Travels, how-tos, and open source boating
Follow along with the journey aboard the Hunter 290 — the adventures, the builds, and the videos that show you exactly how we do it.
From The Skipper
Welcome aboard! Firing up Boaty again and getting ready for another season of adventures on the water. We're working on our Hunter 290 and getting her ready for longer trips — subscribe on YouTube to follow along.
Solar update
The panels are aboard! We picked up two 200-watt Renogy panels (each roughly 3' x 6') and we're encasing them in custom canvas sleeves that clip right onto the biminis — sun power when we want it, tucked away when we don't.
Skipper's wisdom
If you find reliable boat maintenance people, buy them dinner — they're like unicorns.
What's on deck
AIS connection with the Raspberry Pi, the solar installation, and more bay trials.
Our Boat
Meet Boaty — our Hunter 290. She's a roomy, easy-sailing cruiser that we're refitting bit by bit and taking out for longer adventures. Every upgrade, repair, and shakedown run becomes a video so you can follow the whole journey.
Boating on a budget. We don't have a big 42-foot blue water boat — we've got a "picnic cruiser," and we're making her off-the-grid capable without breaking the bank. Every build is picked to punch above its price, so you can do the same with the boat you've already got.
- Hunter 290
- Sloop rig
- AGM house bank
- Solar in progress
- Open source nav
Open Source Boating
Open source boating is the whole idea: when you're out on the water you need to be able to service your own gear — so why should your tech be any different? We show you how we build ours, and you build your own.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the how-tos behind every system aboard:
- Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi — a high-performance, low-power desktop
- Bareboat Necessities — integration with radio, GPS, navigation and more
- Home Assistant — smart boat Internet of Things integrations
- OpenPlotter — a marine-ready Raspberry Pi platform for navigation and sensors
- Signal K — an open data standard that gets all your boat's systems talking
- OpenCPN — free, open source chartplotting and route planning
- pypilot — an open source autopilot that steers the boat for you
Want the story behind the builds? Analog Scott writes it all up on Substack — including Looptah and Talking to the Machine.
Come along for the ride
New travel logs and boating how-tos every time we head out. Subscribe on YouTube for the adventures and on Substack for the deep-dive write-ups — and learn to build your own open source boat.