Pile 'O Parts

With a few hours to play at the marina and drive-train work suspended until the V-drive returns, smaller jobs have moved to the fore. Thus another pile of useless parts has made its way off the boat. We paid for these useless parts of course, though at the time I thought we were paying for a working autopilot system.

Ages ago my Gramps (origin of my Gypsy blood and a true rogue) taught me that a fool and his money should be parted, and if you can get some of it so much the better. Unfortunately I turned out to be the fool in this transaction. A fact which I'm sure irritates Gramps to no end should his dearly departed soul be in a place to observe what goes on in these parts. On the other hand the riff-raff who sold Kintala ended up with nothing more than a chunk of my money while I ended up with a Pile 'O Parts that may, one day, actually be a world trotting sailboat. So maybe Gramps will be okay with it in the end.

Truth be told, I am pretty pleased to have this junk off the boat. The motor was shorted, the rudder feedback pot was shot, the control wiring harness was trashed, and the system is long out of production making locating replacement parts impossible. It is also no surprise that the install itself was sloppy; wires run every which way, chain loose - pretty typical boat maintenance quality. With the trash cleared out our plan is to install a CapeHorn Self-Steering System before taking on big water. Though the airplane driver in me likes the idea of a full-on autopilot system that can navigate a series of pre-planned way points, the sailor in me warms to the thought of a self-steering system that works with the wind and needs no electrical power. (Any user / owner input from anyone who has experience with the CapeHorn system will be warmly welcomed.)

Other small jobs in the queue include red L.E.D. flood lights for the cockpit and poking around the engine cooling loop a bit more looking for zincs and restrictions in the exchanger tubes. A dodger kit rests in the living room, (I am looking at it as I write this) the next big project in the works.

And so it goes...