Prawn

Disappointedly the backlight arrived broken even though it had been very well packed by the supplier. The package had been tampered with - obvious slit marks on 2 sides and a yellow sticker with a number and barcode. Could this be customs? So we've bought a new plotter, by luck thanks to the delay of waiting for the parcel, at a sale price. Now all we have to do is adapt a different shaped plotter into the original hole, and link up the new transducer. The joys!

So we've already compromised the Nitrogen water proofing! Interesting to know. And our replacement backlight might not work....and then it'll be just a learning exercise... We've ordered the tube from ccflwarehouse.com They are made in the US and supposedly good quality. Relatively cheap - the biggest cost being the postage but we're keeping that lower by having it posted to a US address and then on posted to us. Also saw a UK site.

Thanks All, sounds like it could be a number of technical things: backlights, drivers, diodes and I've read on the internet, inverters. We've taken it apart and have taken a punt and assumed it's the CCFL backlight so will order one from the US. Surprisingly found one the right size and L shape! Only thing is 3 ?plasticy sheets the size of the screen slipped out from behind the mechanism and we're not sure what order they should be in the re-assemble....Anyone know what those are for/and order? Cheers.

After several months on the hard stand I tried using our Navman 6500 after launching and can barely see the screen it's so dark. I've fiddled around with the settings - straining to see the screen. Either I'm doing something wrong - I hope - or I have to 'Bring Out Another Thousand' to get a new Navman equivalent. Once on, I've pushed the start button twice quickly. This brings up the 'Backlight' set at '15' - using the arrow keys I can't increase it, but if I try decreasing it the screen is totally blacked out. So presumably this is the maximum setting? The 'Night' mode check box i

Try a 'white sponge' you can buy from Bunnings. It's a different structure to other sponges and it seems to help clean without the need of elbow grease or fancy products!

Thx guys. Seems like the standard thing to try and no one is concerned about fittings eg window being difficult to remove at a future date when you're ready to reseal them.

Same name but with blue writing/logo. Maybe that's the new look.

Hi there Has anyone had experience using this? Advised it's good for leaking windows and hairline cracks on deck by stanchion attachment. Are these just temporary fixes? And what if you then want to do a permanent fix, is this stuff easily removable or will it 'glue' things together?

We've got a ZF BW7 gear box and I found some confusing advise on the internet... http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/who-has-a-zf-bw7-transmission.134729/ The manual says one thing, all the dealers say another....Very confusing for newbies like us. We spoke to someone moored near us who seems very on to it and he advised us to put it in reverse while sailing, which is what our sailing mate also said.

Oh crikey. So we could be doing damage! My other half tells me we have a pressurised stuffing box. My initial understanding was that by having it in gear it stops the propellor spinning and therefore stops the water getting in. Since there is no counter pressure when you are sailing (and not using the engine), water can get in. I'll check our manuals! Thanks for warning.

It was seawater. We didn't do the bearings and shaft seals this time but good to know for future reference. The leaking in bilge is very minor now, so of no concern! One thing we have been doing while sailing is putting the gear lever in reverse. That day we had lots of water in the bilge after sailing we had the gear in a forward position....So maybe that had something to do with it....AND/OR the changing the raw water strainer the time before.... All's well. Relief!

Since the excess water in bilge day, we have been for out a handful of times including a decent sail where water sprayed us in the cockpit and the mugs in the galley locker had tipped over. The bilge was 'dry' apart from a little bit probably coming from the stern gland which is not only acceptable but preferable from my limited understanding of these mechanisms. So. I'm thinking now that the mini flood of water we had that day was most likely due to us changing the engine's raw water filter a few days earlier. Even though I thought we'd caught and mopped up all the excess water at the time,

Cool, thanks for helpful 'how to' hints.

Great, thanks everyone for your ideas and suggestions. Think you're right, different leak sailing vs motoring. Motoring it comes from stern - we've set up a small collection receptable (ie tube and plastic jar) which was full when we motored. And when we sailed we suspect the seawater is coming from the bow area as our stern jar was empty and I pressed a clean paper towels on the sides around bilge afterwards and it was dry. Yikes, I hope its not from the keel bolts which appear to have no movement. We recently greased the stuffing box...too much maybe? We have a transom hu

Yeah, we are going to look at stuffing box when we take her out onto the hard after summer. However could the salt water be coming from this area if we only sailed the whole day and only used the motor to get in and out of the marina? There was heaps more salt water in bilge on the day of sailing versus the day of motoring...the water is definitely salty and not fresh - the taste test! We've had a wet exhaust pipe split a couple of weeks ago, I smelt the burning rubber before we even got out of the marina! It's another story, but we have always opened the seacock before starting engi