Afishionado

.....Mikey, your era perhaps? Also, when replacing sections, will instant gasket do, or do you guys reccomend genuine parts Here's the rub......... Instant gasket will not do, it never works on ally and sea water and the mating surfaces are also too thin a section on O/B's. So OK let's use the proper gaskets............... First off rais a second mortgage!!!! these things in my experiance (if you can get them at all) tend to be insanely expensive. Like

OK I'll be round yours 'bout 5:30 ish. Can you PM me the address please. Mad Mike

Right lads it's all round to Charlies on thursday morning then! Oh and some one bring the chocolate hob knobs and jaffa cakes! Mad Mike

Oh is there any chance of bringing them to the meeting (sycophantic hand washing and desparate but imploring look ) Sir? Mad Mike

Any chance of me doing it tomorrow late morning/early afternoon? Mad Mike

Most can be fitted in the 'in use' position and then tilted up so the leg is out of the water. One of the things I liked about the old Seagull O/B was that one could slide them verticaly up their mounting bracket and then tilt them. Mad Mike

I would REALY like to catch a winter cod and some whiting so this year I must buy som proper winter gear. Trouble is when your short and fat it is difficult to get stuff that fits. Mad Mike

Paul interjects.......... only post war Mike, radar wasn't invented prior to that For goodness sake Paul yachts had them in the mid 50's and if 50 years aint 'years' what is? Mad Mike

Most authorities recommend that the cavitation plate of the main outboard is about 1 inch below the bottom of the transom. Any higher could result in cavitation caused by the prop sucking surface air . Mounting position for a small auxilliary is not nearly so critical as the main engine but still should be mounted so when it is being used it's anti-cavitation plate is in free clear water and not masked by the transom. Tie a piece of string round your main engines anti-cavitation plate and using a spirit level take the string out horizontally on the side you want to fix your bracket. Fix the other end of the string to something (I don't bloody know use your imagination ) so that it maintains a level line with the O/B anti-cavitation plate. Measure the hight from the anti-cavitation plate of the auxilliary to the inside bottom of its mounting saddle. Measure up from the string the measurement you have just taken and mark on the transom with a pencil line. This represents the hight of the top of the O/B mounting pad of the bracket when the auxilliary O/B is in its WORKING position. Mad Mike

Go James Go James!! Mad Mike

Paul queries........ How are you going to demo the flares in the meeting hall ?? Oh for goodness sake Paul have you no imagination? Adam stands on the stage with all the lights out and says WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! We all go AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! and he flicks a ciggy lighter on. Mad Mike

Paul correctly adds ie. Attach the chain to the bottom of the anchor and use a tie wrap to attach to the top of the anchor, leaving sufficient loose chain in between such that a hard pull on a jammed anchor will break the tie wrap and pull the anchor out backwards. ( apologies if I am telling you how to suck eggs Not at all Paul I shoulda said that myself. We all take a tripping anchor for granted it's easy to forget there might be folk who have not come accross it before. Mad Mike

I would agree that (using the Alderny method) having a bit more chain to balance the weight of the anchor may be needed but lengths like 30ft of chain are just over the top and totaly unnessesary. Also if one keeps motoring slowly forward in a circle with the bouy in the centre the drag is sufficient to hold the anchor up by the bouy. Trust me as an old twit with less strenght than I used to I need to know how to make things as easy as possible. The grab angle of the Bruce type is not that critical at all, I don't know where that came from. It is better than the Danforth and CQR. and with a reasonable amount of chain a 3 to 1 ratio of depth to anchor line scope is fine for fishing. Mad Mike OR ............let the bloke with 30ft of chain anchor up and we'll all tie on in a long line astern and he can do for the lot of us.

As adam said opinions will be split but here is my take on it........ There are several reasons why one would need to anchor. We as fishermen need to hold a boat in one position whilst we fish. The very nature of this means that we are awake, watchfull and ever vigilant of our position relative to the sea bed. To anchor overnight whilst the crew sleeps and no one is on watch is different. We have to cope with fluctuating tide levels, varying wind and current directions and speed. So our anchoring needs to be of a more permanant nature. These two varying situations are not taken into account by RNLI or RYA safety officers. They quite rightly work on a worse case senario and opt for a heavy anchor and 30ft or so of chain before the rope. For fishing like as not we will anchor in several places in one session, so recovery also becomes an issue. Hauling in 30ft of 5/16th or even 3/16th chain attached to a 25lb anchor is hard and could strain one by the end of the day. So I hope you will agree that for fishing a slightly different set up is needed than for anchoring up for the night. For fishing 1lb of anchor weight per foot of boat is MORE than adequate for most fishing dighies and small boats (and lets not kid ourselves that's what most of us have got). A 15lb Fishermans and 6ft of chain before the rope will do for 90% of our needs. A fishermans is probably the best ALL ROUND anchor there is. It can be bettered by other anchors in certain conditions but all round it's the best. BUT very difficult to store when rigged so most of us have opted for the Bruce' type anchor which is brilliant on everything but really bad rocky ground and even then it's pretty good. So for ease and convenience of use, a 5kg or 7.5kg Bruce type, linked to 6 ft of chain before the rope is more than ok. Also rope thickness is an area where folk often go over the top. A thick rope is only needed for comfort of hold not for breaking strain. The pull of a boat at anchor is not going to be measured in tons. So go for the thinest rope that is comfortable to hold (usualy about 8mm or 10mm) going over that only increases the total drag on the whole lot in the water. Finaly if you know that on a particular trip you are going to anchor up in a very bad rock/wreck strewn area and are worried about loosingyour expensive anchor, use a grapnell made up out of building re-bar. This sort of thing is what a lot of charter boats use. They are easy to make and cost peanuts so to loose one is no pain. But they are as ugly as sin and rusty as well. If you ever want one I will knock one up for you for the cost of the re-bar. (like

Pay on collection Tue Just confirm price and time Me too but just to confirm I only want a couple of boxes not a couple of cases. Mad Mike

Here are the results of the fishing race......... Fishermen nil Strontium 90 Greenpeace targets plutonium ships Greenpeace campaigners hope to target two ships carrying weapons-grade plutonium as they pass through the English channel. The environmental group has its own ship, MV Esperanza, stationed on the border of French and UK waters ready to intercept the vessels as they pass by. Their cargo of 125 kilograms of plutonium, enough to make around 40 nuclear weapons, is heading for France from the US, where it will be converted into nuclear reactor fuel rods. The plutonium carriers could pass around 16 miles off the Cornish coast and Greenpeace are waiting between Guernsey and Start Point. The US government has said the plutonium was being transported by sea as a one-off exercise. The UK registered vessels Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal were carrying the material for the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The plutonium is being carried by vessels operated by the PNTL shipping company, whose main shareholder is British Nuclear Fuels ltd. NNSA spokesman Bryan Wilkes said from Washington DC that the plutonium was being shipped across the Atlantic as a result of an agreement between the US and Russia to dispose of N-weapons grade plutonium. It was being sent to a nuclear re-processing plant at Cadarache in southern France - a facility not yet available in the US. There the plutonium would be "spoiled" and converted into plutonium-uranium oxide fuel rods which would be returned to the US for use in a nuclear reactor. If the treatment was successful, the "green light" would be given for such a facility in the US, negating the need for further plutonium to be taken overseas, said Mr Wilkes. Once converted into fuel rods, the plutonium could not be used in a nuclear weapon or for a nefarious purpose, he said. A BNFL spokesman said he could not comment on security arrangements, but it has been reported that the ships have double hulls and are each guarded by 13 commandos and armed with a 30mm cannon. Mad Mike

Paul advises........Hoburne Holiday Park, Highcliffe rent out over the winter That's a good one Paul these 'Park Homes' (bloody great caravans like a bungalow) are a very cost effective winter let. Mad Mike

Coddy try......... http://fish4.co.uk/tag/ro256/national/dors...tting/index.jsp http://www.tailormadelettings.co.uk/ http://www.northwood-bournemouth.co.uk/htm...local_area.html http://www.2rent.co.uk/aaregion/aarea/aato...OURNEMOUTH.html Mad Mike

Have a look at this video on ice fishing.......

Kam advises..........Also be very gentle with the bottom coat, as orbital sander can be too strong and stripe away the gelcoat. Nah, Adam allways uses Kimmeridge slip to strip his gell coat Mad Mike Seriously Kam is right about the dust as it containd dioxins and carcinogenics. One'll give you skin superations that wont heal and the other lung cancer. The little paper masks will not do you need a proper filter job with eye protection. Or do it by hand with wet or dry used wet with lots of water.

The good news is neither of you will get weeds growing in your drive for a couple of years! True!! Mad Mike

You guys are not going anywhere on Sunday ('cept down the pub), trust me it is going to blow a hoolie all up the channel from the SW. A day to sit at home and read a magazine or two. Mad Mike

Kam says........While other say cocktail does the business. I'll have a strawberry daiqueri young man Mad Mike

Actualy it was very interesting and the photograpy was brilliant, so thanks for the 'heads up' anyway. Mad Mike