You might want to check out. Sensible, simple, and cheap. Better yet, it should cost you less than $60 or so in materials and a couple of days of work. Considering that the cost of used vane gears (Aries, Navik, Windpilot, Atoms, Hasler, etc) are getting more expensive and hard to find, this gear makes …
Ian asked what affordable means and I realized I was less than clear about my wants where propulsion is concerned. So, let’s dig in… Affordable is a scary word these days and pretty much useless without context. In my case, back when I first put together an electric drive for “So It Goes” I spent …
For some reason or other, the idea of pulling out the raw-water cooled Yanmar 3HM and replacing it with an affordable, minimal electric propulsion system keeps playing around my thoughts. Having spent a bunch of years developing a variety of electric propulsion installations on our CAL 34, I do have some experience but came to …
What happens when you say “Electric Propulsion” three times… Read More »
An interesting map, some thoughts on a sharkless world, and a needful/scary riff on adaptation… I’ve received a few emails on the subject of a new paint job for the Islander both pro and con but in a polarized sort of way. The funny thing, for me at least, is that in a world of …
Back during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria with nothing better to do, I painted “So It Goes” while at anchor in the mangroves. The paint I chose was Rust-Oleum aluminum paint. My thinking at the time was that it was something Phil Bolger mused would make a good boat paint, it was dirt cheap ($13 …
Lately I’ve been thinking quite a bit about buying and installing an AIS transponder but stuck in the need/want and affordable/ not affordable tests. The bottom line being that I just don’t want to spend $700 or so for a transponder with all the needful bits. Here’s a solution for an alternative solution that would …
Minimal boat, minimal systems. Just about as seaworthy as you can get.
As it happens, I came across this dinghy that I had a link to way back when. Hell its got a pointy front as well so what the hell… On another tack, here’s a link that pretty much says reflects my thinking about what went down yesterday and I’m still doing the happy dance.
So, it’s time to build a new dinghy for some serious cruising and, over the last few days, I’ve been looking for a design that makes sense. Lately, I’ve been using a six-foot dinghy but being over built is way too heavy to be used for serious cruising. Hence the need to build something new. …
Practical Boat Owner has an article on the recent ARC rally that I found both interesting as well as depressing. Mostly it’s about what stuff you need to have to cross the Atlantic. Lots of stuff. Expensive stuff. Of course, the ARC has always been a favorite thing to do if one is big on …
