Paul D

On the subject of Aquastar boats I found an old picture of your boat Al ( before you acquired her I think ).

Happy Birthday Gordon.

Indeed, I enjoyed the BFM this month, although the letters page did ramble on a bit

I was actually searching out the posts from those who went last year as I am sure they were mostly disappointed ( or am I thinking of the "Go Fishing" show ?).

Won't be anyone you know then Gordon

Rich, Adiabatic Flame Temperatures for different gases ( care of wilkepedia ) :- Propane in air: 1,980

Claudias, There is one catch ( excuse the pun ). I have noticed that the screensaver you are doing is for the NFA which is the National Federation of Anglers who are for Freshwater angling. Pictures from this club will primarily be from species caught in the sea, which would not be applicable ?

Welcome to another site sponsor here :- Boatshed Poole

If I hadn't just bought a car then I would have, but the wallet is empty ( contrary to what Rich would have you believe ! ). Launches from Wick but fun pulling it out with the X-Trail when the trailer had gone over the dip in the end of the slipway. Sticking with Neo for another year I think and I might even dispense with the X-Trail ( anyone interested in a 1 1/2 year old 4x4 with all motorway miles on it ? ) then buy a nice new trailer for Neo.

Tempting.... tempting ......

Looking Good Sam.

Happy New Year all and tight lines for 2007. I am just off to see Nightmare at Christmas Part 3 ( ie. Bournemouth Vs Brighton )

They have already been knocking on my door Rich !! Hmm !! Fame for me:)

Mike, I actually replied to the person who made the "all 2 strokes are to be banned" post on the WSF forum ( it is OK to mention them here ). He is completely misinformed and to perfectly honest this is the sort of garbage which is commonly spread around on the internet. There is no way that a particular engine technology will be banned. The legislation is placing limits on the emissions being made. The new generation E-Tec and Optimax meet these emissions standards ( and some more ). The writer of the other post was trying to state he had bought a 4 stroke because althought the E-Tec meets the emissions standards currently what if it doesn't in the future. This is a flawed argument as exactly the same argument could be put forward for the 4 stroke he bought. Forums are great but you certainly need to sort through the wheat from the chaff. PS: Banning old style 2 strokes makes a lot of sense. They are horrendous pollutors - Around 25% of the fuel is effectively dumped straight out into the water along with the unburnt oil.

Martin is well pleased with his Optimax. Can't comment on the engine itself as never had one myself. What I do know though is that the Optimax depends upon having a battery in good condition ( ie. at least 10.8 volts ) or it will either fail to start or misfire. The E-Tec on the other hand does not even need a battery. Also I think the E-Tec will be quieter due to less moving parts ( ie. No belts ) - but I have no evidence of this. Do I get my commission from Evinrude yet ?

Sorted the permissions on Gnasher's album ( It was created with only the owner able to view and also had a password on it ). With regard to inability to upload, you need to be logged on and then you also need to ensure that the image being uploaded is not too big ( use something like a 100 KB max image ) and then you need to make sure it has not come straight off the camera - ie. edit it in mspaint first. Works for me

I can see them all OK. Simon, With regard to uploading, you will probably need to edit the image first using mspaint and save as a .jpg file, then do the upload. I found that images stright from my camera ( which are .jpg files ) do not upload until I edit and save them. I suspect it is something to do with the way the file is structured and the way the web page compresses the file.

Charlie, Also worth checking with "Boatfix.com", I found they were reliable when ordering my Garmin plotter a couple of years ago.

Gordon, As you probably recall, I use an Abu 7000 with the Solid-C rod ( 6ft version ) and it is a good match. However, having destroyed a top ring on one of these and the insert on the second ring down on another, they do not come under your category of durable

Definitely a lot funnier when you tell it with a straight face and have everyone believing you are about to tell us some fantastic story.....

Me too ( as in obsessed with the E-Tec ). Better acceleration, does NOT smoke / smell, fuel consumption is as good as if not better than an equivalent 4 stroke. 3 year service interval, less parts to go wrong, as quiet at speed, more responsive - can start without a battery. Downside is it is noisier at slow speed and you have to fill it with oil once a year. Actually, why am I telling you this Mike, it was you who stated sometime back that a 2 stroke was the way to go and you were correct IMHO, so I was suprised you were asking about a Mercury 4 stroke.

Adam, I have a Garmin handheld GPS you can borrow anytime.

Yes, heard about the Alum Bay cod and to think I actually toyed with stopping to fish there - now that could have been a story

Posted this elsewhere - but seems better place here :- 2 club members got amongst the prizes, unfortunately, I caught my cod a week too early Gordon Holt on Fugazi and Mark Bessant on Nipper had cod which with only 9 fish weighed in put them amongst the prizes on offer, so an Abu Elite for Mark Bessant and an Abu 7000 for Gordon were well worth fishing for. ( Apologies to anyone else who may have been a winning club member that I havent recognised ). Rich managed to spawn a raffle prize of a fishing Rod which he kindly gave to Dave who had been fishing with Duncan. I managed to blank and Mike caught a solitary dogfish. Neo's trip started off at Lymington and we headed for the needles "car park" escorted by Nipper. The bridge was "interesting" and dropped anchor on the mark we had waves of around 6 foot ( Nipper anchored nerby kept disappearing ). Fished the start of the flood and nothing showing - wind picked up, so decided to head for the shelter of the solent. 26 knots cruise through the Solent and off to "mark2" where agter a while we met up with Gastronaught, Nipper and Fugazi. 4 attempts to hold anchor, then re-anchored alongside Fugazi where Gordon hauled in a codling almost as soon as we had stopped. Left at 3:20 and retrieved boat, off to home to drop off boat and then a dash to the weigh-in to see if we could have made it ( and we would have ). Excellent spread of prizes available and well worth fishing for ( with unclaimed prizes being raffled off ). Congratulations to Andy Robbins and Poole Sea Angling Centre for a superbly run competition.

Go on Rich, tell em what happened to the new one to replace the broken one. Jinxed or what