Steve S

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.

Yes that's the issue I had Jerry. The thing about chain attached at the bottom for me was it did work mostly, but when it didn't the first thing I knew about it was a snapped trip and the anchor swinging around bashing the boat. So as I wanted something to work 100% (99% would be ok) I took to lifting the last bit by hand, that was fine except when it was rough it wasn't ideal.

Chain was what I was using Martin, it didn't work for me. Rope might work and easy to try. I'm sticking with the wire now, it works, no need for me to change unless I encounter some problem with it.

It has a groove Jerry.

I've had a cable made up, 8mm wire, 60cm by Ocean Rigging at Lymington Yacht Haven, I called them up with the request and an hour later the cable was ready to be picked up, £32. Breaking strain is approx 3.5 tonnes, more than enough. I'm giving them a shout as I was well impressed. It was fitted last night, after 8 or so lifts with the anchor hanging in various positions underneath it appears to work everytime, the anchor when lifted slowly (I didn't try fast) rotates to the required position as the cable bends round the roller; no hint on any catching of the anchor by the roller causing the trip to break. An extended test in real at sea conditions is required to know it's a 100% fix. anchor lift.mp4 Notes: I may remove the shackle between the cable and swivel later, the cable will fit into the swivel. The shackles still needs to be moused. The orange rope is a floater it is to allow the anchor to the retrieved shank first after tripping. The heavy duty copper crimp edge was filed smooth to reduce chafe on the rope trip. The cable tie round the cable near the rope trip end does nothing, I will remove it. I'd say the cable it just long enough, it could have been made a bit longer. The cable is attached to the bottom of the anchor shank, this is important for the anchor to rotate into position as the cable bend round the roller. The random seeming shackel on the right will have a short rope attached to the anchor to stop the anchor falling into the water while underway (eeek!) in the event of a windlass fail.

Thanks Jim.

Charlie, can't view what you posted, .heic files, a new one to me.

A Botnia Targa 27 or 31 would do you nicely, I have the 31 model with twin Volvo D4-260s, it has a great live well build in. Wake boarding / water skiing is no problem, did some last week. Ticks all the boxes you listed plus a couple can sleep on it pretty well, Diane and I go touring on ours. A big plus they handle rough seas very well and at speed. They hold their price, mine is a 2006 model, 1300 or so hours, I can still get the price it was bought for new which is approx the same price I paid for it, build quality is very good. You have to maintain them well to hold their price like any boat, but then doing offshore trips like to Alderney they should be in kept in good order anyway for safety reasons. Botina make them to your spec within reason, some are customised for fishing from new, mine was, some for touring so a model like that would not have a live well so would need some adaption. The downside is finding one for sale, owners tend to hold onto them and they are expensive. The exclusive dealer for the UK is Wessex Marine in Salterns, Poole. They are a very helpful bunch.

Jerry, the S/S cable alongside the anchor, does it work ok?

Turbot of 6lb and 7lb caught on the Shambles bank.

Those images you googled are very impressive, note however the sonar operating frequency 1.1 to 1.2mHz. I don't know of any normally available sonar equipment that work at that frequency, please correct me if you do. The higher the frequency the higher the image resolution and generally the less depth they will work to. Also tarpon are big fish, they are going to show up well even on a 50khz outfit as a large inverted U.

Well that's a good use of side scan, well done

I don't get it, Lymington Yacht Haven let you pay on account, it does cost a couple of pence more per litre that way.

The Mack's are still thin on the ground, I tried repeatedly on Monday in various places and didn't get one. The May rot is somewhat patchy, nowhere I saw was clear, some places quite dense. Lures are still working but not as well as in clearer water. It will be interesting to get a report from someone who has been fishing somewhat offshore. There are a few bass around now. A trawler has been working off Southborne for plaice. A charter tried for them on Monday had 10, all small.

Well done Jerry, sounds great. With so few females around (I didn't have any on the Ledge) and full of spawn it suggests they haven't started or at least not completed spawning (some spawn more than once) so I see no problem taking males.

What is it with your steering rams Charlie, you so often seem to get trouble with them, maybe another problem in the system causing it, like particles from the pump and/or dirty ATF. I replaced mine more than 6 years ago and never touched them since. See you on the water guys, I'll be trying for bream initially, don't want to put too much of a damper on things but Alun has just told me the water is pretty dirty with the May rot.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys. Hopefully relaunching the Friday.

My mate Boz bought one of these for not very much, it had a De Villiers 250cc engine. He bought it in Winton, drove it down the hill at the end of Moordown followed the road round to the left, proceeded to roll it right across the road onto the grass! got out, left it and walked home. He drove it for all of a mile then wrote it off on the first bend he came to. A couple of days later at night he retrieved the engine, god knows why. It had an electric start which didn't work but there was kick start you could use if you opened the bonnet clambered on top and shove your leg in the innards. That was how he got it started to drive home, quite how someone disabled was supposed to do that wasn't clear... A death trap of the first order.

I had a Ford Cortina mk IV as a company car which featured an automatic choke, wow. It was useless, a starting preventer, if the engine was half warm like after visiting a customer it was 50/50 if it was going to start. I had a set of tools and sprays all ready to get it going again! Gave such a good impression [emoji2957]. It wasn't that great from cold either! Repeated visits to the garage got nowhere, and being a company car I was stuck with it. Finally it did it's 60,000 and got shot of it. And then there was...

I've never had diesel bug on Tigerfish and the filters have always been pretty clean when changing them during the annual service, however, the boat went onto the hard in early Feb and due to the lock down it's still there, that over 3 months and counting and it pretty warm at present. So I'm starting to get concerned about the possibility of diesel bug brewing away, any recommendations?

Likewise Charlie, well they are lucky they are out working, if not enough money is being made then furlough everyone. I have furloughed all my staff, only the 2 directors are working on a very minimal salary, we have applied for a bank loan. I'm not asking for sympathy, that's the way it is I'm just getting on with it as best I can. I'm pretty sure that many restaurants will not survive this and if that means there are less commercials around I for one will be glad, it's overfishing that pushed up the price of fish in the first place and if this reduces the pressure on the fish, good.