Afishionado

I'm with Tom on this one Nowt like a goodol' wander down memory lane Mind you I bet he looked a right pillock in black tights when they did Richard 3rd. Mad Mike

Nylon due to the high silicone part of its make up is not too good at maintaining an adhesive bond, therefore although Sikaflex is an extremely good sealand and bonding agent IMO you would certainly need some mechanical fixings as well, but the spacings could be further apart than if you were useing a normal silicone sealant. Mad Mike

Welcome to the pair of you, Al Bino and your mate Rat. Mad Mike

Charlie, back in the 70's when I had the big Romany laid up, I was so engrossed in what I was doing and holding measurements in my head. When I stepped off the boat to go down to the workbench and saw I totaly forgot it was now 8ft or so in the air and I should be going down the ladder!!! Yes mate straight over the wrong side to crash into the concrete below!! Tricky things boats! Mad Mike

octolic ???????????? Oxalic surely? Mad Mike

No not at all. The anode MUST be underwater to work as it is the salts in the sea water that are the electrolyte. Simply put.......... Any metal object that needs earth and/or electrolysis protection must be linked together via continuous lead INSIDE the boat. The lead is taken to the inner mounting nuts of the externaly and undrewater mounted anode. If deck fittings are of similar metal ie Stainless Steel there is NO NEED to link them into the circuit. But for the sake of argument one has a bronze deck filler that feeds a mild steel painted fuel tank the galvanic protection is a must. Mad Mike

Bubble bubble toil and trouble Eye of newt etc etc Do we have enough members to form a coven? Mad Mike

We used to use Oxalic Acid in the motor trade (and this will date me ) to bleach back the colour of dull grey wood on Morris 1000 Travelers. We got ours from a local chemist who ordered it in for us. The dilution we used did indeed remove rust stains on the paintwork too. After treatment we would wash down with a solution of ordinary washing soda to neutralise the acid. Thinking about it I guess it would remove that yellow/brown waterline staining, and I can certainly recommend it on stained and dull wood, but do remember the washing soda after treatment. Mad Mike

Dave started his new job at the zoo and was given three tasks. The first was to clear the weeds from the exotic fish pool. As Dave is doing it a huge fish leaps out and tries to bite him. Dave ends up killing it in a struggle. Realising his boss will be furious, he decides to get rid of it by feeding it to the lions. Dave then moves onto his second job, clearing out the chimpanzee's enclosure. Immediately two of the chimps start to pelt him with coconuts. To discourage them he lashes out with his spade. Unfortunately he killed them both. He is in deep trouble now so he follows the previous course of action and throws them also into the lion's cage. Deeply troubled because the job doesn't seem to be going too well, he goes to his next task, to collect the honey from the bees but they begin to attack him. Dave swats at them with his trusty spade and kills a large number of them before they desist. He can see no alternative but to shovel them up and again consign them to the lion's cage. Later that day a new lion is moved to the zoo. The newcomer asks the resident lions "what's the food like here?" "It?s pretty good" the resident lions all agreed. "For example, today we had fish, chimps and mushy bees." Mad Mike

Ah well, there you havit from the profeshnials own mouth. Any one useing this method and falling foul of the law can refer the matter to Tom who will undertake your defence at no charge Mad Mike

I could be wrong but I think one would end up in serious trouble with the Environment Agency and the local water board as the run off from this chemical might enter the surface drains which go straight into top water disposal either in the sea or rivers. Mad Mike

The great heard of cod lazily swims in the North Sea, men wearing aqualungs, check shirts, leather chaps on their legs and Stetson hats on their heads kick the dolphins they are riding into life and a bubbly voice commands them to "Get ubble them blulble up ppopl and ride dubble them out ubbble. Yes this is fish farming on the wild edge of the bad lands......... Mad Mike

New terror threat !!!!!!

Sounds like a cracking day Rich. Do you feel spring has sprung? Mad Mike

It was me that said I had used car bits... It's its steering rack covers that you need I found Fiesta ones did a good job. Or Escort rubber gear stick gaitors were perfect if you need to fit a larger hole in the GRP. Mad Mike

The trailer place in Barrack road Christchurch. Ambrose trailers? I think Mad Mike

Bob a decent strong pedestle will cost around

This is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't things. On balance it is far far cheaper to have your prop refurbished by one of the many small companies that do this, than have to buy a recon' gearbox. The big problem that an out of balance prop causes on an Out Board is the damage caused by high pitch vibration you may not feel. The wear caused by this vibration is on the O/B's gearbox thrust bearing and shaft bearing or even worse the bearing seats in the aly' internal web mouldings. You could well be talking many hundred of pounds. On the other hand a prop recondition is about

I watched a Discovery prog' last night, it was about a special police unit that tried to trace missing persons. The crux of this episode was about two guys, well off successful business men in their late 30's who bought a Phantom 21 power boat with a 200hp outboard, trailer and all. Niether had any boating experiance at all, but they promptly took the whole lot (4 days after they bought it) via ferry cross channel to France. Some week or so later after being reported missing their tow car (new Merc') and trailer was discovered in a French boat yard. The boat cover was inside the car. The men and boat have never been found. However the French yard reported that they had launched and taken off for England. The boat had 1 tank of fuel, no compass, no radio, no anchor, no life jackets and the men were dressed in shorts and T shirts. The conclusion was that they must have had no idea of the rate a 200HP O/B would guzzle fuel and that somewhere in the shipping lanes it must have run out of fuel and been run down by another much larger vessel whilst adrift and out of control........................................ Mad Mike

Sam says..........its proberly the best thing i have made and it even turned out level. Bloody well done Sam, I can tell you are justly proud of your efforts Isn't a great feeling to look at something like that I say "I made that". Take plenty of photo's of what you do because when your an old geezer you can show your grandkids and tell them what is was like in the old days! Mad Mike

Having had several open boats over the years I can say they are good to use in the summer months, You can anchor drift as you wish. A cathederal hull is probably the best bet over all due to the fantastic stability and carrying capacity, but you do need to wear suitable clothing as even on a summers day an open boat gets quite windswept and cold. Mad Mike

Charlie says..... That although 1 million tons of mud have been removed, none of the area was drying ground, and the rise and fall will be the same as before [all above the new depths.................................. So would the volume of water moving through the entrance not be the same as before and therfore also the speed of flow? The removed sand/silt would have been static at all states of tide. Its volume having being removed will be replaced by water which is not static. Therefore more water will have to flow into the harbour to replace it BUT ONLY ONCE. Once the water has replaced the volume of sand/silt removed it becomes part of the total water volume at any given state of the tide. Ergo..... There will be a greater volume of water in the harbour than previously. Will it affect the tidal FLOW in terms of velocity? Basicly no although a purist will insist that there will be an increase in flow speed in the choke point of the Haven it will be minute. Will it affect the time taken to fully ebb or flood? Yes. As there is more water (notionaly) and the venturi (The Haven) remains a fixed width and depth then the increased flow will take longer. Will one be able to notice the extra time? No due to all the other variations like air pressure, wind direction that affect the times of low or high water one could not say that a late low was a result of the dredging. Conclusion.......... It's a done deal.......Get over it! Mad (but not always) Mike

OK here's a prediction, all channels inside the harbour will silt up except for the middle (main) channel which will be further dredged and straightend and become known as The Poole Ship Canal. The silted up areas will be grassed over and turned into a huge travelers encampment and the sand that was pumped onto Bournemouth and Poole beaches will be ripped away in a gigantic storm and form a small island just outside UK territorial waters. This island will be taken over by Tesco who will open a huge tax free shopping center accessed by a 6 lane motorway bridge funded by the EEC and the Lottery Commission. OR No one will actualy be able to notice a bloody thing but go round kidding themselves that yes indeed the tide is .004873% faster than last year! Mad Mike

Perhaps I have missed something here. Are you keeping a boat on moorings or are you trailering it ? If kept on moorings for more than say a month then some sort of antifoul is essential as weed growth in this area is profilic. If however you are trailering it and return it to the trailer at the end of each trip then there is no need to antifoul at all. Mad Mike