Peter HK

I had the Suzuki 2.5 on my CS17 and it worked well. I liked neutral after a 2 hp, 2 stroke Yamaha that you had to spin for reverse. Pretty quiet and went for ages on the tank. I really noticed when I flushed the motor after use that it would run for about 5 mins after the fuel was cut off compared to about 30 secs when flushing the little 2 stroke. You have to be careful with positioning it especially in the back of the car- I had oil get into the cylinders despite correct positioning. Probably going around corners too fast! Cheers Peter HK

Great unless you're red/green colour blind Cheers Peter HK

I used the same ones as Don ( not surprising as Ronstan is an Australian brand- In the good to very good quality bracket but not the absolute best/most expensive) Cheers Peter HK Here in Brisbane Australia

I used swivelling cam cleats on the thwart which worked even when leaning and I much preferred this to reaching aft for the mizzen sheet. Cheers Peter HK

I enjoyed them all but really loved "Peter Duck" and "We didn't mean to go to Sea" Ransome's yacht, which featured in the series, is still sailing- Named Nancy Blackett after his favourite character in the books https://nancyblackett.org/ Cheers Peter HK

For interest here's a graph of depth of discharge vs cycles for a premium brand of AGM batteries (Lifeline). As you can see the decay in cycles doesn't really have a sharp cutoff (though a logarithmic scale) and essentially the less the discharge the better. The 50% figure of about 1000 cycles fits with regular workboat use and shelf life of the battery. Interestingly you can get 100s of cycles even with a very deep discharge so if you use it only infrequently you can get years (the lifespan) from the battery. I have seen similar graphs for cheap batteries with some showing only a few cycles after deep discharges so a lot depends on the quality of the battery. Cheers Peter HK

Here is one I made years ago The black holes were delrin rod - low friction and resistant to wear but in retrospect was probably overkill and I think epoxy coated wood would be fine Cheers Peter HK

Not that much Light cloth (6 oz/200gsm) for a spindrift would be about 3 sq m by 200gsm = 600gm. The resin weight is about the same for a hand layup so that adds up to 1.2kg (2.6 lbs). Proportionally less for lighter cloth. I've glassed a few dinghies and it does make them more tolerant of abuse. Pros and cons I suppose. Cheers Peter HK

In general one should always seal with epoxy. I would use thickened epoxy to fill the old holes- it shrinks a bit so I try to leave the thickened epoxy a little proud and sand it off later rather than having to add a little more later. For drilled holes I usually coat with plain epoxy using a pipe cleaner to spread it evenly inside the hole. You can dip screws in epoxy when screwing them in. For the ultimate protection you can drill a very oversized hole and fill it with thickened epoxy and redrill the correct size hole- I wouldn’t bother for a trailer boat stored out of the weather but have done this for boats left in the water for long periods. HTH Cheers Peter HK

Well above on my capsize test years ago. Cheers Peter HK

I am very pleased to hear that 10 years after diagnosis you are still feeling fit enough for this cruise. As a medical specialist in the area I know that Parkinson disease, while variable, is often cruel. I've seen some patients doing well after 25 years yet my older brother had a more aggressive variant and was diagnosed at 63 and died from it last year at 71. As you say we still need to find better treatments/ preventive strategies. Ready Steady Boxing sounds like a good program - I hope your fund raising is very successful. Peter HK

I chose the Suzuki. Almost the same weight but the suz is quieter and I prefer the F/N gear box to the centrifugal clutch. cheers Peter HK

Years ago I epoxy coated a foredeck for a small dinghy and set it aside for a few weeks while I was building the hull. It cracked when I tried to fit it, yet had easily bent when I first fitted it weeks before. My first lesson in epoxy post curing (hardening of epoxy over time- somewhat temperature dependent). Since then I precoat panels on a flat table not long before I fit them so they are still flexible. Ideally, I like to hot coat while the epoxy can still have a chemical bond but that's not always possible. Cheers Peter HK

Here in Australia we use metric so I work on the 10 metre rule? Cheers Peter HK

Looks spectacular I think a bit of fiddling with luff and snotter tension will probably sort out the sails- looks not enough on the photo- inducing a bit of mast bend would be good. Might need more batten tension on the full length ones as well. Always good fun to get the final adjustments just so. Cheers Peter HK