GPSguru

Yes they do, I got have got 3 of therm, and 2 of those I have found floating in the estuary !

Yes, I think a little more than 10 miles, closer to 12. I might be wrong, but IIRC the British record Conger came off the wreck, Vic Evans (RIP) skipper of Sea Spray caught it in 1995, 133lb It is a 15mile steam for me from Teignmouth On a decent day there are a group of 4 wrecks about another 5 miles out and all of those fish well. However, this area is known for its rougher than normal sea. I have been out there on my boat when the swell was 15 - 20ft, but a decent 10sec between swells. BTW, the Commerical Pollock ban has made a huge difference to our wreck fishing this year, long may it continue 👍

Maybe, the sort of places YOU visit 🙄 TBH, there is no clear answer as to why it is called the Meatboat This is the verbiage from Wrecksite "The name " meatboat " was acquired due to the fact there was a quantity of sheep carcases floating in the area after the sinking. La Blanca was a refrigerated ship lost in this area" However, I think it has been identified as the SS Styrn which was torpedoed in 1918, but that boat was known to be carrying only ballast,

Yes & no. RIB’ s have very little freeboard and you are always aware of that fact, however, the tubes are also very wide ( 500mm diameter). So, much wider than the average gunnel, so you tend to fall on them rather than over them. It is a fast boat, with a low freeboard, so the wearing of lifejackets is a given.

Yes, Neil, it is not so bad falling onto the tubes ! BTW you can have all of the above with a RedBay RIB, excellent sea keeping, highly regarded and made in Ireland, but you are talking £££££££££ With regard to the vid, I was using my new DJI Osmo Action 4, and TBH IMO it is streets ahead of the gopro. I was expecting to have to 'brighten up' any stills due to the position of the sun, but the actual video shot in 4k60 was fine, so I used it. I don't know about the Solent, but here we have been plagued with a short sea, and it has been like it for 3 months now, with swell patterns of 1.7 - 3 secs, which as you well know, is mighty uncomfortable, both for travelling at speed and drifting. But yes, it was a pleasant morning and worth taking the chance to get out 👍

Just a solo morning session and the weather liars were forecasting a good sea and wind conditions. Launched at 07:30 into a flat, calm sea, but that didn't last long 🙄 I had decided to go to a wreck, and then inshore for some Mackerel, and this was a 'food' trip, I had my instructions, Bass, Cod or Ling, and a Mack or two for the granddaughter. My lot are not keen on Pollock ! My destination wreck was the 'Meatboat' and I am pretty sure @Dickyasked about that wreck some time ago. It is in 190ft and about a 15mile steam. The flat sea was great, and nice to be cruising at 30kts, but once I got to about 6 miles out the NW wind picked up and was producing quite a significant swell with a short sea (1.8secs !). By the time I got to the wreck, I was down to 18kts and the wind was causing a lot of spray from the waves. Drifting the wreck was not easy as there were 2 crab pots on the outer edge of the wreck, but I found a drift line that worked. First drops on the wreck were with SPJ and that was producing a Pout on every drop, decent sized, but hey, they are still Pout. Last time I fished this wreck I remembered sidewinders were effective, so I went down with a Skerries eel, After a few plucks down on the wreck (pout) at 31 turns up I had a decent take and knew it would be a bass. Sure enough a bass it was, not huge but a keeper of 50cm (3lb or so). The next drop produced the same result, so I was happy with a bag limit of 2 keepers and decided that the washing machine sea was getting worse, so time to head inshore. The first 5 miles coming off the wreck I was down to 16 - 18kt into a NW very short head sea, luckily the RIB is a dry boat and I didn't take any waves over the bow. Once I got to the 6 mile from land, I picked up speed as the sea was much better being in the lee of the land. Next stop was the Orestone, where I struggled for Mack, but managed to find a decent whopper Mack in amongst the continual Scad and Gurnards. So, at 12:00 midday, with the shopping basket full, it was time to head in ready for the school run. Apart from the weather liars, it was good to be out there, with a trip distance of 38nm, 2 keeper bass, a decent Mack, plus a load of other dross like Pout (lost count), Scad, and small Grey Gurnard. We had the Bass for evening meal and the granddaughter munched on the mackerel (she doesn't like spiky) I had the DJI Action 4 camera on, so I could take off stills, but the cam is reasonable, so a little vid instead. I didn't bother with the Pout footage !

Hmm, the worst that can happen is that the main anchor pulls, and the boat will swing very quickly stern on to the tide, which is a bad situation to be in. The golden rule of small pleasure boats is never anchor or tether from the stern. I break this rule when using the alderney recovery as I sometimes pull from the A frame cleat ONCE the anchor has been broken free with the buoy by pulling from the bow, but I would never use an anchor off the stern in any tide flow.

When at sea, fixing an outboard issue is pretty limited, as hanging off the stern is not a wise move, and dropping stuff in the ogin is a given. My tool kit focuses mainly on the boat and electrics. My Mercury outboard is 5 years old this year, and main dealer serviced. Only twice has it given me cause for concern whilst at sea, the first time was a water over pressure alarm, but it had a healthy pee stream and the engine temp was correct, so I ignored it until I got back, and the issue was a faulty water pressure sensor. The second time was when I noticed the batteries were not charging, and we were down on the skerries banks. After, some quick mental arithmetic with regard to estimated current draw, and the actual indicated battery voltage (which tells you the state of charge capacity), I decided it would be 15 hours at least, before the batteries went flat, so I didn't even bother with battery management and we carried on as normal. On this occasion the alternator had given up and was replaced under warranty. Generally, the modern 4 stokes are pretty reliable, especially when compared to older 2 strokes and later 2 stroke injected engines.

If I break down, then it will be dropping the pick and waiting for the orange and blue tug to tow me in, and yes, I have already had the conversation with the local crew, and they are fine about it. I am rarely within the 3 mile zone, usually a minimum of 6 and often 30 -40 In the last 4 years, I have towed 9 boats back to Teignmouth, and most of these were unnecessary breakdowns, that is one of the drawbacks of AIS, the CG can see you and if you are close by, then you get a call via DSC followed by a voice call. I have only ever refused twice, both times I had kids on board. I think the most genuine I towed in was from a wreck 12 miles out and the guy's timing belt had snapped, that was a 25ft boat, but the RIB coped Ok. using a bridle from the A Frame to tow. I put him back on his mooring and the guy was insistent that he paid me, which I refused. To my pleasure, he found out where I lived and dropped off a crate of Red, which was appreciated, but unnecessary

Not quite, similar but not the same. Garmin kit sometimes fails to remember that a card is in place, and just needs a gentle reminder 😉

Assuming your plotter is one of the newer models, then just sync your active captain map tiles to the active captain card in the plotter. Mine occasionally loses relief shading (2 x 95SV Plus) and that is because Garmin plotters sometimes dont read the active captain card on boot up. Easy fix, just turn off the plotter, take out the card and then put it back in to reseat it, then turn the plotter back on and normal service is resumed.

It is useful when dropping the pick on a wreck, as you can see the orientation, but that info is also available from sources like wrecksite etc. I only use it on active captain for identifying new potential new ground.

It probably has the relief map layer turned off as it not a default setting. Trying to remember 🤔, I think it is the same as active captain, tap the layers icon on the top right of the screen and select relief shading

Actually, it is better to take a short viid of a fish and then extract a decent still from the footage.

Videostudio from corel does pretty much everything. Get the trial version, and they then may send you a good offer, but it is cheap anyway. This package has been around for years and was highly regarded before corel bought it. Also the free version of DaVinci from Black Magic is very good, but being a professional editor it is harder to use. I have gone away from GoPro as they are way too unreliable, with random turning off, overheating, and battery discharge issues. I now use a DJI Action 4 on the boat, and a cheap Wolfang for underwater stuff.

Joker lures is Matt Forrester, who skippers Silver Halo out of Torquay. Matt used to launch his worrier 175 from Polly Steps before he got his commercial ticket. Him and I have both been fishing SPJ since about 2016. If you ever get the chance, take a trip out to the wrecks with him, you will learn a lot. TBH spj with a mangle is not ideal, much better with a palm sized multi. I was hoping to get out tomorrow but it is a short sea, so mega uncomfortable, but I might get out Saturday.

Yes , you are correct, I guess it is because we only keep 45 - 50. 42 is about 2.75lb ish

45cm, 2 fish per day, and no keepers during February and March.

Is it a self aligning swing beam trailer (do the roller beams swing ?) and it probably only has 2 keel rollers toward the front of the trailer, and the roller sets on the beams support the weight of the boat You should be able to adjust the lateral position of the roller sets (usually 4 or 6 pairs), the rears should sit about half way along the dead rise. With a self aligning roller coaster trailer you can winch the boat on with the trailer wheels at the waters edge, but it is hard work, tough on the winch eye, and you need a good depth on the stern for when the bow rises. Generally I reverse in the water, so the water is about level/ just below the hubs. This works best for me and I launch and recover the 5.85m (19ft) RIbcraft solo (it weighs a little over 1T, 1.6T all up weight on the trailer). You can also sink the trailer and drive / float the boat on, but not easy to get right if you are in a tide flow. I would be surprised if the aux was the issue, as you are only talking probably less than 40kg (my tackle box weigh more than that) If it is a trailer with keel rollers and roller bunks, then the rollers sit 1/3 to 1/2 up the hull. The trailer should be in the water to at least hub depth, and the boat pulled onto the first keel roller using the painter, and then steady winch pressure applied. More care is needed with a bunked trailer as slipping off the keel rollers makes a mess of the gel coat 🙄

I use alderney, but with a RIB it is quite a bit more complex than a hard boat as pulling from the bow roller mounted on the bow tube has limited strength. That means I need the lightest anchor (3.75kg bruce) and then 8m of 6m chain to just counter balance the pick. Even then, we often pull from the stern A frame, as I have a load more buoyancy than a hard boat. So even simple is still not without its issues, just like gypsy. Yes octoplait would be better, but it is a huge amount more expensive than welding on a lump of stainless ! Also, the rag and stick brigade tend to anchor in shallow water, whereas I often anchor in 200ft and have 200m of 12mm 3 strand warp out. I would stick with what you have, and carefully refine the mod until you get it perfect.

Unfortunately we are away this weekend, but I might be able to fish the estuary, but a bit early for the bass, which is prolific in the autumn. However, might be able to get out Thursday morning on the boat, but limited the half a day (school run).

Thats why I thought it was a big sardine at first 👍

A decent weather window today, so I made the effort to go out, as due to the weather the boat hasn't moved for 3 months. A solo trip and launched at 07:00 into a very flat sea. First stop was a bunch of 3 wrecks off berry head which in the past were always netted, but in view of the pollock ban, I assumed correctly that the nets would be gone. Well, I was right, but there are a significant amount of crab pots on the wrecks. A couple of drifts on each produced nothing, so I headed inshore to the Orestone. several drifts on the Orestone produced a few Mackerel and one Herring. As I brought it up I couldn't decide between a large sardine or small herring, but with the dorsal fin well past the half way mark, it had the be a herring. Having had a good shakedown the boat is running well, and I came back in at lunchtime. So 27nm and rewarded with a few bait fish, so not too bad for mid April.

yes, right now I can understand that. The disco sport only has 36k on it, so the pump should never have failed. I think I will go back to Volvo once the disco is fixed, maybe a V60, as the V90 is way too big.