Recent content by Gypsy Spirit

The plane shown in the video is an A model C-130 which had better short field performance than the B and later models. They only had four fuel tanks, no under floor heating and a lower basic weight. They also had three blade propellers which were better at low altitude and slow speeds. I flew...

Running at Night We have have crossed Lake Michign at night at least once per season for the last decade. Straight across is 80 mm while Chicago is 105 nm. Night crossings are better for us. It is cooler, no sunburn, no flies, and the weather is more stable. We use radar and our night vision...

Just installed a new Raymarine suit with A127 and A95 displays and hydraulic autopilot. I expected it to work well but I did not expect it to be so easy to setup. The new systems uses a backbone communications design to interconnect all of the instruments and it also supplies power to the less...

SS Badger The Badger is the only reciprocating steam engine ship still operating on the Great Lakes. In season, it make two trips daily between Ludington Mi and Manitowoc Wi. The stocker fed boilers produce steam for a pair of triple expansion Skinner engines which were the latest in...

This spring I installed a Magnum 2,000 watt inverter so that we could operate the refrigerator, hair dryers, toasters etc. I soon learned it would also operate the water heater. If you disconnect the shore power, the inverter picks up the AC load including the water heater if it's breaker is...

Lehman Thermostat replacement Long ago I modified a wrench to remove the injection pump from the 5.7 diesel that GM punished unsuspecting owners with. I got rid of the car and the wrench has been unused until recently. It is a perfect fit for removing the nut from the Lehman head tank...

Resupplied anchor rode I have spliced line to the anchor chain many times and have never used an anti chafe coating or cover. Doing a good clean splice with tapered ends will help to insure that it will feed through the gypsy without problems. The splice is easy enough to do that there is no...

Free Fall Winch I have a Lewmar Pro Fish winch that has free fall capability. I learned about the free fall feature by dropping all of my rode in the lake soon after we purchased the boat. Fortunately it was in the slip and was retreavable. In my opinion, this is a very dangerous feature...

Has anybody tried installing a spin on oil filter to a transmission? It could be installed in the return line from the oil cooler but I am concerned about the increased pressure drop. Does a filter designed for engine oil have the needed porosity size? Cleaner fluid could extend the life of...

I recently read an article about a modification for trawler rudders. An academic group reshaped the flat plate rudder of a working trawler with a specific NACA profile. The end result was improved rudder response and increased rudder angle before stalling. Does anybody have any experience...

Choices We have friends that purchased boats to be used as live a boards for at least as long as you can live aboard each year here in Michigan. In both cases they chose older cruisers with gasoline engines. The cruiser style maximizes the living space and the gasoline engines minimize the...

I am confused about your reference to an Onan CCK. I have a 4CCK and it is a flat head, 2cylinder, air cooled engine. I would think that it would be unsuitable for marine use. Like all flathead engines, it ran hot and used a lot of gasoline. I stopped using it because the oil pressure switch...

I know than this is less than you are looking for but I would be willing to offer $750 for the anchor and chain. Dan Girvan Gypsy Spirit dgresourceeng@frontier.com