Recent content by billcowan

Crutch strap ? Handy if you have a peg leg and you fall overboard,it stops your crutch hitting you in the crotch. By the way, did you hear that the guy who invented predictive text has pissed away His funfare is next monkey.

Well it was 10 years ago, I got a huge drum of it on ebay, very cheap, looked like it was 'liberated' from somewhere, I did several boats with it. But there is lots on ebay now...

Parafil all plastic safety line is the dogs balls, nice and soft and being thicker than ss nicer to hold onto. No crevice corrosion or cover peeling/flaking issues. although you should check your stancheon holes for burs. RNLI use it on lifeboats I understand. It is quite cheap, but the fittings...

In Greece anything goes when it comes to gas, one place I went the local greengrocer filled whatever bottle you took to him from a huge bottle he had out the back, the process was slow, so you came back later and he put the bottle on the veg scales to deturmine how much gas he was selling you...

Vibo, marina Stella del Sud, very helpfull, honest and efficient. - but also Italian

Leaving Greece for Italy, stopped at chandlers in Lefkas, he had lots of proper GAZ bottles, so I swapped all my rusty dark blue greek horrors for nice clean pale blue ones.

Fender socks = method of collecting grit from harbor walls to grind your gelcoat. OK for the marina bound I guess, but I dont see the point. They dont help keep the UV off either, the fender always goes at the eye anyway.

If you are going there in person, take cash.

Sell the gutless heavy (19Kg) noisy oil suppurating Honda, and get a Yamaha/Mariner 2hp 2 stroke (7Kg) on ebay.

If the rolling is due to the swell being in a different direction to the wind, try this that I learned from watching a french boat; Anchor in the normal way, wait til the boat is head to wind, tie a rope to the anchor chain, let out more chain and take the other end of the rope back to a stern...

Tropea has had a few organizational problems over the last few years resulting of neglect of ground tackle, electric service etc. Yes surge can be horrid. The town is lovely, if a bit of a tourist trap, but my choice every time is Vibo 13 nm north. Marina Stella del Sud. cheap, well run...

I have a PRM hydraulic box. being British made, it leaks, my bilge is always oily and if I forget to fill it up once a year I suddenly lose drive at an inconvenient moment. The boat was built in 1980, but the box is a 1998 replacement. 16 years and only 1500 engine hours, not good engineering...

+1 all the above I have same o/b and similar boat, now in Italy Bet she was glad it was the yam 2 stroke and not a godawful 4 stroke - twice the weight and full of suppurating oil. 1) never leave the o/b on the dingy if there might be a storm, or the oars, or the useless seat 2) to run...

Check for bad connections before you spend money. New wires, tinned ones, and new connectors much cheaper than new alternators.

Chain every time. UV not an issue, many times stronger than any warp, lasts for ever, doesn't chafe. Make it stainless to avoid rust on your deck, make it long enough so it always makes a catenary. Our 25' boat on a mooring all summer in what is virtually open North Sea, only a tiny reef...