True story - TCM idea catches on

[jfm]

I was in Golfe Juan, SofF last Friday. The boat yard in Camille Rayon Marina was unlocked and very busy, so I walked around. There was a Leopard Sport27m up on blocks. The maintenance guys had the anchor chain laid out on the tarmac, on newspaper, and 7 pots of paint, painting the chain. I askedem what they were doing "We eerd abowt zees new idee to paint zu chain in zu culleurs of snooker balls". I was going to say I knew the patentholder but smiled and walked off

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[tcm]

ooh, i should billem for that. Daft gits tho - don't need any black really...

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[longjohnsilver]

So how does that work? 15 metres of red and then 1 metre each of the couloured balls? And then what, more red and the same all over again.

Can't see that catching on! You'd need a snooker loopy crew to make sense of it all.

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[tcm]

Um, the idea was a bit better than that.

the first ten metres is left blank. Second ten metres is red (showing 10+ metres of chain out) third ten metres is yellow, then green, brown, blue, and pink.

The idea is that unlike stripes etc which you have to "catch" on the way down, you can see how much is down from just looking at the chain. If you can see yellow chain, then you know you have yellow score (2, duh) x 10 metres chain minimum = 20 metres. Also, you don't have to be dead careful painting the chain, just bosh it on should do, i reckon.

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[Deleted User YDKXO]

Pah, since its usually SWMBO's standing over the sharp end whilst we manfully wrestle with the controls, how many women do you know that can remember the colours of snooker balls? I would suggest the following colour schemes

M & S size label colours - for shopaholic types
Rainbow colours - for veggie earthmother types and ex hippies
Bank note colours - for goldigger types

There, that should cover most of the female population

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[paulrossall]

Strickes me as an easy way to foul up the gypsey on your winch with different coloured bits of paint. Does`t the paint come off?
The sort of idea a consultant would come up with. Have you painted your anchor chain like this?

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[jfm]

Good observation Paul

....you may well be right. In fact at the boat yard on Friday, as well as the 2 boat maintenance guys doing the painting, there were several suits from McKinsey, Bain and Accenture standing around managing the work, using powerpoint.

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[jfm]

Good observation Paul

....you may well be right. In fact at the boat yard on Friday, as well as the 2 boat maintenance guys doing the painting, there were several suits from McKinsey, Bain and Accenture standing around managing the work, using powerpoint.

 

[ArthurWood]

Sea Ray I bought almost 10 years ago has multi-coloured anchor line and reference card at helm to show me how much scope I have let out. It doesn't conform to snooker sequence, but goes to show they aren't all daft over here. Sorry tcm, but you're not so bright in this respect after all/forums/images/icons/smile.gif.


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[hlb]

I've a much simpler idea than this, developed over many years of neglect and forgetfullness. Let all the chain out each time you anchor and just save the bother!!

<hr width=100% size=1> <font color=blue>No one can force me to come here.<font color=red> I'm a volunteer!!.<font color=blue>

Haydn

 

[tcm]

Unless the anchor chain is really loaded with paint, it doesn't come off on the gypsy - thin car-type paint will stay somewhere on the anchor for a long time. My own anchor is not yet painted, but i have not yet had a suitable opportunity - although i have bought the paint.

I am pleased that you instinctively recognised the nature and strategic advantage of independent, experienced and thorough research. I will forward my fee note for £10,000 @£5,000 per question plus disbursements and travelling incurred as a result of travelling to the med in order to check my boat and provide a full answer to your questions. This does not include the cost of preliminary research as already provided for you by jfm


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[MainlySteam]

I tend to do the same Haydn, although I have to say the water is kind of deep around here so perhaps an excuse.

The hard part though, me being an non YM type person, is remembering not to let all the chain out, found it helps to keep the last 6 foot on board. Do you have the same problem and maybe there is some classy way of making sure it doesn't all go overboard when I forget. Perhaps some orange cable ties on the chain 6 foot from the end?

John

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[BrendanS]

It's all a front you know.

Haydn is the most meticulous boatie people I know. Last time I saw him, he had a vernier gauge on the anchor chain, and was knee deep in tidal calculations showing minum and maximum tidal rise and drop, and had some sort of laser ranging device on deck to triangulate swing distance on that scope of chain against distance of nearby boats.

As to going to sea. He does indeed plan tidal vectors for every trip. This is why he only goes out on the boat once every month or two, as it takes him that long at home to calculate everything to precision.

<hr width=100% size=1>For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three

 

[MainlySteam]

I know how he feels and on some things am much the same here. A problem we have is that we only have 1 m of tide so while a few cm out in ones tide calculations does not matter if one has 4-5 m of tide, a few cm means alot when only 1 m of tide and one wants to take shortcuts.

On the tidal vectors I do them too but find I can only work them out if the tide is with me or against me as that triggynomettery is a bit hard for me if the tide is a bit side on so to speak. People also tell me that if I use signs and my log that I can actually work out how far I have drifted even after I have gotten to where I went to. But try as I may I have not seen any of these signs anywhere I have gone - perhaps we don't have them out here. Actualy think they may be giving me a bit of a leg pull 'cause if I have gotten there I can't have drifted in my opinion; but who knows

Something I have also wondered is that as one is moving through the water and YM's tell me that tide vectors are just the thing, should I, seeing the boat is also moving through the air, do wind vectors as well? Any help on that would be appreciated.

Boating is so full of questions, the real fun of it. I wonder Brendan if someone could let the cat out of the bag on my ones above.

John

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[BrendanS]

Agree, if you only have a small tidal range, then it's far more important to calculate things accurately. Leyton will probably disagree, but he boats on the Avon and Bristol Channel, with the second highest tidal range in the world, so he's a little biased, so we can discount his opinion.

I've found the best way to cope with wind and tide is only to go out when wind and tide are in the same direction. This reduces the number of days you can go boating, but reduces the number of days at home spending millions of pounds per minute on a supercomputer number cruncher doing the sums. THis is all very good for the Met Office who own their own supercomputers, but is out of reach for most home number crunchers.

Don't worry too much about wind vectors. As above, only go out when wind directly on bow or stern. If wind is affecting you when leaving a pontoon, better to stay on the pontoon and watch rugby/Aurora/sky/twinkly star things in the sky/drink G&T's, than to possibly have any problems where nearby berth holders will laugh at you

What do you know about the kittens? It wasn't me, and I denied anything about the bag in the river when the RSPCA came round.

<hr width=100% size=1>For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three

 

[MainlySteam]

Sorry, recently gone off watching rugby for reasons I won't bother going into!

Regards

John

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[BrendanS]

Aahh! Would this be the psychology of rugby in New Zealand, whereby last time NZ lost, the players had their luggage sprayed with 'loser' at the airport when they arrived home

I believe they are going to be gelded this time?

Very interesting programme on Radio 4 BBC on this subject this evening. NZ'ers thought they were unbeatable, and if they lose, NZ economy drops? Reason being that Rugby is the only thing they can do well, and if they lose at Rugby, they are worthless?

Far be it from me to comment, being a Welshman and all

<hr width=100% size=1>For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three

 

[MainlySteam]

Just like the America's Cup where all the top crew and also the businessmen associated with its funding and drive in the past have long past deserted NZ for friendlier acheiver pastures, failure was to be expected. What else can one hope for when schoolkids are not allowed to keep score in sports in some schools in case someone wins!

Interestingly, apart from one corporation driven by a new resident to NZ, most of my work is now for clients outside of NZ.

For those with nothing better to do than follow this tiresome thread, Brendan was definitely associated with the 3 kittens found in the bag in the river. They even had names - Schrodinger, Heisenberg and Einstein, so do not let him deny it.

John

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[jimi]

Re the problem of letting too much chain out ...

Found it helps to have a few spare anchors as this can happen easily, I usually tie it on with a wee bit of cord but to be on the safe side cut it occasionally to see that its cuttable .. bit like doing a radio check I presume.

<hr width=100% size=1>O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

 

[hlb]

The reson we tend to let all the chain out is because all though its marked every 2 mtrs, we forget to count, also, theres 20 mts of chain so this is about right for nearly anything sencible. After that I've got rope, but it's a sod to get back in again if we use it, so I tend to anchor in say six mtrs or less. All chain should have rope at the end so you can cut it if you have to. The rope has a big knot in the end, so it's imposible to loose the anchor. Tide vectoring, (Touching on another thread is IMHO a wast of time, less you have an enourmous blown up chart of the area in question. Lets face it, if you are going to plot tide down to the last inch or two you would stay on board to be sure and safe. So If your in a position so tight you might as well forget the sums and just move anyway if you have guessed wrong. It's a bit harder work up the Bristol channel, for instance.

I've just come across a good example of people who get all there answers from figgures today. I've got a superbe book keeper, all her figures are perfect. But it took a young lad who knows nothing about book keeping to point out that a very large customer had not payed for some things since last May!! There PLC accountancy team had not paid because they were using a price for 1999 and not what they've been paying ever since, and did not bother asking. I knew something was wrong for weeks, but all my questions were answered by complications of figures. Yet it was clear to a blind man. It's not a problem, there transfering a pile of cash today and sorting it out latter. Would not like alll these experts sailing my boat though!!

<hr width=100% size=1> <font color=blue>No one can force me to come here.<font color=red> I'm a volunteer!!.<font color=blue>

Haydn