SASSAFRASS

Can bus has been around for ever and in use in many industrial applications. I don't think there is a pysical issue with the robustness or capacity of N2k or can bus. I do think Garmin in particular and Simrad have a long ways to go to get the bugs out. They are also moving towards this network as the backbone for all data and components interface. IE our new Simrad pilot is all N2k, the compass rudder angle interface displays computer etc are all talking over the network. We ended up building a seperate network to isolate the pilot as it kept dropping out. I am fairly certain it was a Garmin device causing it. By separating the systems we have never had a drop out to date but have lost 60% of our pilots capabilities. I used to work on a boat with cummins QSK50's they would just decide to stop over lost command module or dropped critical signals oils pressure etc. Two firmware updates later and all was fine... For me it has to run a year or so without any hiccups before I will sign off on it. The auto industry is not a great comparison as they will test whatever and it will go into a bazillion units. There just aren't that many products in marine pleasure to fully vet products. It's the same in commercial marine they just don't admit it. Rolls Royce was the worse.

Over in the cruisers anchorage A9, so far so good, have to say the color was interesting at the police dock but The midnight to 400 am constant party and or tweeker fight got old. I used to smoke as did the wife and we both finally kicked it this summer in BC. Wow!!! Whole boat was getting filled with cig smoke from the upwind 24-7 party it's fucking nasty!! Have to give the major kudos to fortress anchors. We have had the same smaller guy around as a gift from my father in law. It's the lunch hook at the ready etc. I through it out as a stern hook when we got here as I needed to re splice our secoundary, which is a rocna with some chain and three strand. After I got my chores done and the other hook set. It was the usual insane pull fest to get the fortress out. They really do hold great in soft bottom. Seems like a lot later sun here than Shelter island too.

BJ, I would have agreed with you until our latest nav integration. As soon as you put something on a N2K network, and I'm not saying that it won't function alone but to get full functionality you have it on a network. You take what was a probably reliable basic. Product and make it suceptible to the same bugs and issues as a non marine device. I'm still in the paper as primary camp, they don't need power and we have three sextants on board. I've seen way too much stuff fail at work to have 100% faith in anything pushing electrons.

Somebody smarter than me needs to patent a IP 68 tablet flush mount kit. Not really rocket science but something that is fastened to a nav pod or helm and has all ports covered plus a snap on sun cover like a regular plotter. For anyone who's taken their plotter apart.... it's just a touch screen with some comm cards in a watertight case. Doing things like running your audio out so you can mess with the tunes etc from the helm as well. I would buy buy one of those.

We had a pretty dramatic change in the San Juans starting about mid last summer. Seemed like twice the growth as before. Am guessing the water temp got up over that magic spot a couple degrees or so and stuff took off. Thankfully we still are able to use copper so just more cleaning, would guess we can get it in Mexico too. I was pretty amazed at how fast the soft the soft growth was happening up in BC this summer.

So feeling like a bit of a moron today. Our outboard water discharge stopped running other than a drizzle in Catalina. Since I was way overdue on maintenance I figured the water pump had died. Of course the closest evinrude dealer in SD is in El Cajon. Took the bus and train up. Great public transit here! The parts guy there told me that most small new Evinrudes and mercurys are just rebranded Tohatsus and a lot of the parts are interchangeable. Good to know, got two new impellars and serviced it today, new oil lower unit etc. The old impeller was not that bad but worn some. At running same problem no water. A quick google search came up with the "one of three issues for no water" the first being a bug crawled up the outlet hose and died plugging it. And yes that was it.....

What are people using as water resistant power connections for tablets and ipads? That's seems to be the weak link. Most of the cases seem pretty bullet proof unless you had the USB port open. I guess you could use two and cycle the batteries in shitty wx but that doesn't seem like the best way to go. I'm with Lex on the plotter outside and using tablets or idas to compliment. I have never understood the point of having a waterproof fancy plotter/radar display below decks and not above. istream, lots of good info on that sight. I have really only had issues with Garmin and Simrad so far. Garmin is hit or miss on tech support depending on who you get. Simrad was really good about swapping stuff but pretty tight lipped on the rest. It would be really nice if a third party came up with a open source trouble shooting program for N2k. I'm pretty computer illiterate but as there is a supposed protocol you would think a basic diagnostic program could be developed to troubleshoot systems. One interesting thing I saw was that I am fairly certain one device was causing conflicts with another and they were different brands and totally unrelated. If I had to do a single point fault check when o had a dropout I would never have equated one to the other. Only after wasting lots of money on redundant backbones was it isolated.

I used a seperate 0183 antenna for our radios as I don't really like the multiplexers or converters. Also nice to have a little redundancy if needed. Regarding Whisper, we had a interesting wake up call on GPS data while in the fjords up in BC our anchor alarm kept going off as our position was jumping half a mile up the mountain. After that I got pretty proactive on looking at the sky view for the N2k antenna and the one built into the plotter. Depending on what defaults or alarms you have setup a device can tell you it has a position or never alarm out for lost position, but the actual position error could be astronomical. I liked the bit on the Delos site about coastal nav capabilities. I still am having some sticker shock but might bite the bullet on it for our inside display. Definatley have learned I do not like a radar overlay, I think it misses way too much.

Thanks for the videos, interested especially as things change so fast. Can add a couple things as free info to do with what you please. Our unscientific data of late is that there are still some NMEA conflicts out there between manufacturers and their various abuses of the protocols. I have had and have had friends who have had issues with pilots wind data, nexus data, gps data etc. I don't think it's all perfect and it takes proactive owners and users to give good feedback to get it sorted out. I recently ordered a Russian N2k to wifi unit that I have Hi hopes for as a interface for Inaviomocs or other plotter foundations will see how it goes. One of the biggest issues I have with modern electronics and this is from my professional career as a merchant mariner and as a vessel operator is the constant firmware updates and bugs. The more advanced and integrated things get this is the price but it certainly takes away the purity of true reliability in a marine product.

So cool to see the insane amount of boats heading out to go sailing today. Clubs, racers, fun, charters etc... have to admit seeing Stars and Stripes heading out was pretty cool regardless. Got the old Annometer and GND10 sent back today maybe a fun day sail tomorrow will see. Wind here is interesting seems to do one thing in the bay and be sort of consistent but maybe some more info outside but a little less predictable.

I like the nail polish idea, thats pretty simple and should help. The last zinc we had on was OEM from PYI, specific for the 4 blade easy we have. This time I'm using a 83mm universal. It has more mass and I think it might have the metal ring cast in it as well not 100%. 6 months seems about right for us, with min motoring and static dock time, thats what we used to get with the old standard prop nut zinc. I' guessing that you have to cut you consumption times down considerably for motoring just based on erosion. Will be interesting to see. I was concerned about things at the old marina we were in and had our marine electrical friend, who is also a wood boat owner check our whole boat and verify our zincing. We did this at the same time we put in a isolation transformer. Used a 1/2 cell and measured all metal to water points, made me feel pretty good about things. We have very minimal zincs on here a couple plates on the cast iron keels one small disc on the cutlass and stern tube and the prop nut. So far we are doing well just the prop one wasting at the ss fasteners. It's a double effect as the small amount of wasting at the faster makes the zinc a slop fit and it most likely rattles itself away motoring. Just a bad design IMO. I like the paint scheme think I will give the one a try. The grease type seems fine in the prop, I like the check routine as well. I have lots of years dealing with seawater grease applications and white lithium is about the best so will probably stick with it. Up the mast today and maybe some bottom cleaning.

We saw he was playing when we went by, then my wife looks dup pics of people watching shows there and was deterred but the mass congestion. Maybe later will see. We are figuring out the schedule of al things local, enjoying a quiet day on the dock weekends seem to be a good time to be here. A couple gear related things for anyone who is interested. On the Max prop front. There zincs suck no way around that, shitty design with shitty mechanical fasting. We are in the one to two month conservative mode now planning on stocking spares to accommodate 12 changes per annual. I am figuring conservatively you need to be re-tightning fasteners at least bi weekly if you are in use full time. PYI told me to pay special attention to greasing and pick some random interval to give it a check in the 6 month ballpark. I can say for sure you should be greasing the prop at about 150-200hrs of service or 6 month. We were at about 400 hrs and 6 months and I put a whole tube of grease in. Not a oh shit moment but PYI said most props coming to them are beat to shit by no lube from wash out. I think A 4 times per year hit with the grease gun is probably a good service schedule. On the Cold galv compound, we used Petit prop coat. Big thumbs down. I have use this in the past and been happy but that is with very little boat use. What i'm seeing now with lots of motoring is the zinc tends to pill on the prop blade making a dimpled surface area ripe for errosion. I saw no electrolysis issues or pink metal but initially thought we had cavitition or some other weird shit going on. After polishing the blades it is pretty obvious its just the zinc cold compound making a meteor field. I hit it all with scotch bright and went back to the tried and true Kiwi juice Lanacoat. Will require more attention for growth but I'm not sold on the zinc treatment. Going to finish the bottom tomorrow and send in our anometer for yet another warranty return. I would stear pretty clear of Garmin's GND 10 nexus interface if you are looking at new products. My non official opinion is itsshitting out a lot of conflicting sentences still. I hope they have sorted it out. After segregating it from our simrad pilot all the pilot issues went away. There customer service is 50-50. Not making this up but I have a huge file going on this issue and lots of my own money and time trouble shooting the issue for them; of the 4 long calls I have had the two with woman have been great and helpful. the two with dudes have been very annoying and on the verge of hang ups. So I guess Garmin tech is all about who you get. I have two independent N2K networks now after the "issues" will slowly try to bring its all back to one big happy family. My guess is the GND 10 may be the one who will not play nice so wind data may be on its own display.

San Diego wins the prize for boats Sailing so far on our trip. On the coast, in the harbor, day time and night time people sailing in all sorts of boats. Shelter island is probably the least friendly we have experienced as far as people walking by giving the stink eye. The tweakers on the public dock are pretty chatty and friendly though so there you go. Got our permit to throw the hook out for a month or so. Checked out Downwind Marine, super nice people and store, pretty much took care of our punch lost of things we need to do before MX. Have a few things to wrap up and maybe some day sailing on Sun if lucky.

Do your homework and look at all the associated costs. A international endorsement requires a STCW cert which can be several thousand dollars in classes and weeks in time outside of the ticket. The 100-200ton masters courses are good and something I would recommend over a six pack course. Seatime in the us is based on tonnage and area of operation. If you were sailing offshore it's that time madness the tonnages of the boat. They have forms you can fill out and submit. It's all up to a individual evaluator to determine exactly what you get. For commercial operations the company or captain are required to provide a letter of seatime. In rare cases like commercial fishing you are allowed time and a half of you are working 11 plus hrs per day. Also if you work somewhere you get random DOT drug testing a separate letter stating such will meet the drug test requirements.

It would help if you clarified where you are and what you want to operate. In The US the USCG deals with merchant mariner credentials. It's still a rather open system and you can pay your fee $140 and just go take the test provided you meet the base criteria, seatime etc. for the given credentials. There are domestic and international ratings in the US. Not all countries recognize them. IE I'm a 100 ton master w/aux sail, and a Chief Engineer limited oceans, 1st assistant engineer unlimited. I looked into working in New Zealand, they were very helpful, I would have to test out at there equivalent rating so no rudder stamp, but there would be some credit. If you are indeed trying for a MMC there are lots of schools, even ones you can get full ride scholarships for like Kings Point. These are four year schools that you come out with a degree and a 3rd mate or 3rd assistant eng.