Farrari

A mate of mine is considering selling his daughters Starling. It's an ex Wellington boat from the late 70's that was completely stripped down and rebuilt. It's been put through the jig and has the certificate to compete in the nationals. PM me if you are interested and I'll pass on his contact details. Steve

The standard doesn't appear to apply retrospectively.

My only other comment would be to let your son sail what he is interested in sailing. That is likely to be the same boat type as his mates are planning on sailing. Don't look too far in advance as there seems to be a natural drop off point of about 16 years old where the kids start finding things other than sailing to interest them.

From memory the optimum weight for a Starling is 65Kg with minimum entry weight considered as 55kg. When my daughter was sailing there were a few trying to sail at 50kg but they really struggled in the heavier conditions. Having said that the girl that was previously sailing my daughters boat was just over 50kg and had developed techniques to cope and was very competitive. They boys she was sailing against really started to become noncompetitive at around 70-75 kg depending on their skill level. I don't know much about the Lasers other than there are three rig sizes - 4.7, radial and fu

Is there such a thing as a gas WOF? Last time I went through the process of getting Cat 3 I had a gas fitter to check my boats gas installation. He said he could only certify a new install and there was no mechanism in the regulations to certify or warrant existing installs.

I'm looking for one more crew to join us for the BBYC winter series on my Farr 1020. I'd prefer someone with experience but am open to consider a beginner who is passionate and wants to learn. There is going to be some good racing this year with early indications that we will have sufficient 1020's for our own start in open division. The boat is moored at Halfmoon Bay Marina, Auckland with a departure time of 12:00 o'clock; race start 1pm. First race is 8th May (yes Mothers day!) and we race every second Sunday from there. PM me or call/txt on 027 2888649 if you are interested.

We are hoping to add at least two more Farr 1020s to the cruising division.

I had the same thing with my Garmin handheld GPS out at Barrier last year. We were comfortably anchored up and the GPS showed me anchored ashore about 50 metres away!

You could try these guys http://brookhouseonline.com/index.htm I haven't used them nor do I know how economic they are but they are Auckland based. The have a SeaTalk1 to NMEA0183 converter. Brookhouse email addresses General: brookhouse@brookhouseonline.com Sales: sales@brookhouseonline.com Support: support@brookhouseonline.com Postal address Brookhouse P.O. Box 38-308 Howick Manukau 2145 New Zealand Physical address Brookhouse 208 Sandspit Road (Sandspit Park) Shelly Park, Howick Manukau 2014 New Zealand

Actually that is a good point. In my case the tablet has GPS with assisted GPS (A-GPS) meaning that it can use WiFi to locate its position faster and more accurately than with GPS alone. It takes time to lock onto the GPS and in many internal buildings or where there are lots of external structures there can be GPS signal reflections that lead to inaccuracies. A-GPS is a useful tool to help solve this. There are reports that some devices (not mine) must have a broadband connection (WiFi or 3G/4G) in order for their internal GPS derived location to function although I suspect this is more ho

Using cell towers for an approximate location fix (instead of GPS) requires the phone to triangulate based on the received signal strength from multiple cell towers. My tablet doesn't have a cellular radio that can communicate with the cell towers so is completely deaf in that sense. I am always out in the great blue yonder outside cell coverage as far as it is concerned. The tablet could approximate location based on WiFi but I have disabled WiFi and confirmed location by GPS still works. Steve

My tablet is a WiFi only (no cellular) Samsung Note 10.1 2014 Edition and as IT says capabilities are likely to be model specific. I can use the Maps application for navigation with WiFi disabled provided I have downloaded and cached the maps beforehand. It does ask if it can use WiFi and cellular to improve location accuracy but I always decline. Specs are listed as

My Samsung tablet is a WiFi only model and it gets GPS perfectly fine with or without WiFi coverage. It has an inbuilt GPS receiver although I'm not sure I'd trust it for close quarters navigation.

Some details here. They are a big volume boat for their size. http://lotus950.blogspot.co.nz/2007/05/specs.html

Ray As Scott mentioned, there are two entrances to the Tamaki Estuary to get to Half Moon Bay; one via Musick Point and the other via West Tamaki Heads. The area is well charted but I'd recommend you sticking to one of the two channels for deepest water. Musick Point has a CD of 1.2m at the lowest point and West Tamaki Heads has a CD of 1.8m so you will need to watch the tides if you draw 2.4m. Make sure you follow the channel markers as the channel does take a dog leg around a large sandspit that many a boat has parked up on trying to take the direct line of sight route. There are

An article on Intersleek Pro here. I assume it's something similar to 1100SR although in this case they are talking about prop speed alternatives. http://www.boatingmag.com/how-to/high-performance-bottom-coatings I assume that's $5K USD?

Try this

An easy way to tell the Mk1 vs. MK2. The MK1 had a hydraulic lift centre plate whereas the MK2 had an electric winch.

The woodwork/finish on the old gaffer looks stunning. I do like the ladies sailing atire They obviously weren't planning on getting wet.

I am assuming that most of the production boats are built to different specifications depending on the intended market (much like cars). You might have to factor upgrades to handle the local conditions depending on the boat. And then how do you handle warranty issues? Finally there is the profit that the local importer makes that part of is used to promote the brand and hence hold up the resale value.

Holy Horse hocky Batman That's a lot of sunbugs you are catching there A quick calculation puts it over 30A @ 12V on a sunny day. You planning on subsidising your marina berth by selling the power back to the local power company

Last time I looked the bar/bistro was only open certain times of the year. If that's changed that is fantastic. Personally I think there are many better bays to stay at barrier overnight than Fitzroy. Fitzroy is normally crowded, it's deep and depending on the time of years its busy so you get lots of wash. In behind Quion island by the water jetty can be nice if you want to be close to Fitzroy. There are lots of moorings there from memory. Otherwise take your pick of virtually any other bay. It's absolutely stunning out there all year around. I'm looking forward to my annual