Graham Nash

Well done for getting out. I still get a little green around the gills if i've not been out in a while or if there are any lumps in the water.

Its definitely not the Cod father

I've just had a chat with a new/returning member from Fordingbridge. Nigel and his son Harry. Theyre off fishing on Silver Spray tomorrow but they do have their own boat as well. Join in Nigel, don't be shy and we look forward to plenty of pictures, reports, questions and input. Graham

Ahhh. I just back up a bit before motoring off.

I must be honest, Ive never tried a shorter rope and I dont have any "triangle"? This ring just travels down the anchor line until its immediately above the anchor, then it lifts the anchor and I carry on running until we feel the chain travel through the ring. Once the chain has gone through the ring, its someone elses job to handball it back in 😉 I like the length of line because we can drop the anchor into the water with the buoy on the deck, then just chuck the buoy in once the anchor is on the seabed. I can reverse a bit to get it to the right side of the boat for retrieval. Ill have to look at others set ups next time i see anyone.

Alan had some Southern IFCA ones at the meeting last month. Im not sure if he can get more? I have PBSBAC stickers that were passed to me by Brian. Ill bring a few to the meeting

Unfortunately I didn't, and I've just seen what the specimen weight is 🤔 !! Lesson learned i suppose!

We made our way to the 6 mile banks and found congers, dogs, gurnard and a solitary toothy one of 13lb. I lost a heavy ray at the boat. The water was mirror flat!

Im looking at getting out tomorrow. Im expecting to be somewhere around the Dolphin sands area. Is anyone else about?

I carried an aux a few times, but (like you) i couldnt see how Id steer it easily if needed. I purchased a tiller extension, but it all seemed a bit of a faff, so it now sits in the garage and i pay seastart instead.

I must be honest, I put my boat in the water today just after low water and pulled it back in with the new winch. That would have been almost impossible with the old one, but it was no major issue using the new manual winch. Having said that, it looks like Im getting my old finger berth back again if i want it so the trailer will be used once or twice a year again after that.

ha! While I was at the boat yard this afternoon looking to swap over to the the electric winch, they came over to me and told me my old pontoon berth was likely to be free again in a couple of weeks!

How do/did you ensure the winch wound on evenly? There's no "level wind" so i imagined a big mound of rope in the middle of the spool. Thats why i ended up opting for another manual one.

seeing these comments about the electric winches, i might revert back to that plan and keep this as a back up.

The strap runs between the rollers. it doesnt actually touch them.