great white

I am 100% behind any progress on this topic, wish it could be quicker It is a shame that more progress can not be made to take the soup off of menu's and collape the demand and profit in fin removal. Charlie

Well done Al I would love to know where you guys fish out there to get loads of eels as a by catch while cod fishing, that seems good to me Much better than the doggies we get LOL Still I need to fix the boat first Charlie

great Vid did they cut the bit of you in your Kayak Steve?

Hi Alun Not like you to have such a bad day I spoke to Paul when Imagine returned , but will leave him to post The weather inside Poole Harbour was great all day, we managed to do all of the boats and the preperations for next weeks dredging, and at the end of the day Alfresco came out to have the snapped control cable changed and the gel repair done. Charlie

Afraid not James Will be busy trying to do a weeks boat movements in just one day If it goes very well that may see Alfresco ashore for her repairs. Good luck if you get out over the bar I expect that you could get some fish after this stir up

Can you remember how it works Paul? Oops sorry I will get my coat

Interesting this, thinking back a couple of seasons when the cod were thick on the starfish grounds we had a few shark incidents out there Perhaps we should be using cod as shark bait. Trouble is you have to find some cod first. Perhaps thats why there are so few about, a few big fish are eating them all. Charlie

Thanks Guys The boats will get fixed but my insurance will take a bump upwards. Oh and if the weathers kind I may need a ride at the weekend Here is the winning fish. Well done will

That sounds like me when we first launched Alfresco [5 years ago] We charged around all over the place [Hey we still do] looking for fish to make up for two years of boat building. Enjoy it Graham

Well we had a plan and were fairly determined to stick to it, especially as Sam was onboard and always tells me off for changing my plans to often. Due to the tides we decided to go out early and fish mostly on the gentler flood tide in only 80ft of water. 0800 had us at anchor on the chosen spot and some big baits going down. During the first hour of the flood we were picking red weed off the line and wondering if we were in the right place. But the weed started to improve and we were getting some fish so we stayed. Most of the fish were LSD and whiting until Ben had a better one nodding away. This proved to be a Thornback of about 7lb or so [returned without weighing LOL] Will was in the cabin cooking breakfast when a gentle bite persisted on his rod. Fish on and even better a COD It was weighed at 9lb 10 and placed on ice in the cooler. another large cuttle bait deployed and back to the Galley. the whiting numbers rose for a while but no more proper fish We fished on for an hour after our comp 7 hrs finished to enjoy the weather and land a few more whiting then had a nice run home on a calm sea. Our day went wrong as we turned within the Yacht Haven to approach our winter berth. The drive unit stuck in fdw gear, which gives us constant 4 knots ahead and even after turning the engine off nothing we could do to prevent hitting a Yacht on its berth. A very loud [and expensive ] crash saw two boats [mine and the yacht] damaged Not a good thing as the Marina Manager trying to tell one of my own customers that my boat damaged his. Still no one was hurt and no one was to blame either, so I will try to get her sorted ASAP, and hope that at least Will's fish stands a chance of winning. Charlie

Well done Mal Best way to learn is to be out there doing it, while taking advice from friendly boats nearby. As a rule to get the anchor to hold, you need at least three times as much rope out as the depth of water, plus a length of chain on the anchor that is at least as long as your boat. If there is a strong tide or a bouncy sea, up that ratio to 5 times the depth. Even with that sometimes the damn thing still comes out. Charlie

I am chuffed for you Graham, well done all. When you told me how much fuel you were burning I knew that something was amiss and I am well pleased that you have found out what and corrected it. I expect that we will see you about more often now. Charlie

Sam saw a grey shape follow one of his whiting to the boat yesterday He thought that it looked like a tope, but I doubt that a tope would spool two reels in a day. Sounds like you had a shark around the boat.

Thanks Neal 12 boats is a good turn out, so lets hope there are some of the big Cod about.

1 Court Jester - Neal Sturt and crew TBA 2/Wishin Too-Nigel Allen,Martin Cherrett,Mike Toms 3, Kingfisher - Chris Witheford and crew TBA 4. Alfresco - Charlie, Sam, Ben, Will. 5/ Wight Magic Dave Evans, Jim ( Tiddler ) and Craig White 6. Serenity - Tony , Martin and Terry Bartell 7. Kind of Magic-Allan, Dave S. +possibly one other. 8, Dream Drifter. Alfie, stuart + one 9, Mistress. Graham + one (maybe 2 non members) assuming i get my new prop fitted in time 10, JV. Adam, Alun & Joe 11. Manta Ray, PJ +1, PaulD +1, Tomo, Tubby, Len plus 1 TBA

Or the netting of whole shoals of tuna, then keeping them netted up and feed them 10lb of mackeral for every pound they gain in weight, until they are fat enough to sell at huge profit to the japanese

Try the "VIP" area at the back mate

I believe that this subject has been discussed at Meetings and by Committee many times. We have even tried Sat comps without any increased turnouts Perhaps its time to put up a poll again, to see what Members think. It is a tough one trying to please Members while working with forecasts and changing weather. IMHO it is not one that Neal should have to answer on his own. There are a few other things to consider, the main one being safety. Charlie Fingers crossed to get out again at the weekend.

1 Court Jester - Neal Sturt and crew TBA 2/Wishin Too-Nigel Allen,Martin Cherrett,Mike Toms 3, Kingfisher - Chris Witheford and crew TBA 4. Alfresco - Charlie, Sam, Dan?? Ben plus TBC 5/ Wight Magic Dave Evans, Jim ( Tiddler ) and Craig White 6. Serenity - Tony , Martin and room for one more 7. Kind of Magic-Allan, Dave S. +possibly one other.

Happy Birthday Terry I hope you have a great time, whatever you are up to. Charlie

Sorry I had presumed from earlier in the thread that the hull was clean. Slime will easily take speed down and in 4 months you will gain a lot of slime. I see this all the time at work, and our racing yachts would not go more than about two weeks between hull cleans. Its only been a couple of months since Alfresco was last cleaned by a diver and she is already slowing down. Yesterday we cruised at 18 where in that weather at 2500 we normally get 20. Charlie

Sch Nigle, don't tell everbody

1 Court Jester - Neal Sturt and crew TBA 2/Wishin Too-Nigel Allen,Martin Cherrett,Mike Toms 3, Kingfisher - Chris Witheford and crew TBA 4. Alfresco - Charlie, Sam, Dan?? plus others TBC

Monopoly You'll never look at the game the same way again! Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich(as POWs), and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape... Now, obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and shelter. Paper maps had some real drawbacks -- they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly and, if they get wet, they turn into mush. Someone in MI-5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, can be unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise whatsoever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk and that was John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the UK licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into CARE packages, dispatched by the International Red Cross to prisoners-of-war. Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were regional system. When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece. As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add: 1. A playing token containing a small magnetic compass; 2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together; and 3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money! British and American air crews were advised, before taking off on their first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set -- by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the 'Free Parking' square. Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful ruse in still another, future war. The story wasn't declassified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the firm itself, were finally honoured in a public ceremony. It's always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card!

We had a nice early start to maximise our daylight time. 0715 we were on our way to the needles car park, when we arrived an hour later there were so many boats it was hard to find a known mark that did not have a boat on it. [we counted 72] We fished the whole tide for many many LSD and pout and one tiny conger. By 1400 we moved and White Magic came with us to a mark 5 miles nearer to Poole. More LSD but at least here there were a few whiting for the table [ben had a PB which was great for him, but not that difficult as had never caught one before ] A lovely day to be out fishing, but a very slow day Charlie