robinm

We have a Rocna after finding our Bugel was dragging, 25kg on a 12.8m boat - it’s been fantastic in up to 40kts with enough chain - never dragged. I sleep much better at night. Lived on the hook for 9 months last year. We had another smaller boat with a CQR and replaced it with a shovel, similar experience - although we never tested the shovel fully, as the worst conditions we’d ever anchored in was 25kt in the Marlborough sounds. The CQR dragged on a number of occasions, but never the shovel.

Ok, to the point: yes, it’s probably a good idea to have safety inspections, but it would be great if it were less judgemental on specifics and have more room for the variety of boats out there. Having said that, it exists and if you want to go cruising, get a boat which can pass and work through the checklist, you will have a more seaworthy boat than when you started, in my opinion.

It’s really not that bad, we did cat1 and have spent the season cruising in New Caledonia and Vanuatu and it has been great. Most boats I’ve met from Australia would pass anyway. Apart from the ridiculous price of flares in NZ and having to screw down floorboards, it all seems like pretty common sense safety stuff anyway. Actually I’d like to transmitting AIS added so I have less ghost ships to contend with on night watch.

Signal and Laregnere, just out of Noumea

I don’t know that it’s a recent development, but AIS MOB is a great technology also, we just loaded our life jackets up with a Man Over Board AIS transponsder. We ran it in test mode and the Vesper Marine XB 8000 just worked out of the box. I love the general AIS features particularly on coastal passages, but this feature is an excellent source of peace-of-mind when crew are alone on night watch. I’m hoping Vesper Marine keep updating their firmware as new features become available.

I met the more recent owner of the schooner, nice fella.

Sadly I’ve just finished an Intel NUC setup, although not quite as flash as these I’m still pretty happy. Many NUC models can happily run on 12v even though they come with a 19v power supply, they seem to draw very little power and of course sleep mode saves even more. We run OpenCPN and an offline version of Wikipedia for our daughter to do school work with while cruising. The NMEA gateway function of the Vesper Marine AIS we bought from IT means we have all the good instrument data. We have a 4G internet from discover.net.nz and a 120GB plan meaning we can watch Netflix and

Hi Anthony, did you find a good electrician for your EWOF? I've got some AC work I need done - and I'm looking for someone that comes recommended.

Thanks, everyone, I don’t think 3 months will be enough time either! We were at Castlepoint (by car) on Sunday, and if we have the same whopper high that we’ve had over the past week with light NW we had on Sunday, it would be a great spot to stop and get some ice creams. One can only hope. I’ve also seen some pretty nasty stuff most other times I’ve been there.

In February the family and I are starting a slow sail from Wellington to BOI - we want to be there by May and so have plenty of time so explore the east coast. Can anyone recommend any less well known must-see spots?

A fellow boatie who is a live aboard at Chaffers has an ISP just for this, you can even take the router home to use there. http://discover.net.nz I use it and it works really well.

Hi guys, A good friend gave us a self-steering unit to try on our boat, a "servohelm" unit made by Trans Terrain Ltd in Christchurch. I am keen on finding some more information about this unit, most specifically how the vane attaches to the pivoting part at the top of the upright section, as it appears I am missing some small parts. Does anybody have any experience with, or information on these self steering systems? Thanks, Robin

Dropped rudder to prepare for the removal of the shaft (some bugger drilled holes in it) removed a dodgy through hull and glassed it over, ground back the other filled in through hull and faired it over. Decided to replaced our fixed prop with a feathering one seeing as it has a bad case of electrolysis. Selected various plumbing fittings to replace the under sink plumbing in the galley.

Maybe it's the other ship being attacked? Possibly it would be easier to control a regular commercial ship and have it ram the naval ship. GPS spoofing doesn't need the Internet, essentially it jams the correct signal and sends off the wrong coordinates to any GPS in range. Maybe the US navy GPS is not susceptible to these attacks but all the other ships in the same area would be.

I'd be very surprised if a fully crewed destroyer failed to have a proper watch system. There are a number of possible explanations but as that article says, there is a statistical anomaly. I have had some experience in cyber security, you'd be surprised just how prevalent attacks are in banking and government. Interestingly the US navy has returned to required celestial navigation training, good for us too, the course is freely available online from Vanderbilt University.

There is some concern that this is a form of cyber warfare: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article168470432.html

You could even say it's an assault on the middle class. We either must be ultra rich or on the bones or our arses, this is the current norm in both NZ and the world as a whole - I probably sound like a whacko but think about it.... Look at the number of multi-million dollar boats and the number of people with nothing.

Thanks guys, I will take that approach I think, just treat the individual blisters and save the time and effort for other jobs!

It's a GRP hull built in 1993 - the glass is about 35mm thick and it's generally in good nick. The boat builder who surveyed her seemed to think they were not a big deal, just a very small amount of them, 5 or 6, which are about 5-8mm in diameter

We are about to haul out Dog Star (renamed Oceans 12 we bought in November) among other things, to replace a bronze through hull and replace the cutlass bearing, but also to repair some small blisters under the gel coat and antifoul. I have read a few posts here including the sand vs no-sand thread and I'm a bit confused as to what to do with this real world boat vs the Google boat Should I sand the whole lot back and put an epoxy barrier coat on before two coats of a good antifoul? Or should I just fix the minor blistering, fill and then reapply micron (extra I think, previous owner

Nagy, thanks for the reply. We finally went unconditional today on the Oceans 12! Our track probably does seem fast, but the dream has been a long time coming and there will be a lot more work to do to get her up to Cat 1. Sojournie, our Lotus, has been fantastic for us, she's clearly had some unknown history too, but we've done several coastal passages in areas between Nelson and Wellington and has given the family great confidence to go bigger and further, being such a capable boat. The wide beam has given us lots of room for carting all the gear we need for a 2 week holiday with all th

I'm not a Nova 28 owner but am currently the owner of another Alan Wright design a Lotus 9.2 and hopefully soon to be owner of an Oceans 12. I'd be keen to hear more about the Nova 28.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I expected it wasn't so straightforward as I was hoping. Harrytom - it's through a broker, but I'm not sure the broker takes any responsibility anyway? We have the survey and sea trial on Wednesday, so far I've only had the mechanical inspection, but I'll be sure to ask advice of the surveyor.

Nice work Dambo! How long did that take you?

So we have an offer in on a boat and are getting the survey, rig and mechanical inspections. The mechanical inspection has turned up a leak in the cooling system, potential leak in the hydraulics and a poorly mounted alternator. What is the process from here, these are all pretty small things, should we expect that they be fixed or further negotiate on price? I'd really appreciate your advice on what you guys would do. Thanks Robin