My little piece of peace

Hi Fanie,
To go to Saffa Land to collect you is further than my range under power at 6knots, as I do not have a mast or sails or watermaker - all needed to get that far away (about Au$30,000 shortfall in my financial reserves)... That is why I am headed North... This 'Ancient Piece of S**t' needs to find an income source... Back to farming management in PNG or whatever in FNQ or near home port of Gove Harbour... Fuel on-board (at present is 500 litres) and cruising range with that quantity, on existing propellers at 7knots is about 700 N.Miles... I need to find a good pair of propellers and more fuel and 30K for stick&sails... I have the capacity to carry some 500 liters more in main tanks and 800 additional litres in reserve tanks, totalling about 1800 litres, but that would be a bit overloaded if bad weather arose... I would far prefer to have some sails and a mast...

The Nanni saildrive uses a 17 spline shaft for propeller attachment. I have a Bob Oram 39C fitted with mini-keels and weighs about 5000kg, waterline beam length ratio is about 11.5:1 on a waterline length of 11.99metres... The boat is guite a slippery hard chine hullform and does not seem to generate a 'bow wave' or much wake at all... The engines are Kubuto 21 hp and the gearbox 2.56 : 1, peak torque is at 2400 engine rpm and max hp/revs is at 3600 rpm... Engines seem to have a definite sweet spot at 3000rpm...

Anyone following Rick Willoughby's/Leo Lazerides formula for propellor design? - I could do with some additional views on propeller selection. I have a 300mm radius clearance for the propeller, so max propeller diameter would have to be less than 17inches but that may be too big for the available power... Present fitting is a "Redici" 2 blade folding of 15inch diameter x 10inch pitch...
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Yes you see. I thouht you guys said it's cheaper to motor than sail. Now you have to go North because Safrica is 'too far', fuel is too expensive. With a sail you would have had unlimited range. You just point the bow, tie the rudder down and away she goes like a train on a track. A couple of days later the alarm clock wakes you (have to time it properly) and you reached your destination at 09h00

 

You wouldn't need a mast if you used a kite.

 

Kites are not cheap either, about 90 square meters to pull me along and they need to be "worked" in a figure-of-eight pattern to hold an other-than-dead-downwind course and Saffa land is INTO the prevailing weather or the long way past India, USA secret bases, 'pirates' and the temptations of Madagasca and other 'pleasure' spots....

Mast will cost around $17000 and sails around $8000 and, by comparison, 1200litres of fuel is about $1800 and with new propellers at $1500 or so give me about 4000 miles range, - - almost to the 'secret base' of the USA in the Indian Ocean...

 

It's going to be a hell of a lot more expensive if you run out of fuel half way !

But you're right things are rediculously expensive, it seems the only way is to do everything yourself, extrude the mast, download sailplan and make your own sails etc etc.

 

Cheaper to motor than to sail depends on where you are. In the carib it seems cheaper to sail, in the PNW it seems cheaper to motor, since its what your going to be doing most of the time anyway. Its a mater of horses for coarses

 

Some photos Brian took today.

 

Thanks for the upload Doug, This internet connection I have is verging on the rediculous sometimes (not my computer so I will not tweak the performance or any other "corrective mesaures")...

As you all can see by the images, everything is not "as tidy as"... It is lived in, and a poor man's work-in-progress.... Some efforts at reducing sound levels from the engines will be effected soon, - - money availability determines timing for this activity, which includes carpeting of the "saloon/bridgedeck' and sound-insulation to the engine bays and aft midships section...

Last week I managed to use a high-pressure (can remove paint) waterjet to clean the decks and bridgedeck floor all to good effect, and now the 'blotches' of spilled stuff show up clearly...

I am still mulling over in my mind how and where to mount the transducer for the 'el-cheapo' depth-sounder/fish-finder... I am thinking of using an alloy tube and working some method to mount it, hanging on the hand-rails aft and alternatively, also forward near the anchor walkway forward... It won't be used often - when I am testing the shallows when anchoring close to a lee-shore - checking depth in shallow channels/passages or looking for a spot when the tide goes out to do some bottom cleaning or propeller and other checks/cleaning/maintenance...

 

A potential weather window may be developing with a departure from Brisbane for Cairns (inside the reef) commencing on 21May and hopefully a doldrum effect will follow/lead me all the way up to Cairns and give me a 4-5 day window to get to Samarai in PNG's China Strait... ?

http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/cha...e=windbarb&level=10m&tz=AEST&area=Au&model=CG

 

hi mas. glad you didnt race off to png just yet. bob didnt mention the squatting transoms as a possible factor in your fuel consumption. the boat does seem to be on quite an angle. is there any way to shift some of the permanent weight forward, as opposed to adding extra weight forward? and if you could, would it make much difference? you mentioned the possibility of the minikeels adding buoyancy in the wrong place. maybe you could store some fuel in them? i'd be very curious to hear what bob has to say about all of this.
well, i think it's going to be a very exciting adventure anyway. hope you are enjoying your new home. nice to look out the windows and see water and sunshine

 

Thanks for the pics - lovely

 

Something tells me once he gets the mast and rigging on there it will level out some. Ole Bob is a pretty quick cat and I just can't imagine he missed the weight distribution. My bet is either Mas was reading the economic news when he was supposed to be trimming out the boat or he simply forgot the mast and rigging. ;-)

cheers
B

 

Have you been reading my emails from Bob Oram? - With the stick up and sails, or, full load of fuel and water she should level out nicely...

Tomorrow, (Thursday), I should have the instruments sorted and the throttle/gear linkages sorted...

Friday, to the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, and seek sound insulation, Weekend to Bunnings to get some rubber backed outdoor carpet for the bridgedeck and I should then be almost ready...

Regularly checking the 7 day forecast on seas and wind, looking for that 4 to 5 day window of opportunity from Cairns to Samarai...

By Monday I will have done some full speed passes to see what she does at full revs of the engines then work out the new propeller specifications... Rick Willoughby seems to have dissappeared... An SMS to 0408 262 234 will find me in Australia with contact info on how to get in touch with Rick please...

Boston,
No more interest in the "GEC", what will be will be, and my path is pretty well pre-determined...

 

Best of luck with your trials tomorrow and ya might help out some to ballast her level and get those transoms up

cheers
B

 

Well all seems good with the boat, Compasses, instruments, all aligned and working predictably and harmoniously...

Engine linkage controls rectified and peak revs (3750rpm, which is 150 overrevving a bit, and still not assuredly full throttle, as the linkages may be adjusted to travel more?)... yeilds 7.9 to 8.2knots (two runs, with and against tidal flow averaged)... Using just one engine gave: - 7.2 (stbd) and 7.7 (port) and with both at 3000rpm gave 7.5 and 2400 returned 6.5 knots by the gps...

Existing propellers are "Gori" look-alike, "Redici" Italian made 15" x 10"pitch anyone with advice as to the fixed blade replacement pair? 17" x 11" or what? - See post 1291...