Seamouse

Kam, The tyre weights will be pretty filthy, might be worth degreasing them a little before use. As folk have said, though, make sure they are bone dry before melting. Lead is extremely nasty, avoid the fumes at all costs. Do NOT melt lead in a poorly ventilated area. A mate who refurbished an old Victorian house ended up at the doctors after a few months of feeling permanently shattered. Blood test showed his lead levels through the roof from burning off the old leaded paint. It was best part of a year before he was back up to speed. Steve

Hi Adam, A friend's 150 has been fitted with a 75hp Etec and the very best he's seen is 38 knots two-up. Paul may be exaggerating a little saying 40knots for the 165 (though 40mph would be possible?). Either way, it still equates to way faster than you can actually travel on the average day Steve (I WANT one)

Rope to several metres of big chain, then 5m of light chain and the anchor. The big chain is big enough to occasionally jam in the Warrior bow roller. That's a fun thing to sort, in a heaving sea with 15kg or so of dead weight hanging off it

Hi Adam, I've got 5m of 6mm chain and then another few metres of really heavy stuff. Easily out-weighs the anchor. My Bruce is a cheap copy, might be a little out in its geometry so not turning and biting properly, otherwise I guess I just need to pay out even more warp. Steve

Hi Adam, It could be the warp, there's no stretch in polyprop so its more likely to jerk the chain up off the deck and unseat the anchor. No doubting that I do get problems though, often have to resort to almost the entire 200m of warp. Worst day was earlier this year, 120ft over gravel in a force 4 going with a big tide and a whopping great swell. After several 'controlled drifts' the Bruce collected a huge great stone block. Even that didn't stop us dead, but it damn near ruptured my poor crewman who had to haul the beast up. Steve

Lookfar runs a 7.5kg Bruce and about 20' of chain on 12mm polyprop. Even so, out on the Spoils in a tide there's times when she'll just steadily drag through the gravel and not grip. If you are happy with a Fisherman,s and don't mind storing the hulking great thing, then I'd say why not? You'll want at least 7.5kg if you mainly work south of the island. In general though, the Bruce is quite good and it does at least fit in the front locker out of the way. If the budget allows, stay away from polyprop rope though. The tendency to float can give problems at slack water. 10mm is easily strong enough but as already said, 12mm is nicer on the hands. Steve

Thanks for the company Dave, a grim day for the fish though! That's summer done for me, roll on winter and the whiting and cod! Steve

Hi Mike, To elaborate on what Dave said......our boats are identical in spec and engine make, except that I've got 2 stroke and Dave's got 4 stroke. Makes the comparison very direct. He gets 5mpg, I get 4mpg (both calculated to nautical miles across a full season). Obviously there are some differences - Dave carries too much fuel ( ) but is gentle while I tend to cane Lookfar, which for 2 stroke economy actually isn't too bad a thing. So you are calculating the savings based on 20%, not 50%. It ain't worth it! Steve an added thought is that the 4 stroke 60's seem to have less low-down torque, they can struggle to get a heavily loaded 165 out of the hole.

Hi Adam, Agreed that an extra anchor is a swine to store, and an extra full sized warp would be a nightmare. I run a compromise - I carry a Bruce as main anchor and a home-made grapnel. This will fit in a fish-box so isn't TOO intrusive. I use the grapnel on heavy reef, with a weak link between chain and grapnel. If the trip fails to free it, I can pull for a break and get my warp and chain back. One thing no-one seems to have mentioned is a spare set of clothing? I carry trousers, shirt and jumper sealed in a poly bag. If I get a wetting at launch in winter, I am NOT spending the rest of the day half frozen Dave, Re the auxiliary - I always cart mine around, have never needed it so far, it probably couldn't do more than hold me in the tide at best anyway and the two times I've tried to use it for trolling the little swine wouldn't start even though it behaves perfectly in a barrel at home. You have to wonder..... Steve

Sorry folks, I asked and was told "No". Busy social calendar. At least, that was the gist of it, though she used lots more words than that Steve

If my social secretary OK's it and you don't mind a non-member along, I might be able to bring Lookfar down. I'll take PBSBAC crew if anyone needs a place, otherwise I'll bring my own. Steve

As I understand it, an oversize crossmember connected floor to hull. Hull couldn't flex as it should and the result was the matrix in that area failed. That then spread down the boat. At least, I think that was the explanation Either way, the result was catastrophic. The matrix that reinforces the hull was smashed along several feet of hull on both sides, whole thing was rebuilt from the gelcoat up and substantially beefed up. Paul reckoned it was the first MkII to come back and I believe him, if it was a general problem, they'd be in liquidation by now because I've been out-run more than once by other Warriors when I thought I was travelling at the limits of comfort. I have to emphasise too that Warrior were superb in the way they dealt with it. No quibbles about being out of warranty, they just got on and fixed it. Great folk to deal with Steve

To be fair, Dave, whilst I drive hard I'm not berserk enough to destroy a normal Warrior hull. They had a structural engineer look mine over and he highlighted a build fault. At least I now have the toughest 165 in existence, they rebuilt it to 175 spec Steve

I believe, though I don't know it for fact, that the guy heading Explorer boats is a former Warrior employee? Either way, talk to any of them at the shows, mention someone else's model in a favourable way and you'll soon see the competitive edge emerging Steve

Hi folks, I see on another forum that someone is claiming that Explorer boats have gone into liquidation. Quite a substantial rumour, given that the guy was giving out the contact details for the Receiver. Anyone got confirmation on that or details of what went wrong? They seemed to be selling well? Steve

It is the newer, stretchier formulation that argues with the older stuff. Jelltex is one of the makes but I'm having a senior moment over what the newer jell formulation is actually called Steve

I can add a few Not disconnecting the electric hook-up from the car before wheeling away the trailer Not locking the jockey wheel up (100 miles of motorway do wonders for a jockey-wheel's tread) Securing a groundbait pot to the anchor chain ABOVE the Alderney Ring, then drifting off for ten minutes wondering why the anchor hasn't bitten. I still blush thinking about it, though not as bad as the guy I know who put down his brand-new anchor/chain without bothering to attach the warp. Trying to recover on a steep slip with the car out of gear Dropping a mate's brand new crab pot right next to a navigation buoy "so we could find it again easily". Its still there now, wrapped around the mooring chain. Steve

Hi folks, Just to muddy the waters a little here, is it not actually going to be better for fish stocks if we take the bulk of the immature fish and conserve the bigger fish of breeding age? Commercially it is impractical, unworkable and definitely not PC but I'd have thought that in terms of impact, it is the breeders you should protect. So the French are halfway there, we just need to get them to chuck the big 'uns back Steve

Hi Adam, From Mike's reply he may have been estimating his speed. Your 25knot max on BW is about the same as Lookfar's 27 knots with a 60hp 2 stroke (even the hull's the same colour, so its a fair comparison ). Its not the first time I've seen 60hp engines reported to push boats to higher top ends than ours. Raider 16, Predator 160 and Wilson Flyer all seem capable of a few extra knots. Maybe hull design, maybe hull weight? Steve

I can confirm from bitter experience that the cables can and will rust solid into the outer. Sod's Law applied: I discovered that on the eve of a trip, had to back out and the whiting that day were climbing up the lines to get into the boats. I was gutted to miss that As Plaicemat said, the cables are sealed at the compensator end. Sadly, they are not sealed at the drum end. Out of sight, out of mind. Easy to oil up, just hang them drum end upright and pour oil into the handy cup arrangement and leave overnight. Steve

Hi Alun, No problem handling a Warrior 165 solo, they come on and off the rollercoaster trailers very easily. I have no problems and I'm no superhero. On an average to steep slip, you can get away with the wheels no deeper in than the lower edge of the rim and the stern won't touch down. On a shallow slip, you will need to submerge to bearing level or beyond and the boat will need more of a shove to get it moving. That brings us to brakes. They're a pig. Wash them out after every trip, remove and grease/oil the bowden cables at least yearly, don't leave the rig standing with the handbrake on and all you then have to worry about is the linings detaching from the shoe. Which they occasionally can. Bearings are sealed and resist getting dunked in salt water quite well. Its true that the 150 was supplied on an unbraked trailer, it's the better boat for a largely solo operator but latterly, I believe they were only supplied on braked trailers and I'm pretty sure they've been discontinued (if you were thinking to buy new). The Golf will tow a 165 OK, I towed mine for a few years with a 1.6 petrol Escort. Recovery is another matter. I use a steep slip and front wheel drive was extremely marginal for traction. Hope that helps. Steve

Hi Coddy, I think the problem was the oil. For some bizarre reason, the manufacturer supply the etec with oil it doesn't like, Warrior emptied the tank but couldn't do anything about what was already in the pump. It cut back to tickover a few times soon after first start-up which is apparently the oil foaming and making the engine think its got none. Apart from that, he loves the thing. I HATE it . You just touch the key and it goes straight to a smooth tickover, whether hot or stone cold. Compare that to the artform that is starting my crotchety Bigfoot Steve p.s let me know if you are coming east for a trip, will try and meet up if times pan out though Selsey's just not really hitting form this year.

Excuse me highjacking the thread, but can anyone clearly define what's edible and what's not inside the spider shell? No problem finding and dumping the gills, its the stomach contents that worry me. When the centre section is removed, you are looking at a mass of brown/green goop inside the shell. Is that all 'brown meat' or is some of it stomach? Worried of Ickenham

Bob, Coddy has a small stack of plastic moulds for you/anyone else, also half a dozen polystyrene cooler boxes. If anyone needs to keep bait frozen they're ideal. We bin 2-3 a day at work, shocking waste. Steve

We were out with Coddy on the same meet and had pretty much the same time of it. Blown around on saturday, I was only able to make 8 knots IN HARBOUR and we got completely soaked into the bargain with spray clean over the cuddy. I had to back into the wind to chat to another boat at one point and the wind was putting spray clean up the length of the boat and wetting the cuddy windows on the inside! Sunday was nice enough but oh boy, the weed. It was everywhere, made life hard. We moved around a lot and had a smattering of small bream and five hounds, all like peas out of a pod at just under 7lb. Highlight of the day a good size squid, first I've seen caught on rod and line and seriously good eating Steve p.s Charlie, the charters on utopia were catching a few good hounds but no-one seemed to be finding tope anywhere. We had two tope rods out all day for a single missed run. Grim.