serious issues. Second, an EPIRB or PLB acts as a SAR Transponder and broadcasts a 121.5 MHz signal to help SAR personnel locate you. Third, the run time on the EPIRB or PLB and durability of the units is probably much greater.

SPOT Messenger Coverage.

The fourth type of message is a tracking message, and it requires the real-time tracking service, which costs an additional $49 per year. To send these messages, you put the SPOT into tracking mode. These can then be seen on a SPOT tracking page.

There are a couple issues IMHO with the SPOT and its tracking mode. First, tracking mode is only active for 24 hours, and then it needs to be re-activated. Second, tracking mode sends a message out every ten minutes, which is a bit too short a time interval for most sailboat tracks.

Personally, I think that tracking mode should stay active until it is deactivated. I also think that there should be some other intervals for tracking messages, say 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 6 hours or something similar. This would make tracking boats much simpler, since the SPOT would operate for about a month if it was allowed to send messages every hour instead of every 10 minutes.

BTW, if anyone is interested, here’s a patched together image of the SPOTcasting route from the s/v Felix delivery. Not quite a complete log of the journey as I didn’t have the SPOT in tracking mode for the very first part of the trip.

Click image for a larger version.

Last Wednesday, I took the Acela train down to BWI. I went down to help my friends deliver s/v Felix, a Gemini 105Mc Catamaran from Annapolis, MD, to her new home port of Marion, MA. I stayed with my friends Mary and Chuck, who also own a Gemini catamaran. Mary would be joining the delivery crew for the trip up to Marion.

My friend John had bought her last week from her owner in North Carolina, and brought her from North Carolina to Norfolk, VA, with the help of her former owner. John, his wife Lorie, and their son Chris, along with Bill, a delivery captain and fellow Gemini owner brought the boat up to the Performance Cruising factory’s docks on Back Creek, in Annapolis.

John and Mary on the way from Back Creek to the Little Magothy River.

Thursday, John and I went out to get provisions for the boat. While Frank had left the boat fairly well provisioned, it didn’t have all of what we needed aboard. Thursday afternoon, John, Mary and I moved s/v Felix from the PCI factory dock to Mike and Amy’s dock on the Little Magothy River. This turned out to be a wise move, as the Severn River, where Back Creek is, was later shut down due to President Obama speaking at the Naval Academy graduation. If we had stayed at the PCI docks, there would have been a good chance we would have been trapped by the closure of the Severn River and lost our chance to leave with the tide.

Passing under the William P. Lane Jr. Memorial Bridges.

Friday—May 22

Friday morning, I went to BWI to pickup the delivery captain for the Annapolis to Marion leg of the delivery. By strange happenstance, the delivery captain John had hired for this final leg of the trip was a friend of mine, Norm. I hadn’t sailed with Norm in a few years, and I was looking forward to sailing with him again. As a bonus for Mary and John, Norm is one of the better sailing instructors I know, and I knew they would both learn a lot on this trip from the two of us.

After a quick run to the store for some final supplies, we cast off the docklines and headed north, up the Chesapeake. We had planned on leaving a bit before noon, hoping to catch the flood tide and have it help push us north to the C&D canal. It had been quite some time since any of us had done this particular trip—as I haven’t done a C&D canal passage in over 15 years, and for Norm it had been almost 10 years.

Leaving Chuck, s/v Patience Too and the Little Magothy River.

Motorsailing north to the C&C Canal.

Friday, we motorsailed for much of the day. The winds were fairly light from the south for much of it… so they did help a bit. We made the canal entrance about 1800 on Friday night. This made the approach easy, but would require us to transit part of the canal near dusk. Fortunately, s/v Felix was equipped with a Raymarine C80 and radar, which made keeping an eye out for other marine traffic much easier. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is fairly serpentine, and I didn’t remember it being so curved.

A buoy on the C&D Canal shows the strong following current.

Norm shows off his grilling skills while underway.

Friday night sunset on the C&D Canal.

Saturday—May 23

Once we got out of the canal and onto the Delaware River, keeping an eye out for barges and other large commercial traffic became even more important. Our goal was to make the Cape May canal entrance a bit before dawn. We were planning on waiting until after sunrise to actually enter the Cape May canal. The Cape May canal is fairly pretty. However, the bridges seem a bit worn and most of the traffic appears to be powerboats, rather than commercial shipping or sailboats

Saturday morning sunrise over Cape May, New Jersey.

Another view of the sunrise over the Cape May Canal.

An old railroad swing bridge on the Cape May Canal.

We made the mistake of stopping at Utsch’s Marina for fuel. Our plan was to get breakfast ashore there, fuel up, pump out the holding tank, and take showers… that wasn’t quite how it turned out. The marina staff there was surly and rude, and the marina doesn’t offer much in the way of services for people not actually staying in the marina. Boats visiting the fuel docks are only given access to a pair of rather disgusting Porta-Johns, rather than the actual restrooms. We decided to just get fuel, water and ice, and get out of there as quickly as possible. I would highly recommend not stopping their if you should be going through the Cape May canal.

Utsch’s Marina, which offers very little to the transient cruising boat.

Once outside Cape May, we had a decision to make. Originally, our plan was to go up along the New Jersey coastline, past Sandy Point, into New York City Harbor and go up the Hudson to the East River through the Hell Gate and out into Long Island Sound. Our other choice was to shoot straight for Block Island. Given the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend, and that it was also Fleet Week there, and there would probably be some restrictions on the movement of small craft through the harbor, we decided to go the offshore route.

Mary at the helm, on the bluewater leg from Cape May to Block Island.

Once we were headed offshore, we decided to kill the engine and unfurl the screacher. We were able to make about the same speed under sail as we had been doing under power, but with far less noise. There is a lot to be said for being able to sail, especially when on a delivery, and trying to make as much progress as possible.

Sailing with the main and screacher on s/v Felix, between Cape May and Block Island.

At night, we usually tuck in a reef in the mainsail. Tucking in a reef is generally a prudent measure, since trying to reef at night if the wind builds is generally more difficult than doing so before the sun goes down. As the wind died, we fired up the iron genny to keep our speed up a bit. Fuel was a consideration, since we were trying to avoid having to stop to re-fuel again before making Marion. The only real possible fuel stop would have been Block Island, and Block Island on Memorial Day weekend was also something to be avoided.

Norm rests up for his next watch.

John and I were on watch and the wind picked up a bit… so we unfurled the screacher once again, to try and conserve as much fuel as possible. John and I preferred to sail as much as possible.

Sunday—May 24

The winds on Sunday were rather light and fluky. We motorsailed for most of the day. As the day wore on, the fog would thicken and fall off… having the radar on was reassuring. We used the sails as much as possible, but the fog and light winds were not ideal. As we approached the eastern end of Long Island, heavy thunderstorms were reported in Long Island Sound, with hail, and possibly waterspouts. We were happy to be well off-shore with the bad weather fairly far to our northwest. However, the storms were headed southeast, so we might not get away completely free and Norm put a reef in the main and we made sure to have at least two wraps of the sheets on the roller furled genoa and screacher sails.

As we came abeam of Block Island, an interesting thing happened. I noticed heavy rain on the radar. Zooming out on the display, I saw that we had what appeared to be fairly heavy rains in all directions, but curiously, we were in the center of a relatively rain free bubble in the center of the radar screen. Seeing the heavy rain approaching on the radar, I battened down the hatches, closing off the cockpit door and pinning the port in it shut.

The cockpit of the Gemini is fairly well sheltered, and we had the starboard and aft portions of the cockpit enclosure that attaches to the hard top bimini and cockpit coamings up. Unfortunately, the storm appeared to be coming from the Northwest, which put it on our aft port quarter, where the enclosure was wide open.

The rain storms dissipating around on as seen on the radar.

We waited… and waited… and the rain free zone moved eastward with us… I could see the rain off in the distance, but the heavy rain never reached us. Apparently, the weather goddess was hard at work. Norm went off watch and John came on. One interesting thing that John hadn’t seen was how some buoys are also RAdio BeaCONs, or RACONs. The Narraganset-Buzzards Bay Approach buoy is one of these. It emits a Morse A on radar frequencies. The Buzzards Bay Entrance Light is another RACON.

An hour later it was time for me to go off watch. I woke Mary and went over the route and course for entering Buzzards Bay with both of them and headed off to sleep. When I woke the next morning, John and Norm were going over the approach to the northern end of Buzzards Bay. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, and we were headed up to where the route to Marion splits from that to the Cape Cod Canal, just south of Cleveland Ledge.

Monday—May 25

Sunrise over Buzzards Bay, on Memorial Day 2009.

As the sun rose, Norm and John turned north to head into Sippican Harbor. Norm pointed out that the Cleveland Ledge and Bird Island Lights form a range that marks the eastern boundary of the approach into Marion. The fuel dock for Burr Brothers is almost as far back in the harbor as you can go. I think s/v Felix will find her mooring quite sheltered.

Norm ties a spring line to s/v Felix at the Burr Brothers fuel dock.

While we were tied up to the fuel dock, we rinsed the boat down, fueled up and took showers. Elizabeth, Norm’s wife, was going to meet us for breakfast just a short walk down the street. After breakfast, we all returned to the boat and took her out to her new mooring. Burr Brothers runs a good launch service, but also has dinghy facilities for those preferring to use their own dinghy.

Getting a Crew Together

In the case of this particular delivery, John was fairly lucky. As Norm recently told me, getting sufficient crew together for a delivery is often difficult. Originally, the delivery crew for the Annapolis-to-Marion leg would have been John and Norm. The fact that John and I recently became friends helped, especially since I already knew Norm. For me, it was a bonus, since I was sailing with three of my friends. Norm is a very experienced sailor, and I am fairly experienced. John and Mary are less experienced, and having the mix of experience allowed us to usually have one of the more experienced sailors on each watch for some time.

Serendipity gave us a fourth crew member, as I asked Mary and Chuck if I could stay with them prior to leaving for the delivery trip. She was available and looking to get some experience, including night sailing, and asked if there was room for her aboard the boat. The fact that she also owns a Gemini was a bonus for John and her both. For John, it provided a resource on some boat specific issues that can crop up—like the sonic saildrive leg not retracting. For Mary, it gave her a wide range of experience on what is essentially her boat….while leaving s/v Patience Too for her husband to go sailing on.

John on the foredeck of s/v Felix on the approach to Sippican Harbor.

Night Watches

The watch system we used on the trip wasn’t a very rigorous one, but in general, the active watch consisted of two people on slightly staggered shifts, so that there was some continuity between watch rotations. This makes a lot of sense, if you have the people to do it, since it reduces the chances that something will drop through the cracks, like the tug and barge that one watch was keeping an eye on won’t be as easily forgotten about.

If you were on watch and had to leave the cockpit at night, a tether and harness was required. Doing a MOB recovery at night is really not much fun, and you really need to avoid it as much as possible. We had rigged jacklines both port and starboard. My recommendation for permanently rigged jacklines is to use 1/4″ or 5/16″ Spectra or Dyneema line with polyester tubular webbing over it. This gives you a very strong, low-stretch, jackline that is readily identifiable in the dark and won’t roll underfoot.

Reefing the main sail at sunset is generally a good idea, as I mentioned previously. While you might lose some speed, it is usually a good compromise between safety and speed to do so. Shaking a reef out in the morning is not all that difficult to do, and not having to go forward to reef if the wind picks up after dark is something most will appreciate.

Provisioning

First, prior to any passage, it is a really wise idea to get a list of any allergies your crew will have. In the case of this trip, one of our crew had a gluten allergy. Fortunately, Mike and Amy’s dock is about five minutes from a gluten-free specialty grocer, so provisioning the boat for this trip was relatively easy.

Also, checking the boat’s inventory of equipment would be wise. Given how thoroughly equipped Frank, s/v Felix’s former owner, had left the boat, we skipped this, and I was deprived of the pancakes that Mary had promised to make, since we did not have anything remotely resembling a spatula in the galley. Obviously, this is more an issue on a new boat or a delivery than it would be on your own boat.

Sanitation Systems

Because of the way the holding tank is setup on the Geminis, we were able to easily dump the holding tank while out past the three-mile limit. This is something I would highly recommend every boat be capable of doing, since as Utsch’s Marina proved, pumpout facilities aren’t always available where you expect them to be.

Shaking Down s/v Felix

Overall, s/v Felix performed like a champ. John got a pretty good idea of how his new boat handles and performs over a fairly wide range of conditions. We only had a couple small problems that John will need to deal with during the delivery run.

One issue was an electrical one that cropped up with the stern light. Fortunately, we were able to work around it, since s/v Felix is small enough that an all-around white light can substitute for the stern and steaming lights, and a tri-color can be used in place of the stern and bi-color lights.

The other issue was small leaks at some of the ports. My guess is that the dogs on those ports need to be adjusted, rather than it being anything more serious. Still, it was an issue that needs to be addressed shortly.

Tides and Currents

Planning the trip to take full advantage of the tide and currents was important. On most sailboats, which can only go 6-7 knots under power, having the current with you can give you a significant boost in speed, reduce the voyage duration and conserve considerable fuel. We were fairly fortunate on this delivery to have the tides and currents working for us almost the entire trip.

Norm checks the tide and currents one last time as we head north to the C&D Canal.

Weather Windows

It is important to keep a good eye on your weather window, whether you’re cruising or doing a delivery. The south side of Long Island and the New Jersey coast are both relatively poor areas, since neither has much in the way of accessible heavy weather harbors. If the weather forecast had be less favorable, we might have had to wait it out. However, with cell phones and NOAA VHF broadcasts, it was pretty easy to get a fairly decent idea of what our weather window for the next 24-48 hours would be.

As it turned out, we actually had far better weather by going offshore, since Long Island Sound got pretty badly hammered, and the water was cold enough to dissipate the storms before they could get out as far as us. Cold waters tend to depower and weaken most smaller storms.

On a sailing forum, the question of what tools should a boat have aboard came up. While the tool kit would vary, depending on what boat you have and what area you’re sailing in, as well as what kind of sailing you’ll be doing. If you’re just day-sailing or weekending, or sail on a landlocked lake, the tool kit below is probably overkill, and too much to carry on a regular basis.

However, if you’re sailing on the ocean, or on longer journeys, it would probably make sense to carry this kit, to minimize the number of problems that require external assistance. I believe the more self-sufficient a sailor is, the lower his cruising costs will be, and the safer passages will be. A fairly complete cruising sailor’s tool kit would include the following:

Mechanics Tools:

These are the tools generally needed to repair the mechanical systems, like the engine, and are used in repairing and maintaining most other systems on a boat.

• A Craftsman mechanics set—this includes both metric and imperial, since I’ve found on my boat there is a mix… the outboards use metric, the rest of the boat is pretty much imperial
• Several assorted visegrips
• Assorted screwdrivers, including torx, allen, flat and phillips blades
• A large set of channel locks
• A pipe wrench
• A hacksaw—with extra blades
• Some chisels—for both wood and metal
• A few drift punches
• An automatic centerpunch
• A small sledge
• A ball peen hammer
• A claw hammer
• Assorted files and rasps
• A set of calipers
• A tape measure
• A strap wrench
• An oil filter wrench
• An awl or ice pick

Electrical System Tools and Supplies:

These are tools and supplies that are specifically required to diagnose and repair electrical problems on a boat. Wire should be pre-tinned marine-grade stranded wire. Connections should be crimped with adhesive-lined heat shrink terminals.

• A digital multimeter
• An electrical terminal crimping tool
• A butane torch for heat shrink terminals
• Assorted heat shrink terminals
• Some assorted wire in red and yellow. 12 AWG is a very useful size, and can handle a fairly heavy load.
• Electrical tape, a good brand, like 3M
• Spare batteries for equipment aboard—I like the Energizer Lithium AA batteries for flashlights, due to the long use and shelf life
• Spare fuses for any used aboard—I like the mini-blade fuses. Try to standardize the boat to a few types as possible

Rigging Tools and Supplies:

These are the tools and supplies that are specific maintaining a sailboat’s rigging.

• Spare clevis pins, cotter rings and cotter pins
• Some small line, say 1/8-1/4″ for various repairs, lashings, messenger lines, etc.
• A sailmaker’s palm
• Spare sailcloth
• Sail repair tape
• Sailmaker’s needles
• Sail repair thread
• Some stainless steel rings
• Whipping twine
• Beeswax
• Stainless Steel Wire for mousing shackle pins
• A couple of spare blocks of the most common kind used on your boat
• A bosun’s chair
• A good awl
• A good pair of heavy duty scissors
• Extra shackles of the most common sizes used on your boat
• A full set of fids or similar rope-working tools—I prefer the Brion Toss Splicing Wands

A Maintenance and Repair Kit:

These are the supplies you need to re-bed hardware and do basic maintenance and repairs.

• 3M 5200 Fast Cure
• 3M 4000 UV
• A roll of Butyl Tape
• Lanocote
• Loctite (both red and blue)
• Boeshield T9—This is like industrial WD40.
• McLube SailKote
• PBlaster
• Heavy waterproof bearing grease
• An assortment of stainless steel screws, nuts and washers
• Some epoxy putty that sets underwater. Progressive Epoxy Polymers has some really good stuff.
• Some regular epoxy resin and hardener
• Some fiberglass cloth
• Some colloidial fumed silica (Cabo-sil) for thickening the epoxy
• Some disposable gloves—nitrile preferably
• Respirator mask
• Some mixing supplies—cups, containers, sticks, etc.
• Acetone
• Denatured Alcohol

A Plumbing Kit:

These are the supplies you need to keep the plumbing and water-related systems on the boat working properly.

• Teflon Tape
• Plumber’s Putty
• Rescue tape or some other self-fusing silicone tape
• A roll of duct tape
• Stainless steel hose clamps of various sizes—I prefer the AWAB or ABA brand, since they have rolled edges and no perforations in the band, making them less likely to damage the hose.
• Spare hose in the sizes and types you use aboard your boat.
• Wooden bungs in the sizes of the through-hulls aboard the boat—These should be made of softwood with a hole drilled through the fat end with a piece of light line through it to lash them in place and kept in a plastic bag to keep them dry until needed.

Spares and Extra Parts:

Carrying the proper spares will make simple repairs possible, turning what would otherwise be emergencies into relatively routine events.

• Spark plugs for your outboard motors
• Fuel and oil filters
• Impellers for the various pumps aboard
• Rebuild kits for the various pumps aboard, including the head
• Shear pins for outboard motor
• Props for outboard motors, or spare blades if using a composite prop like a Pirahna
• Spare banjo washers for the fuel system fittings

An Emergency Kit—for collisions and de-mastings:

These are really only necessary if going on extended passages.

• Bolt cutters or rigging cutter to cut the mast free
• A few large pieces of marine plywood
• Some epoxy putty that sets underwater. Progressive Epoxy Polymers has some really good stuff.
• A tarp or piece of sail cloth with grommets added to use as a temporary patch for larger holes
• Extra line, in various diameters and lengths
• A small sledge and drift punch to remove clevis pins quickly
• Fiberglass water curing repair tape
• Fiberglass cloth

Miscellaneous Tools I’ve found very useful:

While these aren’t really necessary, they can make life aboard a lot simpler.

• A mechanical pencil—0.5 mm is the most useful size
• An ultrafine tip Sharpie permanent marker
• A pocket multitool, like the Leatherman Core or Surge
• A cordless toolset including a drill, a sawzall, a jigsaw and a circular saw is often very useful
• A random orbital sander is very useful for prepping surfaces for painting, fiberglassing, etc.
• Battery lug crimping tool—the large bolt-cutter like ones, not the cheap hammer driven type.
• Several flashlights, including a headlamp
• A dremel rotary tool is often useful
• A set of taps and dies
• A set of bar clamps
• A pop rivet tool with aluminum and stainless steel rivets up to 3/16″ in diameter
• A Fein Multimaster—this is a recent addition to the toolkit, and seems to be a worthy one
• Loos Pro Tension gauges for your boat’s rigging

The above list is overkill if you’re just daysailing, or weekending, but if you’re coastal cruising it can make the difference between being able to get back or being stuck someplace. However, if you’re planning on venturing off-shore or to more remote areas, you would probably want to include it aboard.

There was a sailor asking me about his mainsheet setup on an on-line forum, and was thinking of using line clutches or line jammers for his mainsheet. I tried to explain that this was both unwise and dangerous. A line clutch or line jammer can take too long to release—and in the case of a main sheet, could result in a knockdown or broach.

Dealing with Dynamic Lines

Dynamic control lines, like sheets generally need to be released fairly quickly in an emergency. The best type of line control mechanism for dynamic control lines are cam cleats or clam cleats. Both clam cleats and cam cleats allow you to easily release the lines being held by them by lifting the lines upwards, out of them.

Cam cleats are often used for sheets and other dynamic control lines, since they can easily be incorporated into blocks, while still allowing fairly easy control of the line. Clam cleats are generally used for smaller lines, and are often seen on dinghies and on sails, where they’re used for leech lines.

Controlling Static Control Lines

Halyards, boom vangs, outhauls, topping lifts and furling lines are relatively static lines, since they aren’t generally adjusted very often. These are probably best controlled using line clutches or line jammers. However, line clutches are better than line jammers for heavily loaded lines, since some line jammers, as well as some poorly designed line clutches, can be difficult to release under load. Spinlock line clutches have this problem.

The best line clutches, in terms of performance and price, are probably the Lewmar line clutches. The use a different mechanism than most of the other line clutches, and seem to cause the least amount of abrasion to lines, as well as give you the most control when easing a heavily loaded line. However, the Lewmar line clutches have the narrowest working range, so your choices of line used are far more limited by them. One important point, if you use Lewmar line clutches—unlike most other brands, the handles on the Lewmars flip open towards the winches, not away…. if you’re used to most other brands, you might end up mounting the line clutches backwards, like my friend Craig did.

Cleats, Clutches and Jammers—What They Look Like

Spinlock PowerCleat

Good for many different kinds of lines, but can only deal with relatively low loads. They can substitute for cam cleats, or lightly loaded line clutches. Unlike a line jammer, the Spinlock PowerCleat has a positive release mechanism.

Cam Cleat

Good for sheets and other control lines that need to be released quickly. Often integrated into fiddle blocks and other block and tackle setups. The plastic jaw versions tend to be kinder to the line, but the metal jaw versions usually are more durable.

Clam Cleat

Good for sheets and other control lines that need to be released quickly, only for fairly small lines. Often found on sails for leech lines.

Jam Cleat

Often used with genoa sheets… not quite as quick to release as cam cleats or clam cleats. These are often used in place of regular cleats, which aren’t being discussed here, but don’t require a cleat hitch to hold the line under normal conditions. For safety’s sake, a cleat hitch should be used if extra security is required.

Line Clutch

Best choice for halyards and other relatively static lines. Usually available in single, double, and triple forms.  Line clutches generally have the highest load capacity of all the line control devices.

Line Jammer

Good for halyards and such, but often have a problem being released under high loads. Line clutches are a bit more sophisticated and a better choice for heavily loaded lines.

On one of the sailing forums I frequent, a poster asked about fender boards. For the cruising sailor, especially one that has to deal with slips that have rough pilings, concrete or stone seawalls or locks, fender boards can prevent a lot of damage to the boat and fenders.

The simplest fender board to make would be to take a piece of pressure treated 8′ long, 2×6 or 2×8 and drill a 1″ hole in the board about two inches down from one long side, and about a foot in. Then drill a 3/8″ hole through the side of the board so it ends in the 1″ hole.

Put a line through the hole and tie a stopper knot in the end. Run the free end (that comes out of the 3/8″ hole) through a fender grommet and a stopper knot just above the fender, so the board is roughly centered on the fender. Leave the rest for tying it to the boat. Then drill two more matching holes on the other long side of the board, and put a shorter piece of line in the hole, tying a stopper knot in the end. Tie the free end of that to the other end of the fender… keeping the fenders in position on the board.

The board will end up looking something like this:

Fenderboard Drawing

The fenders would be on the boat’s side of the board, and tied to the line that holds the fenderboard to the boat, and to the board itself, so they can’t shift or roll out of position too easily. This assumes you’re using fenders that look like this:

image courtesy of sailboatowners.com

Another option would be to make the line that goes into the bottom hole a bit longer, and run it through a fender that looks like this, and tie it to the line coming out of the top hole, that ties to the boat.

Image courtesy of Jimbuoy.com

The advantage of this is that the fenders can roll a bit, which might be a good thing.

One thing you have to do on boats is bed hardware. This has to be done on a regular basis, especially with hardware that is under heavy cycling loads, like cleats. However, using the right sealant can make this task much simpler.

Most people are familiar with silicone caulk, since it is the most commonly used type of caulk in normal household repairs. However, while certain Silicone-based bedding compounds are excellent for bedding ports, most of the time, silicone caulks really serves no useful purpose on a boat beyond bedding ports and covering the ends of cotter pins.

In most cases, on a boat, you want a sealant that will adhere to the two surfaces being joined—whether it is a through-hull and the hull or a cleat and the foredeck. The sealant should have a fair bit of elasticity so that it can stretch when the hardware moves or shifts under load without detaching from either side and breaking the seal.

For deck hardware and through-hulls, countersinking the fastener holes is probably one of the best things you can do, since it gives the sealant a natural place to form an o-ring like seal.

There are four major classes of bedding compounds/sealants used on a boat.

• Polyurethane-based sealants like 3M 4200 and 5200, SikaFlex 291, 292, 295, 296
• Polysulfide-based sealants like LifeCaulk and 3M 101
• Silicone-based sealants, like Dow 295
• Butyl Rubber Glazing tape—this is not butyl rubber caulk

Each of these sealants has specific pros and cons.

Polyurethane-based sealants are basically adhesives with sealant properties. They are often very permanent and have very strong adhesion strength, and can be used both above and below the waterline.

3M 5200, a polyurethane sealant commonly found in marine chandleries, is basically for all intents and purposes a permanent adhesive and should not be used on boats for the most part. 3M 5200 has a bonding strength so high that it can often cause delamination or damage the gelcoat when you try to remove hardware bedded with it.

However, polyurethane sealants have some of the best materials compatibility, so the less aggressive ones, like 3M 4200 are very useful. SikaFlex 291 and 292 are probably better choices, but usually more difficult to find. For bedding ports, Sika 295 or 296 can be used in place of Dow’s 795 Silicone.

Be aware that using a polyurethane sealant can make removing hardware much more difficult than using other sealants. There is a solvent, called DeBond 2000, which can be used to weaken the bond if you need to remove hardware that was bedded with 5200. One other issue with the polyurethane sealants is that they have a relatively short shelf-life, once opened. This is due to their being moisture curing compounds, and once exposed to the moist sea air… they start to cure…and you eventually end-up with a solid tube of cured sealant.

Polysulfide-based sealants are the best general purpose sealants for marine use. They are not as aggressively adhesive as polyurethane-based sealants and generally a bit more elastic and flexible. They can be used both above and below the waterline, like the polyurethane sealants, and are better than polyurethane-based sealants for hardware that has to be re-bedded more frequently.

Polysulfide-based sealants are excellent for bedding wooden items, like rubrails and cockpit coamings, since it adheres fairly well to teak. The fact that these items often need to be removed for periodic re-finishing makes it ideal IMHO.

The main drawback of polysulfide-based sealants is that they tend to attack many common plastics—most commonly acrylic and polycarbonate. They are safe to use on acetal, delrin, nylon, and marelon fittings though. If you’re not sure what the fitting is made of, don’t use polysulfide-based sealants with plastic fittings.

Silicone-based sealants aren’t really sealants IMHO. They’re really gasket materials, and need to have a minimum thickness and be kept under compression to work properly. Silicone-based sealants should only be used in above-the-waterline applications.

The only structural silicone sealant that I generally recommend is Dow 795. This is a structural adhesive which is generally recommended for bedding ports. It is not your common silicone caulk. However, beyond the very specific use of bedding acrylic* ports, it should not be used on boats.

Aside from bedding acrylic and polycarbonate ports, and certain plastic parts, like Beckson ports, and covering the exposed ends of cotter pins—it really has no place on a boat—primarily due to the residual silicone contaminants silicone can leave behind. These contaminants are almost impossible to remove thoroughly, and will prevent other sealants and paints from adhering to the surface properly. Even strong adhesives, like epoxies, have trouble bonding if the surface has silicone contaminants on it.

One other use of silicone is for sealing potable water tanks. However, I highly recommend that you use only NSF approved silicone sealants for potable water tanks and systems. These will not have any toxic components, unlike some of the other marine-grade sealants which may contain isocyanates.

Some silicone sealants are acid-curing and should never be used on metal. These are generally easily detectable by the strong vinegar smell caused by the acetic acid that is contained in them.

The last sealant is butyl rubber glazing tape. This may be one of the most versatile sealants you can use on a boat. However, it has the weakest adhesion and tensile strength and highest elasticity of any of the sealants. It is also the most easily affected by other chemicals, as it doesn’t cure like the other sealants do.

Unfortunately, many petrochemicals and common solvents will dissolve or damage it. Because of its sensitivity to petrochemicals, I generally don’t recommend it be used below the waterline.

It is great for bedding deck hardware, especially things like chainplates, where a certain degree of movement is unavoidable. It has the greatest materials compatibility of all the sealants and is also probably the least expensive of them.

One major advantage of butyl tape, since it doesn’t cure, is the working life. This makes it ideal for bedding things like traveler and genoa fairlead tracks. The lower physical strength of butyl tape generally isn’t an issue due to the large number of fasteners generally used on these tracks.

Other Sealants

Two other sealants of note for marine use are 3M 4000 UV and BoatLife’s LifeSeal.

3M 4000 UV is a polyether based sealant, and as such is generally fairly well suited for use with plastics. However, it is not recommended for below-the-waterline uses. It cures relatively quickly, as it is tack-free in under half-an-hour and cures in 24 hours or so.

BoatLife’s LifeSeal is a hybrid polyurethane/silicone sealant. As such, it isn’t as permanent as a pure polyurethane sealant, but is more an adhesive bedding compound than a pure silicone material. However, it still has many of the contamination issues that any silicone based sealant will have. It also is fairly inelastic, and IMHO, 3M 4000 UV is a better choice.

*Most marine ports should be made of cast acrylic, rather than polycarbonate, due to several physical characteristics that make polycarbonate less suitable. First, polycarbonate tends to deform under load, which can cause it to shear the adhesion of the glazing to the underlying sealant. Second, it is less scratch and UV resistant than acrylic. Third, it is more difficult to find polycarbonate in UV/scratch resistant versions in sizes thicker than 1/4″.

In my opinion, the greatest storm safety device ever created is the Jordan Series Drogue.

The JSD was the brainchild of Don Jordan, a retired aeronautical engineer, in response to the fatalities that were the result of the 1979 Fastnet disaster. I believe that the Jordan Series Drogue is a piece of gear that every sea-going small sailboat should have.

Don Jordan was an aeronautical engineer, who worked for Pratt and Whitney, eventually retiring from his position as chief engineer. He was also a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for many years. He was a pilot and a life-long sailor. Back when I was getting things setup for the s/v Pretty Gee, I spoke with Don Jordan a number of times regarding the Jordan Series Drogue. I was fortunate enough to get a personal recommendation for the drogue sizing for my boat from Don directly. Unfortunately, Don passed away last year.

What is a Jordan Series Drogue?

It is a safety device for small craft that consists of a long line with a series of small drag cones attached along its length. The JSD for the Pretty Gee consists of a 5/8″ line, 270′ long, with 130 small cones attached to it. It has 15′ of 5/16″ chain on the terminal end as a weight. It is connected to the boat by a bridle that is 45′ long. It looks like this:

Photo courtesy of Sail Magazine’s article on series drogues and sea anchors.

How Does a Jordan Series Drogue Work?

How the Jordan Series Drogue works is best explained by Don Jordan himself, on a website that he helped develop about the Jordan Series Drogue. Please visit the Jordan Series Drogue website to find out more about this ingenious device.

Who Makes the Jordan Series Drogue?

There are several ways to get or make a Jordan Series Drogue. First, you can get the materials and make them yourself. Buying a kit is often easier, if a bit more expensive. Both Ace Sailmakers and SailRite make and sell either the cones alone or complete kits, including the cones and double braid line, for making Jordan Series Drogues to cover a series of different size boats. Ace Sailmakers will also make complete drogues as well.

Why Use a Jordan Series Drogue, instead of a Parachute Sea Anchor?

Well, there are quite a few reasons to use a Jordan Series Drogue over a parachute sea anchor. Here are a few of the more important ones IMHO.

First, the Jordan Series drogue was developed and tested in conjunction with the US Coast Guard, and was specifically designed for helping small sailcraft survive in storm conditions, like those found during the 1979 Fastnet disaster that was Jordan’s primary motivation for developing the series drogue. It has been proven to work very successfully and protect boats using it from damage during its deployment.

Second, due to the change in boat design, most boats are far more stable when using a drogue than when using a sea anchor. Don Jordan has an interesting post about this on the Jordan Series Drogue site, and there is no reason to think that the forces that apply to a sailboat at anchor would not also apply to a sailboat lying to a sea anchor.

Third, the overall forces that are generated by a Jordan Series Drogue are lower and the peak shock loading forces that the boat is subjected to is far lower by design. The design of the JSD allows it to gradually increase the resistance applied to the boat as the rode becomes more heavily loaded—and doesn’t have the issues with collapsing and suddenly re-deploying a parachute sea anchor does.

Fourth, Don Jordan had no financial interest in selling or making the Jordan Series Drogue, as he put the idea and patents for it into the public domain after developing it. Some of the oft-cited information sources that tout the superiority of the parachute sea anchor type devices are a bit less than honest IMHO.

How to Install, Deploy and Retrieve the Jordan Series Drogue

Installing the JSD

Prior to setting off on a blue water passage, your boat should be outfitted with dedicated chainplates for the Jordan Series Drogue. These chainplates should be mounted fairly low and as far outboard and aft on the hull of the boat as possible. They should be tied into the structure of the boat as securely as the chainplates for the rigging.

The bridle should be about three times as long as the distance between the chainplates. If the transom is 12′ wide, the bridle for the Jordan Series Drogue should be about 36′. This should give you sufficient length for the splices and to terminate the bridle lines properly. Ideally, one end of the bridle should be an eyesplice that is connected to the eyesplice at the end of the drogue by running the bridle line through the drogue’s eyesplice and then through its own eyesplice so the bridle line forms a larkshead knot around the drogue line.

The other end should be spliced around a thimble and connected to the chainplate via a heavy shackle. Ideally, the bridle legs should be run through tubular polyester webbing to protect them from UV damage and chafe. These lines should be left permanently connected while on any bluewater passage.

The Jordan Series Drogue should be flaked into a bag or container, starting with the bridle end. This should leave the terminal end, with the weight, on top of the drogue line, and allow the drogue to be deployed by simple dropping the drogue’s terminal end into the water.

Deploying the Jordan Series Drogue

Make sure the drogue line is free and clear to run out before doing anything else, because as soon as you release the weight to deploy the drogue—you are committed to it… as the small cones will start to fill and increase the load on the drogue line. When conditions deteriorate to the point you feel the Jordan Series Drogue should be deployed, you should drop the weight and terminal end of the drogue into the water and let the drogue run out.

Check to see that the bridle legs lead fair and then head down below and batten down the hatches. If you’ve setup the chainplates, bridle and drogue properly, chafe should not be an issue. Don Jordan designed the series drogue to be an “ejection seat” for the sailor… where you deploy it and then wait for the ride to end. It shouldn’t require the crew to do much more than keep a watch. No active steering or other crew participation should be required once the series drogue has been deployed, allowing the crew to rest, eat, and restore themselves.

Retrieving the Jordan Series Drogue

This is one of the more difficult things to do. Don Jordan wrote:

I recommend that you deploy the drogue in fair weather to get a feel for the
launching and retrieval. You will need two winches and two helper lines. See website.

I mention this because one skipper recently cut the drogue loose after a
successful ride in a storm because he could not get it back — no excuse
for this . Don

Now, I’ve tried out my series drogue several times and came up with a pretty good solution for retrieving it. What you will need are the following:

• Two lines about twice the LOA of your boat, with a stopper knot tied in about two feet from one end, and one about halfway down the line.
• Two snatch blocks attached to the base of the bow pulpit

The procedure is to run the lines forward to the snatch blocks and back to the genoa winches. The winches should be free, since you probably won’t have any sail up if you’ve resorted to a Jordan Series Drogue.

1. Tie the end of the port line with the stopper knot to the series drogue rode with a rolling hitch. This will allow you to winch about a boat length of series drogue aboard the boat. Watch out and make sure you don’t snag the cones on anything while you’re winching it aboard.
2. Then tie the end of the starboard line with the stopper knot to the series drogue rode with a rolling hitch.
3. Next, go forward and untie the first line rolling hitch and bring it back to the cockpit.
4. Then winch in the second line, and tie the end of the port line to the series drogue rode again and repeat.

On most boats, the series drogue and bridle will be about a dozen boat lengths long or so. So, you only have to do this six times to retrieve it. It is even simpler if you’re sailing with a second person, since they can be moving forward and retrieving the lines, while you’re winching in the drogue. This method also minimizes the amount of time spent tying and untying the knots.

The Jordan Series Drogue and Trip Lines

I asked Don about using a trip line on the JSD… he did not recommend it. As he explained it, the problem is that if the trip line and the JSD rode twist, it could compromise the JSD by fouling the small cones and preventing them from opening properly.

When the boat is not in motion because of the waves, the JSD will usually extend nearly straight down from the stern of the boat. As the boat starts to move, the cones start load up as the road becomes more heavily loaded. When the JSD is vertical like that, it could easily twist and foul the trip line.

Multihulls have some advantages and disadvantages compared to monohulls, and a lot of how severe those advantages/disadvantages are depends on the exact design you’re looking at. Whether one will be suitable for your purposes depends a lot on what you’re trying to do.

For instance, a lot of the charter market catamarans have trouble sailing in light air and have trouble tacking. This is because these boats were designed with the charter market in mind and are fairly low performance designs, with smaller sailplans and relatively high windage to accommodate a floating condo interior.

Compare them to a high-performance cruising catamaran like a Chris White Atlantic 48 or Gunboat 48, and you’ll see some serious differences in the design and performance characteristics of the boats.

What are the advantages of a cruising multihull?

• They sail flatter, which means they’re more comfortable in many conditions and often safer. It is harder to fall off a 20’ wide catamaran that heels less than 10˚ than it is to fall off a monohull that is 12’ wide and heeling 25˚.
• They’re often faster than comparable LOA monohulls
• They often haver far more cabin space than comparable LOA monohulls
• They generally have a quicker motion than monohulls—which some people tolerate better
• They’re often designed to be close to unsinkable, since the materials they’re made of are often lighter than water.
• They often can gunkhole and sail/anchor in shallower waters than comparable LOA monohulls due to having relatively shallow draft.

Disadvantages of multihulls:

• They can’t support as much food, water, cargo or equipment as monohulls of equal LOA.
• They’re more weight sensitive than monohulls—when you’re carting around several tons of lead, what does a couple hundred more pounds of gear matter.
• Badly designed ones don’t sail well in light winds or tack well.
• Badly designed ones generally don’t sail faster than comparable LOA monohulls
• They don’t self-right—however, monohulls sink—this is basically a wash, with an advantage to the multihull, since I’d rather be on a floating upside down boat, than a boat that is right-side up and sitting on the bottom of the ocean

Myths:

There is a long-standing myth that multihulls can’t sail to windward or tack well. This is obviously false. The Polynesian islanders explored most of the southern Pacific, and much of it to windward. Also, Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes pretty much put the whole idea that multihulls can’t point and can’t tack to bed.

There’s also a myth that catamarans or trimarans are less expensive boats than monohulls of comparable LOA. That’s basically pure crap. Think about it, you’re building two or three hulls and the structures to connect them. A multihull can often be a less expensive boat for a given performance specification, but given the same LOA, the multihulls are generally more expensive, not less.

As an example, my relatively slow cruising trimaran often passes 40’ monohull sailboats. The monohull sailboats that are as fast as my 28’ trimaran are many times the cost of it. However, compared to some of the boats with comparable LOA, it is probably slightly more expensive.

Then there’s the myth that multihulls aren’t seaworthy. This is also pure crap. A properly designed and constructed multihull is very seaworthy. If you don’t believe that, see the most recent speed records for sailing around the world and see what they were set by. Most of them are set by trimarans. This myth comes from the period when many were home-built, using cheap materials and poorly constructed. Many of the multihulls from that time were and are junk.

Different types of multihulls:

There are basically three types of common multihulls. They are the proa, the catamaran and the trimaran.

The Proa:

The least common of these is the proa. A proa is a boat that consists of a main hull with a single smaller outrigger.

There are two types of proas. The Pacific Proa, called that since it was developed and is traditional to the Polynesian Islands, has a ballasted outrigger or ama that is kept to windward. The Atlantic Proa uses a single outrigger or ama that is kept to leeward—essentially a trimaran without the windward ama.

Most do not have a bow or stern in the traditional sense, since the outrigger is kept to windward or leeward all the time. The boat is not tacked, but shunted, where what was formerly the bow becomes the stern and the rudder is moved from one end of the boat to the other.

Generally, the Pacific proa has a crab-claw sail and the mast, by design is in the center of the main hull. A crab-claw sail looks very much like an oversized lateen rig with a boom added. The Atlantic Proa often has more traditional sail plans.

The Pacific Proa generally has the least cargo carrying capacity of all the multihull designs. The Atlantic Proa has a bit more cargo carrying capacity, but usually less than a trimaran due to having fewer hulls.

The Catamaran:

Catamarans are boats that have two equal size hulls and a bridgedeck connecting the two hulls. The hulls are often asymetrical mirror images of each other and can have shallow keels, centerboards, daggerboards or a combination of keel and board of some sort. They generally have dual rudders, one on each hull, and in the case of large cruising catamarans, often have dual engines and props.

Catamarans, generally, have the most space of the common sailing designs—monohull, catamaran and trimaran. However, they are weight sensitive, and utilizing all the stowage space they provide can hinder the boat’s performance.

Many people are first introduced to catamarans in the form of sport beach cats, like the Hobie Cat. This is somewhat misleading, as the characteristics of a beach sport cat and a cruising catamaran are very, very different. A sport cat has a very high sail area to displacement ratio and is extremely easy to capsize. They go like a bat out of hell, and capsize if you look at them cross-eyed. A cruising catamaran, especially the larger ones have extremely high initial stability and righting moments and are very, very difficult to capsize if sailed properly.

There are basically two different schools of thought for cruising catamarans. The first is like those designed by James Wharram, one of the catamaran design pioneers. Most of his catamarans have little or no structure on the bridgedeck that connects the main hulls. In many cases, his boats are designed with two hulls that are connected together in a somewhat flexible manner. All of the accommodations are in the two hulls.

These boats often have fairly decent sailing characteristics, since they don’t generally have the windage created by a bridgedeck cabin. Stars & Stripes was designed much along these spartan lines, but with a very rigid bridgedeck and hull structure for performance reasons.

The other school of thought is the solid bridgedeck design with a cabin over the bridgedeck. This can be taken to extremes that result in very poor performing boats. However, most modern catamarans come from this school of thought. Compromises have to be made to balance performance and accommodation. Things like sufficient bridgedeck clearance, beam, cabin height, draft, and such are all important and need to be balanced depending on the design’s intended use.

Some boats have a solid bridgedeck from bow to stern. However, this is less common in modern designs, since having an open design for the forward third of the bridgedeck seems to have significant benefits—so you’ll generally see some form of nets or trampolines forward of the main cabin on many more modern designs.

The beam of a modern catamaran is often 50-60% of the LOA. Generally, the smaller the LOA the higher the beam to length ratio is, but there are exceptions, like the Tony Smith designed Geminis, which have a relatively narrow 14’ beam. This was done to help allow the Geminis to be kept in a single slip, rather than requiring them to use two slips or an end slip.

One major issue with catamarans is the rig. Unlike Trimarans and Proas, the catamaran doesn’t have any hull to anchor the mast to. This means that the bridgedeck has to be engineered to withstand the loads caused by the mast. On some smaller, often home-built, catamarans, this issue is avoided by equipping the catamaran with a bi-plane rig, where the boat has two masts, with one located in each hull.

Most catamarans are sloop or cutter rigged.

The Trimaran:

The trimaran consists of a large main hull and two smaller outriggers. Often, the outriggers or amas, have sufficient buoyancy to float the entire vessel in and of themselves. The hulls on a trimaran tend to be fairly long and narrow, and as such, the trimaran often has the least space of the three common designs, less than monohulls of equal LOA. They also tend to be more weight sensitive than catamarans and monohulls.

The trimarans are basically divided into two categories, IMHO. There are racing designs and cruising designs. The racing designs are often designed to have one of the two amas airborne when under sail. They’re often very light and very fast, with little in the way of amenities. The cruising designs generally aren’t designed to have any of the hulls leave the water, and are a good deal slower due to the greater wetted hull surfaces.

A good example of the two different design philosophies are the Corsair 28 and the Telstar 28. The Corsair 28 is about the same LOA as the Telstar, but has a much smaller and lighter cabin. The Corsair 28 doesn’t have standing headroom in its cabin, and is designed with a portapottie and camping stove as standard accommodations. The Telstar 28 on the other hand has almost 6’ of headroom throughout most of the cabin, a head with holding tank, and a proper propane stove/broiler, optional refrigerator and sink. The Telstar also has a bit less sail area than the lighter Corsair 28. One is clearly a racer and the other a cruiser.

Of the cruising trimarans, there are basically two different schools of thought. One, like the older Jim Brown designed Searunners, has accomodations in the wingdecks that connect the main hull to the amas. These boats are far heavier and have much more windage than the more modern designs, like the Chris White Hammerhead 54, which has all the accommodations in the main hull. There are some boats that bridge these two designs, like the Dick Newick designs, which have much smaller solid wingdecks with very limited accommodations and space contained within.

Trimarans, often have better sailing and performance characteristics than do catamarans. They generally sail a lot more like monohulls, since they heel a bit more and can often pivot on their main hull.

Many of the smaller sport designs, like the Corsairs and the Telstar, fold to allow them to be trailerable without disassembly. However, the folding design generally sacrifices interior space.

The beam on most trimarans is about 60-75% or so, but there are extreme examples, like BMW-Oracle’s new trimaran which has essentially a square footprint, with a beam to length ratio of 100%.

Most trimarans are sloop or cutter rigged. Some use rotating wing-masts, but many do not. Some are ketch or yawl rigged. Most use stayed masts, and take advantage of the wider staying base of the multihull design. Some use an unstayed free-standing mast design, but these are not that common.

Multihull Construction:

One thing I’d point out is that the scantlings on multihulls is very different from that of monohulls. Multihulls are often lighter in construction in some ways, due to the lack of need to haul around several tons of ballast. There are basically two different methods of constructing modern multihulls generally.

Cold Molded Wood Composite

The first is what Chris White and the Gougeon brothers have done. That is cold-molded laminated wood composite construction. This generally consists of laying up multiple, very thin layers of wood and laminating them together using epoxy. The wood is often finished off by a covering of fiberglass to give it some added durability, but the bulk of the strength is in the cold molded lamination of the wood, not the fiberglass skin, which is effectively just a surface treatment.

Cold-molded wood composite boats tend to be very rigid and fairly light. One major advantage of cold-molded wood composite is the very high fatigue resistance that the wood construction provides. Properly built, these hulls are almost as low maintenance as a fiberglass hull.

Cored Fiberglass Laminate

The second is cored laminate construction. The most common core materials are PVC foams like Divinylcell and Airex, and end-grain balsa, like Contourcore. In this construction, the strength of the material is the fiberglass or composite skins, and the core adds to the strength and lightness of the laminate.

This is not the same thing as the cold-molded wood composite that I mentioned previously—the main difference being the thin veneers of wood used in the previous method are essentially encapsulated and thoroughly saturated in epoxy, which is not the case with cored fiberglass construction—where the resin is only used to bind the skin to the core material, but does not generally saturate the core material.

Highly loaded areas are often given additional strength via the use of carbon fiber or kevlar. The hulls are often given an inner layer of kevlar to increase the puncture resistance.

Unsinkability

Most modern multihulls, due to the two methods of construction mentioned above, are fairly buoyant and because of the lack of heavy ballast, generally lighter than water over all. If you combine the overall buoyant materials used in constructing the modern multihull with multiple hulls, often with multiple, independent water-tight compartments—you basically end up with an nearly unsinkable boat. I’d point out that

There’s a brand new sailing forum online now called Anything Sailing.

It was founded by three sailors that were tired of seeing threads about faulty products censored.  One of the sailors is a good friend of mine and sails a custom 42′ racing sailboat with a 10′ draft.  The other two I know from other on-line forums, and are pretty good people.

I hope you’ll give the forum a shot.  It’s been up about a week now, and already has over 200 members.  Not too bad for a forum that’s been growing only by word of mouth. It has a pretty good base of threads already, including some excellent posts by another friend of mine, Maine Sail, whose work puts most of the professional publications to shame.

As usual, I’d like to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine’s Day.

I’d also like to wish Gee a happy birthday, and remember the very special woman I married on this day.  I still think that Woo, Gee’s best friend, said it best:

Yet we get to know her and love her and be loved by her….how privileged are we.

This come from an e-mail I wrote Woo in November of 2001.

Dear Woo—

The real problem is Gee is the best person I’d ever met.  It is as simple, and no more profound, than  that.  We were a perfect fit for each other.  She was warm, and thoughtful, and funny.  She could make me laugh when no one else could.  That I found her, really convinced me that it isn’t all just random chance, but that there is such a thing as fate.  From the first time I heard her voice, I knew that I loved her and always had—I knew that I had found what I had been looking for all my life.  I never felt as comfortable around a person as I did with Gee…no need to pretend I was someone I wasn’t…no need to hide who I really was.  She loved me perfectly—even for all my imperfections—with out any conditions or reasons.

Her fierceness and strength were two of the things I loved most about her.  She was a sweet, funny, intelligent and beautiful person.  She could be stubborn and frustrating—and she did things that drove me crazy—but I wouldn’t have changed a thing.  The thing that really showed me how much strength she had was the day after her surgery in May of last year.  She had been in surgery for nine-and-a-half hours…and yet, the next day she got up out of bed and walked.

I’ve never been so lost before, not even when my twin died.  I never ever thought that I would miss someone more that my identical twin…but that was before I met Gee.  The pain inside is like someone stabbed an icicle into my heart.  The real anger and sadness I feel for Gee isn’t for me—or even for my loss of her–but for the unfairness of what happened to her—that she had to go through all the pain and suffering.  I would give anything for just one more day with her but I know that’s just not possible.  The greater sadness I feel is for all the people that never got a chance to meet her.

Although the time we had together was really quite brief…in many ways our love and life together was like the light of a magnesium flare…something that is so pure, bright and perfect—even from the beginning–the brightest, whitest and purest light..and for the short time it exists it only grow brighter….but then fades to darkness…  I know that many people spend all of their lives searching for a love like that and never find it, and in that at least, I am luckier than most.  Even with all the hardships of her illness, we both made the best of what we had together.

I wish I had more photos of Gee and me.  I also wish that she had written me more…but writing letters was never her strong point. I also wish I could really know if I had done everything I could.  I guess I still have doubts whether I did everything right or not.  I also wish we had had just more time together…there are so many things we still wanted to do…

It has been almost eight years since Gee has been gone, and over seven years since I wrote the words above, yet they still describe how I feel perfectly.  If you are new to reading my blog, I would recommend you read my Life with Gee pages to understand who Gee was, and how lucky I was to have her in my life.

Right now, I’m heading off to the marina check on the boat that I named after Gee.

My friend Dave found this photo on an archived drive of his.  Its the first photo I took of Gee from back when we had just gotten engaged.  It was taken in her apartment in Seattle, right after we drove cross country in September 1999. This was great because I didn’t have a copy of this photo due to a hard drive crash about three weeks later.

Gee and Dan at Gee’s new apartment in Seattle.

Recently, I wrote a post on a sailing forum about the 25 Watt solar panel I added to the s/v Pretty Gee to act as a maintenance charger for the boat, while it is stored on the hard for the winter. On one of the forums, I was asked if a charge controller was needed. I thought I’d write a post that includes a modified copy of my response to the question here, as an expanded article on solar power on boats in general.

Solar Power on Boats

On many cruising sailboats there is a need for passive electrical generation of some sort. The need for passive electrical generation is obvious—there are power requirements for any boat that is in use—refrigeration, radio, lighting, etc. While these electrical needs could be met using a generator or running the engine, it really doesn’t make much sense to do so, as the long-term costs of doing so, in fuel and maintenance, are much higher than if passive generation methods are used. Using a generator or the boat’s engine will require the boat to re-fuel more often, which is not always desirable or even possible on longer cruises. A good passive electrical generation system will make the boat far more self-sufficient.

There are three forms that passive electrical generation on a small cruising sailboat can take: wind, water and solar generation—and of these, only solar and wind are of use when at a dock, mooring or at anchor. In this article, I’m only going to be discussing solar generation.

Types of Solar Panels

There are basically three types of solar panels, which I generally group in to two distinct categories.

The first category are the rigid panels—which include both the mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline types of solar panels. These are characterized by having individual cells that are linked in series and mounted in a rigid frame with a glass protective cover. Mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline panels are generally much more efficient than the second category of panels—semi-rigid or flexible panels.

The second type are the semi-rigid or flexible solar panels—which are also known as amorphous silicon solar panels. These types of panels are often called thin-film panels, since the panels are made by depositing a thin film of silicon onto conductive substrate and creating the solar panel from that. There is no crystalline structure to the silicon used in making these panels. These panels are usually semi-rigid—often made using a stainless steel sheet as the base layer—but there have been flexible versions of them as well. They are often durable enough that they can be walked on, with some care. They do not have individual cells, a rigid frame or a glass cover and are much less efficient than their rigid cousins. However, in low-light and shaded conditions, they do tend to perform better.

What Kind of Panels Should I Use

On most smaller sailboat, the rigid panels are generally used. This is often due to a lack of space, and needing to get the greatest amount of power generation for the space used. These panels are often mounted above dinghy davits on the stern of the boat, or on top of the bimini or dodger.

Larger boats, especially some of the big racing boats, often use the semi-rigid panels, as they are more durable, and the boats are large enough to use the less efficient panels. These semi-rigid panels are often mounted right on the cabin top, as they are durable to walk on to a limited degree.

Some boats use a mix of semi-rigid and rigid panels. However, if you do this, the panels should be grouped by type, with separate charge controllers for the two different types, due to the differences in the panel sensitivity under different lighting conditions.

Do I Need a Charge Controller

Chances are more than likely that you’ll need a charge controller, unless you’re using a very small 5-10 Watt maintenance type panel.

The basic rule of thumb is that if the panels approximate daily output is more than 1/60 of the bank’s rated amp-hour capacity, then a charge controller is probably necessary so that the panel doesn’t boil off the batteries.

For example, a 25 Watt panel puts out about 1.39 amps. The daily output is about 6.95 amps. So, unless your battery bank is larger than 417 amp-hours in size…you would need a charge controller. This is especially the case if you’re using AGM or Gel type batteries. However, using a charge controller makes a lot of sense for two major reasons.

First, they will protect the batteries from discharging back into the solar panels at night. Solar panels, unless connected using a blocking diode—which drops their effective voltage output about a volt—will discharge the batteries at night. Using a charge controller basically prevents this from happening, and not needing to use a blocking diode increases the effective output of the panel.

Second, a charge controller will also help protect and condition the batteries as they charge them. A battery goes through three phases of charging—bulk, absorption and float—as the charge level of the battery changes. An intelligent charge controller—like the FlexCharge NC25a, will manage the panels output, which can be as high as 20 volts on a shade-resistant panel, and drop it down to the voltage levels required by the battery—depending on what the charge state the battery is at. Many of these can also help condition the batteries. Some charge controllers even have the ability to “equalize” the batteries. Some are pulse-width modulation based. Others, like the NC25a, are not.

Types of Charge Controllers

First, there are dumb charge controllers. Don’t waste your money on these—they’re just not worth it. These usually use just a relay or shunt transistors to vary the voltage levels, and most only can do one or two-stage charging. They basically short the panel out when the batteries are “fully charged”.

Second, there are three-or-four stage smart charge controllers, like the NC25A I mentioned above. It is a non-PWM (pulse width modulation)-type three-stage intelligent charge controller and it looks like this.

Photo of a Flexcharge NC25A charge controller, courtesy of FlexCharge

Companies, like Morningstar, make PWM-based three-stage charge controllers that are comparably priced. There are debates as to which charging method is better. I have used and like the NC25a, and keep the one I own on the boat as a backup if my MPPT charge controller fails.

Third, are the MPPT-type charge controllers. These are the best of the breed. Morningstar, BlueSky, and Outback make versions that are suitable for marine use. The major difference between an MPPT-type charge controller and a PWM-type three-stage charge controller is intelligence, as most of the MPPT-type charge controllers are based on a three-stage PWM-type controller core. MPPT charge controllers do this by trading voltage for amperage, or amperage for voltage. Using an MPPT charge controller will often yield a 15-30% increase in efficiency for your solar panel charging system. The FlexCharge NC25A was replaced by a BlueSky SB2000E MPPT-type charge controller. You’ll see why in a second.

Why Use an MPPT-type Charge Controller?

Very simply put, an MPPT-type charge controller will increase the efficiency of your solar panel system. This may allow you to be more self-sufficient, and reduce your need to run the engine or a generator. It may allow you to get by with a smaller solar panel array than you could otherwise.

It does this by making more efficient use of the electricity generated by the solar panels and minimizing the amount that is wasted as heat. What follows are two examples of how an MPPT-type charge controller can increase the effective output of a solar panel.

An example*: Normally a 25 Watt panel will be outputting 1.39 amps at 18 volts. 18 volts is too high for the batteries to charge with, since bulk charging requires only 14.4 volts. With a normal three-stage controller, the excess voltage is shed as heat—that’s why the charge controllers heat up so much. 18-14.4=3.6 volts—3.6 volts * 1.39 amp = 5 watts. So you’re losing about 5 watts out of 25 watts to heat.

With a MPPT-type controller, it uses a high-frequency DC-to-DC converter to drop the voltage down to 14.4 volts, but increases the amperage to 1.74 amps at the same time. So, instead of getting 6.95 amp-hours from the panel for the day, assuming about five hours of full output, you get 8.70 amp-hours, or a 25% effective increase in amp-hours to the batteries. This makes a lot of sense, since you’re basically recovering the 5 watts that was being lost to heating the three-stage, non-MPPT, charge controller.

Another thing most MPPT-type controllers will do is trade amps for volts, if necessary.

An example*: If the panel is partially shaded, the output voltage on it will drop. Say the output drops to only 12 volts, at 1.39 amps, because a third of the panel is shaded. Normally, this would just be lost as the three-stage controller can’t use it to charge the battery, which requires 14.4 volts to charge. Some MPPT-type controller will take the 12 volts at 1.39 amps and convert it to 14.4 volts at 1.16 amps. Now, instead of getting ZERO amp-hours, due to insufficient voltage to charge the batteries, you’re now getting 5.8 amp-hours for the day. Not too bad, is it??

How Large an Array Do You Need?

The size of the array you need really depends on what your purpose in having solar panels is. The three typical setups are maintenance, charging and self-sufficiency.

Maintenance

Some people just want a small maintenance charging system to keep the batteries topped off when they’re away from the boat—usually so they don’t need to leave a shorepower system connected and running. This type of usage is going require the panels be sized according to the basic losses of the unoccupied boat.

Typically, the loads that this type of panel has to make up for are the bilge pump, the internal self-discharge of the batteries, the memory feature on the electronics, etc. The bilge pump and the self-discharge are probably the biggest considerations. If the boat is a well-kept, dry boat, then the bilge pump usage should be minimal. The self-discharge losses can be as high as 1% of the battery bank capacity per day in warmer climates for wet-cell batteries.

In general, the maintenance panels are 30 Watts and under in size, unless the boat has an extremely large battery bank. Going with AGM or gel batteries can reduce this significantly, as they self-discharge far less than wet-cell batteries.

For instance, say the boat has a stereo that draws .01 amp per hour for the memory feature, and a small maintenance bilge pump that draws 6 amps per hour, which typically runs for about 30 minutes per day. The house battery bank is a 450 amp-hour bank consisting of four T105 six-volt golf cart batteries. The daily losses would be .24 amp-hours for the stereo, 3 amp-hours for the bilge pump and 4.5 amp-hours for the batteries. or 7.74 amp-hours total. The average solar panel can give you approximately five hours at its full rated amperage, so we need 7.75 amp-hours/5-hours or 1.55 amps per hour from the panel. A 25 watt solar panel can generate about 1.7 amps per hour, which gives us a bit of extra capacity to account for the less than perfect days, and should handle the maintenance requirements for the boat under most conditions.

Charging

Often, similar to the maintenance charging setups, people who mainly sail on the weekends and keep the boat on a unpowered dock or at a mooring, will want a solar panel setup that can top off the batteries over the course of the week so that the boat is ready to go for the weekend. This setup requires a bit more in the way of calculations, since you need to estimate what your average weekend usage is, and add that to the basic losses covered by a maintenance type setup.

What you’ll really need to do to start with is figure out what your realistic daily electrical budget is. The daily electrical usage can be expressed in amp-hours, since the voltage for the system is usually fixed at 12 or 24 VDC. So, you take the amperage a piece of equipment uses, and multiply it by the average amount of time you’re going to use it per day. Add all the amp-hours to get a rough daily usage.

Generally, the biggest users of electricity are electronics–like laptops, radios, TV—lights, and refrigeration. Underway, your instruments and running lights become factors. I recommend doing separate budgets for underway and at anchor/mooring/docked. Use whichever of the two numbers is higher as the base number for your calculations.

If you’re planning on being out for a weekend. you’d want to have the solar panel daily output be roughly 1/3 your daily usage, so that the panels can recharge the batteries over the course of the week. Say your weekend usage is as follows:

• Anchor light two nights—2 amps x 20 hours,
• vhf radio in receive mode for 12 hours—12 hours x 1 amp,
• Engel MT27 refrigerator for two days, 25% cycle time at 2.3 amps or 12 hours x 2 amps,
• two cabin lights for four hours each night or 4 hours x 4 amps,
• Stereo for nine hours or 9 hours x 2 amps
• GPS for 12 hours or 12 hours x .5 amps.
• ST1000 autopilot for six hours or 6 hours x 1 amp, and
• running lights for three hours or 3 hours x 4 amps.

This assumes you’re sailing about six hours each day, using running lights for about quarter of the sailng time, using the autopilot for about half the sailing time, and staying up about four hours past sunset each night. This also assumes you’re not motoring for any significant period of time.

This gives you a total of 134 amp-hours for both days or 67 amp-hours per day. This means your panels need to generate about 25 amp-hours per day or roughly five amps per hour. Five amps x 15 volts is 75 watts. That means you need about an 80 watt solar panel. I’ve rounded up to give the system a bit extra charging capacity and because 80 watt panels are very common, and to help account for the maintenance losses seen above.

Self Sufficiency

If you’re planning on cruising long-term, you’ll probably want to be as close to completely self-sufficient as possible when it comes to electrical usage. Unless you’re very lucky, you’ll probably need a combination of wind and solar to do this. Given the daily usage from above, which will tend to be a bit high, as most cruising sailors are at anchor a majority of the time, and the running lights and autopilot aren’t in use at anchor. This is offset slightly by the fact that when they are on a passage, they are sailing 24×7, and will be using the autopilot or a wind vane a good deal more than a weekend coastal cruiser.

They would need to generate about 70 amp-hours per day, based on the 67 amp-hours calculated above. This number is probably a bit high for most smaller sailboats, as LED-navigation and cabin lighting can really help reduce the electrical demands. 70 amp-hours works out to about 14 amps per hour, given the five hour average full output. 14 amps x 15 volts = 210 watts. Two 130 watt panels will provide a good cushion, since each is capable of providing about 9 amps per hour, especially if the system is built around an MPPT-type charge controller. Adding a wind generator to this setup would give the boat charging capability for overcast or stormy days.

*Please note: these are simplified examples that assume a few things, like no charging or MPPT-controller losses, but will give you a good idea of what is going on.

Where to Mount the Solar Panels?

Solar panels really need to be mounted where they will have a minimum of shading.  Shading drastically cuts the power output of monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels, but does not affect amorphous silicon thin-film panels as much.  Ideally, the panels will be mounted somewhere they will be out of the way of the boat’s lines and equipment during sailing—so that the panels do not have to be de-mounted when you want to sail, and located in an area that is relatively free of shading.

The main cabin top is generally a lousy location for solar panels.  The rigging, the mast, the boom and the sails all create shadows over the cabintop to some degree.  The foredeck has similar issues and the panels are generally in the way of the genoa sheets.  On center cockpit boats, the aft cabin top is often a good location for solar panels, unless there is a mizzen mast.

Another good location is on top of the cockpit bimini—which is often a good out of the way location that allows a fairly sizeable solar array to be mounted.  However, this requires that the boom be fairly high above the bimini, or the boom has a good chance of seriously damaging the solar panels. On my boat, the boom just barely clears the bimini—so it would not be a feasible location for me.

A third location that often works is on the stern rail or arch, or dinghy davits.  This is usually unshaded and out of the way. Again, if the boat has a mizzen mast, this is likely not going to be ideal.  On larger boats, the davits or arch can support several large panels with ease.  However, some boats use the stern arch for the mainsheet traveler, which would exclude them from having a solar panel array located there.

On multihulls, you will often have a few more options that aren’t available on a monohull.  On my boat, the solar panels mount to rails that run between the amas and the cockpit pushpit railings.  This keeps them out of the way for the most part, and fairly clear of shading. Currently, I have one 130 Watt panel mounted to the starboard side of the boat, and it can keep up with the refrigerator and other normal use.  I also have a smaller 25 Watt panel mounted to the cockpit railing which was used as a maintenance panel over the winter.  I will be adding a second 130 Watt panel to port later this year.

This winter, I decided to store the s/v Pretty Gee outdoors.

Since my marina doesn’t allow you to keep a boat plugged in, I decided to add a small solar panel to keep the batteries topped off, so I ordered a small 25-Watt panel from Harbor Freight.  While I have two large solar panels, I felt that they were overkill for what is basically maintenance charging, and they require the amas to be extended to mount them.

I had some rail mounts similar to the kind I used for the large panels, and used them to mount the panel to the port side cockpit rail.  With the MPPT charge controller, I’ve been getting over 1.8 amps per hour in the middle of the day with the small panel—or about 9 amp-hours a day.  For the sailing season, I think I’m going to keep this small panel on the top of the stern arch.

Here’s a photo of the setup.

25-Watt Maintenance Solar Panel Setup

Currently, I am reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. I am about halfway through the book.  Thus far, this is a fascinating book that takes a look at America’s modern food supply chain and how it has been corrupted by the oil, chemical, pharmaceutical industries and government intervention because of political, corporate and military reasons.

The first part of the book deals with the highly-efficient monoculture production of corn in this country and how unnatural the production process is. Pollan examines how corn became so important that we should subsidize growing it in spite of all the environmental problems a corn-based agricultural system causes. Pollan looks at the unmentioned externalities that America’s industrial food supply chain has imposed and the costs to the environment, the planet, the health and well-being of the American people, which never seem to be mentioned in the mass media.

An interesting analysis of a McDonalds dinner for his family of three shows how prevalent corn has become in the modern diet of highly processed foods.  The meal, which consisted of a Cobb salad with Caesar dressing, a classic cheeseburger, two orders of large fries, a large coke, an order of Chicken McNuggets, a double-thick vanilla shake, and a dessert of freeze-dried ice cream pellets, based on mass spectrometer analysis, broke down as having corn as the primary ingredient in some form as follows:

Soda—100%, milk shake—78%, salad dressing—65%, chicken nuggets—56%, cheeseburger—52%, and french fries—23%.

The soda is primarily high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), so that really isn’t a big surprise.  The milk shake has a large portion of HFCS as well as cellulose, probably derived from the corn plant as well. Many of the clearly artificial components of the salad dressing, like Xanthan Gum, and such are derived from the corn plant.  The chicken nuggets use binders, emulsifiers and the breaded coating are predominantly derived from corn-based products.  The cheeseburger is rather surprising, but the beef is most likely corn fed, and the cheese and bun probably have significant corn-based ingredients as well.  The french fries get most of their corn content from the oil they are fried in. Considering that human beings are omnivores, that’s a disturbingly high proportion of our diet that is derived from a single plant.

The second section of the book focuses on a small alternative agriculture farm in Virigina, while taking a brief look at the gigantic organic industrial farming system that has arisen.  The Polyface farm is beyond organic in many ways.  Unfortunately, the holistic farming practices used by the Salatin family do not scale to fit the larger industrial farms in many ways.

The look at Salatin’s Polyface farm, which features a nearly closed cycle of great biodiversity contrasts greatly with that of the corporate-based monocultural systems of corn, beef, pork and poultry seen in the first section.  Where Salatin’s farm recycles the waste from the livestock, and uses it to enrich the environment of his farm and the livestock and land therein—the waste from the industrial concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) becomes highly toxic environmental waste that serves no good purpose and can destroy surrounding environments if released as seen in this recent news story.

Polyface farms uses a more natural approach that is clearly sustainable over the long term.  The vast additions of artificial fertilizers, antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals required by the industrialized large-scale monoculture farms and CAFOs is not required.  Salatin’s approach to farming is clearly far better for the environment, and requires far less energy—in the form of fossil fuels, which are used in the production of most of the chemicals used in industrial agriculture—to sustain it. The only real input to his farm is some additional grain for use as chicken feed.  Much of what would become toxic waste on a CAFO is recycled instead—Polyface farm has no need of a toxic manure waste lagoon.

Pollan also examines the quality of the food coming from the both the predominantly corn-based industrial food supply and the alternative, more environmentally friendly agricultural systems.  The comparisons of food that is produced by the modern industrial agribusiness—cattle being fed food they were not evolved to eat along with antibiotics and artificial growth hormones, and plants that are being raised using fertilizers and pesticides—and that of food being produced by alternative, more “organic” farming methods is eye-opening.  A carrot is clearly not a carrot.  How they are grown and where has drastic effects on the nutrition the food can provide.

I’ll report back when I’ve finished the book.  Serious food for thought about food in the book thus far though.