Recent content by James_Calvert

Thanks, that's a bit reassuring. With maintenance, my gatevalves opened and closed easily so the stem didn't get much stress. I was aware that the thread inside the gates seemed weak though...

I confess I was reasonably happy with gatevalves, which were easy enough to take apart for annual inspection and lubrication. But a few years ago I replaced them with ball valves. No way of telling what state they are in. And now it seems a brand new one can fail... Back to gatevalves next time...

Is the True design spindle better?

I use a long handled 4" roller for antifouling, the type they sell to paint behind radiators. It cuts down how much you have to move, or crawl around, under the boat. I've avoided sponge rollers ever since one dissolved whilst in use. Not all pile ones are immune from the solvents either, but...

Try a more flexible hose. I've just replaced a toilet inlet hose (19mm) with one I thought was a bit soft and skinny for the job. It went on easily, doesn't leak, and seems to do the job.

£2 per metre high season £1-50 per metre April, May and Sept £1 per metre to anchor, includes mooring off season. Bowsprits are free! £5 per vessel daytime visit. Probably the cheapest way of enjoying the locality, average house price sales recently reported around £1.4M... Good food at the...

There's an outfit called "City Diesel" in various locations, a franchise maybe? Anyway I've had good service from the one in Plymouth, and the one in Rochester.

Our 3 hoop frame started off all alloy. First replacement hood had the central hoop in stainless, reusing the alloy fore and after hoops. It was still a bit floppy to hold onto so we had a new after hoop in stainless for the next replacement. Still got the forward one in alloy. That said I...

Sorry, misread the question so deleted.

On a minor practicality, the handles on those type of batteries are fairly easily detached/reattached. On my set up I have to take them off because they won't lie flat over the terminal connections. And the locker won't close with them sticking up. You might have the detached handles somewhere...

When we had netting because of little children I didn't want my footing compromised when boarding from alongside. So I stretched a line along the bases of the stanchions and threaded the bottom of the netting through that. Worked fine using about 3 or 4 mm braided polyester as I recall. (I did...

To answer your question, we have a fin. We touched bottom and heeled over a bit on one occasion. The bottom was hard sand. There was more of it than there should have been. Dredging for the summer season hadn't happened that year. I'd realised we would probably touch and stayed up just in case...

I've done the give it a suck technique . At the tap. Turn it on first.

I also have such an old echosounder, fitted as an upgrade. Beginning to play up, but still drives its cockpit repeater just fine. To drop in a replacement could need a new transducer, and a new repeater as well. I shall be tempted to reinstall the original (which I have kept) when it eventually...

I have a very simple approach. I hang a bucket over the side of the boat with a syphon tube stuck into the skin fitting for the raw water intake. I keep the bucket topped up with water whilst the engine is reaching operating temperature, then tip an antifreeze mix for the last couple of minutes...