Steve S

Tigerfish is not visiting Cherbourg now either, the Sunday forecast doesn't look much fun [emoji852]. Planning on going just on Saturday now.

Tigerfish will be having a go, hopefully partly in French waters. On board: Steve, Alun, Terry

I bought my boat secondhand, it already had antifoul on the legs, can't tell if there was a layer of primer between the antifoul and paint the drives come with. The bottom half on one of the legs however was replaced about 2 years ago (skeg damage due to rope entanglement). The guys at Ropewalk lightly abraded the new part and applied Trilux, there had been no problem with adhesion of the antifoul since. That's background, to answer your question, the antifoul is not being applied to bare metal where primer must be applied it is being applied to a tough paint finish. So what we are dealing with is a question of bonding. In my view if a good bond can be achieved without a primer no need to use one. The guys at Ropewalk didn't think it was needed to get a good bond, I went along with that, so far that's proven out to be fine. So in my view I don't think there is any harm in applying a primer but I'm not convinced it is actually needed to get a good bond. Lightly abrading is unfortunately needed to get a good bond, I say unfortunately because I don't like damaging in any way the quality paint job the legs come with even if just the top of it's top coat.

As with mostly everything with boats used for essentially leisure, the more you use it the less problems there are. This is certainly true for fouling, I aim if at all possible to take Tigerfish out at least once a week even if I just go for a blast round the Solent in rough weather, great fun if you have that kind of mindset... For stopping fuel consumption rising through the year aside from regular use I find the most effective thing is cleaning the props, I do this with a brush and abrasive pad while kneeling from the swim platform, generally twice a year, fairly quick if they are not too bad to start with. For the rest of the leg I've found a single good thick coat of Trilux is just enough for the way I use the boat but then again I'm not berthed in Cobbs so can't compare. Interesting that you use Interspeed Charlie, I didn't realise that is ok for aluminium.

Hope yours is not quite like this one I saw last week [emoji6]

Jerry clean them off, very lightly abrade the paint then apply a coat of trilux. I use aerosol for all the tricky bits and brush for the flat bits. Saves money on the aerosols, it's just ok for a season, just.

If you are using the NMEA 0183 then that should be ok, the impedance presented by the powered off plotter should not be so high as to stop the signals getting through. If it does cause a problem you will need a switch to select the source. If both plotters are turned on at once you likely will get corrupt coordinate messages sent to the VHF, it should not break anything, just the radio won't get good coordinates. Good luck

Mick, what are these 'GPS' units? Do you mean the MFD (multi function display) aka plotter. To get coordinate data into your VHF radio is fairly straightforward, but it depends on the make and model of the radio. Traditionally a NMEA 0183 connection is used, doing that way you need to decide the source of the coordinate data (if you have more than one) and wire it to the DSC radio. Providing 2 sources of coordinates to the radio is not useful, the radio can only handle one set of position information. If you have 2 sources and want to choose which source to supply to the radio then connect both NMEA sources to a switch on the dash and select manually that way. As a general rule only one source of GPS position information should be used at a time on a boat and that source supplied to everything.

Lymington River at sunset

Bass on!

Hi Neil, sounds quite few issues there, did you get a survey done before you handed over the money? As there is no waste tank you should not use it unless well out at sea, that can be a pain. Could be worth investigating getting one fitted. The list doesn't sound good at all, unless maybe you have just decanted your lead weights on one side....

Tigerfish is going Friday morning unless the weather changes a lot for the worse. It will either be a 3 or 4 day trip depending on how Monday's weather shapes up. We plan to fish a few wrecks on the way over. How about everybody else?

So it's looking like a go on Friday currently 😀 Any current news on the fishing out there? I know there have been a decent number of pollock and a few cod off the wrecks (well some of them)

Sawfish 15 to 16ft long, estimated weight 700lb. Caught in the Florida Keys

A pain indeed Charlie, just waiting and watching at present. If it's a no good I'll try and do something else depending on wind direction. I've got the reserve dates booked as holiday so I could do those if needed.

Neil, nice looking boat that, well done. That will extend your range a bit, Alderney should be no problem!

I have one of these, I think they are great. The Max Cart that is!

Tigerfish - Alun & Steve - Monday

Dire straights call for desperate measures!

I'm using MGDuff and Tecnoseal Aluminium Anodes, boat goes back in the water on Monday 25th March. The expectation is they will last a lot longer, we shall see. Happily I can check 6 of the 8 anodes and if necessary change them without taking the boat out. There certainly is a lot of crap anodes out there, it's taking a risk using them, not something I'm prepared to do. One thing I always do is check the bonding of the anodes to the boat by using a resistance meter (should be near 0 ohm) , doesn't take long and at least you know they are properly attached. If they are electrically isolated they can't do their job. I buy the anodes from Anode Outlet, been doing that for a few years now, their website has got better and better.

Well I will probably find out! It should not be an issue as they won't be bonded together unlike the anodes on one boat Some clear info here on Zinc and Aluminium pros and cons. https://www.anodeoutlet.co.uk/aluminium-versus-zinc-anodes/

Thanks for your comments, seems I may be the first one to use Aluminium anodes. I've ordered Aluminium anodes now to replace all the zinc ones (all knackered) on the boat. so time will tell. I'll let you know the result at next years haul out, if not before...

Yes aluminium anodes are a different from the aluminium alloy used in the legs.

I'm planning to switch Tigerfish to using aluminium anodes this year from zinc ones. I've read they are a suitable for salt water with occasional fresh water use and they are now markedly lower cost than zinc ones. Has anyone any experience of using aluminium anodes?

Boats that have shown interest: Tigerfish - Confirmed - Crew - Steve, Terry, Alun. Reel Magic - Confirmed - Crew - Dave ? Alfresco - Confirmed - Crew - Charlie, Ian? Kingfisher - Confirmed - Crew - Chris, Mal Madness - Confirmed - Crew - Martin, Dean Sweet Chariot - Possible Joint Venture - Possible