K4309

I would love a Wallas stove but unfortunately haven't won lotto yet (maybe cause I don't buy tickets). They look like the ducks nuts, just not very cheap. Must be a huge benefit only carrying diesel instead of all the faffing with LPG when on extended and international cruising. Just pruchased a new gas stove in order to get my gas certificate in order to placate the insurance company. Was looking longingly at the diesel stove options. Had a good look at Wallas diesel heaters as well, ended up going for a far lower spec'ed one.

We are already not far off it in NZ. I'm in the midst of getting a condition assessment survey for my boat, purely for insurance purposes. Cost of survey, rig check and gas certificate alone is in the order of $3k. Not counting maintenance work and renewals I need to complete ahead of the survey (that I had planned for anyway). Without insurance you can't moor in a marina or club mooring field (i.e. Weiti) and you can't haul out anywhere, so maintenance, or even doing an out of water hull inspection for the survey gets very complicated. Sure, you can still have an uninsured boat

For battery charging via an inverter, you'll need a pure sin wave one, not a cheaper one that has an approximate sin wave. Most inverters and generators have a peak power and continuous power number. You want to stay within the continuous power rating, that gives you an appropriate safety margin within it's stated specifications. Motors like Aardvarks skill saw have a high start up current (If I've got my terms right it is a high impedence). Motors such as pumps / skill saws can draw up to 8 x the running amps on start up. This may be what trips Aardy's inverter with the skill saw. T

Is it possible to drive north of the Brynderwyns? Or is it quicker to go by boat to a coastal harbour, like the pre-colonial trading days? (PS, semi serious question, I never know if the Brynderwyns / SH1 are closed for maintenance or not)

We used Henley's to make rudder bearings out of some fancy plastic material. At that time we were doing a new drive shaft, shaft seal and all sorts of expensive and tedious boat stuff with them as well. There was a little bit of wear on my rudder stock so ended up putting the whole thing in the car and taking it down there for them to measure so they could get the fit just right. If you need it bespoke you'll have to get something machined up, which would be either Henley's of Chatfields. I found Henley's easier to deal with but that doesn't mean either is any better for you.

I reckon Easter is too close to the equinox this year. It is normal to get blowey around the equinox. Traditionally Easter weather is always either complete shithouse or amazeballs glassy calm, never anything in between. Possibly when Easter was later in April (away from the equinox) it is more likely to get those classic autumn crisp clear days and cold nights. I'm hoping that is the case, as I'm eyeing up the April school holidays for a nice autumn cruise this year (and because Easter is sucky, as you say).

Yes I read that a wee while ago when Jones first said it. My point is that there is a minority that have disproportionate influence on fisheries management - I don't want to get into the rightly of wrongly bit here. But this is the exact issue Coutts is banging on about regards SailGP. Many people have been distracted about the dolphins, noting Coutts came out on the Friday saying SailGP wouldn't return due to minority issues, when the dolphin issue didn't kick off till Saturday. And people have been distracted because it is Coutts saying it. Clearly he is a brash and polarising

This is a very good example. Not wanting to trigger your guys aversion to politics, BUT: Any moves to manage the Gulf fisheries are blocked or thwarted by Tangatawhenua. The basic issue being that the treaty never covered the sea, and they see they have rightful control (some say ownership, others say Kaitiaki) of the fish. This is why the current plan, which I think took 10 yrs to work out, requires the entire community to stop taking fish, accept for one minority, race based group. It is fair to say that if it wasn't for the customary rights issues around fish management, we c

Sometimes where theories are hard to prove either way, it is prudent to revert to empirical data. Whilst it is often hard to obtain full datasets, some empirical data is usually better than none at supporting a hypothesis. The available data is that 34 events have been held globally, and marine mammals have not been harmed. That includes 10 races in this commercial port / mammal sanctuary. Given that the verified number of Hector's dolphins is 15,000, it sounds like there is plenty of them around to hit, and they haven't managed that, so perhaps the dolphins are smarter than we give

My pick is they were there on Sunday as well, and we just couldn't see them for the chop, oh, and they know how to keep out of the way of boats. Very easy to see fish / seals / dolphins on glassy calm days. Choppy days and it is a struggle to see a kayaker, let along some tiny dolphin. Hectors dolphins are predated by sharks, seven gills, mako's, whites. Turns out the top speed of most of those sharks are consistent with the top speeds of an F50. Mako's are the fastest at 74 km/hr. And, those F50's are feckin noisy underwater. Foils hum like a bastard. And if the foils are so go

It is also a commercial port. Who would put a mammal sanctuary in the middle of a commercial port? AND, he is very clear that he can't get the dates he wants in Feb. The reason given is because the dolphins are still on their summer holidays then. So while DoC and Iwi may not have the power of veto, some minority group somewhere is definitely throwing a spanner in the works.

No. He wants to run the event in Feb in Lyttleton. DoC / Iwi have said no, cause of the dolphins. That is what he is pissed about. March doesn't work with the international circuit. So DoC and who ever are wanting Coutts to re-arrange a couple of other international events to fit in with them. Noting there are 15,000 of these dolphins. Think everyone might be getting confused, thinking they are Maui dolphins, of which there are only about 50(?) left.

Container ships are documented as having killed a number of Brydes Whales in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

It is funny how people forget that marine mammal sanctuary is also a major commercial port. Ground zero for med fan worm too. How outrageous to want to hold this event at a commercial port. Lunacy. Completely reckless. Lyttleton is hardly a tranquil fjord in the depths of a National Park and the sole habitat of one armed starfish and unicorn seahorses. That, and his main issues aren't with the dolphins, it is with the bureaucracy and cost of dealing with red tape and minority groups with disproportionate power. We have a major productivity issue in NZ, GDP per capita is plummet

Did you hear the commentators call on that? "Meanwhile, Burling couldn't start a lawn mower..."

Boat surveyors can do ultrasound. I don't know if that is applicable for looking for corrosion in steel that is embedded in glass. They normally do solids things like steel hulls and what not. I think it primarily reports thickness. In saying that, ultrasound can work out if I cracked a rib (my rib, not the boat's), so it may be able to identify inconsistent thickness associated with corrosion. Oh, and it may be cheaper to pull them out, inspect and replace. But, to find it is just a phone call to find out. Just google marine surveyor. I spoke to a handful recently on another matter.

Sounds like there is more risk, or as much risk, in a redesign than there is keeping them as is. What is the background, are you planning a voyage in the Southern Ocean, or Gulf Cruising? Brand new rigging can fail. Sure, there is a correlation with very old rigging failing, but that doesn't exclude new gear failing. Especially if it is a novel or un-proven design. Or poorly installed. An alternative design is to glass in a large lump of hardwood. You could then screw the chainplates straight to that, keeping them visible, so you meet your objective for inspection etc. This is w

Don't get me started on boat values. What do they say when you want to fix / replace or upgrade stuff? Over-capitalised... As long as you use your boat and enjoy it for it's intrinsic value, rather than it's financial value

Well, that didn't age well. How many of those are available retail in NZ? I've only seen (and got) red ones, accept for the parallel, which is yellow. PS, I'm only considering lead technologies (lead acid, lead carbon). If you want lithium, then yeah, the requirements and redundancies increase substantially. I'm still to understand the benefits of lithium, esp as retrofits in boats the age of Aardvarks and mine. I'm sure the need for additional isolation is more easily justified in more complex installations you get on these new fandangelled boats. Next you'll be discussing coffee ma

I'm sure there are dozens of ways to configure everything, and each way has a logical argument behind it somewhere. But I just like to keep things as simple as possible. Anyway, here is some logic. The isolator switches are always red. So shouldn't they go on the positive? PS, what are these DPST things you speak of?

I'd put your battery switch / isolator on the positive side. Just cause that is what you do. The negatives go to what ever ground you have. The positives have the control (switches) on them. Helps in the future when you start adding more sh*t, you know which way round everything is. Why would you put switches on the negative / earth?

It is interesting how society values environmental and social factors. It wasn't that long ago that they we not considered at all. Infact the notion that they existed was completely novel. Some of Muldoon's Think Big projects would not even get off the drawing boards today because of environmental, social and cultural factors. Yet we have some of the highest proportions of renewable hydro power in the world. I'm not sure it is so much "out of sight" but really hard to quantify the cost / risk, and having a complete lack of viable treatment options ready to go. Noting that MPI have long es

The other thing to add with the comparison to M. Bovis, is that there was a direct and quantifiable reduction in milk production due to M.Bovis. That could attach a dollar value to it quickly and be used to justify a business case for spending large sums of money to erradicate it. As far as we can tell, there isn't any economic impact from caulerpa. Just environmental and cultural. We haven't heard of fishing companies going bust cause they can't catch anything. We haven't even heard of fishing charters having trouble. They are still catching crayfish no issue on the west coast of Barrier

Not sure how you can compare it to the M.bovis outbreak. In that case, MPI went and shot cows that belonged to someone else. What would you do here? go and shoot all the snapper? Cows are easy to find, they are normally in paddocks and stuff. And not excessively mobile, assuming the paddock is fenced. They don't move twice a day with the tide (unless of course, they are dairy cows, then they move twice a day into and out of the milking shed, but I digress). I found the Sunday programme to be highly emotive. But it skipped some key facts. What is the actual impact of caulerpa, as oppo

You mean like the Inshore and Offshore Patrol craft that are home-based at regional ports around the country, along with one working frigate and a fleet support ship? Oh, and a survey ship to keep our charts up to date, for international commerce. Sounds exactly like what we have.