Fish

We've just finished a long and involved noise and vibration project on our old 38hp Izuzu. The saloon is now quieter than the cockpit, which indicates the sound proofing on the engine box has been effective. We now get a whine from the drive train, I'm interested in what it is most likely to be. At about 2,200rpm (cruising revs) there is a steady background thrum. Lifting revs up to 2,800 there is a full on whine, load enough to warrant investigating. Today was the first descent run since: 1) re-packing the packing gland. Not much heat coming off the stuffing box, and we inspected this

I swear I only saw one hull out today on Miester. And it was closer to 29 ft...

I've used wet n forget on our boat in the Weiti. Good for that green slime and green staining you get this time of year. Won't help with the pollen blowing around at the moment though...

Most places require boats to be maintained in a 'seaworthy' condition. All marina's require some form of third party insurance also, and you can bet yourself a good bottle of rum most insurance policies have a clause around proper maintenance, seaworthiness or the like. About the only mooring places that don't have minimum requirements now are swing moorings, which may be why so many dodgy old sh*t boxes break free and go bouncing off everyone else every time it blows more than 20 knots.

In the interests of balance, Beta engines are from a Kubota base also. I've no commercial affiliation, other than that the Beta supplier sponsors the Weiti & Gulf Harbour Winter Series. Looking forward to seeing some nice engine ads here on crew

I reckon the windage on that jousting stick out the front will cost at least 0.2 of a knot...

Those two products, CRC soft seal and the Max Wax look very interesting. They appear to be basically similar products. I see the Max Wax has a 4 to 12 hr dry time, while I've found two technical data sheets for the CRC soft seal. One says touch dry in 1 hr, the other says touch dry in 12 hrs, both for the same product code 3013. Going off topic a bit, I see the Max Wax can withstand temperatures of 200 deg C. Would this be suitable for spraying on hard to reach parts of the engine and gearbox to control corrosion on that? I do like the idea of these 'cheap and easy to apply' solut

I want to prevent marine growth and barnacles on the prop shaft. I need to be able to apply a product between tides. This is because we have Copper Coat on the hull and have no need to haul out, ever. We have a spare prop, so can swap props on a tide and do the proper full on Prop Speed application a at home in the shed. What is the best / most effective Antifoul product that can be applied to a stainless prop shaft (1 & 1/4 inch) between tides? Last time we just slapped some International Trilux on it, but that was more of an after thought, as we had an old tin of Trilux hand

Is there a link to the story, or am I supposed to just know what you guys are talking about?

Had electrical problems including loosing cabin and nav lights. Wonder if the AP packed up? Abandoned with the engine running. All sounds very odd.

We recently put the old 3 blade fixed prop on, in order to take our kiwi prop for a full service. Substantial improvement in motoring performance. That is most likely because the kiwi prop needed a service though. Lesson from that is there is less maintenance required on a fixed prop. Motoring performance should be basically equivalent (if maintained properly). There is a difference in sailing performance, extent depends on conditions. The big thing for us is the constant whine from the prop shaft when sailing, with a fixed blade. It probably comes down to personal preference. I'

For me, a beautiful boat is one that has lines and form that indicates good handling, I.e. Sails well. Well balanced, very hard to get to broach, sails to windward sweetly etc My perception is that "high volume" boats, I.e. modern production boats with very large accomodation, generally handle like pigs, therefore, they don't 'look' attractive to me. This is usually demonstrated by extreme beam and very high top sides with vertical bows. Oh, and usually a chine to fit two double cabins in. That said, when I go onboard a 3 bedroom two bathroom floating apartment at the boat show that is

Cost $20k to get rid of it I would have thought....

Shot me, shouldn't this be in Small talk? If I wanted to read about the Unitary Plan I Would have gone to an urban planners forum. Anyone been sailing lately?

So on the one hand you could just guess and hope, on the other hand, you could work it out properly (and ask an engineer if you can't work it out yourself). As its already failing, it's fairly clear guessing and hoping didn't work... Engineers are not lawyers. Their qualifications enable the ability to give a straight answer.

I'm doing the same process. If they are dry powder there is a risk the vibration of being in board a boat causes the powder to compact and cake, meaning it doesn't work when you need it to. So we are replacing all of ours, getting a named brand at the cheapest price possible. I can't comment in the co2 ones. If they pressure gauges is showing ok they must be ok. I wouldn't bother with servicing, given the cost to get new ones. To dispose of them, you can just let them off. Bear in mind they spray white powder everywhere, so the back corner of your garden is a good place to start. Good

The main problem with steel, in my view, is that it is just about impossible to find anywhere that will let you maintain it, in the form of stripping and painting the exterior, if the paint work happens to need a major. That being in the context of paint systems and prep work specific to steel, as opposed to just normal boat and hull striping and painting. Of course keeping the paint system in good order is fairly important for controlling corrosion in steel, which is obviously fairly important on a steel boat. The other key factor with steel, which is most relevant for living aboard, is t

Hi johnmanc, Ours is a tiller steered yacht, we mounted it on the bulkhead by attaching the bracket to the bulkhead, the MFD sits just clear of it. It is off to one side, so is angled slightly so that it can be clearly seen on either tack while driving with the tiller. As a note, we also have a handheld GPS in a cradle on the far opposite side of the cockpit that gives speed and heading in line of sight of the helms man when on that tack. The MFD is still close to hand and everything can be seen easy enough. Works for us.

We made up a little alloy bracket, started with a flat strip of allow, bent it at the dimensions we needed and cut out nice slots for the chart plotter screw threads on each side to slide into. Ours is mounted on the cabin bulk head, but off to one side, so the bracket is made so the chart plotter faces into the center of the cockpit a little bit. The base is screwed into the bulkhead, good and secure underway. It is quick and easy to remove said chart plotter for security reasons, and to keep it out of the weather. KM, our chart plotter repeats all sorts of speed, heading and wind inf

Are you guys conspiring to play a game of "Wind Up Fish Monday"? On the one hand we have the spread of the invasive foreign marine pest (which apparently is very very bad for the environment) and then on the other hand, our Environmental Protection Authorities go and ban / remove any component of antifoul that may actually make it work, and assist in stopping the spread of said very very bad invasive marine pest? Can someone just please shoot me

One decision to rule out, can your charging system cope with an FLA engine battery and AGM house batteries? If it can't, then that rules out getting AGM for the house bank. (If it can, that still leaves you with a decision to make). Previously we have gone for the cheapest priced battery with the same specifications as the ones we are replacing. Given that you already understand that use and charging regime has a significant impact on battery life, and that you don't want to change your charging systems, that is possibly your best decision basis. Some of these new types and variant

Can't fly with tooth paste....... Where are you trying to fly to? Great Barrier may well be ok but anywhere else would be high risk, def not international. I had enough trouble trying to fly AKL CHC with safety boots on my feet during the quake response, so I wouldn't go applying logic to any thinking on what you can fly with.

Absolutely beyond me why they didn't use a sea legs enabled boat. All that attention drawn to them trying to launch a stern leg driven sh*t box off a surf beach. Was queitly reading the ads in my boating magazine and saw that Smuggler Marine do a Sea legs equiped 770 centre console that would have been just the ticket for picking up bags out of the water. Imagine the marketing irony if the drug smugglers brought a boat of Smuggler Marine.....

The breast are certainly very plump