BMW56

The same thing happened to me a year ago. It's worth also calling the Police (Lost & Found Office) and reporting it as lost. If somebody finds it they may well alert the Police if they don't have a contact number for the Coastguard. The Police will also give you an incident number which you might need if you want to claim insurance, even though it wasn't stolen. Good luck with getting it back - I suspect somebody found my one and claimed salvage rights as I'm pretty sure I saw the outboard for sale on TradeMe a couple of months ago. No way to prove it was definitely mine though.

ArticleonStufftoday: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100499575/first-boats-take-up-residence-at-new-te-ana-marina

It depends how much you want/have to spend I guess. I used to have a Mariner 3.3 which came with my tender when I bought it second hand, but then sadly it was lost when the tender took off in a blow, and hasn't been seen since (by me anyway, though I suspect somebody else may be enjoying it now). It was a good motor, but not without it's drawbacks. In the meantime I was lent a Parsun 5.8 to use while I waited for the insurance money for the tender. It was/is a great wee motor and I was sort of impressed. Eventually I got some insurance money for the tender and outboard, though not enou

I was having no luck finding fuel filters for my Isuzu diesel but then came across these guys: https://motorco.com.au Though they are predominantly an automotive parts supplier they appear to have an extensive range of filters including many rare ones. Prices seem ok and for my one it was free freight to nz, so about $30 all up. Certainly worth enquiring if you can’t find what you want locally.

So what's the plan? Bigger? Faster? Newer?

Article on Stuff this morning: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/98428346/doubts-over-womens-harrowing-sea-ordeal

A good friend died in the 90s as a result of electrocution when working in a haulout yard in Kuala Lumpur. Cut cord on a sander apparently. There's merit in regular checks to identify faulty gear and remove it from service. Part of my work involves electrical safety on medical equipment. (Just back from checking out a GP clinic tonight.) We find plenty of faults that could have seriously adverse results if ignored, but early intervention means incidents are rare. Yes, we share many of our standards with Oz, but there is good science behind them, which is why we have relatively few electrical a

Totally agree Myjane. Trouble is I need to go to work to pay for all the boat expenses, otherwise I would be out there a lot more,

It will be a different type of magnet. With speaker magnets the magnetic field is mostly inside the donut shaped magnet. I think the secret may be some sort of array of multiple magnets that has a wide field, rather than just one single magnet. Just guessing though.

Thanks, looks interesting. I'll check it out.

He's certainly not keen to measure them!

I had a quick look last night and there has been quite a bit of research on how magnetic fields influence or disrupt birds' ability to navigate. Much of it was done using homing pigeons in the 1940s, though there are dozens of research papers since then that study the subject. There's no doubt that migratory and homing birds use the Earth's magnetic field to find their way around. Most of the studies use magnets attached to the birds rather than land based magnetic fields. It's well proven that this hugely reduces the ability of homing pigeons to find their way home. When the magnets

Some brand new Nova 28 sails on TradeMe this morning. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/boats-marine/parts-accessories/sails/auction-1399355427.htm

That's very useful to know thanks Vicki. I'm just over in Cass Bay, so it's the same pesky little b@$tards that are causing me grief. Plus a seagull that hangs out on the solar panel. Amazingly sticky poop! Somebody mentioned the magnets to me and I too was skeptical. Probably still am, but it's good to hear a first hand positive experience. I'm tempted to give them a try.

I'm interested to know what others have tried to keep birds (feathered kind) off their boats? What works and what doesn't? Has anyone tried the magnetic bird deterrents? My best success so far has been stringing up CDs, but they don't last very long in the weather.

Has anyone tried 'Warpaint' from Wetandforget? https://www.wetandforget.co.nz/products/marine/warpaint.html Any good?

First hand experience of no engine yesterday. Sucked a plastic bag into the cooling water intake. It was a long sail home with next to no wind. More or less becalmed for a while. Fortunately the tide was going the right way, but I can see how easy it might be to get into trouble without the iron Jenny working. Bag removed today and all seems well despite having boiled the freshwater system.

The book is a good read. It's recently been republished and should be available at most bookshops or your local library.

Wow! Some nice products from Smartswitch IT, and good to see them Kiwi made. Thanks for the info on the pumps too. One of the deciding factors will be the diameter of the pump as it needs to fit in a tight little gap between the hog board and bottom stringer. Some more precise measurements are in order.

Thanks for all the advice. It's really helpful. KM, I'm going for the transom. I lifted the cabin sole and cleared all the junk under the quarter-berths yesterday and have worked out a route for a 28mm hose that won't need me to destroy anything structural or cut holes where I can't get. I'll be going under the quarter-berth panels rather than just under the deck where I was first thinking. The run will be just a tad over 5m, I need to get between the ribs and the hull in a couple of places, which is why 28mm hose will be the max. The old pump has a 19mm outlet, but it's stuffed, so I

My boat was broken into a few weeks ago. The villan(s) left the washboards out and the hatch open letting an unknown amount of rain inside. Apart from nicking some tools, they probably did me a favour. I thought I should check how much water had found its way into the bilge. Despite the carpet in the cabin being soaked, the bilge was all but dry. However I did discover something of concern that will be my winter project to fix. Unfortunately the bilge pump drains.... wait for it.... back into the bilge. There is about 2m of hose neatly coiled up beside the pump, so I think this may be a p

Thanks KM. That's good advice. I chose the polypropylene on the basis if it being lightweight, and therefore not too much of a sea anchor with the longer length, and also moderately stretchy. There always seem to be pros and cons. I used to tow my old dinghy on a much shorter painter, and it danced around a lot more than the new one does. I have actually used two stainless rings together to spread the load over a greater surface area. Seems to work fine though it took some experimenting to find the right length for the bridle. I started off a bit too long and the rings didn't slide easily, b

I had the recent experience of losing my dinghy, not because the painter gave way, but because the D-ring pulled off the front of the dinghy. One new dinghy later I have been experimenting with painters and towing bridles. I was surprised how much better the dinghy tows using a bridle attached to the tow points on either side, as compared to a single point on the bow. A long tow line helps too.. The bridle clips on with snap shackles and is only put on for towing. The tow line is 10m of 12mm polypropylene braid with the bridle permanently attached via a stainless ring that can slide along,

I'm with Youi. They were happy to insure on a swing mooring so long as the required inspections are kept up to date. Survey not required even though I had one. Policy looks reasonable and not much different to others I looked at. Price was very competitive a year ago. Haven't had to make a claim, so no experience there. Only downside is the salespeople are quite pushy - will try to insure your house, car, life & wife all on the same phone call. Just say no thanks unless you are interested.

Boat ashore in Cass Bay, Lyttelton. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/91260796/Canterbury-bears-brunt-of-bad-weather-with-heavy-rain-gales-and-snow?