For The Birds

How about this visitor that showed up on our masthead recently?

Actually, birds sitting up there are not my favorite thing - not even our National Bird...  perhaps especially not our National Bird.  See, that guy weighs 10-15 lb.  And that thing he has his left foot on was not made to carry his weight, or even half of it.   Thankfully he is too big to get both feet on it.

That "thing" is the sensor for our wind instrumentation - a pretty essential thing for a wind-powered vehicle.  See the spinner (wind speed) and fin (wind direction) out on the end?  I've already had to repair the direction sensor once due to an obese bird sitting on it and breaking it.

So, despite the delite of our neighbors (m/v Konocti Bay, who captured the photo), I shooed him off by banging on the shrouds.

For The Birds

The old ways are still good

There is a lot of commercial traffic on Puget Sound.  There are big container ships, cruise ships, ferries, tugs towing barges, and military ships.  And all of these move faster than we do in Eolian - much much faster.   Whenever we cross the traffic lanes, I feel a little like the frog in Frogger.

There is a strong tendency on my part to be attracted to the latest new, shiny "gee whiz" gadget.  I'm pretty sure that I am not alone in this.  But you have to go pretty far up the gadget cost scale to get something that can top the good old hand bearing compass. 

A recent crossing from Port Madison to Shilshole provides the case in point.  Just as we cleared Jefferson Head, a tug and tow became visible, heading south in the southbound traffic lane.   I pulled out our trusty old hand bearing compass and took bearings on the bow of the tug and the stern of the barge it was towing.  Then after a few minutes I took the bearings again.

The old adage is that if the bearing is not changing, then you are going to collide.   And tug-'n-tows are long enough that you need to keep track of both ends of the combination (NEVER try to go between a tug and its tow!).

But when I took the second set of bearings, I noticed that a second tug and tow had  appeared from behind the first - he was in the process of passing!   The problem just got more complicated.

Clearly one tug was going faster than the other (he was passing, after all).  Now the choices had become:

1. Pass in front of the entire parade
2. Pass between the barge in the first tow and the tug in the second
3. Wait for the whole parade to pass and cross behind the last barge.

More study with the compass as we continued, our courses converging, convinced me that choice #2 was available to us, but that we were going a little too slowly to make it possible.  So I increased our speed (there was no wind - we were under power), and confirmed that we could pass between the first barge and the second tug.  A little more fiddling with the speed got us into the sweet spot.  And indeed, we cleared both tug-'n-tows nicely, with no drama at all.

We did this bit of piloting with a lowly hand compass. 

To do it with electronics, you'd need to have a GPS-interfaced AIS receiver, or a multi-thousand dollar radar with MARPA capability.

Or a hand compass.

The old ways are still good

Renewal = removal?

Looking back, sometimes it seems that our time on Eolian has been dominated by deinstalling things and hauling them off the boat, some large, some small, and some almost trivial.  Here's what I remember so far, over the 15 years that we have now been responsible for her care:

• I think the first think to go back in 1997 was a rusty  suspended metal three-basket set.  It was ugly beyond belief.
• Remove a whole host of corroded brass doodads that celebrated dolphins. 
• Remove another host of straw fabrications, presumably procured in Mexico and attached to various places with generous quantities of silicone
• Removed an ancient battery charger, and eventually the batteries that it ruined.
• Removed (and refurbished) the insulation of the refrigerator
• Removed and plugged the refrigerator opening that had been cut into the countertop, apparently by a drunken logger with a chainsaw that needed sharpening
• Removed (and replaced) the refrigerator door
• Removed (and replaced) the original stove/oven.  This was at least 20% by weight congealed grease
• Removed a 110V crash pump - a large 110V centrifugal pump.  In a situation that needed it, it was likely that the time spent getting it to prime would have allowed the water to rise up and drown the generator.  
• Removed (and replaced) 3 bronze head thru-hulls and associated leaking bronze tapered plug valves
• Removed (and replaced) the original bilge pump, installed when there was nothing else in the hull, apparently.  Spelunking skills were required.
• Removed a corroded and non-functional antenna tuner
• Removed an unbelievable quantity of "mystery wire" - wires that went nowhere and caused no end of difficulty in troubleshooting electrical problems.  At today's copper prices, I wish that I had saved it for recycling - I'd be rich.
• Removed (and replaced) the old bowsprit
• Removed (and replaced) the old inner forestay pad eye
• Removed  (and replaced) the old Benmar autopilot
• Removed the leaking fuel daytank
• Removed (and replaced) the refrigerator cooling water circulating pump
• Removed (and replaced) the holding tank
• Removed (and replaced) the bilge pump controls
• Removed (and replaced) the forward electrical distribution panel
• Removed two non-functional diesel filters
• Removed (and replaced) the stern lite
• Removed (and replaced) the masthead lite
• Removed (and replaced) the old microwave
• Removed (and replaced) the water heater
• Removed (and replaced) the corroded section at the foot of the mainmast
• Removed (and replaced) all the running rigging
• Removed (and replaced) the old cockpit canvas/bimini/dodger/side curtains
• Removed (and replaced) the old Groco heads
• Removed (and replaced) all the head plumbing
• Removed (and replaced) the exhaust elbow
• Removed (and replaced) the exhaust manifold
• Removed (and replaced) the alternator
• Removed (and replaced) all the original instrumentation (except windspeed/direction)
• Removed (and replaced) the original inverter
• Removed (and replaced) all the interior cushions and upholstery
• Removed (and rebuilt) all the cockpit cushions
• Removed (and replaced) the large fixed cabin windows
• Removed (and replaced) four of the eight opening ports
• Removed the original 110V space heaters
• Removed (and replaced) the original TV
• Removed (and replaced) the original VHF
• Removed the LORAN set (replaced with GPS)
• Removed the remains of the original airconditioning equipment
• Removed a non-functional oil change pump
• Removed (and replaced) the mizzenboom gooseneck fitting
• Removed all the original wood-grain formica
• Removed (and replaced) all the engine rubber hosing
• Removed (and replaced) the original fuel level senders
• Removed (and replaced) the original fresh water pressure pump
• Removed (and replaced) the original anchor wash-down pump

Woo boy.  I'm pretty sure that there's more, but the list is depressing enough as it is.  And there are investments that don't show up properly in the list, like a new bow lite, or a new inverter/charger.  Many of the removals above constituted their own projects which are documented elsewhere on this blog (you can search either by keyword or by label, over there on the right).

It seems that our waterline should have moved down...

Renewal = removal?

Traditional instruments?

Do you have "traditional" instruments?  You know, a depthsounder, a knotmeter, a wind speed/direction indicator?  Or do you have a large screen in the cockpit with all of that instrumentation and more in virtual form? 

As an "early adopter" and self-admitted gadget freak, I have a nearly unconscious tendency to lean to the new, the shiny, the integrated.  The "glass cockpit" draws me.

But then my engineering side steps in and says, "All your eggs in one basket?  Really?  What if it fails?"

That is a very valid question.

There are tremendous advantages to be had with integrated instrumentation, and not just in conserving display real estate.  Being able to overlay radar and depthsounder information on the chartplotter display provides very real advantages over the same information viewed separately.  But if that is your only way to see, for example your speed, and it goes dark, then what?

And does anyone really believe that the modern all-electronic systems are more reliable than the older electro-mechanical ones?  The best that one could say is that the new systems have different failure modes, but I personally think that is being overly generous.  In designing systems for reliability, simplicity is a virtue, and modular design partitions problems. 

Problems that occur with an older electro-mechanical instrument can frequently be fixed on board by the owner, rather than by calling a technician who will charge an arm and a leg to swap out expensive circuit boards until things are working again.  Most (but not all) problems with older systems will be due to corroded connections, which are an easy fix.  And did you know that even the most modern and sophisticated airliners out there (787 anyone?) are still required to have a plain old magnetic compass, a conventional mechanical altimeter and a turn-and-bank indicator (a steel ball in a curved glass tube full of liquid) on board in the cockpit?  (Scott will probably correct me on this.)  Just in case.

Finally, there is an intangible.  I have seen boats with such a large computer display above the compass and directly in the view that commanding the helm surely has become some kind of real-life video game.  One of the joys of sailing is the totality of the experience... of capturing the wind for propulsion, of the boat parting the water and moving thru it, of the sights and sounds and smells of the sea.  When you were a kid, didn't your mother tell you, "Get away from that TV and go outside!" - sure she did.  And she didn't mean for you to take the TV outside with you.  Like having a generator and a TV at a campsite out in the woods, sailing as a video game misses part of the point.  Perhaps the major part.

I am not saying that we should eschew the advantages of modern technology.  But keep it in perspective.  Hang on to your single-purpose instrumentation, and "Get away from that TV and go outside!"

Traditional instruments?

Better than a wet finger

When last we talked about our fat bird problem, I had completed the Mark 1.5 version of the replacement wind vane, using brass rod, sheet, and a PVC pipe cap.  You may remember that I was concerned about the weight of the Mark 1.5 version, and that I was going to see if I could make one using aluminum.

It's done.  I found that small pieces of sheet aluminum are available in the hardware store as flashing - I cut the vane itself from one of these sheets.  In order to lighten the design, I made the vane considerably larger than in the Mark 1.5 version, and positioned it closer to the pipe cap.  The net result was that I needed one third less counterweight on the front, making the entire assembly considerably lighter.

The only tricky part of the aluminum manufacture was attachment of the vane to the aluminum rod.  Unlike with brass, I couldn't solder the vane to the rod.  Instead, I made two close-together folds in the bottom edge of the vane such that, viewed end-on, a triangular space was created - one a little too small to accommodate the rod.  Then I applied epoxy and wedged the rod into that space.  It's solid.

Glue-up jig

For final assembly, I wrapped the sensor body with enough tape (that's the blue layer in the picture) to make a snug fit into the pipe cap - this made sure that the assembly would go together centered.  I treated the inside of the pipe cap with acetone to soften its surface and then added some 5-minute epoxy - enough to form about a 2 mm thick layer.  I lined up the registration marks I had made on the sensor, and using a carefully constructed glue-up jig (ha!), I assembled it and waited for the epoxy to cure.

Mark II Vane

The final product looks good.   In order to protect the pipe cap from the ravages of solar UV, I cut and applied some aluminum tape to it.

It works!

And then on Friday, while we were anchored in Eagle Harbor, I climbed the mast and installed it.  Almost unbelievably, the calibration turned out to be spot-on!  Hopefully the short length of available perching space on the rod will discourage obese birds from using this as a lounging spot.  But if it doesn't, I'll drill a small hole into the top and glue in a heavy plastic bristle from a shop broom (I don't want to make a lightning rod here!).

Better than a wet finger

A wet finger in the air

That's as good as it gets here on Eolian for detecting the wind direction right now.  And on a vehicle that depends on the wind for propulsion, knowing its exact direction is important!  You may remember our fat bird incident, where a gravitationally-challenged bird sat on our windvane and broke it off.  So we are down to a wet finger in the air here.

Masthead transducer,
sans wind vane

I removed the transducer from the masthead and taped over the connections up there.  So here is what it looks like.  If you turn that dark grey disk on the top, it makes the cockpit display turn.  So all I have to do is put a wind vane on that grey disk.

But where?  Since the cockpit display only allows for +/- 15° calibration adjustment, it is important to get the vane on there in the correct orientation.  Rather than climb to the masthead and try to adjust it up there with Jane in the cockpit below telling me when I have it turned dead ahead (too much drama, aside from climbing the mast again), I made up a patch cable and hooked the transducer up directly to the cockpit display.  The tricky part of that task was to make connections to each of the 6 pins in the connector on the transducer, pins which are very close together.

Alternate use for DB9 connectors

I didn't want to solder anything to them (even if I could) because then there would be a problem cleaning off the solder well enough to allow the pins to enter the masthead connector.  I finally settled on using the female connectors sold for use in computer connectors.  These come attached to the web on which they are fabricated.  I pressed an old RJ45 ethernet cable into service for the actual wiring (I only needed 6 of the 8 wires), and soldered a connector on each.  These were easy to push onto the connector pins without shorting between them (sorry this important part of the picture is out of focus).

Now I could turn the shaft on the transducer back and forth to get the display exactly centered.  And then I marked things to retain the results of this work.

OK, so now I know how to orient the wind vane.

What wind vane?  I don't have one anymore.  Da%$# fat bird!

It turns out that a 1" PVC pipe cap is just about the perfect size to fit over the body of the transducer, reaching down the sides a distance to protect against water intrusion, and making a pretty tight fit around it.  So I started with that as a base.

In balance?

Next I drilled a 1/8" hole across the PVC fitting and added a 1/8" brass rod.  Then I cut a vane from some sheet brass to what was a pleasing shape of adequate size and soldered it to the rod.  Finally, I threaded the other end of the rod to accept a counterweight (this thing has to balance, otherwise the reading will change when the boat heels).  The counter weight is a 3" length of 3/8" brass rod, drilled and threaded on one end.  I shaped the front end by chucking it in my drill press and applying a file.  (Here, I am getting the rough balance point by balancing it upside down on the handle of a hammer.  Fine adjustment after mounting to the transducer will be by moving the counterweight along the threads.)

Mark 1 vane

(I should probably call this the Mark 1.5 version, since the first version had a vane that I decided was too small by half, and ugly to boot.)

But I am not going to install this vane yet...  I am concerned that it may be too heavy.  To lighten it, I could make the vane out of lighter-gage brass - that would allow me to use a smaller counterweight.  Or I could make the vane bigger and mount it closer to the PVC cap - that would also mean that the counterweight could be smaller.

But before I try either of these, I am going to try my hand at making the vane assembly entirely out of aluminum.

Next weekend.

A wet finger in the air