Recent content by LostinFrance

Any legal beagles out there that can tell me which country has dibs on my boat when I pop my clogs? I am English but resident in France, my boat is under British Flag, part 1 registry - which I believe proves that the boat belongs to me. I don't have a purchase receipt as I built it myself, so...

Aha, so it was as I suspected then, I always said you couldn't trust those darned Martians. This is my starting gambit with my insurers however, so I hope they don't follow this forum! Latest update: just spoken to my neighbouring boat owner at Veere, to whom I gave an old anode to when I was...

Unfortunately I never thought to rub away the mess on the SD leg, but I can assure everybody that one year ago the paint was intact; it is possible that I knocked off some of the paint from inside the indent where the drain screw is fitted, and there is obvious corrosion there. It IS a...

Another problem that I had, was that I craned the boat out for the yard to antifoul. Usually I'd do this myself but as the boat was so far from home and I'd stopped in Holland between visiting Kent and going back home in SW France, I did not have the time; so I only hung around whilst the boat...

Thats very cheering news, I'll give it a go. As for the rest of the rest of your and everybody else's advice I'll check it all out, but if it ain't the tank I haven't done anything else except add the solar panel. When I do find the problem I'll post it. I've already checked the oil from the...

Thanks for your advice, I'm beginning to wonder about the quality of the anode, but more pressing is getting the boat back home; as the drive is not so damaged to leak, I'm tempted to do a repair and try it. It's just that I've got to go through some difficult waters where a motor is jolly...

WOW thanks for your post, there is a lot there for me to think about and investigate.

Thanks for the reply , my biggest concern is the saildrive - but the owner of the boat yard is saying that the prop is knackered too as it doesn't ring when tapped - I've always been conscious of the problems of electrolysis and (as I built the boat myself from Van de Stadt plans) so I've always...

It's a Volvo MD2030 with 130S drive. It's been in Holland for the last two years, I sailed (motored a bit as well) from the south through to the Isselmeer via the canal network last year . I'm wondering now if freshwater is the problem, although I thought that there was very little freshwater in...

I see what you mean about the pictures, but the area where the drive shaft is fitted (behind the anode) has lots more than surface pitting, whole chunks of metal has disappeared leaving the internal fitting and rubber sealing ring visible, it's that area that is damaged, as well as this better...

Thats interesting, but the make is volvo, the anode was some sort of generic, the name escapes me, as has the receipt.

Well it's not so bad that oil is leaking, but it looks bad enough for me not to want to trust it, but I'm interested in your opinion. I had hoped that it might be repairable with the sort of liquid metal stuff you can get nowadays, but the problem for me is that I am due to take the boat back...

Not the best of sights to see on a Saturday morning, especially when it's your own boat. I've always been so scrupulous in replacing the anode every year and I can't understand why the saildrive is so buggered when the anode looks like it could be used for next year too! Apart from the cost of...

I'm sure I'm going to be contradicted by someone, but I believe that unless the boat's registered in France, they don't have any jurisdiction. Apart from having out of date flares, that is, which is deemed worthy of helping out M Hollands budget deficit. The only time that I've been stopped by...

I do a lot of varnishing and I've found it's worth trying to tint the wood if your back down to bare, but you need to be pretty good at it if you're just patching it up in places. You will have taken out the natural darkening of the wood and made it look new by sanding off the top layer. Given...