Recent content by Jonesey

I did the RYA YM ocean theory course and also had a copy of Cunliffe & Blewitt. Personally I struggled to bridge the gap between the conceptual ideas of spinning globes and the sun/earth and the mathematical "just do this" proforma styles of learning. Ultimately, I went through enough sites and...

I bought my Idirium phone before a UK-NZ trip just before the iridium Go came out. I wish I had been better informed and got the Go as we ended up spending a heap of money on airtime which was more than an annual go subscription plan and in reality for a very limited amount fo data/minutes.

You don't actually need either; I used Airmail and a USB cable to connect direct to my 9555 and this helpful guide to make sure you don't waste any bandwidth: http://www.ecosailingcharters.com/2014/09/using-iridium-satphone-with-airmail-for.html Oh and as someone else mentioned, avoiding...

I did UK to NZ on a Beneteau 473 with electric autopilot (Raymarine) and a Hydrovane (mounted off centre). Frankly we didn't invest time in getting to know the Hydrovane until our Atlantic crossing when our raymarine failed. Once you get to know the hydrovane (same with others I suspect) it's...

I'd recommend that route, Halcyon did Falmouth to Dublin for me last year for a very reasonable fee. Couldn't recommend them highly enough.

Disclaimer - I have some bias here, having chosen an AWB (Bene Oceanis 473) to get from UK to NZ. It seems to me that this discussion thread is fundamentally flawed by speaking of ocean sailing as one homogenous activity, which I'd argue it absolutely is not. Boat choices for an atlantic then...

I had a 75HP 4JHE-TE on my Beneteau 473 and had exactly the same experience. Don't worry about it, my engine had nearly 7000 hrs on it and ran like a dream....

I did UK to NZ mostly downwind using a 50/50 Carbon/Alu pole on a Beneteau 473 with a 135% genoa and it performed perfectly. http://www.forespar.com/products/line-control-whisker-pole-aluminum-carbon.shtml I replaced the existing poly braid extension line with dyneema before we set off...

I am baffled that Clipper have not provided (or at least made it mandatory for crew to provide their own) personal AIS beacon(s). Clipper's provision of one AIS beacon per boat, attached to the danbuoy seems pretty insufficient, particularly when in this case it failed to operate or was not...

Recent (2014-2015) one way UK-Caribbean-South Pacific-NZ setup: 47ft Mono - mantus supreme, 95m galvanised chain, 2 x 3 strand spliced snubbers, one with chain hook, one with dyneema soft shackle. No issues. Pacific specific - get some old fishermans floats to keep the chain just off the...

I'll probably get told off for asking, but any hints where you got a decent pack of CM93 charts?

It wasn't obvious to me from the website how many outlets could be run from each model - is it only 2 outlets for both the 2kW and the 4kW? Thanks Pete

Give ocean safety a call - I had a 6 man canister which was too big for my new boat. They offered me a load of options including repacking to valise, part exchange etc. I was very impressed with their service.

Yeh I talked with a few Oz brokers and I would have come out with ~10-15% less GBP at that moment in time as the AUD was suffering even harder than NZD. We had heard anecdotally also that the Oz market was getting higher prices than NZ but I guess it depends on the rate at the time and what...

My boat was a Beneteau 473 and sold rapidly (within a few weeks) in NZ; the broker's view was that any of the big EU production boat names e.g. Jenneau, Beneteau, Hanse, Bavaria move very quickly in the 35-50 ft range. At the risk of repeating myself - it is possible to do exactly as you...