Recent content by RupertW

I did consider a 12V charger for my Torqueedo but as I already had a cheapo 1000W inverter for other things I just charge from the domestic battery bank which doesn’t take too long, and delivers a lot more charge a lot more quickly than the 12 volt one.

I also charge mine from the main 12V system but use inverter and the fast charger mains although that’s a bit lossy it’s a lot faster and after about lunchtime the solar panels have little to do as the main battery bank is almost at float by then.

I found its outboard very hungry trying to push it along into waves - my Dad should have bought a separate tank for longer coastal trips. It was rotten to windward but fabulous when going up shallow rivers (e.g. up to Rye). The chemical loo put me off chemical loos for ever. It was also strange...

Like others on here I have sometimes headed out into a known 50 knot plus gusts and nasty seas, even knowing that I had plenty of time and it was all due to moderate in 48 hours. It was great and exhilarating and all that, and I felt for my wife cooking a fresh hot meal on overnighters in...

We’ve owned a couple of GK24s in between bigger boats and it’s hard to think of a more bulletproof model. We did a lot of sailing around West Country and South Britanny in the first one and it dealt very well with some magificent weather. I’ve never had a small boat which just went where you...

I’ve been boiled alive in June and been fine in August and the other way round. We always cruised in August and always found spaces and enjoyed the breezes.

If it makes you happy to dismiss every incident of armed boarding and the odd murder as isolated that’s great. You will have another comforting story for Chateaubelair, another for last years boardings at the Pitons, Cumberland Bay, and each of the others you can look at. A large city of...

It’s not isolated. Armed intruders come aboard multiple times every year in one bay or another in the Windwards. Just look at CSS Net. Each one is “isolated”. A colleague of mine was on board a few years ago when they came aboard and killed her husband. You can say it’s rare compared to the...

Less than a mile from our base marina. Horrible and another ratchet down in our enjoyment of the Caribbean. Marvellous place but locking all hatches at night in lovely warm anchorages and chaining the dinghy and outboard every time does get wearing.

I’ve changed 2 of mine over the last 10 years. The originals were Amiot but as long as they say Water or Diesel I was fine with replacements fRon different chandlers we came across.

We haven’t been in the Caribbean remotely as long as you but we do tend to try to find clear patches if possible - as much because of rocks as sea grass because I‘ve seen our anchor be fine after a power set but actually just hooked onto a rock so any change of direction would free it...

And it was also interesting that the water pumped by the auto was very much less than the manual. Smaller bore pipe and a longer distance with more bends and the resistance of a filter. The manual could easily keep up with the leak, but the auto could not even when unclogged. Manual was...

From an experience with a serious leak when a few days out to sea, I was very grateful indeed that the auto bilge pump was in a separate line to the manual pump. Dry bilges for many years meant that all sorts of debris was picked up and clogged the auto filter again and again. Having a larger...

I can understand why they do it now, though. Over the last couple of years on my iPhone almost every landscape mode video will no longer play landscape if you turn the phone and even if you full screen as well it’s just blank top, blank bottom and tiny landscape in the middle.

I last did the antifouling and scrubbing in 1983. Always been a yard since. I’m happy to do a lot on a boat but that’s my red line. Oh and engine servicing.