Category: Sailing in General
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Rudders, Tillers and Self-Steering Gear – Part Three
9th February 2023 Servo Pendulum and other Self-Steering Gear I suppose it must have been the 1995 Earls Court London Boat Show when I bought my Windpilot Self-Steering gear. Those were the days when you could browse amongst the various suppliers and compare and contrast, before getting completely slaughtered at the Guinness stand. Did you…
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Rudders, Tillers and Self-Steering Gear – Part Two
7th February 2023 Trim Tab Self-Steering Last week I had intended to just post a short piece about the repair I have just made to my rudder hangings. Then I got a bit carried away and went on (and on) about rudders in general. That spurred Bruce Morley to drop me a line about his…
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Rudders, Tillers and Self-Steering Gear – Part One
2nd February 2023 Reading Time 10 Minutes Rudders and Tillers in general My Rudder Repair I have always regarded Sumara’s rudder as being pretty bullet-proof. It pivots on a strong bronze fitting with a 3/4″ pintle at its base. It has two sets of heavy bronze castings with a long 3/4″ bronze bolt linking them…
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South Dock Marina Berths Now 100% Residential
26th January 2023 Yesterday I attended a Southwark Council Planning meeting so that I could make use of a three minute slot to voice my objection to the following proposal: TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1990 (AS AMENDED)Town And Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 (as Amended)Our Reference: 22/AP/3036Site address: South Dock Marina…
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A West Country Jaunt – South West Coast Path Mylor Harbour to The Lizard
21st October – 31st October 2022 We took our campervan down to Cornwall. Originally, we were just planing to visit Jo, Sim and Lotte who are currently living on their boat in Mylor. We hadn’t seen them for a while, so we were keen to catch up with their news. Their boat had been hauled…
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And now long trick is finally over
Day 83 Scoresby Sund Expedition Rotherhithe, London Last Thursday we collected our Parson Russell Terrier from the Dog Sitters. My fear that Tilman would no longer recognise me was soon dispelled! It was so nice to see him again. I now can officially declare the failed Scoresby Sund Expedition is over. It is the first…
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It’s not just the boat you need to look after…..
30th May 2022 – Rotherhithe 11 days before the Scoresby Sund Expedition starts ..and I’m not even talking about the crew, what about ME! I often spot sailors lying under their yachts dry-sanding their antifouling without wearing a mask. Many of them are on tight schedules and work seven days a week and sometimes well…
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I’ve been sorting through Sumara’s Tools
25th May 2022 – Rotherhithe 17 days to go before the Scoresby Sund Expedition starts In the past I have used a round canvas ditty bag to hold my splicing and rigging gear, plus a Kuny tool bag for all my other tools, but it was always a struggle to stow both of them into…
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The Wooden Boat Gathering on Lake Windermere
7th and 8th May 2022 – Lake Windermere The journey from my boat in Oban to London is rather long and tedious so I often take a break halfway. It just happened that I had finished working on the boat a few days early and there was a “Wooden Boat Gathering” taking place over the…
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Down Below on a Vertue Yacht
11th May 2022 – Rotherhithe 32 days to go before the Scoresby Sund Expedition starts I often have people asking me what it is like sailing on such a small yacht. They are intrigued how everything fits in. Yachts seem to have grown in size a bit like cars, just look at the original Mini…