August 26, 2020
Now that we’re hunkered down in Auckland for a while, I needed something to do to keep me away from cheap alcohol and even cheaper women (Cyndi’s fine with the first but the latter seems to bother her!). Our neighbors on D’Urville provided the solution. Their stabilizers hadn’t worked in some time and they needed a new control system. That’s just the kind of project I needed! More on the stabilizer control later.
As I got closer to getting the control system done, we started to think that it would be great if the fins centered themselves when the gearbox was shifted into reverse. If the stabilizer fins move while the boat is going backwards, all kinds of unpredictable things can happen (somewhat like trying to back Legacy). Previously, they had to manually turn a switch on the control box to center. Well, who can be bothered to remember stuff like that?! Here’s my solution below.
When the shift lever is moved into reverse, the cable is pulled and the spring pushes against a micro switch. That tells the control system to center the fins.
But where does one get parts like these? Print them, naturally (well, not the springs, but the plastic bits and pieces). Legacy’s 3D printer to the rescue. I just don’t know how I functioned without a 3D printer aboard. -Rich
