Bubba's Boat Projects

[Cyric30]

Hay again Bubba
Getting back to you finally.

Have you tested the RBi monitor in sunlight?
i had thought about mounting my monitor on a swing are so i could view it through the companionway, but ive had my worries about it being view able in sunlight.

i have a Moitessier hat ready to go. but sprung for the RBi4 right as they decided to do the openplotter upgrade, so im a bit frustrated there.

whats your thoughts on the pypilot?

[Bubba the Pirate]

I haven't tested the monitor in the sun. My plan is to use the 7" touchscreen at the nav station and broadcast the data/dashboard so that I can use a tablet or phone on deck.

I like the idea of pypilot and will play with it down the line.

I'll be back at the boat in a couple weeks. Thruhulls and the rig will be a priority. The RPi project will be rain day project for a while. 

[Bubba the Pirate]

As of tonight, I'm back to the boat
and back to work.

[Bubba the Pirate]

I'm hard at work at the boat; when the weather allows. 
I've cut five thruhulls off/out. Getting the areas/surfaces prepped for new seacocks. 


I have some blisters, so I've got some work below the water line.  None of them are big but they are a pain in the @$$. FYI, the hole you see above and to the right of the propeller, is a hole awaiting a seacock; not a blister. :-)


This time next week, my hull will be watertight again.  Also, after rebedding a couple stanchion bases and the deck hatch, the deck should be watertight again too. 

If the average daytime temps would nudge just a little higher, I could be more productive.  :-)

[Frank]

Yep...
Looks like it's time to replace them for sure.
Nice to get all the "below waterline " items done at once.
Keep plugging away

[w00dy]

Way to go, Todd! You're getting a lot more done than I am right now.

[Bubba the Pirate]

Thanks, I needed a boost this morning. Just about 10:00 on a gusty morning, the "feels like" temp has finally reached 40°. With no rain forecast for a couple days, I really want to rebed the deck hatch, but hadn't got the gumption up to do it yet. :-)

[skylark]

How is the ship's computer project going?

I just set up a pi4 with 64 bit ubuntu and am pretty impressed.  Similar performance to my somewhat older laptop.

Sailoog is a desktop environment for pi, correct? Is that the direction to go to build a ships computer?

[Bubba the Pirate]

The ship's computer project is a fill-in, rainy day project while I'm here at the boatyard. So it is stalled a bit. I did just rec've my Moitessier hat and the weather is poop this weekend, so I may make some more headway.

Sailoog/Openplotter is the way I'm going. Seems like a good package.

In addition, I did some crewing on the FL ICW a couple weeks back. The Capn was using Aquamaps, which I stuck on my android phone to follow along. Impressive. I'll be sailing on the US East Coast this summer to get my sealegs and get used to this boat. Aquamaps could easily suffice while I build the RPi system. The RPi will be more robust as a ship's computer but for a chartplotter i may use Aquamaps and a tablet for a time.

[Cyric30]

Bubba,
whats your thought about the Pypilot addon to for the openplotter and RPi

[Bubba the Pirate]

I am aware of it, but I haven't thought much about it. This Bayfield has a wheel rather than a tiller, so I will probably use an auxiliary rudder windvane and attach a small tiller pilot to the wind vane itself. The cockpit, especially around the binnacle and the wheel is rather small. I don't really want to junk it up with autopilot on the wheel

[Bubba the Pirate]

I am in a privileged position here at the boat yard. I've been living out of the camper van right next to the boat since February. North Carolina has included boat repair facilities in their exemptions for the shutdown. This is a boat yard, definitely not a marina, and the shop is still working -- therefore those of us that are DIY-ing are just carrying on.

I am avoiding going to town and paying a little bit more for things as they are shipped here rather than going to get them. But for the most part my life is changed very little.

I do have a heavy dose of gratitude and I'm owning the privilege og being able to keep up the boat work. However, it will be interesting if there will be anywhere I can sell to once the boat is ready to go back in the water. I was just beginning to have big plans for the summer but who knows now.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=17fPlqJrLsRMhGpB-4Dgf-6qcOOdYNjuW

Above is a link to a folder of pictures. This is basically the work that I did yesterday and today. I started sanding my blister patches, rebedded a couple blocks on the cabin roof, removed the head, removed a bunch of hoses, loosened the holding tank, cleaned the area up, set the compost toilet in place, tried on the dodger to measure for solar panels, removed the "full battens," rolled out the mainsail, and folded it for better storage.

The holding tank was placed while the boat was being built and it won't fit out of the space. I plan to cut a whole in a non-structural bulkhead to slide the tank out. I'll cover the hole with a finished piece of plywood. Should look like it was meant to be there.

I am going thru all that tank trouble to gain a good amount of storage space that would otherwise be wasted.

The head project jumped the line for a semi-practical reason. I have four gallons of stove fuel alcohol and now the composting head is usable. Therefore if I choose to -- I can cook on the boat and use the compost head in order to just stay put here for longer. If I'm cooking on the boat and using it for my daily ablutions, then I am less concerned about how much propane is in the camper van or how full it's holding tank is.

[CapnK]

Re: the 'skipping' furler - go to a one-size smaller line, so it sits deeper in the teeth?

[Bubba the Pirate]

Thanks. I can experiment with that!

[Cyric30]

Thats a Interesting boat buddy you got there in the last picture, he sure got a pretty smile... :D

[Godot]

I tried posting and attaching a photo twice; but that doesn't seem to be working. And I can't get into my gallery. So, I'll try to explain how I got my holding tank out.

I went through the forward hanging locker. I used an oscillating tool to cut out the section above the tank, which allowed me to easily pull it out. Then I installed some wooden cleats to the remaining section of the locker, to which I could screw the removed part back on. The seams where I cut are not obvious inside a locker, and I have excellent access to the area by just taking out a few screws and removing the section again.

Eventually I think I'm going to completely remove the locker liner and build a new, deeper locker into the space where the holding tank used to be. Or I might put a water tank in that space. I'm not sure yet.

I hope that description made a little sense.

[Bubba the Pirate]

That sounds like a great idea! I kind of wish I'd thought of that. :-) However, I've already cut a hole in the small bulkhead under the padded seat in the head. The tank is out. I will install a nice piece of finished plywood, maybe even with a teak veneer over the hole that I cut. I think it will look pretty natural

[Bubba the Pirate]

Update:
The hull is smooth again below the waterline.
I have SeaHawk barrier coat and bottom paint on the way.

Also, I've ordered 300w of Renogy solar panels and 250Ah of lithium batteries with a Victron 100/30 charge controller and and AC charger as backup. 

Still making progress in the backwaters of NC.

[Godot]

Where are you planning on mounting the solar panels?

And, how much did the lithium batteries cost?

[Bubba the Pirate]

I don't have a lot of real estate for solar but based on my plan I am going to be able to fit 6 50-watt Renogy panels. I'll have two rigid panels port and starboard on the outside of the stern pulpit, 2 flexible panels on top of the dodger, and two more rigid panels just in front of the dodger. I believe that I can do everything I need to do at the mast and not have those two panels get in the way but that is my only concern. The panels will be wired parallel to the charge controller. The cabling and charge controller can handle that juice.

I'm getting the batteries from Lithionics. 2 125-amp power compact batteries for about $1,200 each. This was actually a little bit better deal then Battle Born which were $1,000 for 100 amp hours. The spooky thing I can't quite get my mind around is that Lithionics tells me I will be able to start my Yanmar 16 horse 2GM20f with the house bank and not need a starting battery. I haven't decided if I'm fully on board but it actually sounds good and save some money, weight and wiring, etc. They are the actual experts. I also went with Lithionics in part because in all of my research I had a really good feeling about them as soon as I started asking questions etc. In fact they have some kind of new battery coming out and some muckety-muck with the company actually sent me an e-mail and had me fill out a form to see if my parameters fit their field trial. I have no idea what kind of deal was in the offing but the battery was too big for my space and my situation was not exactly what they needed for field testing.

I will have a Victron 100/30 charge controller between the panels and the bank. I will also have a 20 amp AC charger wired in as a backup. I believe I will have a Honda generator on board which I bought to use with my Sailrite sewing machine but I've just found out about a Honda recall so I'm investigating all that.

I went with the 10 AWG cabling even though 12 would have sufficed. In addition to the house, nav equipment & lights, radio etc this bank should allow me to run a small Engel fridge cooler and even possibly an hour or two a week with a DC watermaker, which I don't have yet but am investigating.