great white

Happy Birthday Dean I hope you are having a good one I doubt even you will be fishing in this weather Charlie

The boatyard and shed at work were flooded today The highest anyone had seen at the Club for 18 years Charlie

North Haven Yacht Club, used to be a good starter for inexpensive moorings But I see they are having a new clubhouse built so Club prices may well have gone up. Charlie

Adam It looks like you need to consider getting a boat with effiecient propulsion and "Inefficient heater" Charlie

Just received this at work Looks like its time to fit a diesel heater Charlie Wednesday 5th March 2008 RED DIESEL UPDATE Last week, Government made an announcement regarding the outcomes of the consultation on Red Diesel. Key features of the new scheme for charging duty on marine diesel to be introduced by Her Majesty

Good luck with the sale Adam and the search for her replacement charlie

Hi James and welcome The more you join in the more you will get out of it. there is an awfull lot of experiance and knowledge to tap in to. Look forward to meeting you at a Club event Charlie

Great service well worth a mention Glad to see that AWol is looking good again Charlie

Hi Alan nice to chat on Wed and I am not at all sad that I could not join you in the bay instead of going back to work [Honest] I hope that some of the hints were usefull If you are doing the splice put two strands in from 1 side of the chain link and the other strand from the opposite side, then splice from there. It stops the splce bing too thick and jamming in the windlass Charlie

Nice one Paul

My setup struggled to go in again yesterday in the big tides. so I think its time for a bit more chain or another type of anchor. Charlie

If you are fitting a plywood pad on the deck I have loads of the fixings used by boatbuilders instead of nuts they are fitted under the pad and have spikes that cut into the ply and prevent turning as the machine screw fixings are tightened. Charlie

Hi Alan I will try and add some hints to help, but the best idea may be to offer to take you out or to come onbosrd with you to try and offer advice. I also have both systems, and in nearly all fishing use the heavier anchor chain and alderney ring. The stowage for my main rope is a cockpit locker, the Buoy is attached to teh ring and the anchor warp passed through prior to attaching the chain and anchor. when in position the anchor is lowered from the cockpit, after it hits the bottom the warp is taken fwd while still paying out and under no load, it comes on deck via a fairlead, around the stem post and fwd over the bow roller. As we drift back and are in position the warp is tied off on the spring cleat. When lifting I take the tension off the warp with the engine and release the warp from the bow and motor around the buoy with the warp attached to the spring cleat. Then motor off untill the anchor is up in the alderney ring Its then just a case of motoring the boat uptide of the buoy and pulling in a fairly light loaded warp. I am fortunate enough to have picked a big bow roller that can be used in this way without removing the bruce anchor on the windlas system. When I first launched I strted by removing the bruce which I have now stopped doing as it is good to always have this rigged, and it means the other anchor can be stowed on our way in at the end of a day. I hope that all amkes sense as i said earlier its easier to show than discribe. Even with the boat alongside My system is always dropped and recovered on teh stbd side, but that has never been a problem in 15 years using this technique on GW. Charlie

I must agree with Duncan again Its abalance of what you gain and what it costs in terms of work to the boat costs and balance of the boat ashore and afloat. I have the system and so far I have only used it once outside the harbour. It does have its uses and in the shallows of the harbour when used on all chain its great to start the engine and push the switch on the dash to lift the anchor from the helm position. Charlie

Anyone going out at the weekend And if so what are the target species? Charlie

I had put it down to a bad day But another skipper reminded me that a lot of shingle dredging has been done in that area recently, so the ground may have been disturbed. The anchor did come up covered in clay We hope to get out on Sunday and will see how it goes then Charlie

One of our sponsors Marine Electronic Services would be more than happy to discuss the various units with you They are in the same building as Tom in Salterns so I am sure you have seen their shop 01202 707007 I believe is the number. As coddy says you can get a lot of personal choices on here [Mine is Lowrance and Navionics Gold] but they have a wide range to discuss and will offer Members discount. Charlie

Hi Craig Have you checked with quicksilver if it is an option to fit one? If so they will have a model to suggest I have one on the bow of alfresco it is a fairly heavy unit with a gypsy to take 12 to 14mm rope and calibrated 9.5mm chain, with deck and console controls. I would suggest talking to suppliers about one to suit the size of rope and chain you use and matching the power and size to what you use. Check with Pete at Quay West Chandlers I am sure he can help you out. You will need to run heavy cable to and from the unit as well as suitable controls so remember to allow for the cost and weight of those, and if it is self stowing you will need a fairly large locker inside the boat for the warp and chain to run into. Fitting a windlass to the bow adds a lot of fwd weight both on the water and on the trailer, so please remember to take that into account And as you say you may have to beef up the fwd deck to give the strenth and stiffness you require. Hope that helps Charlie

Hi Pete, I have no wish to re start the great anchor debate ,but as you asked I was using a 25lb CQR [rigged to trip ]and about 35ft of 10mm chain to a full coil[220m] of 12mm nylon and Alderney ring Yesterday the sea was quite calm but a lot of tide, we were in about 35 metres and had deployed at least 3/4 of the rope so were at about 5:1 Part of the problem was down to the way the trip was set up initially. it was restricting the turn of the blade but was only noticed when the trip was pulled and I had to renew it. It was also a new bag of ties that also seemed to come undone easier than the previous ones so I am now using 4. Another part of the reason was that in the middle of the day we were having to reanchor during a strong run of tide on a muddy bottom and it was hard to give the anchor room to set uptide of the wreck, when it did set we had to pay out even more rope to get close to the wreck and a change of wind and tide easil moved us off target. I am still getting used to the differance this effect has on Alfresco as compared to Great White, so I suppose the real problem was I was having an off day. Lifting a 25lb anchor and chain on and off the boat all day is hard work adding any more weight to this would start to give it a manual handling risk, and adding too much chain also makes recovery even to a large buoy and alderney ring very tireing. My other in use anchor is an 11 kilo Bruce copy run from the bow on a winch, this only has 10 mtrs of 9.5mm chain to 100 mtrs of rope and is only used for shallow water. [i also carry a spare one of these bruces in case I need a kedge] I would not use these small winches on wreck trips as I feel the fast retrieval using an alderney ring system is safer. I am quite happy that my anchors are suitable for the boat, only a few weeks ago I anchored easily when boats all around me struggled to set there anchors. although if yesterday was a regular occurance I would add about 50% more chain. I would never use a folding anchor, and only use a grapnel if it is right on the rocky ledges and I use a home made type with bars that can be just straightened by the boats power to pull the anchor out. I know that there are probably better anchors now but need a balance of setting ability on all the grounds we fish, weight and cost As mike says they are sacrificial Charlie

We went out yesterday at 7 to the wreck by slack water To the wreck and that is where we started to have a bit of anchoring problems, the thing would not grab the seabed. on the third attempt it went in but another increase in breeze kept us just off the wreck, after a quiet flood we reanchored [Or tried too] for the flood this time I allowed for the breeze and guess what the wind dropped to nothing and the tide picked up to put us fishing off the wreck again We moved to another wreck and at last had a few fish, pout lsd whiting as we swang onto the mark and 4 congers, the biggest was about 30lb. In all it was a hard day, the weather was fine but I can not remember ever lifting the anchor so many times, we must have buoyed it up about 10 times Dan and i gaot home knackered and i expect Paul D. was the same Better than work but only just, I will have to work out how much fuel we wasted with all that anchoring Charlie

Not sure about the actual differance to the catch rates in an Easterly But I do know that it makes hell of a differance to the sea state The other week we fished comfortably in a westerly and 20 knots, but last weekend we had to turn about at Old harry and head home in about 12 knots from the east. I am sure that if the wind had been slightly less and we had anchored in last weeks easterly, we would have struggled to catch on an uncomfortable day. Charlie

Tight lines Alun I may be taking wendy to the Island later in the week so would be interested to know if you get any, I may be able to sneak a couple of Spinning rods onboard LOL Tight lines Charlie

Looks like we have a weather window on wednesday Is anyone thinking of heading out??? Dan and I are thinking of having a nose around and a Conger session even though the tides are big. Charlie

Last nights call to Duncan found him in his car heading home after cancelling plans for today. A late check of the weather sites indicated bad weather in the channel and only slightly easing today. The plans to steam an hour West were looking over ambitious but we thought we would still get out As you can tell by the time of this post, we did not stay out We cleared Old Harry in cold winds and building seas that were no better at the spoils, so decided to abort the trip, let the crew and I build up the store of brownie points and try again later in the week. A few boats were heading out as we made our way up the swash, But I wonder how many stayed out? Good decision Duncan Charlie

Hi All after a very quiet week weather wise, and on the catch reports. I was wondering if anyone was planning to go out this weekend? I shall be out daylight hours on Sunday trying a few things to the West Tight lines Charlie