Recent content by Oldsarge

Yes, Bigger engines use more fuel. My Perkins 4-108 which is about 50 hP can push my 14 ton boat around just fine. However because it is a sailboat it doesn't do it very fast. I get about 12 miles or more to the gallon in average conditions at about 7 miles an hour.

I have a Dickinson diesel stove on my boat that I have used for years but it has a problem now with it's pressure tank/pump. I was satisfied with the setup until the pump failed and I couldn't source a new one. I tried gravity feed but because my fuel tank was out on deck the colder it got the...

Yes, I went through an eight month course in aircraft Radar in the USAF and then worked with a high power long range search Radar. You can get cooked like in a microwave oven if you are a short distance away in front of the antenna when it is radiating on high power. There was a big danger sign...

Yes, most commercial Radars have a rotating radiator inside the dome. The Furuno 1715 that I have varies the speed of rotation depending upon what range you are set at. The transmitted signal goes out sort of like a water hose that you are spinning around and even at the speed of light light...

Some Radars Furuno (1715) for instance can be adjusted for a few degrees of non transmission at the rear as it rotates.You loose that area of detection but unless something or someone like the Coast Guard is gaining on you it doesn't matter much. The reason I mentioned the CG is that they...

I don't have to think about pronouncing my boat name. It's called a Formosa 41 Sea Tiger. (sailboat) but I think this was the U.S. yacht brokers just making that up when they were selling them. My builder plate in the cabin just calls it a Formosa Yacht works model S. T. They were supposedly...

Progressive offers boat insurance up to 75 miles offshore of the U.S. Don't know if that includes Hawaii or PR. Not too cheap. You may also need a survey to get full coverage

Seriously you are going to Vanuatu? What is your window. I want to go to the P.I. possibly next year. I will be leaving from Mobile and on a 41 foot sailboat. I know I wouldn't be able to keep up with you, but we both would be going in the same direction and be maybe an off and on flotilla...

If the boat is older than 1972 it won't have a regular HIN number as 1973 was the first year HIN numbers were required.. However in some cases a HIN number may be gotten from a state for older boats. I don't know what the procedure is for that, but it makes for a weird HIN number that indicate...

Yes, I have a 24 foot sailboat that I have only ever sailed on Green Bay. It was built with a full keel as a cruising sailboat. I have never sailed it in any ocean, but in my research boats exactly like mine have sailed long ocean passages. Displacement 6,500 lbs.

I'm surprised as all AIS transmitters have to be pre programmed with the proper information before they can be installed. Maybe somehow when they installed the one on the other boat they owner gave them the wrong information. The boat name could just be someone with a boat by the same name The...

My pump wouldn't prime and the pump was new. I filled the tank about 1/2 full of water first. The tank was plastic so I drilled a small hole in the top and used my inflatable pump to pressurized it. After a few minutes it pumped it out. Then I put a plug in the small hole I had drilled into the...

Makobuilders if you need boots on the ground overseas, I have been to over 30 countries while in the military and in a civilian job. I was in the Philippines during November and December of last year on Samar, when the typhoon went through, right where the eye went through. My background is...

I agree with Makobuilders. Sailboats can be motored also and with the smaller inboard engines possibly a diesel, you can go far just motoring. My sailboat with a Perkins plugs along at about 7 knots and burns about .6 gallons an hour. It can also take those 10 to 12 foot waves with no problem...

Yes a person can even get so used to the smell of diesel, that you no longer smell it. The only time I smell it is when I get on the boat after a long absence. After a few days, I no longer smell it. Airing the boat out helps, but I know it is still there. If I bring back dirty clothes from...