duncan

same trip as weymouth return - about 18 quid for Phaeton's fuel......... however I also get through 230 on anodes and 200 on oil and antifouling each year so it's not all smiles... happy to take on hitchhikers if I am heading out though

how about one boat anchors (using everyone's warps tied together) and the rest tie off from that on their mooring lines?

What's the form on this up and coming comp? Are timings fixed or flexible - the option of an early start would seem sensible given the number of boats heading out to the inshore marks recently!

oh - missed them again; damm where they further West? Off Old Harry?

As the first week in June is the school break I hope to be down from the 29th May untill the 7th June and would love to run out there on a suitable day - have you thought of the bank holiday 30th - tides will be smaller? The other thing is that the Lulworth ranges will be closed over this period so there is always the fall back option of dropping onto the inshore grounds there as well.

I stopped off at the Outer Patch Sunday at 1300h to see if anyone was fishing - didn't recognise any boats through the bins and ran back in to Poole........ I am clearly going to have to brush up on my 'member boat recognition skills'! Between the Solent and Poole there appeared to be 2 very distinct groups of boats - outer patch and about a mile East/SE of the end of C/ ledge. 20 odd boats on both areas. All fishing for dab and dogs no doubt.............

I'll call up Charlie's mobile if I am around then

what time and where are you heading? I need (?) to be in Yarmouth for last orders - preferably for food - but could alway chuck a rod on board this time round for an hour or two if the weather looks 'real nice'. I will get messages on mobile through Friday

Oh dear I only have 1 x 210 amp/h battery

main line to 3 way swivel - single 12" amnesia snood to fine wire size 2 - rotten bottom to pear lead (1,2 or 3oz). Vary the length of the weight link to find fish. Fished from a rod that would struggle to land anything of size!!!!

very pretty Whippet - looks just like my Colorado 3.0 TD long wheel base........ re tyres I have got through a whole 4 tyres ie one change in 54,000 miles. Admitidly there was a lot of motorway driving but also a hell of a lot of load/towing (2 trips with family and boat to Spain for example). However I will have to replace another 2 shortly!

I can't resist the "what's in a small difference like that?" Adam.......sorry

A lot of questions! Try looking at it this way possibly...... 1. Small boat and little shelter makes waterproofing a big factor - generally Hand Helds come out better here (for the money spent) 2. Range is a factor of both power and ariel height. However if you are out int eh bay the coastguard will pick up a handheld on their equipement - and you should be able to pick up their transmissions - nav/weather info etc 3. With a hand held you are more likely to be able to hear what is being said when you have background noise (it's up against your ear) in my experience. Telephone handsets fitted to a fitted unit are the best but expensive. 4. HH performance is often a function of batteries - I would seriously recomend Li-Ion because you can charge regardless of battery state and they just seem to perform better. 5. DSC is Digital Selective Calling - you program your ID code (from Offcom with your ships radio licence) into the unit and people can call you direct from their DSC equipement by entering the ID and sending ...... Also it can be linked to your GPS and you simply have to push the distress button for your position to be sent over the airwaves and everyone will know where you have your problem! This is a brief summary - it can do more and has further implications re distress calling etc. 6. A US sourced machine is likely to have most, but not all, commonly used channels in the UK but, without a CE mark, it would be illegal to fit such a unit to your boat in the EU. 7. You can source very reasonable fixed radios for your budget, although ariels and fittings might take it over, - but I would look to provide reasonable shelter for them. In my view you should look to a waterproof HH with a LI-Ion battery if you go that route and it will probably cost around 220 - I have an Icom MEuro-1V (?)and it is brilliant. I hope you can pick out the answers to your questions from this!

there's forecasts - and then theres actual weather................

Come on guys - what else happened out there on Sunday? I am facinated to see some for of 'results' so that I can better understand how the format of these things works out in practice! Does Jimbob get a Breamy bonus for 4 fish, and is that like a cuddly toy, or better? Did everyone else blank completely? Is anyone still out there?

It can vary dependig upon the tow vehicle, but around 25kg (50lbs) is 'normal'. Basically you want it nose heavy but not so much that you affect the handling of the tow vehicle (front wheels in the air a bad sign) or it;s rear suspension. If you can't lift the hitch manually it's probably to heavy! Beware 4 wheel trailers because the hitch height can create additional forces against the pair of wheels if either to high or low which distorte the picture.

makes me feel a little better - the only other craft I saw on the outer patches was about 23ft Colvic style, Ron and one other Charter a little S, maybe True Blue. This was 1330 - 1530 ish. Assumed from your post that you were the colvic thingy.....now know better!

just connect the NMEA OUT (+ve) from the GPS to the IN on the plotter and go fishing or for a beer instead mounting another ariel and routing another cable etc. Alternatively sell GPS (thought you didn't have much space on the console anyway?) and put the plotter ariel where the old one was. Interested in the 'interference' point - surely they are passive systems unless they are using differential beacons?

Ah was that you drifting with Ron? Don't recognise all the boats yet I am afraid. We too ran out early and decided to 'go west' because the conditions were so nice! A couple of hours on the area about half a mile short of St Albans delivered one feisty dog so we moved in to the cliffs, working aour way right back to Anvil stopping every so often, and had some fun with Wrasse. Some reasonably sized, and very pretty fish, but nothing over 2 1/2. Back to plan A, which was ballard, but that just proved frustrating with the wind so strong that we were going East against the full ebb! One good sized Gar for our troubles. Plan B was the outer patch, started a drift (on the wind against the tide again) from Middle Patch to North of Outer, then over Outer and off to the North East. One small Pollack. Ran back in around 1530, washed off the tackle, put boat to bed and headed off home. Nice to be out but not enough action to hang around in those conditions and claim to be enjoying it after the first 6 hours!

I hope you guys are having better conditions and fish than we did Saturday. Had to make a personal call Sat afternoon and decided 'fish another day'. My forecasts (theyr) give solid 5's westerly, you might get a little less first thing, and with the strong ebb from late morning it won't me much fun after midday! Considered sitting on the mooring and scoring 4mullet/4bass but didn't think that really entered the spirit of things!

Big ouch on the weather eh - Saturday looks really nice for boat fishing; Sunday looks like it could be a real *****. Don't suppose we could fish Saturday instead ??????????????

Mike - come on lets have cavitation and resistance humps too.... more seriously whilst I can agree with almost everything I can't help feeling the statement regarding efficient rev range as given is somewhat misleading. maximum revs is going to be in the range 5000 - 5600 for most 2 stroke OBs and the last place you want to be running ins in the last 10% of these revs for your engine where the manufacturers will be using everytrick in the book to maximise power - normally through a second choke on the carbs. on a planning hull, with an appropriate engine, the most effiecient throttle setting will be the one that has the hull fully planning as designed - around 12-15knots for most. this should give you the most miles per gallon and have the engine running at a load it is happy with. a well balanced rig should be happy running between this and around 85% revs without too much change in hull trim or fuel efficiency but above that things tail off and hit the wallet! whilst it doesn't have gears the analogy with cars helps if you think of a car going up a hill in too higher gear (pitch) it is labouring and ultimately inefficient on fuel too whilst too lower gear (pitch) leaves the engine comfortable but using more fuel to cover a given distance than necessary.

distance the boat would travel in one complete turn of the screw for normal OB gearing this equates to approx 100 engine rpm per inch of pitch and they come in 2" pitch sizes (normally) looked at as a gearing the lower the pitch the lower the gearing - and correct gearing will enable the engine to attain between it's max revs and 200rpm lower for a normally loaded boat.

More than OK surely - if you could dial in the winds and tides you would pick what's currently predicted/forecast. What are the club records for Turbot and Plaice currently?

I hope you are not trying to restore our faith in marine mechanics? Seriously great news and no doubt you will have an opportunity to fish over the weekend