Paul D

Glad to hear you like the Orkney. I am sure you will really have some fun with her. PS: If you fancy a trip out on Monday from Mudeford then let me know as I am planning to launch from there with Gordon.

I can take Monday off, so Neo is raring to go. Not expecting to catch much mind !

Spot on Kam in both cases. You are indeed measuring the resistance ( and it should be well small if it is a metal object ). Dont try this with power applied to whatever you are measuring though The way to check for power applied ( with lights on / brakes lit etc. ) is exactly as you state.

I eventually cleared mine out by feeding a piece of fishing line down it whilst it was running and the water started to come out so moved the line back and forth and it cleared out whatever was blocking it. Previously I have managed to clear out the obstruction using the bilge pump to push water back up the tell-tale.

Jack, That is exactly what happened when I fitted the hydrofoils that Martin had ( Dolfins ). A slight bank to the left/right and the boat gained a mind of its own !! - Adam and Bob saw the full effect in Christchurch harbour when they thought I was mucking around veering to the right and heading for the bank However, I have since fitted smaller ones which are not flat like aeroplane wings but which go up at a slight angle . These have less lift and I am unsure if they really make much difference ( although the ride seems smoother ). Still better than being forced to go around in circles !

No snow down here Kam.

I have a football season ticket as well as a boat but Bournemouth isn't quite as expensive as Chelsea I have to agree with the fact that boats hold their value very well. The Orkney 520 that was sold recently was around

Duncan, I am sure you realise this but just in case Kam doesn't DO NOT connect the multimeter when switched to measure current ( DCA:500uA,10mA,250mA ) between the postive terminal and ground/earth/negative. If you do expect something spectacular to happen To measure current the multimeter will need to be connected inline with the power lead ( ie. One lead of the multimeter connected to the power lead of the equipment which has been disconnected from the switch and the other end to the point where the equipment power lead was disconnected ). To check that you have power at the trailer board switch the multimeter to measure DCV ( 50V range ) and then measure between the two terminals feeding each side of the bulb you expect to light - ie. earth and 12V

I use the pin to attach the rope used to hold the boat after launch. Only thing to remember us not to stand one the pin as it bends and then is rather difficult to remove

Simon, I am sure you will not be disappointed with the Orkney. The one advertised looked a very reasonable price and seemed to be in really good condition ( mine was like that once ) and I am glad you have bought it as I wanted to see how , what appear to be lockers along each side, have been made. You are more than welcome to pop over and see how my Orkney is set up. I usually launch from Wick in the summer ( wont be launching from there at the moment as I found out this evening it is full of caravans ...... The handling on the Orkney is very forgiving and they are good in big seas as well ( the "V" hull coming into its own then ). Gordon tells me it rolls more than a Warrior when at anchor but cant have everything I guess. I would also be interested to see what speed yours gets up to and what propellor size/gearing is used. The boat is self bailing underway, so when at the end of a days fishing I tend to pull the bung out ( bunged from the inside ) and let water into the boat to clean the deck, start engine and when underway all the muck drains out the back of the boat. The boat is double skinned and apparently can float on the inner skin ( havent tried this ! ) PS: One thing to watch is the front inside hatch, when open, is easy to kneel on which quickly breaks the hinge..... The plastic strip ( assuming yours is still there ) on the lower edge of the front hatch comes off readily and sinks when it falls in the sea The rear seats tend to crack on the side ( nothing serious here ). The front seats tip back when in the fishing position and really need some catches adding - as Rich found out ( I think I recall yours had these )

Their website is not bad. I can't remember the URL but I found it from the Weymouth Angling Society one ( on our links page )

There is a good voltage drop calculator here :- Voltage Drop Calculator They state for a DC system you dont want to go over around 2% If I assume 100 A for starting the engine ( Reasonable ? ) then with 1 AWG size wire ( 110A ) and a length of 10 FT this gives 2.7% voltage drop. Off now to find out how much current a 50HP outboard uses when starting and the min voltage it can hack !

No problem, it was a cut and paste error. Corrected now I hope.

Thanks Jack that is now clear for me. One question though. If there is a strong tide running then surely it will be difficult to pull the rope around to the side of the boat ? ( I see I have been beaten to it !! )

Having shown Gordon the wiring on Neo on Saturday I decided that she really needed a good clean ( festering "organic" material ..... ). So I went to Sainsburys to get a scrubbing brush and onto Christchurch Boat Shop ( which was closed unfortunately ) whilst Helen said she would start on the cleaning armed with a powerwash and a bottle of bleach. The trip out took an age ( Sainsburys was busy ). When I got home Neo was already sparkling clean - well bleached. - Bleach + power wash + elbow grease. Is there any other cleaner that you recommend to clean your boat ?

Safety Equiipment List updated Newsletter added - Under "Latest News" Competition Dates added for 2005

Gordon, Join the club ( excuse the pun ). I too still cannot get my head around how this works.

Some of us have to go to work I am afraid but if I had found some crew for that day I would have gone out and probably still caught sod all !

and what date did they move from one place to the other ?

I think Kam was referring to the line on the front page which states we have in excess of 60 members with 30 boats. I will amend this to read "in excess of 100 members with 70 boats." Shows how we have grown. PS: I am still working on the "superb fish" part

Anyone fancy writing an article on tactics to use for catching Plaice ? I would like to improve on my single fish from last year

I was sure I read on here ( was it BillyBoy ) that circle hooks do not work when used as part of a pennel rig, something to do with not being able to turn to hook the fish in the scissors. This could explain why they hooked less ?

On the same site I found the outboard stuff there are also some excellent saftey guides ( along with other useful bits ). Safety Guide Training Material

Having had grit in my tell tale on the outboard causing a lack of water coming from the tell tale there was one school of thought that said the engine would overheat due to this ( since this is the only place the water comes out ). Another school of thought was that the tell tale is only so you can visually see that the cooling system is functioning. ( Obviously with it blocked you would be running "at risk" ). In an endeavour to determine which one of these is correct ( I subscribe to the second view, since my engine surely would have overheated steaming to Shambles and back with a blocked tell-tale ) I have been doing some studying..... and I found this link which is full of really interesting information. Outboard Learners Guide

Gordon, Duncan had posted the link a while ago. It is here. RNLI trainer