October 3, 2025
I’m off the boat work for a few days and in Utah to watch my daughter compete for the US Biathlon trails. It is a much needed rest after a hard push on the boat work front. Backing up…before getting to work, it was a fun time cruising with Alison and Allan from Oxnard to Mission Bay, San Diego (with…
September 11, 2025
Strikhedonia is a 2008 Seawind 1160, I cannot comment on later models but from outside appearances, it looks like Seawind has not changed the design since the early models. The troublesome table (the lifting and spinning mechanism) has been a major headache for many owners to deal with. SV Sky Pond would only spin the table clockwise for fear of…
August 13, 2025
Talk about a cheap chartplotter; Samsung Galaxy 11 inch tablet for $160, OpenCPN for $9.95. charts from The Chart Locker for $25. All in for under two hundred bucks, resulting in charts of the area I cruise along with satellite images (left off ArcGIS since it matched Bing). What a bargain! OpenCPN for Android can be downloaded from the GooglePlay…
August 9, 2025
1. Wash boat with Adam’s Polishes Strip Car Wash Soap – Use Foam Sprayer (120 ml of strip wash to 13 liters of water (16 ounce bottle = about four buckets of wash)) to coat a section of the boat. Use the two bucket method (see below) to clean the section. Repeat for the entire boat. Instructions: Link 2. Remove…
August 3, 2025
All Seawind 1160 sailboats end up having issues with the black pain that surrounds the windows cracking and becoming dull over the years. My friends Carl and Roxy (SV Sky Pond) had 3M Deep Matte Black Wrap Film Series 2080 applied when they hauled their boat at Boat Works in Brisbane and were extremely impressed with the appearance. Allan and…
July 27, 2025
Whelp, another one in the books. The arrival Sunday morning was smooth and easy with not much traffic and in the blink of an eye, camp was set up next to another RV-10 piloted by Troy from Alberta. Heck Sunday’s arrivals were 80% RV-10s so there was lots of fun looking for RV10 pilots I have met in past years.…
June 30, 2025
System Description: I decided to build a system that could be remotely controlled via cellular connected monitoring system that would allow me to pre-heat my engine from home and for a self contained engine dehydration system that can also be monitored from my phone. Basically there are three parts to the system: Cellular/Wifi backbone, Remote outlet to control the engine…
June 3, 2025
Note: Please see my Version 3.1 post for the current design: Link The system was working well but, as I’m ever the tinkerer, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. The off-the-shelf Inkbird Humidity Controller IHC200 just didn’t have the functionality that I really wanted so instead I decided to design and build my own humidity controller. My controller is based…
June 3, 2025
All in all it was a pretty uneventful Condition Inspection. It helps immensely to have a large hanger, that is well lit, and all the tools. Plus this year I became a bit more organized, I put together Flambeau Outdoors 5003 Fishing Tackle Boxes to keep all of the various supplies in one spot. Typically I perform my Condition Inspection…
April 17, 2025
Note: Please see my Version 3.1 post for the current design: Link Whew, what a journey and learning process in figuring out the recharging system for the silica beads. So much trial and error of drying mechanisms – note to self, do NOT install a thermal switch when testing resistor combinations – it seems the time consuming process of swapping…
March 6, 2025
The process of calibrating the G3X and G5 systems for accurate altitude reporting is provided in the G3X™/G3X Touch™ Installation Manual and the Garmin G5 Installation Manual. It is important to not ignore the AOA port, if not connected damage to the ADAHRS sensors may occur. G3X ADAHRS Static Pressure Calibration Procedure – Link G5 Air Data Static Pressure Calibration…
February 13, 2025
I fly mostly in the morning and due to living in the mountains it is always cool. However, this summer and fall, I had a number of flights to Las Vegas and on departure it was a lot of work to keep my CHTs below 400 which required a slower climb and reduced power. Not great. I knew there was…