Black Panther

I've always considered a harness way more important than a PFD/lifejacket.

Don't wait too long Booboo, our baby was only 1 when we left last time

I'm just curious here. How many of our crew ogres think that a period of long distance cruising lies somewhere in their future? Soon , very soon, or someday? Just up to the islands or far, far away? For a few years or forever? or till the money runs out? Current boat or something else?

Trying not to give offence: Years ago I got my first boat to Cat 1. It was a significant expense. I only got top quality gear. A lot of it was dead after two years. I have already mentioned the medical kit. Flares also bug me. they are expensive and have way too short a shelf life. At a certain New Year's party around the end of last century (that included stealing a submarine) We fired off a bunch of expired flares - every last one of them worked just fine. I never used to carry a radio. The new boat came with a VHF, I'd probably carry a satphone now. I don't know if that meets the rules

Agree, Humans succeeded because they learned to cooperate, not because they were faster, stronger or had bigger teeth.

What ever happened to these guys? Their blog page is gone, I was wondering what route they took to get home?

But it is biology , not physics. Read up on swarms and population blooms, quite common and well understood, and it may give an inkling of where we are headed.

I spoke to a NZ inspector and was seriously underwhelmed. Or, in the vernacular, he was a narrow minded dipstick. I have hasd a good friend who has been a pharmacist for 30 years put together a med kit for a fraction of the price of the "standard" one. Some other things they insist on I am unconcerned about or simply don't want. Cat 1 itself doesn't last long enough, a lot of the equipment expires way too early. I have said document regarding GST.

No , I was talking about Langkawi.

Are we seeing a meltdown

Excellent advice, otherwise known as the gross tonnage rule.

We hauled a couple of weeks ago. Put a socket on the nuts, slipped a bit of SS tube about 3 ft long over the handle and gave it everything I could. Moved one out of 16 about 1/8 of a turn - happy. Also pulled two chainplate bolts - they looked brand new, put them back in and stopped looking.

My girls were flying in this morning, any reports of planes flipping on the runway?

I think it was Gary who told me that if a job takes more than 15 mins you are using the wrong tool.

Langkawi, Vanuatu or Cook Islands are on my list. KM mentioned another i hadn't considered a while back but I can't remember it now. Langkawi are pretty much no questions asked, pay the money and you are registered. I'm thinking of flying over and having a bit of a holiday and coming back with a shiny new piece of paper.

Rigger - that must have been a big ship, it made the other ships on the opposite wall look small. Makes you wonder why we don't see more with the bridge at the front. No not like the picture, but with the lookout and steering up the front.

At least half of the time anyway

Farrier have done very well so far, but I know the area and the chances of zero wind increases from here, and I don't know how well they can paddle those things. I expect to see the paddlers pick up places as the race goes on.

Wonder what happened - they were serious contenders.

I just checked the tracker, worth a look right now http://tracker.r2ak.com/ there must be 20 routes to choose from

I like West epoxy, you can change the consistency depending on the job you are doing. But there are others on here more experienced than I, let's see what they say.

Mix some epoxy and mix in some dust from sanding the same bit of wood?

A quick look at the results shows the Farrier Tris did well on leg one, but there are long stretches of the course where there will be no wind at all and lots of current. A fun one to watch.

Yep. I'd get the proa out of mothballs for an event like that. I haven't been able to find any results yet but curious to see how the Paul Bieker designed proa is doing - might be the first time a proa has been allowed in a race in about 40 years.

It's started - why can't NZ get interested in this kind of event? http://dory-man.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/r2ak-pre-race-ruckus.html http://r2ak.com/