tjg1677

Once again brilliant Geoffrey, I love watching your cookery blogs. Just got to try and persuade thr GK catering department to try some of your recipes . Look forward to seeing you in may, perhaps you could do a live demo for us and then do a galloping gourmet and grab a nubile lady from your onlookers and have her wine and dine with you, naturally we will all be watching enviously. ☺ Keep it up mate Trev

...........

Now why would that be me? My hair is a different style for a start.........

Have purposefully not commented on this as having served in N.I. It brings it all back. The bottom line is that terrorists are indiscriminate killers. That use religion as a thin veil to justify their activities but if religion were the reason their murderous acts would be selective. If the latest attack I was based on religion how did he know what beliefs were held by the crowd he mowed down? What is clear is that terrorism is incited and need by a small minority of nasty foul minded people with a view to achieving their own ends and agenda. That are not fit to live in a civilised society nor should they be allowed in one. Our shores have been under attack from terrorists for decades in varying forms and by varying factions. The question is will we ever get used to it or give in. The answer is a simple word......NEVER !!!!!! Britain I am proud of you, always have been always will be. Was going to finish with an emoticon of a union flag but for some reason there isn't one........ Trev.

MJT, try Boulters at Horning, they are very helpful indeed and carry a great range of LED lamps at quite reasonable prices. Trev..

Lucky you, its lovely up there !! Been trying since last september always told they are full !!

Hi Christie, welcome to the forum, I am sure you will have a great time afloat, it is a very addictive past-time. If you are considering staying overnight in norfolk, the Travel lodge in Acle is as good a place as any to start and close to yarmouth and of course the river with plenty of good places to eat. Whatever you do, have a great holiday. Trev

If you have a compass fitted at the helm, it makes life a lot easier as you can steer an estimated course in limited visibility across Breydon. My VHF also has a compass built into it, which has come in useful on a few occasions, particularly one foggy september morning last year on Barton broad, the VHF became worth its weight in gold and my Richardsons map of the broads became an impromptu admiralty chart........ If you are really good you can even dead reckon to figure out roughly where you are but then you need to know tides and wind speed and your speed over the ground. trev

That's not bad weather, the ship is hardly moving, just the sea that is a bit lumpy that's all........... HM Minesweepers had a propensity to roll up to 50 degrees when in really bad weather. Once crossing the Pentland firth in a force 9 whilst escorting an RNR squadron, I would swear that you could almost see down their funnels as they rolled, scary stuff. Trev

Tried to edit but couldnt , so adding this ps. Those of you who have alphacraft will probably be familiar with the stupid moulded in lifebuoy holder on the cabin roof aft. All this does is fill with water and create a very deluxe mobile and expensive birdbath. Have to make a drainage system to alleviate this problem, as last september, when backing onto my moorings, i had to do a quick burst of full ahead and the contents went all over the crew member handling the aft ropes. Didnt do it on purpose - honest .................

Ok heres where we are. Had a maint. Weekend last week and got a few bits done. At the moment the to do list is horrendous. Since buying GK late last season she has had: bowthruster, solar panels, hull repair on the skeg, sixty percent rewire, inverter fitted, lots of lighting work and much more besides. Back on topic, last weekend saw a few important bits done. My boat has four separate cabins, none of which were ventilated. Se now have low level louvres fitted in all the doors and a ecs ufo type vent in the stbd aft cabin roof. The low level vents i simply drilled 2 x four inch diameter holes with a holesaw and put a fixed louvre vent either side of the door. The roof vent was cut out using the same holesaw. Managed to make the job look neat inside using ecs bulkhead grilles - incredibly expensive pieces of flimsy aluminium, but it made it look reasonable. Also got lots of smallish jobs done such as isolators fitted etc. The next maint weekend and a substantial proportion of easter will see two more roof vents fitted, a pulpit rail fabricated and fitted, bridge access doors rehung, duplicate set of engine instruments fitted to flybridge, handrails fitted, more rewiring, tv aerial resited to allow fitting of new canopy, nbn burgee rigged as well as about a dozen minor jobs. I posted elsewhere about pulpit rails and after several re thinks have come up with a cunning design that i can assemble and install myself using yacht hand rail gate stanchions, stainless tube, various fittings and some big 14mm holes in the deck, thus saving about 70 percent what i was quoted and for a more desirable result. So with to do lists growing and savings dwindling I will press on and keep you informed, may even take some pics too!!! Trev

Thanks chaps that's great. Yes GK was built in 91 so falls right in that bracket. I now know everything I wanted to, so much appreciated. Trev

This is where I am a bit confused. As I understand it my boat has had the copper treatment blended with the gelcoat at build. Isn't coppercote a retro applied epoxy coating??? I had her out when purchased for the survey and subsequently again when the BT was fitted. It was difficult to look see the bottom properly as there was a lot of anti foul still on it ( it had been re antifouled about 9 months previously ) but I thought it strange at he time as the bottom did seem to have a coppery colour to it and as I had never heared of this process, thought nothing about it. So please enlighten me, if she has the copper into gelcoat treatment, would I be right in assuming that it is an antifouled for life treatment???? if not , what was the point of it when done??? Marshman, no thanks dont think I will go diving for two reasons. One its too cold and the second is that being an ex stoker, I dont like getting wet !! Anyway, if I| did, FM would probably charge me for the priveledge . I take it you are moored near me then - what is your boat called? If you see me aboard, please do say hello and have a cuppa! Trev

Yes Jim, the water is back on at FM. Will check the tanks for odour but have to confess I have not come across the eggy pong syndrome before in 25 years of boat ownership, can you give us more details please as it sounds like some sort of a chemical reaction, be intrigued to hear more. Thanks Trev

Absolutely 100 % spot on there Vaughan!!

I remember this all to well, we had just loaded 2000 tonnes of Gas oil from Immingjam oil terminal and were just clearing the Humber estuary when the VHF came alive on CH16, we were listening to events unfolding almost in real time. A very very sad incident and it still makes me shiver now! Odd metacentric heights should be mentioned , immediately afterwards our full ballasting , loading and stability procedures were scrutinised minutely. Trev

Very interesting all this. I understand it was an expensive option when GK was built. What puzzles me is that the previous owner of seven years used to have her antifouled annually, just seems a bit counter productive, particularly as I am one of the school of thought that subscribes to the non anti fouling fraternity. Any further input on this subject would much appreciated. Trev

Hello all. Time to draw on the forum expertise again. My boat was apparently given a copper bottom when built. Can anyone shed any light on what this means, how it is done and what the advantages are. Never come across this on grp, wood yes but not plastic. Thanks in advance Trev

Just to round off this thread when do folk generally start to De winterise and fill water talks etc again? Trev

Got the first one fitted into the stbd aft cabin as well as a low level vent in the cabin door, see how it goes overnight and how bad the condensation is in the morning. Managed to stretch the headlining and secure a vent grill on the interior to the deckhead so it don't look too bad after all. Going to tackle the port fwd twin cabin tomorrow, that's the one that suffers condensation the worst. Just two more cabins to go after that! Trev

Thanks Griff. Settled down here a bit this morning now. GK is fine, nice n dry and you left her immaculate thanks. Trev

Morning all. Got down to G.K. about 4am today. Wind howling in Horning and rain was like stair rods in the headlights coming down at about 45 degrees, not pleasant. Roads were pretty bad too, some very frequent and very deep water on the A47. I thought I had hit something solid at one point, got blinded by main beam of oncoming truck and hit some standing water at about 45 mph , the wave came over the bonnet! Here safe now so hoping to get some work done and sort out a few ventilation problems. Trev

It will be rated to the output wattage, which off the top of my head is about 20-25 watts for these units. So providing you dont exceed this load you can run several. hth trev

lolol I totally and utterly stand corrected, I never envisaged that scenario. Brings to life the meaning of being in the s##t!

No - definitely an active one............ a handbrake on a commode is generally of more use!