Symbolism

Sometimes you have to do something totally for its symbolic value. Humans seem to have an in-built need for symbolism.

I don't know if it is a marine tradition (boy, there are a lot of these), but it certainly generated warm feelings when Scott torched his old bowsprit.

This came about like this.  s/v Ghost had a rotten bowsprit, and Scott decided (inspired by moi) to build a new one.  And like when I did ours, this was a long, drawn-out project.  At the end, there is a great feeling of relief.

And what better way to celebrate that then to invite some friends to the little sand beach on the outside of the breakwater - it only shows at high tide, so timing is important! - to a ceremonial burning of the bowsprit.  In case you are wondering, yes, that orange bucket is full of ice and beer...  necessary ingredients for a ceremony of this solemnity.

The ceremony continued until well after dark.  My only regret?  Eolian's old bowsprit is languishing away in a storage shed, waiting for the cleansing fire. But now I am inspired to dig it out.

I wonder if John Vigor has words useful for this ceremony?

Symbolism

Project ST5000: Initial Sea Trials

We took the boat out this weekend for the first time this year.  And the occasion served as the ideal time for the first trials of the ST5000 under actual operating conditions.

The installation instructions advise that the first task should be to swing the autopilot compass.  The is an easy task - after working yourself thru the menus to the right spot in the autopilot's software, you turn the boat 360° taking at least 3 minutes to do so.  Apparently all is well with the compass location if the maximum deviation discovered is less than 30° - ours was 8°.  At least from the effects of nearby iron (and magnets), the compass location is apparently good.  OK!

So, the Moment Of Truth. Get the boat on a steady heading and... (as Jean Luc Picard says) Engage!

That picture does not give an adequate description of the behavior.  The first time a course correction was needed, the autopilot turned the wheel a little.  And then, apparently not satisfied with the boat's progress in the new direction, it turned it again, a LOT.  The boat immediately overshot and the autopilot then turned the wheel in the other direction, all the way until the limit switches stopped it.  I disengaged it.

I used the rest of the trip to fool with the internal settings, trying to find a way to tone things down a bit.  No joy.

Then I said to myself, "Self, I wonder if the rudder transducer is really a required part of the system?"  So I plugged it in to the back of the ST5000 and, holding it in my hands, I tried to make it do what I thought it would be doing if it were properly installed and hooked up to the rudder.  What did I learn?  That the autopilot is exquisitely sensitive to the rudder position.  So much so in fact, that I believe that the autopilot is actually commanding a rudder angle directly.

Guess I'm going to have to swallow my impatience and go ahead and install the rudder transducer.

The necessary three-conductor shielded wire is now on order.

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Project ST5000: Initial Sea Trials

Finally.

The first time off the dock for the year is a milestone. The boat, which for months has been nothing but a small teak-lined apartment with funny-shaped rooms, finally comes alive, becomes a magic carpet that can carry us almost literally anywhere. Its a milestone for us too. We feel like the fetters have been removed; we are free again.

We are having a stretch of unseasonably warm weather here in Seattle - its even considerably above "normal" (a rare occurrence here in Woebegone). When we looked at the forecast, we dropped everything, changed our plans mid-stream and made ready to cast off. Freedom!

But there was a hitch. Jane knowingly suggested that we check to see if the anchor windlass still worked after 6 (?) months of neglect. Good thing she did.

It turned out that the relay inside the windlass had failed. It cost us two hours, and several cuts on my fingers, to install the spare relay.

Nevertheless, here we are, at anchor in Port Madison, free.

Ahhh...

Finally.

Project ST5000: Locating the compass

New autopilot => new compass. Now where to put it? The compass installation instructions advise that the compass should be mounted:

1. At least 3 feet from major ferrous metal (eg, the engine)
2. At least 3 feet from radios (because of the magnet in the speakers)
3. At least 3 feet from other compasses (magnets, again)
4. On the forward side of a bulkhead
5. As close to the roll center of the boat as possible
6. As close to the pitch center of the boat as possible
7. As close to the yaw center of the boat as possible.

As it turns out, these are conflicting requirements aboard Eolian, given that the roll/pitch center is just about at the top of the engine.

Since this was going to be an experiment no matter where I chose, I first (temporarily... no cutting of cable yet) chose the most convenient location: the bulkhead directly beneath the drive unit, right below the wheel in the cockpit.  This took care of numbers 2, 3, and 4, and wasn't bad for 5-7.

When testing tho, a strange thing happened.  As soon as I engaged the autopilot, it dove wildly to port.  This perplexed me for about a beer.  Then I questioned whether the electromagnetic clutch in the drive unit might be causing the problem.  So I pulled the clutch wire (blue) off of the back of the ST5000 and tested again...  it happily maintained our "course", sitting there in our slip.  so now I have another constraint to add:

• Mount the compass at least 4 feet away from the drive unit

In fact, in studying this I noticed that the drive unit clutch was also causing a 2° change in the heading shown by the main navigational compass at the wheel!  Worse, I can see no reason that this has not been present since the drive unit was installed, decades ago.  Gonna have to remember to take that into account.

Things are getting more difficult now.  In the "engine room" space beneath the cockpit, I could not find any place for the compass where the drive unit did not interfere. 

So now I could either go forward, or aft of the engine room.  But going forward, I'd have to string wire all the way to forward of the mast to get the compass away from both the engine and the generator.  Going aft, there is a much closer convenient location beneath the berth, near the compass unit for the radar.  Actually, this is pretty close to where the compass for the old Benmar had been mounted (although that unit had been mounted quite a bit off the centerline of the boat, the source, I believe, of that autopilot's inability to track well in a seaway).

I mounted it in the aft location and cut the cable.   We'll do sea trials and try it there for a while.  If it is unsatisfactory, I'll relocate the compass forward of the mast as a second choice location.

Now all we need is some decent weather that coincides with when we have time to get off the dock...

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