By request - The Thoughts of Old Varnish

Thanks for such succinct practical stuff

The Monitor bit: in theory I have the first one imported into the UK..( yeah yeah so what). It was manufactured of 304stainless later upgraded to 316/318. The welds need watching on the earlier units IME if you see corrosion.

And for some reason the lines are bloody noisy where they run over the pulleys, irrespective of rope type, which equates to chafe to me, possibly within the ropes structure. Current solution, ( and not as messy as it sounds), I squirt a few drops of cooking oil over them. Instant silence for a day and seemingly no build up of salt crystals or gunk unduly....I 'think' this addresses the high rope failure issue noted on some boats..

Again, ta for taking the trouble to jot down your well put observations..
 
Down to earth, practical advice without the bling. Nice!

Having looked a lot at AIS, but not yet taken the plunge, I was very interested in your comments. What system did you use?
 
many thanks for taking the time to post here and share, it makes interesting reading.......

to motivate some yet to put others right off??

You appear to have gained a huge amount of experience of being out there away from it all coping with all that has been thrown at you.
What are the major differences in the man that 1st crossed the Atlantic solo and the one that's recently returned?

thanks again

S.
 
Certainly an interesting observation..
We have just crossed Biscay and been coast hopping. We find it is physically very hard work. Keeping watch for yachts, lobster pots, seine nets Etc is never ending..

The seas were also much more agressive than we anticipated.. I put it down to back wash of the Atlantic rollers. I wonder if theynare more gentle once in really deep ocean..
 
I would add that you can never have enough clothes pegs and spare specs.
The boredom thing also surprised me, many books were consumed and although there are book swops in lots of locations, in my experience the majority were not in english.
 
sailorman said:
10/1 the draft is with the publisher & he is spending the advance on a glitzy holiday
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Hang on to your money! There's no publisher (yet) and the glitzy holiday is being spent in driving rain in Dartmouth trying to get varnish on the cockpit coamings.
 
GaryE said:
Down to earth, practical advice without the bling. Nice!

Having looked a lot at AIS, but not yet taken the plunge, I was very interested in your comments. What system did you use?
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Have a look at Vesper Marine. Excellent, good display, reliable.
 
Interesting copmments Varnish. I've spoken to a few long distance sailors and they have all said much the same as you - the main problem is boat maintenance and not the weather as often is imagined. And boredom of course.

You seem to have had disproportionate electrical problems. I dont know your boat nor the preparations you made, but coating the bases of bulbs with a suitable grease or wax will avoid corrosion issues. If the bulb is low powered then waxoyl is good for protection - obviously dont coat the glass.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
I dont know your boat nor the preparations you made, but coating the bases of bulbs with a suitable grease or wax will avoid corrosion issues. If the bulb is low powered then waxoyl is good for protection - obviously dont coat the glass.
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That's a good idea. In the cruising boats we built, all the electrical systems was made up using copious quantities of Lanacote. Wires were dipped in it before crimping, as well as all the contacts and the bases / holders of bulbs. We often saw the boats when they returned from Antarctic service or round the world trips and all the electrical systems were entirely corrosion free.

As it was a US yard, our default installation was the Monitor self steering gear. In all those (and my own) I've never heard of such high rates of wear of the steering lines. Did you regularly shorten the lines as advised using the knots at the servo oar?
 
Bosun Higgs said:
You seem to have had disproportionate electrical problems. I dont know your boat nor the preparations you made, but coating the bases of bulbs with a suitable grease or wax will avoid corrosion issues. If the bulb is low powered then waxoyl is good for protection - obviously dont coat the glass.
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This problem should go away as people switch to LED lights (proper ones, not conversion bulbs). My lamps are all potted in a solid block of resin, capable of indefinite immersion. The power cable emerges from the resin and is soldered to the main supply, with two layers of adhesive heatshrink (one on the individual conductors, one round the whole joint). All the wiring is tinned anyway. Should be fairly safe from corrosion.

Pete
 
Really interesting reading, hoping we can go "real"distances on our boat within the next few years as my only experiences have been crewing for others.. Anyhow, drinking water calculation question. You've obviously ventured into my idea of bliss, what was your daily litre bottled water intake?

Before anyone raves about water makers, they can (and do) fail - believe me! Boredom really hit when we thought it was fun to spend a few hours cutting empty bottles into tiny bits, the winner with the most bits got a liquorice alsort :)
 
SamanthaTabs said:
Really interesting reading, hoping we can go "real"distances on our boat within the next few years as my only experiences have been crewing for others.. Anyhow, drinking water calculation question. You've obviously ventured into my idea of bliss, what was your daily litre bottled water intake?

Before anyone raves about water makers, they can (and do) fail - believe me! Boredom really hit when we thought it was fun to spend a few hours cutting empty bottles into tiny bits, the winner with the most bits got a liquorice alsort :)
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I once gave a case of water to a French yacht, mid atlantic. Their watermaker had broken!
 
TimBennet said:
As it was a US yard, our default installation was the Monitor self steering gear. In all those (and my own) I've never heard of such high rates of wear of the steering lines. Did you regularly shorten the lines as advised using the knots at the servo oar?
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Yes this was a slight surprise to me.

Although I havn't done thousands of miles with my Monitor being used the majority of the time, I have no visible chafe on the original lines after 8 years without shortening them at the servo end, using the Monitor on both my Twister and now on the Tradewind.

I do however keep the pulley attachments a slightly loose friction fit on the main frame, so that I can regularly adjust their alignment by hand or with a boat hook to ensure there is no rubbing. Larger blocks or pulley wheels at the sides can obviously help when leading the lines across the cockpit.

OV,.....Did you manage to balance your boat o.k. with the Monitor when downwind? Were there any tricks to doing so?

Did you use any other auto steering systems, and what were your power sources, windmill? Solar?

thanks
S.
 
2nd_apprentice said:
Well his Lopolight nav lights did fail and AFAIK Lopolight aren't exactly cheap.
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Well sure, anything can fail, and I actually have a spare set of nav lights tucked away just in case. I was specifically addressing the issue of bare metal contacts in lamp holders, transferring relatively large currents through nothing more than a spring-loaded plunger touching a pad. You wouldn't rely on such an approximate connection anywhere else, but with incandescent bulbs we had to in order to be able to change them. Those days are on the way out, and putting waxoyl on bulb bases will eventually go the same way as cutch-tanning canvas mainsails.

Pete
 
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