Nearly Empty

Nearly every boat is gone. Only a few weeks until dredging work begins.

posted from Bloggeroid

In which we do our best Jacob Marley

Along with several other boat owners, we chose today to rescue our mooring lines from the forthcoming dredging work. The sight of men draped in chains walking through the mud was memorable.

More memorable still was eldest daughter getting firmly stuck in the mud for a good 15 minutes. Once self-rescue was ruled out, I had to go in after her. Got her out without losing a Welly. Good job, or my name would have been...mud!

I took my chains home but TBH I think they were hardly worth saving. Anyone fancy joining in on a bulk purchase for the spring?

posted from Bloggeroid

Summer Trip 2012 Stage 1

Well this year's summer trip looks like it will be in stages.

Here is stage one, Belcroute to Gorey:

Wind was ENE F3, and we sailed the whole way apart from through the Brett passage. Only one tack, just past Canger Rock buoy. Sun shone, boat and crew happy, 100% success on passage plan!

We caught 9 mackerel just north of the Brett beacon.

Stage 2 is very exciting...

"Nice Piece in the Paper"

If I had a pound for everyone that had said that to me in the last two weeks, I'd have enough money for a bacon butty and a cup of tea.

 

Thanks to Gill Kay at the Jersey Evening Post for the article and if any other Jersey boat owners out there would like a similar write up, please contact her at the JEP.

Mercury 2.5hp 2 Stroke Impeller Replacement - Or Is it?

Well, this was meant to be about replacing the faulty impeller on my Mercury 2.5hp two stroke.

I found where it was located via the excellent boats.net website:

Before Removal

Getting some help

There certainly wasn't any water coming out of what I thought was the drain pipe. I duly purchased a new impeller from Gallichan Marine in St Aubin for around £15. However, when I finally got round to having a look at the engine, guess what...impeller was in perfect condition:

So, it must be a blockage in the tube somewhere. I wasn't sure exactly where the water was meant to come out until I found this video which clearly shows the drain pipe draining, unlike mine:



 I tried squirting water up from the bottom with a syringe and from the top down the drain pipe and it was VERY blocked. However, a few minutes poking around with the end of a safety pin seemed to do the trick:

Then it was time to try the engine out..

No..Properly!

I wish that were the end of the story, however on leaving above beautiful secret beach I managed to bump the prop on the bottom and bust the shear pin. "Not a problem", I thought, "there's spares under the cowling." Mercury ain't Honda. So it was a very long, slow row back, against wind and tide. 

I've since ordered 5 shear pins and 2 splits for £12 from ebay (genuine Mercury), which WILL live under the cowling!

Mystery Seawych

I found this lying on Bonne Nuit Beach...

A 'wych with no name.

Is a new Jersey Seawych or just moved from somewhere else?

Carburettor Issues #2 - This time its Terminal

Or how to save nearly £100 on a £200 part.

The reason there haven't been many posts for a while is that the boat has been laid up due to engine failure, or more specifically, carburettor failure. After years of poor low rev performance and cutting out, I decided to take the carb in to Fox Marine for an ultrasonic clean.

On collection, I received a bag containing my carb in bits, as the housing for the main jet had split as they tried to remove it. It is important to note that this was NOT their fault, as I had been a bit ham-fisted on previous occasions of removing it. I needed a new carb :-(

After a fruitless search on Ebay for either a secondhand engine or carb, I decided to bite the bullet and get a new carb. I asked Fox Marine for a quote...5 times. By phone, voicemail and email. How hard can it be? The lack or response WAS their fault and inexplicable, given that they knew I needed one and these parts cost nearly £200. All I can say is that business must be booming for them.

An internet search to my favourite online UK Honda supplier, Lings showed that the part was going to cost around £170 including shipping.

Then I discovered http://www.boats.net/ who could supply and ship from the US for $123. That's less than £100! Can anbody explain this. Lings couldn't. Honda UK couldn't.

 Reader, I bought it.

Battleship Grey

Given that it was the only day I had in the whole Easter holidays on which I could do anything with the boat, I was not excited by the forecast.

As you can see from the pics, its best to ignore the forecast and carry on as planned.

With the tide too low to get onto the drying pad (a non-starter in any case as the two boats on it remained on it despite having booked it for Kamala) I had to come up with another plan. Thanks to a tip off from Martin (Vitesse) I knew I had a chance of getting onto the tiny concrete pad next to the blocks on the North Arm.

I was doing this at about 6am with a borrowed 2.5hp and no rudder. (The rudder was at home for a re-profile and re-varnish and my Honda 5hp has died. That's another story for another day.)

The boat slowly dropped with the tide and I stood on the blocks to ease into the right place as it hit the bottom. While the tide continued to fall I began painting the topsides. You can see the grey line round the top.

I returned later on to commence the annual anti-foul job and found the sand bank being removed at harbour entrance. Bottom painting wasn't as foul a job as expected due to the hard work put in last year to remove all the old bottom paint.

Then to add the final touch - a coat of Crown grey undercoat, leftover from a job at home. Why?
a) because it was cheap and all I had
b) because the old paint work was in a such a poor state that even grey undercoat is an improvement
c) because in September I will get a free lift out to the boat park and have her blasted back to gel coat to do the job properly.

So there she is in a her new colours. Everyone seemed to know 'the little red boat opposite the Tenby' but now she's less distinctive. Until September.

PS I did go for a sneaky sail as I put her back on the mooring, just don't tell the wife.

Seawych for Sale (Not mine!!)

https://www.jerseyinsight.com/Classifieds/Vehicles/Boats/19ft-sailing-boat/

Sounds like it could be a bargain for someone!!

Oars

Painting the oars with some yacht enamel I picked up for 50p from a boat jumble. Must be at least 10 years old. Very 70s colour.

posted from Bloggeroid

Spot the Seawych #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-u6JWaRPgE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

An occasional game. This YouTube video from Mr Keep Turning Left, Dylan Winter, features a Seawych 19 somewhere in the footage. Can you spot it?

Dylan Winter is travelling the coast of Britain in a 19 foot sailing boat. (Sadly, the wrong 19 foot sailing boat, a Mirror Offshore). As a former BBC cameraman he is making short videos along the way and these are excellent. Look for keepturningleft.co.uk on the web.

posted from Bloggeroid

Windy Wendy says 54kt gusts.

Just went into the garden with the dog and got blown all over the place. St Helier pierheads is saying 33kts gusting to 54kts (62mph / F10). I think this is the highest I can remember hearing in the last few years. Anyone heard a higher value from Windy Wendy in the past?

posted from Bloggeroid

Harbours Response to the Muddy Protest

Further to the Muddy Protest by Roy Deeming at the weekend in relation to the mud build up in St Aubin's Harbour, Myra Shacklady, the Commercial Operations Director at Jersey Ports, was interviewed on Radio Jersey this morning.

CLICK HERE to listen to her comments. (about 5 minutes long)

Apologies for the poor sound quality at times.

Prior to that Roger read out an email from Bob Thompson praising the work harbours have done in association with SOBOA.

Listen to that HERE (50s long).

If anyone reads this blog, please feel free to add your views to the comments below.

A Muddy Protest

Looking at the minutes from previous SABAO (St Aubins Boat Owners Association) AGM's and monthly meetings of SABOA committee with Harbours (see below), you have to say say Roy Deeming has a point about dredging. While blocking vessels entering a dried out harbour is unlikely to raise many hackles it did get the issue aired in all the local news outlets. Thanks Roy.

In the interests of fairness I would add my own view that, aside from this one issue, harbours are doing a good job generally in St Aubins.

BBC Radio Jersey Interview with Roy: Click Here

JEP Article: http://www.thisisjersey.com/news/2011/12/30/boat-owner-plans-new-year-st-aubins-harbour-protest/



Channel TV Article Online: http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_jerseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=497652

Extracts from minutes regarding Dredging....

Feb 2009:


"•  The Harbours Office was looking to purchase a small barge for the purpose of dredging. None has
yet been found and therefore it was likely that contractors would be used in 2010 for this operation"


March 2010:

"Dredging - The exact method that the Harbour’s Office intends to use, has not yet been decided. SABOA has no reason to believe that it will not happen some time around summer this year"

Feb 2011:


"Dredging – Jersey Harbours were already preparing for the dredging of the harbour by applying
for permission to dump all the spoil three miles out to sea. Although unconfirmed, it was expected
to take place towards the end of the summer once all other works had been completed. Jersey
Harbours had said that any vessels that were expected to move, would go to La Colette Marina
which itself was due to be heavily reconfigured at some point this year. Again, the timing of this
is not confirmed yet. It will get done, it was just a question of when"


Sept 2011:

"Dredging-PLN confirmed that dredging will go ahead this winter, probably around Christmas time andthe letters asking for tenders are going out around now. More detailed information on how it
is being done and when & where boats have to be moved to will be given once the tender has
been accepted. The sand may be dumped above the ground-chain near the Bulwarks to make
a firmer base for the boats along the wall.
Ways of altering the flow of water through and round the harbour are being actively looked
into by experts from Arups, who are in favour of moving the groyne to the end of the North
Quay instead."

Present:

Jersey Harbours are now saying September 2012.