Tim C

There's a number of Honda's up here at Sandspit as until recently it was the only brand well serviced in the area. I've had a Honda 15 for nine years, and now a Honda 10 because at the time there was no 15 hp in the country. Both good, reliable engines. Best feature is the 12A charging, double the Yamaha 9.9. Certainly you need the barge props on them. Very likely my next engine will be a Honda 15.

And remember that the Consumer Guarantees Act and Small Claims Tribunal may not save you with these outboards. It is a roll of the dice as to who hears your case. Do not rely on this to get your money back after buying a rubbish outboard brand.

Clew height will be dropped on the next sail. But good for visibility cruising, TC Design brand (as in made it myself) carbon furler. This is Mark 3. The next one will have a swivelling tack. But it won't be a top down furler. There's some experimenting to go on with the next sail that's still top secret. I'll let you know how it goes once it's in action...

Code Zero/Screacher is a fun performance sail, but really has a pretty narrow band of useful sailing, because it is not that big, and typically heavier fabric to cope with the loads. Anything you can do with a Screacher cruising you can do slightly slower with a main and jib. But going downwind you need area. A positive luff gennaker that still roller furls I think is a very versatile sail. I use mine single handed and racing. I made this sail in 2005, when not a lot of sail makers were building this type of sail. It's practically worn out from over use. Not as big as a full race gennaker, b

Very likely Pulse will be aiming for the FFD concert after the Mahu regatta. A walk is good for you anyway!

I've just found this thread. Yes I had a Sail 15 hp outboard. Easily the worst purchase I've ever made. An excerpt from my disputes tribunal application, 2012: "The Sail Outboard is not ‘fit for purpose’ in my opinion. It has continually broken down. There have been issues with the carburettor (There have been three carbs on this engine in the short life of the motor), choke jamming, fuel system failing, charging coils failing, starting system breaking, an oil leak, poor reverse performance due to poor reverse exhaust thrust design." Unbelievably I lost the case, but there is another

Many of the European imports I understand are sent with what appears to be brass type through hulls, that despite being CE and Iso standards are failing in a couple of years. Also, many of these boats (including the cats) have holes at keel level connecting the whole boat to one bilge pump. So in the event of a hull impact or through hull failure the boat sinks. Anyway, the wooden bungs may not be needed in older boats as much as new ones!! We call this progress...

I do hope if you are a Kiwi with a New Zealand built boat that you have read and considered the previous posts and discussion before asking this question...?

Getting the uni's between the gudgeon and the rudder cassette is the easy part. Solving the sideways load, which puts all of that carbon into a peel failure mode, is the tricky part. As suggested above have flat plate holding the gudgeon tube on is good. Also wrap the uni's around the opposite way, at 90˚ to the major uni's, then cover what you can in double bias is also helpful. If you can't do any of that the primitive fix is a bolt through the gudgeon. But that is an awful solution. No matter how many uni's you put on, this sideways load will take out a gudgeon. It is a tricky detail to

I'd be keen

Also see http://www.rsm.govt.nz/projects-auctions/current-projects/changes-to-the-maritime-mobile-repeater-allocations

Roughest part of my last trip, by far, was wind against tide just off Cape Rodney! So you are right

It would be interesting to see a popular European or South African production cat in a similar, flooded, condition. Except I bet you couldn't see it...

Planning on the next two years. When I saw a Prout 33 come into Marsden cove and the skipper of the boat I was on commented that that boat sailed from Denmark, it kind of sealed that I could go too in my cat. Like many others, financing it is the major hurdle, but working on that...

Any good sail maker should be able to supply you with much better battens. It does look like very old technology you are referring to. An economic way to get heavy non tapered battens is to buy a whole coil, often about 30m. Good for the lower part of the sail at least. I would have thought you'd be after 25mm x 10mm or so, solid pultruded battens. You can buy them pre-tapered. Tapering them yourself is a heinous task. Itchy and horrible! Don't do it. They aren't that expensive.

Shann or QCD are the obvious marine ones. But also perhaps Polynet, which makes agricultural netting, and so sells fibreglass rods for under bird nets. May be cheaper...

To answer that, I have done a couple of Aussie boats leaving back for Australia after competing here. The rules are slightly different, but only slightly. I'm sure they have a Cat 1 equivalent. Much of the reason for NZ Cat 1 was their insurance demanded it. That's quite possibly a reason for NZ owners to have Cat 1 too. But the other reason that hasn't been discussed here is the sheer cost of rescue in the huge chunk of ocean that NZ is responsible for. I fully agree with the skipper taking responsibility of the boat, gear and situation. If it goes wrong, and they are happy to take the

Wow, Where do I start? (Trying not to be offended by the thread...) If you have a multihull I would welcome you contact me directly to discuss many of these issues. Escape hatches are not mandatory. As mentioned many sensible solutions and compromises can be found by a sensible inspector. I spend a fair bit of time doing my best to best represent the majority of multihull owners at any opportunity to update the rules. For instance, for Cat 3, you don't need bolt cutters or a stove. There are many Cat 1 rules under 'negotiation'. There is a large number of very experienced yachties invol

At the risk of having KM jump up and down, I'd recommend Vectran over Spectra. Similar price, but way less creep when under load for hours, such as a long race.

Isn't it interesting that we (mostly) believe in Darwin's theory of evolution and survival of the fittest, and yet we don't allow that to continue? Part of societies and indeed the environment's problem is that there are too many people. Previously if someone couldn't use common sense, then evolution removed them from the gene pool to make the rest of a community/tribe stronger and smarter. Are individual failings more important than a positively evolving society?

Ouch! Now you are talking to someone who has a boomless, spreaderless rig, and a very unusual helm set up. I'm not one to accept any convention because that's whats' always been done before! For hull materials yes I would use 'approved' materials. But in not structural areas such as wings for solar panels, or large hard tops that aren't walked on, I wouldn't hesitate to use such cores as polystyrene or polyurethane foam as they are lighter and cheaper, for example. No development would get done in yachting if we waited for approval. Having said that, almost no mid sized yachts get buil

I hear you on that. I've asked for the manufacturer to supply these details for our information. (compliance with AIS standards) To be fair though, the IEC 60945 spec is for manufacturing of marine chart plotting equipment, and is relevant to the GPS chart plotter function on the Unit, and is a reasonable minimum standard for this. The certificate it advertises does not say it is for the AIS function, although I can see that should be spelt out. I think to use the word 'deceive' may be a bit harsh though...

I've gone through the potential input and output electrical loadings on my boat, using various combinations of wind, solar and motor. This is assuming in cruising mode and getting to the islands may well include motoring. Also I tallied up the various outputs of Nav and fridge systems. The thing that springs to mind is that as soon as 24 hours, gets put next to an item, it consumes (or makes) lots of power. Fridges and Autopilots are challenging, and Nav systems add up too. But on the plus side the conclusion I come to, and perhaps for you too KM, is that wind generation while sailing is r

My apologies to those on the site who's business is selling electronics. But the elephant in the room is perhaps these imported non name brand GPS/AIS units such as this, which seems to tick many boxes: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=897476130 As I said on a previous thread, the problem with marine electronics is that they are combining relatively two cheap things, ie a tablet and a GPS, making it waterproof, and then charging a great deal. Now the above example is a brand we haven't heard of, Samyung. But then if you all check the back of your phones or computers that

This is a real part of the electronics package selection process too, along with refrigeration, is to get the level of safety and 'comfort' aboard, while doing inside the cost, weight and charging 'budget'. At sea solar power is often blocked by the sails, so much less use than at anchor. But personally I think a modern yacht should be able to sail most of the time, without running an engine for charging. Perhaps that's where some of the advances are in amp use reduction, notably Sat Phones vs SSB, and modern Radar. But you can go without either SSB or Radar. Also it's deciding what you