duncan

wow - seems like only yesterday you were starting the project (to me!) can you explain the baffles and transom bit a little more? presume the water is the indirect cooling water leg -> cooler -> exhaust elbow -> exhaust system but that shouldn't be linked to anything that's open to the inside of the transom!

this might interest you

smart and functional Adam - nice job. what have you decided about security for the cabin area? you clearly have the option to seal it very effectively - which would require someone to cause significant damage to the boat to get it (still easy with modern cordless powertools of course), a nominal lock or soething inbetween? my question was triggered by the door hinges which appear to be capable of beng unscrewed from the outside (as mine have been twice) btw I might have installed 3 hinges to keep things more firmly alligned and therefore watertight etc looks like it's coming on well though - solid beasts!

I'll have one that's too big for Adam............

looks like I am out - major set back.........off to bed

feeling remarkably good allround - the alcohol relaxed things and the walk back from the station kept things mobile. most amazing thing is the way that having your body 'fully loaded' with voltrol and ibuprophen on a permenant basis seems to shrug off the otherwise painful aspects of (conservatively) 50 units.......... anyhow I am definitiely one step closer to getting out this weekend but am unlikely to make a CI run for 'political' reasons

well myosteopath thinks it might be a good idea for me as R&R - but when I asked him to put it is writing for the FPO ............................ still the small matter of me actualy getting to Poole without sitting as well

nearly the right link BB ................ details are here for SIG knot

or even the 2008 guide now! Coast Guard office on the quay is a good source for these best but they may be out of them by now. I am happy to convert to a .pdf as a reference document for the site, and request any necessary permissions (although I think it states it can be freely distributed) if that's any use going forwards Paul?

Thanks Paul - look familiar. Alun - 6 weekends a year (outwith school holidays) have firing scheduled but it looks like they have increasingly focused these early / late and it's only the 20th July one that's likely to catch the boaters (autumn may affect use anglers though). Back's not going forwards so I don't think I will get down though.

anyone know if the Lulworth ranges are scheduled to be firing over the coming weekend? my 2008 leaflet is in the caravan - which is no use at all! all in a vain hope at my end but I need something to look forward to if a miracle does occur..............and bobbing about in that area for 48 hours looks good to me.

well you impressed others with the boat at least Martin - "I think Ospreyman got him started and he opted to scoot back to Poole, don't know who it was but he had a hell of a nice boat!." Sorry to hear about the troubles. From the way you wrote up the experience it sounds like a textbook approach - although I might have held of anchoring on the basis that without power or engine I might struggle to recover it and it would make another boat coming alongside a touch trickier. These portable power packs are certainly usefull things and can even kick over these marine diesels - but then again they need to be as maintained as one of your normal batteries ....... Glad you got back OK and that certainly sounds like a great fish for Dean.

1. I would be surprised if none of your electronics had a readout available somewhere in windows/overlays/menus 2. When starting up the engine prior to using the windlass you do need to give it a quick kick up to 1200 revs or so on mine to bring the alternator online - if I throttle back to neutral it remains kicking out 14.4v but if I simple start it and don't touch the throttle it will not be feeding the battery etc at all so the windlass would be running on stored battery power alone. you definitely need to find a problem rather than have it just go away (in my experience) - 'cos they come back! finally you always need to know how to bypass all the posssible bits that prevent the starting and running of an engine - without having to go back to first principles at the time. Over the years these have included the following for Phaeton and are now pretty much ingrained when faced with a problem in the won't start / won't run department. They are all obvious - except when it's getting dark and you want to go home, the winds going agains the tide and that added urgency of knowing you said you would be home 4 hours ago......... Fuel - 1. debris in the fuel pick up pipe at the bottom of the tank - disconect fuel pipe from tank and blow hard back down it! 2. electro magnetic fuel solenoid blocked with some accumulater debris - know you have one, realise the possibility and simply bypass it if experiencing problems (thanks to Shelia Marie for the assistance back in when this struck and we didn't think of it) 3. fuel filters - enough said and shoud be a 1 minute job on the primary.... 4. secondary fuel filter should never be a problem 'cos you have a primary and it's much better treated as a preventative maintenance item and a right pain sometimes. Electricity - 5. battery isolator switches - bypassed very easily by connecting the cable ends to the same lug. This also covers connceting all you batteries to the starter motor if you don't have a 1/2/both isolator system. 6. starter motor - they don't like hammers but it you feel the need use the handle end. 7. starter motor solenoid / ignition circuit problems - have a large well insulated screwdriver to short across the terminals but keep clear of the pulleys. 8. 'start in gear protection' does too good a job - cut the purple wire and leave it cut (in my case). Not permitted in the US or recommended on someone elses's ski boat. Some Volvo OD units can have a similar issue if they have been 'lightly grounded' in gear.

and the issue was..............?

my current disc problems are increasingly looking like a cancellation of next weeks trip to Skye ........... which may just mean I can make the 48hr run afterall. clearly this will be dicing with disaster and questions such as why I can't drive to the highlands and back (or play the golf event at Turnberry scheduled on the way back down............. ) but can rough it on the boat and take a pounding from the sea will be asked for months to come! yesterday's epidural treatment is yet to kick in fully and the sciatic pain remains a problem - but only after lying down/sleeping (drug induced) - it's fine standing up. Friday's free in the diary if I don't get sorted soon (tomorrow), Phaeton's fueled and ready; new porgy traces made up, camper canvas installed and the dingy's on the back as well this time.

some great stuff appearing on u tube now about knots - sometimes it's difficult to tell what knot is actually being tied as many are how to tie and slight variations on other knots! braid has bought about a few tweaks here and there too - the additional turn within the loop before and after the wraps on the 'improved' albright being a good example - but beware because some of these tweaks can do more harm than good! to illustrate this consider....... once upon a time the accepted way to combine braid to nylon was to use 2 uni - knots or grinners, with the number of turns being diameter based in the same way as using the knots for hooks/swivels etc and generally with more turns of braid. this seemed to work well and produced a very neat knot. in fact it's still used for shock leaders but not for joins in lines of similar strength. the reason itn't to do with diameters ,but strength - where the braid is tightened on a single strand of nylon it cuts into it causing weakess. for a shockleader conection this doesn't matter as the weakness in a 60lb line at the knot is still stronger than the 15-20lb line on the other side of the knot! as illustrated above the albright has the braid turns tightening around the doubled nylon (and to a degree padded by itself) which is more consistent and reduces the impact of the braid cuttinginto the nylon in the knot strength. Adding the single turns within the loop before the wraps (as illustrated in the video 'improved allbright) would seem to me to add a weakness not strength when using braid to mono for this reason. having some time on my hands, and still smarting from that lost 'biggy' even though it was component rather than knot failure, I recently re tied all my tope, conger and ray traces and spent a bit of time on heavy nylon knotting - ending up with a completely new knot to me that I am very pleased with. learn new something every year in this area (but it's probably been used by people for centuries. aren't knots fun!

this is an interesting topic everytime it comes up - mainly because there are different degrees of 'polishing up'! Mer is great for an easy wipe on wipe off finish and if you are using it weekly it will give you some protection. As an annual (bi-annual or in my case every 5 years) makeover product it's useless. The 3 key process elements are 1. repairs 2. cutting 3. adding protection layer it's obvious to do 1 properly before the other 2 - and even more so when you try and do it after no3! for a reasonable level of cut (a couple of years neglect) I use Farclea G4 on a Meguiar's soft buff foam cutting pad (w7006). These will last a long time and are a world away from "a bit of foam on velcro". Keep the surface well moistened and 1500-2000rpm. When that's finished and all washed off you get to work with a good wax, as Adam say's above. No real substitute for doing this by hand and using a good microfible cloth to buff it up. I used collinite wax. Everything you could ever want about this stuff is available at www.cleanandshiny.co.uk Eye openers for me were (1) how much difference a good buffing pad makes and (2) just how far one small tin of wax goes! The above will get you to showroom (or better) finish from just about any condition.

you have some pointers already but I would add the following - 1. many modern electronics incorporate a voltmeter window - but you have to go looking for it or create an overlay. Well worth having it present all the time. 2. using that, or connecting a basic unit across the load of a unit (the back of the windlass solenoid is perfect) check as suggested above - specifically start engine increase revs on engine to 1000 to kick in the alternator switch all the b/switches to on you should have about 14.2 - 14.4 volts on your supply side if the alternator is 'reaching' those points! however you can simply switch the aux b/switch off and see if the voltage reading drops as well. running the windlass direct from battery without a charge voltage is not a good idea for either the battery or the windlass. overall this is one of those things on a boat that you really should pull apart and understand anyway ie if the engine start battery fails how would you connect the aux battery to use that? physically disconnect and swap? etc etc actually there is only really fuel/battery (and associated like starter motor/solenoid etc) and steering on a diesel boat - and the good news is that once started you can discount the battery bits until you need to start it again - another reason why voltage readings in full view are really usefull! other thing is a quick call to the retailer as they may have installed the aux and they don't all have the same ideas as to how to do it!

Bob likes good Scotch..............

having crossed for the 48 hr over the last couple of years I manageed to screw up diaries this year to the extent that I can't make either Weymouth next weekend or the following one for the 48hr. this probably means the weather will be superb........... I have a diary opportunity for the 20th/21/22 (biggish tides) or working something round the next one 28/29. With the daylight hours it's quite realistic to run over Fri night and back Sunday but you have to forego the wrecks. the big but for me is that I currently have a bulging disc which looks like ruining all my plans - and is psycologically impacting my ability to make plans as well!

I could chuck in "carrying enough petrol onboard to make the auxillary a realistic safety measure would bring other safety issues with it............" when the team did the seacheck on Phaeton they discussed and dismissed an auxiallary on the basis that it would need at least 8hp and probably 10 to make way in most conditions (from danger), be difficult to mount securely in a manner that would provide drive in any sea and would need a significant quantity of petrol stored somewhere (?) to cover any distance at all. Overall they suggested, and I agreed, that 2 good rigged anchors capable of handling the boat properly (rather than lunch stops) and a well maintained tool/spares onboard would be a better solution all round. This was of course a boat specific comment and doesn't necessarily transfer to any other craft etc etc. sorry to hear about gnasher's problems - with hook pulls. there is nothing worse than the uncertainty of the one that got away. At least it wasn't gear failure.

I am goingto award myself an estimatng prize - toppped up on Friday and it took 287 litres. Allowing the bit between the fuel and Rockley x 2 it would have been almost exactly 280 litres used on the trip! fuel guage remains useless - was showing empty with 113 litres remaining. One day I will have to actually run the tank dry though - should have done it this time - just to run those last few litres from the bottom for once.

OK count me in too - I will be down and will make a point of wetting a hook from Phaeton at some point on Sunday.

nice day's fishing Alun I like the idea of a large garden aeration tank to keep your mackerel alive between trips - is this a new istallation and does it so the job?

nope but I think everyone is in agreement with the basic principles - 1. accessible 2. isolated (physically) to an appropriate degree for both electrical and corrosive spills 3. secure - really really secure; way more than sat in a 2 part plastic box somewhere secure 4. maintained - with a focus on terminals 5. ventilated (consistent with the above) mine are in a dedicated locker (well there's nothing else in there) accessible via a deck hatch, held in place by 13mmx beads and straps and ventilated overboard - but they don't sit in plastic 'battery boxes'. interestingly my previous boat had the battery in a nice box, installed (wedged) behind the fitted fuel tank (petrol) such that you had to remove the tank to get at the battery!