cruising and obsolescence
Our manta was: if it breaks, you better be able to fix it,or do without it. My philosophy was to take specific items which might be hard to find--such as head gaskets--and have tubing, stock and fittings to fix what ever else breaks. Some times parts have to be hand frabricated. I needed a new alternator mount. Instead of welding it up, or machining it, in Greece, a "machinest" started cutting the mount out of a solid block of steel, by hand! When the generator windings failed, the generator was rewound with what was available, and the armature repaired--and returned. In one instance we did that on the boat, using an improvised bow type of device to turn the armature on a starter motor.
I have noted before that I saw a steel boat which had sailed over 20,000 miles with one side bashed in about 6". The ports had plates welded over them. The owner was going to replate the boat when he returned home--and just kept on going....This would be much easier to do in a Diesel Duck, than a Nordhavn or Selene.....
Look at the video at: http://www.thewmurchannel.com/video/4468399/detail.html
This seems to be a Hardin 45 ketch, a number of which have crossed oceans, and are generally considered to be "seaworthy" boats. I had heard that the wind had been over 100 knots--and 16 to 20 foot seas.
Bob Austin
Bob Austin wrote:
Our manta was: if it breaks, you better be able to fix it,or do without
it. My philosophy was to take specific items which might be hard to
find--such as head gaskets--and have tubing, stock and fittings to fix
what ever else breaks. Some times parts have to be hand frabricated.
snip<<<
In one instance we did that on the boat, using an improvised bow type of
device to turn the armature on a starter motor.
REPLY
Well I'm all for that!
Regrettably, people with any sort of manual skills, dexterity and
in-depth technical background are becoming scarce. Those who still have
it are more often than not self educated.
What's worse, the materials needed for becoming more self sufficient
ion doing repairs are also becoming less available in the urbanized
wasteland we call cities.
It used to be you could buy various gasket materials in any hardware
store. Now you have to hunt, and if available its usually special
order. Try and get a carburetor rebuild kit. Nope!
These days the old carb is sent to some specialist shop far away and
"remanufactured"
I'm just waiting for the same kind of service policy to be applied to
heads and Vacu-flush pumps.
Its already being applied to inverters, battery chargers, starters and
alternators.
Okay so a diesel fuel injection pump might be better rebuilt in a well
equipped shop but the Bosch type fuel injector is easily serviced by a
DIY boat owner.
But an anchor winch should still be something you can strip down
anywhere and rebuild by yourself.
Regards
Arild
Probably should go without saying, but be sure to carry all the disks for
any computer aps you have. This last weekend, my Nobeltec Tides and Currents
suddenly announced that it was improperly installed, and needed to be
reinstalled. Took maybe five minutes, but without the disk (and serial
number, written on the disk with a sharpie!) I would have been SOL.
Also had the "down" windlass switch go out on the deck. The inside one
worked. No spare. Not a biggie, but another spare I should have carried.
Keith
__
Dogs have owners; Cats have staff.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arild Jensen" elnav@uniserve.com
Our manta was: if it breaks, you better be able to fix it,or do without
it.
by far the best solution is simply to avoid software vendors exhibiting
Draconian behavior and a complete disdain for their customers. Nobeltec
is a huge offender and unworthy of your support.
there is other software available which is far less expensive,
does as much useful, and doesn't extract an oath of fealty and a
pint of blood with regularity.
if people keep tolerating this kind of abuse, it will keep
getting worse. vote with your feet and your dollars and support
rational alternatives. technically, a chart plotter has never
been rocket science and the competition is heating up seriously.
with the advent of S57 format vector chart databases availble
from NOAA over the net, even Maptech's strangle-hold on the
industry is starting to abate. price competition is a powerful
motivator.
-mo
Keith wrote:
Probably should go without saying, but be sure to carry all the disks for
any computer aps you have. This last weekend, my Nobeltec Tides and Currents
suddenly announced that it was improperly installed, and needed to be
reinstalled. Took maybe five minutes, but without the disk (and serial
number, written on the disk with a sharpie!) I would have been SOL.
Also had the "down" windlass switch go out on the deck. The inside one
worked. No spare. Not a biggie, but another spare I should have carried.
Keith
__
Dogs have owners; Cats have staff.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arild Jensen" elnav@uniserve.com
Our manta was: if it breaks, you better be able to fix it,or do without
it.
Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List
Mike Keith and others,
Lets move this over to the general trawler list.
I wasn't referring to just software.
I originally posted to this list because long distance cruisers are
particularly vulnerable because they are always far from home and
familiar vendors and known resources.
Arild
What, you've never had a single problem with any other piece of software?
Goodness! I'm perfectly happy with Nobeltec and their support.
Keith
__
"When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his
sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car." - Will Rogers
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike O'Dell" mo@ccr.org
if people keep tolerating this kind of abuse, it will keep
getting worse. >
Keith wrote:
Probably should go without saying, but be sure to carry all the disks for
any computer aps you have. This last weekend, my Nobeltec Tides and
Currents
suddenly announced that it was improperly installed, and needed to be
reinstalled.