Mal Thomas

This coming Sunday - 9th October - is the Best specimen Ray Competition I also note the flatfish competition which was cancelled earlier in the year has not been re-arranged, so I will combine the two. Please book in as usual 1) Court Jester Neal + crew tba 2. YKnot Mal + Trevor

Happy birthday Mick, blimey that came around quick.

Happy birthday Nige, go down to Gregs and treat yourself to a great big CAKE

Thanks Steve for the detailed post. Mal

I can feel a day off coming to get over the abuse suffered on this website , you try your best and this is what you get. Nige has got his mojo back watch out everyone. He is probably making his cod rigs already. Glad you have got the boat sorted mate.

Happy belated birthday Alan

Good luck to all, weather looking good for the comp.

Court Jester Neal + Crew TBA Alfresco Charlie + Crew TBA Kingfisher - Chris + Crew TBA Tigerfish - Steve + Alun Serenity - Tony + Crew TBA Y-Knot - Mal + Trevor Thomas

Whats the new boat ????

Weather seems to have improved for tomorrow, so hopefully the trend is set to improve rather than deteriorate. We cant make the BBQ as we are in a golf open comp. Good luck and I hope you all have a great day, will keep an eye on later forecasts. Mal PS Look forward to the photos and well done Greg on all your hard work.

As soon as you mentioned a strap on I new you would get some help Trev

This is quite a thread, welcome to the club, you seemed to have taken the advice from all the club members and got yourself a deal. My position in the club is safety officer, we are all about safety at sea without getting to heavy, if you need a VHF license for your radio or feel any other training would be a benefit, dont hesitate to ask. We have an agreement with our trainers who happen to be in Cobbs quay so not far for you to go. Feel free to drop me a line if I can help in any way. Mal Thomas

Greg just to let you know Iam watching the forecasts as well.

Happy birthday lofty, have a great day. BTW call me I have a kitchen job you can look at.

Welcome Ben we have lots to offer as a club, including reduced rates on training for seamanship. Let me know if you need to obtain a Vhf license to use your on board Vhf radio. We can also help with boat handling skills if required and many other elements of being safe at sea. Please look at our forum for more info or send me a message. Just ask us we are a friendly bunch and will help you to enjoy your sea fishing and boating. Mal Thomas safety officer.

Looks like you have the touch with the weather Greg, will keep an eye but it's looking good.

Niggle are you feeling ok, no jibes about lost anchors, should I send a doctor.

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