alright i own a prindle 18 and for some time ive wanted a way to have music while i sail. i guess the easy solution would be to take a boom box and strap it to the tramp. but i dont have one and im a poor kid. what i do have is a couple of car radios and speaker. i was wondering if any body, a lot more smarter than me had any idea's on how i could rig some way to make a car radio work while i sail.

any help will on this matter will be a great help thanx.

Put a sail on your car?? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mary makes fun, forgive her. Some of this was discussed a year ago HERE.

My thoughts are that a small flash drive MP3 player would be better thinking. Your car decks and speakers would have to be waterproofed. You will need a 12V source (Where are you going to put and secure that battery? And it would have to be a fairly new battery to supply you with the juice for a couple hours sailing. Depending on your supplies, I don't think that you can provide, install and waterproof everything needed to do this on the cheap.
Do you really want a lead acid battery weighing 40 pounds on something that capsizes/pitchpoles?

Thank you, Bobcat. I found that thread on a search, but I couldn't figure out how to do a link to it. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Times have changed <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I listened to Live Aid on the 13th July 1985 on a transistor radio in a plastic bag, while taking part in a distance race on a singlehanded Catapult cat.

The Bobcat is right on the money on this one. I have talked about it briefly before, but i will quickly descibe again.
We sailed the tybee and obx 500 races with a flash drive MP3 player, set of water proof west marine speakers, and a canablaized amplifier board inbetween the two. We realized after the initial test run that for heavy air (when you need heavy air music) the speakers needed some extra kick. The amp board came out of a pair of old school sony portable speakers. The set up had a battery life of 16 hours (thank god we never needed all 16 hrs of it), was really loud, and weighed almost nothing. (speakers were the worst offenders). Rick White even did a blerb about the set up and accused us of listening to ABBA?!?!?!?! ouch, that hurt.
Chris
www.acceleratedchaos.com

here what i got

take the radio and put it in a dry lock bag and put sealer where the wires leave the bag. put the radio in some sort of tramp bag.

take the speaker and put them in a large glad sandwich bag. make some sort of box and mount the speaker near the forward crossbar. i tested the speakers in the bags and i sounds fine

i also want to use my Ipod. i have an fm transmitter. i put both of them in a waterproof box. i can place the box anywhere that would be safe.

the only question is how do i power the radio. i figure i could put a batter in the hulls somewhere. the only question is how big of a battery do i need to power the radio for 10 hours.

thanx for any help

Whats wrong with headphones?
Buy a couple of cheap sets with a double jack and waterproof your mp3 player in a few balloons with zip ties and silcon and your done. make sure the wire has a socket for the headphones to pull in case of emergencies. Maybe a small bungee also to pull the excess wire in.

Alternativly you could also buy self amplified speakers for your mp3 with D size batteries that could be waterproofed and mounted.