Adam F

Anytime today Martin??

No....I was refering to your home made rod rest that you made from food and beer!!!!

Alan - I might be out Friday weather depandant - ill keep you posted.

The tubular type are a possibilty, and something worth looking at. The RNLI chap commented that ' something is better than nothing, and at present your boat gives a very small radar relection' IMHO, and if money wasnt an issue, the SEE ME type active reflectors are the nutts. They are small and would give BW the same relection as a 30 ton boat!! But at almost 400 quid, id rather have a colour plotter!

Maybe Sunday weather permitting - ill be taking BW though....keep an eye on the weather, as youll need it fairly settled to go out south of the needles. Adam

Well done big fella! Im sorta glad that I sacrificed by title this year to give you a chance! With any luck youll end up with Andy! Well done!

Hi Dave - good to hear from you again! Quite a few of the chaps using the forum have either had dealings or bought boats from you in the past, youll also be pleased to know that you get recommended quite a bit to people who are after boats! Hope to hear from you again. Adam Franklin

Speaking crap! - The brackets have quite a huge amount of adjustability, so as long as the engine when tilted down, and when the bracket is on its lowest setting the engine has enough in the water to work without cavitating too much. In rough seas my Aux can cavitate a little, but it is only a back up and something I can live with. Adam

On a serious note (hard I know, but bear with me! ) when I had my sea check last week the RNLI cahp suggested that if we want a life demonstarion on how to use flares the RNLI will give a controlled one for us one night - I was going to bring it up at the next meeting. Adam

Opinion will be split over this I suspect as much depends on the type of ground you fish, however the most common type for us here on the south coast seems to be the Bruce. The plough is very similar, but has a pivot at 2 points of the anchor - the bruce is fixed. The Bruce holds very well in sand, mud, clay, shingle and reefy ground and may only struggle on very heavy rocky ground. It relies heavily on using a decent length of heavy chain to hold the shank parallel to the sea bed to maximise holding power. On my recent Sea Check it was advised that my 5kg Bruce was too light - they reckon on 1lb per foot of boat, so my Bruce weighs about 13lb and boat is 16.5'......it works for me! I would think that a 7.5KG Bruce using the same chain as you have at present will be fine. Adam

Back in the summer the RNLI were doing free Sea Checks on boats launching or retreaving from Wick, I was in a rush at the time but booked a home visit for later in the year....I had mine on Friday. The Sea Check is FOC, and just aims to advise you on safety aboard your vessel, when you consider the costs of running the RNLI, prevention is better than cure, hence the free Sea Check. My boat has ALL of the equiptment in the clubs list both essential and recommended, therefore I though BW was pass with flying colours. She didnt do bad, but I was surprised about the amount of things he bought up that I didnt have.... 1.) Radar Reflector - essential kit 2.) MOB Recovery equipt. (Harness, strops etc) 3.) Life raft / inflatable dingy 4.) Fire Blanket 5.) Dan Bouy 6.) LM / FM Radio reciever 7.) EPIRB 8.) Emergancy Ariel 9.) Hand Bearing Compass 10.) Binoculars 11.) Shapes (at anchor etc..) The fact that I have 2 batteries for back-up, a back-up GPS, and a spare anchor never appeared on his listed and in his opinion were not as important as the above list...also the fact that I have no room as it is when we go out fishing didnt seem of interest to him. Nevertheless, it was free and was interesting to hear it from their point of view. If you can spare an hour, give the RNLI a call, after all its free.

What are your thoughts on these? Are they relavent for a small fishing craft? Does anyone have one? Differances between the 121mhZ personal units and the bigger ones? Adam

So you recommend the buffer? I have now decided to polish back to gelvoat rather than antitoul, it looks far better on a trail boat. Adam

Cheers Dave, I have applied 2 coats and got about 80% of it off - the rest is too subborn to remove with chemicals, so wet and dry is the way forward. I am basically going to use it as a winter project, as I can still use the boat whilst Im doing it, and do a small section at a time. I have now sanded and polished the starboard topside and you cant see where the old antifouling was! 1 question though? Being lazy and hating manual sanding, I want to use a power tool with a buffing pad on to restore the shine. What do you think is best - an orbital sander fitted with a polishing bonnet, or one of the cheapy car polishers that you can buy?

Look closely at the second picture, youll see a fixed toe step. I think this is the cheapest option, and IMO the best. It doesnt get in the way, is adiquate to board and dismount the boat and is the cheapest option, I wouldnt have a ladder, too cumbersome on a small boat.

And here:...

Coddy: A few photos of the bracket on BW. I find that this position is perfect. The only downside is when the aux is tilted and you are using the rear port rod holder, the reel handle can rub on the aux cowl - just a case of either tilting down the engine. Incidently, the bolts which hold the bracket on have a dual purpose, for the inside of the bolts (Under the transom) hold the battery switch on a plywood mounting worthing thinking about as it is nicley out of the way and means the bracket would have to pull a 8x6" piece of 1" marine ply through the transom before it broke away.

After the events of last weekend, BW needed some patching up on her belly. Fortunatly it was only sknin deep, and a trip over to see Peter R Snr, very kindly saw me kitted up with all the bits I need to repair her. While I was under there looking at what needed doing I had the stupid idea that it would be nice to strip away all of the old anti-foul, and re-polish or antifoul her again...... I bought some gel antifoul remover for

Yep, I think we will now officially postpone the Weymouth trip. Can we re-schedule for a few weekends time? The Bass should still be around - last year it was mid december before they dissaspeared! Personally I dont think that anywhere will be suitable for any decent fishing this weekend. Yesterday or today was your best bet. Adam

James and I went out for a few hours last night - and ended up with a right haul!! 4 different species in total, and about 300......prawns! We had a mullet, gobies, blennies and prawns. Just cooked my batch up, and just finished shelling them...Thai Green Prawn Curry for dinner tonight!! Mmmmmmm!

Duncan, If you have a serach around on the net - you will be able to find a downloadable instruction booklet for your handheld GPS - I have done twice in the past, this will make understanding how to use it easy. I cant really add anything to the above. I used to run with just a handheld, then I got fed up with the battery issue and trying to hold / support the unit and steer, and when in a rough sea a small 1x2" screen is hard to see! Then I went to a Garmin 128 GPS - Fixed, this was a lot better and enables me to do pret much everything I wanted expect navitage in the fog, dark etc.. I also put off buying a plotter as I couldnt see the use in them - until I tried one out on a mates boat, then I was hooked. Nowadays I couldnt do without it. If you want you are welcome to have a trip out with me and play with a few of the toys? Adam

Forecast for Portland Sat is 4-6 SSW - so Sunday is looking unlikey, but well keep fingers crossed. Anyone have any suggestions for an alternative trip? Adam

Sounds good - speak to you 2moro. Adam

So will you if they decide to have a fag before they leave!!!!

Can you pick me up a set next time your at work? Ill ring and confirm the expory and the price, but