Steve Pope

I guess you mean keel bolts? it is the condition of the ones currently installed that would be of concern as you cant see the shank without withdrawing one (or two) Check with the seller of any yacht you are interested in if they have checked / re-newed the keel bolts and when, if they have been done. It isn't a major to pull them , or it shouldn't be. re-sealing the surounding area with whatever is the recommended bog is important as well as using suitable strength bolts if you decide to replace them. Boats are holes in the water through which you pour money, but there are many worse ways to

Stick with what you have got. So long as it runs ok, why change it. A 20 year old outboard is not much different to the latest models. Motor turning a propellor, that's all. Go out sailing and see how good / or bad all the bits you want to change really are, (service them first) you might find you could have a better spend on a new main and, or, jib. If the ones you have are seen better days.

What you have are one of the better winches made in NZ. Yes they are old tech, but if serviced occasionally they will do another 30 years. Plus no cleats to add if you replaced them with a non self tailing winch. On a Tasman 20 they will cope with anything you can throw at them. A good scrub and "polish" will show them in another light altogether.

A bit like some on here.

Yep cheers Matt, I know sometimes it must have been similar to herding cats! Mind you some probably needing catering for longer than you did. I’ll keep an eye out for IT.

First question yes 2nd yachts are a hole in the water through which you place money, benefit, being able to shift your house, learn to love the sea. Hate is self explanetary, 3rd not a lot of choice, whangarei, marsden cove, Sandspit almost but really Auckland, Tutukaka, Opua, Keri Keri. Otherwise there are pile moorings and swing all around. No.4 budget minimum for a 35 footer + - on piles at kissing point Whg Minimum with comprehensive ins. And 1 x slipping anti fouling allow $5,000. Anything else is how long is a piece of string. Some Marinas are picky about live aboards and they are if

I have sat for almost complete tide off Cape maria Van Dieman when heading for North cape, owing to a mis calculation, theoretically doing close to 6 knots through the water but with a across the ground at a speed of 1/2 +- a knot for 2/3 of the tide.

Man doesn't change, NZ little bit of near equality lasted around 30 years, expiring in the 1970's it doesn't take long for the heirachical traits to re-appear. The only difference is "money " is the king. No different to the animal world except the big ones might eat you as well.

No shipping anymore, apart from the odd fishing boat.

I think you will find that the depletion of the food chain that many marine animals / fish / mammals rely on will be the root cause of their decline / death / moving to areas that havn't been depleted. The rules about how close you can be to dolphins are sure to fail as they will swim as close as they wish without any input from the yachty (maybe being prosecuted) same folk who have gone down this track will be the ones who are "eradicating" the Med Fan Worm.

the Dog clutches could be built up and be able to live another equally lengthy life.

all the wooden ones in WHG mooring area had plastic sleeves fitted over them with the gap between the pile and the plastic filled with (sand?)

The Northland Regional Council is planning to increase rates by around 20% in the first year and by at least 100% over the next 10 years. In small print is a sentence that says "ramp up our pest management on land and underwater" which I would think means the dreaded Fan worm is in for more wasted money! They are "Thinking big" with "our money. They claim to be open and transparent, but when I asked how much they had spent on fan worm eradication I was told I would have to get make an official information act request. So much for being open and transparent. They plan to get bigger and won't b

toot seems to be fairly vulnerable, I was on the poles just inside the Marina entrance for a while, several boats including ours were damaged by the tail end of a cyclone.

Yeah it is supposed to be marine talk, Small talk is there for stuff like this, but some folk just can't help themselves.