alibaba

Definitely Raymarine for me. Never been let down I came across an old one - plus 30 years last week and it was still working.

Ideally for the new owner to be aware of the problem, and the boatbuilder's report, then he/she knows what to do to fix it safely.

That's fine, and I agree, buying any boat without some sort of survey is a no-no, and I have certainly worn some of my own mistakes. However, in this case, the boat was badly damaged and then presented as repaired. Since the damage was a severe hull delamination from both the keelson and the stringers over a substantial area, I have my concerns about keel safety, particularly when the damage on the port side under the built-in furniture was not repaired at the time.

Aaand- an update. Metro [ maybe] has turned up for sale on Trademe today. -And promptly sold! The weird thing though, is that all the photos ARE of my old boat - Metro, BUT the description doesn't match, eg the hull is quoted as glass over plywood, not double diag, and the engine hour meter quoted doesn't exist etc. Really straange! Manukau, Auckland

mmm- is all of that behaviour buoyancy, or is some of it due to surface tension?

Yep- there's actually no problem - it all works well, but I was curious about the idea of the oil expanding with nowhere to go. Most crankcases etc seem to have breathers.

Yes, good idea I think, I notice that if I unscrew the top fill plug after a run that there is a pressure build up. Not sure how much. Tube and a reservoir sounds like a good fix.Thanks

Ah, you would think so. But, on this boat, the water intake for the engine has been set up to come from a seacock in the boat directly into the 3GM. That would mean that the cooling water for the saildrive is not circulating through the drive, just passive cooling in the water. I wonder if that is an unusual set up. I have heard that it's a common problem that the saildrive intake holes are fairly small, and often get clogged with barnacles etc, so this setup might have been a way to avoid that. However, I would have thought that 25 degrees is not actually huge, we are talking about 15 degrees

Changed boat last year and for the first time now have one with a saildrive. I'm very pleased with the performance - no issues and no propwalk. However, and maybe I'm missing something obvious here, I have a concern about the oil. When the drive heats up with use, the oil obviously expands. There is no breather, so where does it go? Would it not be pushing out through the bottom seals? And, conversely, when it cools down, would that not promote suction of water back through the seals.? I looked up the coefficient of expansion of lubricating oils, and it suggested that for a 25 degree rise in t

so- again, if boats go out in pairs, that obviates the need for search and rescue services. A bit of lateral thinking here, you could even suggest no more than 2 nautical miles offshore. I wrote to the minister suggesting this, and got passed on to MBIE because the recipient refused to recognise that recreational boating is not a business. Yachting NZ needs to go to bat for us here

and then, with a metal prop - off it comes, to repair the dings and rebalance. Kiwiprop - buy a new blade for around 150 or less, fitting takes 15 minutes, and can be done underwater by a diver. Tap out a stud, slide new blade on.

Kiwiprop every time for me, I've had two on different boats, and the latest boat [ Lotus 9.2] had a two blade folding when I bought it, and the prop walk was horrendous. Kiwiprop has solved 90% of it, now manoeuvring is easy. The other reason I like them on a saildrive particularly, is that the clutch on the Yanmar 20 is a "crash" clutch and so the load goes on almost instantly. The old two blade folder has a massive centre boss, must weigh Kgs, and the sudden change in momentum from stationery to moving must be a huge strain on the gears. The kiwiprop, plastic blades and light central hub wo

The point of lockdown is to reduce the risk of covid transmission. So keep in your bubble. Your yacht is your bubble? - absolutely agree - you are pretty isolated, much more than if you are shopping at the supermarket for example. However, if you get into trouble, then Coastguard is expected to come and assist. This exposes them to a risk if you are infected, and as a Coastguard volunteer, I fully agree with not having to expose myself to that risk. S0- no boating. HOWEVER- as a yachty, I want to sail - so to avoid the rescue services problem, why not make a simple rule, you can go sail

Folding prop h as now gone, only the new fixed two blade available