"cruisin" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well, ya know, the Admiral says hi back, and wants me to tell you
she's not leaving here until we have an autopilot!

That's part of your problem right there - according her status no woman
deserves. Get her a tee-shirt labeled "crew" and another labeled "galley
slave." Make her wear them. The rest of the time keep her naked and
drunk. If she gives you any backtalk make her walk the plank.

Not to mention an engine that works, but you can see her priorities.

Didn't Capt. Neal warn of the stupidity of big, heavy, trouble-prone,
difficult to repair inboard engines time and time again? You shoulda
listened to his sage advice when you had a chance.

What a complicated mess this boat really is. The wonderful Hydrovane
self-steering rig I spent too many boat units getting and installing
never really worked yet.

It's one of the worst self-steering systems around. Next time get a
Monitor. Try to remember what the good Captain taught. Simple is better.

The "bulletproof" Robertson autopilot uses
too many amps when sailing (it's either that or the fridge, and I like
cold beer) plus broke during the crossing, so we've been steering this
tub by hand for 3000+ miles.

Too many amps is a function of an unbalanced boat or some serious
friction or drag in your wheel steering system. That's why a balanced
spade ruddes is superior when used in conjunction with a tiller and a
tiller pilot that draws maybe 1/10 of an amp when compensating. Next
time how about some due diligence in regards to sail balance. You were
mostly off the wind, or so I hear, so with the proper spinnaker and
sheeted in mainsail you should have needed almost no power to steer your
ship. Downwind, any kind of a well-designed sailboat barely needs
self-steering systems. The sails themselves should be responsible for
90% of the self steering. The autopilot, if properly set up should only
be called on to compensate for that odd-ball wave that tends to slew you
off course.

As for the cold beer being of paramount importance. I agree with you
there.

The company is out of business, so
getting it fixed is problematical, plus it's kind of intermittant-
breaks during a passage, then days after you've arrived in port it
decides it wasn't really broken.

Pretty stupid buying and installing obsolete equipment, isn't it? Didn't
you learn a thing on your shakedown cruise to Baja?


The docks here, as everywhere but
the US, I guess, are wired with 220 volts, so we had to track down the
appropriate transformer...then it blew the dock circuit breaker every
time we turned on our "AC in" breaker.

You're in Tahiti and you're at a dock. Now I know you're no sailor. With
all the beautiful pristine anchorages around that part of the world why
the hell are you slumming it at a dock? Sad, so sad? Probably because
the "admiral" insists on hot showers, an electric blow dryer and the
proper lighting for her vanity mirror." Get a clue, make her walk the
plank sooner, rather than later. And then toss the water heater
overboard along with the electric head. The vanity - rip it out and put
in shelves for books and make it a library, While you're at it, rip the
holding tank out and intall another freshwater tank instead.

And on a much grosser note, the blingedy blangedly electric head needs
another intimate encounter with yours truly. Luckily the manual one
is hanging in there for now.

No self-respecting cruiser uses a head anyway. A cedar bucket or even a
plastic bucket is the way to go. When you need to take a leak, use some
wide mouth jar until it gets all smelly and coated with lime deposites
from the urine then toss it overboard. In your case probably a
narrow-mouth jar would work just fine.

This is the real stuff you deal with while cruising, along with the
pink sunsets and drinks by the pool at some luxury hotel.
Shoulda bought the Coronado with the purple upolstery and the cedar
bucket.

You got that last part right. I'm sure the good captain is anchored out
someplace nicer than those slum docks in Tahiti and he's not working on
a bunch of failed systems nor is he hassling with ordering or trying to
order and import a bunch of broken parts. He's got reliable solar panels
enough to run his autopilots (five of them for redundancy and spares
because any autopilot eventually wears out) and his fridge to keep his
beer cold.
His engine is a reliable four-stroke Honda which never gives a lick of
trouble and if it should fail it's a matter of unclamping it from the
transom and installing a brand new one for about the price you pay
screwing around with your exhaust system.

I hope this helps.

Wilbur Hubbard