Gordmac

I believe a lot of antifouls aren't suitable for aluminium due to copper in them.

I suppose if you remember to shut the breather valve every time the engine is stopped you might be ok. I don't think I would risk it. Fuel tanks and gas lockers are externally vented for a reason.

My guess would be a bad earth. Remove and properly clean all the connections.

Your contract is with the supplier not the maker. If it is still under warranty it is the responsibility of the supplier to honour the warranty not the maker.

If it has started going slowly you may have a problem with poor connections rather than the winch itself being faulty. Worth cleaning the connections and measuring the voltage when it is working.

The old 6cyl Fords in my last boat didn't have plugs, there was a button on the Simms pump which fed more fuel I believe. Some other engines had one heater in the inlet to heat the incoming air.

I would ask if you are trying to treat the symptoms rather than the problem. If your engine isn't starting ok on one battery perhaps finding out why and sorting that is a better approach?

Seemed to me all the potential problems of an outdrive without the advantage of an inboard diesel! Is the air intake going to be far enough away from water in rough conditions?

Thanks, that was my thoughts. I had another look, both hose connections look dry and were tight. Couldn't see anything in particular but a small amount of oil below it after the engine was run.

Thanks, I was hoping someone else had done the legwork! I will have a look with the borescope, not easy to get eyes anywhere near it. Rubbing a finger round the hose connections makes me think they are ok. Concern is that it becomes a serious issue, ideally if it will last with a small leak until hibernation season and I can deal with it at my leisure, no steering at sea isn't appealing!

I will find out from Volvo if they do seals but I was looking to see if there was a non Volvo solution due to their excessive cost of everything! Hard to see and I don't want to go near it running but from where the fluid is looks like just behind the pulley.

Mine seems to have sprung a leak, anyone know if they can be overhauled or do I need to sell a kidney to pay Volvo for a new one?

The autopilot was misbehaving but I found a bad connection which helped, not that it is very good at steering! I need to mess about with the gain to try and improve it but I don't mind actually steering myself. I have done the compass calibration twice with no improvement. It is a bit of a pain as it is hard to go so slowly in a circle. The equipment is Raymarine. With the last boat I used my tablet if I was going anywhere, lining up the icon projection with where I wanted to go was handy for taking wind and tide into account. Would like to be able to do that with the Garmin device I have now.

Would alloy wheels last longer than steel ones?

That is all very well unless your electronic compass isn't spot on. Mine varies from accurate to about 20deg out depending on direction meaning the boat icon on the plotter often points a different direction to the one I am going in. I would much rather the icon direction was taken from the GPS direction which always agrees with the compass.

My boat club fees are £275 which includes mooring costs. We have to lay our own moorings which is an initial cost of roughly £1k, there will be replacement costs for bits but not often. I probably spent about £1k in fuel and did best part of 500nm.

I believe it is very expensive to park a boat in the deep South but I would say it is misleading to suggest fuel is only a very small part of the cost. If you find that is the case maybe you should use your boat more!

Fuel is one of my biggest costs, not a very small proportion!

The thing about hard antifoul is that it doesn't erode away, presumably at some point you need to take it all off and start again? Done that once, don't want to do it again! Sailors use it on race boats as they can polish it for every race, don't think that is an issue for a displacement fishing boat. Any eroding antifoul should be ok on displacement boats, for faster boats you need to check the maximum speed. Seajet claims 40kn but 25kn is more common.

Sorry about that! No great expert but outdrives seem to be used on relatively quick planing boats whereas shafts are on slower or semi displacement boats with lower power outputs. If you are looking at say about20kn cruise tops is an outdrive the best option? Outdrives are more efficient however so should give a bit more speed for a given power. What sort of power does a similar sized say Rodman have? Other thing to consider, is it a low deadrise boat? That would give more speed for a given power at the expense of slamming in a sea.

Something I remember from the YBW discussions, I don't do remember well though! Interesting boat, Rodman like but without the Rodman price. Is 260hp enough for a boat that size?

Lot of skate, 225lb a big fish!

Does that requirement not come in next year?

This would be the biggest, size 9 feet for comparison. A few close to that size. Was away a couple of times for trips on a friend's BT 35. Put a pot down in Port Ellen, Islay. We get prawns rather than lobster here. I don't like shellfish though.