syohana

Actually Yacht comes from Jacht which is dutch for "hunt" (if you go back far enough "hunt" and "jacht" are actually the same word, the sound just gradually changed apart in English and Dutch). The very first boats used exclusively for pleasure/leisure in the Netherlands rather than for commercial, military or transport purposes were for wealthy people to go hunting (mostly shooting ducks). So hunting boats were the only pleasure craft and the name eventually stuck to all pleasure craft, then got adopted into English because we didn't have our own word for pleasure craft. ...

We have used Cook Islands and Jersey. Cook islands is expensive, a lot of paperwork and only lasts a short time. Jersey is cheap and lasts ten years before renewal. All you need is a tonnage measurement. Jersey is definitely the best and lowest cost option. We used Cook Islands when we were operating commercially because they have the same commercial survey requirements as NZ but Jersey do not. Use Cook Islands for a commercial vessel but Jersey is best for recrreational yachts.

That does seem to cover it, though the maximum sentence is rather low. I wouldn't be surprised if Maritime NZ say the launch isn't a commercial vessel so they will leave it to the police to prosecute (and perhaps MaritimeNZ decide to prosecute the ferry on a technicality because it's commercial). ....Meanwhile the police say it's under the Maritime Transport Act, they'll leave it to Maritime NZ to prosecute. .....Meanwhile the deadline to file charges slips by.

Looks like the anchor sticking out on the bow did most of the damage like a battering ram. I'm not so sure the boston whaler was especially well built, it just hit head on. Triangles of any material are very strong, the triangular bow of the launch hit the flat side of the ferry and easily swept off the wheelhouse which was non-original, non-structural, lightweight and just tacked on top of the ferry. If it had been the other way around then I'm sure the triangular bow of the ferry would have destroyed the flat side of launch quite effectively. The lack of damage below the waterline

All NZ standards are available free of charge from public libraries. Considering the extortionate price to buy them, that's a good workaround! If they don't have it at your local library they'll be happy to order it from Auckland in a few days.

If you're worried about the metal seacocks being old and corroded, replace them with Trudesign type. If you're not sure, hit them with a hammer next time you're out of the water. If they break then you need new ones If the metal hasn't gone soft then keep them, just poke a stick up into them with a blob of waterproof grease on it and work them back and forth a few times a year so they don't seize up. The hose is usually too short to come off but replace it if it's getting old and make sure there are two tight stainless hose clamps in good condition on each end. One potential sa

They did get Crumbs off the beach, and in style! About 20 people pushed her all the way down the beach by hand!!!! I tracked down this video on reddit, well worth watching: returning_a_beached_yacht_back_into_the_wild

It was fun, plus there was a fair chance she'd smash into one of our boats if she broke loose so it wasn't entirely an act of charity! We eventually tracked down the owner in Wellington, they had only just bought the boat. Some pics below. A lot of the piles round here are rotten...

Ouch! Crumbs was my old boat. She has a good strong hull, did they get her off OK? Meanwhile in a relatively sheltered bit of Kerikeri river opposite us a very big heavy timber launch on a pile mooring first broke both her bow lines before the storm even got started (they were more properly described as rotten strings) and was swinging around one pile bumping it so I went over in a small boat and put a bow line on her and attached an extra stern line from the other pile. Next morning after the storm that new bow line was holding fine but the pile at the other end had broken off completely

MMSI starting in 5 denotes a vessel (not a shore station) registered either in NZ or another nearby country in Oceania. I believe within that "number space" 512 is allocated to NZ so any number starting with 512 would be nz registered and they are allocated starting from 1 so this would be the 2022nd vessel to register an MMSI in NZ. Seems like a plausible real MMSI. Or could be a made up or spoofed MMSI, but if someone just picked a random number then the chances are that it wouldn't start with 512 unless they really knew their stuff. If they knew their stuff well enough to use the

One more thought - if you can't find a local, call Far North Radio on channel 60, they will know and probably be happy to give up to date info on the bar, or they will know who to ask.

... looking at the swell direction, the karikari peninsula should actually shield Houhora from most of it, only looks like 1m swell at most in the bay there. Still, check with a local, I've never been there...

Oh, and happy new year to you too! see you soon!

Monday looks like a day to enjoy Houhora. I'd wait until Tuesday, you should be able to make good progress that day. Wednesday looks good too though it's a bit far out to say for sure. windy.com gives great visualisations of what's happening and you can hop between all the different forecast models to see if they agree. The forecast is the big picture and doesn't do a good job of predicting sea breezes. Should be plenty of those with the sunshine forecast. You'll find the wind is different if you hug the coast, sea breezes will take over there if the prevailing wind dies, either replacing

Check for barnacles unbalancing the prop first. Second make sure the shaft is exactly central in the shaft log (stern tube) first before doing the feeler gauge bit. Perhaps actually put wedges around the shaft to hold it dead centre. That might involve removing the water seal from around the shaft (unless it's a traditional stuffing box) so might have to be done out of water depending on the setup. Feeler gauges work. If you use an R&D coupling it has a special bolt head for using the feeler gauges on which makes it easier and more accurate. THe rubber coupling also helps absorb