Seeker Knowledge
Where is Seeker?
See: https://share.garmin.com/SVSeeker
Talk to Doug
Ask a question, make a claim, challenge me, criticize something, or just leave a comment. Reviewed responses are mine; otherwise I'll show you the best places in the Seeker archive to look.
svseeker@ymail.com · Cell/WhatsApp 918-630-4050 · SV Seeker Facebook Group
Conversations worth reading
Question · Talk to Doug
How fast can Seeker sail?
Her hull speed is determined by her length at the waterline and that number is about 11 knots. We have touched 13.5 knots, but that was a lot of wind pushing us south around Cape Hatteras. In down wind conditions with...Her hull speed is determined by her length at the waterline and that number is about 11 knots. We have touched 13.5 knots, but that was a lot of wind pushing us south around Cape Hatteras. In down wind conditions with 15 knots off the stern quarter, or coming from behind but not directly behind we will do 6.5 to 7 knots with all three sails up. With the wind on the beam, directly from the side we do about 4.5 knots in 15 knots of wind. And we will heal to about 12 degrees. Sea stats or how big the waves are will change these number as well as how much cargo and fuel we are carrying. And tell you the truth, I'm guess a bit at the numbers. I never built Seeker as a go fast boat. She is big, heavy, strong and slow. I always wonder why people who want to get somewhere fast choose sailing when we have airliners.
Question · Talk to Doug
Who is Carol
Carol is my fiancé, best friend, first mate, and one of the people I love to hear laugh.
Question · Talk to Doug
Would you do it again?
Absolutely! Working on Seeker and meeting the people who joined me has been my salvation from a mundane existence. The fact that Seeker is on the water is just icing on the cake. I do love icing.
Criticism · Sailing Anarchy · 2026-06-09T08:47:42-0700 · Controversial
He does have a watermaker which recently had a braided hose or two leaking and spraying pressurized saltwater. For a few years prior to paying ~customers~ crew being present he did not use the watermaker. He forbade bottled water on board, yet bottles were see...He does have a watermaker which recently had a braided hose or two leaking and spraying pressurized saltwater. For a few years prior to paying ~customers~ crew being present he did not use the watermaker. He forbade bottled water on board, yet bottles were seen. He used rain collection feeding his water storage tanks. He had trouble with an osprey using his light pole as a perch right after he entered the gulf and ~parked~ anchored quite a while. He resorted to bleaching the water and purchased a slingshot and eventually a pellet gun to deal with it. Sadly, I am not making this shit up. .png") Last edited: Jun 9, 2026
Ill unpack this.
Watermaker hose blew out -- repaired in 20 with tools and supplies onboard. Go Seeker!
paying customers -- nobody ever pays. Go Seeker!
forbade bottled water on board, yet bottles were seen --...Ill unpack this.
Watermaker hose blew out -- repaired in 20 with tools and supplies onboard. Go Seeker!
paying customers -- nobody ever pays. Go Seeker!
forbade bottled water on board, yet bottles were seen -- No water bottles on deck because they roll overboard, bring a thermal mug. Go Seeker!
osprey using his light pole -- Its a mast and yes they can gut and eat his fish somewhere else.
resorted to bleaching the water -- A common practice. You will find that your city water supply does the same. Go Seeker!
slingshot and eventually a pellet gun to deal with it. -- It is Osprey, and he laughed at the ice cubes in the sling shot, never used the gun, lasers to the trick.
Sadly, I am not making this shit up -- We will let the reader decide.
Criticism · Sailing Anarchy · 2026-07-30T02:06:36-0700 · Controversial
I just passed the 1/3 mark on this thread, and man what a ride. I feel like I'm too deep into a bender where I just wanna go home and sleep it off but FOMO keeps me consuming... it's like some fucked up intellectual take on La Grande Bouffe. I wanted to read i...I just passed the 1/3 mark on this thread, and man what a ride. I feel like I'm too deep into a bender where I just wanna go home and sleep it off but FOMO keeps me consuming... it's like some fucked up intellectual take on La Grande Bouffe. I wanted to read it all before posting too much but I'm actually getting queasy, so I'll take a breather to comment on how fundamentally fucked the drive system is on this ship of follies.
First off, casting your own propeller blades is just plain stupid. Blade profile is the one place where driveline design strays from the realm of straightforward engineering and into the dark arts. This is possibly the very worst place to rely on intuition, where all manner of diligent engineering practices and CFD won't get you anywhere near the very expensive experience gained by the industry.
Now about that bus transmission... using an automatic transmission? For the stated purpose of increased fuel economy?? In front of a CPP??? I'm at a loss for words...
The idea to introduce a transfer case into this sorry mess is where it gets really wild. On some level he must understand that what he needs isn't more ratio... right? And certainly not a compounding five two to one.
Phew. It is actually impressive to fuck something up so comprehensively. Most comparable attempts never make it off the blocks.
Fundamentally fucked? That's a pretty low bar for a prediction. Everything on Seeker has been fundamentally fucked according to Sailing Anarchy at one time or another.
Casting our own propeller blades wasn't stupid. I...Fundamentally fucked? That's a pretty low bar for a prediction. Everything on Seeker has been fundamentally fucked according to Sailing Anarchy at one time or another.
Casting our own propeller blades wasn't stupid. It was fun. We learned how to cast some big-ass bronze blades, and they have pushed a 70-ton boat a hell of a lot farther than the people predicting their failure ever expected.
Is the drivetrain perfect? Hell no. The reduction is too low. That's why we're changing it. The Hundested variable pitch propeller works. The Cummins works. The AT545 works. The prop works. And now we're adding the NP205 transfer case to get the reduction closer to where we want it.
That's the difference between building something and being a loser sitting behind a keyboard explaining why somebody else shouldn't have built it. You build it. Try it. Break shit. Learn something. Fix it. Then go try it again.
If the objective had been to design the perfect drivetrain on paper before leaving the dock, Seeker would probably still be sitting in the front yard. Instead, we're out here using the damn thing.
Seeker Fundamentally Rocks!
Question · Talk to Doug
What is Seekers mission statement?
Mission Statement
SV Seeker will look for the truth in life, whether in science, society, or ourselves.
We will value caring for ourselves, taking time to understand our planet and the people on it, working toge...Mission Statement
SV Seeker will look for the truth in life, whether in science, society, or ourselves.
We will value caring for ourselves, taking time to understand our planet and the people on it, working together and supporting each other.
The objective is to complete the work at hand while living full lives and inspiring others to do the same.
Our crew will be made up of individuates that embrace this code. Crew are responsible for being informed, making their concerns know, and working to ensure the success of a chosen course.
We will have fun. If the people around you are laughing, you’re doing it right.
We embrace flexibility, change, learning, love, compassion, and acceptance. It will be our pleasure to serve and improve the lives of others whenever we can.
Fear is our only enemy. The thought of doing something is always more frightening than actually doing it. LIVE.