As mentioned in my last post, one of the things I was doing was a cheap increase in battery bank size to tide me over to next year (and lithiums). Originally, I was going to get two 6v golf cart… Continue reading
So after spending at least a year whining that my battery bank is too small, I can’t generate power etc etc I’ve decided to FINALLY do something about it, spurred on by the discovery of $130 6V 220 AH batteries… Continue reading
I still hadn’t tested my autopilot out on a full blown trip, and last weekend my friend Phil (same guy who sailed to Australia, Race to Alaska on a beach cat etc etc) had just bought himself a little 24′… Continue reading
This is pretty much an FYI post, as it took me a while to figure this out. This is NOT the procedure in the manual, but works a ton better! Basically there are TWO places to bleed it, labeled here.… Continue reading
This weekend it was nice out, so I decided to work on the spinnaker pole. It was a second hand one and was a foot or so too long, making it tricky to handle. First I cut it down to… Continue reading
Last thing to do was to wire up the brains of the system, the AC12. First, I installed it on a bulkhead near the breaker panel, safe inside the (hopefully dry) cockpit. Then, I hooked up the wires temporarily to… Continue reading
The DD15 is the muscle of the autopilot system. It’s a unit that attaches to the rudder and moves it according to the autopilot computer. The first thing to do was figure out where to stick it. I decided in… Continue reading
I needed to pick up some stuff from Orcas island, namely Drag link for autopilot (last piece I need!) Curtain stuff to finish all 9 remaining curtains a safety cuff thing to put on prop shaft in case of gearbox… Continue reading