Well, they are just five after all, unless I'm mistaken...?It's a little bit like, "How many forces does a rotating propeller exert?" - Minefield. :ambivalence:
Unusual throttles, SD.
2. Passerelle. To be honest, I’m thinking of going for an old fashioned one with the rope and pulleys type job instead of hydraulic. The hydraulic one seemed to give a fair bit of trouble?? and I don’t much like the look of the price of them. If I went for a manual one, I’d probably get it folding in the middle so I could take it off and stow it if we were out of sea a long time or whatever. The thing I like most about the hydraulic one is the fact that you can put it right up when you leave the boat to fly home. What do people do with the old fashioned one in terms of security in terms of stopping people being able to get on their boat when they’re away??
3. The vexed topic of marine loos. My 4 all use sea water to flush and pump straight out at the moment, so obviously I’m having a black water tank system fashioned for the Med. I understand that a lot of the smell one gets with boat loos is in fact because of the sea water in them when you leave them for a week or two and come back to them. In UK waters that’s never really bothered me, I just flush a bit of loo cleaner down when I get back to the boat and flush plenty of water through and get it all clean and it’s been fine. I don’t have a water maker and I tend to do a reasonable amount of cruising away from Marinas (i.e. anchoring overnights) obviously I will have to see how that goes in the Med, but that’s a likely method of cruising for me. So at this stage I’m thinking of keeping the sea water flushing. Am I mad, what is the opinion of the learned Med boaters on this forum.
View attachment 39623 Run out of space for more--off to teach myself photobucket before can load more.
I think I might be a voice in the wilderness on this one, but I also have a seawater head that flushes to a black tank, and for me it is the best solution. You (or your guests....) don't use up all the fresh water flushing the loo, and in the season when you are on board a lot and the loo is getting flushed regularly, the inlet water doesn't get a chance to decay and pong.
Lead ingots, made in small bread-making tins. They are sprayed in gold paint and so when you lift the floor hatches it looks like SilverDee is smuggling about 20million quid's worth of gold ingotsOut of curiosity, what material is the current ballast?
But you cannot ignore the science. At say 14 knots your fins could tip the boat 25 degrees sideways even with all that lead. If the boat is fast enough, fins will beat lead every time. So you're better without the lead, relying on the fins and your new higher top speedAnd JFM - But I doubt I am prepared to try without the ballast.
A typical freshwater toilet uses about 2 litres of water per flush which means about 400 flushes per tank of water on my boat. Unless you've got very incontinent guests on board or a miniscule water tank, I don't think freshwater flushing of toilets is a big issue in terms of water consumption. What uses water quickly are showers, at least on my boat. My guests get a full on induction course in how to shower on a boat and woe betide them if I hear the water pump operating for more than about 15 secs at a time. I have been known to switch off the water pump at the control panel when some guests have been mid-showerI agree with the sea water flush, in fact I never understood why anyone would want freshwater flush, especially on boats without a watermaker. Pongy flush water is much less of an issue in the med, and if it does bother you, there are treatment systems you can fit.
Lead ingots, made in small bread-making tins. They are sprayed in gold paint and so when you lift the floor hatches it looks like SilverDee is smuggling about 20million quid's worth of gold ingots![]()
And JFM - But I doubt I am prepared to try without the ballast.
Lead ingots, made in small bread-making tins. They are sprayed in gold paint and so when you lift the floor hatches it looks like SilverDee is smuggling about 20million quid's worth of gold ingots![]()
When I was upgrading my T40 for the Med, I decided against fitting a hydraulic letterbox passerelle on terms of cost (about £7k). Instead, I bought a folding teak/ally one for about £500, and then spent another £300 getting different deck fittings fabricated for it.
To be completely honest, I think I made the wrong call on this one. It is a proper pita arsing about with getting the passerelle out every time you're in and out of the port; you have to leave it out overnight which I'd prefer not to do, and when I'm away from the boat I stow it away - which means a slightly risky passerelle-free scramble/leap off the boat, and ditto when I return.