By C45Sanctuary on 12/16/2008 5:44 PM

Sanctuary has a fairly solid 85hp diesel engine (Perkins 4-236).  There's some minor corrosion on the exterior and much of the original blue paint has peeled off.  The exhaust system has a fiberglass patch.  It's an original piece of equipment that is now more than 35 years old.  Still, the engine starts without any problems and runs great.  It's been well maintained over the years and is in reasonably good shape.  Chances are, it will continue to perform well for many more years.  But, as with all diesel engines, I'm at the mercy of a fuel station.  Recently, diesel was $4 a gallon.  Granted, the Perkins 4-236 uses less than a gallon an hour when pushing hull speed, but I just don't like being tethered to an oil refinery.  I'd much rather have an electric system.

I've spent the better part of a year researching what I consider an "ideal" electric propulsion system.  The system currently at the top of my wish list is the Thooma 17000 from ASMO Marine.  The LEM (Lynch Electric Motor) weighs less than 60 lbs (including the mounting hardware).  It is comparable to a 52hp diesel engine.  The entire system, not including batteries, is less than $9,000.  I'm putting this on my wish list for 2009.

By C45Sanctuary on 12/8/2008 12:19 PM

I wondered what the maximum hull speed of a Columba 45 sloop could attain while sailing.  The most common method is to take the square root of the waterline (LWL) and then multuply that result by 1.34.  Was LWL the only factor?  Why isn't hull shape taken into account, or the amount of displacement?  Was 1.34 a hard-set constant, and if so how was that number derived?  Suspecting the rule-of-hand formula was a bit over-simplistic I did some further research.

It turns out that 1.34 is not a constant.  This number is, in part, based upon the amount of water displacement and the length of the waterline.  The actual formula for determining the 1.34 "constant" is:

S/L = 8.26 / [({displacement/2240}/{0.01* waterline}^3)]^0.311

A Columbia 45 sloop has a displacement of 25,000.  (The short-keeled version is a more than a ton heavier).  The waterline is listed as 34.76 feet.  Plugging in these values, I learned that "constant" for Sanctuary wasn't 1.34.  It's 1.455.  Which means hull speed is, theoretically, 8.578 knots.  That's more than half a knot faster.  For those who feel the need to convert to MPH, that's just a sliver under 10 miles an hour.

By C45Sanctuary on 12/3/2008 6:19 PM

In May 2006 I first learned of a skunkworks initiative that Microsoft had been working on for about two years.  They were working on a standardized programming platform that would make programming robots a lot simpler, quicker, and cheaper.  The first technology preview (CTP) for Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.0 was released in June 2006.  Every few months, on average, a new technology preview was released that included their latest efforts.

For the next year or so, I purchased several different wheeled robots for testing and development.  My creative energies were pondering the possibilities.  I defined, in my own terms, what I perceved a "robot" should be.  In my definition, a robot is any piece of equipment that is controlled by software.  It doesn't have to be self aware, or have a complex array of sensors, or have multitudes of actuators and servos.  In the basest sense, a robot is simply a machine that is controlled by pre-defined logic constraints and formulas (software).

Over the next few decades the world should see significant advances in robotics.  The question I pondered until July 2007 was, "What, exactly, could I do to be a part of those advances in robotics?"  The past fifteen years of my career has been very focused upon the IT industry.  I've been a systems integrator, a software developer, a network engineer, an enterprise architect, a director of IT, a database administrator, and a senior level business consultant (just to name a few).  I spent several years in a wide variety of business sectors such as healthcare, telecommunications, and large retail.  I've worked on clusters since "Wolfpack" and thin-client implementations since the days of "WinView".

But how, exactly, could that knowledge make me unique within the IT world?  There are thousands of IT professionals that are as good, or better, than me in every one of those skills already mentioned.  What, in my personal experience, could be used to my advantage?  What I have I done that gives me a unique edge?  And then it dawned on me:

Twenty years ago I enlisted in the US Navy.  As a deck hand.  The job is as far removed from the IT industry as you can get.  The hours were long, even by IT standards.  The labor involved was backbreaking.  The pay was ... well, I make more in one day as an IT professional than I made in a month as a deck hand.  The one really cool aspect of that job was discovered the first time I stood bridge watch.  I got to drive the boat.  Er, "I was the helmsman on an aircraft carrier".  I don't know of another person in the IT industry that can say that.  Now, the question was, how could I use that to my advantage?

Well, I wasn't just any helmsman aboard the two aircraft carriers where I was stationed.  I was the MASTER helmsman.  I was the person who taught aspiring new helmsmen the tricks of the trade.  I was the one person that captain wanted on the helm when the ship performed difficult or dangerous maneuvers.  And, during the last few years of my enlistment, I was also (by a very strange twist of fate) a full time Data Systems technician.  I was one of two guys on the whole ship of more than 5,000 crew members who had any computer support skills.  Because, even though I had stopped being a bosun after two years in the USNavy and had changed to be a Data Systems technician, ... I was the only person qualified as a Master Helmsman aboard the USS George Washington.

I know how to pilot a ship like the best of the best, and I can teach those skills to the uninitiated.  I also have a very, very broad skillset within the IT field.  What if ... what if I could focus those skills and use Microsoft Robotics Development Studio the same way an artist uses a painbrush?  A ship, or a large boat, would be the ideal canvas.  Ships have sensor arrays (radar, sonar, atmospheric sensors, GPS receivers) that link to data sources (NOAA charts) so they can control actuators (rudder direction, throttle control).  A ship is a robot.  Or, it could be, if there was a computer coordinating all of those features.

Now, if you're a sailor, you're already thinking of how we already have autopilots and chart plotters and interfaces to sensor arrays.  That's true.  What we don't have, though, is a computer that is capable of standing lookout for us and being INTELLIGENT about it.  Nor an automated helmsman that knows what a spring line is and how to use rudder / throttle to automatically dock on a finger pier.  Or any of a thousand other skills that a knowledgeable deck hand uses every day.

Phase One, preparing the robotic platform, is mostly completed.  Phase Two, systems design and hardware integration, begins today.  I have a long laundry list of robotic shipboard systems waiting to be designed, implemented, and tested.

By C45Sanctuary on 11/15/2008 3:52 PM

It's been a few months since I mentioned this project so an update is long overdue.  The 1/2" plank thickness turned out to be ideal.  I probably could have used a smaller half-round bit in the router, possibly 3/8" or maybe even 1/4", which would have resulted in the edge of the plank laying flush on the raised surface of the aluminum track.  With the 1/2" half-round bit, there is a small gap between the track and the edge of the overlapping plank.  It still looks very good.  If I wasn't the person manufacturing the rub rail I'd think the small gap was intentional.

Starting at the bow, I drilled a single pilot hole for the countersunk screw closest to the end of the plank.  Then, once a screw was tightened, I would skip a pilot hole and drill the middle, then end, of the plank.  After tightening those two screws I would drill pilot holes for the screws that had been skipped.  In this manner I was able to ensure each plank was centered in the track.  After one plank was secured, the next plank would be slipped into place with the end-to-end tongue and groove that was milled by the hardwood flooring manufacturer.

Working alone, I could secure about twenty feet of planking in an hour.  I'm not convinced that adding more people to the process would have sped up the process.  Only one plank can be secured at a time, and each screw needs to be tightened before moving on to the next pilot hole.  Drilling two holes at a time would probably lead to mis-aligned pilot holes because the hull is curved but the planking is flat.  You won't know for certain where the next pilot hole will be until the plank is flush against the aluminum track.

By C45Sanctuary on 10/3/2008 10:52 AM

I'm thinking that the mounting bracket height could be a lot shorter than they are.  I used 90-degree stanchion bases in this first design.  Since the aluminum rail needs to be bent after it exits the stanchion base, the initial height is about four inches off the deck.  If I had used a 30-degree stanchion base I wouldn't have needed to bend the aluminum pipe at all at one end, and would have only needed a slight bend at the other end.  This would significantly reduce the height of the mounting rails, and as a direct result the solar panels would be much closer to the deck than in the existing design.  So, maybe the solar panels won't be installed this weekend as originally planned.  I'm leaning heavily towards a minor redesign of the mounting system before permanently securing it above the salon.