While I make no secret about what I think about consumerism-led boat projects, I will admit to having a wish list of things that I want to have on the Islander.
For starters, there’s AIS. We already have an AIS receiver as it’s part of our Standard Horizon radio but it would be nice to have a dedicated AIS transceiver to let ships that go bump in the night know we’re out there as well. I’m currently researching less expensive Chinese transceivers and keeping an eye out for used ones within my miniscule budget.
Confronted with the long list of all the spares everyone should carry for the Yanmar according to Nigel Calder makes me want to tear out the engine and replace it with an outboard, electric motor, or yuloh. That said, I really should have an extra water pump, starter, alternator, and mixing elbow along with the obvious bits like impellers, anodes, filters and suchlike.
We did buy a Standard Horizon handheld VHF on ebay ($83) which is all we need but I’ll admit to lusting for the ICOM M94D ($349) which has all the normal bells and whistles with the addition of GPS and AIS. The downside is , having owned ICOM products before that sucked, I’m just not inclined to buy one no matter what the price so I’ll wait till someone else comes out with a reasonable facsimile in the cheap seats.
Then there’s the whole EPIRB thing. I have very strong feelings about not putting others at risk by asking for rescue and that if you’re going out you really should be able to sort out your own problems. That being the case, while we will have an EPIRB, the emphasis is towards self rescue and the main thing on my list is for personal EPIRBS with AIS so if someone goes overboard there is a means of proactive rescue by the remaining crew. Obviously, the main thing is just to stay the fuck aboard.
Some comfortable seating for the cockpit. I’m not a huge fan of cockpit cushions and I really like the idea of the metal framed, adjustable back seats except for the fact that, in our experience, they wind up with the internal frame rusting out and the foam becomes waterlogged. I’m sure someone has come up with a better option but I’ve yet to find it.
Having an internet-based business, the idea of having access to the web just about anywhere is appealing. Considering that it would pay the bill as well as giving up to the minute weather info it’s sort of a duh addition to the want list. However, I’m inclined to pass on the Starlink option for a variety of reasons I’m sure I’ll get around to ranting about in a future post. For the moment, I’ll just say I don’t trust Starlink not to abuse their monopoly situation and part of the reason I choose to sail is getting away from things so taking them with me is something of a downer. Still, being able to sell a canal barge charter in the middle of an ocean does have its appeal.
I’m sure there’s a couple more things not yet on the list but for the moment that’s pretty much it. I’ll let you know what I find when I get stuff.
On another tack, here’s something for those of us who looked forward to EVs that made sense.
Regarding that last bit; is there even anyone anywhere doing the 2 seat with cargo space 55mph for 99 miles 0-60 eventually (actually never I guess, but you know what I mean) electric car thing? Seems like you could sell the heck out of that. I suspect that there’s issues with meeting safety regs in something that small and light such that the price makes it unworkable for the US.