Saturday, 26 March 2016
Thursday, 24 March 2016
Calor gas prices - piracy on the high street ?
One of the two Calor bottles on Annabella is empty.
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I called in at out "local" camping and caravan store last night to pick up a refill and just before the assistant rang it through asked the price. Wow - nearly £40! Yes, looked again and checked - not a mistake!
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Well, I remember the same refill last year as around £20, so we didn't do that, Price checked the alternative store this morning - the same refill is half the price - and we will be shopping there obviously.
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I know this isn't a very salty post, but I do think it's wrong. Many people will be unfortunate enough to be taking their family caravaning this holiday weekend, and to compound their woes someone will slip through double price gas hidden in a long list of other stuff. If they do notice they may well be too disillusioned to question it. It's exploitative and unfair. :-(
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For reasons of good taste I can't be bothered to illustrate this post with a picture of a gas canister...
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I called in at out "local" camping and caravan store last night to pick up a refill and just before the assistant rang it through asked the price. Wow - nearly £40! Yes, looked again and checked - not a mistake!
*
Well, I remember the same refill last year as around £20, so we didn't do that, Price checked the alternative store this morning - the same refill is half the price - and we will be shopping there obviously.
*
I know this isn't a very salty post, but I do think it's wrong. Many people will be unfortunate enough to be taking their family caravaning this holiday weekend, and to compound their woes someone will slip through double price gas hidden in a long list of other stuff. If they do notice they may well be too disillusioned to question it. It's exploitative and unfair. :-(
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For reasons of good taste I can't be bothered to illustrate this post with a picture of a gas canister...
Monday, 21 March 2016
How effective is epoxy/copper type antifoul ?
So we're just about ready to go back in the water and one of the last jobs to do is to refresh the copper anti-foul.
In the normal run of things I wouldn't have thought of using copper anti-foul but it came with the boat for various reasons when we bought her, so we have stuck with it.
Generally it has performed very well. On our piled mooring in Pwllheli the river dumps a generous amount of peaty nutrition from the mountains and then the sea washes benthos passed four times each day.- our neighbour on the mooring - who uses 'traditional' self-eroding anti-foul - moans loudly about the amount of fouling he acquires over the season. If I can I am at the annual haul out and each year so far there has been only a light beard of weed in the first 4 inches, and the remainder has been more or less clear - obviously they are all eating next door ! I wonder too if it is a bit more sustainable - relatively little of the copper seems to go compared to 'traditional' self eroding anti-foul paint and I am assuming that the principle is that it is an unpleasant platform to cling to, so discourages the little fellas, who move on. To the next boat, obviously.
There is some up keep. Each year there are some small flowers of rust grinning through from the cast substrate of the steel keel. Generally I have ground these back to shiny metal with a semi-rigid disc in an angle grinder, but this year tried an abrasive mop in a drill - which was rather less scary / dangerous. This was a good time to wear a good quality respirator - a lesson learnt the hard way from the 1st year, when I felt quite unwell for a couple of days after...
To reinstate we use a patching kit from the manufacturers which is about £50 and always arrives very promptly. The materials has to be carefully batched out for the 4 coats required and again, it is important to wear gloves and keep one's fingers out of one's mouth or away from food and drink. Application is by a mini-roller and, I always think, one of the hardest jobs of the re-commissiong process as it involves either stooping uncomfortably low or kneeling on the shingle in the yard. There has always - so far - been just enough mix to get around.
Annabella will be in the water again soon and we'll be using underwater imaging to check on the level of fouling throughout the year.
In the normal run of things I wouldn't have thought of using copper anti-foul but it came with the boat for various reasons when we bought her, so we have stuck with it.
Generally it has performed very well. On our piled mooring in Pwllheli the river dumps a generous amount of peaty nutrition from the mountains and then the sea washes benthos passed four times each day.- our neighbour on the mooring - who uses 'traditional' self-eroding anti-foul - moans loudly about the amount of fouling he acquires over the season. If I can I am at the annual haul out and each year so far there has been only a light beard of weed in the first 4 inches, and the remainder has been more or less clear - obviously they are all eating next door ! I wonder too if it is a bit more sustainable - relatively little of the copper seems to go compared to 'traditional' self eroding anti-foul paint and I am assuming that the principle is that it is an unpleasant platform to cling to, so discourages the little fellas, who move on. To the next boat, obviously.
There is some up keep. Each year there are some small flowers of rust grinning through from the cast substrate of the steel keel. Generally I have ground these back to shiny metal with a semi-rigid disc in an angle grinder, but this year tried an abrasive mop in a drill - which was rather less scary / dangerous. This was a good time to wear a good quality respirator - a lesson learnt the hard way from the 1st year, when I felt quite unwell for a couple of days after...
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| Annual patching to the copper antifoul - the new is showing pink against the background of the green existing coating |
To reinstate we use a patching kit from the manufacturers which is about £50 and always arrives very promptly. The materials has to be carefully batched out for the 4 coats required and again, it is important to wear gloves and keep one's fingers out of one's mouth or away from food and drink. Application is by a mini-roller and, I always think, one of the hardest jobs of the re-commissiong process as it involves either stooping uncomfortably low or kneeling on the shingle in the yard. There has always - so far - been just enough mix to get around.
Annabella will be in the water again soon and we'll be using underwater imaging to check on the level of fouling throughout the year.
Thursday, 4 February 2016
Keep microbeads out of the ocean
If you're angry about the ubiquitous and utterly useless microbeads that are flowing into our oceans you may like to sign the petition organised by the campaigning organisation Greenpeace at
https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/ban-microbeads?source=fp&subsource=fp33secsmicrobeadsvid1
Why not sign up ?
https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/ban-microbeads?source=fp&subsource=fp33secsmicrobeadsvid1
Why not sign up ?
Thursday, 21 January 2016
Discarded plastics in the ocean...
I was struck a recent greenpeace post,
http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/20/more-plastic-than-fish-in-ocean/
on the subject of plastics trash in the ocean.
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I couldn't help thinking that at time when charter prices for bulk carriers are at an all time low and many of them are just swinging on their anchor rodes, could they not just...
http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/20/more-plastic-than-fish-in-ocean/
on the subject of plastics trash in the ocean.
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I couldn't help thinking that at time when charter prices for bulk carriers are at an all time low and many of them are just swinging on their anchor rodes, could they not just...
Sunday, 10 January 2016
New venture in to making purpose made GRP parts for Annabella
The weather is seasonably bitter and the days short, so there's little daylight to do much aboard Annabella. Even if I did, it's so cold that things break easily and screwdrivers fly off the screw heads and into adjacent bits of boat or boater. So I've stayed at home and concentrated on finishing a project which started last year:
At the start of last season we moved the engine control panel away from its position below the binnacle - where it was vulnerable to the seaboots of clumsy helmsmen / women - to the port side cockpit pocket. This all worked brilliantly and had the advantage one the rev counter was actually in view, but left a hole in its old position, which was temporarily covered by 4mm tufnol sheet cut to size - looking okay but just a bit ramschackle.
So for the last few months I've been working on replacing this , and some other parts, with GRP (fiberglass) parts made to fit, and the Christmas break gave me the time needed to build the moulds.
The cover plate for the engine panel was a good choice for the test piece, because it was fairly quick to make and if it all went wrong it would be easy and quick to try again. To cut a long story short, it was my first attempt at making - rather than repairing - a GRP part and I quite satisfied with the result, Now much more confident to go onto more complex parts!
Just to also add, there's lots of advice on the web or in books on the lamination process, but the best advice is always from those that have done it themselves. Many thanks and you know who you are...
Watch out this space for more parts coming soon!
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| The engine control panel is on the port side of the wheel |
At the start of last season we moved the engine control panel away from its position below the binnacle - where it was vulnerable to the seaboots of clumsy helmsmen / women - to the port side cockpit pocket. This all worked brilliantly and had the advantage one the rev counter was actually in view, but left a hole in its old position, which was temporarily covered by 4mm tufnol sheet cut to size - looking okay but just a bit ramschackle.
So for the last few months I've been working on replacing this , and some other parts, with GRP (fiberglass) parts made to fit, and the Christmas break gave me the time needed to build the moulds.
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| Mould on the left & part - with blue PVA film - on the right |
The cover plate for the engine panel was a good choice for the test piece, because it was fairly quick to make and if it all went wrong it would be easy and quick to try again. To cut a long story short, it was my first attempt at making - rather than repairing - a GRP part and I quite satisfied with the result, Now much more confident to go onto more complex parts!
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| The finished part - after being cleaned up |
Just to also add, there's lots of advice on the web or in books on the lamination process, but the best advice is always from those that have done it themselves. Many thanks and you know who you are...
Watch out this space for more parts coming soon!
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Underwater imaging
A short video clip, created this summer, at a point we were wondering if there was to much growing on the rudder. An instinctive responsive rather than being crafted - but how useful is this ! This winter I'm definitely making a boat hook adapter - sorry, a remote imaging subsurface probe.
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
Monday, 14 September 2015
The Pontoon Bar again....
You can see my boat from here:
Another super supper at the Pontoon Bar on Saturday.
Another super supper at the Pontoon Bar on Saturday.
Saturday, 12 September 2015
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