Vorpal Blade

I still reckon you will break at least half of them putting them back on. Given the time and materials you have put in to these its probably cheaper to just get all new ones. Either way with a 50% breakage rate you will still have to get some new ones and they will be the ones that still work after the sail has been sitting in its bag for 6 months whereas the reconditioned ones will probably have corroded and frozen up again.

Got the VB and a few other keelboats out of the water today at Little Shoal Bay, another 12 more or so to haul in two weeks when the tide is right. Let the winter games commence - some exciting mods this year!!

One of the set up screens when first starting it up has you select battery type, closest Amp capacity to whats there and a few other parameters. Whats a peukerts factor anyway, sounds more like a measure of seasickness?

The system I use plugs directly into the shunt and there is facility to switch it to suit any battery type AGM, Lithium, Pb, etc etc. Once connected it then measures/determines the battery capacity and works from there. Our house battery bank is only charged via solar, the engine start system is fully separate and maintained by the solar but also charged by the motor. I tried a DVSR in the system so the motor could charge both but it didn't get along with the solar so i took it out. I prefer the systems are independent anyway.

Yes, my entire solar system is from them and its all been good since installed (other than a full meltdown of the MPPT controller) which they replaced. Also got their AGM batteries. HEAVY, but good. Im not sure how the monitor copes with the battery degradation over time, I don't know enough about it all in that respect. I just know the sun makes amps appear in the battery, the fridge/plotters/stereo/lights/kids etc use those amps that have found their way into the battery and Ive got a cool LCD screen thingy that tells me how many of them I've got left. Hauling out in the weekend of the 13t

Battery monitors are essential, Ive got one of these on the VB, tells me anything I need to know about the state of the batteries, Voltage levels, % charge level, A/hr "left in the tank", Amps coming in from solar and going out via the kids idevices, plotters, stereo etc etc. Also indicates when the system is charging (solar inputting more than is going out) or the opposite. This one can monitor two separate batteries or banks of batteries.

A friend of mine owned it up until about 7 years ago. I sailed on it a bit and helped him sort the rig/sails. It was beautifully built (Roberston Boatbuilders) and sailed Ok (for a 30ft leaner). It has a near identical sister ship Ixion but that one has a twin spreader in-line rig whereas JJ has a swept spreader jobbie. The narrow stern meant it wasn't a rocket downwind but upwind it was very nicely balanced. One thing I do remember about it is the wide side decks, really great when you are sitting on the rail but not so good when sitting downstairs enjoying an apre sailing rum. The saloon

Kevin Anderson or Kevin Johnson??

Wont upload a 659KB .jpg that is 3186 × 1333

Id post some pics of it on its mooring as it was just by us, but Im still having problems getting photos to upload. Interesting looking boat.

Well, there's the perfect beauracrat's solution then... To reduce boating accidents and drowning statistics the Govt/local council must immediately enact a law banning people from being in the water when swimming and on/or near any water while kayaking.

Iv found the kayakers between Rangitoto and Okahu Bay the worst, sometimes the lead one will have a flag a metre or so above LWL and there will be a trail of targets , stragglers sometimes up to 50m behind. A fast, pass safely astern of them usually gives them a bit of encouragement to paddle faster. The pilot boat is just as constrained in its speed/location as any large launch and has to comply with COLREGs just the same as every other launch. The difference here being they actually know the COLREGs whereas it would seem a proportion of larger, fast launches perhaps illustrate they dont pur

Knowing some of the Pilot boat crew and how its affecting them perhaps we leave the speculation for a while. The full report will emerge.

but the 9kg swap-a-bottle is never going to fit in our gas bottle locker. It was built for the 4kg jobs, we carry 2 off them, one for the cooker and the other for the BBQ.

While the Outremer 43 light is a great boat this one is a bit overpriced, this is basically the 38 with a bit whacked on the back at the factory. Any of the Outremer light series is worth looking at - they essentially take the base version and extend them to add waterline without adding much weight. Personally I would like to get hold of an Outremer 55 light, perfect cruising boat for 1 or 2 couples and capable of very fast and safe ocean passages.

You must have really pissed off one of your neighbours recently!!

how about slothful teenagers that don't get out of bed?

I have changed nothing since last time I managed to actually post a pic and only had this happen while away cruising and I wanted to post a pic from the iPad - funnily enough a picture of Coromandel - it didn't work and i just thought it was the iPads fault.

Just had another go, even when the photo jpg is reduced to 640Kb I get the same response... can't upload into the Gallery either

Yes Mac using Sierra, also couldn't do it with iPhone or iPad all on latest versions of OS and Safari. Files to be uploaded were jpg of about 1MB

IT when I try to attach a picture the following happens: Initially the Choose Picture button is there , I click that and select the file I want to upload as per usual and all looks like it is working, the file name etc shows but when I do the "Attach this File" clicky the Choose Picture clicky button and the file details all disappear and nothing happens. Same result when I try the advanced Flash 9 downloader. Using Safari 10.0.2 Any suggestions? The file size is well under the max 2MB.

Better cloth? What fabric did they quote you in, and would you really know if its Dimension/Polyant, Bainbridge or some other cheap chinese crap anyway. It would be interesting to compare it with genuine manufacturer supplied sample swatches.

Shark V Octopus, that brings to mind this nature documentary BP....

A bit more sleuthing and the second owner was Barry Smith, and from one of the crew I tracked down a great quote "we only sank it once when we blew a centre case up and the ocean came in. luckily we had time to run it up on eastern beach at high tide, waited until low tide and all the water had drained out, clamped it all shut then sailed it back to Herne bay to fix it" - awesome!!

Designed and built by Neil Wilkinson then sold to a previous commodore of the NZMYC whose name currently eludes the panel.