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Wallabies and antennas 24 Aug 2013 | 06:54 pm
Last weekend was a little weird – we received a visit from a wallaby! No, we don’t live in Australia, we live in Lancashire. It turns out it had escaped from a farm a few miles away and, having been i...
Hurricanes 20 Aug 2013 | 05:47 pm
The Atlantic hurricane season is hotting up. During August, September and October we’ll see the greatest concentration of named storms in a season that officially runs from June to November. Here in....
About Loos tension gauges 15 Aug 2013 | 03:15 pm
Loos, (that’s the company name, by the way, not a misspelling of loose), makes two different classes of gauge for wire rigging – Standard and Professional. They also make two sizes of gauge for rod ri...
Drooping spreaders 11 Aug 2013 | 10:06 pm
I've blogged about this before, so if you don’t suffer from this nasty affliction you can go on smugly about your business. You don’t want drooping bits. You especially don’t want drooping spreaders....
All is lost 6 Aug 2013 | 02:07 pm
There’s a new sailing movie on the way – Robert Redford and an aging Cal 39 star in “All is Lost”. Maybe that should read “an aging Robert Redford and a Cal 39…” but never mind. The trailer shows u....
Farewell, Minnie 2 Aug 2013 | 01:38 pm
I've given my boat away. Minnie, the ComPac 19 on which I've explored Lake Windermere and then the Lancaster canal, has gone to a new home. I felt she needed to get her wings back and go sailing. B....
What's the worst that could happen? 27 Jul 2013 | 03:40 pm
A head in the sand attitude to potential disaster doesn’t work on a boat. You need to plan ahead. What if you lose the mast? You may have to cut the rigging and you’ll find this takes some doing with...
A holy and ancient anchorage 22 Jul 2013 | 09:27 pm
These past few days we’ve been crewing on a friend’s boat, cruising the sound of Jura from Ardfern down to Gigha and back. We stopped a couple of nights in an interesting anchorage: Eilean Mòr, one of...
The blocking pin 17 Jul 2013 | 03:13 pm
I’ve always enjoyed walking the towpaths of England’s canals and for the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed boating on them too. This has led to an interest in the workings of these watery ways and rec...
Propellers - what a drag 12 Jul 2013 | 12:55 pm
Under sail with the engine stopped, does a fixed blade propeller create more drag when it’s locked or when it’s allowed to freewheel? The answer is unequivocal: There is less drag when the propeller i...
