Happy Jax 3

I have to agree Channel 12 was very very entertaining. Power to the people!! Well done guys

Hi Wayne You could try Norfolk marine at wroxham, they are very helpfull when it comes to dinghies. Col

I think we have all been numptys when it comes to drain plugs Wayne. Back in my water skiing days, there was many of times I forgot to put the bung back in, It wasn't until I felt the boat getting heavy on the steering and passengers in the back getting wet bums I'd realise my mistake. The last thing you wanted was a Mercury 200hp Black Max going under water. I guess it was a good job we already had wet suits on to jump in and refit the plug. I think the idea of the one way valve set up on dinghy's is so you can remove the bung, get it on a plane and any water inside will be drawn out and you can refit the bung when dry. Of course you can't do this on the Broads.

Fantastic shots Carol. My favorite has to be the Woodpecker.

Great thread Gav. fantastic piccies as well.

I seem to remember a TV documentary recently which informed that Sizewell B was currently undergoing repairs and will not be producing power for the rest of this year. It also said that the fuel rods had been removed and placed in safe storage. Maybe they have laid them on the sea bed in Southwold Harbour.

Hi Dave I have one of these on HJ2. As you say I have set it to Gt Yarmouth yacht station and add correction to were I am on the broads. I use it all the time, even when mooring up to work out tidal stream. As a back up I have one on my mariners watch, as with you David when I can be bothered to wear it. I have also just down loaded a Tide App to my new Ipod touch. I guess, as with many of us boaters we just like gadgets.

Hi Jonathan Yes if exhaust gas is entering the fresh water cooling system through the manifold it would fail the block test, although it wouldn't pressurise the cooling system. I agree if it is not breathing heavy and the compressions are within tolerance the oil consumption is most probably the valve stem seals.

Hi Jonathan That will save a lot of work if it is the inlet manifold. Fingers crossed. I presume that the inlet manifold is water cooled. Did you carry out a block test? Why do you think it is burning oil, is it breathing heavy. or have you noticed blue smoke out the back? Didn't notice any unusual smoke at Easter.

That's looking great Andy, so you had to take the windows out in the end. I see all you upholstery piled up at Brian's looks very nice. Now I know why mine isn't finished yet.

Congratulations to you both. Hope you both had a great wedding day.

As always I will be up for another photo-shoot. Look forward to discussing it at the WRC, maybe we could even go for a little wonder at the WRC.

Can't do that Luke, might not need milk, but you curtainly need cold beer.

Hi Ian In the past I always found Engel fridges to be very inefficient, drawing approximately 5amps when on 12v. Might pay to bite the bullet and replace it with an Isotherm, they run under 1 amp on 12v. You could PM Brian to see if he has any contacts to repair your Engel.

|Hi Jonathon If you are unfortunate and it does turn out to be the headgaskets, make sure you advise the machine shop to skim off the bare minimum.

So it will all be back to your boat then Wayne at the WRC meet.

Thanks for comments, Neil the post shots were taken using a 300mm zoom. On the Olympus four thirds system this is equivalent to 600mm on a 35mm. That is one of the reasons I chose this system as I do enjoy capturing wildlife. On the day it was very dull so I had to up the iso quite high to keep the shutter at a reasonable speed for hand held, hence the high graining level after cropping. All that said I am very pleased with the results.

Hi Jonathon You will have enough fluid for several tests with the block tester, you can get a bottle of scotch from Tesco's for under a tenner if it is bad news. I agree if one has failed the others are sure to be weakened. Replacing all gaskets would be the best option. Out of curiosity why do you feel the gasket has failed, I understand you say the fresh water system had over pressurised, on many marine engines the sealed water system run at a set pressure normally determined by the filler cap to increase the boiling point. In a similar way to cars. If you were in a overheat state the pressure would increase. I am not familiar with your engines though, so could be totally wrong. How bad was the overheat? Do you have any idea what caused the overheat? Did it blow out all of your coolant? You will be surprised how hot an engine can get before damage to a headgasket occurs. Unless of course the headgasket failed first and caused the overheat.

Hi Jonathon Firstly you need to confirm the head gasket has definitely failed, the best option to test this is with a block tester, you can get these from snap on. it is basically a tube you fill with a blue testing fluid, place onto the filler reservoir header tank if any exhaust gas is in the system it will turn the fluid yellow. If this is confirmed you then have the difficult diagnosis of which cylinder head gasket is leaking. One possible way would be to pull out the injectors or glow plugs if you have them, the leaking cylinder may show signs of a grey/white colouration from the antifreeze. If not it would most probably be best to change all the head gaskets as others may have weakened during the overheat. Unless it is a very severe leak it is unlikely a compression test will show up which cylinder.

So I guess it is luminous yellow paint then.

Thanks for all of your comments, It's just a case of being in the right place at the right time, with Camera in hand of course. Roy I think it was just before 8.00am

I don't have a finepix s7000 Jill. It was taken on my Olympus SLR with a 300mm Zoom

Last week we was moored in fleet dyke, went for a walk early morning, camera in hand. I noticed a Barn Owl fying over the fields in the distance. Normally when I have my camera all wildlife goes into hiding. Clearly this Barn Owl hadn't gone to the avoid Col at all costs school. It flew within a hundred yards then sat on a post posing for my camera. Here are some of the shots taken, a little grainy due to distance and cropping.

Well done Ann Gavin sure knows how to treat a girl.

We have 4 auto inflate seago lifejackets on board a couple are over 4 years old one 1 years old and the last one I purchased a few weeks ago. They have all been checked for outstanding recalls and none were within the recall ranges, other than changing the rearming kits on the older ones we have had no problems with them. It does pay to check the date on the firing cartridge before purchase as many retailers can have them in stock for some time, make sure you have at least 18 months on them or you could be paying half the value again in rearming kits. As already has been said auto inflate has to be the way to go.