oldgregg

I think BCBM offer a useful service in terms of marketing and having someone to do the admin etc but the stuff you'd expect in terms of buying power and working to ensure boats are kept to a marketable standard etc just isn't there. It's a big saving a syndicate makes by removing them from the equation.

They didn't do one, bizzarely. Never really understood why. When the AF42 got updated into the MK2 (Brinks Symphony etc), they stopped producing the 38ft version as presumably the Pearl replaced it. So you had the choice of a Pearl 38 or an 'updated' 42. There was a 35ft version of the Pearl, but never a longer one. Not sure why really as I think it would have sold well.

I do love a Pearl 38, they are indeed a very elegant boat and Fineway were cracking boatbuilders. It would be fair to say I'm a bit wary of syndicates (been there, done that) though Blue Mist has always looked a bit more 'loved' and the fact she's not used over the winter is a plus point too.

How is Blue Mist doing these days? I think we were all a bit horrified when she did the submarine impression during lockdown, presumably the insurance allowed for some work to the front cabin?

I think those two boats and the Brinks Emperors are pretty much the reason they introduced it, yeah!

@BroadAmbition You may need to clear your browser cache before you see it (or wait a week), but the 'return to top' button is now back.

Yes unfortunately there was a problem with it that caused one of the recent updates to fail, so we've had to remove it. I'll have a look to see if there's a more recent replacement, as it is a handy feature.

It does look to have been cut very cleanly. Unlikely to have been just some drunken randomer.

She is a Haines, yes and has had significant interior work done to a very good standard.

I knew you'd know

I can't remember, to be honest. Might be worth updating the specs with that. The HE denotes that it's the heat exchanger version (as are most Broads boats). So that'll be the 50hp four pot then?

I've asked SC a few times (and never really got an answer) about which Nanni engine the boat has...

That's how I'd read it too. Pretty standard negotiating tactic - Propose a lot of change, provoke a bit of outrage and then 'compromise' by offering what had actually been planned all along. They do it every few years so we need to not pander to it and instead push for what the real agenda is. On another note, I see that JP is considerably past the usual retirement age for public sector. Perhaps now is the ideal opportunity to 'spend more time with the family' and let someone more talented have a go?

Can they not be overhauled? Garages don't seem to want to do it these days, but you can sometimes still get the seals etc. A while back I had a binding rear caliper on what is now Mrs OG's car. The local garage I had been using for most work wanted to fit a no-name recon caliper. I queried why they wouldn't just overhaul and got the usual spiel about how nasty car manufacturers are not letting them have parts these days.... I pointed out that I could buy the parts from the local Honda dealer myself for £20 if they wanted. They weren't interested in doing it.

I was just admiring the NBN (with its old branding) badge low down on the dash... Not seen one of those before and I've been here longer than most.

Given that it's obviously sinking, the only sensible course of action would be to underpin it and restore back to 1970's levels of clearance under it? Right?

I still have a bit of a soft spot for them too. A mutual friend of ours (and of Meantime for that matter) who was fairly prolific on the forum back in the day used to have one and it was a bit of a weapon.

So true! But then which would you rather be driving?

Yeah £133 is really good. Even Honda charge more than that.

Firstly.... What a cute Labrador, and in my favourite colour too! So many people say that they've never been to the Lakes and I can only say you are in for a real treat. As it happens, when I was coming onto the Kirkstone Pass earlier this year we found ourselves in the middle of some sort of Z3 / Z4 owners club cruise. You can see some of the line of Z3's ahead, and there was an E85 Z4 behind us. It was a slightly grey day but we dropped the roof and it was quite fun knowing that someone else in front would be looking out for sheep in the middle of the road so I could keep it flat. They weren't going flat out, Mrs OG's car (now sold, I'm sure you can work out what it was though) was keeping up without much trouble but it was a fun experience. There are so many roads in the Lakes which are just stunning to drive. Wrynose / Hard Knott pass is fun but Kirkstone isn't single track and if you hit it at the right time of day there's no traffic. The road from the summit back down to Ambleside is known as 'The Struggle' and is fantastic in a car with a bit of power. Similarly, Honister Pass and the parts around Buttermere are pretty epic.

I have to be careful not to breach the TOS here don't I

I had (well I made) a parallel port one, it was much faster than serial but was still really slow.

I remember Laplink well, and I recall making up a cable for it and using it to sync between my old Compaq Contura laptop and my desktop PC. The transfer speed was absolutely terrible.

This was the only image I could find of the docking station... Toshiba PA2710E Docking Station - Peripheral - Computing History The laptop sits on top and is locked into place by a motorised mechanism. There's space in the base for a floppy drive and full-size CD drive. The rear cover flips up (if unlocked with the key) to reveal the expansion slots below, with their backplates being visible in the cavity you can see to the right-hand rear of the dock. Utterly bonkers and the most over-engineered dock I've ever seen. [Edit:] A quick google suggests the laptop was a Tecra 8000

A PPC640 (or 512) I would assume? They were basically a repackaged PC1512 / PC1640 and while not epic, they were an 'affordable' machine. Amstrad PPC 512 - Wikipedia Toshibas were excellent machines, I had one about 20 years ago and it had a wonderfully-engineered docking station with motorised load/unload and some full-sized PCI (or were they ISA?) slots. It felt like such a well-built machine and the touchpoints are great once you get used to them.