Carrera makes radical decisions - Page 3

Hot diggety dog! You are in the wrong place. I currently have boats coming out my ying-yang, and it costs me about USD$ 300 / year in rego's and mooring fees. Why don't you sell up the cnal boat for whatever you can get, and buy yourself a kayak? All the pleasure, healthy and a lot less overheads.

How about one of these baby's

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Training Log

That's excellent. Even comes with a roll cage incase you lose it coming into Post Office corner. Here's an upmarket version...

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Torpedo Room! Load torpedo and standby to launch...!

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Drink!Feck!Arrse!Girls!

I had a very bad experience the other day.
Over here, boats have to undergo a kind of M.O.T. they call a BSS and I wasn't able to locate the examiner who did the last test. I winded up with another guy who was obviously exploiting the situation to drum up business for his friend who does mechanical engineering. Apparently he wants the entire diesel fuel tank replacing (not on the basis of corrosion) but due to the galvanic quality of the tank. It's crazy!
I've just written a letter to the waterways authority to point out the tank is part of the original boat design and, as far as I'm aware, hasn't been an obstacle to the boat passing tests in the past. I've also made it clear I'll be taking the boat out of the water (by tractor more than likely).
I'd just fitted the outboard bracket externally and my guess is the boat would have run fine for the time being.
I'll keep the outboard engine in the garage, remove the bracket from the boat and may use the outboard on a dingy some time in the future (on the sea perhaps). As for British Waterways and the canal network, I figure if they run a business that way they'll inevitably go bust in the near future. How can they expect boat owners to change the original design of a diesel engine if it was built that way initially?

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"Everybody has a philosophy. However, what philosophy you have is a matter of choice, and most people don't make a conscious choice with regard to what philosophy they accept."

I used something similar to this boat in St Petersburg Russia. I recall it was raining really really hard. You had to be careful of the wasps, though.
There are many boats in St Petersburg and the weather in Summer is terrific. Especially cool is the countryside around the Russia/Finland border. I was once invited by friends to a dacha where there was a river you could swim in and we spent the night drinking vodka and eating barbecue sausages.

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"Everybody has a philosophy. However, what philosophy you have is a matter of choice, and most people don't make a conscious choice with regard to what philosophy they accept."

Exactly which regulation did you break? Have a read of this regulation and see if it complies. Take these facts to them. If it complies with the written regulations, then they don't have a leg to stand on.

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Training Log

Bugger. As Mike says, check up on whether they're just feeding you a line. Looks like things are tough for you owners of 'Carnal' boats.
I'm flying up to London tonight, and back down to Singapore / Aussie tomorrow / Friday. Should be out sailing on Saturday, all going well.

I wrote a polite, business like letter just informing the authorities my boat failed its test. There isn't really a lot I can do about it as I'm not really willing to just keep throwing out more and more money.
My suspicion is the examiners sometimes use this situation to get work for handymen or engineers they may know personally, maybe for a backhander. Of course, I may be wrong.
It now depends on what reply I get to the letter. If it's a no compromise reply it may well be my boating days are over and I'll turn my hand to messing about with bike mechanics which is far less complicated.
Now we'll just have to wait and see.

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"Everybody has a philosophy. However, what philosophy you have is a matter of choice, and most people don't make a conscious choice with regard to what philosophy they accept."

Never say never, Carrera. I've had some excellent times over the last month with my little Gaffer down in Oz. Even the things that went wrong, were still good. My daughter and I had a fuel feed problem right at the apex of a high traffic area whilst doing a quick evening chortle to enjoy the gushes from having replaced the cooling water impeller. We managed to to drop a pick and prevent us from drifting into the path of an oncoming ferry, but it was getting too late to spend much time bleeding the fuel lines. We ended up hoisting a reefed main and a staysail, and sailed her back up the river to her mooring, avoiding poking the bowsprit through any of the squillion dollar floating palaces moored along the way. She pulled up engineless on the mooring with inches to spare. It was a thing of rare beauty.

Aaaaah...sailing up to the mooring with the iron tops'l down and a perfectly controlled drift...how sweet it is, and even sweeter with an audience of plastic stinkboaters, all studiously trying to control their jealousy by looking the other way...

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Drink!Feck!Arrse!Girls!

Great sweetness, indeed...when it goes right. When it goes wrong, the pain...the pain. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It is all part of getting to know a vessel. I've rigged up a nice simple reefing system, which steps the loose-footed main down to a very manageable size, but she still holds her shape.
The headsails I have seem to have been hand-me-downs from other boats, and are not well matched, although you can get away with a lot on a long-footed gaffer. I don't plan on changing them until I am certain of what I want, and how she behaves in the plethora of conditions that the Zephyrs can throw at us.
My 8 y.o. daughter / 1st Mate and I had an overnighter on "Mae Nam" on Saturday, before I returned to Afreeka. It was bloody good - she read her Asterix books by torchlight, until a storm came through and we unfurled half of the covers and got some shuteye. She's starting to understand the meaning of keeping things shipshape, and tells the rest of the family off when they come onboard and start putting crap all over the place. Now I've just got to try to transfer that imprint across to her actions at home...mission impossible.

What was the outcome?

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Training Log

Sorry to hear that you're having this trouble. I've never had anything like this stolen before. My youngest brother has a Peugeot bike that he bought at a thrift store for about $35. At one point, he lived in a part of town with a high crime rate. He befriended some of the neighborhood children, and one day was outside when one of them came up and told him they had just seen someone stealing his bike, and also told him where the thief was going.

He took off after him on foot. The thief saw him coming and tried to shift gears to gain speed. My brother was still working on the chain adjustment, so the chain popped off the front sprocket. The thief dumped the bike and ran. My brother recognized him as a neighborhood drug addict and let him go. He's an Army Reservist and a force to be reckoned with. He said it's just as well the guy bailed, cause had he not, the temptation to administer a serious thumping would have been hard to resist.

So, what's it gonna be, Carrera? Are you keeping the boat?