Yachting Blog

Are You Cookie Compliant?
More than nine months since all UK websites were required to gain 'implied consent' from their users to use cookies to monitor their website visits most websites are still not doing so. The benefits of the EU directive that have lead to this law are debatable but it is now the law so companies have to abide by it by asking their users for consent. Many of the websites that are telling users that they are using cookies do nothing more than tell users that they are using cookies. We provide...

Prices Going in One Direction
There are some really beautifully restored Series 1 Land Rovers around the £10k mark that are failing to sell on eBay at the moment. After hundreds of hours restoring their Landies I bet the owners are rather miffed that an average (but nice) Series 1 with a TDi engine is fetching £30,000 because an average boy band drove "the big Land Rover Defender thing" in their pop video. I suppose if Winston Churchill's Landy sold for £130k another famous Landy can sell at a premium too. I suppose the ...

Land Rover Series Looking for a Home
I've been chatting with a crofter called John who lives up in Arisaig on the west coast of Scotland. He is a really nice chap who would like someone to take his tax exempt SWB series 3, which we think server in the Royal Navy, and give it a new life. The chassis is beyond hope and there are a few vital parts missing but this would be an excellent project for someone that has the time and the skill. John is asking for just £150 for the Landy but even this sounds negotiable as long as you can g...

RNLI Factory to be Built
The RNLI has been successful in applying for planning permission to build a new All-weather Lifeboat Centre at their Poole headquarters. This is great news not just for the RNLI who will save about £3.7m each year by being able to build their own boats but is also a great boost for the local economy with the creation of 90 new jobs. It will be interesting to see which other boat building yards spring up around Sunseeker and this new factory. This is going to be an amazing achievement for the ...

Peli Case Care
I have been taking advantage of the quiet holiday period to take some care of the cases that have been protecting our stuff on the boat. I decided to remove the residue left by some sticky labels that were on the Peli Cases. Instead of buying yet another specialist product I rooted around the kitchen and tried some grapeseed oil. I poured a little of it onto the case, smeared it around a little with my fingers and then removed the oil and gunk with some cotton wool. It worked like a dream and...

RNLI Rescue Christmas Tree
The Anstruther lifeboat got into the olympic spirit at sunset yesterday by coming to the aid of Anstruther's Christmas tree which had toppled into the harbour. This is one of the many rescues that the RNLI has made this year. I think it could be made into a festive song something like: Six Royal Decades Five Olympic Rings Forty flood victims Three Shannon lifeboats Two lifeboat stations And a soggy Christmas Tree

Cool Van Boat Combo
I have been putting together some plans for an ambitious side launching offroad boat trailer to allow the safety boat to be launched in less accessible locations. Whilst doing some research I came across this very cool boat launcher.

More Counselling, Less Weapons
It is not known what the quiet killer Adam Lanza was thinking when he shot so many young children in their Sandy Hook school. If access to psychiatric care was as widespread as access to assault rifles Adam and his dozens of victims may well be alive this Christmas.

12 Days of Christmas
I am very proud of all the kids at church who did a great job in putting together an alternative 12 days of Christmas play.

Driving Through Flood Water
Police in Tewkesbury have started putting up "Told You So" signs for the benefit of drivers who chose to ignore the earlier flood water signs. This is in response to many drivers having ignored their signs and driven into deep water, putting their lives at risk and wasting the time of the police who have to rescue them. Even though my Land Rover will tackle deeper water than most other cars I will only try to drive through extremely slow moving water that I know is up to the height of the hub...

Trophy for Consistent Non-attendance
Somehow I had ended up on the mailing list of the a bunch of Melbourne cyclists known as the "Old Salopians". They turned out to be a rather persistent bunch who kept inviting me to join their trips despite me living on the other side of the world and not owning one of those bicycle things. It took a lot of emails from me before their members stopped badgering me to join them and agreed to "leave the poor chap alone". It was with great surprise and a small touch of pride that I later heard th...

Vestas Sailrocket 2 Averages Almost 60 Knots
After a decade of planning, building and sailing very, very quickly Paul Larsen's Vestas Sailrocket 2 has broken the sailing speed record by averaging 59.38 knots over 500 metres. Once the World Speed Sailing Record Council has ratified the record I am sure the team will be having a well earned party. It is an amazing engineering achievement to get a boat to sail at three times the speed of the wind. Lots of factors contribute towards this including the usual suspects of lightweight materials...

Racing Basics Video
This seven minute video by the BBC featuring Scottish double Olympic gold medal winner Shirley Robertson is a great introduction to racing rules and tactics.

HMS Bounty Wrecked by Hurricane Sandy
The 180 foot replica of HMS Bounty which put to sea on Thursday in order to survive the superstorm that battered America's eastern seaboard has foundered. The tall ship ran into trouble on Sunday evening when she lost power and could not pump out water. Despite the heroic efforts of the USCG helicopter crews, who saved 14 of the crew safely, one crew member sadly died and Captain Walbridge is missing. There is...

GoPro
The good news is that I am very happy with the 1080p video from the GoPro HD Hero2 helmet cam. I'm looking forwards to using it to take some great footage out on the water next month. The sad news is that GoPro have just launched the Hero3 which is smaller, lighter and twice as powerful. I am consoling myself with the fact that as I'll just be using the footage on a web page the higher quality will not be noticeable but can't help thinking that the quality of GoPro's demo video is stunning.