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Mostly savings, small rental income to supplement, some stock trading. The trick is to reduce spending, mostly by not buying too big a boat. People have ideas

by sdfjkl 5y ago

Mostly savings, small rental income to supplement, some stock trading. The trick is to reduce spending, mostly by not buying too big a boat. People have ideas about remote work on board, but for various reasons this rarely works out in practice. Internet connectivity is poor and intermittent, your schedule is ruled by the weather and having to work seriously distracts from the fulltime job that cruising is by itself.

imglorp 5y ago
How well would Star Link work on a rocking boat? Is its aiming good enough to keep a lock? Is there a problem moving around where they don't expect you?
- driverdan 5y ago
  It wouldn't work well since the hardware isn't designed for this purpose and coverage is focused on US land.
- sdfjkl 5y ago
  It doesn't work at all. Even in marinas (stationary) it has issues - out at sea or even at anchor you can forget about it. There are also problems with them not liking you moving around. Related article: https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/ https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/ There may be a mobile base unit at some point in the future, but it will be comparable to the current Fleetbroadband units and therefore too power hungry and too big for your average cruising sailboat. Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. That's what is inside those Inmarsat domes you can sometimes see on big racing boats with satellite uplinks like the Volvo Ocean Race.
  - emilecantin 5y ago
    > Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. Not at all true with Starlink, it uses a phased array antenna to aim the beam at the satellite; everything happens in software. What _is_ needed is an accelerometer which can "know" the boat's movement and then adjust its aim based on that. Seems like they're not quite there yet, but there's no reason this can't work.

by sdfjkl 5y ago

imglorp 5y ago

How well would Star Link work on a rocking boat? Is its aiming good enough to keep a lock? Is there a problem moving around where they don't expect you?

driverdan 5y ago
It wouldn't work well since the hardware isn't designed for this purpose and coverage is focused on US land.
sdfjkl 5y ago
It doesn't work at all. Even in marinas (stationary) it has issues - out at sea or even at anchor you can forget about it. There are also problems with them not liking you moving around. Related article: https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/ https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/ There may be a mobile base unit at some point in the future, but it will be comparable to the current Fleetbroadband units and therefore too power hungry and too big for your average cruising sailboat. Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. That's what is inside those Inmarsat domes you can sometimes see on big racing boats with satellite uplinks like the Volvo Ocean Race.
- emilecantin 5y ago
  > Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. Not at all true with Starlink, it uses a phased array antenna to aim the beam at the satellite; everything happens in software. What _is_ needed is an accelerometer which can "know" the boat's movement and then adjust its aim based on that. Seems like they're not quite there yet, but there's no reason this can't work.