great white

Hi Jim/ Admin I have found an old folder with a selection of pictures from the fitting out of Alfresco But its 56MB so how do I get it on here?

Hi Graham I would use cardboard or hardboard to make some templates to see how much you need for the deck mate and just buy that. Nidaplas would not really suit making the longitudinal stringers, but I did use it for the below deck bulkheads if that is what you meant. Not sure where my photo's are but I will try to find them if it would help, if not give me a call

Thanks Jim There were some evening just sat in the garden on the boat "Thinking" most vivid memory, an afternoon off work that was spent making a tube for in the wheelhouse for the cables to pass up through for lights radar etc etc I was fairly pleased with it by the time the boys got home from school. "whats that rubbish Dad" was not the response I wanted. and I think I told them so. Later on I viewed it from where they had, agreed 100% and ripped the whole lot out, to start that job again. Lol

Belated Happy Birthday guys Hope that you had a good one

Stringers are different Shape them out of foam with radius corners to make the GRP work easier. Glue them into position and size them to allow for the thickness of GRP that goes over them, they need to have a flat top surface to fix the deck down onto. a beading of sealer or filler either side can again be radiused for better GRP work [ Zero air pockets] The foam does not need to give any strength its the multiple layers of GRP that gives that. these completely cover the stringer and extend several inches either side. The tops of mine are probably at least 8mm thick so can take a S/S screw to help hold the deck, which is bedded down on Sikaflex. Once that has gone off the hatches and surrounds were added before the whole deck was glassed over then non slip finish added. Oh what fun we had

Used it a lot on Alfresco. Decks, Bulkheads, hatches etc. Made a lot of difference to the total weight and does not absorb moisture and gain weight as the older Offshores built using plywood did. Basically it is a sheet of 19mm honeycomb plastic that comes on a roll. This is laid out on a flat surface then an ounce and a half or GRP is put on the top, when cured its flipped and the same goes on the other face. what you end up with is a large sheet that is stiff and very light to handle, cut and fit. To be honest I bought 6 sheets like that with the boat mouldings. I did not start from the roll. The downside is what you do next. Adding more layers of GRP to both sides gives it the strength required overall, but not where you want to add fixings, for hinges and handles etc I found that cutting out the top layer of GRP then the plastic using a short blade in a jigsaw, then scraping off everything back to the other face of GRP. I then cut a piece 18mm marine ply and glued it into the hole, before glassing back over the top. this gave solid fixings for larger fittings. Smaller ones for mounting things like extinguishers were just done by drilling and gluing in hardwood dowels. The other tough thing is getting a nice finish when gel coating over the finished nidaplas. Easy on the deck, as it has a rough finish over 10oz of GRP, but far from it on the bulkheads. It took ages to get it all done, and lots of planning to put the strong blocks in the right place but I am still happy with the results considering we launched her in Nov 2007. Charlie

Happy New year everyone Here's to a great 2022 and some calm weather and big fishes

Know what you mean Neil I took my grandson up in the loft looking for some toys yesterday, "Wow look at all of those fishing rods " was his comment. Considering that I only really do boat fishing, I must admit that I seem to have a few " spares.

What horrible Christmas season weather. Only today seems to have been settled enough to get out. Like most people with families today is not a fishing day for me. I am off work until the 4th and cannot see any chance of getting out. No wonder the comp seems to off. Oh well thats fishing done for 2021. It wasnt a bad year when we?could get out, so roll on 2022. See you out there folks

From Memory, this is not won often in the Solent. Maybe because the organisers have to cancel or postpone if the weather is so bad that boats would be restricted to the Solent. If it was good enough for us to get to the Solent from Poole, we would probably be able to fish in the bay. Personally I would not know where to fish for them in that area, so would probably not go. There looked to be a weather window after Christmas when I looked yesterday, but as Alun says that seems to have closed already. Bugger.

Do not need to worry about the bait tank then Jim.🤣🤣

I try to be good regarding sizes, only keeping some from about 1.5lb plus, Six is probably the absolute limit for me That said I have put a few of that size back at the start of a day for them to go off the feed later and only have a couple of smaller deep hooked ones to take home. Or have six in the box, then start catching much bigger ones at the end of a day. I should really keep the live bait tank onboard all year, and do as Steve does.