My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on April 13, 2007

Earthrace is ripping and roaring … they are in Hawaii and off again. Here’s a segment from Captain Pete Bethune:

There’s my star. I’ve seen him the last three nights on my shift from 2-4am. He’s brighter than all the rest around him. Maybe he’s that star which is only a few light years from earth. He keeps going in and out of view behind the massive carbon mullions that support the windscreen. It’s an unusual windscreen on Earthrace I think to myself. More like a racecar than a boat. It is small, wrapping around you, only offering small sections to see through. But also like a small cocoon keeping us safe from the destructive seas just a few feet away.

The windscreen is actually designed to go up to 7m underwater with a factor of safety of 3. “So at 21m underwater it all implodes on you”, Craig Loomes had said to me with a glint in his eye at one of our meetings. In sea trials around New Zealand we experienced 5m of wave on top of the windscreen, as we went through some enormous 12m waves. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life, and something I never want to repeat. So bugger 7m underwater I think to myself. Or 21m for that matter.

It’s now 2:30am and everyone else is asleep. Time for the few jobs I have at night. I scurry down to the engine bay and check the bank of Racor filters. All close to zero. Sweet. Next I check the fuel levels in our main and day tanks. We’re slightly down on fuel, which surprises me. Not sure why, but I’ll figure it out in the morning I tell myself, as I pop back into the drivers seat. I look out to starboard and my star is there, waiting for me.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 12, 2007

The Volkswagen special performance edition R32 is available for orders and should show up in American toward the end of summer 2007. (mentioned before) The current email indicates a new website for those who may have previously shown an interest. Although it is most likely overpriced, the limited edition specialty vehicle would be a pretty nice vehicle for those enjoying small pocket rocket Vee-Dubs. If you want one … you might try to get an order in soon as I’m guessing that all 5000 will be spoken for???

Category: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 11, 2007

My posts have gone 100% personal as about all I’m thinking about is heading to the beach, lazing around waiting to fix dinner and visiting with my mother and father-in-law. We’re having a wonderful time of relaxation and rejuvenation.

I did receive a note that Donna Lange is becalmed and running under Iron Genny in the Atlantic … although still on target for her April 21st homecoming in Rhode Island. (down to single digit days at sea)

Earthrace, the biodiesel powered around the world project is ‘vibrating’ slightly toward Hawaii … getting close now. They are having good weather and making good time.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 10, 2007

Earthrace Press Release from April 9th:

Earthrace has now left San Diego and is continuing on her round-the-world speed record attempt. The unique wavepiercing vessel was involved in a collision off the coast of Guatemala with an unlit fishing skiff, resulting in considerable damage that has been mostly repaired in San Diego. She is now 800 nautical miles off the coast of California en-route to Hawaii, the next refueling stop on her global circumnavigation.

According to Earthrace Captain Pete Bethune, the repairs were much more extensive than initially anticipated. The gearbox and engine mounts were replaced first, however there remained a series of vibrations from various sources. The engine was realigned, the propeller shaft straightened, and the Hytorq propeller rebalanced. Bethune says “the hardest part was getting the driveshaft in and out of Earthrace while she remained in the water. It was an extremely challenging exercise that thankfully went well”. The 3-inch diameter shaft is 15ft long and weighs close to 400 pounds, so handling it requires a team of people.

Earthrace Engineer Scott Fratcher says, “there is now a single vibration left that we believe to be the Propflex coupling, which joins the gearbox to the propeller shaft”. This was found to be off-centre by 10/1000 of an inch. The plan is to swap this for a new coupling as soon as Earthrace reaches Maalaia, in Hawaii.

Meanwhile Earthrace continues her voyage across the Pacific with the vibration ever present, but the crew believes it will be fine at least until Hawaii. Earthrace is expected to reach Maalaia late on Thursday night this week, local time.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 9, 2007

Just another tough day at the office. The weather is beautiful, the ocean warm and the day is over.
🙁
PS. Wish you were here.

Category: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 8, 2007

Happy Easter to those checking in. We are enjoying the weekend at the beach. (post from phone)

Category: Personal, Photos | 4 Comments »
Tags: delray beach, easter, florida, taylor

Posted By RichC on April 7, 2007

This content is restricted.

Category: Audio, Music, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: donna lange, inspired insanity, mp3, Music, sailboat

Posted By RichC on April 6, 2007

Friday’s Tech Tip is an old one and is for TiVo newbies from TiVo gurus. Its a favorite Tivo branded DVR feature that drives advertiser supported television networks crazy. It is the hackable features available on the TiVo that allows for programming of a couple buttons on the ‘dogbone’ remote to do simple things well. A single button will skip a 30 second commercial and another do a 10 second rewind. The simple procedure below will program your TiVo with this ‘skip’ ahead and replay feature. (rapid double or triple clicks quickly moves 30, 60 or 90 seconds … or using the ‘replay’ offers back 10, 20 or 30 seconds)

The Tivo DVR in its default state will forward to the end of a program by pushing the “dogbone” remote’s button to the lower right of the “slow” button … or if it is already at the end, it will jump back to the beginning of the recording. After applying this hack, the button will instead jump ahead 30 seconds … here’s how:

1) Select a recorded program and start it playing.
2) Push the key combination – Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select

3) You should get 3 chirps to confirm … or just test it by pushing the button. (this hack will need to be redone if the TiVo needs to be rebooted or experiences a loss of power, but its easy enough as long as you remember the programming combination.)

Other hints at PC World.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 5, 2007

European diesels made a good impression at the New York auto show in 2007. The Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec took top honors with more votes than the BMW Hydrogen 7 and the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion. The initial entry list had 14 contenders, including the Saab 9-5 BioPower flex-fuel, Fiat Panda, Citroen C2 Stop & Start and Subaru R1e. The Green Car honor was part of the World Car of the Year award ceremonies held at the New York Auto Show in which the the Lexus LS 460 was given the top honor.

I wonder how much of the voting was influenced by the Polo BlueMotion not being available in the United States?

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on April 5, 2007

John Gartner posted on the Wired Magazine blog network and cited the National Biodiesel Board statistics in pointing out that 11 states encourage biodiesel use in by either legislating percentage used or reducing taxes on biodiesel. States promoting biodiesel include Florida, Connecticut, Missouri, California, Oregon, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, Montana, Tennessee and New Mexico. Some are considering raising the amount of biodiesel blended from two to five percent, while others may eliminate or reduce the fuel tax on biodiesel. How long before Ohio joins the list?

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: