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#71
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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. |
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#72
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#73
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#74
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The last headlight you will ever need
"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! |
#75
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The last headlight you will ever need
"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! |
#76
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#77
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#78
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#79
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The last headlight you will ever need
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. |
#80
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The last headlight you will ever need
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? |
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