SV Seeker

[Sail4beer]

What moving boat wouldn’t be complete without a plumber’s nightmare to hold onto in heavy seas and high winds under triple reef on the way to its destination.
Or as Ozzyman on YouTube calls it “Destination Fucked!”

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Last time I saw plumbing like that it was on a (homebuilt, of course) Roberts ketch owned by a guy who was very proud of his welding ability and his navigational ability and his sailing ability and...well, everything. His name was Ephraim, and I was recruited to assist with Lauderdale to Panama.

It became apparent on day one that his plumbing ability wasn't quite what he thought it was, and stupid venting meant all the bunks smelled like a mexican sewer. His systems installation ability also wasn't apparently what he thought it was, and the watermaker was dead the first night (and of course he didn't stock up on water because of his amazing watermaker). His belief in his sailing ability led him to fly a cruising spinnaker on the second night, in the GS, with 20 knots of wind against tide. It was fun spending the morning untangling the shredded kite and cut sheets from the bits, cleats, hawser, pulpit, and windlass, and cleaning up the blood from the nasty cut Ephraim got when the boat broached and he slipped on transmission fluid that had leaked from the 5 gallon bucket lashed to the pushpit, sliding his heel into the sharp end of a danforth anchor lashed to the pushpit.

His navigational ability though - that was what finally sent me packing (along with the ever-present smell of rotting, digested israeli food wafting from holding tank and lines to cabin). Ephraim ran the electronics and nav station during our attempt to land in Isla Mujeres, but wasn't the best at reading lights or charts and wouldn't let anyone near the laptop. Rather than entering the channel, he saw the lights of the town and pointed the boat at them, placing the heavy dumpster precisely on the 4 foot reef that forms a barrier to the harbor. We sat there for 14 hours, prohibited from dropping the tender in the water by the skipper, who was busy begging shallow draft ferries for some wake to bump us off the reef (with a bullhorn, of course).

We ditched as soon as he fell asleep, and checked ourselves in with the authorities. By the time we were out of Migracion, we saw the navy boat tied up to his starboard side. He ended up being fined quite a bit (I was told >$25,000 by a crew who stayed for another week) for digging several hundred meters of 3' deep trench with his keel, my pal and me hitchhiked to Panama, did a few canal transits for cash and booze, and jumped on a boat headed for the PNW. No idea what happened to Eliza.

 

[MiddayGun]

I have to admit, I am curious as to what all the valves do.
It looks like some puzzle from a video game.

 

[kent_island_sailor]

I have to admit, I am curious as to what all the valves do.
It looks like some puzzle from a video game.

One of them probably is the potable-water holding tank crossfeed and another one is the hydraulic fluid feed to the galley sink.

 

[epoxypete]

Last time I saw plumbing like that it was on a (homebuilt, of course) Roberts ketch owned by a guy who was very proud of his welding ability and his navigational ability and his sailing ability and...well, everything. His name was Ephraim, and I was recruited to assist with Lauderdale to Panama.

It became apparent on day one that his plumbing ability wasn't quite what he thought it was, and stupid venting meant all the bunks smelled like a mexican sewer. His systems installation ability also wasn't apparently what he thought it was, and the watermaker was dead the first night (and of course he didn't stock up on water because of his amazing watermaker). His belief in his sailing ability led him to fly a cruising spinnaker on the second night, in the GS, with 20 knots of wind against tide. It was fun spending the morning untangling the shredded kite and cut sheets from the bits, cleats, hawser, pulpit, and windlass, and cleaning up the blood from the nasty cut Ephraim got when the boat broached and he slipped on transmission fluid that had leaked from the 5 gallon bucket lashed to the pushpit, sliding his heel into the sharp end of a danforth anchor lashed to the pushpit.

His navigational ability though - that was what finally sent me packing (along with the ever-present smell of rotting, digested israeli food wafting from holding tank and lines to cabin). Ephraim ran the electronics and nav station during our attempt to land in Isla Mujeres, but wasn't the best at reading lights or charts and wouldn't let anyone near the laptop. Rather than entering the channel, he saw the lights of the town and pointed the boat at them, placing the heavy dumpster precisely on the 4 foot reef that forms a barrier to the harbor. We sat there for 14 hours, prohibited from dropping the tender in the water by the skipper, who was busy begging shallow draft ferries for some wake to bump us off the reef (with a bullhorn, of course).

We ditched as soon as he fell asleep, and checked ourselves in with the authorities. By the time we were out of Migracion, we saw the navy boat tied up to his starboard side. He ended up being fined quite a bit (I was told >$25,000 by a crew who stayed for another week) for digging several hundred meters of 3' deep trench with his keel, my pal and me hitchhiked to Panama, did a few canal transits for cash and booze, and jumped on a boat headed for the PNW. No idea what happened to Eliza.

In a parallel universe, far far away, someone called Dugg will one day perhaps relive the very adventures of this boating genius called Ephraim. Not necessarily in the same order, same location and certainly not with the same crew, but almost certainly with amazingly similar results.

Of course, it is difficult to know if Ephraim actually came away a more learned person(perhaps he did!) after his trip, but we all know the only thing Dugg will "learn" about, is an entirely new group of folks to cast blame on for all the wonderfully cascading bits of foolish and ill-considered " design" decisions he has made.

I am glad you came away whole from your nightmare trip, Clean, and I've enjoyed reading about it too!

 

[MR.CLEAN]

One of them probably is the potable-water holding tank crossfeed and another one is the hydraulic fluid feed to the galley sink.

You missed the watermaker brine discharge plumbed into the engine cooling system

 

[Latadjust]

The background, the spaghetti, it's discomforting to any sailor and distracting...can't concentrate on whatever he's going on about...if one was there the urge to push past the lubber and sort that out would be deeply instinctual, primal even.

 

[epoxypete]

Dugg said, "We ran aground on sail the other day, we were sailing beautifully, and we didn't even notice when we came to a stop, it was that soft ......"

Apart from the utter load of malarkey dribbling fourth from Dugg throughout most of this video,as is usual, the above quote from Dugg illustrates perfectly well how delusional and incompetent he really is to be handling that BSO.

How in the world can anyone honestly claim to be "sailing beautifully" yet fail to notice the immediate cessation of all forward movement of ones boat upon running aground?! Unless, of course, you are flying along and just "sailing beautifully" at a little over a knot and then back to zero. He almost manages to make it sound like his inability to even notice he had run aground as something of a feature of his BSO.

Situational awareness factor=ZERO. Bullshitting factor= TEN

 

[justsomeguy!]

Last time I saw plumbing like that

 

[Sail4beer]

At least Rube Goldberg machines actually achieve the goals they were overly designed for. Doug, not so much.

 

[Zonker]

There was one video where he was show and telling his water catching system. You had to literally open 4 valves to get rain water into a tank...

 

[Rasputin22]

Yeah, that Taco stand is about 1000 yards where I had predicted Seeker up would show up. Looks like if he eats tacos from them on a regular basis they might let him park the pickup. This is from their website.

Perdidolicious Sno Cones and Street Tacos Food Truck

 

[Rasputin22]

I have to admit, I am curious as to what all the valves do.
It looks like some puzzle from a video game.

 

[opcn]

How in the world can anyone honestly claim to be "sailing beautifully" yet fail to notice the immediate cessation of all forward movement of ones boat upon running aground?! Unless, of course, you are flying along and just "sailing beautifully" at a little over a knot and then back to zero. He almost manages to make it sound like his inability to even notice he had run aground as something of a feature of his BSO.

He was sailing nearly dead down wind at 3.1 knots. If he came to a stop over say 100 feet that would take ~38 seconds (if I remember the math from my physics course in 2007) or 0.43% the force of gravity, equivalent to what you would experience standing a quarter of a degree off of level. If it was 10' until the stop just multiply by ten as it's still small enough for the small angle sine approximation and it feels like the floor has tilted back 2.5°

 

[cb32863]

Some pictures here of the charity operated research vessel wiring and plumbing. Features include a flying splice with wire nuts in the shower, elegantly simple plumbing, clear functional straight up easily understood labeling of valves and pipes (note HOT and COLD below the shower valves on the left), and careful choice of pipe sizes and mixed materials.

Anybody familiar with how hot water and supply pressure is generated? And does the soapy grey water go somewhere other than the bilge? Separate drain pumps for showers to holding tank?

How in the literal f*ck does anyone put something like this together then stand back with their hands on their tool belt and say to themselves "Now that is a job well done!"?

 

[robtoujours]

Curtis is hilarious. I love the set of banana calipers that he used in one episode, gifted by a fan.


It is built from American lumber, so you go in foot increments if you use 2x12's, which actually makes it 1' 10.5 bananas higher than the previous damn dam. And that is the next idiotic thing about the whole system, they are not actually 2x12, they are 1.5 x 11.25, god forbid it actually is what it is called. yeah, yeah, spare me the lecture on the difference between rough cut and finish lumber, it is just an excuse to make something non-sensical seem sensical.

Don't even get started on plumbing fittings...

But I want a TWOO BY FOOUUR!!

 

[Zonker]

How in the literal f*ck does anyone put something like this together then stand back with their hands on their tool belt and say to themselves "Now that is a job well done!"?

Spend your life as a cubicle warrior....

 

[Autonomous]

And someone who has never taken a shower on a moving boat either.

What are you talking about?
Look at all those hand holds.
Although in a 15 knot breeze they may become a tripping hazard.

 

[AnIdiot]

US -> Metric evangelicals are alleged to be around the midpoint:

Evangelism

xkcd.com

...though as someone who lived through the Editor Wars these debates all seems pretty amicable to me.

 

[fukupananvil]

I have to admit, I am curious as to what all the valves do.
It looks like some puzzle from a video

What are you talking about?
Look at all hose hand holds.
Although in a 15 knot breeze they may become a tripping hazard.

Plumbing in the aft cabin. Strange stuff. Horizontal pipe structures are for bunks.