Recent content by NickCharman

We have had composite Marelon seacocks for 25 years or so. They are exceedingly good. Nothing to service and if an o ring seal starts to drip then easily changed. Cannot corrode. Fire safe. Strong and easily pulled apart. The old bronze ones are much more trouble. Ezr brass should not be...

Thanks - a good reassurance!

I do not doubt you. The problem is that the cog is telling you what course you have recently been averaging. Not where the ship is now pointing. So the helm that corrects for past average course is working behind the curve. So you will be unlikely to steer as efficient and straight course as...

Although an old post ... You miss the point of GPS cog. Cog is what average course the GPS aerial Has Been steering recently. The compass shows the direction of the ships head. Both are useful but different. You cannot steer by cog. You will always be chasing a historic path. A well damped...

I am not Legend bashing...but I have to say my own prejudice would be to look through the much more seaworthy, comfortable (at sea) and practical boats that abound on the used boat lists...and one which is not "factory made" so that when you want to maintain/repair/repair something it is not...

Yes - and it has completely solved the problem. PBO did a comparison article a year or so back and the one they recommended was the one I bought - and I have to say it did "what it said on the tin". Very easy. You're going to ask which one it was?

What I do not understand is the intent of the officials who have devised this scheme, since it is so open to variation, abuse, lack of audit trail, unproveable intention at the time of purchase, and as a result does not feel like normal tax "regulation". I find my self wondering if right there...

Indeed, if you are living on it, I should have thought 2% for propulsion would be closer. For the rest of us, even not living aboard, one might well have the intention of only using the engine (other than some inevitable manouevring) for battery charging and water heating. Bad luck if it...

I have read on the HMRC website that they believe, following consultation, the average split of useage for recreational boaters to be 60% propulsion, 40% domestic. But should this not be segmented between Power Boats and Sailing boats? I should have thought that as engines in Sailing Yachts...

Thanks Stephen...have emailed Jim. Lets hope...

Ca 1200 there was a Mayday from an RIB 7M apparently 12nm South of Anvil Pt, snagged by the stern 3 persons aboard, by Crab/lobster pot gear. Swanage lifeboat eventually despatched to rescue them after a passing commercial vessel identified them and gave precise position. Wind apparently W5 or 6.

I have searched for this being discussed before - but cannot find much of useful reference. I have found the Nauticpath tidal stream data (the "C" objects) on my relatively new Lowrance plotter to be (potentially dangerously, as I twigged this approaching the Raz de Sein!) wrong/misleading...

If you have a sufficient overhang from your bow roller, then picking it up, and taking the weight of the buoy up under the roller will stop it touching the hull, and reduce snatching too, as the mooring will be under a steady tension. Depends on the profile of your bow/the buoy. Chain hooks are...

PS - you might think that this "problem" is a good thing, as it keeps it out of the prop wash when motoring, when mine bangs around in the turbulence,, and I tie it off up to one side (like yours does automatically!!). It should not affect its operation with a wind blade in it...does it?

Interesting one. I am assuming that the unit's movement is all free and without any "hard spots". The twist of the paddle is controlled by the air blade clamp unit. The natural resting place of that is determined by the position of the lead weight underneath it. Am I imagining it, or can this...