charlieannear

Avoid the Lansdowne area of Bournemouth on a Thursday afternoon- it's dole day at the DSS office on Christchurch Road... Unfortunately I work at the Lansdowne. You do see some sights though!

Well, lets just say it's taken me longer than I had hoped! But after another weekend in the fresh air I'm almost finished. Replaced the windows (now isn't that a FUN job!) amongst other things this weekend. Was hoping to get it on the water for the Open and that's still just about achieveable if I can get Saturday to finish it off. As for conditions, I really couldn't say what the safe limits are, but will obviously be sticking to calm days to start off with!

Thanks for enlightening me Kam! I have a feeling this has been covered before! Oh well, ahead of myself again!

The forum thinks it's still BST For example it's now 12.25

Welcome to the site Simon, you've come to the right place. If you have a question then someone on here will have the answer. I've spent the last 9 months doing up a Family Four and trying to move on from being a novice angler and the advice from these guys has been invaluable.

Fantastic, well done everybody!

I forgot all about Allfix. I think PU40 will be fine- it's for additional sealing between the hull, the rubbers and the perspex when I put my windows back in this weekend. What I want is polyurethane (like Sikaflex) rather than silicone, so PU40 fits the bill. I'm sure if anyone disagrees they'll say so! Thanks chaps, as usual.

Yep, I've only ever seen white in Force 4 and I need some black Force 4 have it in their catalogue but they aren't too swift getting items in and I need it for the weekend. I could trawl around the local chandlers on Saturday (they're all shut by the time I get back to Poole after work) but I'd lose half a day doing it, so was looking to see if anyone knew for sure where there'd be some on the shelf. I want it all don't I!

Hmm, anyone going to be over that way before the meeting? I work in Bournemouth, so can't get over there during the week.

I'm in need of a tube of black Sikaflex for the weekend but I'm loathe to pay the postage from these mail order places as it'll mean a tube will cost me about

Without wanting to cause offence... Buddy up with Jas!

Very sorry to hear this news Bob. Would you like me to pass this on to the RAF Regiment Forum? There are a few old Rocks on there who may remember your Dad. C.

Spot of lunch

Wareham Quay

Not sure what Allan is gesturing!

Picking up a mooring

Motoring along...

Some photos as promised...

Hi Mike I'm in Parkstone, as is the boat, not a million miles from where the club meets monthly. I'm sure the water in the foam is only from the recent rain that we've had since I took the windows out. I had managed to dry it out completely over the summer. It's surprising how much water will percolate through bare fibreglass and also through the holes in the floor where the foam was injected. The instructor on the course I was on at the weekend used to sell Shetlands and he said the first thing he used to reccomend any owner was to put an additional drain bung in the transom, as low down as possible, to keep the underfloor area drained out. I've put your number in my phone and will give you a ring sometime soon. C.

Allan Greene, my dad Trevor and myself attended the RYA Powerboat 2 course at Shell Bay Watersports this weekend with instructor Dave Harris and organised by the club. The day started with me feeling ropey as I had been struggling with some sort of lurgy all week, had hardly slept because my brain was buzzing thinking about Paul's frikkin Treasure Trail (Good comp Paul!) and to top it off my 2 year old son decided the best place to be at 03.30 in the morning was in our bed... Anyway, we made it down to the chain ferry in good time to find Martin (Maverick) waiting for us with a big fat cheque for Dave, the instructor, then on the other side of the harbour entrance we found Dave, and when parking up I even found Allan After settling down, the day started in Dave's "Vintage" portacabin with him finding out about our backgrounds, experience and why we were there, followed up with some theory from the RYA literature. Then it was time to go out there and get boating! After kitting up, we launched (a rib with a 150hp 4-stroke Yam) from the slip in Shell Bay boatyard (dry launch- ace!) and headed out past the chain ferry into the bay. Unfortunately the conditions outside the harbour were just too lumpy so we headed back into the harbour, where we spent the rest of the day with the three of us taking turns coming to grips with the channel markers, handling the boat at various speeds, 'emergency stops', tight turns, negotiating the other 'traffic', etc. We then came alongside at Poole quay for a spot of lunch. We saw Mike Fox (for the second time) on his way back in, Dave on his way out(Coddy) who waved back but I don't think he really recognised me . We had also seen Mad Mike out, and a few other boats flying the club pennant. In the afternoon we did some more of the same and by tea time we had been into most of the navigable parts of the harbour. Dad and I found this really good in itself as it means that when we get out we will have already been to most of the places in the harbour that we might want to go to. After a dry recovery (still not christened my waders) it was then back into the portacabin for a bit more theory and some knot tying, then home for tea. The next morning we were back over the chain ferry (dissapointed our chairman wasn't there to wave us off that time ) and then into the portacabin for a short while to talk about tides and weather, amongst other things, then back out on the rib for some more practice. This was more of the same as yesterday, handling at various speeds, reading the channel markers etc plus such things as picking up a mooring and we then motored up the Wareham channel and had lunch at the quay. After lunch we came back out into the harbour and covered anchoring and reversing (in a figure of eight around two buoys). We then cruised up under the lifting bridge and around into Cobbs and back again, practised man overboard then a blast back to the slip. A further period in the portacabin to finish up, get our certificates (Yes!) and that was the end of two very enjoyable days. The whole weekend was full of 'asides' which answered lots of questions for us, and we were listening in on the VHF all of the time which was good radio practice too (Dave also does the VHF courses) so all together we got a lot of background stuff too over the course of the weekend. Thanks to Dave for his instruction, and a very big thanks to Martin and PBSBAC for sorting this course out. Obviously many, many of you chaps are already way beyond this sort of thing, but as complete novices my Dad and I found this to be invaluable. We are now much more confident about getting out there in the Shetland (Yes, when I eventually finish putting it back together ) and it's given us a good solid foundation to get out there, practice and improve our skills. Will report back on the effect it has (if any) on our insurance premium. In summary, highly reccomended for anyone in the same boat (ha ha) as us. C. P.S Photos to follow

I gave up and went to bed because I had the Powerboat 2 the next day, plus my PC is in the spare room and we had my parents staying over! Didn't help though, my brain was buzzing and to top it off my 2 year old son decided he ned to get in our bed at 03.30! Well done Rich...

You are kidding aren't you?!! That was an easy one! I had such a restless night on Friday with my brain buzzing on that effing comp that I decided that I'd better avoid it for the rest of the weekend as I had visitors and needed to be fresh for the Powerboat 2! Has Rich put us out of our misery or is the comp still running?!

Hi Mike Come round for a look at my Family Four sometime- we can swap tips and ideas. I used seals direct to sort out my leaky escape hatch. If you need to actually replace the rubber that holds the glass into the frame, and you have the same hatch as me, then you might have to take a different approach. Have also been replacing my windows if you want a look at them. Sam Trickett has just serviced my Johnson- it had a fault that was very hard to diagnose but he persisted and got to the bottom of it- importantly a very reasonable bill too. Keep chipping away at the jobs Mike, it's taken me a bit longer than I'd hoped too, but ultimately I'll have a boat that is safe and that I feel confident in and proud of. C.

BBC News C.

From BBC News