Are you not entertained? Or immersed?

    Since the boat doesn't have a huge laundry list this year involving large purchases, it's been pretty obvious that I've been spending that money elsewhere. I can blame COVID or any number of things, but it's just how it's been this year. My last post showed a newly constructed Sim Racing cockpit. Unfortunately, I can't claim that it's ended there...

    As you can see, things might be getting a little out of hand here. Surprisingly, this is all actually still working off that poor defenseless laptop I bought. I had to get creative, employing the use of an external docking station by Plugable that somehow uses magic to make pictures come out in threes. Without getting into too many complexities, I'll just say that I built the stand out of some more of that 40-series profiles, and a couple of TV wall mounts bolted to it. I added a keyboard tray, mounted my tablet on the side so I could use an application to show me all the same gauges that I can usually see on the screen anyway, and obviously have upgraded to three monitors wrapping around me. I also purchased another set of studio lights, telling myself that of course, OF COURSE I can use that for regular photography and such. As if I'd actually get around to doing that again. 

    All of these things are done in the pursuit of immersion. Now, I will admit that I plan on going not much further in that pursuit. Certainly not to the extremes that some do. That isn't to say that the idea of a full motion rig that tilts, pushes, pulls, yanks and throws you from side to side isn't captivating. But at half the price of my next boat, I can't justify it. Hell, I don't even think I have the electricity to power it. I will offer this reflection though. I've watched many YouTube videos and read lots of reviews talking about how a certain feature or addition, or product, adds to the immersion factor of Sim driving. There are vibration motors that bolt to your seat and other places, there are the motion platforms to simulate sliding or losing traction, there are actuators you can bolt to your equipment that rise up and down as the car bumps and dips. There are bigger screens, and VR headsets. 

    And I just don't get it.

    All of this to increase immersion into what is always going to look like a video game. Regardless of which game or simulation it is, at the end of the day it's still pretend. I have not once sat in front of these screens and thought "woah, I totally forgot I was in a chair in my spare room and not on the racetrack!" I'm not saying that it's not entertaining, or that it's all stupid if it's fake. And it's certainly (usually) cheaper than trying to race real cars on real tracks. Oh, and you just yell at the screen when some idiot in front of you or beside you blasts your pixels off the road, instead of riding in an ambulance. I would also like to present if I may, Exhibit A in this defense.

    Meet Emily Jones. See that view? No, not the horrible line through the screen, but the fact that it looks like someone just chilling in the corner of a room at home, against a wall, relaxing and having fun. No big monstrosity enclosing them, or any such dramatics. Now, I don't know how up-to-date her Twitch page is kept in regards to her gear, but I would imagine it's pretty close. A wheel setup not much different than mine, on a homemade wooden stand setup, a simple 27" monitor, and a modest computer with lesser specs than my desktop here at home. And yet she is one of the quickest persons around the 911 Cup Cars that I've watched, and the one to beat in the Porsche E-Sports All-Stars circuit. All without dumping multiple thousands of dollars into gear to do so. Full disclosure, she did race Karts when she was younger but then switched to Sim. I'm not trying to do an Emily history lesson but just wanted to show that you don't need to go all out. In comparison, Boosted Media's Will has a genuinely insane rig, with three 4k 65" screens and all the trimmings, but as he does a lot more content for creating, and reviews, and as such doesn't have the full speed that others do. I enjoy both sides of it, but it does show such a range in what can be done, and that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to go fast, and likewise, spending a lot doesn't just make you fast.

    But why, I hear you say, have I spent as much as I have and then turned around and said you don't need to? Because I don't know any better. Plus, it does mean that I have more resale value. Ok, it means I didn't save as much. Judge if you will! I kind of wanted to go for the experience, and aside from a new set of pedals that I ordered, I don't know if I'll toss too much more at it. We'll see.

    All that said, it is still cool as Hell to play on.

Going nowhere fast

    Well, since it's been a handful of months, I guess it's time to recap. Didn't do anything for Halloween this year, since I was stuck at home. Christmas for the family actually didn't go too bad, though a bit limited in whom could visit and be visited. We were some of the fortunate ones not terribly affected by the COVID pandemic. It almost feels bittersweet in that we were able to have a good ending to our year, while knowing that even helping others as much as possible couldn't possibly restore what some had lost.

    There hasn't been a lot in the sailboat realm to speak of. The marina has already informed members that they have pre-sold all the slips for the upcoming season already. No doubt people want to make up for what they missed last year. I was able to enjoy it a bit, but I'm sure many others weren't. They've made other changes there as well. No longer will the yard be totally strewn with vessels on the hard. In an effort to tidy the appearance up and make it easier on staff and guests alike, the marina is no longer offering storage for boats that are not paying for a slip in the water. Now, there will surely still be some boats that don't make it in the water, even after paying for the season, but that's the nature of boats and working on them. Many boats have been removed from the property though, including that C&C 37' that I had secretly hoped to make a deal with the owner on. Oh well. Plenty of other boats to be put in the sea.

    I do have my deposit fully paid, and will be paying my slip fees this month and next. Then the only thing I need to do is go up to the boat sometime prior to launch and re-run my halyards the correct way. Surely third time is a charm? I had purchased new main and headsail halyards when I purchased the boat. The first year, I had them on backwards. Last year, I got the orientation right but messed up and ran them over the tang for the forestay on the masthead. It was usable, and fortunately for me it didn't chafe the lines over the few times I was out last summer. I do plan on doing it right this year.

    Otherwise, it'll be creature comforts. I really don't foresee any major purchases this year. Last year, I purchased the replacement outboard, put extra batteries and a larger solar panel on, a 2nd anchor and a Raspberry Pi computer for navigation. There was also the replacement Richie compass, and the fridge/cooler. I probably have been spending approximately fifteen hundred, to two thousand dollars each of the last couple years. This year? I could pick up a new fixed VHF, dedicated depth display, finish putting covers on the cushions and purchase new material for the cushion backs in the salon and still be way under budget. I guess we'll see how that ends up. I'm hoping that this year I can finally convince myself to tackle the manual labor style projects. It is hard though, to go up and have sunshine and winds and not leave the dock. But, I do want to finish the cushions for the cabin, finish up the painting around the trim, and just generally get things in shape. Spoiler Alert - This could very well be the last year of ownership for this particular sailboat. More on that later.

    Ok, that's all for anything sailing related. Back to stuck-at-home-itus news. In October, I upgraded my computer and bought a fancy foldable racing cockpit to play with. At the end of that post, I mentioned wanting more. To recap the hobby timeline:

    I purchased my first steering wheel and pedal set in the middle of August. After a handful of times playing with it clamped to my desk, I ended up upgrading at the end of October to the new wheel and cockpit. And prior to Christmas, I placed and order and received...

    Welcome to my GT Omega Prime aluminum profile sim cockpit, and it's new home in a freed up spare room in the house. Ok, the walls need work, and it echoes pretty fierce with the carpet gone, but it is now basically my hobby room. Certainly that picture isn't the final resting place, nor configuration. It actually looks like this now:

This is more how it stands now. You can see in the back of the desk, the 3D printer has a new home. I picked up that GS66 laptop used for a good price, which is being used to run the iRacing. Eventually I will have a dedicated desktop built for that duty, which will then power triple 32" monitors. I actually bought one of them, but since the 35" ultrawide in that picture works better for racing then a single 32" will, they've temporarily swapped duty. I am pretty excited though. I started a second YouTube channel - I think I have 4 subscribers now? Well, ok, 1 is me, but still. It'll be a place to just upload random stuff whenever I feel like it. I also managed to get my first win in a race! I'll likely make a post specifically to detail that process. The build, not the win. 

    Let's see, what else. Oh, a 12x28' shed has arrived just before Christmas as well, which will eventually be turned into essentially a tiny home. 

    It wasn't long after it was delivered that we were hit with a pretty hefty snowstorm, leaving over a couple feet of snow blanketing the hillside (and yard). So it's sat pretty much untouched since then but will be revisited soon. There's a lot of work to be done, and a lot of it that can't be done for a while anyway. First order of business though will be to do all the measuring, and sorting out what goes where. That will then let us layout the electrical system, and go from there. Then there's the matter of electric and plumbing - electric is easy enough, but plumbing might need to get creative. 

    Also in the very beginning of December, I managed to finally finish rebuilding the front end of the Mustang after a run in with a deer. Geico wanted to total the car due to mileage and condition versus their estimated repair cost. Instead, I fixed it myself for less than 1/3rd their estimate (which was missing things anyway). The only minor thing is that the bumper cover was reused with a crack in it, instead of a replacement. Too cold for paint anyway.

Before:

And here's the after:

Not too shabby I guess, for a backyard DIY-er.

Out of Thin Air

 In keeping with new hobby tradition, another new toy arrived this Wednesday. In my defense, when the idea was struck into my head, I was actually searching for new keyboards, a mouse, and a new headset for the computer. But while talking to a friend from work, they mentioned something to the effect of "they can 3D print guns, that's crazy" and in the midst of my Amazon spree, my brain went AHA! And not just because the thought of guns is all manly.

A Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer has found it's way to my desk (the one that my prior post alluded to having more space on). As with a lot of hobbies, this thing is addictive. It came partially assembled, and thanks to copious YouTube videos while waiting for it to arrive, I had it fully put together in probably an hour. I've never owned a 3D Printer before, but I've looked before. There are a few different styles, and different technologies. The most common that I see for general public use are FDM machines, standing for Fused Deposition Modeling. As the name implies, they work by heating up a filament, usually plastic, and fusing it into layers upon itself. Depositing it, if you will. One style that had caught my eye before was a Delta style printer. They look like this:

Obviously that is not the type I ended up with. I'd still like a Delta, if for nothing else because I love the motion the print head has when it moves. But no, I settled for a Cartesian style, the most common out there. The two are fundamentally the same in principle, with the main difference being the Delta machine, the print bed stays fixed and the nozzle dances around. The Cartesian such as the Ender I purchased, has an X,Y, and Z axis movement - the nozzle travels along the gantry for the X and Z motions, and the bed itself moves back and forth for the Y bit.

When I went to Amazon, I typed in "3D Printer". Novel idea, I know. I then picked a budget, relatively small. I knew I wanted one, but also had the presence of mind to convince myself to start basic, and see how I got on with it, or what I would even use it for. So for a max budget of $250 dollars, I sorted by rating, and well I'll be dipped if this Ender 3 didn't pop up at the top of the list with over two thousand ratings, 4.5 stars with almost 80% being a 5-star rating. Good enough for me, I was sold, and a few days later, it arrived. This particular model is also a very popular one, with great community support to boot. Couple that with sites like Thingiverse.com for free prints of almost anything you can imagine to serach for, and I felt fine with my choice. 

The hardest thing to do with most 3D printers for novices, is leveling your print bed surface. A video make a good point that while it's referred to as leveling the bed, it's not entirely accurate. What we're really doing is making sure the surface of the bed is square in relation to the X and Y axis of the nozzle as it goes back and forth, and at the right height off the surface. Too low, and the nozzle can scrape, scratch or damage your print bed. Too high, the material doesn't get smooshed onto the surface enough to adhere to it and your plastic just flakes off before you get anything accomplished. I felt relatively proud that it didn't take me too long to find a dialed in setting, and I got to work printing test prints.

This turned into a finished dog, that I was rather impressed with. Certainly as a demo print, they had the quality dialed up pretty good, but hey, if the machine wasn't capable of printing it as fine as it came out, it wouldn't have mattered, so I was thrilled with it.

The picture makes it harder to see than real life, due to the single color and being unable to make out the depths and contours well enough. But it printed great to my eyes. I printed some other things, like a Baby Yoda holding a pumpkin, and a tool holder that clips to the top of my printer to hold the various hex keys and things that came with the printer. There were plenty of other things to print for the printer too, but I knew I wanted to wait until I had some black filament to match the black printer, instead of the light gray, whitish sample I was playing with. Fortunately, that didn't take long to arrive either, so I've done a few of the common Ender 3 additions since. And when I say since, I mean in the last two days, I've been having a ball.

There's the tool holder, and there's a standoff arm to help the filament have a better arc down into the Extruder, where the filament gets driven and pushed through the tube to the nozzle. I upgraded that tube to a newer one that can handle slightly higher temperatures which will be ideal for different plastics to print. I added a little cover for the front of my rail, then some panels to cover up some of the wiring, and even swapped out the extruder to an all metal version. 

I swapped out the factory Extruder which had a plastic assembly (but did at least have metal gears and a proper bearing), to an all-metal version and topped it off with a printed knob. And you can see the tubing, called PTFE or the Bowden Tube, so named as this is considered a Bowden type extruder and nozzle setup, is now blue and not white as it was originally. This blue tubing is made by a manufacturer called Capricorn and seems to be widely accepted on these printers as the go-to upgrade. This is more heat tolerant, where the end is that sits against the nozzle, is less prone to damage over time and can handle higher heat for certain other materials.

I printed a decorative cap complete with the Ender dragon logo, to cover up the pulled and belt adjustment on the front of the machine.

And I printed these snap-in panels that cover up the wiring for the control panel. If you look in the first picture from when the printer was first assembled, you can see the rainbow colored ribbon cable. Not any more!

And as I type this, I'm printing more goodies, like a different arm for the filament and a little guide for the bottom, so that I can use that original PTFE tubing as somewhat of a guide tube from the filament arm, down to where it goes into that new metal extruder. While the arm does a good job of holding the filament out to allow a less steep angle of entry at the bottom, it's still not the best way of doing it. Having a piece of that tubing will really allow it to make a more graceful curve at the bottom, and enter straighter. Similar to this:

I might just need to let that one finish on it's own and go to sleep. It's already almost 2 AM. I need to stop finding new hobbies, they're costing me sleep!

Wait, I should look for some sailboat models to print while I'm at it...

Vroom

2020 has been kind of a weird year to say the least. With working at home being a thing, one thing that has also been a consequence has been free time during the week. Obviously on the weekends I prefer to go to the water, but a funny thing happened on the way to the lake.

Early in summer, my uncle had asked if I had ever tried iRacing. At the onset of the pandemic, NASCAR had actually been running virtual races using this service, with the racers in their homes running on computers and steering wheels. I think this is what prompted the question due to the increased exposure. But iRacing.com isn't just for NASCAR races. There are plenty of race types, cars, tracks, and experience levels. One of these avenues is dirt track racing, something that my uncles and family had been involved in for years. Perhaps this was some of the motivation as well.

A few months back, I decided to take him up on this offer, and signed up for an iRacing account. They are running still a promotion on a yearly subscription which costs far less than many forms of entertainment. I believe plenty of drinks at Starbucks would also singly exceed the monthly cost of the service. Costing a little more than a caffeine fix, I also picked up a second-hand racing wheel - a Logitech Driving Force GT. While it's many years old, they're a solid starting point. It clamped to my desk, and the pedals sat on the floor under my feet. It provided a good learning curve for me, learning the challenges between sitting in a real car, and in a chair at my computer. 

It became time to replace the carpet in my bedroom, opting for a laminate option to ease the keeping of it. At the same time, a lot of changes fell into place like dominoes clattering. As I sat back and saw my lowly desk sitting in the corner, I outlined it:

My current computer was still plenty strong enough to run anything I needed to do it. It was an i7-7700k, with 32GB of RAM and a GTX 1070 FTW video card, all housed in a Genome II case with integrated water cooling. I had an older 43" 4K TV sitting on the top, and my work computer to the side. 

Admittedly, part of the urging for an upgrade was spurred on by the announcement of the 30-series graphics cards release. I started thinking about different situations, and the next thing I knew, I had new goodies and a plan. First, the computer. 

Out with the old, in with the i7-10700k, newer faster RAM, and a shinier motherboard than previously installed. I kept my existing case - the cooling has been fine, and I like the look. So the new parts were chosen to compliment that look as well as a performance bump. Sadly I must keep my existing 1070 video card until stock comes back in the newer generation. I also traded out my big tv for a more modern ultrawide monitor, to better serve my racing playtimes. I then built a new desk, one that gave more space, but tighter to the wall, moved the tower up to the corner on the wall for even more room, and reassembled my goodies.

One issue became apparent after I renovated the flooring in my bedroom, from carpet to wood, and my pedals no longer stayed where they started. It's quite hard to stop an imaginary race car when you push a brake pedal that darts away from you. So next it became time to make myself more comfortable. 

A new chair, and a new wheel. The T300 RS GT edition comes with the 3-pedal setup, and seems to be a proper upgrade in quality too. The Driving Force GT was a great start, but it did nothing more than make me yearn for better. And in the T300, I've found better. Smoother, more precise, and combined with a better seating position in the Playseat Challenge, it made me quicker the moment I strapped in. Granted, I'm still slow. But it did improve my own times at least. The advantage is that when I'm done, it simply folds up and out of the way like a lawn chair, wheel still attached. When I want to race, I take it out of the closet, roll my desk chair out of the way, and plug it in.

The worst part of a new hobby is telling yourself that you're satisfied with what you have. In truth, it took a half an hour in my new setup to decide I need even more. Time will tell.

Unexpectedly Productive

There was originally one main reason I needed to go up to the boat this weekend. I say needed, not wanted, because that reason was to pull the cockpit drain plugs out, that I had forgotten two weeks ago. If anyone has actually read any of my past stuff, they might remember I made that mistake in the past which left 6 inches of water in the cabin I had to deal with. This time at least, I was aware and kept an eye on the weather. As inconvenient as it would've been, I could have taken a few hours and run up to pull them if there was a lot of rain in the mix. Fate was on my side, and other than a few drops one day, it's been relatively clear up there. 

The other reason for going was to take some goodies to the boat. First and foremost, was the new fridge/freezer thingamajig. The second, were my new fenders. I had purchased a set of 4 larger fenders for the boat, to finally replace the old dirty dingy ones, and the two cleaner but undersized ones that were gracing the port side of my boat. Nothing fancy, I didn't splurge on the good stuff, so to speak. What I did, was pick up these:

GoPlus Ribbed Boats Fenders

These do have a little more squeak to them, they're not as hard a compound as some others, but they were all delivered inflated, can be reinflated with standard needles like most others, and seem decent enough. I ordered the 8.5"x 27" size which seem a lot larger in person than on paper. 

I drove up Saturday afternoon, and despite the climbing temperature, unloaded the car's contents onto the boat. This was not only the fenders, and the fridge, but my laptop and a bag full of tools. I decided that since there was a nice breeze across the lake, I would head out into open water for the day, and either work on my project list on the lake, or after I came back for the evening. Sunday was forecast to be a bit windier with a possibility of a storm, so maybe I'd sail on Saturday and sweat on Sunday.

Leaning over the transom, I loosened the kicker bracket, and then unlocked the outboard. As I tilted it up to free it from the shallow-water tilt, I heard a slight snap, and then put it back down and into the water. Raising my gaze, it didn't take long to find what the source was. I hadn't realized how close the engine was, and I had left the fuel line connected. When I tilted it up, it caught on the edge of the transom and snapped the barb off the fitting in the hose clean off. So in that split second, I nixxed all chances of going sailing for the weekend. Oh to be sure, I tried going straight to the fuel fitting on the engine with the hose but without proper airflow from the fitting, it just wasn't going to happen. 

Onto the projects. I had loaded the fridge onto the boat - It's strange to be calling it a fridge when it looks like a cooler, and is shaped like a cooler. I had it plugged in, and was watching the usage side of the battery monitor and my Victron App. Since I was already at full capacity and float, the panel was basically doing nothing but every so often it would kick up a few watts to make up for the occasional amp draw of the fridge. The first task was the easy one, just swap out my old fenders for new. I would like to pick up some new fender lines but I re-used the existing ones and so far, so good. 

I hopped below, sweating already, and started staring at the existing galley. 

This picture shows how it basically started out. Now, I'm pretty sure that the counter-top isn't original, nor the shelf under that speaker. I had basically used all this as storage, from everything to safety gear like flares and a first aid kit, to that Tablet you see on the cushion, to random paperwork and plastic silverware. This area was my catch-all. Catch no more, I say. Step one, was to empty everything out. Step two, remove the sink.

It actually did say Ambassador Marine for the manufacturer, so I'm sure it was completely expensive. It was held in with nothing more than silicone. A bit of fiddling with the utility knife to loosen that, and it came off relatively easy. Next, I removed the shelf in the middle, and test-fit the fridge into place. 

One of the thoughts I had was to simply notch out the counter top in a way that would let me open the lid. Or, I could get really fancy and put a hinged notch that I could lift the counter top up in that section, then left the lid of the fridge. The downfall to that idea was that whatever ended up on top of the counter would then have to be moved anyway. And a notch, well.. that would eliminate all usable space minus the sink which I had zero intention of keeping or using. So after a long three minutes of self debate, out came the saws.

Basically just sawed back with the jigsaw which worked perfectly. The guard on the saw contacted the side of the hull with an inch to spare, also stopping the blade below just shy of hitting the hull. THen it was a matter of just yanking it out. And just like that...

Behold the big empty! Obviously there is a lot of cleanup required, which I will do more of once I get some fiberglass ordered to cover the holes up, and then paint. Most of the cabin is still in need of white paint anyway, but for now, it will have to do. I set the fridge up in place to see what it would look like in it's nearly-final resting position.

Now all that's left is to add a couple strips along each side on the bottom to keep it from sliding left and right, or rather fore and aft. And to get a small bracket to screw down to strap down the handles with to keep steady in all directions. The wiring will be tidied up next weekend when I go back. This weekend was all about proof of concept. As far as wiring goes, I will pick up a dedicated 12v receptacle to wire up in what I'm now going to just start calling my technical compartment - the space that houses my batteries and main fuse panel. I currently have two panel mounted outlets to the other side which I use for things like charging phones and the like. They too are wired directly to my fuse panel, but it'll be nice to run the fridge wiring out of all sight and tangling possibilities.

I set the temperature for 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it Eco mode. This is the more energy efficient mode, and as I had this plugged in for days ahead at home and in the car on the drive up, there was no need to run it in Max cooling. I chose 30 degrees because the only thing I was keeping in was water, and while 30 degrees is actually below freezing in the world of science, I knew that it wouldn't actually be a true 30 degrees constantly. Eco mode allows for a little more time between compressor cycles, which meant that realistically it was probably 32-33 degrees on average. What I can say though, is that through the nearly-90 degree day, and in the cabin with very little airflow, it was such a nice change of pace to be able to pop the lid and pull out a cold bottle of water. Well, to do that, without it being plucked from melting ice water. The other issue was power draw. I checked quite often throughout the day. I would see it pop up a couple amps of usage give or take, and then draw back down for a while. Obviously on a bright sunny day as I had, power was not going to be an issue. I could easily put back ten-plus amps into the bank if I needed to. Sunday turned out to be more overcast, but still plenty left in the tank. I checked in remotely last night after all power was gone, and I was still quite topped off. I left it plugged in when I came home, to see how it behaves and to check the Victron when I go back to see what kind of draw it's had the whole time. 

Next stop, the bakery! That's a Pie reference, and then in turn, a Pi reference. I have a Pi 4 set up with Openplotter and OpenCPN chart plotting software, but until now, it's been relatively out of the limelight. Not only because I generally don't sail from inside the cabin, but also because I haven't figured out a good way to mount it. I had a general idea that I wanted it by the main switch panel and such, and since the AIS needs to hook to my VHF antenna cable, the Pi itself couldn't really move far. I've had a Raymarine fishfinder on a TV arm mount that I could swing out into the companionway to read depth which has been my primary source of real-time information. I debated again with myself, and decided that I can always re-mount that elsewhere. Off it came from the mount, on went the monitor bracket. I drilled a couple holes in the liner and fished some zipties through to secure the Pi casing to, tidied the wires up, and other than not having a new keyboard and mouse of the wireless variety handy, it came out looking pretty good indeed.

You can see in the upper right of the screen, there's a solid GPS signal, even with the GPS dongle plugged straight in. Granted it was a clear day and the hatch is open, but even in the event I needed more oomph, I do have a USB extension cable that can be used to relocate it further outside. Even sitting in the slip though, I was able to draw AIS targets from 30 miles away, which I always find kind of interesting. You may even be able to see them on the right side chart, the yellow triangles to the North of the lake. I celebrated with another cold drink, and then loaded all my junk and scrap wood into the car. The new fenders squeak a little, but nothing too bad, and at least I had a South wind holding me against the dock so they didn't bounce around on the side of the hull to keep me awake. 

Sunday came, and I had nothing left to do but head home. Time to order the fiberglass mat, some epoxy resin, and a couple extra fuel line connectors for extra insurance. 

Pretty cool

Last year, I bought a Koolatron plug in 12v cooler. It was exactly what it sounds line - a cooler that plugs in via 12v outlet. It claims to cool things down up to 40 degrees below ambient (room/air) temperature, or you can flip the switch and heat up to something over 100 degrees. I never tested that part. The cooling side though, I did. I first tested it on a drive down South, by sitting it right on my passenger seat and loaded with bottles of water. It did keep them cooler than air temperature, though I would stop short of calling the water cold. And as the days get hotter, the temperature of the water is also not going to get anything but. 

When I upgraded the battery bank and solar panel this year, part of the motivation was the ability to use this thing in the boat, plugged in and running without having to worry about draining the bank. To that end, I've used it twice on the boat so far, and while it's certainly better than nothing, it's not really that much better than using a regular cooler with ice. Ice keeps things actually cold, though you have to deal with the melt and keeping things dry. So you sacrifice cold, for convenience. This last time, I got a little smarter and froze a few of the bottles of water ahead of time, so it had a colder air pocket in the cooler to start with. This helps, but again, not the best solution and longer trips negate that gain.

Enter the compressor! In the world of 12v fridge/freezers, there have been pretty handy steps made. There are the name brands, Engel, Dometic, and so forth. They also come with up to, and above, 4-digit price tags. I am certainly not in a position with this particular boat that I want to spend that kind of money, but while they are the cream of the cooling crop, there are alternatives. Instead of the high end compressor that is the defacto standard, they might use cheaper generic ones. They might have less features, and for all I know, they might last 6 months and die. After a binge watch on YouTube from various ones, I came across one that not only was in stock on Amazon, but that I saw a 'real' review from a couple in an RV. They did an unboxing and a regular person's viewpoint on a JoyTutus model. I believe they reviewed a 55 Quart model, but they also offer a smaller one, which I ended up ordering.

The JoyTutus 42 Qt portable Fridge/Freezer

It's nothing too fancy but in the couple days I've tested it, it does seem to work well. I won't know exactly what kind of draw it'll have on the boat, but a few review videos I watched give it some promise. There's a vast array of these style coolers from various manufacturers and most of them are likely using the same compressor, so even though the one reviewed was a different unit, the power draw should be the same. The general result was that at average cooling, and in the Eco mode, they pull an average of between .7 and 1 amp per hour of operation. Obviously they would use more while the compressor is on, but the cycling of it is what averages it out lower. I'll get into that more in a moment. First, a few of the few features:

It has a dual compartment set up. Sort of. There's a large main section, which is metal-lined. This would be considered the freezer section, should one turn the knob down that far. Then there's a smaller, isolated section on the side that remains a few degrees cooler than the main compartment. The idea here is that if you have your colder, frozen goodies in the big place, you can still keep things like condiments, or the like in the smaller on without fear of them also freezing. Since I don't plan on actually freezing things much, this will be a good spot for lunch meats and things.

In this picture, you'll also see the LED light feature. Not much, but it certainly would make getting things in the dark easier. There's also the lid chain to prevent the lid from being yanked backwards too far and breaking something. This is something that a lot of the Overlanding crowd would remove. Easy enough, just two screws, but for them they can hear it rattling, I suppose. I don't expect I'll have a need to remove it. You can see the main compartment, and the removable basket that comes out, and even has a divider if you want it. A plus to that is you can take the basket out, load it up, and then just drop it in. Neat.

I'm including this picture just because. The unit is fused quite obviously, and even can handle both a 12v or 24v system. That's also really handy for a boat, since there are plenty of people running 24v systems, especially outside of the States. You also can see a small High-Med-Low switch. Ok ok, so it's more like Med-High-Low, for whatever dumb logic that has. Next to it however, you can see the battery protection chart. This little switch is designed as an automatic cutoff when the input voltage falls below a certain threshold. Obviously if you were running this in your car, you could leave it set to high, and as long as your voltage is over 12.5v, it'll turn on with no problem. And then if you stop, and the voltage drops, it'll pop an E1 error on the screen for low voltage, and turn the fridge off. It might not be the best way to keep your beer cold, but at least you'll still be able to start your car. Note that this switch has nothing to do with the operation. It will cool down in the same amount of time regardless - it is only for shutting down at voltage levels. 

One thing that will affect cooling, is the mode. This model does come with a Max and Eco mode. Eco keeps the compressor cycling to a lesser extent, though I imagine it means that the temperatures might creep up an extra degree or two in between on/off cycles. For example, in Max mode, let's say you set it to 30 degrees F. The compressor will run, and get you down to that level. Then it'll turn off, and it might creep back up to 32, maybe 33 or so before it'll kick back on and bring it back down. In Eco mode, it might go up 34-35ish. This is purely a guess right now, as I haven't actually run it in eco mode, but from explanations I've seen this is how I understand it to work.

So far I've only tested this in the house, and in the car for a party at a park on Saturday morning. It's performed well so far, and I even had a bottle of water start to freeze on me. Totally my fault, it was right up against the side, and I had the temp set down to 26 degrees or so. The manual says it'll go all the way down to -4 Fahrenheit, though I don't know if it'll actually do that. As long as it can hold about the 30 degree mark, that's plenty for me. 

As far as draw goes, lets get back to that. My Koolatron is rated for about 45 watts or so. That means that for my 12v system, that's pulling about 4 amps of juice every hour it's running. Now, on a nice sunny day, the solar panel is putting in well over 10, 12, 13 amps, and I'm in no danger of running low. Plus, with a 50% DoD leaving me with a bank of 200+ usable amps, I have plenty of time I can run it without worry. Don't get me wrong, 50+ amps of battery getting used overnight just to run this cooler isn't something to scoff at, but with decent sun, it'll take a long time before I use more than I can replenish. The Eco mode in the new unit is supposed to use a comparable amount of energy while the compressor is running, and far less when it's cycled off. This means that at worst, I'm the same as I was with the Koolatron but with colder water, and at best, I won't ever have to turn it off. 

And if I do have to turn it off? It cools down in very quick order, so pretty much in only an hour or so of running it'll be back down pretty much to temperature, even starting from room temperature or worse. When I first got it, I plugged it in at 84 degrees cooler temp, and was down under 50 in 20 minutes, and pretty much 30s within an hour. The test will come this weekend when I take it up, try to figure out a place to best put it, and then see about leaving it plugged in for the week to see how it does. The low-voltage cutoff is also a nice peace of mind feature. I have my Schu-link wireless monitor to check on the battery while I'm home, anyway.

A whole lotta effort

You know when the best time to do lots of physically intensive boat projects is? When it's 90+ degrees out and no cloud cover. So that's what I did this weekend.

After bringing the Tohatsu home after last weekend's outing, I muscled it back onto my stand and tried to get that lower unit off. Still nothing. I decided to see what I could see anyway, and removed the middle covers, which exposed the exhaust as well as the water tubing that came out of the midway point of the leg. I popped it off the motor side, and slowly sprayed water down into it to see what would happen. To my surprise, water came out of two smaller holes just above the cavitation plate. Well, that's interesting, I thought. So I put everything back together, and put a 50 gallon trash bucket in place, filling it with water above that level. Then I decided to try the electric start, so I grabbed that 'junk' battery the seller had thrown in. Finger tight on the posts, and pressed the button. Not only did it instantly fire up, but also had an instant steady stream of water.

Well, that was rather annoying. All that mess from last week and it turns out it was just because we didn't have enough water in our buckets! Though, it's probably for the best that it didn't work, since as I started to research it, the existing motor mount I had was woefully undersized for the weight of this 4-stroke. Rated for up to 85 pounds of 2-stroke fury, and holding a Merc that came in at 70 lbs, it would be no match for this 120 lb monster. The search was on.

Shortly after, I found a gentleman selling a Panther Marine lightweight 4-stroke mount. They sell two versions of the same model - the lightweight for up to 132 lbs, and a standard one that carries a little more, but for what I have, that was perfect. And the price was right, at half retail for a barely used example, so I ran up and snagged it as soon as I could.

So that gave me a project for this weekend. I would go up to the boat, pull the Mercury off and swap the mount, and if I couldn't get the Tohatsu mounted, I could at least bring the Merc home to list for sale, and then worry about getting the other on when there are plenty of people around to help in two weekends. Surely, this can't be that hard, right? First order of business was to see how bad the Mercury would be to start. It's always been a pain after it sits, but it seemed ok last weekend. And 5 pulls later, it started with no fanfare. I almost felt bad that I was going to pull it from the boat, but it was for a better purpose, I told myself. I motored out into the bay, swapped my fenders and dock lines to the starboard side and came back, backing stern-in to the slip. That was a first for me, like, ever. I couldn't imagine doing that in any sort of a blow, that's for sure. I tied the boat off tight on the three corners I could, and with a 4th as a spring line to keep the boat as stable as I could, and with the outboard as close to the dock without hitting it. Removing the old motor was surprisingly non-eventful, almost felt light. I set it aside on the dock, and took a last look at the old mount on it's last outing.

Poor thing, it's almost surprising it's made it this far. Even getting this far, I was already shirtless and chugging bottles of water. It's nice to have the extra power and capacity to run my plug-in cooler. While not quite a fridge, it does still keep water cool enough to be refreshing, especially on days like this. Removing the old mount was just a matter of zipping off the old nuts with my Ryobi driver and a socket, tapping the bolts out and the hard part was done. Wait, maybe that was the easy part. As luck would have it, the new mount and old share the same mounting pattern. But the old bolts looked to be maybe 5/16", and seemed to be just a tad loose in the holes. So, to Lowes we go! I picked up 8 stainless 3/8" carriage bolts and lock nuts, and lunch, and headed back. When I went to feed them through, that set the tone for the rest of the weekend. The bolts wouldn't quite fit through the holes. Well I was committed to using bigger hardware, so out came the drill. I drilled out the holes just enough to feed the bolts through, and then drilled holes in a piece of aluminum sheet that I had with me to use as a backing plate. My mistake was drilling them after using the mount as a pattern, instead of putting the bolts through the boat first. Since all the bolts aren't drilled at a perfect perpendicular angle, they didn't line up afterwards. I made do with a poly sheet that I had, and some trimmed off stock of the aluminum just to get things in place. At that point, I had enough of the sun and heat, and thankfully was getting later in the evening, so I called it a night, killing time by playing on the laptop for a while, watching videos, and killing bad guys in a game.

Sunday morning... I woke up at 5:30 for no real reason, and only managed another couple hours after that. Deciding that 6 hours of sleep was enough, it was time to drag myself out of bed and get after it again. Step one was to finish up the backing. I crawled into the starboard cockpit locker (that's not easy by the way), and wedged some pressure treated 2x something dimension back along the transom to help with the compression the new bolts would have between the layers of the hull, and then got everything in place. At this point, I'm already sweating, and even a walk down to the lake and dunking my head in didn't do much to help that out.

Now I'm at a cross roads. What do I do with this Tohatsu? It's not exactly light, and I'm not exactly into lifting. But I don't want to take it all the way home again, along with the Mercury, and all the gas cans and so forth. I muscled it out of the car, and set it on the ground, catching my breath again and again. I pulled the Mercury farther up the dock, to feel like I was accomplishing something. I finally thought, might as well try, and lifted the Tohatsu up again, left hand on the handle, right hand under the leg, and be damned if I didn't feel like this:

Granted, that stone is 409 lbs, and I was less than a third, but considering I'm 1/3 his size, it's appropriate, right? But that was basically my mindset as I started down the ramp onto the dock. One more step. One more step. One more step. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was able to rest.

For those curious, yes, that is the correct position to lay this down, if laying flat. It even says so on the sticker, not that you might be able to make it out. I took the Merc up to the grass and it's accompanying gas tanks, all in plastic garbage bags, including the motor and the mount. Spiders at the marina like to find the crevices and hide, and on more than one occasion I've had them pop out of corners of the car after transport, usually at about face level. And the tanks like to vent gas during trips and even with a tarp under to catch. That makes it fun to drive, getting all light headed and things. Back to the dock.

I really didn't want to leave the motor not installed, but I was conflicted at how to get this thing into place. I didn't want to go through the hassle of removing the solar panel in order to use a halyard to support the weight, so I thought maybe if I ran lines from the cockpit winches and cleats, back over the center of the transom, they could support the motor once I swung it off the dock. This tuned out to be harder to set up than I thought. Throw in the mix the half-confidence I had in my ability to lower the motor down onto the motor from the dock. It was a lot easier to pull the Merc off the mount since I was straight on to it, so how much worse could the extra 50 lbs be, right? I tied off a line to a cleat and around a winch to the handle of the motor and had it as tight as I could from that angle. Now or never. I slid the prop over the edge, and tilted the motor up. If you look in that picture, you can see the angled cover piece that comes from the leg up to the cowl. As luck would have it, as I started to slide the motor forward, that piece slid down the edge of the dock, and acted as a wedge to push the front of the motor perfectly into position over the mount. Don't get me wrong, it was still a lot of muscle to guide and not drop, but it went a lot better than it could've. 

I used a piece of 1/4" thick aluminum flat stock and drilled two holes in it to match up with the pegs on the clamp screws where the cups normally would've been attached. This allowed the bottom of the threads to exert force on the bar, and then into the mount. It tightened up nicely, and I really don't expect it to go anywhere though I suppose if I really wanted to, I could tap into that bar, thread it, and then install some bolts through those holes to line up with the patchwork of holes on the backside of the mount which I presume are there for weight savings. Having a bolt stuck through and into one of those holes would ensure that even in the worst situation, the bar couldn't slide around or move. For now though, it will work fine.

Time for a test run. I installed the battery into the cockpit locker where there's a perfect spot for it. And then my electrical leads for the starter were too short. Of course they are. So, lifted the battery back out, and set it on the seat, wired up, and the motor started right up. After locking the lift lever so it couldn't kick up in reverse, I untied the lines and putt-putt-putted out into the bay once more to swap slip gear back to the other side. The difference between motors is night and day. Whereas the Mercury took a moment to stop momentum and change direction, especially from forward to reverse while underway, and would slow to a crawl when at idle, the Tohatsu idles along at what feels like about a knot and a half. I didn't have my phone up to check, but it moved quite a bit without even touching the throttle. This will make the already-improved efficiency even more so, if I barely need throttle to get where I'm going. Granted, it means taking more caution coming into the slip, needing to cut back to neutral a little sooner to let the speed slow. But at the same time, a couple short blips in reverse (reverse-neutral-reverse-neutral) was all it took to all but stop the boat from that speed. I'm not sure what prop is on this one versus the Merc, but between the low end torque of the 4-stroke, the extra 50% power, even if they're identical, it's a world of difference. I tied back up to the slip, put everything back in relative order and dragged my exhausted butt through loading the car back up. I took a shower, progressively turning the warm water to the cold direction because that's exactly what you want when you're turning a little extra red, and it's been that hot all weekend. 

Home to unload the spider palace that was the Mercury, I tossed it on the stand, hosed everything off, gave it a wipe down and took some pictures, throwing it up on Facebook marketplace for sale with the two tanks and whatnot. If all goes well, should be someone coming at noon tomorrow for it. Works out rather well, that way. 

Parents use the phrase "I'm gonna tan your hide." I know it's Father's Day and that seems like a privilege they are entitled to, but I'm pretty sure the sun beat you to the punch today. So now my tanned hide is going to pass out, because I think I've done about all I can do this weekend.