duncan

Mike - absolutely agree with the neutralisation - generally this is achieved to a great degree by polish and wax on a boat after a good 'wash off'. GRP and SS appreciate the attention!

Tom - the optimum (critical/key/?) word you used was brillo. Next you will be trying to convince me that when you said 'hoover' you meant use a 'dustpan and brush'.....

brillo pads and GRP hulls you have got to be kidding (or working for a repair man!!!

Sorry but advice like this need qualifing very carefully - gently use, only over areas already coated with antifoul etc etc

personally I don't mix chemicals with physical methods at all - and being a lazy sod I now use chemicals.

as said things like Starbite 'hull cleaner' are expensive. I believe this is a very dilute hydrochloric acid - well not that dilute as it can melt brushes and many rollers etc v quickly. far better, and safer, is to make up a saturated solution of oxalic acid, add a bit of wallpaper past or other starch to thicken and dollop on the hull, deck, whatever. it will (1) remove stainless rust stains (2) draw that nasty brown stain out of the hull at waterline and (3) bye bye the odd bit of weed etc that survived a quick jet wash.

then wash off and polish and wax the GRP/metal - recoat the antifoul.

500g to about 3l hot water works for me - 30 minutes but you can leave it longer without a problem.

simple answer is yes

so now the fish are there.............over to others about how you get them on the hook and into the boat...............

Jack?

they already process the sandeels for pigs (Dutch had 3 processing plants doing it!) so a few for the cod farm ...........

I always felt the main difference with farmed seabass was that it was gererally warm water/faster bred. Our resident expert on fish farming may be able to add a bit more!?!

great story Fred, shame about the fish.........

this is of course why many don't like wrecking - always seems so hit and miss!

right now the pollack seem as absent as the winter cod - anyone want to bet on the bream actually turning up at all this spring?

Your welcome to come and have a go on my Whaler.

 

you have to dress like an artic explorer this time of year though

ah what a shame..............

I found it not much better with a cuddy...........

then there was the hard top.............

finally the hard top with heater.............

takes your choice I guess.

on a more serious note re dory's I found mine (17ft Fletcher) had a relatively low freeboard and you feel 'exposed' in a way that the Orkney and others of that ilk just doesn't.

equally that same 'stability' means that when the wter is going up and down - at anchor or drifting - you do too.

and I'm not saying when I'm off on holliers

no need - you already have!!!!!!!!!

timed just after the sea temp goes over the magic 21 C. (Marlin start running...  ......&..tuna  , &  dorado etc etc.....)

now you tell them Fred.....................that'll cheer them up!

lol

as is Sam etc

Hope they are OK..............or could they just be busy?

Orkney 440 / 520 from that list - you can be happy running at displacement sppeds with smaller engines but still head out with confidence.

leaving aside the wonderfull debate on tidal flows...............

.....and back to the navigation marks -

whilst there are always easy ways of remembering things (for some) this of course requires remembering in the first place.

may I suggest that you remember only one thing - navigation is there to welcome a stranger INTO a port.

thus going IN the navigation matches yours; and you should reciprocate the friendly welcome by passing close to the friendly GREEN for Go matching buoys.

If the above confuses I would remind you you have navigation light on your boat.........the Green is on the starboard side, red to port. Thus traveling into a port or estuary you pass red to red and green to green and closer to the green ones.

Knowing this is is simple to work out the reverse when leaving ie your Green to Red.

Small boat channels are of course the exception but in Poole I will admit to using the main channel going in in good vis - and getting out of it if I spot a commercial!

have now spent some time comparing the 2 charts on the one plotter..................

1. No discernable difference on detail overall but the odd thing like Nothney Marina Pontoons missing from the Nautipath

2. Nauti path has a lovely 'recomended route' in some of those 'hazadous' areas (around the Channel Islands and North Brittany etc) which looks excellent.

3. Navionics has more land based info like 'landing stage' in words on it.

4. Nautipath seems to use colour better showing the drying areas pretty much as a chart whilst my Navionics shows clear contour lines but no shading below HW mark. This means that the Nautiparth gives a better picture to my mind.

5. Navionics handles buoyage better overall - Nautipath needs to be at the right scale for it to all look balanced; but then it's really good.

6. Tidal heights (Nautipath) and flows (both) need testing in action but look useful.

Will check them both on the B&W (15MT) next time I have a moment on the boat but initial reaction is that the Navionics will be run in the BW unit and the Nautipath in the colour.

still working on it Paul!

dinner party for 10 - most of the coking done but just a touch too much booze already (and the guests don't arrive for 15mins!)

ty sir - so far it's been a day of halves - birthday started at 1226 officially (when I finally got the heating boiler back together after 3 days without heating..............)

since then it's been great!!!!

re bongo's I stripped the drum (stainless steel) out of a washing machine and added a lid...............nil cost and you couldn't have designed a better unti for the job!

generally you have either marinas (which enable the walk on convienince you indicate) or moorings, which will require the use of a tendder to get out to - although they are mainy all tide access in this area due to the small tidal range in those harbours.

some are avaiable in Poole Harbour at around 600 ps plus the harbour fees, crown estate fees etc bringing the annual costs up to 7-800

marina fees are per metre and (1) few small boat spaces are available in Poole (2) as said they are quite expensive - 3-500 pm/pa ie you won't get a lot of change out of 2000 for a 6m boat.

acasry - vote for ifsh and it registered fishing on the edge............

you're welcome - to the welcome....................

I have (or will have when Redcar and their shipping agents get their act together) both the Navionics Gold and Lorance charts and will post some screen shots for comparison in due course.

The Lowance Nautipath range are based on Transas cartography which differes from the Navionics (unlike Garmin's Gcharts which were the same for example) but it's going to be as much about how the unit displays the info as anything else.

I wasn't suggesting anything Kam.

However conger fishing has it's own unique (well over here anyway) set of circumstances -

1. tough mouths so you won't get a hook pull (stopping a pollack in it's tracks will often get ripped mouth result if your tackle holds together)

2. giving line may result in a lost fish

3. even a long trace may give the fish enough room to get to cover before registering a bite

4. getting the fishes head pointing the direection you want it to go is no guarantee it will go that way!

Thus over the years you will find a wide range of solutions being developed for all the above - right up to Vic Evans ultimate solution -

Big reel

Drag done up with pliers - ie no longer a drag but a direct drive system!

Solid metal bar snood between boom and hook - coathanger wire is excellent!

If good braid was around then he would have been using 120lb!

With the above the rod is going to be whatever you can hang on to!!!

As stated above a longer rod can provide more leaverage but generally a shorter rod allows you to put all the loading you can handle into the fight - it has often been suggested that 25lb is realistically all the load you can really put into the equation over time - and equally for everything but conger (over here) all you need to. But of course higher load are exhibited from time to time!

Basically Short rod = low gear

Long rod = high gear but few have the power to use it!

Personally I use braid for everything but have lever drag reels set light and generally softer rods.

My one 'exception' is a Berkley Firestick 50lb 7'6" rod (which is a vv fast taper)which I twin with the Formula 15kg and 60lb XDS braid - however I use it maybe once a year and have yet to hook anything on it that can bend it..............someday I will be on that offshore wreck and just know it's the time!

great ansews.

just pick up on this point though

A longer rod tends to absorb much more of the lunges and dives a fish makes and as a result is a little less forgiving when using braided line with nearly no stretch.

I think you meant a little more forgiving

some of these are already directly or indirectly covered already............

1. For the content you are carring is is daft to have people scrolling the page, or even text frames. It is really daft to have pages set so that they just don't view in a 1024x768 window horizontally, and then reset the scroll if they click on an image or other button! Working to 1024x768 is pretty much a standard.

2. Make you r mind up about what you will have on the site (even if you are not delivering it all to start, so that it doesn't (now or later) look like it is evolving with bits and links tagged on here and there.

3. Brokerage is awfull - you cannot find out the basic information unless it happens to be in the title - What engine has ref somo01-3836 got (yes I know it's a Yanmar but I am less likely to contact you without this basic knowledge).

4. On the other hand the same boats brokerage page has better images / layout diagrams than some of the new boats............

5. I really don't want to click 5 times on unnamed buttons to get the specification for a 21ft fisher....I know they are well speced but..........

You really do need to understand where your website fits with your business to make any sense out of it. For example I thought SMB prided themselves on a personal touch - where are the staff photos and mobile numbers? Including Service staff! If I was thinking of buying a new boat it would give me huge confidence to see the face and have the mobile of the guy 'who sorts things'.

not far wrong - but be fair

Phil<

They make a god wrasse bait, and will take other species at times but are not the most effective eg. hermit will outfish them for most species.

Peeler is plentiful in the harbour - every crab in the harbour will peel at least once in a year! However there is a significant pressure on them from professional and amature collectors which, combined with the small tidal ranges, leads to huge pressure on the hotspots!