ever optimistic

🤣🤣 Quite right too, although I am fond of a bit of Dolly P every now and again 🤭.

Got a few more jobs done on the boat today. I had to replace the bolts on one of the rollers on the bow roller as the previous owner had been using two undersized bolts that didn't engage with the thread in the roller and were too long, so they bent. How they managed to stay in place I will never know.
Correct new bolts going in with a smear of thread lock to stop them unwinding with the roller action.


Also sorted out the port wiper which wasn't pantographing (if that's even a word) properly. It was operating like a regular car wiper instead of keeping the blade vertical throughout the sweep of the arm. Turned out it was a seized pivot joint and a loose nut on the end of the spigot. A healthy dose of lube and a tweak with a spanner and it now works as it should.


I spent an hour tidying up the wiring under the helm and putting the cable runs into braided cable wrap. I also installed two more rod holders on the splash well top. Needn't have bothered though as I doubt we'll be fishing any time soon now 🤣

Finally, I indulged my inner fanboy and stuck a Lowrance vinyl on the inside of the wheelhouse door. #mustgetoutmore

Now you're just rubbing our noses in it Spence 🤣👍

will put up more pics when I have them

New toy.....

A woman brings eight-year-old Johnny home and tells his mother that he was caught playing doctors and nurses with Mary, her eight-year-old daughter. Johnny's mother says, "Let's not be too harsh on them... they are bound to be curious about sex at that age." "Curious about sex?" replies Mary's mother. "He's taken her fucking appendix out!"

"It's a boy!" I shouted, tears rolling down my face. "I don't believe it. A boy!" It was at that moment I decided I'd never visit Thailand again.

"Daddy, why do people hang horses?" asked my daughter. "Nobody hangs horses, darling," I consoled her in my lap. "Who told you that people hang horses?" "I just heard mummy on the phone saying that her new boss was hung like a horse."

Got offered sex today, with a 21yr old lady. In exchange, I was supposed to advertise some kind of bathroom cleaner on twitter I declined cause I've high moral standards & strong willpower. Just as strong as Ajax, the super strong bathroom cleaner. Now available scented with lemon.

I’ve found some girl surfers to be quite tasty.... so I don’t blame the shark for wanting a nibble 🤔🙄

Here’s my tub (posted in test thread too sorry!) Along with Admiral Daisy 🙂 
 
 

will put up more pics when I have them

Had another try to tonight 😉 
Chicken, gammon, mushroom and leek pie 🙂 
Should get a few trips out me thinks 😁

No fishing due to lockdown so got back in the kitchen 🙂 
Fruit loaf 
brownies
Honey roast gammon 
now for a few beers and watch the rugby 😬😬😬

Here is my guide 🙂 
 
TOOLS EXPLAINED
DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh*t'
DROP SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS : Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER : An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW : One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
MOLE GRIPS : Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used almost entirely for lighting on fire various flammable objects in your shop. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.. 
 TABLE SAW : A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW : A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
CROWBAR : A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER : Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.
STANLEY KNIFE : Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
ADJUSTABLE WRENCH: aka "Another hammer", aka "the Swedish Nut Lathe", aka "Crescent Wrench".  Commonly used as a one size fits all wrench, usually results in rounding off nut heads before the use of pliers.  Will randomly adjust size between bolts, resulting in busted buckles, curse words, and multiple threats to any inanimate objects within the immediate vicinity.
 Son of a bitch TOOL : Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'Son of a b*tch' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

I made these a while back but thought some of us on here might find it interesting. I needed a large, cheap SP lure body for use on a 6oz jig head for vertical fishing but couldn't find anything off the shelf that was suitable, so I thought I'd try pouring my own. Never done this before so it was a bit of an experiment.

The first stage was to make a mould I can pour into, so I needed to make a master of the lure.

Using Fimo I made the rough shape of the lure body, then baked it. After baking I used a Dremel with a coarse sanding drum, plus 320 grit wet & dry to get the final shape. After shaping I mixed up some fine filler paste to smooth out a few low spots before sanding smooth again. The finished master below.


Now I had the master, I needed to make the mould of the mould, so to speak. So first I bedded the master into a block of plasticine. This started by hollowing out an imprint of the master so that it fitted snugly half way into the plasticine.



I added the shape for the pouring funnel in plasticine too. I ended up opening it out once the mould was finished as it was too narrow to pour smoothly.


The next step was to build up the sides of the mould around the plasticine block. I used the kids's Duplo bricks as they were quick and easy to assemble. I also added some ball bearings from the kids' marble run toy to make locating lugs for the two halves of the mould. See that ball of plasticine at the top of the pic below? We'll come back to that....



At this point I also sealed up all the edges with small beads of plasticine to give a good seal. I then gave everything a light coat of vaseline to ensure the mould releases well once cured. Now ready for the first pour.

I worked out the volume I'd need and used an online converter to work out the total weight I'd need, then worked out the respective weights of RTV and catalyst. This is quite a large mould so I ended up needing needing nearly 400gr of silicone for each half.

After weighing out and mixing for a good 5 minutes the first pour went in.



After curing for 24 hours the first half was ready to pull.



Not bad at all. Pleased with the way the first half came out - fully cured, released well and no bubbles.

Next step was to prep the first half for the second pour. So I rebuilt the mould sides again, remade the second half of the pouring funnel and re-lubed everything with vaseline. The second pour went in - very few bubbles, which is good.



Mould fully cured and separated after curing.


Next step was a test pour.
First batch of lures from the new mould...



They all have an imperfection or two but as a first attempt I was pleased with them.
PS: remember that ball of plasticine I mentioned earlier? It went missing overnight after I had poured the second half of the mould - I originally put it down to having a semi-senior moment - did I put it away somewhere and forgot? It turned up eventually..... out of the back end of the dog . She must have snaffled it during the night when the first part of the mould was curing. Who knew that dogs like plasticine...??

This is my fourth version of this same hull, only bought this one because I missed out on the boat I sold my zodiac to buy. Other versions of this 540 hull Ive owned have had more cab space and less deck area, this one just came along when there was nothing else that suited my likes.
For me a boat needs to be able to be towed great distances as I like heading north to the tropics in the winter ( not last winter because of covid ). I like soft riding boats as mid morning winds normally reach 25knots and combine with large ocean swells. A 33' degree variable deadrise hull cuts through waves quite well at speed, the speed is needed to get back ahead of some storms or cyclones before things get pretty nasty. Chassing game species can be anything from casting distance from the shore to 120km runs offshore.
I also enjoy trips where i island hop around the southern end of the barrier reef, taking extra fuel and water for several day trips. Camping on islands about 80km offshore is great for getting away from it all.
The window opens in the middle and the front hatch swings open so you can work big popping gear from the bow on tuna etc. The door at the stern allow me to block and tackle big fish from the front seat post,or from the front ellectric anchor winch. I normally remove the seats from my boats but have seceded to leave these in for now. Plenty of underfloor storage hatches with this one too.
More power would be better but the Suzuki 140 does get a half decent speed out of it. We tend to go with max hp on small boats so we can run ahead of bad weather, with clear blue sky's you often see storm fronts and have plenty of time to get out of there path.
 

 
 
 
 

Started to serious shore fish at 11 years old in Knab Rock Swansea.
My folks had a caravan next to the beach so in school holidays would fish every day..... surf beach fishing for flounder bass and mullet...
stopped shore fishing at 16 as I became more and more into surfing to a high standard. 
 
I used to crew out of mumbles as a teenager in the winter for cod. You turned up, asked around a few times and helped out launching retrieving boats until you got offered a trip.... had some nice catches around Swansea. 
 
only got back into shore fishing when I moved to Cambridge, went to see the sea at Aldebrugh, saw them catching cod and old the spark was kindled! 
 
shortly after moved to Birmingham and went back to South Wales on the shore and charters out of Cardiff and Swansea on Rob Rennie’s boat. We used to leave Cardiff at 6pm so I’d bunk off work at 4, leg it to boat and then we’d get back into Cardiff at 4am before I drove back to midlands and get to bed at 6am.....
I also did Saturday trips on another charter called Benjoma Too. Sadly the skipper Paul Crossman passed away yesterday. Top skipper, bit crusty but once you got to know him was a gentleman.
 
Later on I moved back to Wales, first thing was buy a boat.... ran an Orkney Pilothouse for 4 years before wanting to go bigger..... 
Having separated from the ex the idea was an offshore 25 or osprey 26/28 for weekends and sharks....
 
Somwhow I ended up with an Evolution 30 from Rob which was the first boat I had fished off for 15 years.... She was a tip but a summer of fixing up and away I went! Later that summer it was a trip down memory lane fishing and the same marks I used to within out of Swansea and in the winter from Cardiff. She now follows her larger cousin in Milford. Rob always gets excited when to see her..... I left the keys with him to refuel for me. I noticed on my AIS track that he had a little run around the haven too 🤣🤣🤣
 
It used to be fishing first. These days I love to tinker with boats and boating but I prefer the fishing. However the boat is great to sleep over, weekend on around Swansea/Milford, go sharking/reefing but still go snorkelling in the haven before a nice pub meal and a pint in Marina.....
I almost called my boat Wanderlust as I have a real sense of adventure always wanting to know what’s around the corner, but there was a sail not called that so she was called Odyssey instead as that’s what I’m on. An odyssey to see what’s next on my travels 🙂 

☺️Sorry EO, your boat looks lovely. It looks very fast even on it's leash. Geoff.☺️

Ok, yes got it now. Many thanks.

welcome aboard

Sorry to disappoint you Ian, but it didn't go bang... it went zoooooooom!!!!

I decided I didn't want to spend all my retirement working on my old boat, so I treated myself to a new Warrior 165 (MegaByte) which I collected from the factory on 26th August 2009.