Steve Pope

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?

I have been looking at the Standard Horizon GX2200 AIS/VHF, a compact unit with GPS included, along with DSC to talk to any shipping re their intentions. Just under NZ$500.00 on special via Amazon, Just on NZ$1000.00 at Marine deals, not sure why the big difference. There are other S.H. models sans the gps etc that are considerably cheaper still. I saw one (of the earlier models) in Fiji a couple of years ago, that the owner thought was better than sliced bread. It can apparently interface with other screens, ipad, etc.

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.

internal GPS aerial, metal hull, go, no go?

I think the copper coil V's SS coil as per the above link is as stated. The issue here is the tank being either copper or SS, all standard electric heating cylinders used in NZ do not have a wet back heating coil installed and rely on an electric element to do the heating therefore the link isn't relevant. Anything with a coil fitted would be a one off special.

George Brassel was one of those who took their boats out, was one of the heroes, went out and saved lives. These were Yachtsmen who really knew how to sail, got caught out, No epirbs, Helicopters, liferafts etc. in those days,

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.

I missed the non boat use!!! Copper had / has been the only option until the 1970's and has been more than adequate for the job. Copper does slowly erode with use. What is now a 5 year guarantee used to be 15 years and before that 25 years. The problem today is the thickness of the copper or lack of it! It is a finite resource and is getting harder to extract therefore the price has gone up and is continuing to go up, Hence the reduction in the thickness of the copper sheet used to make the cylinder and keeps the profit margin up. The thickness of copper products also show itself in the r

use of SS and hot conditions look no further than our Dairy industry, lots of boiling water, steam, acids etc. go through them every day they are in operation. I would look for a heating element taht is compatible with SS though. Or if there isn't going to be any mains power input, the heating coil from the engine / generator exhaust will be all you need.

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.