Geoff

Just add your boat name into your profile and the forum software does it automatically ...............

We're out tomorrow too Scott. Early start and plan to head west past Cowes. Might see you on the pontoon.

Heading out tomorrow after this bad run of weekend winds scuppering any plans. Seems like an eternity since we were last afloat. 
 
Will be heading Nab area, not decided exactly where yet. 

Apologies to the exiled dude down under, rather than continue in his excellent threads blatant hijacking,  thought I'd stick up a quick ditty here.
Couple of hours to waste, went out to pester Mullet, had two on floating bread before they went off the feed at HW, switched over to lures and ran SPs in the run at the mouth of the harbour.. with a Wrasse followed by two Bass one after the other. 
 
 

Good news the op went well Geoff , hope Joyce recovers really quickly

Hi Neil,thanks for your interest, She had the operation this morning - it only took about 20 minutes. Her tongue is sore, but paracetamol every 4 hours is helping that. It must have been a bit uncomfortable for  her as one person was pulling her tongue out as far as possible while the other went in with the lazer cutter. Joyce is milking it a bit today (I have to sort out the meals), but she is only eating soft food and drinking almost cold tea. I am very pleased and relieved to say that she is doing very well and the hospital said there is nothing to worry about. Geoff.
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i like woorking on my boat, tring to find the best way to do it ,finding out from thouse who know beter and having a go . looking at outher boats for idears which i can youse.
fishing is grate to .targeting fish and cathing dogys instead. all part of the fun. and then the best bit the fishing  boating comuty, helpfull, funny, serpotive,  and plenty of nolage to share

Geoff, I’m definitely a 50/50 man when it comes to boats. In the summer there is nothing better than day or weekend trips away on the boat with family and/or friends. If the opportunity for a dangle comes up I’ll take it, if not a pleasant cruise is just as nice. Just being on the boat is a whole new world . Ok so I’m called the marina queen and probably deservedly so in most instances, but only because I spend a lot of time in marinas. Not necessarily my home one though. We don’t really have the areas or type of boat that a weekend at anchor can be realistic. So visiting different ports and pubs is the way we go. If the weathers too bad to go out, then we spend all weekend at our home berth and fish from the pontoon or mess around on the tender. Or if it’s raining, just snuggle in the saloon and watch tv or read a book whilst the rain runs down the windows. 
Fishing with the lads is also a big part of my life too. Most of the boys only days are spent in the colder months, but an early summer start for tope etc is always on the cards ! 

These days i am very much a fine weather fisherman ....................no cabin for me, I don't go out if it looks like rain, or there is more than a 1m swell .............
Yes, push any boat hard enough, and they all slam, probably more so in RIB's because their sea keeping allows you to push them a lot harder ............ I have been airborne a few times in 1.5m sea's at 30knts, especially when you find a big  hole off the crest of a swell 🤣.................

Welcome to the miserable old gits club Jon, it is a big club with members world wide ! ..................  been there a few times, but after a little rest of never more than a month or two, the mojo comes back and you will be off out there again .................
These days I tend to stick with Wrecks and reefs, because the species are varied and it is interesting both from the sonar, navigational, and angling points of view ..............
All the wreck species are OK with me, apart from slimy snakes (Conger) which are the work of satin ............
 
 
 

Thanks from Joyce for support from forum members, and thanks also from me.  We just  hope that is the end of it now. I think that it is amazing how good modern laser surgery is, and that she was lucky to avoid any lockdown delays.  Geoff.

Hmm ............. sound like the Helm is made of something like nidaplast and glassed both sides .......... nidaplast here ....https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/category/nidaplast
 
Fixing is easy, but gel coating the surface is not so easy ........ depending on the size of the hole, put a backing board behind the helm, then put in a couple of layers of glass matt, then a piece of Nidaplast cut to the hole shape, then a layer or 2 of woven glass so it ends up about 1 - 2 mm below the surface ............. when dry, mix up some gel coat filler and fill the hole level, then cover with cling film to keep it level ............. then sand with 1000 - 2000 grit wet n dry and then polish .................
 
The last helm I fixed was full of holes. This was traditional glass coated ply .............. so I cut the holes into one big hole, glassed in a piece ply to fit and then covered the whole of the helm front panel with a piece of thick white perspex, glued on with PU adhesive, so I could then layout the helm the way I wanted .................
 
Edit : Wnter is not the best time for glassing, unless you can put some heat in the cabin  .................. ideally it needs to be 20C (ish)
 
 

Hi Neil,thanks for your interest, She had the operation this morning - it only took about 20 minutes. Her tongue is sore, but paracetamol every 4 hours is helping that. It must have been a bit uncomfortable for  her as one person was pulling her tongue out as far as possible while the other went in with the lazer cutter. Joyce is milking it a bit today (I have to sort out the meals), but she is only eating soft food and drinking almost cold tea. I am very pleased and relieved to say that she is doing very well and the hospital said there is nothing to worry about. Geoff.
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Hi Andy, I would guess that your boat is polyester resin and not epoxy. Best to repair with polyester (also less expensive). T would also guess that the core material you refer to is Nidapalst (possibly 15mm not12mm to give your 25mm build thickness). PM or phone me if you wish for more details and the best way to go about it. What size holes, access 1 or 2 sides etc. Geoff,

Very lucky, all things considered. Hope that's drawn a line under it for you both 👍

Thanks from Joyce for support from forum members, and thanks also from me.  We just  hope that is the end of it now. I think that it is amazing how good modern laser surgery is, and that she was lucky to avoid any lockdown delays.  Geoff.

Right now we have both yellowfin and bluefin tuna in acres sized schools just off our headland which have been there for two weeks. These fish are from little 30kg fish up to around 70kg specimens and readily taking stick baits on light spin outfits.
So here's the thing, I simply can't be bothered to get the boat out and chase them. My daughter is pretty much hitting them everyday on the charter boat and then heading out with the same boat after the paying customers have finished their trips. Yesterday she did battle on a solid yellow fin for 2.30mins and is back out again today.
I simply can't drum up the enthusiasm and feel I've been there and done this to many times before that it no longer interests me, to the point I'm considering selling up the boat and gear. Ive felt this way for quite sometime thinking it might pass but it hasn't. It's funny that when you don't have much in the way of opportunitys on offer you think how great it would be to have them but when you have them how many times can you realistically keep doing it untill you become over it all.
First to fade for me was sharking, where in the UK I was obsessed, to the point it led me to living where I live now. After a couple of years of catching so many variety's of shark both beach and boat I soon dreaded hooking them. This has now transferred over to most species.
I do enjoy driving boats still, especially when conditions rough up but simply driving around soon becomes boring. I know some people might think this feeling of being over catching fish might be odd but consider every trip you caught dogfish or pout, you might soon feel over them, this is how I feel. Ive been fishing for 51 years, some of which has been comercial in a variety of styles. I also drive a few dive charter boats which has tottaly lost its fun aspects for me, especially when people get stung by jellyfish or seasick etc. Being a member of a marine rescue group sounds like am adventure but in realality it's towing boats home that have run out of fuel or a mechanical issue 99% of the time. The rediculous amounts of training and government red tape involved in rescue groups takes away any fun from being a member these days, which I'm also wanting to get away from now.
Anyway, there's my whinge to prove I'm still a Pom, heading out into remote wilderness with the dog now while the tuna are going off their heads out the front!!!!!!

Like many others after seeing the weather for Wednesday and the lockdown coming I thought a short notice trip was in order. A quick call to Glen of Valkyrie charters resulted in a booking with Zac so a few phone calls later I had another 5 to fill the boat.
We started off on the bass but that was slow with just 1 to me. Hook down for the slack and it was fish from the off with blondes to 22lb, conger to 35 ish, Huss and spurs to double figures and a few whiting. Once the tide picked up it was back on the drift with just 1 more bass to me again around 6lb. There was also a Thornback hooked on an evolution eel in 2.8 knots of tide!!!
Great day in fab weather and just what I needed 

So today was the day that I was finally able to get my first mate (Leo) down to the boat for a shake down trip after the fitting of the refurbished turbo. What with work and poor weather chances just didn’t crop up. 
But today the stars aligned.

Quick check of the engine bay to make sure the turbo was still connected and not in the bilge, and we were off.


So the engine ran well, no worse than before. Pick up and throttle response seemed a tad quicker. Overall top speed was still lacking 4 knots and revs still down by 150. I’m putting this down to a dirty bum and possibly a dirty propeller?
I think the extra weight of 3 additional batteries doesn’t help much. Still waiting for Andy to help me fit them. 
 
I did however notice an oily patch on my new air filter cover that seems to spray from a breather pipe. Any ideas why this would be ? Plenty of oil still in the engine. 

 
One last shot of the engine bay, just because I took it. 

 
overall I’m happy that the boat still runs as it did, with the bonus of no exhaust smoke in the engine bay. 

Great to hear 👍

Excellent news Geoff! 👍🏻

Hi Neil,thanks for your interest, She had the operation this morning - it only took about 20 minutes. Her tongue is sore, but paracetamol every 4 hours is helping that. It must have been a bit uncomfortable for  her as one person was pulling her tongue out as far as possible while the other went in with the lazer cutter. Joyce is milking it a bit today (I have to sort out the meals), but she is only eating soft food and drinking almost cold tea. I am very pleased and relieved to say that she is doing very well and the hospital said there is nothing to worry about. Geoff.
I

Hi Neil,thanks for your interest, She had the operation this morning - it only took about 20 minutes. Her tongue is sore, but paracetamol every 4 hours is helping that. It must have been a bit uncomfortable for  her as one person was pulling her tongue out as far as possible while the other went in with the lazer cutter. Joyce is milking it a bit today (I have to sort out the meals), but she is only eating soft food and drinking almost cold tea. I am very pleased and relieved to say that she is doing very well and the hospital said there is nothing to worry about. Geoff.
I

Andy, epoxy is several times more expensive than polyester and there is no real advantage in using it if the rest of the boat is polyester! As you have already bought it, make sure that  you use powder bound chopped strand FG and not emulsion bound. If using woven cloth that is fine, but not so easy to get a good finish. I assume that you are not looking for a gelcoat finish as you are not bothered about colour match so I would guess you intend to cover any repairs with new kit. To keep your build thickness the same you could use a core of anything really - plywood, foam (not polystrene) etc. The best way to make an invisible repair would be to make the hole a bit larger from the inside, chamfer the front from the inside FG and also chamfer the internal skin, to allow nice strong and flat joints. Lay a shiny piece of melamine (well waxed to prevent adhesion) to cover the outside of the hole and tape it tightly to the dash. Apply gelcoat to the back of that melamine and wait until nearly dry then apply a second gelcoat and lay up with your mat and resin . You could at this stage apply core material and inner layers of mat or do that later. All cured FG should be well abraided in the joining areas to ensure good adhesion. The mat should be applied with each layer slightly bigger than the previous layer to get it fairly flat. Sorry if that sounds like I have been rambling on and a bit boring, but that is why I suggested a PM etc. Good luck with your repair. Geoff.

I'm afraid I've had enough of the slamming in RIBs, burying them in waves, and getting airborne in the dark.  Long patrols on a fast RIB totally f....d my lower legs and knees, blood clots and all!  They're great for seakeeping and stupid fast work in calm water, but those days are behind me.  We really need a cabin here, just to get out of the weather and keep away from the inevitable 'wave over the bow'