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Addem

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Posts posted by Addem

  1. Dr W the bloke said it was company policy, not regulation. When dealing with the staff on the floor no amount of logic or argument will turn them from their position.

     

    Anyway, I rendered down a whole heap of wheel balancing weights and the job is done. Great way to spend a rainy Saturday morning. I suspect there is a high level of zinc in the finished product which may leach out but it's not structural and quite small so as to not go over the protection levels discussed elsewhere.

  2. From Woodenboat.com:

     

    "Keels don't want to be pure lead (tensile strength 1160 psi). It want's to be allowed with a few percent antimony to harden it up (3% alloy has tensile strength of some 4700 psi; 5% alloy has a tensile stength of some 6360 psi).

    Adding tin to lead makes (according to wikipedia) the molten metal more fluid and the resulting alloy more tough with greater resistance to wear.

    Lead tire weights are alloyed with antimony. Stuff like like old lead pipe, lead roof flashing, old X-ray shielding, etc. is likely pure lead. Bullets tend to be alloyed with maybe 2% tin and up to 8% antimony. Old printing type metal might vary from 3-18% tin and from 11-28% antimony. Linotype metal is 3% tin, 11% antimony with the remainder lead."

     

    So I've picked up about 20Kg of wheel weights for free and will melt down a few and see how they turn out.  be interested to know if anyone has tried this?  I figure that at worst I'll have to toss 20Kg in the rubbish (unless I also end up with a serious case of poisoning.)

  3. I went to the scrap yard yesterday to pick up some lead and was told that they can no longer sell lead to the public.  It's another H&S thing, being a poison. I'm sure that this statement alone will raise the temperature of a few of you and bring out the N word, (as it did me, since I used to cast lead objects for fun when I was wee small and didn't know it could kill me).  But what I really want to know is where can I get some lead from?

     

    I need about 3kg (around 300ml) for repairs to my keel bulb.

     

     

  4. Must admit I'm having 2nd thoughts about my inflatable.

    Pros:

    comfortable to wear when sailing.

    Doubles as a harness

    Easy to store.

    Easy to wear over wet weather gear.

     

    Cons:

    Doubts about inflating when needed

    Needs servicing

    No good if you get knocked out

    Uncomfortable in the water.

    Hard for the wearer to be useful in doing something like righting a capsized boat/dinghy.

    Not sure I'd want to wear one in the water for an extended period.

    Don't give that added insulation on a cold night/day.

     

    My guess is that everyone on crew has experience in using a LJ in anger from dinghy sailing and wind surfing. I never had issues with a well designed one (and hate the old sausage ones) and from what I saw today I wouldn't go small boat sailing with an inflatable.

  5. I Am now a total advocate for the view that a LJ without a crotch strap is like a dog with a bicycle. Just helped rescue 20 crew from an overturned waka in a choppy TAURANGA harbour.

     

    One non swimmer had a crotch strapless inflatable and was quite distressed when we got there. They'd been in the water for only 10 mins and she was being supported by two others. it was like she was being smothered by her own LJ.

     

    And that is without raising the dual issues of why were there so many in the thing in the first place and the number of boats that went past without stopping to see if things were ok.

  6. And you do your boating right into the heart of most of the major cities. Last year I was at a wedding reception beside a canal in Clapham bang in middle of London and all these canal boats were floating past and I thought it looked like a way cool way to see the city.

  7. I thought it was about right. We did TAURANGA -whangamata on friday evening. Ready for the return race in Saturday. Expected and got a 15-20 knot westerly. Turned SW later and moderated overnight. We had to anchor off the beach and were glad of the forecast being right

  8. SR26 in Westhaven. Currently has perspex type windows with a zillion bolts through. I'm told if done in perspex again it only really needs bolts in the corners due to the performance of the adhesive being very good now.

    PM me if you are interested.

     

    Cheers

    I did windows my self and was told to be careful with bolts only in corners as the stresses there can cause them to crack. Without bolts the whole window is flexible. I didn't use bolts at all in the end and no problems after 3 years. Used a Sika flex product, but can't remember which one.

     

    If you use bolts use several to spread the load.

  9. Does anyone else use the "drop your anchor between two boats transoms" rule?

     

    It's what I was taught many moons ago and then, no matter how crowded the bay, no boat should be over your anchor when retrieving it (not you over theirs). Probably even in the situation just described by pacifier. In which case nobody has any idea where another boat's anchor is.

  10. Sailng in TAURANGA can get a bit intense. The ships come in pretty quick. I was once in my trailer sailer in the entrance and couldn't get the OB started with a shop blaring away behind me. . Wasn't my fault and was my fault - the ship wasn't there when we started coming in (light day, outgoing tide) and we didn't keep a look out behind. Didn't have a change of undies on board but we all needed them when the horn first sounded. Not my best Moment.

  11. Recent dog story: the names have been changed to protect the ....

    Friends came over to visit our boat with their wee doggy. We have a dog too but don't take it with us so were keen to see how it reacted to the boat.

    The wa was delighted in the way It trotted over our boat, down all the little nooks and crannies. We were assured it was boat trained until what seemed like it making a bed in my mates bunk was it actually making a toilet out of his sleeping bag.

    Question answered.

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