View of Autopilot showing actuator arms and link rods
On saturday the weather was almost perfect with the high temperature for the day predicted to be around 38 degrees. Precipitation predictions were at 90% and described as ongoing misting. punctuated by drizzle and maybe some isolated sleet. If it had been colder or wetter it would have been perfect. I mean with that forecast I could have donned multitudinous layers of thermal stuff and some foul weather gear and gone sailing. That would not have been the first time I did something stupid like that. But if it was just a little colder and wetter, it would have been a perfect day just to work on the boat. So that is what I mean when I say that the weather was almost perfect.
Despite the lack of perfect conditions, I decided to work on the boat. I have a long list of small tasks to do by spring and I knocked a few of them off the list.
I have also been engineering an installation of a new autopilot and its mounting brackets. In furtherance of that, I crawled down into the Lazarette to take a few dimensions that I had missed the last time. It being such almost perfect weather and I then skulked off to draw up the autopilot geometry to make sure that there was room for everything to move and not collide with other parts. (See drawing)