Graham Nash

I will find out for you Bob. Failing that I know a few people that have 2 kayaks.They might be willing to take one down for you to use I have looked at buying one since the demo, but cant see any at the sort of price the guy mentioned ...... Do you know of any of your Kayak guys looking to sell one maybe?

its not looking good for the weekend :-(

I am very rarely in the area on a Saturday owing to my young lady living out of the area (which has up sides as well as down ) but I will be trying to be about for that one. I would love to give one a try. Graham

Agreed, It was very interesting. I was amazed at the weight of the things (or lack of weight to be more precise), and I am thinking that maybe I will be buying myself a little prezzie early in the new year :-)

The sunshine motivated us to get on with the work, but once it was completed the heavens opened and remained open all summer! Pictures of our progress. http://s513.photobucket.com/albums/t332/graham241060/

Hi, I am making room for my next project so have to clear some space. I have a Fletcher 14ft Speedboat with no trailer, steering or engine that is on ebay and due to finish Saturday evening, I really do just want it gone and am expecting it to go for around

some of the photography was amazing ..... the seals and the sardines looked like a Walt Disney Cartoon.

they have the neoprine and rubber ones up at The Range.

Exactly. The one I use is black!

good idea Rob. I have always been a little reluctant to use a rope between the trailer & car in case some jet skier decides to do their normal "speed around the struggling fishermen trying to retreave their boat" trick. I suppose of it is nice and brightly coloured they shouldnt really miss it. It would also help immensely in trying to pull the boat & trailer back out once she is on there ok. At the moment we have 3 of us pushing & pulling and it moves very very slowly.

I looked at those rear swinging cradles yesterday at Trailertek, they were about

Freddie, someone recommended that method a while ago to me and i have used it with great success against tide since, but when there is wind and waves I can get it onto the trailer but as soon as I turn the trailer to pull it back up the slipway the waves lift the boat off the trailer again. I even tried strapping the boat to the trailer in the winds last Saturday but the waves actually lifted the boat AND the trailer making it pretty hairy at times. I think once I have the decent winch, the rollers and a lower pulling location I can PULL the boat onto the trailer in shallower water thus preventing the waves from lifting the boat off the trailer. I will probably give it a miss tomorrow (although if we could get it on the trailer tomorrow we should be able to do it almost any time) Graham.

many thanks all for the advice and even an offer of rollers !!! I visited Trailertek this morning and spent another leg buying a monster new 2 speed winch (with braided strap) and some rollers. I am going to try the rope from the gunnells route that Rob suggested before putting an eye in, simply because i would hate to pull a hole in the front of the boat by not doing it right. I will be putting the winch and rollers on tomorrow and will have a little play on Baiter slipway and let everyone know the outcome. Once again many thanks for the advice. I am quite looking forward to seeing if it makes a difference.

good ideas Rob, i think the rope from the gunnels has to be worth a try. As for the swing mooring, I did have one in holes bay but I am not a great believer in human nature and I was constantly worried about things being taken from the boat while i was not about, or even my tender being taken while i was out plus at over

agreed Gary concerning the winch post height, unfortunately my boat does not have a low level eye to connect to so I have to connect at the top of the bow at the anchor roller, this is about 3 feet above the winch, but without fixing an eye just above the waterline I cant see any way of rectifying that. A longer winch post would help but the winch would be about head height then making winding just as difficult. I am intending on picking up a 3500lb winch and wire tomorrow from trailertek while i am there. Maybe someone could advise me how to get a more appropriately positioned eye??

I looked at those too and was tempted, but to be honest I already have the base for rollers to be fixed to so i am sure i can do it much cheaper. (I paid

As i have now decided to keep my displacement hull boat, I need to modify my trailer somewhat. I bought a brand new trailer for the boat when i got it a year ago. This trailer has rollers in the middle but wooden bunks for the keels. This has always been a problem, causing the winch to die the first time we tried to pull the boat onto the trailer so we now have to ensure the boat sits over the trailer then pull both out of the water at the same time, thus the boat gradually lowers onto the bunks and everyone is happy ...... but ...... if there is any swell (which there invariably is) the boat rides over the bunks and rests on the mud guards etc. We then have to go backwards and forwards looking like wally's till it sits right. I think i need to upgrade the winch and put keel rollers onto my wooden bunks to allow us to pull the boat onto the trailer. I think this would work, along with maybe a couple of poles fixed to the side of the trailer to prevent the boat from riding over the side. Can anyone offer any advice on the above, and can you point me in the direction of a decent supplier reasonably locally. I have looked on here and see someone recommending trailertek but I was wondering if there is anything closer? Many thanks in advance Graham.

I booked a fishing trip for my son and I over to Ireland a good few years back, and went over on the ferry specifically to do the days fishing. Anyway the wind blew up on the way over there and when we got to Ireland it was blowing a gale. We caught a bus (with all our fishing gear) from Rosslaire to Wexford to get on our fishing boat and were suprised to see that the water at Wexford was nice and calm with only little crests on the waves. The skipper suggested that we should not go out today as its too rough ..... to which I laughed and told him it looks fine, and I have just sat on a ferry all night to make this trip. The remaining fishermen (all local to Wexford) laughed but agreed that if I was willing then they would make the trip too, so the skipper insisted we wore life jackets and off we went What I didnt realise was that Wexford harbour is a bit like Poole harbour, nicely sheltered!!!!! As we were getting nearer and nearer to the harbour enterance I could see the waves were MASSIVE!!! We exited the harbour into waves that were breaking over the cabin of the boat, I have never been so scared. He kept us out there for about an hour or so, smiling every time he looked at me being sick over the side of the boat before taking pity on me and taking us back. Once we were back alongside he offered me my money back, which of course i declined but he also made me promise that I will never question the skippers judgement again. Lesson learned

2 to 3 meter swell

exactly Zippy. As is mentioned, they are not a salvage firm. If the fishermen decided to put their lives at risk to save the cost of professional salvage, that was their decision. The fact the RNLI showed up to be there "just in case" was IMHO commendable.

My son is a sparks ... self employed and will be very good rates Name Wayne (and he beat me at fishing on saturday ) 07809486816

I tried my car sat nav (on GPS mode) and had checked on Google maps beforehand. I could not get my car sat nav to coincide with what I was looking for. I went out yesterday and bought myself a nice shiny new Garmin Chartplotter that I was intending on christening on Saturday but its looking like the weather has other ideas!

Thanks Alan. For now I have decided to stick with her. I often see sportier boats rocking like a bronco while we are sat quite comfortably on mine fishing happily, but i also quite often see those same boats arrive at the slipway as I am already setting off and they fly past me before I even get to the harbour entrance. To be honest at this moment in time I am fortunate that the cost of trips is of less concern than the comfort so I suppose for now comfort has to take precedence.

Derek & Charlie, what you both say makes perfect sense. The weather is rarely good enough to do the Island anyway so I suppose a trip on a charter on the odd occasion makes much more sense than losing a small fortune on my boat just to get something else that might not tick all the boxes either. I think i will stick with my lovely little boat for now and be grateful for what I have. Many thanks for the replies.