Steve S

Tigerfish: Steve + Alun

The turbo would almost certainly be made in China, very little manufacturing in Hong Kong now, many companies have sales offices there. Some Chinese stuff is of good quality, when it is it's not uber cheap, there is also a lot of c*** as well, can be hard to know what quality you are buying unless you know someone else who has bought before and they are happy. The wait might be a long time, I'm not prepared to be in solitary in an 'approved' hotel for 2 weeks. Anyway, I have a company just across the border in GuangZhou I do go for work, it's just I have good friends there so it's a bit of a home from home . My moto is whatever you are doing try and make the best of it!

Apologies Brian, just checked the weight of my various grandchild and to my surprise they all are over 15kg. My how they have grown! Sorry can't use it now.

Hi Brian I'd like it please

Great, thanks Mick, I'll do that

I would like the life preserver if it still available Mick.

Oh I see you say: AD31P and early model? They don't look like they would fit a D4 then.

If they fit a d4 I will take them, but they look like they are for another model.

Good effort Martin, offshore bass on a small tide are always seem to be a challenge and yes wrecking on very neap tides seem to be more often poor than not given the cost of getting out there I avoid it unless putting the hook down for ling and conger. I don't do that a lot, not that I've had a ling for years! It's ok having a pop for them on an Alderney trip as we are out there anyway. There has been a bit of a resurgence of macks, I was out on Sunday and had some everywhere i fished, some pushing a pound and others joeys, I heard other boats had no trouble finding them either. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for their comings and goings. I fished a bank about 5 miles south of the light, not where I intended as that spot had a couple of charters on it already, the joy of radar I was able to see they were on it before i could see them so switched mark without wasting fuel. A decent double figure blonde ray and a couple of tope was the result then I moved to some rougher ground at the change of the tide, that produced a conger probably just shy of 20 and a near double thornback, later got a fair bass to a livebait. Just for a change the weather got better and better as the day moved on. So good to be out after a week working indoors.

I don't think there is a problem with the way you describe it being wired with the combine switch normally off being wired to bypass the house switch when on. It could have been wired so the house switch had to be on as well, however, there is an advantage the way it's wired, if the house switch fails you can still get power to the domestics.

Nice one Charlie, I'm a trigger virgin as well. Were you fishing for them Charlie?

If the boat hasn't got it already I do recommend volt meters on both batteries that can be seen all the time from the helm, my boat has them and it will quickly show up if one isn't being charged or in a poor state when the engines are off. I've fitted a 190w solar panel which with a MPPT solar charger does a great job of keeping the batteries topped up while at anchor/drifting. If you have room on the roof I'd recommend fitting one. I fitted a Bosch panel (same as on house roofs) about 6 years ago, chosen because it had been tested in salty air. No sign of any corrosion and vastly lower cost than the specialist boat ones.

Seems fairly normal to me, obviously you should run with the combine switch off, it's just for emergencies.

Well you got to be happy with that.

Multiplait doesn't work on all windlasses unfortunately, the manufactures spec normally state if it is compatible and what size. I had an old Lewmar on Tigerfish that the multiplait kept jamming in, replaced it with a Lewmar CPX 1000w which in the spec stated it was compatible and I've never had a jam since using the same rope and that includes regularly dragging the boat towards the anchor in fast tides.

I use multiplat with a windlass, works great no tangles, one key difference, as the rope comes out through the windlass I lay out it out by hand. One finger on the retrieve button the other hand in the locker putting the rope in strips. There is 200m of rope plus 15m chain in the locker. I don't think using 3 core is going to solve that problem of tangles it doesn't lay very well due to it's memory.

Good choice Andy, now if you could spend say a week on Jersey taking the boat out plenty getting to know it then it would be a lot less risk. VAT! If the boat was bought new in Jersey they may not have paid VAT, that would be due when bringing it back to the UK. Could be an unwelcome extra cost, it's always a question when selling boats in the UK.

Hope that's the only thing he drops on your cap!

Thick lipped mullet 4-5 - caught off the mooring

Evening session off the Needles

Looks just the job, well done Sam.

My first boat was a new 6m Bayliner 603, basically a speed boat with a 120hp diesel engine. I would not buy another. It needed too much TLC for salt water, the anodising was too thin, the fittings just a little bit too cheap. They are not nicknamed a binliner for nothing. If you just love doing boat care then it's the boat for you! Just my view, somebody else may have had a different experience.

I would go with Greenham Regis. They have repaired kit for me in the past, I have never felt taken advantage of. They sell Lowrance.

Good point to raise Adam, particularly in the height of Summer. I keep the fish alive as long as possible in the live well, bass, mackerel (if not too many), bream, flatties and cod generally stay alive until docked, pollock hooked in deep water don't. For short trips they get knocked on the head once the mooring, gutted and taken home (15 mins travel time) in a strong bag then straight into a Yeti (same quality as Icey-tek) with a lot of frozen plastic bottles, normally they are dealt with next day or the day after that or into a fridge, it's depends on the amount. If it's a hot evening I'll take something frozen from the on board fridge freezer box to keep the temperature in the bag down while driving. Ideally they would be kept cool as soon as dead but with a just short trip home it saves a lot of lugging the large Yeti containing frozen bottles to the boat and back, sometimes, like on a hot day I leave the Yeti in the car so the travel time becomes the walk along the pontoon. For overnight trips the Yeti filled with frozen bottles goes on board. For a wrecking trip where a lot of pollock is expected it goes on board but they go into the live well first if they show signs of life.

I'm heading to Brixham with Diane Saturday, it's going to a later start probably 10:30. We may catch a drift over the Shambles or try a wreck or two on route. I'll keep an eye out for you all on ch 6. After Brixham it will probably be Falmouth and then hopefully the Scilly Isles returning next weekend.