Recent content by Channel Sailor

I see NHC and similar club systems as more for entertainment value and something to chat about in the after racing socials. So a ficticious John and Jane couple near retirement on their Bav 3x something who won an NHS race mid season, well I reckon they deserve applause and a little trophy or...

Just a thought on this. Around my area in the Solent there are plenty of J80s, Folkboats and the like with just little outboard engines, which have some grunt but not a lot. The tides can be quite strong around here too, especially in river harbour entrances. The entrances over the bars can get...

My old 2gm20 starts extremely easily. No throttle required in the summer (spring and autumn) and half throttle in the winter. It has good compression (tested with a gauge a couple of years ago), a 3 year old manifold, refurbished injectors last year, air filter cleaned every year, 100 ish hours...

I would suggest that an inboard is good in a small yacht that does not sail very well. Whereas an outboard is ideal for a small yacht that sails well upwind (and downwind).

The Crabber 24 (1994 version) has a long keel. It was slow though. Nice interior and sturdy hull construction. More room and higher freeboard than a Hurley 22. Though the Hurley 22 might point better upwind. The Crabber 24 (Bermudian version) might well need standing rigging and jib/staysail...

If the boat is new to you, why not just change it anyway. Shaft seal sea cocks are kinda of important, so top of my list of Priorities for maintenance. Volvo stay they should be changed every 5 or 6 years (I don’t recall exactly). Sure they can last a lot a lot longer on a nicely aligned, low...

A new Musto waterproof sailing jacket.

Penny washers, yes I too have noticed there appears to be often for sale rather thin penny washers. I found a specialist supplier somewhere that sold me thicker ones, I don‘t recall who it was.

Plywood I would say is rather soft, even with penny washers. The washers could dent the plywood over time, even just when tightening the bolts. If the ply was epoxy lay-up coated to give it a rock hard surface, then the washers would not dig in. How about a stainless steel plate instead. Between...

“was it breezy.l I would say it was in the range of top end F4 to top end F6. Well that is what I observed on our instruments going around In the race. It did not feel like a proper F7 To me.

Loose foot, blocks well aft, tie off around boom. Wot they said above. i find I can adjust the foot length of the reefed sail using tie off around the boom method, instead of being stuck with turning block in slightly the wrong place when trying to flatten the sail in strong winds. If you...

Cheaper, easy to cut a few inches off the end (or reverse it) to move a wearer point, strength of the line not an issue with 10mm. So why not use a bowline. I have not mastered how to splice D2 club or Dynamic plus. I do not have to select a line from the larger stockist, then wait, then have...

I fitted the XAS in the end. One of many reasons being the bolt holes are the same place so it was easy to replace. I played safe with the halyard and chose a 10mm Marlow D2 club for the genoa and kept the recent 10mm Liros Dynamic Plus for the main halyard. I plan on both of them to stitch...

What, in the storm the oar was lost or the boat. 😉

Approx 22 squ metre each Genoa and mainsail, 28 ft yacht, club racing. My old XA halyard clutches are completely worn out. Currently on 10mm cruiser dyneema but might swap to 8mm Sk78 or similar. Should I go for XAS or XTS? The theory says XAS would do the job. But I suspect there could more...