Log of SV Free Spirit and ships company

The chronicles of the schooner Free Spirit and her crew, embarking on an open ended journey upon the great rolling heap. Free Spirit is currently pursuing humanitarian and commercial goals in the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola. Working under the Ocean Reach USA and Paradigm Research banners, she is serving as logistics headquarters, workshop, and development laboratory for many ongoing projects. This is the log of her journey.....

Google
 
Web sailfreespirit.blogspot.com
If you are joining us for the first time, click here for an introduction!
Books and more, at the Schooner Free Spirit Chandelry
Clothes and more, at the Free Spirit Logo Shop!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Bee Incident of 2007


WARNING!!
If you have a fear of bee's.... This post may give you nightmares :-)

If you look at the last post, there is a picture of me sandblasting the mast step in the focsul. You will notice that the only safety gear that I am wearing is a helmet and gloves... Let me tell you a tale...

It was a dark and scary night... No, wait that is another story...

It was a hot, sunny, humid day in southern Florida. I was getting ready to sandblast, so we had set up the world famous sandblasting suit for me to wear. The leaf blower was sitting up on deck running, to push fresh air through the silver dryer vent hose and into the suit. This was also the first day that Tamer got to try out our new neighbors' plasma cutter. Unfortunately every time that I would get into position (awkward in the first place), and start sandblasting, the breaker would trip. Finally I got frustrated, and took off the helmet, and pulled down the top of the suit to my waist, so that I could cool off a bit. Blayde was up on deck keeping an eye on me through the hatch as my safety man. At one point he had proclaimed frustration that there were so many bees flying around up on the deck. We told him to do his best to ignore them, and kept on working. At this point I had decided to do some rust chipping with a hammer and chisel, while I waited to have reliable power back.


Here is where the fun begins....

I notice something crawling on my chest, and when I go to flick it off, I see that it is the front half of a bee. Of course, then I notice another part of a bee moving around closer to my waist. Freaked out, I jump up and go to where I can stand up in front of the mast and look down at the floor.... Where I see about 15-20 various parts of bees bodies... On the floor where I had pulled the tyvek suit down. Some of them are alive, some half dead, but most just in half. Panicking now, I take the whole suit off, turn it inside out and see hundreds of pieces of bees all over!! What is soon discovered is that the bees are being sucked in through the leaf blower and coming right down the hose and into my suit. After I removed the suit, and we got the blower set up over a metal grating, there were still bees, in various states of death, crawling out of the hose. This went on for a few hours, and at that point you could not have paid me to put the suit back on. In fact, It has been about a month now, and I still have not worn it.

I am very thankful that I was not stung, and I wish each and every one of you 'Sweet Dreams'
;-)


0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Introducing Propcalc 4.0

Use Propcalc to easily match your hull with your engine, transmission, and propeller
Put the known data in the top fields, then hit the Update button to get the answers.
Results, of course, should be verified by a Naval Architect or qualified surveyor.
Data is provided for three bladed propellers of average type
For two or four bladed props, use the modifiers shown below.

Fill out the fields as follows:

Vessel LWL (ft) = Waterline length
Vessel Disp (lbs) = Vessel displacement
(max) HP = Rated Engine Max HP
Engine RPM max = Engine RPM at Max HP
Engine RPM cruise = Desired or estimated cruise rpm
(Cruise or Max) Kts = Speed to work the calculations for
Slip = Propeller efficience. 45% is average for a displacement cruiser.
Gear ratio = 1: Gear ratio of transmission
SL Ratio Adj. = This value will be added (or subtracted, if a negative value) to the calculated S/L ratio.

Key information:

If the "hp required" is greater than the "cruse HP", you have your cruise RPM set too low for your engine parameters.
If the "hp required" is significantly less than the "cruse HP", you have your cruise RPM set too high for your engine parameters.
If the "hp required" is greater than the "Max HP", then your target speed is too high for your engine/hull parameters.
The S/L ratio is calculated automaticaly based on your input. It can be adjusted if necessary, but normally it should be left alone.
If the calculated S/L ratio exceeds S/L MAX, then the results are likely to be non-predictive. Try a lower speed requirement.
SL Ratios of 1.1 - 1.4 are typical of displacement hulls. Semiplaning or planing hulls can go higher.

Typical propeller slip values:

Sailing auxiliary, barges, etc less than 9 Kts............45%
Heavy powerboats, workboats 9 - 15 Kts....................26%
Powerboats, Lightweight Cruisers 15 - 30 Kts..............24%
High speed planing boats 30 - 45 Kts......................20%
V bottom race boats 45 - 90 Kts...........................10%


Note:

it is possible to get irrational answers by irrational input , I.E specifying excessive speed for hull type and length
Any attempt to exceed hull speed (1.34 times the square root of the waterline length in feet) with a displacement hull are likely
to fail unless the hull is extremely fine (multihull) or otherwise exceptional. In such cases, an S/L adjustment would be in order.

2 and 4 bladed props:


For two bladed propellers, multiply the diameter by 1.05, and the pitch by 1.01
For four bladed propellers, multiply the diameter by .94, and the pitch by .98


PROPCALC
  Inputs:
Vessel LWL (ft) =
Vessel Disp (lbs) =
  (max) HP =
  Engine RPM max =
  Engine RPM cruise =
  (Cruise or Max) Kts =
  Slip =
  Gear ratio = 1:
  SL Ratio Adj. =
   
    Solutions:
  Prop rpm max =
  Prop rpm cruise =
  Pitch =
  Diameter =
  Static Thrust =
  Cruise HP =
  Cruise HP% =
  SL Ratio =
  DL Ratio =
  SL Max =
  HP Required =