24 small things was done in 2 weekend days Radar installed    Mast Check mast longitudinal angle. Portside lower shrouds - fix pin on spreaders root. during stepping mast up pin holding lowers on port side slide out of the intended position. I had to easy lowers and push it back to place. Install VHF antenna and test SWR - (Measured SWR 1.3). Just put antenna back to place. Install radar to the mast. Simple, but it the bracket appeared slightly deformed and rear holes ended up not aligned and i had to drill them out to provide some gaps and be able to put bolts in. Other challenge - lift Radar to the mast safely, but it is round and has no features to tie rope to it ;-) Install ring camera to radar mount. Drilled 3 holes and riveted mounting plate for Ring camera to be able to observe what is going on on the docks, especially when really bad weather hits. Put mainsail and sail pack back to the boat. Just put them back and connected the pack lazy jack back up to the m...

 Autopilot Autopilot was installed a year ago. I did not have mood to finish installation. Steering arm was installed just on friction, and friction between bronze and stainless is not great. So time to time if I try to fight with autopilot arm slipped and whole settings appeared to be lost. Other problem if it slipped to counter clockwise  autopilot actuator and arm get aligned in line and actuator can't work at all. There key was missed, actually I had a key, but rudder stock did not have a key way. Trust me, cutting keyway in rudder sock with Drimel in boat yoga position was not a most fun experience. Rudder is in straight position. 90 degree between arm and actuator.   I have actuator mounted in diagonal between port side wall of the engine compartment and arm is installed on starboard side. It looks little strange but it saved a lot of space and let to have easy access to actuator motor.  Other view to the rudder stock   Other issue fix i pushed back foe a ...

Autopilot During sailing  7/6 with autopilot had two malfunction situations when autopilot drive overrun travel distance of the rudder turn side to side and the steering arm slipped on the rudder shaft. I have no key installed on the shaft, it was done intentionally to prevent any mechanical damage in case if autopilot gets out of control without end switches. I will cut key way after I will be 100% confident in autopilot. For now slipping is better then attempting to fight. End switches.  Originally I thought about industrial grade heavy duty switches, even sourced them, but ended with just magnetic switches used in home security setups.  There several reasons to use magnetic switches.   They are totally encapsulated and no way to be compromised by weather. No mechanical contact with moving parts, no way something get stuck. They have reliable by design, no mechanical parts.  Dirty cheap and easy to source anywhere on the planet. Cons and mitigation. Not d...

Autopilot  Finally, connected wires from autopilot drive to Raspberry.  looks it works well and able to turn rudder easy and fast. I did not installed end switches and rudder angle sensor, so no wild play now   Self turning wheel video - Dry test video. Rudder controlled from computer. On Video motor power set to 10% max. Can't wait to install safety switches to try to do full speed run test.  Deck  Still working on deck painting prep work. This day did sand between layers. This time wet sanding. I do not know what went wrong, but PrimeKote  did not self-leveled and as result i have pretty deep brush marks everywhere. and now i need to sand a lot to clean the mess. Second mistake, i wait for a 2 weeks before sanding and primer have got very hard to sand. Couple areas, where I forgot to tip primer and just roller texturing left was way easier to sand, so, likely no tipping any more on primer. After 10 hours of sanding I think i am pretty close to be ready t...

  Autopilot Autopilot drive mount built.   Dry fit testing. Run drive on power . Linear drive moves rudder end to end in 4 sec. Motor seems not feel load at all. Need to make spacer for the top corner due to motor compartment wall is not flat. Bottom part mounted on cored area, top side is just 1/8 in-liner wall and it is not vertical. Converting autohelm 6000 drive to smart drive Decided to use Sean's mid power motor controller instead of re-engineering it. Two reasons - 1) support great work from amazing person, 2) save time for other projects.  When controller arrived, i found the conformal coating is really bad quality, so i had to re-coat the board. But is is OK.   After some play with drive I found the controller board  perfectly fits inside drive enclosure and let me make much cleaner installation. Only modification was 5 holes in the aluminum cover. Four 4mm holes for screws holding the board and one 15mm for round connector to connect end switches and ...