Recent content by alex_rogers

Yes, I was really responding to CalicoJack rather than your original query.

Having just taken a high speed taxi ride through Germnay in a Mercedes with 450,000 km on the clock, and a warning sign indicating that it was 80,000 km past its last service interval, I'm inclined to believe that we worry too much about this. I'd suggest that unless such analysis is done...

Does anyone know of a company around the Solent that will hire out sets of oilskins? I know most charter companies will when you charter the boat, but I need to hire two sets for a weekend for some friends coming sailing on my own boat in November.

Why use DSC to call the coastguard at all? It's intended to reduce the calling traffic on channel 16, but it seems much easier to simply call them directly on 67. As others have said, DSC just does the initial calling and allows the receiver to select a working channel. When you press 'ack'...

I don't get it - doesn't it depend which way the boat is pointing whether it is a starboard-side or port-side berth?

I have a friend with a two stroke petrol inboard. It seems to involve a great deal of spark plug heating on the stove to get it running. There is the worry of the electrics getting wet, and the lubricating oil is added to petrol directly, and if left this apparently absorbs water making the...

I know, but I was responding to the point - '...if you can see his port side/lights then you must give way.....power yielding to sail no longer good enough...' Clearly this isn't refering to an overtaking boat. If you are sailing and you can see the port side/lights of a motor vessel, then you...

I'm not sure which version of the colregs you are using, but mine still says that a 'power driven vessel underway shall keep out of the way of a sailing vessel'.

I leave the engine ticking over in reverse. The bow ends up pointing downwind and the drive from the engine counteracts the windage of the stern so you end up sitting pretty much stationary. Still need to watch out for the tide though.

Do have any other tips on how to avoid paying marina and harbour fees, how to nip out of harbourside restaurants without paying, or how to steal small items from a chandlery? We should be trying to support small software developers who write cheap and effective applications for boaters - not...

I suspect that the statistics are the opposite of what you assume - the number of people who are hit by the boom and knocked unconscious must be tiny compared to the number who miss their step or fall out of their dinghy on the way back from the pub. If it is the way you suggest, then surely...

Yes to both if offshore means cross channel.

I'm selling the following sail on eBay - auction 7238742457. A secondhand genoa in excellent condition. This sail seems to have had very little use and is in extremely good condition. It is very well made by J. R. Williams sailmakers of Hamble and has a fully roped luff and clew. There are...

I took a feed off the output of the water separator and it has always worked fine. Many separators already have a free output that is blanked off. My heater is an D1LC and the engine is a Yanmar 2GM20.

My boat is moored in the Itchen but I've always gone up the Hamble and dried out on the two piles just below the Jolly Sailor. There is room for two boats and only very rarely have I met anyone else using them.