"Vic Smith" wrote in message
...
Skip, you're apparently having fun and learning while you get your
boat shipshape. But it seems to me there is something fundamentally
wrong about your approach to your boat's mech/electrical systems.
Whether the installations were wrong from the get-go, or the product
of piecemealing mismatched components, or of using low quality
components, or you mucking up with your own hands things you don't
have the knowledge to deal with, I don't know.
If it were me I would get better advice on what works best and use it.
There are always cost compromises for most of us, but boating -
especially cruising - should *not* be "fixing things in exotic places"
or whatever cuteism you care to use.
Scheduled maintenance, proper diagnostic gear to use for
troubleshooting, and occasional replacement of broken down parts
should be the goal for cruisers.
Sometimes reading cruiser logs remind me of tales - usually from the
very young - who pick up an '89 Chevy Cavalier in NY for $300 and
set off for California.
They might make the journey, but it is doubtful it will be much fun,
and it will probably end up costing more in repairs than if they had
just bit the bullet and splurged $500 on a '92 Chevy Corsica.
Of course being at sea has dangers beyond being stalled on a road.
I hope I'm not off base here, but I've never read so many accounts of
various breakdowns as I have from you, and I'm a bit concerned, since
I do wish you the best.

--Vic

Other than the grounding, it seems to me that the only "boat stopper"
they've experienced so far is the steering failure -- and even that was
fixable at sea from Skip's report, with emergency steering solutions
available (unknown whether they had the knowledge to employ any of them,
however).

The Flying Pig is clearly a boat with more equipment than I would choose to
go to sea with. I prefer simple systems that are easily repaired in the
event of failure. Tiller steering. No refer. Low power demands. Very limited
through-hulls. Porta-potti with "bucket and chuck-it" option at sea. But
horses for courses, as they say. Some claim that women demand high-comfort
heads with lots of beauty-parlor options. Guess I'm not that much of a
girly-girl.

Nevertheless, underway repairs and maintenance are pretty much expected. The
higher-tech the systems, the more repairs to be expected. And they *are* in
"shake-down" mode at this time.

Karin