June 2013

  Harping on as I always do about casting your eyes around the boat we had a customer in the other day complaining about some stains on his genoa, after he describing them (see piccy) I said to him, ‘sounds like you have a joint problem’ In other words the connectors between each of your headsail roller reefing foils are...

In The Pink- Anodes : Cathodic Protection Against Corrosion 'In the pink', an expression often used to describe a child/person in the best possible health. As for this propeller I think not! Yes, it's pink however it is clearly not in the best of health. It's sometimes a case of 'Fit 'n' Forget' when it comes to anodes however the consequences...

The other day we had a skipper ask us to look at his ground tackle with a view to modifying it to suit his windlass. Apart from the shackle being in a poor condition the rope he had in his chain-locker was multiplait. Both Quick and Lewmar state only three strand rope be used on windlasses NOT multiplait. Join the chain...

With the cruising season well into its swing if  you haven’t already done so, now is the time to check out your man overboard equipment. Is the light on your danbuoy working, new bulb/batteries, does the buoyant rope need replacing, is the drogue suffering from UV degradation? What about the throwing line or throwing strop still in  good condition, have you...

A good customer of ours was caught out in a blow last year and feels that his T terminal backing plate (as pictured above) may have failed then. His comment last Saturday was, 'Now I wish I had the mast taken down this last winter instead of leaving it up'  Why? In the worst case the rig could be lost...