Steve Pope

I think you wil find the cat 1"rules" are recommendations and can be discussed / negotiated. One case in mind the Cat 1 inspector asked to see the medical kit, when shown a smallish container with some medical stuff in it (a fraction of what is in the list) he was going to reject it, whereupon the woman showing the kit to him said "I am a doctor, and this is what I consider will be adequate for our needs. End of story, she went with her kit.

sometimes it is necessary to loosen a nut a little and then re-tighten. There is often some stiction between the bolt and nut. Once the bolt is loosened and then drawn up again it will often tighten past the point. Not always but around 50% of the time.

Latitude 38 has an article with Rimas saying he isn't going any further on his present journey, boat is for sale. quite a bit of criticism from people who have supported him, re lack of maintenance etc. He is apparently going back to California to buy a boat better suited to offshore sailing.

This guy has been around for quite a while, other forums have all had a go at him. He ain't doing anybody any harm.

Look on the bright side, he's doing something he thinks is do-able, so far it has been, I'm not sure, but I doubt that he has an epirb, so if that's the case, the only one at risk is himself. We are all different, whats crazy to you maybe Ho Hum to him. Rather like the guy that got kicked out of NZ a couple of years ago (into a storm) by overstaying his visa and having a boat that didn't fit the expectations of others. He turns out to be one of the developers of open CPN and is now up in SE asia. He just had a different way of doing stuff.

It might be good to un-ban him, as I'm sure he can give the forum up to date Vanuatuan info.

good question, the answer is no.

That was Pete Wederell, I guess he is still up there, maybe he will respond?

Pity you are so Negative Grant, sure there will always be some who will take advantage, they probably make up 1/2 of 1%. The rest are made up yachties who are trying to help. Did you see the video of "Dragonfly" and their assistance to the islanders, sure big boat, money no issue, good PR; but they certainly made a huge difference to those on the receiving end. The couple who forwarded the info to me have helped out before there was a crisis. Like repairing a saw mill that was out of action, On this trip they plan to see if it is still operational and if not get it up and running again if pos

As I understand it it is import duty by Vanuatu.

An interesting item of news, Yachts taking items / goods to give to the Vanuatuans are as of April the 15th apparently being charged duty on these items.

been there forever!! there used to be and maybe still is a local guide, George Fisky, interesting thing is he is blind, cave, dark, no light needed.

I wonder about the water powered generators, when the ships / yachts in days of yore, towed a log rotator, sharks and other unknown hungry fish would often bite the rotator severing the towing cord.

You may be right Alan, but to date I haven't had cause to complain.

Anzor carries a huge range of most SS bolts and fittings, marine and used in building houses etc, 304 and 316. You can open a cash account with them (credit card) if you are not near one of their outlets and they will courier to you.

would be interested in what you find re fridges, waeco? Ozefridge that Island time sells, Coleman although I am not sure if they are available in NZ, Look on ebay there are a lot of Waeco lookalikes (badge engineering perhaps) but a much larger range than we have here.

maybe you are thinking 304?? if it is passivated and polished it shouldn't be a problem. beware of contaminating it with cut off / grinding discs, files, wire brushes etc. that have been in contact with steel. they will contaminate the SS and will lead to rust stains. 316 is a better option but the same applies re contamination. Neither grade should be used below the water line, other than as a prop shaft / rudder stock etc.

A lot of the locally sold sails are cut offshore and finished here, some are cut and manufactured offshore and sold here, if you don't ask you will not know.

what is with the pics not not coming out? just strips of colour ?

Ports of Auckland have shares in Marsden as well.

Apology noted Smithy, my criticism wasn't directed at you personally.

Yep, glad it is found and although the forestay appears not to be there, at least it is probably otherwise OK. I feel for the owners, the last thing they needed was the suggestions of fraud. I know I would be mightily pissed off if I were they.

If you go to "www.trismus.populus.org" you will find all sorts of info. Unfortunately it is all in French. there were between 350 and 400 of them built most of them out of polyester or strip plank etc. around 36 were built professionally in alloy in france + a few in Canada. Ours is one of the 36, she has been to the arctic, Hawai, Cape Horn, and Alaska before she ended up in NZ.

There are some holes in the river that could accomodate 2m draft and the depth in "fiord" is definitely deep enough, though you would be limited as to how far inland you could go. With Gwalarn the keel base is 700mm wide so as long as the ground is firm she will sit quite happily on her bum without legs etc., (though if I had them they would guarantee security) and if she does decide to lie down, with only 1m draft she doesn't have far to go compared to a 2m fin keeler.

Hi Smithy, We draw 1m with both CB's up, 2m with the main board down, if only using the aft one draw 1.75m. usually unless on the wind or needing extra bite (when manouvering) we often don't use the main board, off the wind I use the aft one for trimming, or when flat off with a reasonable wind I keep it right down, Gwalarn then more or less tracks like a surf board, unfortunately being a displacement hull it doesn't get the speed of the SB. The channel into Whangape is on the STB side, we had no trouble picking where the shallow spots were. Definitely recommend a 1 to 1.5m drouge for contro