WiFi Installation on Your Boat

Captain Bob Damiano

Winter (and spring) (and summer) project: Argon gets WIFI

Since I live and work from the boat, good connectivity is pretty important.  We have a couple of 4G hotspots but those come with those annoying data plans. Our marina has free wifi (via Beacon) but all the cool kids put up wifi routers and have their own LANs on their boats.

So back in December, I decided to buy the stuff. I was going to buy a package from Island Time, but I thought I would be even cooler and buy the bits separately myself. That's a great idea if you're an IP/networking genius and can configure this stuff. So I got a Microtik Groove radio and router and started struggling with it (with lots of help from my boss, Dan who IS an IP/networking genius).

Ultimately, I ended up replacing the groove with a Ubiquity Bullet radio.  This thing is MUCH easier to configure and I was actually able to do it with some email support from boss Dan, brother Duane and brother Duane's friend Ralph.

So... I have a brand new Groove radio for sale if anyone wants it.

Physical Mounting

Argon has an Edson radar mast on her transom.  I spoke to someone at Edson and he suggested I buy this "wing" thing that mounts under the radar platform. This provides a nice surface to mount several small antennas.

To mount to that, I got a standard 1-14 antenna mounting base and an extension tube. 

1-14 base with "extra" hole

Using breakfast bar as machine shop

The original Groove radio (ultimately not used)

Wiring

The wireless router is installed inside the nav table instrument "pod".  I had to run a 12vdc line from a spare breaker to a new terminal block in there.  This feeds the router and the PoE (Power over Ethernet) injector to power the radio.

Terminal block for power

The new power/ground wires snaked into the breaker panel

Close-up of the Bullet

Router mounted.  Radio and antenna temporarily mounted for testing

We also had to run Ethernet all the way from the nav pod to the base of the radar mast and ultimately up the mast to the radio. 

Ethernet and wire snake

Linda doing best tie-wrap job ever down in the steering compartment

About now, is when I got the network to actually work. Until then, it was a notwork.

Putting it all together

This involved finalizing the mounting of the radio/anenna to the mount, unwiring the radar mast and removing it from the boat, installing all the stuff and hooking it all back up.  And then really really hoping that everything still works.

mounting the L-bracket to the extension tube

Bullet secured using a 'bulkhead" connector (and a couple big honkin washers)

Undo these wires at the base of the mast

Mast rail support removed and replaced with temporary measure

The stick is out

attaching the wing

We were smart enough to get help to re-install the stick.

 

And there she is.  DONE (finally)

Overnight to Newport

The Volvo Ocean Race is in America and right next door in Newport RI.  We took off at 14:00 from Boston with a plan to hit the Canal by 23:00.  At first the winds were pretty brisk and right behind us.  We considered whether or not to reef the main at first.  And every sailor knows - if you're considering... just do it.  We didn't.  As soon as we turned a little upwind in Presidents Roads, we got knocked over very handily in some 30+ gusts.

Then we reefed and sailed with no jib for a while.

As we got around Hull and were able to turn more downwind we eventually put up the full main and the Jib.  The wind softened a bit and so we traded the jib for the reacher.  Now, we had a nice long stretch of 8.5kt sailing with about 14kts coming over the beam.


Once we got a few miles south of Plymouth, the wind pretty suddenly died. We motored the rest of the way to the canal.

Sunset

We hit the canal about 21:30 right at peak current and flew through it at 10.5kts.  Once on the other side, there was no wind so we just kept motoring.  Good news is that buzzards was nice and flat.

Around 02:00, we got a little breeze. With 24 miles to go to Newport, we put up the main and reacher and tried to sail for a while.  We were mostly in the low 3's which would have gotten us to Newport later than we wanted.

We gave up and started motoring again and Linda took over watch.

And Sunrise

Linda woke me up about 06:30 as we pulled into Newport Harbor.  As we passed Fort Adams, we did a drive-by of the Volvo boats

Software Development on the High Seas

Adam at the helm

After party back at the dock. 

Off for our first regular season day sail today with some Marina Neighbors. Also testing Bob's new realtime track andrdoid app.  Unfortunately, it stopped recording while going around Spectacle Island. Bob has some work to do.

Winter project II - adding another lighting circuit

Tartan is great for putting all these lighting fixtures in the engine compartment and in the aft compartment where the steering is. The problem is that they hung them on the "Lights 3" circuit which is also shared with the aft cabin and the refrigerator light.

Since they are in difficult-to-access areas, one wants to leave the switches on and then control them from the breaker panel. Doing this means that we don't get a refrigerator light because we would have to turn on the breaker whenever we wanted to open the fridge door and then remember to turn it off.  (We would usually forget the turning OFF part and leave the engine room lit without us knowing it).

Fortunately, there are plenty of spare breakers on the panel so it is possible to run another circuit for these work-area lights.  The electrical part is not rocket science (or even boat science).  The difficulty is in physically running the new wire along the existing wiring harnesses (and to do it in a way that looks Tartan-quality).

From the breaker panel, there are a few "raceways" that the wire must run through. Then it runs through a long pvc pipe into the aft steering compartment. From there it has to get over to the port side to a terminal block. It required forty-some feet of wire.

New yellow #12 wire in the bundle and fed into the raceway

I used a household wire snake to pull the wire through the conduit to the aft compartment. From there, getting over to the port side was the slow/difficult part because the wire had to be run through existing plastic wire "hose". This was slow going.

Wire snake emerging from the PVC conduit into the area behind the breaker panel

new yellow almost pulled through

new yellow still taped to the wire snake pulled through the PVC conduit into the aft steering compartment

new yellow terminated at a spare terminal on the main distribution block on the port side. I'm sitting in the sail locker. My legs are in the engine compartment and to the right is the aft steering compartment

Ready to test

Once the new yellow wire was terminated at the block, I moved what I thought would be just the engine room light wire from the "LT3" terminal down to where my new wire was terminated. With everything wired up, I went over to the breaker and turned on the new spare breaker. I was all ready to see just the engine room light up and congratulate myself. But to my surprise, the refrigerator light ALSO came on.  Well, that was a sub-optimal result. Somehow the fridge light is still branched from the engine room lights.

After pulling some of the sound-proofing insulation down over the engine, I found where they spliced in the fridge light. It was just forward of the middle engine room light fixture.

Here is where the fridge light is branching off from the engine room light circuit

Finally a working fridge light
After tearing up enough of the metalic HVAC tape on the engine room insulation, I as able to splice on a new length of blue #14 to the fridge light feed and get that on the Light-3 circuit. 

Winter Projects

Argon is sitting in a parking lot in East Boston these days.  We have a few projects planned for the winter and I finally got round to finishing up one.

Additional Spinlock Rope Clutches

Tartan installed most of the deck hardware to support a Spinnaker. There are various blocks and bullseyes to guide the spin tack line toward the cockpit. However they left us short on deck organizer blocks and a rope clutch for the tack line.

We got even shorter with rope clutches because we redid the "German" sheeting on the main and brought the main sheet to the port side cabin-house winch.

The short version is that we need more rope clutches on the port side.  The starboard side had two triple clutches, but the port side was fitted with two dual clutches.  So I added another dual.

The surface for the spinlocks has a glassed-in aluminum backing plate. On Tartans, everything is tapped into these integral backing plates.  So I had to buy a 5/16-18 Tap, A drill bit for the tap size for 5/16-18 (in aluminum) and a bigger tap handle than I had.  According to the interwebs, an "F" sized drill bit was what I wanted.

So I started by drilling small pilot holes all the way through the glass and the backing plates

Initial pilot holes drilled. Spinlock does not provide a drill guide so you have to use the clutch itself to mark the hole locations.

Then drilled the "F" sized tap holes through the glass and Aluminum.  Then 5/16" clearance holes through the glass just down to the backing plate.

Ready for tapping. There is a good 3/4" of glass above the backing plate. Pretty strong boat.

Tapping - trying very hard not to break the tap inside the hole.  I only had WD-40 to use as tapping oil.

We love that the Tartans have removable headliners. I could have done this blind, but almost certainly would have drilled and tapped right through this bundle of wires!  Removing the headliner also allowed me to not have aluminum chips bouncing around above the ceiling forever.

The backing plate is glassed in just above this area

Headliner panel hanging

A little Life-Calk and the new spinlock is mounted

Now we can have the spinnaker tack line come back to the cockpit.  We can also shift the main sheet over so it lines up better with the winch.

Double-decker
Another bit missing for the spinnaker tack line was that there was no room in any of the deck organizer blocks for this line. This I fixed by adding a second level to the organizers on the port side

Upper level deck organizer added. Now room for two more lines

The Winter Cover

Not really my project, but Argon got a nice new winter cover from Kinder Industries in Bristol, RI. 

The Frame: 14 ribs, and 4 spine sections plus various supports

This frame works with mast up or down

Nostalgia: Manchester-by-the-Sea and Peddocks Island

It was fitting that we completed our LASVA at two of our favorite local places:  Manchester-by-the-Sea was where we did our very first overnight sail out of Boston Sailing Center on a J24 thus it has special meaning to us.  In addition, it is an absolutely beautiful and protected harbor that funnels in to this very quaint town.  Peddocks Island is one of the Boston Harbor Islands which we frequent when we have only an afternoon or late evening often dropping the hook and hanging out for a few hours or overnight.

PTown to Manchester-by-the-Sea:  In Search of Whales

We leave PTown Harbor promptly at 07:00 Friday morning to catch a positive current around Race Point and, more importantly, to provide ample time to get to Manchester-by-the-Sea via an extended arch along Stellwagen Banks, a national marine sanctuary and a popular feeding ground for whales and the target area of the whale watching tour boats out of northeast harbors.

Linda is determined to see whales today.  We stayed along the western edge of Stellwagen Banks which proved to be a mistake as we could see only with our binoculars that the whale watching tour boats were quite successful several miles away on the eastern edge instead.

At the northwest tip of the Banks we were fortunate to spot these two whales swimming in our opposite direction.  Interestingly, we were also visited by a whale right in PTown Harbor both of our two prior days anchored there.

After sailing about 9 hours with main and genoa most of the way, then main and spinnaker the last leg, we approach the rocky NE coast and dots of islands prior to the harbor of Manchester-by-the-Sea

Navigating in to Manchester Harbor

A quick boat maintenance  job needed attending:  the paddle wheel that measure STW (speed through water) has been hung up since leaving PTown Harbor.  We (Bob) normally dive under the boat to unclog the paddle wheel.  Linda, despite being a former PADI certified SCUBA diver, despises diving under the boat (gives her the eeby jeebies) but she did so reluctantly recently in Stongington Harbor.  However, there is a much easier way to unclog the paddle wheel - simply pull the unit out of the hull from the inside near the V berth and unclog the wheel (while staying warm and dry inside, and no eeby jeebies).  However, this entails willingly opening a two inch diameter hole in the hull of the boat under the water line through which water comes rushing in.  Given that this is the normal way to unclog a paddle wheel and "it's simple, everyone does it this way", it was time to try.

Linda successfully unclogged the paddle wheel from inside without letting Argon sink to the bottom of Manchester Harbor.  It was, as everyone says, easy.  No more diving under the boat to unclog the wheel.  Not too much water rushed in but it definitely feels better when that hole is closed up.

Linda's son, Joshua, and his girlfriend, Sharon, who are visiting here from Amsterdam join us again on our sailing trip - this time for dinner in Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Linda, Sharon, Josh and Bob on the dock at Manchester Marine

Saturday we began our trip home to Boston and our return to normal lives.  We have been rising by 0600 or 0700 each morning on our three week trip as we enjoy the early part of the day on the water.  We have "slept in" as late as maybe 07:30 perhaps only twice during this entire vacation.

The wind is directly on our nose at about 15kts so we motor a good part of the way.  Heavy thunderstorms are forecasted for the afternoon.

Leaving Manchester Harbor, coffee in hand

Large container ship en route to be unloaded at the docks in South Boston

The horizon is hazy and the temps are foretasted to be quite steamy at 90 on land so we decided to make a detour close to home and set anchor in Perry Cove at Peddocks Island, while keeping an eye on the weather and radar to ensure we return back to our marina before the thunderstorms arrive.  We relax and read for a couple of hours as the wind picks up to 15-20kts and gusts even higher.  Linda grumbles that the water is only 63 degrees and she is already missing the nice water temperatures we experienced most of our vacation.

View of home not too far away as we sit at anchor at Peddocks Island

Prairie Gold gives us a drive by while we are at Peddocks Island.  You can read more about Phill and Yolande's adventures at Treasures from Prairie Gold

Boston off Argon's bow as we head home with a reefed main in gusty 25kt winds

Winds sailing back in to Boston Harbor were variable in both intensity and direction.  Gusts were 25+kts but in the inner harbor would also fall to less than 10kts, and direction was sometimes S, sometimes SW, sometimes W.  Made for alert sailing on this final leg of our LASVA.

After cleaning up Argon, touching base with some dock friends, and hauling lots of dirty laundry and several computers back home, we close out our wonderful three week sail at our favorite local Arlington restaurant, Scutra.  A fitting end to a spectacular vacation.

Bob, Dieder (Scutra owner), Linda and Louis (Scutra GM, fantastic bartender and creator of Sailor Bob's Mule)

Stay tuned for Argon Voyages data and statistics up next!