Jon

Ok KM seeing as it was only Splash Princes and myself plus inport helpers than ran this entire event with help from the SSANZ committee at some points plus from afar Your on, No wimping out and saying your doing it, first you need to cut the grass free from your hull and put it in the briny, but that's no excuses either Your now the offical SSANZ typed media corrrespondant from on and off the water Don't know how my liver will cope with two weeks on the road together but it will just have to man up and cope or hopefully you will enter then it will just be the stoppovers that will be push

"Back in my day they never did it like that"

I think you will find that it's less than 1/4 that aren't on bookface or access it via open pages like the SSANZ page Mayday? What mayday A little pig put out an advisory when they lay down for rest in cook straight And a couple of yachts called up to advise that a Wellington yacht put on a display leaving home But Mayday ? Maybe I missed that one !

Haven't used these guys myself but heard good things http://vinylboatwrap.co.nz/

As organisers we probably should have feed them the stories but we are all real sailors with real jobs trying to do our best by the real sailors that take on the challenge Every time I've approached the likes they only seem interested if we can provide advertising income for them, (when I approach them about our cruise back from Europe including dismasting they only seemed interested if I could provide produce placement links they could then hit up for adds So I just didn't bother) The best stories are the ones that you real sailors write and post here and on our website, of the challenge

Didn't fall asleep Nice little update thanks Mark

Oh no I'm agreeing with KM You only need to meet KJ to realise he's 110% the real thing, there are very few left but he's one of them

The rum I had on my boat until they spent last weekend on board That rum.

As for Duty Frees suggestion with the holiday being a Wednesday there is a chance to do a really long longhaul 2,3 or 500nm possibly starting Wednesday mid morning Then cruising 60nm and shorthaul 100nm starting Friday arvo with finish at GB Multis can organise themselves as usual. The key will be to get all yachts finished by mid arvo Saturday then lighting and generator again for a Smokehouse prize giving. What we need to know is there demand for a long race like this ? Or should we just run a shorter format and run it the weekend prior so them that wish can cruise back ? Easi

One other note tell the driver on the way back to take you to TGF (Thank God it's Friday) as there is a Balboa dock in downtown and we got caught with this once when we asked to go to Balboa Yacht Club Also do an evening in the old town for dinner, great restaurants and entertainment TGF is just across the road from the drop point for BYC

Provisioning is easy in Panama City Get a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club, your agent maybe able to help but usually you have to just call up once your through and see what's available or just anchor on the edge of the mooring area. If your on a mooring you just call up and a water taxi will collect you. There are two marinas down the end of the river as you get out into the bay, I have stayed there but the moorings are better and cheaper Get all the contact details off your navionics charts on your mobile device if your running one. Once ashore there are taxi's waiting just up the step

We stopped in Aruba and Santa Marta in Columbia Both I'd recommend

San Blas is a must stop Galapogus Been through the canal twice now, once as skipper once as crew If you need any contacts re panama or further along email me and I'll send what I've got We hauled out and anti fouled in shelter bay, Tahiti is very expensive to do this. symaara@gmail.com

You can have ours Craig You may get two 1020's in it if they allow

Very close to essential in my opinion, especially if your having others join you I insist on everyone drinking 3ltrs of water per day in the tropics plus showering daily Once you've had one you wouldn't go with out This is going to cost me now I say this but other than the primary filter we haven't had to do anything and the only problem was that the capacitor on the 230v motor died mid Atlantic so we then could only use the 12v motor We do use it all the time and never fill anywhere as I've been told that chlorinated water can kill the membrane plus if you use it regularly you don't ne

No we got marina and other contacts from navionics mostly or as Jean said from other cruisers I'll send you a list of contacts that me made up plus were given as we were going along It looks much harder from here than it is, I promise

No one fits all solution In Europe start with Vodafone roam $5 per day Then if your there awhile get a Vodafone sim or similar for Europe, it will work all the way to the Cannery Is. Caribbean is a mine field, Vodafone Antigua won't work on Vodafone Sint Maarten (Dutch) and you will need a different one in St Martin ( French) but same Island Once you get to Central America and most of the pacific you can't get 3G so no internet or very slow The up side is wifi is available cheap lots of places and generally data/phone is really cheap and often cheap enough to buy a phone and run it f

Ok we have decided to allow you to take your kids if your doing the cruising Division "In the nature of this being a fun event we have decided to allow children to sail with there parents in the Cruising division provided they don't provide any assistance "

Anyone know of a cheapish flow detector locally ? My water maker overflows the tank when it's full over the side so I'd like to put a sensor on the overflow tube (12mm I think) so I can wire it to a small led light rather than have to go up on the foredeck to check First world problem I know, but I'm just worried about filling the ocean with fresh water ;-d

8 July 5 August 2 September SSANZ Safety at Sea Triple Series New partner sponsor info coming shortly

I think you should all stay home and safe I love night sailing and it's a lot easier if your all safe at home No matter how dark it is you can always see something But heavy rain can be difficult, best to have a helmsman that just helms and a seperate person to navigate but with a good auto helm you can do both, my present boat has radar, I thought it was a waste of time until I had it

Pull the halyard out the bottom Be careful it doesn't tangle on the way down Motor over to mast gantry at PH then winch your assistant up on the gantry wire at the bottom end of the tide ( you have a lifting keel ?) Then either a thin line or even fishing line with a weight on the end that you can push over the sheave then lower it until you can fish it out of the slot ( piece of rigging wire or similar with hook bent into end ) riggers use a dozen or more nuts threaded onto the line with stopper knot either side Tape thin line to halyard end and pull back up and over the top, make sure a

We did this s in 2014 as we couldn't find a kiwi yacht around 50' that wasn't either close to $1m or 4-500k but 30 years old and needed the same spent on it We would have preferred a real kiwi yacht but they cost so much to build as a one off that we all think we should get 90% back after 10 years which still wasn't affordable for us We are happy with what we have for what we spent, had a great trip back and would do it again tomorrow Won't know if it was fiscally positive until the day we sell which isn't in the near future, but it did allow us to do it within our budget. So it was either

Yes raz88 I can't really see screaming kids fitting in at the party we had at smokehouse last year

We have always invited you to bring your extra's to the after match, we had a few get a ride out and sail back 3 or 4 up last time Maybe we can have some sort of a mothership arrangement to deliver extra crew out, possibly cruisers that don't wish to race but are keen to be involved or even them stinkpot things ? Or even ferry out, sail back ?