Recent posts

#11

Gear Here / Dinghy Navigation Lights

Last post by wolverine - May 06, 2025, 07:59:06 PM

The stern light is an easy clamp on but how do you attach bow lights?

#12

Boat Bits / Re: LiFePO4 batteries going ma...

Last post by wolverine - May 06, 2025, 05:16:49 PM

Paper charts are a great backup to GPS. I also carry road maps with me. More than once they came in handy identifying my position while traveling along the coast or on a river.
Of course, they're not much help crossing the gulf stream. 🙄

#13

Boat Bits / Re: LiFePO4 batteries going ma...

Last post by s/v necessity - May 06, 2025, 03:21:40 PM

M'fer!!!  I'm reading these last two comments...  Mild confusion ensues...  Do some googling.  Dang! Now I gotta get me a few paper charts too.

#14

Boat Bits / Re: LiFePO4 batteries going ma...

Last post by Godot - May 05, 2025, 06:14:23 PM

I don't think it is the printing part. It is paying the cartographers to keep updating a format that fewer and fewer people utilize with the ubiquity of electronic chart plotters.

I used to like change. It was exciting. Now, it's exhausting. And the more things are automated, the less satisfaction I get. Curmudgeon-hood...I hath arrived.

#15

Boat Bits / Re: Anchors and Rodes

Last post by Kettlewell - April 29, 2025, 05:40:22 PM

You could put the roller off to one side, but when you haul in the anchor it will swing into the hull and bang up the boat, guaranteed.

#16

Boat Bits / Re: Importance of hull speed.....

Last post by Kettlewell - April 29, 2025, 05:37:26 PM

Could it be argued that a heavier boat is more likely to carry speed better, being less likely to get slowed by ocean motions?

Tho' a lighter boat is more easily driven...

Yes! Both can be true. Various boats perform differently in different conditions. For example, the heavier boat may well carry her way in sloppy offshore conditions with light winds, while the lighter boat may get knocked back. OTOH, a light boat can often quickly accelerate up to speed, while it takes the heavier boat longer to get going. Hull shape, weight distribution, sails, etc. all make a big difference too. Having a big propellor can really drag you back in very light air, like our current motor sailor. OTOH she moves right out once the wind gets up a bit. Average speed in the conditions you sail in are far more important than hull speed. Again, average speed in light to medium air is probably a lot more important than hull speed in heavy air, because we all try to avoid sailing when there is too much wind.

#17

Boat Discussion / Re: An old girlfriend just cal...

Last post by Frank - April 27, 2025, 09:00:37 PM

No leaves on the trees yet
41 outside this morning but turned into a beautiful spring day and rose to 70.
Lots to do but had to fire up the motorcycle for a ride to visit my sister.
Happily "home" for a while....

Picture of out front and out back here at the cabin..

#18

Boat Discussion / Re: An old girlfriend just cal...

Last post by CapnK - April 26, 2025, 07:14:15 AM

Fly home tomorrow....

Bittersweet.

#19

Gear Here / Re: Heavy duty collapsible wat...

Last post by CapnK - April 26, 2025, 06:33:52 AM

Thinking on how these might be better (in some ways) than building integral tanks like I'd been planning - which would save lotsa time *and* money. Being so flexible they'd conform to small and/or odd shaped spaces. They have, among others, sizes of 1, 2.6, and 5 gallons, along with a line of accessories now like filler caps/tubes. They'd make it east to capture rain, while keeping it from possibly contaminating water already aboard.

Once emptied, they could be blown up with air to provide flotation. Extras stow in no space at all, and the price simply blows away any other solution.

They are already surprisingly tough. Even so, it'd be very easy and quick to make terrycloth or fleece waterbagbags for each one to guard against chafe - see illustration.


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#20

Boat Bits / Re: LiFePO4 batteries going ma...

Last post by CapnK - April 26, 2025, 06:02:28 AM

I plan to find, purchase, and cherish the last/latest possible set of paper charts I can get my hands on. I really don't think it a good idea to stop making them available for at least self-printing.

The older I get, the more I understand and appreciate curmudgeons...