mbird

I hope so Trev . I've paid for the repair of all four with Steel developments online, and I'll post them Monday. I hope they would be back within a week and we can get her back in the water fairly sharpish. Unfortunatley the lift was only arranged to hold in the slings over the weekend and drop back in on Monday. It was only to change the depth transducer and the outdrive oil, but it seems a bit of work on the props is needed too. It is impact damage, and all fairly recent by the looks of it. I don't recall feeling any clunks, so whether they were already damaged when we bought her I have no idea. Nearly all the tips have chunks missing, and one is bent rather noticeably. Here's a pic of the typical damage (note the larger bit missing from the blade behind). At least the trim tabs look okay and now seem to be functioning fine (I think water in the head unit was to blame for dodgy LED readings), and all the bellows have been replaced as I was told, The anodes are all zinc and covered in a hard scale. I have ordered aluminium anodes for the outdrives, but what should I do about the ones on the trim tabs? They are about 15% gone, but again are zinc and covered in scale. Should I change these for aluminium too?

Ian I may be missing the point here, but reading through Steel Developments repair service, it says that the Aluminium repairs include a coating of synthetic paint. Do you still need to paint over this then? The only reason I ask is that following our lift today, I have had to take off the props as all 4 need repairing .

Yay! Who'd I beat then?

Welcome to the site Mohammed!

Nice one Jill! That spammer is now frittered! edit to add that I think I credited Jill with the spam frittering when it should actually have been Jonzo. It's so easy to get those two confused you know!

Where is usually the cheapest? I am going to need about 300 litres I reckon, and I was going to fill up at Brooms when she's plopped back in the water on Monday (assuming there is room the the credit card of course!)

"For sale, nice new development in pristine countryside, would suit single barnacle, with room to expand"

Hi Barry It was around £15 per 750mm length for the stuff I bought, which was the bigger of the two sizes they dom and fits the 90mm ducting. The smaller size is for the 60mm ducting. Fitting is simply a matter of sliding is over the ducts. I cable tied it at intervals just to stop it slipping out of place. You would obviously need to disconect your ducting from the outlets to fit it. It does seem to be very well insulated, and is basically a fabric outer sleeve lines with a cotton wool type quilt inside. They claim it will reduce the temperature of the outside of the duct from around 100 deg C to 30 deg C, and thereby deliver more of the heat where it's wanted rather than warming bilges and lockers. On Tranquil Breeze, I insulated the duct with strips of foil-backed bubble wrap type insulation, which worked up to a point, but was very fiddly to put on. This stuff was a piece of cake and certainly looks cosy!

I have finally finished fitting the Propex today. It has taken nearly four days to do, mainly down to the difficulty of routing the hot air ducts, and squeezing me in into the engine bay. It seems sports cruisers just aren't easy to find routes through due to the number of separate mouldings, and size of the stringers and ribs in the bilges. I had to raid the shelves at JPC in Brundall on a couple of occasions to utilise Webasto air duct fittings, and Tom of JPC couldn't have been more helpful. I also purchased their "Thermoduct" insulation lagging, which is quite pricey, but having seen it in the flesh now, does look to be a very good product. So we've now got warm air in the cockpit; at the helm position and in the main cabin It cost me a couple of pounds of skin, several pints of blood, hundreds of bruises and at least one expletive; but it seems worth it! Next job is a lift tomorrow for the fitting of the new depth transducer. Eventually we might even get to go out on the river!

Will do mate. As soon as it's received, I'll let you have a copy.

I have emailed Anglia Afloat to register my interest, and they say they will forward further details soon.

Thanks Rod, that rule of twelfths is something I had read about, but I think your explaination was far simpler

I don't think I'd want to be navigating that channel at that particular moment in time

Wow, what a post Martin, thank you! I think Perry has confirmed the little error he posed, just to see if anyone was paying attention, was the source of my confusion. I'm quite relieved that I haven't got to re-learn all that I thought I basically understood What does surprise me, though, is that there are so many datumseses! I would have thought all the charts for the British Isles should be based on one location, as the Newlyn example seems to suggest, but from what you have quoted for the Almanaces, it seems that isn't the case. Surely that's just silly, when sea areas can be included on more than one chart but the tide tables could be based on different datums (eg Lowestoft and Walton appear on just one chart).

That's what I thought too Ian. A Datum is a nominal point where all things are measured from, so assuming the tide heights are measured from the same datum as the charts, how can a tide height of 0.61 be below datum? Surley the datum is zero? That would mean if a tide height was given as 0.00m, then that would be AT datum. Also, where do you find out what LAT the chart datum is based on then? I have been looking at Imray chart C28 which states "Depths are reduced to chart datum, which is approximately the level of Lowest Astronomical Tide (L.A.T.)" It doesn't state what this level actually is?

Now that looks nice Luke Jizer or Gunk in the end mate?

Ok, time to show off my lack of knowledge to the world now: On another thread, Perry stated "Tide table predictions for 22nd/23rd is 0.61 Gorleston which is under chart datum so provided no North or Easterly Gales or heavy rain you have a good chance of keeping your Radar Gelcoat intact Mark ". Now my understanding was that Chart Datum was based on the "lowest anticipated astronomical tide", and the depth figures on charts are measured at this tide level. I also thought, that the tide heights on tide tables were given from this same level, so that you simply added the tide height to the charted depth to get the actual depth of water. From what I have said above, I would therefore have concluded that on the dates quoted above, actual depths would be 0.61m more than the charted depths at low tide. What Perry has said has now confused me completely, as I can't see how a tide height of 0.61m could be below chart datum? I'm obviously misunderstanding something fundamental about tide heights, but for the life of my can't work out what. HHEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!

Well Leroy, when I started them this morning again to check the charge from the alternators, the port engine again started immediately, but the starboard took about 4 seconds to kick in, and yes, we get a lot of blue smoke from cold too. How much throttle do you give when starting? Mine prefer quite a lot of gas and then throttle back as soon as they fire. It still amazes me these things start at all with no glow plugs!

Good stuff Leroy, sounds like the plan is a go-er then . We're still in the middle of fitting heating, but I hope in a couple of weeks time we can have a quick Breydon blast and also practise a few moorings so we don't embarrass ourselves too much at easter! I was please to find out the engines both started instantly yesterday having not been run since Jan 1st, and even the trim tabs seem to be gremlin free too at the moment!

It won't apply in a boat, but don't use Gunk on a tarmac driveway. When I was a teenager, I gunked my motorbike engine, and the stuff I washed off the engine dissolved the drive

Right, Leyroy ..... I have crew! My borther and family were up from Essex yesterday and I mentioned it to him. He jumped at the chance! So assuming you don't mind cruising in the company of the Dangerous Brothers from Essex, when are we booking it?

That's interesting Luke, thanks for the heads up. I did check all the parts I'd been sent by Keypart were the correct ones yesterday, and the belt looked about the right length, but I'll double check today now you've mentioned that. I don't intend changing the belts just yet, as they all seem still quite servicable, but will carry them as spares just incase, so I do need to be sure they are the right ones!

Well if Adam and Suzanne are considering doing it, I'm happy to go too and infact think it's be a really good bit of experience, just don't fancy the 4 days on my own! The kids and SWMBO are obviously at school, so they won't be able to attend.

Now now, Simon, you'll give everyone the wrong idea! I don't think I was particularly entertaining anyway, as I only had one mug for tea so the poor lass had a beaker of water. Not exactly a good host Still if she's any good at crewing .......

Hmmm I've got my doubts now. The old photo shows a curved soldier course of brickwork above the doorway, which doesn't seem evident i nthe photo of the Sutton Staithe hotel. Maybe the Ship at Reedham is more like it?