Steve S

Nice one.

Sorry Steve, call me thick or something but what are you on about?

Have a good one Jim, you choose a nice day for it. I'm in China, it nice here too. Steve

The BCC recently reported that satellites of the GLONASS network experienced a half-day outage when bad data was uploaded to spacecraft. This gave position accuracy figures of 50km out! "What we saw last week was many people being affected by the GLONASS failure even with receivers that were also picking up GPS." http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26957569 Seems like this was maybe a human error thing, but given the current situation with Russia other thoughts comes to mind, like a tester for degree dependence on Russian systems. Anyway for fisherman, it just shows blindly assuming Global Navigation Satellite Systems must be always correct could lead to tragedy. On a more technical point my system only supports GPS, on the systems that support GLONASS (and others) as well, is the position a perm of all of them, or can you choose which system to follow, or can you also get warnings if there are significant positional differences between them? The latter could be very handy.

I've found Greenham Regis very good, they fitted all my Lowrance kit, Andy Haynes at the Lymington/Southampton office is very good to deal with and a fisherman to-boot. . They may try and match your price for the items, then you would have a local supplier in case of problems and a one stop solution, something not to be undervalued.

Lowrance and Simrad are all part of the same group, they should work together, why not ask Simrad the question. I used a Lowrance broadband radar for nearly 3 years when they first became available, they are a good bit of kit, the normal blobs have some shape to them. They can only have improved since then. Are you planning to fit it yourself? Glad you made it back, I can imagine the stress levels.

Good stuff . Even measuring got to be hard to do in a Kayak. Anyway I think its about the buzz of getting a big one from a wee boat.

Well if it were it would be very short or very long trips only....

That's real magic Dave!, buy one, sell one, perfect timing, well done mate.

I tried the water for fish this evening. Decided on a rocky patch. Everything was good except the sea is still the colour of weak milkly tea. Result 1 LSD, 1 crab, 1 lost fish. If you're not going out at the moment you are not missing much, inshore at least. Makes me feel better about heading off to China tomorrow. Steve

Good advice above. I've kept a boats on a swinging mooring for at least 6 years (3 different boats). I got the mooring provider to make a suitable strop for me, the cost wasn't too high, they used some pretty heavy duty rope. Assuming a well made boat and the bow roller is fitted by the manufacture, it should be a suitable size and strength for the weight of the boat. The loop that goes over the cleat on the strop must be secure in some way to stop it coming off. A big shackle is ok or another rope tying it on, I've used both methods, I've use the rope tying it on now. you would think it would never come off but combinations of tide and wind do odd things.... The big issue is chafe, a thick plastic cover is a must IMO, the chafing affect in a storm can be extreme, A Harbour master told me chafe is the biggest reason for boats coming off the mooring in storms, taking as little as 20 mins. Chafing against the anchor is a common problem even when under calm condition it appears to be nowhere close the wrong combination of tide and wind can cause the strop to run against it. If your anchor is kept stowed then that is one less problem to worry about. In the bad storms this winter I used 8mm chain as a backup, it wasn't needed happily. Check the strop for damage regularly. Steve

Righto Charlie, I get what you mean, thanks, I'll have a good think about that.

I took the newly fitted Lewmar CPX3 windlass for some trial anchoring yesterday on the shakedown run after the winter overhaul. It performed brilliantly, not a word I use lightly. After an initial trial in 18ft of water in the Solent I picked a spot near the Fairway buoy in the big springs, I put down 100yds hand fed, the tide was really ripping through . On retrieve it wound the 14mm multiplaid at a good rate with no assistance from the engines and no apparent strain on the windlass. I could just keep up laying it neatly in the anchor locker (so much quicker than the Ocean 1). The rope didn't catch in the gypsy once (this was a problem with the old Ocean 1) and the rope-chain join fed through no problem. The whole job was complete in a timed 4 minutes, the windlass motor was just a little warm. I'm just going to make one modification, open the gap out between the windlass gypsy and guide into the anchor locker so that there is a little more room to feed the chain/rope out by hand. I'll shave a bit off the guide, about 8mm should do it.

I'm pretty sure you have never seen one of Ling , I do have some mind.

I loved Ling as well, mind you she is a girl.

Nearly ready to launch at last, L day is Friday, really happy about it This is the first time the boat has been on the hard proper since buying the boat aside from a short stint when I first bought it to make the legs work properly before launch down here, there was a long long list of jobs, there still is quite a long list... Aside from the usual engine, stern drive service and anti fouling jobs I've fitted a new windlass, new steering ram, new manual fuel pump on one engine, full polish of the gelcoat, repairs and varnish recoat (and redone as ruined by unexpected rain ), rewiring of the starboard engine trim relays (they have given trouble all year), curtains made and fitted, gelcoat repairs, varnish removal of the grills on the bathing platform, I've gone to bare teak, new VHF radio properly fitted, TV properly wired in and other stuff I can't remember. Here the thing, I bought Tigerfish for a good price but it had not been looked after very well for 2 or 3 years, everything was basically sound but just starting to deteriorate, I knew this when I bought it, a lot of TLC has been required to get it to an order where everything works properly and everything that should have varnish on it has and the rust has been treated etc etc. It takes a lot of time and the bigger the boat and more kit is has the longer it takes, well duh, but only really appreciated by me at least when doing the jobs. I've assured Diane that I won't have to spend so many weekends working on the boat next season, I hope thats true.... she hasn't seen the remains of the to do list and I've another year to add items.... Lloyd has spent quite a bit of his time helping me with the jobs, including some of the not so nice ones, much appreciated, thanks Son. Steve

Pretty good year (but by no means the best) on the Ledge last year (2013) for me as well, 2012 and 2011 were much tougher, previous to that were a series of better years. In June/July there seems to be a host of small bream around most places inshore, not just rocky spots but over mud and sand, eg the Solent, east side of Poole bay (not tried the west side much) so for small bream 4oz to 1lb I've not noticed a decline. I keep for the table maybe 6-8 of the bigger males a year. Steve

How would I know?

Thanks Tony, very patriotic, I think you can leave them hanging in the breeze. 20" diameter is the minimum due to the depth difference between the posts and the planking and to allow for some cushioning. The boats are moored on the 'wrong' side.

Mal sent me a photo of his 'big one' and although impressive it's not big enough for me, even if presented by Mal in a pink pinny . Many thanks for the offer Dave, I'll pass on your semi hard one, I don't want to risk a deflation in a storm.

Thanks, I didn't know about Mike Cornish Mike Cornish is coming up at £34 each for the 24" diameter ones (quoted as circumference 75"), if I don't get any offers on secondhand ones I'll go with them.

On my new mooring I'm up against a wave screen taking the form of wooden piles with wooden boards between them. Should be fun sorting out the mooring ropes to take account of the complete tidal range. To protect the boat I'm going to need at least 4 large round fenders of 20" or so minimum diameter, just checked out the new price if anyone could help with some old ones that would be great, I'm not expecting them for free of course. I need them before the 29th March so boat jumbles on or after that day won't help me unfortunately. Steve

Ultrasonic Test 1st year results - Summary - helps keep the hull clear but not an alternative for anti-fouling paint. Key Events December 2012 - Boat launched, the anti-foul was Jotun seaforce 30 black applied May 2012, only cleaned before launch. March 2013 - Ultrasonic anti-foul fitted September 2013 - Lift out for a mid season clean, some slime, some barnacles but not terrible, there was speed loss of about 4 knots (down from 37). The legs however were pretty poor with lots of weed attached (as usual) January 2014 – boat lifted to be on the hard for a couple of months. Hull was pretty clean, the ultrasonic antifouling had been turned off from the start of November. Just shows fouling really is a warm weather problem. Conclusion As the ultrasonic was not fitted from first launch in December there was a chance for some slime to develop past the stage when the ultrasonics are supposed to destroy it so I can’t say for definite how effective it is, however, at this stage I think it’s not “the solution” to fouling problems but more of an aid. This season I’m painting on anti-fouling and will run the ultrasonic’s right from launch so that should give it the best possible chance for it to show it’s stuff. Note also it’s a bit power hungry, I have an 180 watt solar panel fitted and that was not enough to keep it powered up during the shorter days from the start of November till end February. Steve