Newboy

There's my 1 3/4, alas my first bass caught aboard my boat ......

Nah..... a small village of less than 200 families, and I doubt very much every household want a bb.

Would love bb, but they don't do it over where I live, BT wants 200 orders before they will consider. I have been told AOL connection can lead to problems with message boards/chatrooms. Something about not able to log on or being barred all together, something to do with cookies I believe.

That reminds me to chop some braid off one of my reel, there's a 3 foot section which is showing signs of frail, everytime I told myself to fix it when I get home, and each time I'd completely forgotten about it.

Regarding the buckets, if you're friendly with any bakers in your area, ask them if they have any large buckets? They are used to hold ingredients etc. Same as what I use them for. Have a look, if they are no good, it still doesn't cost you a penny.

No worries. Regarding the battery, I think you'll find that the mower 12v battery is basicly an auto battery (like those used on bikes) and they have to be continiously charged by the alternator. They don't like being discharge completely very often or the cells will die prementrally. A leisure battery will be a better bet, they are cheap as chip, around

The buckets I have is about 12" diameter by 12" high, not sure about litreage, 20l (?) rough guess. The lids are not screw type, but push on tight fit type. Let me know if they are any good, I have 2 now, and 1 at monthly interval, I can drop them off to you (you're @soton, right?) if you want, I tend to be in/near soton every other week.

I just bought mine at

It's free at Warash, so is the parking. However, the slip isn't concreted as in Lymington, it's firm gravels. I didn't have [much] problems, other than avoid the high and low tide.

Both engines flushed out as soon as I got home, one with a small dustgin and the other with an engine muff. Why? cos the 30hp won't fit in the dustbin and the 10 hp has a raised inlet which the muff won't fit . I jetted the boat and the trailer down, a power jet is wonderful in clearing bit of dirts of both boat and trailer.

Interesting day launching from warsash, considering it's my first launching. Reverse the trailer down the slipway, unwound the strip and nothing, a few hard push, nothing, 'maybe I need to get the boat a bit further down water' I said to myself. Off went another few feet into the water, now the tow bar is touching water. still nothing, then the other half noticed I'd forgotten to unclip the chain..... doh! At least not many people about and no one paid any attention to what I was doing or not in this case. We motored out off hamble, across to calshot direction, the outboard started to sound funny, struggling, on closer inspection there was no water coming out. Stop the engine and luckily we'd already crossed the shipping lane. I thought it might be the impellor, but that was changed when it was serviced 2 mouths ago. Changed over to the aux, didn't want to go too far cos it will take forever to come back. Parked/anchored up and not sure where we were exactly, but it was only in 6 feet of water and rising. fished for 2 hours and caught one bass about 1 3/4, lots of crabs. When I'd a minute, lifted up the main outbard and noticed some weeds straddled across the water intake holes, cleared it and it started without any problems, water jet fine, on way back. We did a little detour across the rivermouth and came back from near the Hillend. The boat did about 12mph (on the gps), so what's that in knots? Maybe the weed blocked out the water inlet and stopped water being pumped up?! Anyone had similar problems or not? I'll run the outboard for a few hours and see if it happens again. On retrieve, we came back too early and it was just after high tide and the slip is very boggy at the top, no choice but to push trailer out and rope it in. As paul D said, there are always audiences when things go wrong. Wind is northernly, slip is due east. So everytime I line up the boat, walk round to the front to wround it in, the boat is already been pushed out by the wind. Eventually after 4 attempts and a loud cheers from onlookers the boat is on the trailer slowly winched up, which was the easy bit . Afterward got talking to an old man, he asked me what boat was mine, he'd a sheltie and looked very much like mine except there wasn't much cabin in his one. I told him it is a Suntrip which is a variation of sheltie. He informed me the best time to launch and retrieve is 2-3 hours either side of high tide. All in all a fun packed day and will definitely do it again soon.

Boat's name is bosscat, but the missus have ordered a new name and waiting for the lettering to arrive. P.S. Vhf installed by yet to try out at sea. so fingers cross ......

Carlisle? You're bloody mad ..... Did you take the dosh with you? Did you take

Hopefully I will be out tomorrow, touch wood. The last time I said this and the main sprung a leak. I 'll be launching from warsach and will probably fish the west solent. May even see you out there, we're dead easy to spot, we'll be the one going round and round in circles.....

Thanks Martin. At least I know if I decided to go for a larger boat I have the option of roping it up the slipway with my passat. Now the only other problem is the boats I wanted to view are down at St Austell, which is over 4 hours from here. wonder if the missus fancys a drive thru hants, dorest,devon and cornwall......

Martin, have you try launching and retrieving with the volvo? Any good or not?

Re crewing for Paul D So that's why he makes me sit on the bonnet in me underpants!! And I thought he was just kinky Mad Mike Count yourself lucky he ain't tying you to the front of the boat as lady luck ..... Second thought, what a horrible sight .....

Seen it on telly, if fwd car start to spin/slip, get someone to sit on the bonnet for extra weights/grip. Not recommended if you have a nice shiny bonnet ......

Duncan, on light gear I just use the paloma (?) and wrap the snap-swivel round it, make life easier if I want to change things.

Adam, just had a look at Tamside website, the boat isn't a Galia, Cormoron. Thanks for the link. http://www.tameside.co.uk/cormoran/pg_cormoran.htm

Martin, just out of interest, what is the smallest car you'd been able to trail Maverick on? If I remember right you said it is around a 1 1/4 T?!

To cut a long story short, my wife and I have decided the Shetland isn't for us. We both want something quite a bit faster. My wife is just as a keen fisherman(woman) as I am. It's probably uneconimical to make it up to speed. We will sell our shetland and buy something faster. We budgeted 8k plus whatever we can get for the shetland (hopefully close to 2k). We have done some research into different boats and what we require from a boat. My brief: A boat I can go fishing in, must be fast around 20+knots (the faster the better ), stable at sea in most condition. I'm not too bother whether it has a wheel house or under cover, as I'm unlikely to go out in it in the rain or adverse weather. Her brief: a boat she can go fishing in, doubling up as a fun boat for the whole family. Something nice and comfortable, also we will be taking the kids out from time to time, so a high side is a must, somewhere they can sleep when they become tired. The cuddy must be high, reason being we have a potti in the shetland but it's impossible for her to use cos the cuddy is only about 4' high. A cover would be an advantage. We looked at the Quicksilver , Jeanneau, Arvor, raider, sealine, bayliner,.... We ruled out the raiders cos they don't have cuddy (nowhere for her to take a wee). I like the Quicksilver/jeanneau, but can't afford any of the pilot house type, only the 4xx cabin or cruisers, but she doesn;t like them cos they have low roofs. Arvor too dear, I myself quite like the bayliner trophy, but the missus has her eyes on a sealine 18 or a bayliner 2155 ciera. The good news are that they are within my budget, they both can go 30+, stable at sea and longer trips/ranges are possible if desire. The bad news are that both have small deck space, no more than 8' x 6'. Now, only if I can convince the missus about the unknown craft ...... I might, just might be in business. Here's a pic of a 2155

I thought of an Arvor initially, but Arvor doesn't have a glass all round wheelhouse, some part of it is grp. I saw it advertised for 7k boat only and I was tempted ....... I was thinking 7k + 3k for an ob around 70hp and it would make an wonderful fishing boat for 10k. P.S. been told it's an ob set up.

It looks like a Jeanneau, but from its side, it likes it begins with 'C'. I've been told it's 650kg w/o engine, what would the minimum hp be for it to plane, and maybe at something like 20knots+?

As they now restrict free access to 100 pages per month. Still, it should be plenty for the odd fishing trips.