Antares_9

It is a bit of a misnomer I guess Grant, though they are all (3M, McGuires et al) gel coat restorers the only one that is actually called gel coat restorer is Farecla I think, the others are called colour restorer, fibreglass restorer etc.

Such a shame as they make (made) such lovely ships, some of my favourites among them, let's hope they are resurrected in some form. http://www.nimbus.se/index.html

Sounds very much like the one used on Webasto thermo Tops Grant, in which case it should last really well.

The sweat was because it was a customer's almost new motor I was drilling into Grant, would have been less of a worry if it were my own.

As has been said, a backing plate is essential to spread the load and prevent stress cracks (or worse) even in light usage, it is also a good idea to sandwich some P40 bridging filler between the plate and the underside of the deck to make sure you have full contact to spread the load, tighten the through bolts (using "penny" washers on the underside) until it squeezes out and then finally nip them up when it has cured. Marine ply is good for the purpose but I have been using HDPE sheet for quite some time and will nver go back to wood, it will never rot and is easy to work with ordinary woodworking tools.

I’m not very happy even thinking about calorifiers at the moment as I’ve just had the devil’s own job drilling out and re taping a stubborn take off bung for one on a nearly new Beta, I put it off as long as I could but it worked out well in the end, however yours sounds like a plan Grant and I have seen such installations working to good effect, your point on the thermo switch is a good one, why not go one further and have it switch off when the calorifier reaches temperature thus extending the pump life. You are right to steer clear of the cheap imports, I have replaced too much of that kind of stuff to remember, false economy and whilst in this case the component is not mission critical it would still be a pain if it failed, most circulation pumps are rated for constant running and the materials used and tolerances in some (not all) Far Eastern products are not so good. If you can find something with a brushless motor that would be the best, that said even some of the real cheapo ones have brushless motors, just not very good ones.

Really Rod? I'm sure in the interest of clarity it would be OK for you to quote them, or shall I.

I really hope people don’t think I’m being a killjoy or obstructive when it comes to such matters but this is not something to be cavalier about, as has been rightly said, for a lot of stuff the copyright owner is not really too bothered about old stuff. But the point is they can enforce copyright if they wish, it only takes somebody to get uppity about it and the stuff can really hit the fan. Both Rachel and I in previous lives spent many years in publishing at senior levels working alongside media lawyers and have seen it often first hand and it is not funny. As an example of what can happen have a look here http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... fringement an extreme case I concede but scary nonetheless. As for cut and paste posts, apart from legal implications that is just plain lazy and should be discouraged for that reason alone. It is also a fact that many forums TOS expressley forbid posting links to copyright material. People get away with it and some sites would be devoid of anything interesting without cut and paste and nicked photo's. This is all about copyright infringement and posting a link to, for example, a newspaper article on the origonal author's site is perfectly valid, cutting and pasting the article and posting it here is not, nor is posting a link to another site that has cut and pasted it.

Copyright is very clear Howard, if it's BBC then it's their property and any public showing would be an infringement, mind you Youtube seems full of infringements.

I have to ask the question Jim, why was the calorifier not fitted more centraly in the first instance? possibly it would have needed to be a bit smaller and of of a different design but this way not only do we have the added weight of what is quite a large calorifier for a 23' boat but the ballast too, that's going to do wonders for the performance when you want to plane it.

Welcome, hope you find it useful.

Can't speak for the Broads but as for the "anywhere else" Shotley have recently dropped theirs by 12p a litre for 60/40 split.

Sorry Stowie, had to delete the picture as it had a dirty great copyright logo on it, the link will still take the OP to it though so nothing lost.

http://www.thenorfolkbroads.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=11871

It is difficult to say, but I seriously doubt any displacement cruiser would have any part of the rudder projecting beyond the transom, as for protection forward, if there is a bit of a keel and the rudder does not project below it then it would be protected, if it is a hung rudder without a keel then I doubt it would recieve any damage without the prop getting whacked too if going forward. Really without a line drawing of the particular boat it is a bit difficult to be more certain.

Rudders vary wildly as do their fitment, from fully balanced to simple "flag" type, fittings from simple pintles to fully skeg protcted. I have uploaded a useful document for you. rudder design.pdf

A fully fledged member of the blue hull club now !!!

Welcome, always useful to have good information from a qualified source, I will start off with a question. Is a good base to start from to search for lamps that are multi voltage, e.g. 8v - 36v as an indicator of suitability in a marine, that is to say, variable voltage environment and if so what is the science / rationalle behind that, if not then why?

What a crying shame, please don’t let it cloud your perception of boating though, it sounds like a one off occurrence with the boats rudder grounding after you parked it and the level dropped, I accept that is pure speculation on my part but the cracking you heard a while after parking is a big clue. However, what is not speculation is that decent maintenance would have highlighted the battery issues so they could have been replaced, a correctly sized bank and decent battery management system would have ensured they were up to charge and a bilge water alarm would have alerted you early and at least mitigated the outcome, it seems these things were not present, very poor show indeed.

It's a real shame, I was looking forward to it but the whole club visit has been cancelled, mind you I wouldn't have gone with those forecasts anyway, see you another time guys.

Another restoration thread.... goody, we like restoration threads..... a lot, thanks for posting it.

"Of course, under Broads Byelaws (which specifically supercede ColRegs in areas under the control of the Broads Authority) a motoring cone (or anchor ball for that matter) is optional - you can fly one if you like, but you're not required to." That's the whole point, you're not required to but it would be nice to let other boaters know how you are likely to behave, a cone gives at least some kind of a clue. Frankly from the behaviour I have experienced it seems many broads sailors have not read past power gives way to sail on to the except when bits, either that or they are simply bloody minded. Though I have many years of sailing behind me I could never understand why people sail down what are effectively wide ditches anyway, it is just such hard work, too much tacking at times, whilst though not particularly skillful is too repetative to be really enjojed. I have heard it said that if you can sail on the broads you can sail anywhere, yeah, like it prepares you for an eight foot following sea in a chanel the width of the Ant when you can't see the edges, so much AA and PB twaddle, half of 'em don't seem to know that COLREGs apply on Breydon

That's three of us.

Royal international Air Tattoo

Not enough people paid the old fare Jonny, so unlikely to pay a higher price in numbers that would support a viable business model.