Independence - Updates | Maintenance & Care

[Londonlad1985]

9 minutes ago, Londonlad1985 said:

I'm gonna open the bidding at 1700 litres. This is based on what I have gleaned from the last 30 pages of this thread... without looking back through it though.

PS have a wicked time you lot! I'm so envious! 

To clarify 1700L total divded equally so 425L per leg then I don't want to get complicated. I feel Grendal is going to be a bit more scientific! 

[grendel]

no, I just took a guess, I thought I would get in early, to avoid any thought that I might cheat by getting insider info at Ramsgate.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

We should have a competition  on how much fuel she uses

Why not?  This was mentioned previously too.  Go for it.  Obviously the onboard Indy crew will abstain form entering a 'Best Guess' as we will do an onboard Sweepstake between ourselves I would have thought.

Four legs and the total overall consumption?

However although Robin intends to fuel up at each location, in some instances we may not be able to do so, if that happens we can't promulgate that particular legs consumption figures - This lot is probably as clear a muddy sea oggin!

Griff

 

Er yes it was suggested like yesterday by who let me guess , oh ya me ! 

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

We should have a competition  on how much fuel she uses

Why not?  This was mentioned previously too.  Go for it.  Obviously the onboard Indy crew will abstain form entering a 'Best Guess' as we will do an onboard Sweepstake between ourselves I would have thought.

Four legs and the total overall consumption?

However although Robin intends to fuel up at each location, in some instances we may not be able to do so, if that happens we can't promulgate that particular legs consumption figures - This lot is probably as clear a muddy sea oggin!

Griff

 

That doesn't matter its over all fuel used not legs surely 

[finny]

2 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

That doesn't matter its over all fuel used not legs surely 

It is .............and he his not call Shirley 

finny

[Siddy]

10 hours ago, grendel said:

well by using an online flow rate calculator,

Love it grandel I wish we had these when we commissioned a large wave pool complex, we were in a plantroom with our chillers and air handling units No paper to work the calcs out, so used the floor which was dusty. Calcs sorted so nipped and got a butty before the long slog of commissioning the plant. Came back and some cleaner decided to mop the floor. Life.

Great video last night Robin couldn't leave it to watch tonight so the early hours it was lol.

 

 

[grendel]

camera and telescope checked out, had the wrong glasses on so focus is a fraction off, but it will be better Sunday, this isnt easy just hand held.

[finny]

3 minutes ago, grendel said:

camera and telescope checked out, had the wrong glasses on so focus is a fraction off, but it will be better Sunday, this isnt easy just hand held.

Need a few more tanks to get up there ??

 

Finny

[coolcat]

1 hour ago, finny said:

Need a few more tanks to get up there ??

 

Finny

Fill her up with Red Bull, it will give Independence wings  

[Siddy]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

camera and telescope checked out

What setting did you go for it's darker than I got but I sat for 20 mins to get a clear sky, i've come to the expert for advice on this as I can't get it right with the 400mm. Cold * Cloud = quit and make a brew.

Best pm me I'm going off topic here.

[BroadAmbition]

The Sea Trial day.

We woz proper busy on the Saturday (Well tbh we woz proper busy every day, we weren't down in Guz for a social time that is for sure) Due to having to move Indy back alongside the finger pontoon we couldn't launch the Rib, and the clock was fast beating us to boot, the Rib would have to wait until the Sunday

Now here's something I do nearly everytime I am about to slip from any moorings, be it on the Broads or otherwise, I take mysen away somewhere quiet-ish away from anyone else had have a proper serious think to mysen about the forthcoming evolution.   The wind was really picking up in the Marina and I was having concerns whether it was wise to proceed to sea or put it off til Sunday. Time to Consult Simon who is local to the area, had sailed in/out of this area countless of times, is ex-Rn and indeed where he lives has a birds eye view of the area we were to be operating in.  He assured me we would be fine and could stay relatively  protected should we feel the need.  That helped in my decision making, we were good to go.

So I got us all together on the sun deck and we did the safetey breif thing to include, fire, flood, Man overboard etc, the allocated responsibilities to the deck crew, which was all of bar Robin

Actually moving Indy from her berth to the lock was not straight forward either, everything is just so big! Apart from the area of safe water directly in front of us with a line of marker buoys to Port that we needed to keep to port, so as soon as Indy's port quarter was clear of the pontoon Robin made good use of the bow thruster and we proceeded slowly into the lock.  We didn't need to pass any lines to shore in the lock as there are well fendered floating pontoon to lie alongside, just as well too as getting those lines over the pontoon and onto terra firma would have been a challenge.

Robin was on the helm still, the gates opened, Simon joined him on the fly bridge to point out where we should be going, the rest of us got the ropes and fenders stowed. in no time at all we were past the inner breakwater heading for the outer break water, the swell was round 5ft and it was hardly noticeable onboard, what was noticeable was the strength of the wind.  I left Robin and Simon to it other than to issue request to increase revs, and observe the GPS SOG, I was busy keeping an eye on the various gauges and listening to the engines, also familiarising myself with the buoyed channel, hazards, limits of safe water etc as we would be doing this again in a fortnight.  We pressed on at a steady 12kts passed the outer breakwater, and as the headland to Stbd receded away from us the rollers got spaced out and much bigger, I would estimate up to around 18ft.  Indy was handling these no problem, no banging or crashing no green water coming onto the foc'sle either which was impressive and nice to see. 

The wind by now was up to around the 40kt level and the wave size was increasing.  I consulted with Robin, the decision made to come about.  Carrying on in these wx conditions was not going to be of any benefit whatsoever. Simon was on the helm.  Time for me to join him, then it was a matter of reading the swell and timing it just right, round we went to port with me on the throttles to assist a tight turn between rollers and we were round.  She did roll very heavily once, healed and came straight back, at no time did I get the feeling she was going to 'Give In'  The Trader certainly has impressive sea keeping qualities.  Then it was just a matter of balancing the engine speed to the rollers with instructions to Simon ref the dreaded risk of broaching.

Soon enough we back in calmer waters with about a 35kt wind and a 5ft swell once more.  Time to test out these donkeys and bring them up for a short full power trial

Griff

[grendel]

56 minutes ago, Siddy said:

What setting did you go for it's darker than I got but I sat for 20 mins to get a clear sky, i've come to the expert for advice on this as I can't get it right with the 400mm. Cold * Cloud = quit and make a brew.

Best pm me I'm going off topic here.

1/2000 sec was the only setting I set, if you want detail on the moon you need to drastically under expose., I usually start at 1/1000, then adjust a bit if it comes out too light / too dark, its particularly susceptible to the phase, very short exposure at full moon.

[BroadAmbition]

'Full ahead both'  Into a 35kt wind and a 5ft swell bang on the nose  she managed a respectable 17-ish kts, this was SOG of course, speed through the water would have been higher but the speed log was not turning up to play either in the wheelhouse or the repeater on the flying bridge. We kept flat for no more than 5 min if that really, no sense in wasting fuel and I dread to think what two 500hp Donks at 3000rpm pushing 23:5 tons uses per minute!   So round we came for the second go at it, this time with the wind and the swell.  She picked up her skirts and fair flew when after only a few minutes the port engine went down to tickover revs at 1000rpm.  I reached over and brought the stbd back down to about 1400rpm, the port to neutral and tickover,  instructed Simon with a visible heading and with use of stbd rudder and shot into the engine room via the saloon helm to have a very quick glance at the various gauges, the port gearbox was showing very little pressure, was this the problem?

Getting into the engine room from the fly bridge is not straightforward or quick either.  Down about five steps off the flybridge, turn left, three steps, turn left, six steps down into the saloon, turn left 180, down four steps into the galley, about turn, lift steps above head height (On gas rams) duck down open door, then on knees crawl into the engine room.

Forget relying on gauges in the saloon, do it the proper way with hands and feeling for temperature differences between engines, gearboxes, header tanks, exhausts etc etc all the while listening for any nasty sounds and eye-balling everything, three senses at once going like the clappers.  I could find absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever, then I thought it might be fuel starvation or air in the system - Nope, all to the good.  No fluid leaks either, just what the hell was wrong? Then the port engine starting revving up and down by about 500rpms or so.  I was proper annoyed that someone was up there mucking about with the throttle control whilst I was trying to fault find, right time for a bollocking no matter who was doing it.  Whilst extracting mysen from the engine room and reversing the afore mentioned process, the lads up top were saying between themselves, 'Griff has taken local control in the engine room and got it sorted and is revving the port engine' !

On discovering this I realised that the electronic brain box was just doing it's own thing and had merrily decided to ignore commands from the throttles on the fly bridge.  So I took the decision to shut down the port engine, I was not having it doing that whilst were now approaching restricted waters once more.  That gearbox low oil pressure thing - was not an issue as it turned out, I soon realised that the gearbox oil pressure gauge  registers differing levels of pressure depending on the gearbox speed so all was normal - that was me just being ignorant of the systems onboard.  Time to head back to the lock, Sutton marina and Indy's berth

Griff

[LondonRascal]

Great to read your write up Charlie - you will be pleased (along with others) I have just edited the final episode and this will be live tomorrow for all to watch :)

[BroadAmbition]

And what's wrong wi going live now may I ask?

Griff

[Siddy]

I want my bed lol, but doing a night shift tomorrow night so that a video to watch.

[LondonRascal]

Quote

And what's wrong wi going live now may I ask?

Because it will take over an hour to render before I can then get to uploading - so I tend to leave it do its thing over night and then let it upload to You Tube when I leave for work. Patience dear boy.

 

 

[BroadAmbition]

Any old excuse

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

 

Simon was still on the flybridge helm and was not too happy, not with the length of time he had spent up there but the fact he was finding it increasingly difficult to handle Indy on the Stbd shaft in confined waters and plenty of other water craft around us including kyakers and a flotilla of schoolchildren in small rag-n-sticks (Yes there is no getting away from them even down here) as we approached the inner breakwater.  Well I thought to mysen, Robin can do that, I'll get on the vhf and sort out the deck crew, ropes / fenders ready for coming into the lock.  Nope Robin was having none of that either, so Griff was asked to take the helm.

Great, just great I thought to mysen.  Here I am first time on the helm ever. I now have to pilot her round all these blasted t'other craft including the rag-n-sticks, and just when did they appear? they weren't here when we departed, then get Indy into the lock, not to mention in the marina past three sets of moorings,  past those buoys, then a 90 turn to port, then a 90 turn to stbd astern avoiding Mr Unhappy's neighbouring boat who no doubt will be watching like a hawk.   Not knowing how she responds to the helm, one engine is no problem if it's in the centre on the keel.  but twins offset with the port one dragging is a different ball game. She feels huge, she is too at 23 x tons, it's windy, there are dozens of £m gin palaces to avoid and the crew are now watching intently.      So what if she is Robins new pride and joy, I couldn't afford to fuel her up let alone pay for a repair bill.    Just what could possibly go wrong?   I was not feeling to happy with the situation mysen I will admit.  Time to gi onesen a talking to.  Griffin you have done this stax of times before on one engine be it port Stbd or centre.  Deep breath and I was in the zone.

The first thing that struck me was the total lack of feel from the helm - None whatsoever. That hydraulic steering system must have been designed for a one armed 8 year old girly to use. (No offence intended to 8 year old one armed girlies you understand)   You could have spun the helm with your little finger whilst going full ahead or astern and have not a clue just how much rudder was on or off.  No rudder indicator either - There is one in the saloon helm - some comfort knowing that - not.  So give her some helm and wait for a response.  Ah yes, got her. Then there is the delay on those fang dangly throttle controls, give them a command and wait for what seems like an age before the brain box has worked out what command you have given it before it actually lazily decides to respond.  The actual delay is probably no more than 1:5 seconds but feels like minutes when you are not used to it. (Apparently this can be dialed out and reduced, A job for Howard come Thursday)

Needless to say, between us we got her alongside first time of asking with no bumps or scrapes, Robin made use of the bow/stern thrusters on our last turn to stbd astern.  Mr Unhappy even came out to assist taking the ropes, then became Mr Nice when he learned we had berthed on one shaft.

Now just why did Robin ask me to take the helm? - Because he is sensible skipper that's why.  Trying it himself with no experience of her in a situation like this  would have resulted in him putting himself under a huge amount of pressure and besides he had an asset on his shoulder who he trusted - Wise decision and if I had been in his shoes I would have done exactly the same thing.  So well done Robin and much Kudos to him for his quick decision making

Griff

[SwanR]

Really interesting to read your account Griff. Thank you for taking the time to write it all up and post for us. :)

[Jbx5]

Although on a bigger scale on Indy, on our electronic throttle / Yanmar engine  there are 2 screws for adjustment 1/ to adjust throttle response 2/ to adjust the amount of pressure you need to put on the lever . This is found on the front of the base control. 

John

 

 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

 

Simon was still on the flybridge helm and was not too happy, not with the length of time he had spent up there but the fact he was finding it increasingly difficult to handle Indy on the Stbd shaft in confined waters and plenty of other water craft around us including kyakers and a flotilla of schoolchildren in small rag-n-sticks (Yes there is no getting away from them even down here) as we approached the inner breakwater.  Well I thought to mysen, Robin can do that, I'll get on the vhf and sort out the deck crew, ropes / fenders ready for coming into the lock.  Nope Robin was having none of that either, so Griff was asked to take the helm.

Great, just great I thought to mysen.  Here I am first time on the helm ever. I now have to pilot her round all these blasted t'other craft including the rag-n-sticks, and just when did they appear? they weren't here when we departed, then get Indy into the lock, not to mention in the marina past three sets of moorings,  past those buoys, then a 90 turn to port, then a 90 turn to stbd astern avoiding Mr Unhappy's neighbouring boat who no doubt will be watching like a hawk.   Not knowing how she responds to the helm, one engine is no problem if it's in the centre on the keel.  but twins offset with the port one dragging is a different ball game. She feels huge, she is too at 23 x tons, it's windy, there are dozens of £m gin palaces to avoid and the crew are now watching intently.      So what if she is Robins new pride and joy, I couldn't afford to fuel her up let alone pay for a repair bill.    Just what could possibly go wrong?   I was not feeling to happy with the situation mysen I will admit.  Time to gi onesen a talking to.  Griffin you have done this stax of times before on one engine be it port Stbd or centre.  Deep breath and I was in the zone.

The first thing that struck me was the total lack of feel from the helm - None whatsoever. That hydraulic steering system must have been designed for a one armed 8 year old girly to use. (No offence intended to 8 year old one armed girlies you understand)   You could have spun the helm with your little finger whilst going full ahead or astern and have not a clue just how much rudder was on or off.  No rudder indicator either - There is one in the saloon helm - some comfort knowing that - not.  So give her some helm and wait for a response.  Ah yes, got her. Then there is the delay on those fang dangly throttle controls, give them a command and wait for what seems like an age before the brain box has worked out what command you have given it before it actually lazily decides to respond.  The actual delay is probably no more than 1:5 seconds but feels like minutes when you are not used to it. (Apparently this can be dialed out and reduced, A job for Howard come Thursday)

Needless to say, between us we got her alongside first time of asking with no bumps or scrapes, Robin made use of the bow/stern thrusters on our last turn to stbd astern.  Mr Unhappy even came out to assist taking the ropes, then became Mr Nice when he learned we had berthed on one shaft.

Now just why did Robin ask me to take the helm? - Because he is sensible skipper that's why.  Trying it himself with no experience of her in a situation like this  would have resulted in him putting himself under a huge amount of pressure and besides he had an asset on his shoulder who he trusted - Wise decision and if I had been in his shoes I would have done exactly the same thing.  So well done Robin and much Kudos to him for his quick decision making

Griff

There is often a rudder position indicator incorporated in the display on the auto pilot

[LondonRascal]

Quote

Although on a bigger scale on Indy, on our electronic throttle / Yanmar engine  there are 2 screws for adjustment 1/ to adjust throttle response 2/ to adjust the amount of pressure you need to put on the lever . This is found on the front of the base control. 

With my ZF Commanders you can program out the throttle response delay - So much is programed in for safety, for example on commission you go full ahead for x amount of time then return to idle and with a stop watch and someone in the engine room discover the amount of time taken for the prop to stop turning. This is programed into the unit so in a situation where by good reason or not you go from ahead to astern without pause, the commander will insert the pause per-programed to ensure you do not cause havoc with your gearbox from going ahead to astern without delay.

There is also a shift delay - from selecting ahead or astern - all that is fine - but what I want to get rid of is the delay (only when in gear mind you) of increasing or decreasing RPM - out of gear you can blip the throttle and it is instantaneous, in gear and you have this 1.5 second delay between lever moment and actuator arm moving the throttle on the engine.

Another thing to add is a tone when you go into natural to be an audible alert to confirm you are.

I am unsure if the resistance can be increased on the levers at the station mind you.

Quote

There is often a rudder position indicator incorporated in the display on the auto pilot

There is indeed such however the upper helm auto-pilot LCD display is no longer working (along with most of the other repeaters and VHF radio handset) but we can cope internally as all work as should on lower helm - but the entire suite of electronics will be replaced in due course.

[LondonRascal]

By the way I have been meaning to make an upgrade to the Captain's Blog equipment for sometime, and with the forth coming passage to Norfolk being a bit of a biggy why not take the plunge now?

So the days of 'wind of the microphone' may be over (for some scenes anyway) and the camera equipment took a leap along with a motion control stabilizer. Could have bought a small use family saloon for the cost but I am itching to try it out soon. 

 

[BroadAmbition]

Erm, can the motion stabiliser option be turned off at sea? Better increase the roll so you lot can pretend you are all ‘Roughy Toughy’ sailors 

Griff