Mal Thomas

Gary there are lots of factors to anchoring, all of which become all the more important in depths over 70 feet and spring tides. I had a quicksilver 640 and found a 7.5 kg bruce to be a good anchor size for the boat. Before Niggle says anything, I used to have a 7.5kg Bruce long story. You need 6mm chain, depending on how you retrieve, through a gypsie on a boat of that size it would normally be 6mm. Two boat lenghts will be enough. You might struggle to get more than 150mtrs of rope in your locker, if you use a bin then 200 mtrs. Be careful over rocky ground because to much chain on a slack tide when you drop can pile up, then wrap around rocks and get caught, as I know only to well, slowly reversing can put an angle in the decent of the anchor and chain when dropping at slack tide. You should always trip your anchor ie attach the top eye on the anchor with cable ties and use the eye nearer the business end to attach the chain with a shackle. The reason for this is, if the anchor gets stuck in, the force applied by the boat will break the ties and lift the anchor out from the back end. Quite often it's the chain that gets caught and that's a whole different ball game, if you remember the way you swung on anchor then try to reverse the process or more importantly in rocky areas, lift and re anchor on the change of the tides, especially Poole patch and Christchurch ledge. When paying out rope, check the angle of the rope when the tension straightens the rope, in deep water the rope should be at a shallow angle, the more rope out of the water the better when anchoring in deep water, up to 5 times the depth. If the rope is at an acute angle you haven't payed out enough rope. The cheapest way to buy 200mtrs of rope, 12mm 3 strand nylon is on line, they will also supply the anchor and chain and if you specify they will splice the chain to the rope. Good luck Mal. Be careful many injuries occur whilst anchoring, it is one of the most dangerous activities on a fishing boat.

Someone ought to say the obvious, have you thoroughly checked all nooks and crannies for a stamped number in the gelcoat or a vin plate.

Amazing cloud formations over Bournemouth yesterday, check out local papers, we saw them from the back of the boat.

Having consulted with Dave Wilson and Neal Sturt this morning, this is our appraisal of the weather for the competition. We are seeing a rising forecast throughout the day starting with 8mph and gusts of 13mph, rising to 16mph and gusts of 22mph. The wind direction is in line with the making flood tide and therefore the waves will be smoother than wind over tide. The competition is on, and we advise skippers to be vigilant and come inshore if the forecast worsens, particularly later in the day. Please be aware that all boats should be listening on vhf channel 06. six Good luck to all those taking part and be safe. We will check at 6pm today for any changes in the forecast.

Great news

A day to remember for all the right reasons and Fred's generosity for How enormous. Thoroughly enjoyed myself and learnt loads, which will all be forgotten by the next time I go. The banter was awesome, for some reason the lads who got slightly wet feet and legs by my slightly enthusiastic use of the hose whilst gutting the fish, did loose their sense of humour a little bit. We found out later the hose had sprung a leak and I was totally innocent you honour. Well done to all of us.

SWEET PEA IS SOLD.

Y-KNOT being piloted back to Christchurch this saturday, just given Sweetpea a thorough clean out and decamped all my fishing gear home.She is riding 2inches higher now. Price reduction to £16999.00

Put a sd card in the garmin and followed instructions to download waypoints, 30 seconds later all done, back home to down load garmin homeport. put the sd card in the laptop and bingo all my marks saved for transfer. Only thing is the new boat has lowrance, still I can input them on a wet and windy day.

Sweet pea has a 4008 garmin plotter with 1 sd card slot, the charts are on a micro card with an adapter, I would like to transfer my marks to my new plotter or pc to save the marks. I have hopefully saved my waypoints on that card but not yet tried to download them. I have also purchased another card to also try and save my waypoints on that card just in case, but what is formatting the card? and what software do I need on my laptop if any? If I put the saved info into a lowrance will it recognise them.

Feliz cumpleanos Charlie.

Sweet Pea reduced to £16,999.00.

Thursday for take over, straight on to maintenance racks to have some work done. Same draught, bigger engine, bit more beam and lenght. Hopefully sweet pea sells soon and move boat to shallowchurch soon after.

Sea trialed the Jeanneau 695 last night, it is a step up in class from the 640 and we are going ahead with the purchase. OMG two boats, just what I didnt want, let the trouble begin and the wallet wide open, panic has set in, luckily my wife is supporting me 100%. At least now my brother and co owner will get a comfortable ride in his own seat. If anyone is interested in Sweet pea call me with an offer.

I think Jim needs to remember the private boat owners like pbsbac members and focus on all of us not just charters. May be as he as just been down to fish the Barracuda Dave could ask him to do a piece on PBSBAC.

Done

QUICKSILVER 640 PILOTHOUSE 2008 MODEL WITH A 115HP MARINER WITH 470 HOURS FSH AVAILABLE PLUS MARINER AUXILLIARY 6HP Specification. 1. 2 new batteries 110amp 2. New led nav lights 3. Dragon fly 7" with through hull transducer. 4. Garmin 4008 combination plotter and fish finder 5. Ital winch with foot controls and cabin controls 6. Garmin 100i vhf radio. 7. Fusion radio with cd 8. Screen demister. 9. Shore power, battery charger and 240volt socket 10.Jabsco deck wash. 11.New horn 12. 2x 12volt charger points 13. New sunroof 14. Outlet for 12volt power in the bow for spotlights 15.Live baitwell tank 16.Origo spirit burner 17.2 x tables and cushion set. 18.Bespoke made stainless steel rails with built in bait table. 19 Rocket launcher rod holder 20. 6no rod holders mounted on the rails. 21. New bilge pump 22 Remote search light 23. Built in fuel tank 135ltr Sweet pea has just been serviced, polished, antifouled and new anodes. All work done for the year and ready to go fishing. Price £16, 999 ono

Happy belated birthday Dave.

Happy belated birthday Charlie.

Peter and I have exchanged details and hope to get him out soon.

Jim if you didnt work such long hours you would have been out by now , please regard this as your open ticket to call when ever you have some time off to come out on S.P

Well said and you forgot to put your name down.

Spoke to Neal and discussed the weather and it seemed ok, but I was probably going to go out on my own and not enter. Neal changed his plans around to enable me to enter so thanks for that Neal. We all need to discuss more and get guests out on our boats, we had a bumpier day than expected but we enjoyed our day together and I now have an invite on Court Jester and thats how it all works. For those without a boat put your name on this post and I will invite you out, Ian you dont have to bother as I know you are standing by. Thanks for the company Neal and I hope you enjoyed your day on board Sweet Pea.

Sweet Pea results. Mal. 1. Ballan Wrasse. 2. LSD. 3. Smalleyed Ray. 4. Black Bream. 5.Silver eel. Neal Sturt. 1.Tompot Bleny 2. Pout. 3.LSD. 4.Small eyed ray.

Didnt know it was kingfishers birthday as well as yours Chris, have a great day buddy, trust you will have a couple for me when you get in.