Recent content by jfm

Thanks again. Pity the gate was closed. Yes - no domes but you can just see the Starlink maritime antenna (a flat square thing, maybe 40cm square, slightly tilted forwards) just to starboard of the radar mast. Lousy weather!

Indeed! The boat on port side of mine is an SD96. Same LOA (96ft or thereabouts) and under 24m LLL, but as the photos show a lot more hull volume. 0.5m more beam, and built bigger. Front half of flybridge is enclosed as an upper deck saloon. Displacement hull,. A rather nice boat but for...

Ooh yes, thanks, that's my boat. An easy way to recognise it is that there are not sat domes (legacy items :)) which makes it pretty unusual. The last time I was there the gate seemed to be left open/unlocked during the day but closed early evening. Not too sure though. Long walk round for...

These XSMGs were a big news item when launched, about 15 years ago. They built maybe about 10. There are a couple in Monaco/south of France. Contract built by Berthon in Lymington. Hugo did a test drive for MBY magazine. Quickly waned in popularity perhaps because they are useless in sunny...

Yup the boat on the hamble is called Eight13 (because it's SL-series hull number 813) and is an SL90, the baby sister of my boat. It's the UK dealer's stock boat, for sale. Was in dusseldorf show this year, and is in Jack Haines' Yachtbuyer video, and was in St Kat's dock a month or so ago. I...

That's shockingly bad design. Cracks are almost inevitable at the place you have indicated - at the root/"hinge" of that cantilevered flap of GRP. Below is how it should be done - this is a Ribeye 8.2m but this approach is used by many good RIB manufacturers. Complete opposite of above shocker.

In the pics above those are just the plastic bags the fenders came in, to keep them clean. The socks will be in the usual grey towelling material with a burnt orange logo, but I haven't seen them yet.

When are you thinking you want to use both anchors? If you’re thinking “in windy weather”, you’re getting it wrong imho.

That's why I said "If the boat isn’t ... otherwise very attractive, " The cracks are likely just in the gelcoat layer as others have said, but they may not be. The GRP system uses gelcoat that cracks before the underlying composite fibreglass, so when the thing is stressed the gelcoat first...

100% agree with lusitano. They are not “expansion cracks”, they are stress cracks probably from hard driving/ slamming, or inferior construction. If the boat isn’t discounted or otherwise very attractive, find another.

Can be upgraded to two separate windlasses, but that'a a difficult upgrade. Possible, but difficult.

Urgh! That's not a set up I would choose. If both anchors are down, you can't weigh them simultaneously but with a bit of on/offing (where helpful) done separately. It's both winding in, or neither winding in. I would hate that

I don't feel twin anchors set up is important. The only benefit is that if you lose an anchor on rocks, and dump the chain, you can still continue your holiday. But that has never happened to me in 15+ years of med boating. I have got an anchor stuck, but the €€€ cost of s/s anchor and s/s...

Nope, this will be non commercial private use only. I just don't want to charter it. AFAIK there is only one SL96A for charter in europe, out of the 20 or so they have built. It's the quite nice 2023 boat in Croatia. There's also one for charter in florida.

Thanks for the kind words Eric. Yup I thought hard about that, and I love the SD96. I decided against it this time because firstly I think I want the speed occasionally, and secondly I'm not seeking max interior volume and like having a full flybridge rather than enclosed saloon on the upper...