Absolution

I took Pacifier over to Lake Rotoiti for a quick fang around the lake and it was great fun! We had really good speed reaching and running. Upwind in light airs we were high and fast but in heavier air the rig tune and overly full (secondhand) main wasn't quite as quick but we did go better with a reef in. Pacifier was the first boat home in A division. Allan Civil's sons raced the immaculate Ross 780 "Major Tom" and smoked everyone upwind with five on the rail. I'd like to think that the local knowledge helped too because they cleaned us up on handicap. BOPTYS has to be the most welcom

Hugo Boss definitely seems to have had a speed advantage in the drag race over the past 24 hours. The reliability of all the boats seems to be far better than the previous boats too... now someone will drop their rig just to prove me wrong.

...and how about Vincent Riou in the non-foiling PRB who is only 7.9NM behind!

I'm one kite short after the last SSANZ race. Has anyone got a good quality kite kicking around that needs a new home? Dimensions: 9-9.5m foot and either 16-16.5m luff for a fractional kite or 18-18.5m luff for masthead... Or something close. Let me know what you've got and how much you want for it.

We had a similar experience on that leg. I know that my wind gear can be a but random but there were several times where it was reading 40+ and it felt like it. I made the call to turn and run a couple of times which was easier said than done but it was a safer option... some of the big surfs were pretty wild. It turns out that we get a fairly loud hum from the foils once the boat goes over 15kts.... I think that it proof that 8tons of cruising boat isn't supposed to go that fast!

Have just put an entry for the big white bus.... hopefully Gary has finished the mount for autopilot ram by the weekend. I suspect we might be doing the instrument calibration and AP setup on the way out to the start though!

The software is not ready for general use at this stage... I've built some custom hardware as prototype but v2.0 will probably just require you to have an NMEA multiplexer of some sort on the instrument network. The datalogger itself can work with a USB gps or pull the data from the instrument network if you're chartplotter is connected via NMEA-2000 / Seatalk ng.

... and they drank all of my rum too!

My software only runs on linux at this stage so not much good to you on a Windows laptop.

The data collector can run on a Raspberry Pi or something similar: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ You can get the data out from the Seatalk NG bus with one of these: http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1%7C344%7C2028705%7C2028879&id=2395703 I'm looking at writing another version which will run on an Android phone and use the built in 3G to upload data. Unfortunately paying work comes first

I wrote some software that logs instrument/gps data and then uploads it to a web service. It also extracts video from a GoPro so that you can view it alongside the data:

Have you lads sussed out Fusion link? If you have one of the supported models of chartplotter and Fusion head unit then you can control all of the stereo functions from the plotter. I figured out the Fusion head unit and the Raymarine plotter on my cruising bus will talk to each other I just have to run the cable to hook'em up. Kinda handy when the plotter is on one of the helm stations and the stereo is down below. http://www.fusionentertainment.com/marine/innovation/fusion-link

After a bit of googling it seems that the ATN ones are highly regarded. The one I got from Dave was made by Doyles and seems similar in construction to the ATN. Thanks for the feedback folks!

Thanks Jon, I'll probably be up again at the end of the month so I'll get in touch when I'm planning to head North. I've only uses a snuffer a couple of times and it seemed to work ok if we were organised. The new boat is setup for dip pole gybes so being up able to drop the sock while gybing is also part of the plan. Lots of potential for elaborate cock ups there!

Fineline has gone to Whangarei now. In general a Y11 needs weight on the rail to go upwind well...short-handed it's a case of reefing early and chopping down to a small headsail and living with it. With 8-10 crew it's a whole different story. The Y11 that did the last solo Tasman went OK but they also had pretty mild conditions for a Tasman crossing. Off the wind they're just awesome and way more fun with a gennaker. We've had runs where we didn't drop below 12kts for 30mins at a time and surfing up to 16-17kts. We have also had a few mega surfs over 20kts on big waves with 35kts up the bu

Thanks Dave! Didn't expect to find one just around the corner in New Plymouth. Could still do with one more if anyone else has one...

Hi folks, I need a spinnaker snuffer (or two) for a kite with approx 18.5m luff. Before I buy a new one I thought I would see if anyone has one sitting unused in the garage. Happy to look at anything you have either larger or smaller too. Send me a PM if you have one that you want to sell. Thanks, Hamish

Have you checked the exhaust system for water leaks?

I've had similar problems before.... One was a rain water leak down the outside of the top rudder bearing, the water gathered in an aft locker but didn't "appear" in the bilge until the boat heeled while sailing. The other was a leaking fitting on one of the water bladders that only leaked on one tack.

Looking good! Reminds me of this....

There are some 10.5m berths at Westhaven aren't there?

That Lidgard has been for sale for ages but then so have 1/2 the boats in Croatia. I think the price has dropped a bit tough. Definitely some bargains to be had up there.

How about this for a keel attachment: Sure it's not gonna fit beneath the floor boards of an AWB but it ain't gonna fall off either!

It still seems to be asking a lot from the laminate especially when its got a whole of chopped strand mat in there. .... There appears to be no keelson to speak of. I'm sure it is engineered to ABS, ISO or whatever standard but it just doesn't look right.

I've never understood why a lot of AWBs have keel bolts in that configuration I.e. bolted through the hull laminate rather than thru the chunky structural bit right next to it. Well at least it should be a structural member. Looking at the hole where the keel used to be there ain't a whole lot of meat there... Especially with a big lever hanging off it.