A trip to Emsworth

Today I said farewell to the Blue boat which was my second attempt at an Alternative. This is the one that finished fifteenth in my first IOM meeting, the Veterans championships. I hope the new owner gets as much enjoyment out of it as I had building and tweaking the boat. IOM's and any model for that matter can absorb an inordinate amount of time and I think the blue boat had more than its fair share. Next year I will build one more and put all the lessons learned into the build.

When I was preparing to put everything into the van, yesterday I tested the electrics one last time to find nothing was working. A lead to the battery plug had come undone. I fixed it but was not happy with the solder. Later that night I pulled up a youtube video on how to solder XT30 connectors to see that I was soldering incorrectly and therefore getting dodgy connections. I was trying to solder over the top of the wire instead of laying solder on the XT connector and then laying the wire into that.. I had a few sleepless hours because of the uncertainty this caused in the night but sorted any doubt by getting up early in the morning to apply my new skills and re-solder the four plugs on the boat. What a difference the right technique makes to a connection. Another lesson learned and taught me that I should have looked at Youtube before I started my electrical journey. Having said that I have never had an electrical failure until last week in my 1.5 years sailing IOM's.

If you are interested there are two videos worth looking at as well as many others that are relevant. One is on the above subject with the link HERE Thee are several other videos on soldering which are worth taking a look at if you are not good at soldering like I was,

and the other is about waterproofing electronics. It provides a view on waterproofing electronics and can be seen HERE

It is a great shame that the first charity open of the year at Hampton Court is cancelled, something to do with a failure in technology in water flow. That leaves Bourneville for January and then Chipstead in early Feb. More time to work up the red boat and get rid of all the gremlins.