Graham Nash

Having been watching the weather reports since Christmas this was the first time that both favourable weather and a quiet day at work coincided so it was off out on the boat for me and my usual crew. I had decided on a mark before we left but as we neared it we noticed that there were lots of boats in one area a little further on so against my original plan we decided to act like lemmings and follow the pack. Found a little spot but it was too close to another anchored boat so we motored round a little to see if we could find anything else of interest and decided on a little lump showing on the sonar. Within minutes my mate was into a small whiting, minutes later it was my turn for a slightly better one then there followed a steady stream of whiting to 2lb 5oz for most of the rest of the afternoon. Once the tide changed my mate hooked the obligatory doggie then as the tide ran stronger I got something a little heavier. Excitedly I told my mate to get the net but was a little disappointed (and surprised) to see a small Blonde Ray of just over 5LB curled up using the tide to make me work to get her up. Lifted the anchor around 3ish and headed back for home. Was lovely to be out but my sea legs seem to have been left somewhere in 2011 as my tummy was doing some strange things every time I concentrated on anything like tying a knot or untangling a mess. Was also nice to hear a few other club boats out and hopefully we will get their reports in due course.

Ha Ha .... well somehow I have managed to beat the odds and it would seem (so far) that I am getting a day off to go and play!! Still about 10 hours for something to go wrong but I have my fingers crossed :-)

You only have one back Nigel so look after it mate. On the plus side, it gives the rest of us a chance to get to the top of the leader board for a very short while

I have booked Wednesday off too (but some bu66er will spoil it for me). Same as Charlie i'm staying West. I don't expect to catch much but I just need to get out!

Is Mr Shotton invited

what a salesman Terry .... wanna job?

Sssshhhhhhhhh

Looking at the forecasts for next week, it looks like I need to book a couple of days off! Can it really stay that good?

theres a tender bashing up against the rocks on Holes bay rd at the moment. already holed otherwise I would have pulled it out.

And The Wife of course! Oh yeah ... and the wife

Congratulations Adam & Family Concerning the trip, I too would possibly be interested in crewing as i doubt my fibreglass skip will be ready by then. I seem to have got over my sea sickness problem but would still only be interested in making the trip in favourable conditions (I think most skippers have the same idea this year anyway). Graham.

If the floor is soft .... check the transom too. Shame, I virtually gave my 17ft day boat and trailer away earlier this year, much much less than what you are looking at spending on this one.

Excellent Steve. Looking at those breakers I dont blame you not launching at Southbourne.

What's that then Rob??

This was good old fashioned yellow and orange domestic expanding foam John. It was everywhere on the back end filling up the engine well. Someone had cut holes into the well to bolt the engine on and they had filled their holes with mastic then filled the whole lot with this expanding foam. It had to come out because it looked terrible and was trapping an awful lot of water which was rotting everything. I think we may have this closed cell foam inside the stringers so i'm leaving them alone Graham.

So after a day of removing the existing floor and cutting back all the rotten wood it doesnt look as bad as it first seemed (still pretty grotty, but I think do-able) There are/were 6 ribs, one had already been completely removed, 3 are fine and the 2 middle ones are rotten. They are in 3 sections and the middle section of each is gone, the outside sections are perfectly solid. So it looks like I could just replace the middle bits but Im going to do that AND add a complete rib alongside the existing one bolting it into the solid bits. I will then glass it all together and it should be twice as solid as the original. The existing outboard engine fixings were rusted solid so after much pulling, pushing, prizing, hammering and every other type of effort we ended up cutting a bit of the transom top away to get the engine off. This revealed a very solid transom top PHEW!!. I then checked the existing engine well, which was full of expanding foam, sealant, rubber and just about everything else that could trap water and found it was soaking wet with lots of rot so that too was cut away. This revealed the inside of the transom so I took the opportunity to cut some of the internal glass away to check the integrity of the transom wood and once again it looked good So after a day of cutting out rotten wood i think i'm happy

thats great Steve

I often find weed to be a problem at the Needles (dunno what others find) ... bigger tides will have that weed moving even quicker.

Ha Ha Johnny ... dunno about enthusiasm, more like stuck with more work than I thought Fortunately I have room in my yard so its not costing anything for the storage, I have another boat so theres no real rush and after Christmas my work generally dies so I should have plenty of time (although without work, the money dries up quickly). I have visitors today so weather permitting I will cut the whole floor out tomorrow so I can get to everything. I will keep posting

that is very kind of you Dicky, thank you very much for the offer. I will be having a look for it today and will let you know if i need it. Graham.

Lofty ..... you star I would certainly be interested in talking with your mate and I know your handy work is first class. Maybe we need to have a chat too I've just googled Graham Banyard and it brings up washing machine repairs & someone in Harrowgate. I'll have a look in a tide table book if I can find one.

Thanks again Dave. Ive drilled into one of the stringers (that are fully enclosed in fibre galss) and it seems to be prefectly solid so its just the "ribs" that go across the hull that are rotten . . . . . so far Still not checked the transome yet . . . I will do that tomorrow.

I will be straight to WHSmiths as soon as they open. If I cant get last months copy does anyone have a copy that I can scan please? Graham.

Merry Christmas everyone .... and enjoy the fishing Colin

Yeah Barney is back in his place. (sort of rules out redundancy don't you think)??