Graham Nash

sounds like fun ... its been a while since ive had a trip like that

Wow! Tagged and released too.

superb! Sounds lovely.

Good luck guys. Dont get too sunburnt.:-)

Ouch ! Have you got a mop & bucket for my Tears ? I don't think he actually meant YOU Jim, but now you mention it

i normally do have a hand held too but it was in the kitchen drawer as Ive not used it in so long Go on someone ..... shoot me!

when I sold mine I told the buyer that I would check EVERY note with a light pen ...... he actually took me to the bank and withdrew the money in front of me.

Pail. I thought about tabs but assumed they would only help when moving? Charlie, we did call a couple of times and called for a radio check but got no replies. Maybe I need to check my radio.

yes Lofty ... the batteries are in the cabin.

Hmmmm. Never thought of that. When my mate and I were both sat up front by the cabin the water didnt't come in so you could be right. I have already put the batteries up front to remove weight from the rear, maybe I should keep the spare anchor and other heavy stuff up that end too.

so reasonably water resistant .... but not water proof. Thats good enough for my deck i'm sure.

I didnt realise that Adam .... So are you saying that my deck (marine ply with 3 layers of fibreglass) is not waterproof?? The guy at the fibreglass place told me that it would be

Duncan I accept that metaphorical wrap across the knuckles for not checking the bilges before setting off .... It was stupid I know but I had seen the hull full of rain water during its time in my yard and no water leaked so I assumed the hull was intact. I also "knew" my bilge pumps would sort any problems .... obviously assuming they didnt stop working for any reason, which is why I returned when I did. Incidentally, no water enters the hull when we are motoring, probably because the wake takes the waterline well beneath the holes?? As for your concern about "weight" ...... I honestly cannot see that I have added much weight to the boat. I removed masses of heavy wet wood and replaced it with similar dry stuff. I have not used the two massive internal fuel tanks and I would suggest that the floor and ribs weigh no more than half of one of those fuel tanks when full. I do however have a temporary 70 litre fuel tank on the deck at the moment (which was not full on the first journey). My engine, which I believe to be 165kgs is probably half the weight of a decent diesel inboard and leg. And finally, I would think that my boat should easily cope with 4 crew. Most of my mates are around 100kgs so that would be around 400kgs excluding gear, My modifications would have weighed less than a quarter of that as an absolute maximum, not taking into account the weight of the stuff I removed. This is not a dig at you Duncan, it is/was my (maybe naive) thoughts during the build and welcome any other views. It does seem from the fact that water ingresses through the draining holes that maybe she does sit a little low in the water, but I cant see that is anything to do with what I have done.

Had it been saturday then I could have beaten you Dave, but Sunday was a day for the dogs :-( so none to report here i'm afraid

Hind sight is a wonderful thing .... The primer problem does not show unless I am at full throttle and the breather IS open ..... (I've done that once and it's the first thing I checked yesterday) It would seem according to other posts that the DF doesnt need a primer so I will try it without and see how it goes. The fuel consumption I put down to my "playing" and testing accelleration, top speed, slow speed manouvering etc as well as the ton or so of water we were carrying along with us because today we covered probably twice the distance on a similar amount of fuel. Top speed still around 24 knotts, cruises cofortably at 17. The dowels have plugged the holes and is as much as we can do without removing the engine to get to both sides of the transom. It remained dry under there today dispite a reasonable swell. The only thing I have a problem with at the moment is water entering the deck via the draining holes during that swell. The 4 bilge pumps were fitted by me as I knew there was an awful lot hull to fill up. 2 of them are automatic.

I can only go by what I am told by the "mechanic" Rob and I am told that it was a simple pin on the din plug that was the problem. It has been fine since launch, although I notice that it will not tilt up more than a few degrees while running??? Is this normal on the Suzuki DF range? My Etech would tilt as far as I wanted.

This was my thoughts too Andy. Its a suzuki 115 4 stroke BTW.

primer bulb .... that was what I was trying to think of when I said "rubber fuel feed pump thing" Yes it was the primer bulb that was sucking in. I'll have another look today and see. Maybe it's just not man enough for 2 litres a mile to be passing through it

Well at long last the day came to get her bum wet. Final checks on all the "bungs", engine checks, 40 litres of fuel (as we were only popping out to Ballard). Checked all 4 bilge pumps, lights, life jackets and auxillary engine (just in case). Motored slowly out of Rockley and did a few little runs up and down the channels. All seemed ok. Through the harbour and everything still seemed ok. Out of the harbour and opened her up a little .... 24knotts and feeling good .... then a bit of spluttering and slowing down ... I noticed that the rubber fuel feed pump thing had sucked in and was restricting the fuel flow. Slow down and releasing the pressure on it saw it spring back to shape .... tried the same again and the same thing happened so it was necessary to back off a little and keep her around 16-17 knotts and all seemed ok .... any advice on this would be greatfully received Arrived at our chosen spot and dropped the anchor. 5 minutes later one of my auto bilge pumps started spewing water out . Lifted an inspection hatch to see the hull with aroung 6 inches of water in!! A quick flick of all of the bilge pump switches had it dry in no time. Time to relax and fish but about 5 minutes later the bilge pump is working over time again. Once again the hull was full of water! This went on for a while till I decided the possibility of a bilge pump fuse popping was too big a risk to take so we headed back in for an early day and an investigation of the problem. Once back and tied up along side and my head inside the bilge through the inspection hatch showed water literally POURING in through the transome as much as if there was 2 taps left open!! . It would seem that when the engine was fitted, the 2 old mounting holes (beneath the water line) were NOT filled!! 2 dowels hammered into the holes later and it all seems better so we shall try again tomorrow. Checked the fuel tank and it was almost bone dry so we had used 40 litres to get from Rockley to Ballard and back (although probably with an AWFUL lot of water as passenger). Incidentally we had 2 very expensive bream and one doggie

This just goes to show that even the professionals can get caught out. We only do it for fun so Safety first everyone.

My boat WILL be in the water this weekend no matter what the weather. Even if she stays in the harbour, she's getting her bum wet for the first time!

An indian bloke goes to put his wifes death in the local paper, they tell him its

That one has lots of pretty lines Charlie but this one is showing me what I want to see (probably wrong but it looks good at the moment) http://www.xcweather.co.uk/GB/forecast

I & Windguru are with you Duncan. I hope we are right because I have a friend coming down from Birmingham to fish with us on Sunday so i think i've gotta go out no matter what (within reason).

how the other half lives eh?