06.25.09
Fuel filters.
An important part of creating a reliable fuel system, is the choice of the right primary fuel filters. This is the first filter (or set of filters) we meet in the fuel system, going from the tank to the engine. On the engine itself is a second fuel filter, which is part of the engine assembly. The first filter has a mesh size of 10 micron, the second usually 2 – 5 micron.
On a seagoing vessel there is always a chance of getting sea water in the fuel tanks. Also changes between day and night temperature, can cause condensation of water in the fuel tanks, especially in places with high air humidity. Therefore a good fuel filter should also have water separating capabilities.
On ‘Waratah’ I am using two Racor filters in parallel. One is in use, and the other on stand-by. The filters can be isolated by a number of valves in the fuel system. In case of the filter in use getting clogged, I can change over to the stand-by filter without disrupting the fuel flow to the engine. The clogged filter cartridge can now easily be exchanged.
I also like the little manual priming pump on top of the filter assembly.
The first picture shows the 2 filter assemblies, the second a box with spare cartridges.
05.05.09
Smoke, and save the nation.
Only in China…
Note that this article is from May 4th, not April 1st. 
From The Telegraph:By Peter Foster in Beijing
Last Updated: 7:45AM BST 04 May 2009
Chinese ordered to smoke more to boost economy
Local government officials in China have been ordered to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of cigarettes in a move to boost the local economy during the global financial crisis.The edict, issued by officials in Hubei province in central China, threatens to fine officials who “fail to meet their targets” or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces.
Even local schools have been issued with a smoking quota for teachers, while one village was ordered to purchase 400 cartons of cigarettes a year for its officials, according to the local government’s website.
The move, which flies in the face of national anti-smoking policies set in Beijing, is aimed at boosting tax revenues and protecting local manufacturers from outside competition from China’s 100 cigarette makers.
In total, officials have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes worth £400,000.
China’s government has ordered massive government spending at both national and provincial levels to prop up the economy following plummeting demand for Chinese exports abroad, however imposing a cigarette quota is unusual.
“The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team.
China has 350 million smokers, about a million of whom die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Despite anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes form a major component of China’s annual tax-take at local level.
Local authorities in Gong’an county are taking the cigarette quota seriously and have established a “special task force” to enforce it.
According to a local newspaper account, a teacher from a village middle school said officials burst unannounced into the school at around 3pm one afternoon and started sifting through the ashtray and bins in the staff-room.
Three “non-compliant” cigarette butts were discovered by the “cigarette marketing consolidate team” which informed the teacher he had violated the related civil servants “cigarette usage rule” After some negotiation the school was spared a fine, but subjected to “public criticism” for “undisciplined practices”.
.
03.29.09
Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbour.
During one of my recent visits to Kobe, I had a bit of time for myself one afternoon. So I took the opportunity, and paid a visit to the Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbour just a bit outside of Kobe. The facilities are very nice, and I promised to myself to do some sailing here. There are boats for hire for short trips around the Kobe bay area.
Shin Nishinomiya is also the home town of Japanese famous solo yachtsman Kenichi Horie. There are three of his boats in the marina. The smallest one he ever made a Pacific crossing on, or rather in, is ‘moored’ in a pond right in the middle of the clubhouse. His latest accomplishment is his passage from Hawaii to Kobe last year, in a boat powered only by ocean wave power.
03.27.09
Mensa Invitational.
Here are the winners of this year’s Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational, which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time. (Note: This is valid for buying boats as well)
2. Ignoranus : A person who is both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of
getting laid.
7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running
late.
10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra
credit.)
11. Karmageddon : It’s like, when everybody is sending off all
these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s
like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect : The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter
when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into
your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm
in the fruit you’re eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to
its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply
alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee , n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one
has gained.
3. Abdicate , v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade , v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly , adj. Impotent.
6. Neglige nt , adj.. Absentmindedly answering the door when
wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph , v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle , n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence , n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has
been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash , n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude , n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by
proctologists.
13. Pokemon , n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster , n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with
yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism , n. The belief that, after death, the soul
flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent , n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by
Jewish men
A real gem.
Every now and then you come across some brilliant quote. What about this one by Hu Changming, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defence? What has this guy been smoking to think anybody will take this serious in any way? Priceless!
“China has always unwaveringly taken the path of peaceful development. We will not participate in any form of arms race and do not constitute a threat to any country.”
03.26.09
Foreign GPS users risk arrest.
From the South China Morning Post this morning. It seems that the paranoia in this country knows no limits.
Foreigners using GPS devices on the mainland risk being detained by police or national security agents if they suspect them of conducting illegal mapping.
“It’s better for [your] safety not to turn on the GPS function [on your cellphone],” a State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping official said.
The bureau announced 10 days ago that it was launching a year-long crackdown this month on illegal surveying, with foreigners among its prime targets. Six ministries are involved in the campaign.
Its announcement cites the detention in December 2007 of a foreigner in a village near Luoyang in Henan province. State security agents found a number of locations marked on his hand-held Global Positioning System device and used that as evidence for his arrest, the bureau said, without elaborating.
The South China Morning Post spoke to a bureau official, who identified the detainee as American mining expert Calvin Herron. According to his online profile, Mr Herron is “an exploration geologist with more than 20 years experience in acquisition and management of precious and base metals projects in the western United States” and experience “managing gold and lead-zinc exploration programmes” on the mainland.
The official said Mr Herron was deported four months later after the authorities confiscated his equipment and data and fined him 100,000 yuan (HK$113,700). Mr Herron could not be reached for comment.
Xu Shijie, a guided-missile expert at Beihang University, said there were missile facilities near Luoyang and Mr Herron had probably been arrested because he was getting too close to them. (No shit?! This whole country is so plastered with missile facilities, that it is hard NOT to be close to one. It’s all part of this ‘peaceful rise’ . Blehhh)
He is not the only foreigner to have been detained for surveying and mapping on the mainland without approval. At least six Japanese visitors were reportedly arrested in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region between 2005 and 2007. (Of course, Japanese. Go figure.)
Bureau deputy director Song Chaozhi told China News Service earlier that the bureau would intensify its watch on non-Chinese people using GPS devices for mapping and surveying purposes. “[Such behaviour] severely threatens China’s national security,” Mr Song was quoted as saying. (Note to self: For the next batch of spies we only hire Chinese. With the current unemployment this should not be too hard. The training could be a bit of a challenge though. Even the taxi drivers here don’t know how to use a GPS.)
An anonymous article, possibly inspired by the crackdown and entitled “How to Catch a Foreign Spy Mapping Chinese Terrain”, is circulating in mainland internet chat rooms, urging people to watch out for foreigners using GPS devices.
Beijing bans foreigners from conducting a wide range of topographical activities, from plotting terrain to aerial photography. Non-Chinese institutions or individuals intending to use mapping devices on the mainland must file a request to the central government – which can take months to approve; they must also be “assisted” by mainland bodies and submit their data for vetting.
Guess it is only a matter of time till somebody launches a campaign, with a nice web site where you can enter your ‘targets’, with the slogan ‘Map for Peace’, ‘Did you map your target today?’, or ‘A target a day, keeps the piggies at bay’. Would go well together with this little gem, Ground Zero. Just select the target you just mapped with your GPS, and see what a whole range of nuclear weapons does to it. Personally I like the asteroid. Just a tad smaller maybe, to limit the ash rain on my boat, and collateral damage to the neighbours. After all, those neighbours have suffered enough already from China’s ‘peaceful rise’, and ‘harmonica society’.
03.25.09
Long overdue update on ‘Waratah’.
I had so much trouble with my internet connection, and the Great Firewall of China in the past few weeks. It made it impossible for me to update my blog properly. Finally a chance to post an update and pictures.
The interior of Waratah is painted now, and in the final stage of being finished. I have selected a cream white colour, and a rosewood finish, which makes the interior look light and spacious. Most boats are far too dark inside. The first pictures give a bit of an idea how the interior is looking now. I also added a picture of the mast step, with the sheaves for all the lines going back to the cockpit.
