Leftred

Water quality discussion aside, I'm continually stunned by how terrible the Predict Wind tracker is. If I get auto-scrolled to the coast of Sri Lanka one more time I think I'm done. No ability to filter by divisions, no boat type, a number of trackers with the skipper's name not the boat (that's not the software's fault but still). Painful.

They can get a haul out at The Landing for a hose down... oh wait...

Great boats. I haven't even sailed mine yet and I love it. Can't imagine getting any more useable space out of a moderately sized 40-fter than the 1220 does either.

Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing that. I'd thought about applying to work on Earnslaw 15+ years ago. I'd learnt a lot from former engineering staff, examiners etc who'd worked on her. Most I ever shovelled on a railway locomotive was just short of 2 tons in a day... so would have been a step up hahah.

My family own a traction engine, and just running that isn't cheap. I don't know the exact numbers but a day's hard running on the road only burns a couple hundred kilos of coal. I hate to think of the cost of running a fairly large steel steam ship. At least with a rail locomotive you can park it for a few years and it doesn't really deteriorate. I have always wanted to spend some time on a shovel in the engine room of a steam ship though...

I'm pretty left leaning in general (sorry) but the idea that the tiny pin prick of emissions from heritage machinery should change their operation because of climate change considerations seems ridiculous to me. Although I've shovelled many tons of coal into 100+ year-old boilers over the years so I'm biased. Making any heritage steam operation work financially is very very difficult. Most volunteer rail operations are struggling to keep their steam locomotives running, except for a handful of very well run ones like Steam Incorporated out of Wellington. Add the complexity of hull mainten

Nice thank you, that'd be really awesome. Definitely a lot of Townson influence, although I prefer the window shape to the Townson elliptical ones. Very much a family resemblance to the Nova when out of the water too, just scaled up a lot.

Do you have any more info on the Transit designs? The Wrighty book didn't go into much detail. There's another Dennis Bettany built boat in there called Gemini that looks almost exactly the same, except being 35ft and a bilge keeler. Those photos of her being launched with the blue hull (long since changed to white) were sent to me by Dennis a couple years ago.

A one-off Alan Wright design. Sold without builder or build year known, but I managed to track the builder down and he shared some old photos which was really fantastic. Hasn't been Flying Cloud for a number of years, and I would have changed her back but the current sign writing is quite nice. Standard keel. Sadly for sale soon as I've gone larger and plastic-ier.

Any idea what year that would be? My current boat is much older than I am, but a picture of her being transported for launching in 1973 or 1974.

Sorry shouldn't joke. That's really disappointing the harbourmaster doesn't want to help before it becomes a bigger problem.

Na mate, just doing the anodes and then we'll be back into the cruise. Benefits of turning it into a bilge keeler. (A no-keeler?)

I'd say K4309 may have it there. It's good to remember that the Earth's magnetic field isn't parallel to the ground in most of the world (magnetic dip), and so compasses are weighted to compensate to hold them roughly parallel to the ground. There can be different weightings for different regions. That's the reason why when flying a plane using a magnetic compass you learn to compensate for the momentum of that weight during a turn. On some heading the compass will spin ahead, and on other's it will lag. Likewise when accelerating or decelerating it's will move the compass on some heading

I'd check, some recycling bins specifically say no waste fuel. We used to burn old bunker oil from ships in an oil burning rail locomotive, it was good stuff, thick as tar but with a ton of energy. Most of the oil burning engines running on the main line (ours was pretty much the only non-mainline preservation oil burner) burn diesel, which doesn't quite seem right.

So is the long term vision to just have the Viaduct Marina remain for a few glamour boats and to keep a "City of Sails" facade? I find it staggering that a yacht club would support closing the stand when options are diminishing across the city. Out of interest I had a look at the Viaduct marina website and noticed there were no fees displayed. Guess it's a "if you have to ask you can't afford it" scenario? *edit* cancel that, found them. The "can't afford it" part was correct.

VCR? Ah that's your problem then, Beta or VHS? Hilarious. Seriously though, that's basically my setup, and I've had the same issue in the past with sluggish start when out sailing for a few hours. I've assumed it was a dodgy earth return from the engine, and that when I was sitting at 13+ volts fresh off the charger/alternator it was OK, but as the start battery settled at 12.8v or whatever it became more of a problem. That's a only guess though, and I haven't been out since replacing my connections and cables. Would love to hear from more knowledgeable people.

I've suspected a over representation of kayaks and SUPs in some NZ research, although survey companies always try and weight things to avoid that. Technically if you pay $10 at a camp ground to use their sit-on-top it's a commercial operation and shouldn't be included above, but even though researchers attempt to make that clear to survey participants I don't think it always clicks. The important distinction between my personal boats types is that I have both a kayak and a yacht >6m, and I've owned them roughly the same amount of time. In that time I've spent exactly $0 on the kayak, w

I'd find the manual online for your furler if you can. My one turned out to have all sort of hidden holes you were meant to put grease in. I used a small plastic syringe on mine which worked well, although the furler still sucks hahaha.

I have a lot of respect for what Dalts has achieved in his own racing and with ETNZ. However, language like that "talk to someone sensible" reminds me of a bully who is used to getting their own way. As you said, the ratepayers will likely foot the bill, and if indeed the city holds the risk then I'd support anyone who tells him to get stuffed.

The Spanish team defending the America's Cup should be able to afford a pretty nice event in Auckland with all that extra sponsorship money they've opened up by moving to Europe right? Right? They're not going to expect a small city like Auckland no longer directly involved to pay, right? Right?

My hope would be it would last long enough so that the next owner is the one to have to sand it!

I've used Altex Timbercote on my boat's fairly extensive exterior timber. Very easy to apply, looks great, but is ultimately a traditional varnish that needs 1000 coats and starts to look a bit tatty after 18 months. I've seen some fantastic looking results from people using 2 pack varnishes, so finding some user stories about them would be interesting.

The fact that executive level management have managed to convince society that in "order to get the best you have to pay top dollar" while they laugh all the way to the bank with millions in salaries, bonuses, stock options, golden parachutes, etc, despite their companies doing terribly is one of the great cons of the modern era.

He seemed like a nice guy, I'd never buy a boat off him though. There's a really weird mix of boats at the moment, over priced pieces of junk, dreaming half million dollar machines (but nice ones!), and surprisingly well priced tidy cruising boats that seem to sell fast.

The meme where the guy puts a stick through their own bike wheel comes to mind...