DoT

Good question. I guess that's one of the things they're deciding.

They'd better be surveying the rest of the island fast. I can't imagine it has only established in these two locations.

No5 is an ablative antifoul. You wouldn't want to haul and pressure wash with that. Harder antifoul like Ultra will stand up to regular high pressure washing, but tends to be a little less effective in the first place. Some of the spent oxide layers will still come off, more if you scrub it with scotchbrite or a sanding grid.

Looks hard to me too, but I've been assured it's not. I've seen some good face first splash downs, but there seems to be less to hurt yourself on than a windsurfer, and less to get tangled than a kite. Might just be worth a go.

The trains run panto graphs up to the wires. There are variants (which Auckland briefly ordered and then cancelled) that include a battery system. They charge where there are wires, but can run under battery power where there aren't. I assume the same could be done with buses.

In NZ Kaiwaka make PVC based fully waterproof and windproof gear for commercial fishing (NZD $220 for a hi-vis parka) and sell the breathable stuff for recreational sailors (NZD$470 for a jacket). When it turns real bad I want to know that it's blocking the water and wind from the outside.

Hmmm, the godwit seems to have flown back to alaska, in one day.....

Check out this live (-ish) bird tracker. https://www.globalflywaynetwork.org/flyway/east-asian-australasian-flyway/map One of the tracked godwits is underway from Alaska, covering ridiculous distances every day.

The best use case for electric is things that see the high use. Cars that do lots of km every week, delivery vans and trucks, rubbish trucks, buses, should all be high on the list. There is a higher up front cost, but with savings on fuel and maintenance the payback is rapid. A typical yacht with an existing diesel does very few hours per year and is not worth swapping to electric, even though the efficiency below hull speed would make them easy to run.

Definitely true that sitting out some of those summer storms on the beach of a sheltered cove would be preferable to hanging off two anchors wondering whether your windex will self destruct.

They are now getting on with upgrading the hydro stations to provide more storage based generation capacity, several decent geothermal projects including one on Northland, and new wind farms. But the decade from 2009 was really wasted. (see the consent dates here: https://www.windenergy.org.nz/consented-wind-farms )

Mainly because floating the big power companies incentivised them to keep generation as close as possible to demand (increases prices), so they chose not to build a number of large wind farms that were already consented.

That's nuts. Travelling at 21 knots in thick fog banks and relying solely on radar is simply unsafe for other vessels on the harbour. Surprising they haven't run down many more boats with that approach.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126330167/vessels-collided-off-canterbury-coast-after-failures-on-board-both ????? Watchkeepers on the ship and the fishing boat both saw the other, and they still collided head on.

There needs to be a total rethink on recreational fishing (and commercial) that focuses on maintaining the whole ecosystem. My suggestions: Permanently ban dredges and bottom trawling, due to the seabed damage Ban taking crays in the gulf until the cray population is back to 1950s levels. Ban recreational set nets, due to the by catch problems, and the inability to turn dead fish back, and ban longlines (untended, multiple hooks), same problem. Nets are also really bad when they end up lost. Massively expand the no-take marine reserves. Make them all much bigger

Good luck. Supply issues affecting all sorts at the moment.

Reducing the cars people own would always be the best option. The idea we can mitigate our impact on climate without a major change in lifestyle is farcical. Families/households with two or more cars should be reducing to one car and adapting to meet that change. My household, with four working adult drivers has one car. I occasionally hire a Cityhop car or van (eg: to load up the boat), but otherwise get by with bike, walking and bus. Yes, some people have set up their lives around unlimited access to car travel. They need to adapt: live/work/play closer to where they work/live/play

And with a quick skim just then, I could only find 4 items (for the boat) that are different between cat 1 and cat 2. And those were items recommended in 2 but compulsory in 1. But I could have missed something. As far as I can tell structural stuff is the same for both categories.

Keep in mind that your Cat 1 clearance must be got "immediately before the passage or race" and expires as soon as the passage or race is completed. It reverts to a Cat 2 cert at that point.

Do you really think that caring about your personal impact on climate change is being "some kind of eco-warrior"? What narrative would you prefer your kids to get? Climate science is a giant conspiracy by greedy academics who hate our freedom to burn things?

Something to break up the harmonic and/or take energy out. At anchor I use the main halyard as topping lift. I tie a short length of 4mm line between the backstay and the main halyard to stop it humming, about as high up as I can reach. Maybe possible to do something between the backstay and the aft stanchions? Or how about a rubber grommet at the end to absorb some of the energy - or a pad arranged to press on the backstay the like palm muting a guitar string.

I'm not convinced by some of those arguments. If the prop has enough bite to drive the boat forward, it could well have enough bite to turn the engine over. The starter on a small diesel is not particularly powerful. Interesting question is" what about a folding prop? I believe that I have successfully used sail assisted starting. One evening I was sailing along and wanted to run the engine to charge my aging battery. With the battery already a bit flattened it would not turn the engine over quickly enough to start. Rather than grinding away until the battery was dead flat I decided

This is something that is going to come up more in the Gulf too. Ships have been made to slow down to protect the Brydes whale. Some of the bigger race yachts might pose a comparable risk. Dolphins? The regulation is a response to a perceived problem of people harassing them. But the question is whether our non-intentional involvement is enough to detrimentally disrupt them. It's their choice to engage with a sailing yacht, but if we're providing an excess of opportunity and that is killing them, then we need to change. It's like providing unlimited candy to children. Question is w

How excellent is excellent?

I believe you can make an effective glue by "melting down" some of the acrylic waste (trimmings and shavings) with acetone.