Recent content by jhr

Fresh water is in pretty short supply, particularly in high season. Three four years ago istr the public loos being out of action on St Agnes, because of a shortage of water. I also str some of the basins in public loos on St Mary's being shut off to reduce the amount of water being used...

Neil changed his forum name to Phoenix of Hamble when he sold Morgana and, erm, bought Phoenix of Hamble. Sadly, I haven't seen a post from him on here in several years. Having said that, I know one mustn't discuss certain subjects in these parts nowadays but if he's anything like me, he got...

Just to be clear, jimi didn't try and follow any of the boatmen but I have heard of several other people who have come to grief doing just that. The main hazard on our visit was my alleged pilotage skills ....

I've been to the Isles of Scilly several times, though mostly by courtesy of the Scillonian, albeit once with jimi and ParaHandy on jimi's last fine craft but one. A couple of important lessons: 1) the inter island boats can float on a puddle and the Scilly boatmen know the place down to the...

Based on our experience, admittedly about three years back, about £15k to have an existing T5 panel van converted (insulation throughout, windows in the back, pop up roof, rock & roll bed, mains plug in and galley (including cooker, sink and fridge) but no heating or solar, though they could be...

The engines (which both run) are probably worth that on their own. Of course you'd have to work out a way of removing them......

Maybe they're replacing the valves because the existing ones are knackered (they look like they are) and need to be replaced before they fail? That would make it quite a high priority. Just a thought. I agree that they need a surveyor to talk things through with them and set out a schedule...

Her husband mentioned, in one of the videos, that she is a trained Gas Safe engineer so yes, I expect they are. The galley is a temporary arrangement and, as such, is a pretty neat bit of work. She wasn't wild about her husband mucking about with the burner and told him so, she also made it...

To return to Jimi's original question: have you considered following the advice of the late lamented Haydn (hlb) and installing stainless steel anodes? Apparently they last for ever :)

Q5 was a telly series, created and performed by Spike Milligan, with no connection to Beachcomber except for Spike himself, of course. IIRC It derived its name from the fact that, before she was launched and named, the QE2 was known as Q4. (Qs 1 and 2 being the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth...

It was from a TV adaptation (almost certainly on the Beeb, but I can't exactly remember) of the Daily Express "Beachcomber" column. Spike Milligan acted as master of ceremonies for the programme, and cited the column as an influence on the Goons. Wikipedia will no doubt tell you more, but inter...

If memory serves, the Mirabella V sting involved the fiction of tcm having skippered a ship called St Eveio 1 (get it?) and running it on the rocks, as a major component of the bait to see if Joe V was really who he claimed to be. I seem to remember a subsequent pic of Tome's Oyster moored...

By coincidence, the Garudian has just covered Chichester in its "Let's move to ...." series. It has this to say about local restaurants: Taxi! I've eaten at the Millstream Hotel in Bosham which was nice, if it's still there. Also, Keith Richards has a place in West Wittering, where it is...

As a postscript, I have just found the thread in question, which is as entertaining a read as I remember. Max's replies are classic Sailbad, particularly his comment that jimi couldn't tell lager from Lagavulin ( I understand that jimi is a reformed character nowadays, but the legend lives on)...

Really, really sad news - Max was one of the stalwarts of the forum when I first joined, with a great sense of humour, no doubt due to his Scouse origins. Not sure if jimi will see this, but one of my all-time favourite threads concerned Max's stag cruise on Glen Rosa (I think I'm remembering...