Summary Færderseilasen 2010

We entered Silverminken for the worlds largest overnight regatta - Færderseilasen. We knew it would be difficult to get a team together, since we have only been focusing on shorthanded so far. Also, there was a long list of things to get done in order for her to be race-ready in time. Miraculously we  got most of the stuff done, but my heavy-weather jib wasn't ready. Unfortunately, we would have had use for it....

Hit the title for the full story.

Logo ready!

We finally agreed on a logo for Silverminken that somehow communicates what we feel about the 310. After struggling a bit about fonts, sizes and color, this is the final result. It looks stunning!!

AIS mounted

The AIS has now been mounted. Ole-Jo did a great job on this!

As everyone knows, an functioning AIS transponder needs:

• The AIS unit
• A dedicated GPS for the AIS (since it can only use 4800 baud)
• A dedicated AIS antenna (or splitter, we have a dedicated antenna)

...and if you want to use this information for anything it needs to be connected to the plotter, which often means bridging NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000.

Here is a picture of where the AIS unit is mounted on Silverminken (forgive the quality, it was taken on my cellphone):

This is behind the starboard sofa cushion, and you can barely see the AIS unit to the right on the picture. To the left is the SPX-10 autopilot unit. Also, this is where all the electronics are connected. There are three connection bridges here. The bottom one bridges the main backbones, the middle and top are bridges for the two different backbones. Neatly done and well labelled.

Here is a picture of the dedicated GPS (the small black "dot" next to the stanchion) and the dedicated AIS antenna whip required for the AIS. Quite subtle, don't you think?

Headsail finally arrived!

Finally our new headsail arrived! Say no more....580 Technora Scrim on a medium/heavy 109%. Woohoo!!!!!!

Mounting the chartplotter

The mounting for the chartplotter has now been tested and ordered, and here you can see a picture of how and where the chartplotter will be mounted. A dummy plate is fixed where the mount will be so we can see how we can use and operate the plotter.

This way it is out of the way, while you can rotate it and see it from both sides.

Angle it a bit forward and the mainsail trimmer can both see and operate the plotter. This will turn out quite nice I think. More pictures to come when the mount arrives.

The plotter chosen is the Lowrance HDS-7m, which is pretty much a perfect fit for that area. 640x480 pixels and great usability. No touch screen (don't trust it in wet conditions) and few and big buttons.

We ended up with an NMEA 0183 backbone for the AIS transponder, the AIS antenna, it's GPS and the VHF and bridged it with an NMEA 2000 backbone for the plotter, coupling SeaTalk (the instruments) on it. (More about this in a later post).