The Maintenance Race

https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-maintenance-race/

by huevosabio • 4 years ago

198 27 4 years ago

worksinprogress.co

gumby• 4 years ago

A lovely read full of good lessons.

Pasorrijer• 4 years ago

This article makes me think I really need to get down to my sailboat and fix those last few things.

lawrenceduk• 4 years ago

Just so happen to be in La Rochelle tomorrow. I’ll go find Joshua!

ok_dad• 4 years ago

Post photos, I’m curious as hell about this 60-ish year old boat.

huevosabio2• 4 years ago

This was one of the best reads in a long while.

It also made me think about how to approach long-lasting systems. Whether technological or societal, preparation, complexity reduction, and constant maintenance are key.

woojoo666• 4 years ago

This article is the third I've seen from this website in the past 2 days [1] [2]. And while all three articles were excellent, this one is my favorite so far

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32181987

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32181805

frozencell• 4 years ago

I wonder if pre-historic humans could do such adventures? or at least cross one big ocean with their boats? They managed to put up in group large sets of materials together (big stones) so why not a boat...

barry-cotter• 4 years ago

The Polynesians got to South America so yes.

Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement
Here we analyse genome-wide variation in individuals from islands across Polynesia for signs of Native American admixture, analysing 807 individuals from 17 island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesian individuals with Native American individuals (around AD 1200) contemporaneous with the settlement of remote Oceania13-15.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32641827/

wolfram74• 4 years ago

The major constraint of the race was doing it all in one-go, not to diminish the Polynesians' accomplishment, but island hopping was a key feature of their expansion.

nyanpasu64• 4 years ago

Did Moitessier have less trouble than Knox-Johnston, due to more money to build a better ship and stock up on equipment, a better approach to maintenance, or better luck?

huevosabio2• 4 years ago

I think the author implied both more money and more foresight on keeping the ship design simple.

It plays well into the narrative though, Moitesser was much older and better funded which gave him the ability to presolve a lot of the problems.

Knox-Johnston had to make do with whatever he could from the onset.

I read it as you can spend time/money to store "maintenance capital" such that whenever you need it you have payed for it in advance or you can pay as you go... With the risks and uncertainty that comes with it.

What you cannot do is borrow technical maintenance indefinitely, sooner or later you must pay up.

trhway2• 4 years ago

To me it sounds like preview of Mars missions. The things breaking and having to be repaired with only the stuff available on board. Hi-tech complexity vs. simplicity. The more complex coffee machines, with iPad and rich UX/etc., in our office break more frequently than the simpler ones and definitely wouldn't make it to Mars without several rounds of repairs.

In a recent Mars flight series (on Netflix if i remember correctly) the water filtration machine broke midflight and the crew started to take it apart and stopped doing it - recognizing impossibility of such a repair endeavor - after taking out 4000 something pieces, and that failure put them into a mortal danger. (Sidenote: I had though to suspend disbelief as it looked completely unreal to me that one of the crewmembers - a USSR/Russian cosmonaut - wouldn't immediately rig a simple distillation device to make drinking water - everybody in USSR was doing it everywhere to make moonshine, especially in the "dry" places like ocean ships, remote military bases, etc., and i can do it myself in a few minutes with as little as 4 pieces of generic kitchen wares :)

eastbound• 4 years ago

Unless there is a trick I don’t know, can only do distillation with gravity. Otherwise, liquid water floats with the gas.

RobertRoberts• 4 years ago

Spin the unit and create a small gravitational force to separate the two mediums.

trhway2• 4 years ago

Mars mission, they had rotational gravity section.

CoastalCoder2• 4 years ago

I accidentally just spent an hour reading this through, and I don't even sail. Highly recommended.

kimburgess• 4 years ago

Incredible long form piece. I've read parts of each of those stories before, but some stark comparisons of experience when presented side by side.

Sailing and extended time (more than a day trip) on small vessels is a life changing experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. If you can do it on someone else's boat, even better. I spent the last few years living aboard (mostly at dock), learning to sail, and training/crewing with a marine rescue org --- it completely reframed my views on simplicity, maintenance and planning, for all areas of life.

bradrn• 4 years ago

… it completely reframed my views on simplicity, maintenance and planning, for all areas of life.

If you’re willing to share, I’d be interested in knowing more about how you view these areas now.

ChrisMarshallNY• 4 years ago

Sometimes maintenance involves shooting the shark.

My fave quote.

CoastalCoder2• 4 years ago

Forgive the levity, but I think Ron Swanson would approve of the article.

nonrandomstring• 4 years ago

Sadly I've only time to skim through without doing it justice today, but several passages stuck out, reminding me of a summer spent living on a ketch (a vessel too big and complex for me to handle solo as a teenager, so most of it was spent anchored-up in a sheltered bay playing at being a 'fake' adventurer).

Things that constantly occupied my attention:

Basic 12 volt electrics, not setting things on fire, fuses, understanding wind generators (we didn't have affordable solar in the 80s). Planning and saving power. Looking after lead-acid batteries.

Ventilation and elementary fluid dynamics, not getting gassed or blown-up with diesel fumes, propane or CO.

Food storage and hygiene. Keeping stuff cool. Looking after water supplies. Cleaning surfaces and managing waste.

Maintaining the RIB/dinghy so I could go ashore for shopping.

Listening to the weather forecast and maintaining the radio as an essential piece of kit.

The year after I read Pirsig's disappointing second book "Lila", that tries to expand the themes he already established in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Anyway, those books and the boat experience changed my relation to technology at an early age.

indigoabstract• 4 years ago

This is a fascinating story, I couldn't help but read it all.

It's obvious all 3 suffered from isolation, boredom and depression besides all the other hardships and it's fascinating how each had a very different response to the conditions. Moitessier seems to have had the best chance, but ultimately lost the will to win. In hindsight, Crowhurst was obviously under too much pressure to win. Maybe if he had never allowed himself to be dishonest, he could have walked away, despite the frightening prospect of financial/personal ruin waiting for him back home.

That seems to have crossed the point of no return..

js22• 4 years ago

Great read. Let me also recommend Paul Lutus's online book about his sailing odyssey. Over 3 1/2 years, starting in 1087, he would go from novice sailor to sailing around the world in a 31-foot boat.

https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailing.html

js22• 4 years ago

Oops, s/1087/1987/. Maintenance of his boat figures into the story a bunch.

notemaker• 4 years ago

Amazing read and a beautiful website. I'm battling the urge to redesign my own site (yet again) with this as inspiration.

mattsouth• 4 years ago

Great read. Its one of those articles I wish I could "double star" on HN.

StayTrue• 4 years ago

Good read. After reading this article I picked up Moitessier's memoir of the race. Since simplification and minimalism were key to his philosophy, it stood out that he almost ended his race for lack of a radio (he crashed into another ship trying to get close enough to communicate). At a dozen points or more he expresses distress at not being able to send communications, relying on the goodwill of other ships encountered at sea.

The Maintenance Race

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