Gummage

Endeavour3 is just laying up waiting for the water to come back. Did Mark get to the 50/50s.? we chuffed off over there this morning and found mistress Linda and four others there. We anchored half a mile east and fished as Terry and Greg advised. it worked . We caught a steady few but gave up in the ripping tide at 3.00. moved inshore and tried plaice drifting. Nothing doing..Gone to check on A friends boat in Holes bay Did the trip with my new merc 60 all with change from 25 litres happy days.

Thank you both. My plan is to spot a boat that looks like it knows what it’s doing and fish near that. If that’s your plan too I advise you not to follow Edeavour 3.😉 seriously I’m thinking of going 2 or3 miles SSE of old harry and drifting on the 2knot tide in the earl afternoon. Any comments or better ideas?

On the bottom?

Thinking of running Endeavour down on Sunday .Out of Baiter. Not really looking forward to having to wait for enough water to get her off again an hour or more after dark🥶🥶 but my crewman is game. How do you catch whiting anyway?

Someone at ridge has a 150 on a Wilson flyer. That should give him a run for his money

I suggest a new competition. The fish with the highest carbon footprint. We moonrakers would be good at that.

I have a set of life jackets which I bought at different times and places and they all need different spares and one can’t be overhauled except by the manufacturer. They will all come up for renewal at different times which I’ve lost track of…. I am not qualified to advise on specification etc but next time I shall get a set with the same service requirements.

I insured Endeavour3 with Towergate in the spring. 10K cover for boat trailer etc plus a legal expenses package. cost £ 153 after two months and an explosion I claimed 3K back. I think I’ve got your money Trev😉

At Manby in Lincolnshire there is an online auction of ex mod marine stuff. Six aging Mariner 90s and 29 xYanmar25hp engines with less than 100hrseach . Also some 27 hp yanmar diesels. some inboard stuff too an Aladdin’s cave to while away a Sunday night http://auctions.eddisons.com

Gummage has a new motor. This lad caught a cuttlefish on a bass lure.

It’s been a slow process but I have received my insurance payout. They sent an insurance assessor all the way from Porthtalbot to check it over. I thought all was lost when they asked for proof of service/service history. The seller was unable to provide anything but the oil was still IPA colour so they accepted that. Surprisingly they allowed me to acquire the old motor. Why did it explode? Engineers agree that the bottom carb seized possibly with its float down which caused excess fuel to run into the air intake. I moored near Wareham so we idled down to Brownsea not sucking this back in but letting it tosh out onto the engine bay floor and air intake. The engine stalled eventually. when we tried to restart it the fumes found a spark and hey presto Gummage had invented the seagull scarer! A proper rebuild for this requires new parts; 4x carbs ,starter motor, wiring loom etc. all valued at over £6K hence write off. when we got it home after the fire, my son couldn’t resist turning the key. It ran. I should say here that in a dispondant mood back in June I decided to purchase a brand new Merc 60 EF I . From HB Marine. I now have doubts about my sanity but my friends assure me that I won’t regret it . I need to move on the 2004 mariner 90. I want to turn it from a fire damaged insurance wreck into a fire damaged runner. My crew mate is a self employed freelance garage mechanic and is of the opinion that if we fix the carbs the motor will be a good’n. we stripped the carbs yesterday and found the bottom one to be so seized that we broke the spindle that holds the butterfly trying to free it. The others seemed serviceable. To progress this project I am looking for a serviceable replacement carb part number 804168T10 and a replacement canopy for mariner 90 yr 2004. (There are one or two on eBay) Any comments ,offers, encouragement,discouragement, etc gratefully received.

Thanks for that. The website sells it well rob. Apparently you can be a marine and not get your feet wet thanks to these things!

Hi all, I have been asked for an opinion and any information on a subject about which I have no clue. Id like to ask for your wisdom. A friend of mine flew down in his helicopter to visit a friend who lives in an old customs watch tower somewhere near Southampton. His friend possessed a RIB which was adapted to have a wheel system driven by a small motor which allowed it to be driven down to the foreshore and self launched. My friend (you know who Jerry!) would like to buy one as a surprise present for his son who is planning live the dream near a Cornish beach. He asked me ; what did I think? where would he find one? who makes them? what sized motor would it want? all opinions !information or references gratefully received thanks

The catch report. Jamie’s boat zoomed off to the southern point on Bressay and quickly came back with a cod and a mackerel. on Callum’s boat we drifted a flat sandy patch in the bay and got well into Haddock and mackerel. Cod came up too but were returned as haddock is much favoured there. At he close of play I brought up a foul hooked plaice for good measure. Better include a shot of our hosts The next time we saw flat water we were on our way home looking north over the stern at 1.00am(midnight GMT)

The creels were near waymark 1 on my map. Can’t give the exact location else you will all be going up there and lifting them.😉 In any case the only thing they had in them was a hole. Probably been visited by an otter. With a northerly wind the sea state was uncomfortable so we went south of Lerwick. It was calm in the lee. Here Jamie’s new boat made its debut. IMG_6315.mov without the motor this aluminium hull only weighs 280 kg IMG_6316.mov 60 hp makes it swift IMG_6319.mov

When the fair weather came Jamie was still having fuel line problems which proved to be caused by very similar but incompatible fuel line plugs. I’ve encountered that on E3. While Sam helped him pin down and resolve that I was to go out north of Bressay with Callum to lift a pair of pots and try for some Herring. As we backed away from the mooring lines the Jonah effect kicked in. We hit bottom at 10.45 am IMG_6287.mov We had no spare. So off it came and back to base He groundback the snagged fins leaving a curved edge He ground a matching curve in scrap shaped it TIG welded it IMG_6293.mov And ground it to shape Repeat x3 template made to the smallest Grind back and buff up Prop back on at 12.40 IMG_6293.mov

V

He was determined to finish the project last week so we could see her trialled. V

this is his day job But having seen what theNew Zealanders are using he dreamt this up. V Here’s one he made earlier 22742.mp4 He seemed pleased with the way things were developing 22682.mp4 T

There was only to be one more fishable day on our 8 day visit but there is so much more to tell. I am in no doubt that twins Jamie and Callum can lay claim to direct Viking ancestry. As lads they Went wildfowling. When they decided that they would prefer to go fishing , their instinctive reaction was, “I’ll have to build a boat” So this is Callum’s Mkll version. originally a mono hull it proved uncomfortable so he cleaved it down the middle blanked off each half and put a flat deck widening span in and now it’s a catamaran (sort of). His 60 hp 2 stroke will get it on the plane if it has no Englishmen on board(or Jonah’s). I know where there is a scrap 90 Callum.(read it went with a bang). Jamie wasn’t to be outdone ……

We saw ourselves onto the mooring lines and disembarked by natural light. It was 12.10 BS T

When a fine evening came along we headed north out of Lerwick .It was wind over tide and too snotty for comfort but we headed to a loch ,known in Shetland as a Voe, to the west. See waymark 8 on the map. was not quite as bad there. Only 70 metres of rope were available. Was it enough ? was the dredge heavy enough? Would we find the appropriate sand? Or rocks!.? Could the 60 hp motor pull it? Would we be having scallops for supper? Who knows? It was going to be fun trying.(too much much fun for photojournalism I’m afraid) Firtst run north south with the wind. We never reached the bottom. Just as well as we also drifted onto rocky ground(according to navionics). whatif we try into wind ; more engine speed slower overgroundspeed better steering control. ? Hurrah ! Result! Two star fish and five sea urchins, can i add them to the species list😙 please. Most importantly we were down there. Another south north drift then . A similar catch but whowee. it included two “queenies”. I hoped Callum had a sharp knife. surprise surprise , fuel was getting low so offback to base. The drift was with us and we jigged 9 mackies on th way home.

As we waited for a weather break we heard how in his diving days whilst at the Malakoff his dad Andy had developed a 10 ftwide one for commercial use. He had taken a dive to watch it working and realised the “queen “ scallops weretrajecting themselves to human eye level and thus evading the net so a piece of net was added to the bridle to hold them down much improving the catch. Also king scallops don’t flush easily and so there was much talk of how some agricultural spring tines might be encorporated to give the a poke . A trip was made to visit a man with an old Jones baler but he thought it might still come in handy so we couldn’t nick the parts. This got produced

There then ensued a few days bad weather, while you lot were sweltering last week, but hey, it’s Shetland! Now last November we went out on an aluminium boat built by Callum . It ran out of fuel that time. (Gummage is begining to wonder “Am l a Jonah”recent E3 events considered. ) Callum’s latest scheme is to make a small dredge and go after scallops

Gordon left the cruiser tied up in Burravoe(see the background in the last vid) and “borrowed” a van to race us to the ferry where we met its owner ,getting ashore , who was pleased to find his lift home was sorted.