Andy135

Oh dear... 🙄

Good topic for a post @Malc. Likewise I'm not much into poetry but one that stuck with me from my GCSE English days is Rime of the Ancient Mariner. We studied the original text (here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834) and I found it quite thought-provoking as a spotty ginger teenager. Here's a paragraph I like: The harbour-bay was clear as glass, So smoothly it was strewn! And on the bay the moonlight lay, And the shadow of the Moon.

"this was a small fish" 🤣🤣🤣 Well dangled! #welljell

Look at those beauties! Top fishing 👍 How were they caught? Guessing lures? Presume the bass must also take bait as well?

Very skilful! 👍

I'll be there... unless you can think of a decent reason to uninvite me... 😱

Yes, that's exactly right. Move the lever all the way back towards you - there's usually a notch you can feel that indicates when the reel is in free spool.

Personally I love lever drags. So quick & simple to adjust the drag on the fly. All you need to remember with lever drags is not to adjust the pre-load when the lever is engaged. Pre-load adjustment should only be done with the reel out of gear, or it can crush the bearings, which is probably why some people don't rate LD's or think they're fragile. They're not - it's usually user error that causes problems. Avet reels are my favourite, but there are of course other brands available. For balance, I also use star drags and would have no problem using them for tope either. I rate the Penn Fathoms so if you already have some of these I'd say you probably don't need a LD, but take a look at the Avets and you may decide you want one 😉

What's got your goat today then Pete? It deserves more than a 5, surely.

But if you piece the description together from this list you get: MS.G.SH = Mud sand (Muddy sand?), Gravel, Shell.

On the Navionics web app you can click the letters, then click the blue ? icon to the right of the cross-hairs, then expand the Seabed Area line to reveal the details. It won't give a full description of each of the words in the abbreviation, but will list the major component.

Well done Herbs. Sounds like you had a decent session there. Top dangling 👍

Great day out and great photos! Not a fan of popcorn though. #whingingpom

Well I guess that shuts you up @Saintly Fish 🤣

And big fish from the shore too. Don't think I've ever caught anything as large as those from shore.

Top dangling @JDP 👍

And catamarans have been 'cat shaped' for... no... wait... 🐱🤣

Here's the part of the same vid I posted earlier, where an adult steps down onto the open bow from a pontoon. Seems to work ok.

To fit in a gap between other boats that's too small to come alongside into. Keep the motor in gear to press the bow to the pontoon and allow a passenger to step on/off, then leave again. We're talking about bump & go landings here, not permanent mooring.

You tell me. You're the one with the tender. I'd have thought you'd be the expert on these boats.

What are you confused by? I'm talking about parking a tender at 90 degrees to a pontoon instead of coming alongside parallel, then embarking/disembarking passengers across the bow instead of over the gunnels/side tubes.

Traditional tenders can do that too if they have a squared off bow profile, but then you already knew that...

They're wetter, but the advantages outweight the disadvantages in my opinion - easier entry and exit, the boat can be nosed up to a pontoon rather than come alongside, more floor space in the boat as no thick tubes up front, easier/quicker drainage of any water that does get in (assuming an open transom or transom with drainage holes).

The design would handle sheltered waters like harbours, estuaries and bays just fine. My concern is about how long the materials and construction of the Aqua Marina boat would last. My guess is that you'd get one or two seasons of heavy use out of it before it lets you down. Here's a vid of the True Kit cats blasting around on breakers in New Zealand. The hulls and construction materials are designed to handle stuff like this, so their price is higher to reflect that. I suspect that cheaper inflatables would split a seam in waves like this.

@Michael, I've pasted up the .webp image in your post so that everyone can see it without needing to click on it. That's an Aqua Marina Aircat, which I belive is a copy of the Takacat/TrueKit cats. It's a design I'm considering buying myself but would probably avoid Aqua Marina simply because I've never heard of them and their cats look a little on the "cheap" side? Generally you get what you pay for, and especially with inflatables where you want high quality components and seams that won't split after the first season.