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robinm

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Posts posted by robinm

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 YouTube when in sight of land. The VEON DVD/TV screen has a terrible viewing angle but the combo of TV/DVD/monitor is hard to beat.

     

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  6. 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.

  7. 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

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. 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 said it was the cheaper one) over the top of the old stuff? We're planning a pacific trip in 2018 so I want to be pragmatic in containing costs but not generate more work than I need to by doing half the job now.

     

    Look forward to your sage advice!

  14. 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 the toys and still room to be comfortable. We've not really had that much of a problem in light winds.

     

    Speed on boats always comes up in discussion, and I have been often reminded that the Lotus 9.2 is considered slow, but 7.8kn around Wellington harbour always felt fast enough for me. The currents in Cook Strait help with the speed, we hit 12kn over the ground and 11.5 sustained for about 45 mins on the last crossing, felt like it too! Your Nova is probably fast enough for you and would be for me too.

     

    Running out of time is something that does worry us, we really want to head off before our daughter is too much of a teenager to join us. Thanks for the good wishes, we are all excited to be at the start of the adventure.

     

    I often see the Nova 28 Gypsy Girl sitting at Seaview and wonder why she's been on the market so long, seems like a great boat... from the outside at least. The owner has a huge Beneteau called Millenium Spirit now and is trying to sell Gypsy Girl, he's probably got some good stories for you.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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

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