Fish

Sorry Booboo, I think you missed the point. This boat wasn't partying in the bay. They came into the bay and trolled through it at 1 am with the stereo cranking. Given that situation, I fully support the OP for naming and shaming. There is partying in a boat, and while others may not like it, given a location like Izzy Bay, should be able to expect and tolerate it to a degree. Trolling through a bay with the stereo cranking isn't a group having a social time with a rumbo or three...

Maybe they use it for barging supplies into a remote house in the Sounds? i.e. Lifting bulk supplies onto a wharf in the middle of no-where? Seems a bit over the top for just a dinghy, especially the reach and weight capacity.

Hi Jon, yes we have a good spinlock jammer on the mast. so can lock off the kite halyard and run it back to a spare winch in the cockpit. Am thinking about set ups around that, bring the halyard back into the cockpit, which should simplify the actual drop and gathering in. I see some advantages in being familiar with running the brace, as I still have the pingable clips on the sheets, then this gives me options to ping it or blow it. Am starting to think there is logic in trailing the brace and the halyard. Definitely don't have any stopper knots in anything attached to the kite. We normally

I do like the simplicity of a conventional letter box by just running the brace and staying in the cockpit. Should be able to rig the halyard back, even if just on a temp basis for solo races. Can't believe I overlooked just running the brace. When two handed, we went for the pingable clips because it was lower risk than running the brace, and someone had to be forward for the halyards anyway. What is the deal with safely running the brace? I've heard stories of wrapping the pole around the forestay, or breaking the forestay... Assume you gentle ease the pole onto the forestay, then le

What does everyone do to handle spinnakers / down wind sails single handed? I'm thinking about getting into this Sail IQ solo series but want to do it properly, and reasonably safely... Does anyone still uses socks / snuffers, or are they too much trouble when things get lively? Do single handers fly spinnakers, or do you go with asymtrics on furlers? How do free luff gennaker furlers actually work, can you put any old gennaker on them? What is a torsional halyard, and can you take any old furler (old headsail furler) fit a torsional rope and head car swivel thingee and just go o

Ah, 15 hp to move your boat sounds a whole lot more plausible than 3 hp. I guess the point I was trying to make was, if you are prepared to accept a 'lower level of service', I.e. Smaller, less powerful engine, then other opportunities for electric or green engine options open up. That said, I had a very brief Google search for electric outboards and was a little surprised at how many very cheap options were about. Starting from about $250. They did look ridiculously small though...

I don't want to sound facetious, but sailing boats never used to have engines on them. When they did start putting engines on them, they called them 'Auxiliaries'. There are a few fairly clear practical issues with having an engine-less boat, primarily getting onto your mooring, worse so if you park in a marina, which makes sailing in just about impossible. On that thought though, modern diesels are generally specified to be able to push a boat at hull speed into a reasonable breeze. Hence they are powerful and as such big and heavy. If you are happy to forgo a level of service to

That is probably the most specific quote I would expect from Blusty and Trundell. Nothing like actually knowing what an item costs, or taking the time to actually find information for a customer... Note to mention, that would make pyro's cheaper.

Some good stuff here, thanks for the replies. It would appear our primary problem is that we only ever used grease and not light oil on the palls. I am very interested in the motorcycle chain lube. The spray on lube, where can I get that from? is that the sort of thing Repco or Supercheap Auto supply?

We have Harken 42 primaries. They need servicing regularly, and the palls stick so they don't actually work. This is the primary problem. To service them we actually have to unbolt the whole winch from the boat which is a 2 man job and a pain in the arse. We also have smaller Neilson secondary winches for the kites, and three very old side winders on the mast for halyards and clew out hauls. All these other winches never need servicing, and the palls never stick. We use the proper Lewmar winch grease on the Harkens, and are economical with it. Is there a better way to deal with

I can recommend cushy float mounts. They are supplied by Hancock Industrial on College Hill, Freemans Bay. The gentleman there, Alastair I think his name was, used to own a Stewart 34 and is very familiar with marine diesel installations. He also gave a discount from the list price. There is also very good mount selection information on their website, especially a Trelleborg manual (the makers of cushyfloat) that gives all the technical theory on vibration control from engine mounts, if you are into that sort of thing. http://www.hancock.net.nz/products/Trelleborg/mobile-installations/

Its note wear on rubber, its the rubber perishing. The deflection difference between forward and reverse will be due to the force produced from the propeller. Being a three blad fixed prop, it is not as efficient going backwards.

You mean the round R&D ones? with no metal cover? They will almost definitely be stuffed.

How many blades on your prop?

PS, really good mounts are cushy-floats. When spec'ed for the engine weight and thrust, deflection should be around 2 mm, max 4 mm, and that is at full wide open throttle, not 1,200 rpm. Other synthetic mounts such as isoflex etc, have deflection in the order of 1-2 mm, i.e. much stiffer. If your installation is old, and you have an R&D coupling, you may well have R&D compression mounts. They are circular in plan view and cylindrical in side view, with a steel top cap and a bolt sticking out. They are not shear mounts, which resist the forward thrust. The cushy float mounts are re

We recently changed our engine mounts. Made an absolute world of difference to noise and vibration, but I started that job because of a noise and vibration issue. if you are getting 6mm movement forwards (deflection in the mounts) then that is way too much. Soft mounts are good for a 'smooth' running engine, but they also need to resist the sheer force of the propeller pushing the boat forward, as all this force passes through the engine mounts. Rubber perishes, so if they are of indeterminate age, they may be stuffed. All that said, they wouldn't cause the issue you are describing. The

Drive damper plate deals with torsional vibration of the engine from the drive chain. Their primary job is to prevent gearbox chatter at low revs. If you engine shakes like a bastard at the mid rev range and only in gear - did you re do the alignment and engine mount adjustment after installing the new gearbox? It wouldn't explain the "miss" sound, but every other system you described sounds like either poor engine alignment, old engine mounts, or even a broken engine bracket. I.e. Excessive vibration at 1,200 to 1,600 rpm then settling down. those faults would also give bad engine vibration

I tried getting a price out of Lusty and Blundel for a new engine late last year. Every other quote I got was within two or three days. These guys said I'd need to wait a week. So I did. Heard nothing. Wanted to make my decision so followed them up, still nothing, got stuffed around. I even went to the engine whole saler and asked if they had ANY other distributors cause LB were sh*t, the whole saler was apologising to me and chasing LB for a price on my behalf. About a month of chasing LB for a price I finally got one, $5k More than the next most expensive engine. But they stuffed me arou

I am actually really disgusted at the Herald. That picture was on the front page with no 'Graphic Content' warnings when I first logged on this morning. Didn't need to click through to read the story or anything. Just sickening. Anyone know of a news site with any reasonable semblance of journalism I can read? You know, actual news stories with facts?

If I were ever in an emergency the last thing I want to do is f*ck around with some explosives, oh err, I mean flares.... Damn dangerous things at the best of times. Used to let them off for work regularly. One type you hold one end and pull the other, the other type you hold the other end and pull, oh I get mixed up... Don't add to "safety" cost a fortune and are out of date every time you redo CAT 3.

catch up BP

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11590533 Skipper charged with manslaughter after passenger drowns. There isn't enough information in this story to understand the facts, but I do recall some details at the time. I think the Waitara River was in flood when they went out. Need to track down the original articles on the incident. Interesting implications. There have been plenty of coroner's inquests for skippers to face after a tragedy. A manslaughter charge is a whole different level.

From the story, sounds like it was another kayak fisher, who actually assisted the guy to shore. So more like a legit accident rather than agro loonies on a wharf. Either way, it demonstrates the major risk of casting fishing sinkers, not to mention hooks etc behind the caster...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11590445 Fishing sinker embedded in kayakers arm....

There are no parking restrictions at the Weiti Boating Club. Just saying.