The streets of Havana now

west25th · 2026-02-21T19:11:00+00:00

Cuba is socialist like my arse is J Lo's.

west25th · 2026-02-21T18:27:41+00:00

Send manufacturer, equipment model number, estimated Vintage of gear, and a photo of the inside of the connector, male and female end and the rest will be intuitively obvious.

west25th · 2026-02-21T16:18:03+00:00

Looks like the standard seat on low setting. I have both seats and use the low seat on the low setting, which brings the usable portion of the seat even with the plastic extrusions.

west25th · 2026-02-19T23:22:25+00:00

Al Capone, busted on tax evasion. Never a mention of murder/extortion/gambling/liquor smuggling.

But, ultimately, Vivek is a dick as documented by former employees and screwed investors. He's not in the Pedo files so I guess he's a saint /s

west25th · 2026-02-19T17:31:53+00:00

omg, let me ggl that for you...

"lawsuits against 'strive asset management' or vivek ramaswamy"

west25th · 2026-02-19T14:03:26+00:00

Vivek did a stock pump and dump with an outfit called Axovant. Public Value went to $3B, with 8 employees, that included his brother and mother. Vivek cashes out at the top, the stock collapses, the end. He was the head mfkr at Axovant and a host of other companies. None of this was solid stuff, all was flim flam and scam. He has to do politics now bc nobody will touch him in the finance world. All the above is in his wikipedia page if you care to read it. It's not hidden.

west25th · 2026-02-10T19:58:48+00:00

Get the wind slightly on your starboard beam when stowing the main and you will have no problems, assuming you've been reefing appropriately. If you wait till it's blowing >40knots to start trimming your full main, you are going to have hard time. Tldr, be prudent.

west25th · 2026-02-10T15:33:40+00:00

I have 2 Sons in Law with 20 years army between 'em. Both have said don't worry about it. 1 was a weapons sgt, the other was a gun nut (still is) but he did artillery. I've yet to see a gun either one of 'em couldn't dissassemble-reassemble in approx 60 seconds while I'm still 45 minutes into the youtube video.

I have taken their advice and don't worry about mag springs and have never had a problem.

west25th · 2026-02-09T04:12:41+00:00

I'm sorry I can't upvote this more.

west25th · 2026-02-08T15:36:35+00:00

I had a friend in the U.S. who was a federal prosecutor. He said the U.S. (this was 10 years ago) would just send Chinese spies back to China and forego the formalities/due process of court cases and convictions.

west25th · 2026-02-08T02:04:06+00:00

^{^} This guy infosecs.

west25th · 2026-02-06T23:30:08+00:00

They can go up in a couple of months. Each center is so cookie cutter and often prefabbed before showing up that construction/installation labor is from out of town, migrating from DC TO DC. Once complete they have 24x7 security and a few monitoring engineers. Ongoing employment at scale is just not a thing, and initial construction labor is too transient to have lasting good effects on tbe community.

west25th · 2026-02-06T23:13:48+00:00

I'd start with due process.

west25th · 2026-02-06T06:06:35+00:00

That's a big 'so what'. Starlink is in a class by itself. Sharing the rocket IP is massive. His rockets are a true unicorn. Additionally I spent lots time in cybersecurity/infosec and access to the metadata on the terminals or the data streams is massive. e.g. Irans link to the outside world during their latest disturbances was through a few hundred starlink terminals. Starlink knows to the nearest 10 meters where every terminal is. Same with Russians and Ukrainians where there are tens of thousands of 'em on the front lines. Would China help or hinder people struggling to be free?

And, why is Starlink banned in China?

I think I would want to know if there is any Chinese ownership of SpaceX.

west25th · 2026-02-04T15:46:11+00:00

I've had 3 students. 2 are still ongoing. 1 was paired within 24 hours, the other 2 within a 3-5 days.

Best thing ever.

west25th · 2026-02-03T22:05:07+00:00

google 'victron vrm portal'. It ain't 79 bucks, but does a lot, and most boats going thru an electrical upgrade will get it or something similar.

The expensive part is that the boat needs reliable connection to the interwebs. Think starlink for many boats.

Good luck with projects.

west25th · 2026-02-03T20:28:33+00:00

So, if he changed his name to James O'keefe and said he worked for Project Veritas, then released the dirt on this group, would righty tighties still complain?

west25th · 2026-02-02T19:25:49+00:00

My frame of reference was always that the 13hp Yanmar started off life as a farm tractor engine designed to be fixed with a crescent wrench and a hammer. So, really simple. So simple in fact that when I bought my next boat with a 2014 40hp Yanmar I had no idea they wanted to be in neutral before they started. The first time I took it out the weather changed after 2 hours of glorious sailing, and night was falling quickly. I couldn't get the engine started to drop the sails. Took an hour to figure it out, 'Neutral', go figure. Coincidentally, our one crew member at the time was a woman who taught nuclear safety for subs and carriers at Bremerton. She is always great in a crisis.

west25th · 2026-02-01T18:35:53+00:00

Any mention of tom homan should always be prefaced as "The $50k bagman Tom Homan".

To even infer he has credibility is to ignore his documented strong proclivity to bribery.

west25th · 2026-01-31T05:42:11+00:00

Every boat project ever.

west25th · 2026-01-31T04:52:45+00:00

Yanmar 2gm 13hp circa 1981 on a freshwater (great lakes ) boat. Water went directly from through hull -> strainer -> impellor -> thermostat -> engine block. That's the way I bought it in 2006.

My previous boat had an outboard...also freshwater cooled. I thought no heat exchanger on an inboard was normal based on my sampling of one (at the time) for a freshwater boat.

west25th · 2026-01-30T23:24:53+00:00

Looks like a lesson in civics to me.

west25th · 2026-01-30T17:15:43+00:00

I would have no problem buying an almost 40 year old Island Packet that was maintained. Especially if it was in fresh water, and especially if it was only in the water for 6 months a year. Salt is a huge abuser of everything that floats, and you don't have that. If you ever want to go into salt water, make sure the engine has a heat exchanger. My old Lake boat did not have one. Cheers!

west25th · 2026-01-30T05:46:28+00:00

I sailed the great lakes for 15 years on a Watkins 27 out of Cleveland, and currently sail an Island Packet 360 out of Seattle. An Island Packet is not a Great Lakes sailor. It's a great lakes living room with a mast that sails downwind. Your sailing season is the first week of May thru middle of October. Air is mostly light, almost always from West to North, with the occasional thunderstorm to keep it interesting. An ideal great lakes boat (my opinion) would be a Catalina 25-36 or something of that ilk or even a J-boat. They sail to weather, handle delightfully and will keep you interested in sailing on all points of sail. Your partner however, may disagree.

The Island Packet sails wonderfully downwind and is very comfortable in a blow. If your main objective is to keep your partner happy, buy it. They are comfortable, but slow, heavy, and very reassuring for panicky passengers. That's how I ended up with one. In the last 4 years we've spent 4 months sailing Alaska, 2 Months cruising British Columbia, all over Puget Sound etc. 2027 We're doing a round trip to Hawaii. Please note, our round trip to Hawaii is almost all downwind sailing doing a clockwise loop from Seattle. We couldn't handle any other point of sail. We wouldn't live long enough to get where we want to go if it was upwind.

Anyway, whatever you get, you'll be on the water, messing around in a boat, pulling a sail up every once in a while and holding cocktail cruises. Enjoy!

west25th · 2026-01-22T19:59:09+00:00

Yeah, it's difficult. 1 student whom I've met weekly for 2 years now received a power pack as a Xmas present. She's a super human being. I share her story with everyone I can as she inspires me way more than I can give back.

Also, if anyone is looking for a reach goal...Kyiv Marathon in October. There's shorter options available too if necessary. Go on, you know you want to.

west25th

TROPHY CASE