Fogg

Thanks Booboo - the voice of experience speaks and almost certainly clarifies what happened! Hope the cruise is going well? Cheers

I’m overlooking the Waitemata from my office and it’s almost calm. The flags on the waterfront buildings are hanging limp and wet. Yet Nowcasting says that just 2nm away at Bean Rick it’s blowing 25kts!

Yesterday was baffling indeed. We went out Fri eve planning to rush home Sun morning at the latest before the ‘big blow’ but it never materialised. We set sail from Rakino / Mototapu area to Gulf Harbour area at lunchtime and the now casting was giving Tiri as 20+ and Chl Is as 30+ from SE. I was expecting a great sail once we cleared the islands. But we never saw more than 12-15 and nearer GH it died down to under 10kts so we started motoring like all the others around us. I’m confident any wind reading at Tiri with E in it over-reads by 10kts at least.

Does anyone know what a whale strike feels like? This afternoon in Hauraki Gulf we hit a hard submerged object whilst motor sailing at 8kts about 1nm SE of GH. There was a solid ‘thump’ sound and feeling and then boat slowed to half speed but no change in engine speed or vibrations. No immediate signs of water ingress. I slowed boat down put engine into reverse briefly in the hope that whatever we had fouled would drop off. Then resumed normal engine revs and boat returned to normal speed with no after-effects immediately evident eg steering. Dived on boat on berth but zero signs

If you're going to Europe you'll have some great options not widely available here in NZ including an older bullet-proof GRP boat or aluminium with lifting keel (useful in canals) or even aluminium hull with GRP deck and superstructure!

Aluminium?

From memory about $200 allowing for straightforward re-check of system.

This is a great thread - must be one of the longest running time-wise - and it brings back happy childhood dialing memories of my own as well as some handy new tips for cruising with our own little one (now 3.5). Look forward to more of Booboos updates from his global travels as well as other tips for Gulf & Northland cruising. I agree with the approach to minimize long non-stop trips hence I try to set sail early so the little man spends the first part of the trip asleep and whewn he wakes up only has 2-3 hrs more sailing to do at most. Cheers

I've also always used a simple clean splice to the last chain link and found it worked fine 99% of the time through a combined rope/ chain gypsy (most recently Lewmar). In fact KM did the splicing on my last one.

DSC solves that as well because most modern sets broadcast lat & long position as part of the distress message so the whole world can see where they are. Saves the whole "Where are you?" thing. Given Maritime NZ boasts about having one of the largest SAR regions in the world to look after I can't understand why NZ is dragging its heels to adopt marine safety technology that has been mainstream for over a decade elsewhere in the world. I know VHF is short-range and doesn't help with the large SAR region (much) but it's the message it sends to everyone i.e. "Sorry - no DSC - we're still

Other than that how do you like the Axiom Pro? I'm having one installed this week. I had the es97 installed on my previous boat in Nov and was all set to repeat for the new boat but then I heard the es series is being phased out and Axiom is the replacement generation (not the 'budget' option as was previously assumed). I'm expecting it to be even faster than the es.

+1 Which is why I have deferred my extended summer cruise til Feb when the bays are slightly quieter than the peak-season holiday madness. This weekend was awful for anchoring.

The harbourmaster is obviously too busy doing life-jacket checks on dinghies going 50m from their anchored yacht to the beach at Kawau.

They're obviously still allowed to operate - frequent visit to Kawau over the w/e.

If my eyes aren't deceiving me that mostly sunk hull is still visible. I'd have thought someone would have visited it by now if not the owner then the harbourmaster to avoid a problem brewing e.g. half submerged wreck drifting off it's mooring?

+1. Have used Gulf Harbour Covers twice for full covers replacement. The first lot lasted 10yrs and looked great up until about year 9.

This blow seems only slightly less nasty than the 'cyclone' we had a couple of weeks back. About 11am coming over the harbor bridge there seemed to be a half-sunk boat on the moorings on the N side - anyone know anything?

Thanks. They look perfect on your installation (big transom mounting area) but I'm not sure they are the right shape for me. I'll try to load a pic showing the rear of my thing and you'll see what I mean.

The other boat that we viewed (same make, same size) had davits fitted that enabled this. Hence I know it's possible (and yes I'm trying to find out who did those ones too as it was done in Auck)!

OK. Still keen to see any pics you can post or send when convenient. I like the look of these - relatively simple and clean - but not sure if they would lift the dinghy high enough? I want to raise it high enough that I can still use the transom steps by walking under the dinghy - maybe these are too low?

I think the prop size & pitching must be about right because I can get the engine to full rated rpm (3000) at which point I'm motoring about 8.5kts. So plenty of grunt & bite going ahead. Will inspect it more closely under the water again this w/e in case it's doing something strange when it reverses but currently it feels like it has fallen off.

I saw the 180kg thing but somewhere in my memory banks I recall that snatch loads from slamming and wave motion can generate 2-3x static load i.e. the same stuff that causes rigs to come down in heavy conditions. Hence I think they look a bit lightweight for my purposes.

Thanks look interesting. But can’t see any pics of the example boats viewing on my phone. Wonder about snatch loads and ability to cope with RIB + outboard + fuel tank (total 100kg) in a seaway.

Thanks. Assume it's a yacht?

Same engine as me then. What boat are you driving with this? And what is astern performance like including braking / reverse thrust and prop walk? I've inherited a Volvo folding prop and when I go into reverse it feels like the prop isn't there. And that I have a 10-hp outboard going full noise pushing my stern to port. Cheers