Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
I’ve been invited to a friends house for turkey and drinks. I’ll get some video of the “babies” . She has three sloths as pets, they are very cool animals.
I’m really excited about making a few bucks with the videos. I am going to take your suggestions and play with the price point as well as increase the production value.
I’ve finally determined that the Pulley for the alternator on the Kubota was too small and took the entire assembly 
apart, and good thing I did. If you look in the picture you will see one pulley,a plate beneath it. and a shaft on top. For some reason Cruise Power (no longer in business) decided to manufacture the shaft and backing plate from aluminum?It just wasn’t very strong and as i was taking the assembly apart the shaft broke off. It would not have been long until the load of the alternator broke the shaft. I need to have it remanufactured out of steel. Also the key in the shaft was steel and would not come out of the key way as steel and aluminum are dissimilar metals and corrode at the joint. ARRRRG, I am learning a lot though and I’m happy about that.
Check out the beautiful sherwood pump I got on ebay. This was a new 
(discontinued) pump. The new model, as was this one are about $350.00. I got it on ebay for $35.00, and $25.00 to ship it down here. I paid $9.00 for the pulley. I need to drill out the pulley and tap a set screw into it but at the end of the day I’ll have about $70.00 into it :)
I’m back to the idea of running everything off of belts again. For me to modify my cat pump to electric I’m looking at about $600. If it’s belt driven a pulley will cost about $10.00 and I don’t have an electric motor to break, maintain, or repair. Keep it simple right?
You know I got this whole idea from AquaGen. The motor in the picture is a bigger version of mine and is 6HP as opposed to my little 3.5, but it consumes half of the fuel. They have a serpentine belt running everything which is kind of cool and i like how they have the raw water pump running on the shaft. I may try to put the membrane to my watermaker under the engine in the same way.
When I have the plate for the pulleys manufactured I’m going to make it long enough to accommodate 4 belts as opposed to the two it had. At some point I’d like a dive compressor and will run a hydraulic pump off of the kubota for the dive compressor.
At the end of the day I’ll have a really cool system, that is what i keep telling myself anyway.
If you haven’t seen my last video yet go to the store and cough up your buck, you can see my little kubota in action!:) You can also buy tickets for the Charter Raffle, there are 28 tickets left.
Cheers
Sail far and live slow.
Alex
Enjoy Project BlueSphere? Please show your support by downloading my films, or donating today Also check out the BlueSphere Bookstore for recommended reading and cruising guides.
Published in Alex Dorsey
Hey Alex,
I’m an avid sailor and have followed your blog for so many years I feel like I know you. Your tales of adventure and life at sea have been a great inspiration to me. I have long admired you for having the courage to step outside the Matrix and the guts to follow your dream – and like you, this is a topic I write about, but you are actually out there living it, and for that you should be commended.
No doubt you’ve been confronted more than once with having to make a bold choice: comfort (money, girl, etc.) or your freedom. You’ve remained true to yourself and have chosen your freedom. It’s a rare individual that is willing to take principled risks for the sake of his convictions.
In a few years I look forward to swinging on a hook next to you in some exotic far away place.
Happy Thanksgiving, my friend!
Hey Alex, Dean here (maple syrup and dilly beans) we are 1,900 miles from home in Myrtle Beach SC. (from Petoskey Mi. Lake Mi.) and my little Universal Diesel M25, 3cyl. 18 hp. has chugged her way here, with plenty of tender loving care:)
My previous life was Hydraulics on big city, county snow plow trucks and all down to log splitters or less. Effeciancey (sp) is not the key, power and relialability come with with it. The same give and take….
Peace, Love and Coconuts,,, Capt. Dean
hey Contrarian, you keep following like I have for 4-5 years and you will be out here too. Alex is a total INSPIRATION !!!
Emily and I are very excited to read your book Alex, will it be available through Itunes? How easy is it for you to get to Panama city? I work there 10 days a month and if the stars align maybe I could take you out for some chow sometime.
Chris waddles
Chris, I’m in Panama city almost every week. Heading there monday or tuesday.
hey Alex, I would like to know about a Lethe?? If one was available for you to use, would it be something you would use on these types of things? is it worth the space I ask because I have one. Its only 24′ long and made for turning metal. I have been debating as to whether or not to keep it for my boat. I have a lot of tools (enough to ballast any large boat!) and am very creative, much like you. So , in short, Lethe, keep or sell? Steve
Now in kona…..where was roger?…g
For some reason I cannot play the episode I purchased today. Its like the file gets hung up when downloading. Anyone else have the same issue?
no problems with viewing the down load here. i just paid thru paypal and then clicked on the little icon and it played. i thought wow that was easy
Weird, tried it on multiple CPUs and still no luck. Says that the server cannot be reached. I will try again tomorrow.
Alex
I have a battery question for you, What do you think of batteries located in the bilge? To me it doesn’t seem like the best place to put them. If a thru hull broke ,or something else happened , they would be flooded pretty quick and then I would loose power for bilge pumps and engine starting. Am I thinking wrong on this? It does keep the weight low and at the center of the boat.
I’m watching your Gen project very closely, I think I may try to something similar on my boat. Good luck in PC.
Wally
S/V Hakule’a
Walley,
You don’t want your batteries to low, mine are a few feet above the waterline on the starboard side of splendid. They are heavy so logic would tell you to center the batteries amidships however that is not always practical. I have a delicate balancing act going on in Splendid and could use a little more weight on the starboard side. When my water tanks get low i list to port. When i have the money I will increase the size of my battery bank (house) and it should help out a bit.
As far as loosing your electrical system you should never depend on it, its a luxury! Make sure you have a LARGE manual bilge pump or even a hi-output pump run off of your main engine (not on 12v clutch) you should manually have to engage it.
You can also put a T valve (before your sea strainer) to run bilge water through your engine (and strainer) in case of an emergency. You must be careful with this as you could over heat your engine once the water is pumped out. I plumbed this on Namaste and it is on my list for splendid. When I can afford it I will get a hi-output pump for my main engine (belt driven, manually engaged).
Hope this helps.