Upon first getting the turbine wired up, and spinning, I thought it wasn’t making much power. I thought I had a dud… another defective Air Breeze. Southwest Windpower has had alot of complaints about the Air Breeze and the Air X. Both are the cheapest in the small turbine category. They both have internal regulators, so nothing more to buy except some wire, a switch and a fuse. But usually… you get what you pay for. You hear and read about people having bad customer service experiences, regulators failing within a few months, blades disintegrating, etc. Knowing all this, I really wonder why I bought one of these units so prone to failure and complaints. Guess it comes down to price and my penchant for playing the odds!

The Air Breeze specs are in kilowatts per month… not exactly the way I want to measure my output. I’m dubious of such convoluted specs. I want to see amps per knot of wind. Since getting the amp meter wired and confirming my power generation, I’ve seen good things. Winds have been strong lately, and I have a new appreciation for breezy nights at anchor.

Here’s a short video demonstrating the kind of power I’m seeing on a breezy night like tonight…

Doesn’t matter where you are — springtime means boat projects. I’m knee deep in 4 or 5 projects, simultaneously. I never was one for focusing on a single task; starting and finishing it in one day. I like to open a handful of projects, then proceed to let them linger for months. Gives me time to ponder the best solution I like to think. I enjoy the process. After all, it’s the journey, not the destination right? Typically, I’ll move into a semi-panic mode as a cruising departure deadline nears, and then it all gets done lickity-split. Dead lines… make great baggy wrinkle.

Perhaps a year of dreaming, wondering, researching and contemplating have all gone into the wind generator project. It’s nearly done. It’s mounted, spinning and making power. But I still need to properly run the wires and install the kill switch. It’s a little noisier then I had remembered based on listening to other Airbreezes on friends’ “yachts”. Oh, wait — it just started up again, and I can barely hear it over my music. Perfect! Actually, I’ve noticed it’s quieter at higher wind speeds. Interesting.

The install is easy. With the internal regulator, there is minimal work to do to get it up and running. I used 8 AWG wire for the run to the batteries. I combined the ground and the negative wires inside the pole, so I only need run duplex through the transom. The slow blow 20 amp fuse is 3″ from the batteries, and uses a 12 AWG jumper. Still looking for a solution to stick with the 8 AWG right to the battery, but for now it’s fine.

The pole kit was bought from emarineinc.com. I prefer their polished tubes to the typical white painted poles you often see with the Southwest Windpower turbines. The main aluminum tube came pre-drilled and the inside is coated with a vibration dampening substance. The smaller support tubes are 1″ SS tube. The entire mount sits on rubber for vibration reduction. Currently, I feel absolutely no vibration below. This is a good thing, cause I’ve been on some boats with wind generators, and it feels like an endless freight train is going by. Nice work emarine.

I’m looking forward to seeing how much power this turbine makes for me over time. I’d like to think, that with my 80 watt solar panel and this wind turbine I’ll be able to keep up with the fridge and the Macbook Pro. I have plans to swap out my single 80 watt panel for two smaller, but narrower 65 watt panels, one for each lifeline, port and starboard.

The radar on the BCC Elizabeth was installed such a way, that it only swung out 90º – leaving me to peer in from the cockpit side towards the starboard beam. Inconvenient to say the least. Better than having to go below for sure…but the install left me feeling like they got a phone call half way through the job, then when they hung up, they moved onto some other project. I do that all the time. I used some aluminum angle, since I had some laying around for my outboard motor mount project. Pretty darn beefy for a radar display, but works like a Chimpanzee.

One of the best birthday presents ever… maybe the best, hard to quantify those sorts of things was this flag I got, with an E on it in my colors.  I think it’s supposed to stand for Extrasmelly. I fly it all the time.

My ‘sort-of-friend/sort-of-enemy’ with a BCC here in this lovely place I live had these cool little oriental rugs on his boat. I fell in love with them. I bought 4. I put my drinks on them.

Nights growing colder
Children growing up
Old friends growing older
Experience slips away

(Rush, Time Stand Still, 1987)

The mooring field, the anchorages, the streets, the coffee houses, all are noticeably less crowded. The secret service helicopters fly overhead this week, but the rest of the island is settling down. The days are only as long as they were in April. The sun feels different, and my thoughts are absorbed in plans for winter.

I’ve scheduled a survey over in Falmouth for insurance renewal/upgrade. I’m shopping around for insurance to cover the trip south, and I’d like the insured value of the boat to reflect the work I’ve done this past year. I’m just looking over the pre-purchase survey and realizing there are a few items I never addressed. But I did pick up some new flares and a fire extinguisher, registered the EPIRB in my name, and sent it off to have the battery replaced – to the sweet tune of $250.

I’ve just learned you can’t have your SSB backstay antenna insulators right up at the top of the mast. “The mast will reflect a certain amount of radiated power back down the line to the radio (VSWR), it will also change the pattern of your signal.” So, I’ll have to pull my backstay down, and rework it a bit, making 3′ at the top. I ordered the correct Stalok pieces from Rigging Only, and still have some leftover wire. Never a dull (non-spendy) moment!

It’s about time for me to take this fine vessel on her first little cruise… to Long Island to see Dream Theater. Their latest album is one of their best… Check out this video. Yeah, I like Prog Metal. I play drums… feels like another life… but I miss it.

So the plan is vague, but I need to be down and safely anchored the morning of August 8th to catch this show… 9th row center tickets! I have some options, and it’s only a 2 day trip if winds are favorable. Where I anchor will depend on the weather, tides and my whimsy. I have a friend in Watch Hill Id like to visit. Cuttyhunk is supposed to be a sweet spot, and there’s always Block Island… I’ve been there a few times already, but it’s convenient. I’m thinking of anchoring on the North Fork for the gig. It’ll be easier for Adam to pick me up there… the south shore/Hamptons area is a bitch with traffic on a summer weekend. So Cutchogue or Matituck, look like good options. After the show on Saturday, I want to go visit some friends in Sag Harbor and Montauk for a few days, then I’ll head back to the Vineyard to install the wind generator and prepare for the longer trip to Maine, a sort of second shake down… in preparation for the sail south this fall/winter.

The Monitor windvane is rebuilt, $500 later in new parts. I had to do a few things 2 or 3 times to get the spacing just right. It’s a tricky little bugger, and there’s lots of parts. I wonder how that Pardey style vane steers by comparison… sure seems simpler. I have one in a garage in NH waiting for me…. just need to drum up the courage to drill the holes in the rudder and mount it next time I haul out. Selling the Monitor would be easier than the Freehand — I think the Freehand can only be used on boats with a boomkin… perhaps only the BCC? The Monitor bearings were easy to install once I figured out you can use shaving cream to hold them in place. The folks at Scanmar have been great, I called them about 10 times to ask dumb questions during both tear down and rebuild. Sure is nice to deal with a small company, and get to know them on a first name basis. It’s a quality outfit for sure.

One more day-sail this coming weekend with the Monitor installed, it will be my 6th sail on the boat. I had a good sail (5th) last weekend with a cute Bulgarian girl (she’s hidden behind the mast in this pic). Managed to sail off and on the hook without using the d-sail at all. That felt nice. I did skip the stays’l, and it was much easier, yet she sailed just as well. She’s getting more comfortable, I love the way she sails.

I’m planning my first cruise to Long Island, NY in early August to go see my favorite band, Dream Theater with my friends Adam & Khrystine, fellow graphic designers and prog-metal lovers. I’m going solo. So the latest effort has been to get the boat ready for singlehanding. The two key elements to that end are the mechanical tiller pilot and wind driven self steering windvane.

I picked up the Simrad TP32, rated for boats up to 14,000 lbs… just about the weight of Elizabeth. I really only use the tiller pilot when motoring, which allows me to prep & set sails. The tiller pilot requires a pedestal mount to meet the height of the tiller. These mounts were on backorder indefintely. So I had one made locally by a metalworker. I brought him some SS parts I had laying around from my double anchor roller, that I had to hack off. A threaded rod and a SS tube to fit over it. Perfect for this pedestal mount. All I needed was a base, a nut welded to the tube and a few tapped holes for set screws. I wanted the 3″ tube to be removable, so it wasnt a toe stubber/line catcher when not in use. I think the build is robust, however I would have preferred a slightly wider base to distribute the horizontal load a little more. However, I think it will be fine.

The 80 watt solar panel I have will eventually end up on the wind generator pole, but for now, I have it on the port side lifeline. I replaced the lifeline with a 1″ OD SS tube, added some aluminum flat bar under the panel for extra support and as a place to attach some mounts. It’s not a bad set up, but the panel is too wide for this loaction. There is a 13″ wide panel you can get that would be more appropriate for this rail mounting set up. But this will get me going for now.

I’m currently in the middle of rebuilding the Monitor windvane. I have a few parts coming in the mail next week, so right now, I’m on hold with this. There are a million and one pieces to this thing, gears, bearings and bushings, set screws and ring snaps galore. One part had some significant crevice corrosion, so I opted for replacement… to the tune of $350… ouch.

I’m living aboard in Vineyard Haven Outer Harbor on the hook, running my inverter to keep this Mac Book Pro charged.  I lovingly call it my “Amp Eater”. I’ll need to fire up the Yanmar soon to keep my aging house bank alive… a cycle that repeats itself daily. The 80 watt panel I bought can keep up with my Isotherm on a sunny day, but the laptop is just too much. I’m researching wind generators, and hope to get one soon… who needs a website?

Despite the broken foot, I got out for a second sail last week when Rosie and Darrah came down for a visit. Rosie soldered my radar cable connector at the mast base for me – he’s good with that sort of thing.  We ordered  a beautiful Amphenol 14 pin connector, that was large enough to work with fairly easily. It’s a Military Spec connector, and looks like something straight out of M*A*S*H*. Four hands makes precision soldering a whole lot easier.

We got out for a glorious sail the next day, in 15 knots and sunny blue skies. Avacado, Havarti and mustard sandwiches, along with Darrah’s homemade pickles filled our bellies with delight. We sailed east past Edgartown and Cape Pogue, towards Nantucket. I decided we should sail until we could see Nantucket, then we’d tack round and head home. Once past Cape Poge, we were in unhindered open ocean, with no land to heat up the breeze. It got chilly and a little swell began to pick us up gently, then lower us down carefully between the small, yet long peaks. As I gazed forward wondering what Nantucket would look like, trying to recall its features, I noticed a patch of tan colored water, and thought — odd… Then suddenly I realized tan water = sandy = shallow! I grabbed the chart and took a look. “FOUR FEET – WHAT THE ?!” Indeed, out past the point in what should be deep ocean water between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket there are shoals-a-plenty that are often in the single digit depths. Well that was close enough for me, “Ready About!”, and homeward bound we set our course. On the way home we sailed by Valora, a daysail schooner, which Teresa captains. We tacked round and took a few pics for their brochure and print ads I’ve been working on. One of their passengers snapped a quick phone-photo of Elizabeth.

Finally back to some sanding and varnishing this past week… boy did that feel good. I missed the old 80 grit, and paint brush routine. Glad to see the coamings begin their journey towards 10 coats. 2 down, 8 to go. I’m using Epifanes Rapid Clear, for quick build up. I might try a top coat or two of Bristol Finish over this…not sure still.

Another finally… the name! It’s official now. Still homeport-less, but that’s OK. It’s slightly crooked and off center, I really have a hard time when there’s no “command-Z”, but I figure it’s just perfect as is. BCC Mommy is alive! Elizabeth is my mom’s middle name. I’m looking forward to sailing down to Stony Brook Harbor soon to put some flowers on her memorial in the rose garden at Knox.

Last spring when the boat was delivered I thought I’d be in for about a month’s worth of work,  then I’d launch and go sailing! Little did I know… things take 3x as long, and cost 5x as much as anticipated. All in the name of fun… or is it obsession, or is it addiction?

As I kept pushing the launch date back another week, then two, then three – the running gag became “June 09″ which at the time seemed so far away and rediculuous. But oh how true it was! June 1st to be exact. Although, I am launched… I’m far from ready to go sailing.

The launch went smoothly, except for no water flowing from the exhaust on startup. I had to tie up to the dock for a few minutes while I primed the pump… filled the raw water strainer with water. I guess when I winterized it, the strainer drained. I would have thought the pump would overcome that, but I suppose that is a large volume of air.

Living aboard on the mooring gets me in the mood. I’m pirating wifi from ashore, somones unsecured network. I use a Linksys router flashed with an application called DD-wrt, and a 15dbi omni directional antenna. Works OK. It’s still not 100% reliable, but I can usually find signal and get some work done after dinner. The boat has put a severe leak in my wallet, and the pumps are barely keeping up. Solar panels, wind generator, and a new dodger will have to wait. But I did order a Simrad TP32, a necessity. I was so excited to see the brand new lifelines (purchased by previous owner) in place, first time they’ve been rigged since I’ve known the boat. Too bad the gorgeaous quick releases he ordered don’t fit in the D-rings on the stantions.

After having spliced my entire rig WRONG last summer, I’m back to re-rigging my boat with Sta-loks. Splicing was yet another expensive and time sucking mistake I’ve made. I am happy that I learned to splice, and enjoyed the process (agony). But mechanical terminals are the way to go. I have much appreciation for them now that I know the alternative. I understand Hi-Mods are even easier than Sta-Loks, and are perhaps more appealing to the eye (still undecided on that), but since I had the bottom Sta-Lok studs already, I opted to re-use those and just buy new Sta-Lok tops, saving myself $700 or so. I’m reusing the wire from the splices where I can, but that still left me buying almost 200′ of new wire. The only tricky thing with Sta-Loks is keeping the strands out of the gap in the wedge. Here’s a pic of how they line up to avoid the gap.

My friend has a small boat (27′) with some anchor chain that’s way too big for his boat and he’s got LOTS of it…200′. His displacement is slightly more than half mine, but his chain is twice the size and 4x the weight. He’s passed the point of safety and a “reserve of neglect” here… he’s a Failboat candidate. Through no fault of his own mind you, his boat came heavily laden with this fat pile of chain. It’s another case of “more ain’t better”. But not to worry my friends, he’s taking the necessary steps to rectify the problem. Anyone need 200′ of BBB 3/8″ ?? …good price!!

The thought of this much extra weight forward (600lbs extra actually) makes me think of ye olde FAILBOAT. It’s been around a while, but still makes me giggle. It’s part of some internet nonsense… called Failblog. And of course there’s the Urban Dictionary Definition of said boat, in case you are confused.