Marine Chandlery

Organ donation?

Storrar — Fri, 18 May 2012 09:27:15 +0000

The organ at Heavenfield church, on the Roman Wall above Chollerford, was broken. As there is no electricity, you have to pedal this one. Shortly before the Easter service I found one pedal did not work. The reason? - a broken webbing strap connecting the pedal to the bellows.

Well, Storrar sell webbing strap, so, armed with some bright red strap from Storrar, a friend and I went and put in a splice over the original break.

And so the Easter service was able to proceed. All it required was the organist to pedal hard enough.

John Powell

Congratulations to Darren Crowe, RNLI Helmsman of St Abbs

Storrar — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:31:29 +0000

Darren was awarded a Bronze medal for swimming into a cave to rescue a trapped angler.

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN (and it did)

Storrar — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:48:13 +0000

Andy our e commerce manager got a call yesterday, “have you a 6m² Storm-Bag in stock? I need one urgently for my preparation for the Jester Challenge.”

‘How urgent is urgent?’ Andy asked.

“Yesterday would be nice” came the reply “Need it down in Falmouth ASAP.”

It just happened that we had the correct size of Storm-Bag in stock which a customer had ordered late February, had not paid for nor collected. Corporate decision was made, we would send this one out overnight & get a replacement in.

Today we got a call from our guy who had ordered the bag in Feb “Back across in the North East – can I collect my Storm-Bag & by the way the other items I need to collect are some West Epoxy, Epifanes enamel & have you a tin of Watertite?”

Chris was remarkably cool about the whole thing, serves me right, get me another, no hurry!

Barton’s Boom Strut

Storrar — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:36:57 +0000

Just finished fitting a Barton Boom Strut to a customers yacht, its the first one we as a company had fitted (even though they have been selling well thru our website). Easy to fit, no need to get a ‘professional ‘ to do it unless like this customer there was a lack of time! Instructions are clear, tools required are minimal. This particular strut was fitted on a boat that is used only for cruising, however if I was racer I would seriously consider fitting one, use in conjunction with say a Harken cascade kicker or similar, the lack of friction from their excellent ball bearing blocks gives you almost fingertip control & the big advantage…. in light airs due to supporting the weight of the boom it makes it easier to open the leech of the mainsail.

Speaking of Harken, the Team Mclube ball bearing conditioner that they market is excellent for giving your ball bearing blocks, traveller or Harken cleats a spring tune up!

Millenium Bridge Port of Tyne Navigation Notice

Storrar — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:28:34 +0000

Overhead clearance and channel depth is available across the central 30m (centre 1/3rd) of the
bridge opening, up to and under the red & green side navigation lights. All but the largest vessels
should therefore aim to pass under the bridge at these points, in this way vessels passing in
opposite directions should be well clear of each other. When approaching the bridge:-
1. If possible maintain a listening watch on Marine VHF Channel 12
2. If you don’t need the bridge to tilt (to have sufficient clearance) you may pass at any time.
3. If you require the bridge open to have the required overhead clearance you should;
a. When waiting for the bridge to open, remain a safe distance from the bridge on the
correct (starboard side) of the channel.
b. Not proceed until the bridge has swung, is completely open, and the indicator lights
have changed from red to green.
c. Vessels proceeding in the same direction should do so in single file.
d. When the bridge is open you should proceed promptly, but carefully, through the
bridge opening, maintaining the starboard side* of the channel*
*International Collision Regulations – Rule 9 – Narrow channels (Port Byelaw 13 also refers)
“A vessel proceeding along the course of a narrow channel or fairway shall keep as near to the outer
limit of the channel or fairway which lies on her starboard side as is safe and practicable”.

Further bridge details including lights & clearances are available on our website www.portoftyne.co.uk
Mike Nicholson
Harbour Master

We don’t work Sundays!

Storrar — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:25:13 +0000

Yes, Sunday is a day of rest, or so it should be, but in the marine trade it rarely is (especially at the start of the season). Anyway even though the chandlery is closed, if the phone rings we pick it up. So there we were Sunday the 13th, catching up on paperwork, emails, invoicing etc., when we get a call, “stuck at the Newcastle Quayside with a fuel problem, can you supply us today with replacement Volvo fuel filter 861477, plus a primary filter?”
Andy, never one to turn a distressed damsel down, said yes no problem, pop thru & we will see if we can help. The Volvo filter we had in stock but the primary filter was a universal automotive one so we sent her off to a car accessory shop. We also suggested that she buy (on special offer at the moment) some Grotamar 82, give the fuel a shock treatment & then carry on using it as a preventative. Diesel fuel these days contains a bio diesel element & Grotamar was reformulated to take this into account.
To get the filter cartridge off we always use a Boa constrictor strap wrench, however if you haven’t got one of those on board another innovative product from those clever guys at Wacky Practicals the Easi- Twist jar opener would do the trick. In our haste to get back to our desks we forgot to check if she had either on board!

Ps suggest you ditch the pint glass!

Hell of a knock down, mast must have touched the sea.

Storrar — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:15:35 +0000

Why is it every time I have gone to Hartlepool in the last few weeks it chucks it down (this time add some hail) & of course the wind speed increases dramatically whenever I want to climb a mast? Had a customer ring up & ask us to look at his deck flood & steaming light, neither were working, asked him to see if he could send an image of the complete assembly so we could identify & thus bring the correct bulbs down.

Having said that because both were off, to me it sounded like a earth issue, Tri with anchor & a deck flood/steaming using a common earth wire & two positive, so it was possibly a deck fitting/cable issue. When I received the digital image of his light it looked to me as though there was some milky liquid in the lens unit of the flood light.

Anyway to cut a long story short, when we climbed the mast opened up the deck floodlight part & at least 1/2 a pint of white liquid cascaded out, one cream-crackered unit! The replacement unit we fitted was an Aquasignal series 25, at the same time we replaced the existing three core cable with a marine grade tinned cable as the existing cable had turned black & become brittle (methinks it was standard automotive cable) To take the new cable thru the deck we used one of the Scanstrut deck seals.

Second Wednesday night race.

Storrar — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:20:28 +0000

Well we made the start line with two minutes to spare last night, learning curve for launching the Melges is still very steep, crane handling a lot better but still room for improvement, don’t think we will risk putting the Tacktick masthead transducer on yet for fear of wiping it out!

We must have made an impression last Wed night (even thought we didn’t get to start line till the race was over half way through!) as when we got down to the club last night one of the crew from another Melges who was going to be racing was polishing the bottom of their boat. I was not too upset when I realised he was using a bottle of Harken’s Team Mclube Hullkote purchased from our chandlery.

As for the race, we were not last, however neither did we win, practise makes perfect & our kite hoists & drops certainly need working on.

Fish ‘n chips

Storrar — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:40:00 +0000

After the poor fish & chips at the harbour chippie in Mallaig (mind you the kippers Jenny & I had for breakfast Monday morning in our bed & breakfast were superb) I was delighted to be asked to go up North, East Coast this time next Monday afternoon to Amble & check out a rig for one of our regular customers who is Caribbean bound later this year. Reason being, the chippie on the corner does the most fabulous fish & chips! Will be taking a Loos rig gauge & of course some Lanocote in case there is some adjustments to be made to the ‘bottle screws’ or turnbuckles that a lot of younger guys now call them. Oops must not forget the pattern for the bimini we must make!

Mr Angry

Storrar — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:28:38 +0000

Was down in the local boatyard last night & was ‘accosted’ by Mr Angry, not a regular customer I hasten to add.

‘Antifouled my boat on the bank holiday Monday & had just finished when the rain came down, cannot get the masking tape off now, bloody disaster.”

Saw that he was using ‘ordinary’ masking tape not the Scotch 14 day tape that we always recommend to our customers, suggested next time he antifouled he use this product & yes it is a bit more expensive than the standard however it’s well worth it. Suggested to him that he used the 3M Scotch-Weld citrus based cleaner to remove the mess!

Incidentally its brilliant for removing traces of Gaffer Tape! However a word of warning, always test for suitability on all surfaces before full use, it can be used on most painted/unpainted surfaces & many plastics but test first!