The last headlight you will ever need

On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:43:03 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:36:33 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/27/2014 7:28 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:05:20 +1100, James
wrote:

On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

The only option is to gear the windmill so that it turns the alternator
at much higher speed - but then efficiency suffers as power lost in the
gears.

There are better solutions.

And, the car alternator needs to be excited by an external power
course to produce electricity - the reason that they aren't used to
build wind generators :-)


For charging batteries a DC generator would be another path.
They are heavier than alternators but that's not a big
factor in every application.

Yup, self exciting. But why bother? Permanent magnets work better and
cheaper and by taking the power from the field coils instead of the
commutator you eliminate a lot of maintenance.

Modern alternators don't have a commutator, the early designs had a rotating
field coil enclosed by an interleaved pole cage - these had slip rings and
brushes. The modern ones have both windings fixed to the frame, the
interleaved pole cage is magnetically coupled to the field winding by
co-axial pole pieces.


Not to pick a fight but when you say "modern alternators" how recent
is this? My wife's Honda is about 3 years old and has an alternator
with brushes.

--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:46:55 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 19:40:15 +1100, James
wrote:

On 29/03/14 12:20, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:36:33 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/27/2014 7:28 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:05:20 +1100, James
wrote:

On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored
out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I
used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

The only option is to gear the windmill so that it turns the
alternator
at much higher speed - but then efficiency suffers as power lost in
the
gears.

There are better solutions.

And, the car alternator needs to be excited by an external power
course to produce electricity - the reason that they aren't used to
build wind generators :-)


For charging batteries a DC generator would be another path.
They are heavier than alternators but that's not a big
factor in every application.

Yup, self exciting. But why bother? Permanent magnets work better and
cheaper and by taking the power from the field coils instead of the
commutator you eliminate a lot of maintenance.

The guys that build their own yacht wind generator usually use DC
motors as a basis.


Silly! DC motors have brushes and a commutator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushle...electric_motor

They don't work too well as alternators though - some PC servicing guides
warn against blowing the dust out of BDC motor fans with compressed air, the
windings produce enough current to damage the electronic commutating
circuitry.

Or maybe http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/

--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:52:15 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:47:04 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"James" wrote in message
...
On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter". Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

That was true of the old style car dynamos - less so with modern
alternators.

Modern "alternators" are normally driven at 2 - 3 times crankshaft
RPM. Max output usually is in the 5,000 rpm area.

Motorcycle alternators are usually mounted on the end of the crankshaft, so
run at same RPM as the engine - most Hondas state max output at 5000.

Err... a little bitty Honda 250 is rated at 14,500 rpm at 33 KW.
--
Cheers,

John B.

"John B." wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:43:03 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:36:33 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/27/2014 7:28 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:05:20 +1100, James
wrote:

On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored
out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I
used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

The only option is to gear the windmill so that it turns the
alternator
at much higher speed - but then efficiency suffers as power lost in
the
gears.

There are better solutions.

And, the car alternator needs to be excited by an external power
course to produce electricity - the reason that they aren't used to
build wind generators :-)


For charging batteries a DC generator would be another path.
They are heavier than alternators but that's not a big
factor in every application.

Yup, self exciting. But why bother? Permanent magnets work better and
cheaper and by taking the power from the field coils instead of the
commutator you eliminate a lot of maintenance.

Modern alternators don't have a commutator, the early designs had a
rotating
field coil enclosed by an interleaved pole cage - these had slip rings and
brushes. The modern ones have both windings fixed to the frame, the
interleaved pole cage is magnetically coupled to the field winding by
co-axial pole pieces.


Not to pick a fight but when you say "modern alternators" how recent
is this? My wife's Honda is about 3 years old and has an alternator
with brushes.

They might well be more common on motorcycles - although the last regulated
field motorcycle alternator I had used slip rings and brushes. I've had a
couple of older motorcycles with co-axial pole coupling - go figure!

"John B." wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:52:15 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:47:04 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"James" wrote in message
...
On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I
used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

That was true of the old style car dynamos - less so with modern
alternators.

Modern "alternators" are normally driven at 2 - 3 times crankshaft
RPM. Max output usually is in the 5,000 rpm area.

Motorcycle alternators are usually mounted on the end of the crankshaft,
so
run at same RPM as the engine - most Hondas state max output at 5000.

Err... a little bitty Honda 250 is rated at 14,500 rpm at 33 KW.

You might be thinking of engine output which has been quoted in kW since
about the 80s.

I don't have the workshop manual for my CB200 close to hand to look it up -
but when I tried upgrading the 35/35W headlamp to a 55/60 Cibbie H4
conversion, I had to periodically take the battery out for charging as the
alternator couldn't keep up.

Ignoring intermittent loads like horn, indicators and brake light - start
with the (specified) 35W headlight, 5W tail light, say about 8W for various
instrument lights, the coil is somewhere in the region of about 50W - all in
all I doubt the total alternator output is any more than about 120W -
probably less!

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:52:45 +0100, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:43:03 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:36:33 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/27/2014 7:28 PM, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:05:20 +1100, James
wrote:

On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored
out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I
used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

The only option is to gear the windmill so that it turns the
alternator
at much higher speed - but then efficiency suffers as power lost in
the
gears.

There are better solutions.

And, the car alternator needs to be excited by an external power
course to produce electricity - the reason that they aren't used to
build wind generators :-)


For charging batteries a DC generator would be another path.
They are heavier than alternators but that's not a big
factor in every application.

Yup, self exciting. But why bother? Permanent magnets work better and
cheaper and by taking the power from the field coils instead of the
commutator you eliminate a lot of maintenance.

Modern alternators don't have a commutator, the early designs had a
rotating
field coil enclosed by an interleaved pole cage - these had slip rings and
brushes. The modern ones have both windings fixed to the frame, the
interleaved pole cage is magnetically coupled to the field winding by
co-axial pole pieces.


Not to pick a fight but when you say "modern alternators" how recent
is this? My wife's Honda is about 3 years old and has an alternator
with brushes.

They might well be more common on motorcycles - although the last regulated
field motorcycle alternator I had used slip rings and brushes. I've had a
couple of older motorcycles with co-axial pole coupling - go figure!

Just wondering whether I had missed something or not as all the
alternators I had seen were slip ring type.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:03:47 +0100, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 17:52:15 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"John B." wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:47:04 -0000, "Ian Field"
wrote:



"James" wrote in message
...
On 28/03/14 03:00, Phil W Lee wrote:
John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann

wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter".
Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really
need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I
used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.


Car alternators are designed to be turned at relatively high speed
compared with a windmill.

That was true of the old style car dynamos - less so with modern
alternators.

Modern "alternators" are normally driven at 2 - 3 times crankshaft
RPM. Max output usually is in the 5,000 rpm area.

Motorcycle alternators are usually mounted on the end of the crankshaft,
so
run at same RPM as the engine - most Hondas state max output at 5000.

Err... a little bitty Honda 250 is rated at 14,500 rpm at 33 KW.


Ah, your comment "max output" meant the alternator, I guess. I had
thought you meant the whole motorcycle :-)

You might be thinking of engine output which has been quoted in kW since
about the 80s.

I don't have the workshop manual for my CB200 close to hand to look it up -
but when I tried upgrading the 35/35W headlamp to a 55/60 Cibbie H4
conversion, I had to periodically take the battery out for charging as the
alternator couldn't keep up.

Ignoring intermittent loads like horn, indicators and brake light - start
with the (specified) 35W headlight, 5W tail light, say about 8W for various
instrument lights, the coil is somewhere in the region of about 50W - all in
all I doubt the total alternator output is any more than about 120W -
probably less!

A long time ago I was an instructor at a place that was training 3rd
world people to be mechanics and the project was terminated with a
month's notice due to the client going broke. As nearly all the
trainees had small 90 - 100 cc motorcycles I spent the last month
giving a course on the maintenance and repair of small motorcycles.
The small Honda's in those days had a very simple alternator on the
crank end with two wires coming from it, one from the whole field coil
and one from a sub-section of the coil. With the lights off the
smaller portion of the coil fed the battery through a rectifier and
when you turned the lights on the whole coil was connected. There was
no other regulation.

I had already had given a class on Caterpillar and other heavy
equipment electrical systems and I remember that after the class on
the Honda's electrical system one of the students commented on how
simple the Honda system was compared to the "big machines" and then
said, "probably why the bike is cheaper".

I thought it pretty astute for a guy who literally didn't know which
way to turn a nut to get it off before he came to class.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 02:15:54 +0100, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Sat, 29 Mar 2014 09:02:41
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 21:25:02 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:08:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:44:43 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:46:00
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:31:25 +1100, James
wrote:

On 27/03/14 11:56, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:22:45 -0700, sms
wrote:

On 3/26/2014 12:29 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

snip

Hmmm... I haven't seen any bicycle powered can openers, but I suppose
one could be designed. Speed reduction seems to be the major problem,
so I would suggest an outboard worm gear, driving a sprocket, with the
power transmitted to the can opener via a speedometer cable. I'm not
sure there's a market, but if you label it "high efficiency" and
"ecologically correct", it should bring in some sales.

You need to work on a bicycle driven coffee grinder. For bicycle
tourists without access to electric power the present options suck
because the manual grinders are extremely slow. Contrary to what was
shown in the movie City Slickers, there are no battery powered coffee
grinders. The closest I've come is this:
http://nordicgroup.us/bikecoff/bcimages/batterygrinder.JPG but this
12VDC grinder has been discontinued.


My goodness but you Americans seem so inapt. One can easily pound
coffee beans into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Just like the old
folks used to. But of course, you probably can't figure out how to
operate one of those.


I do use a hand powered can opener though, and have never owned an
electric can opener.


Years ago, being the dotting husband that I am :-) I bought my wife an
electric can opener. She tried it a few times and put it away and went
back to the manual can opener. I can only assume that the manual
opener worked better for some reason.

They generally do, until you get arthritis in your wrists or hands.
I regard the electric ones as a disability aid, much like "golf"
buggies or lifts/elevators/escalators in buildings with less than 10
storeys - fine for those who actually NEED them, but most people need
the exercise far more.

Of course the reason for the lack of interest in can openers is the
fact that we so seldom eat anything that is not fresh :-) A survey of
the kitchen turns up only some canned fruit that was apparently bought
because it is currently "out of season" and is not, at the moment,
available in the market.

But canned food is good to keep in stock in case of some kind of
emergency (like maybe injuring oneself or being ill so that shopping
trips are not possible).

My God! Can't you send one of the servants out to do the shopping?

And a few things are simply better canned (I wouldn't dream of eating
baked beans from any other source, as they are more efficiently
produced in factory quantities, and suffer far less from being canned
than they would from my cooking g).


Actually home baked beans are, really, truly, better than Heinz ever
dreamed of. My grandmother used to bake a pot of beans every week - I
think it was a tradition to eat beans on Saturday, but it's been a
long time - and they were certainly much better than canned :-)

As my mother and both grandmothers all used to say - it's always worth
having a few tins to fall back on. I always reckon a mattress is
better for that :-)

Joking aside, if some kind of emergency does arise, you can live on
beans on toast for quite a while without ill-effects (it's got most of
what you need in it) but having some other stuff to vary the menu is
no bad thing.

What kind of emergency? During the Bangkok Floods, a year or so ago,
food was no problem :-)

Besides, you can live on boiled rice and fish sauce for a long time
:-)


And despite the modern mania for date-stamping everything, tinned food
really does last almost indefinitely.
Some mid 19th century canned food was tasted and found to be palatable
nearly a century later.

When I bought my last sailboat it still had a lot of the supplies that
the guy had originally stocked before he left the States several years
earlier. Part of the deal was that a third party who had watched over
the boat for a year or so was to get the canned goods. That guy told
me later that out of the two or three wheelbarrow loads of cans that
one or two "had swelled" and were thrown away.

Yeah, that's about typical on a boat - the damp, salt, and constant
movement take a toll.
The other thing is the need to paint the contents on the outside,
after removing the paper label. This has the dual advantages of
knowing what you are going to eat before opening the can, and not
having to keep unblocking the papier mache that's clogging up the
bilge pump.


I'd read about that, in a British sailing magazine, I believe. I
remember that they labeled canned breast of chicken as "Hentit" :-)
But I'm not sure how common it is. A friend just made a
circumnavigation, I'll ask him what he did :-)

The catering contractors at the jungle sites didn't strip the labels
off the cans though :-)

OTOH, you can find some wonderful combinations of foods that it would
never have occurred to you to cook together, had you known what was in
the tin :-)

My option was to marry a foreigner. She can't even conceive of a meal
made up of meat and two veggies, one of which is mushy peas :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 05:17:20 +0100, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Sat, 29 Mar 2014 09:17:15
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2014 23:32:45 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:21:50
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:00:27 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. considered Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:51:03
+0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:24 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:47:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

600 watts:
http://www.econvergence.net/The-Pedal-A-Watt-Bicycle-Generator-Stand-s/1820.htm
See bottom of page for the "400 watt grid intertie inverter". Sigh.

300 watts:
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com

But can you do it for 8 hours a day, day in and day out? I really need
to power some tools on the boat I'm working on which is anchored out
in the harbour.

You should be able to power a reasonably respectable car alternator
with even a fairly modest wind turbine, which would seem ideally
suited to use on a boat.
That'll keep a decent 12v battery charged for either direct use, or
through an inverter if you need utility voltage for your tools.
I can't say that I remember using any power tools on boats when I used
to help out down at the yard in Brnham-on-Crouch though.

Like all the other "green" devices to keep a battery bank charged they
work, sort of. If you have the wind charger, and the solar panels, and
the engine driven generator, the system becomes much more reliable.

If you never used power tools in the boat yard than I'm surprised. I
can't imagine, say sanding the topsides of a 40 - 50 ft. boat prior to
painting, by hand. Or doing a really mirror like paint job without a
spray gun :-)

We were mostly scraping and varnishing. Why hide the beauty of the
wood?

You have, obviously, never lived on a boat in a climate where the sun
shines more then one day a year :-)

On the contrary - I clearly remember both weeks ;-)
But I never actually lived on any boat, either, although some of the
owners I helped out in the yard did. Helping them out was how I could
afford to go sailing :-)
If you want the fun part of sailing in it, you need to be prepared to
put either money or work into the deal.


Try it for a year or two and the varnish is turning white and you've
got to get out and scrap all the brightwork and re-varnish... makes
two part paint look awful inviting :-)

Some friends who lived on a 37 ft. ketch discovered two part varnish
and painted the cabin hatch and the edging trim around the cockpit
with it. They were extolling the stuff for about two years until the
it began to die of UV.

Their new comment was, "Can you imagine how hard it is to get two part
varnish off?"

Electricity was mainly for lighting in the yard, although at sea an
echo sounder was in almost constant use (the Essex coast has lots of
shoals, sandbanks, mudflats, and other things that can ruin your whole
day).

I sailed, on the coast of Maine, where there are not a lot of sand
bars and mud flats rather they have is granite ledges and rocks.
This was back in the 60's and I'm not sure that there WERE depth
sounders or at least the fishing boats didn't have them. There were a
lot of places that you just didn't go, at least not until you had
rowed in with the dinghy to have a look first :-)

You never learned to use a sounding lead?
For some things it's better than the echo sounder - you can't fetch up
a sample from the bottom on an echo, so it's not much good for telling
you if your hook will hold (or which type is best, if you've a
choice).

Of course I know how. In fact I used a lead line to calibrate my
electronic depth sounder :-)


This was in the days before GPS, and navigation was mainly by buoys
and triangulation from whatever limited landmarks were visible - but
mud and sandbanks shift, so charts can be pretty unreliable, even if
kept up to date. The current nautical almanac was essential.

My wife and I cruised the Maine coast with a magnetic compass, a Mobil
road map and a lead line for a year or so.

Ah, yes, you did.
It was just weekend hopping
from bay to bay but it seemed like fun then. Funny, but if you don't
know you need it you don't miss it :-)

Circumstances vary, but there are abundant wrecks off the coast from
those who tried to manage without equipment, and didn't have the local
knowledge to get away with it.

I came across a book written by a bloke who traveled around Australia
writing a chapter or two on the ship wreak(s) that happened there. It
was appalling the number of ships that had sunk and one began to
wonder why. Than the penny dropped, he was writing about wreaks that
happened in the early days before there were any sailing directions or
charts of the Australian coast.

I don't know Maine, but I'd guess that the weather was reasonably
predictable when you were doing that, or you never got more than an
accurate weather forecast away from a safe harbour?

The weather there is fairly mild during the summers (short as they
are) but there is a lot of fog. We got out weather reports from the
local AM stations :-)

But it was fairly innocent cruising. We had no kids at the time and
we'd sail perhaps from one bay to the next, or maybe the next one on
and anchor out. Then it would be time to catch a bus back to Bangor
(note the British names :-) to be at work on Monday morning.

Probably not what I'd find as "fun" today.

snipped

My father belonged to a flying club that owned one 40 H.P. Piper Cub
and "cross country" was following the railroad tracks :-)

VFR = Visual Flight Rules.
IFR = I Follow Roads ;-)
More seriously, it's nearly impossible to maintain an instrument
rating non-professionally under UK flying rules - the currency
requirements are just too demanding, so I never trained fully for one
(although I did some IFR training).

After I got out of collage I worked for a bit at a place gave Air
Force cadets their primary flight training and overheard an instructor
talking to a cadet about his upcoming cross country. He was explaining
that there was no need to get all excited about the navigation, "just
follow the big road until it meets the railroad and follow that
North".

more snipped

Oh, and (just to insert something slightly on-topic) in the case of
both light aircraft and small boats, a Brompton is ideal if you end up
somewhere with no other transport and need to make your way overland.

My mate, the circumnavigator, is getting all excited about a Dahon
:-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 31/03/2014 02:15, Phil W Lee wrote:

OTOH, you can find some wonderful combinations of foods that it would
never have occurred to you to cook together, had you known what was in
the tin :-)

Did you ever read the Bagthorpes?