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.....

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Friday, May 02, 2008

It's The Little Things ~March~

The morning after our first night anchored in unprotected waters just off of Fort Myers Beach. We all managed to get a bit seasick that night... It was really rolling and we had some good sized waves. Here we are picking up Nathalie so that we could go provision and return a rental car.



Pilou, Stefan's boat... Anchored out next to us.



We decided to move into the mooring field at Matanzas Pass in between Fort Myers Beach and the mainland. This area is much more sheltered and made it possible to get a bit of work done before we headed 'out to sea' for the first time.
I ended up taking a couple of weeks and doing a quick refinishing of the decks, so that we could get at least one coat of non-skid down. It brought back vivid memories of the boat yard :-) Nothing is a quick project on a steel boat, and as I have written many times, it is always a multiple step process. First I had to sand and protect any exposed steel. Then it needed 2 coats of amerlock, and after sanding that down one full top coat of Rustoleum. Then, it had to be taped off, and a coat of non-skid material in Rustoleum had to be applied.



Painting away....



Pretty and shiny!



The starboard side before the final coats, I am applying the Amerlock.



Amerlock done!



Port side, before Amerlock.



Sanding, sanding and more sanding....



Shep, doing his part to prep the aft deck for Amerlock.



Somehow, I managed to not get any finished pictures except for this one. I ended up using about 500 feet of blue tape to tape off the areas that did not get non-skid. Here is the good news!! We are going to have to do this project all over again this summer. We really need to have 2 good coats of non-skid for safety reasons. We did not have the weather or time to get them on, so it will all be redone this Summer while we are holed up for hurricane season. I have also decided on a little bit different color scheme for the deck areas. I consider it a redecorating project.... With a 'twist' :-)



We are still working REALLY hard to get proper storage built inside the boat. This is a view of the library bookshelves and supporting wall shelves from the open cargo hold.



Tamer's ingenius idea to utilize the 4" wall between the library and the hallway to the focsul. It is a whole bunch of little cubbies that hold all his screws/nails/washers and misc. loose hardware. Now each shelf has a flip down door and it is all closed in.



Blayde working at the top of the mast in the bosun's chair, doing a very important job (although I cannot remember what it was right now). He is the most amazing rigging monkey!!



Just a cool shot!



posted by CT | 4:02 PM

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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 =