Boating chit chat thread.

They were gaff-rigged originally and then converted to Bermudan.Sometime after WW2 I think. In the late 60's I crewed a couple of times on a bright yellow 24 known as the 'Banana Boat' (maybe she was correctly called Euphanzel'?). I don't remember much about their sailing capabilities except they had to be sailed hard, and recall they had runners which were done up by levers each side of the cockpit.

It would be political suicide for any TD to support this. Spending 200million on a 'Yotting' facility & event that will be gone after a few weeks, If Coveney has any cop Ireland will walk. Saudi is unlikely, politically, so it looks like Spain if the event goes ahead.

Interesting to see the events of the last week or so on some Russians. France, Italy, etc., are ‘seizing’ Russian superyachts. It’s a bit of a legal nightmare apparently, as proving ownership is almost impossible, with layers of shell companies. France has also seized a fully-laden car transporter en route to Russia. Several of the Caribbean ports are refusing fuel to the Russian-owned vessels, regardless of owners being on sanction list or not.

In Germany, the ‘Dilbar’, owned by Usmanov is blocked in Hamburg. The Isle of Man has de-registered his planes & helicopters, which means they effectively are grounded as they no longer have authorisations to fly or land.

One of Putin’s yachts (m.y. Graceful) left Blohm & Voss a couple of weeks ago without the refit being finished and hightailed it to Kaliningrad. Last week the hacker group 'Anonymous' got into its AIS and changed its call-sign to FCKPTN and fixed its position as ‘aground’ off Ukraine’s coast, with a departure date of April 1. It seems to be off AIS currently.

Several European yards have stopped work on Russian owned vessels and several crews have been discharged by the managing agents, some reportedly without pay due,.

France/Monaco prevented Quantum Blue belonging to Sergei Galitsky from sailing Thursday morning but she was released and is now in the Med., SE of Crete (maybe heading for Suez?). French authorities in La Ciotat have seized the Amor Vero owned by Igor Sechin, CEO of the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.

In Mallorca, the Ukrainian chief engineer on superyacht Lady Anastasia opened the seacocks and partially sank her at her mooring. She is owned by Alex Mijeev, who among other things owns Rostec, the main supplier of helicopter gunships, jets and rockets to Russian forces. The engineer turned himself in, was released on bail and has said he is returning home to fight the Russians.

In Barcelona the Galactica Super Nova, owned by Vagit Alekperov, key shareholder in Lukoil, a company already subject to US sanctions, set sail for Tivat in Montenegro, which is not in the EU. Her AIS is off for days. Superyacht Solaris, owned by Roman Abramovich remains moored in Barcelona, while the Aurora, which belongs to the construction magnate Andrey Molchanov, is still in dry dock there.

Superyacht 'Quantum Blue' mentioned in #2904 above was moored in Port Said for the last several days. She has now cleared the Canal and is making her way down the Red Sea 'cruising' - i.e. no destination shown. Unlike many other yachts owned by oligarchs she still has her AIS 'lit' so can be tracked. Probably en route to that favorite haunt of the dodgy, the Seychelles.

Glad to see sense prevail on the Americas Cup tbh

As I said in #2904 above....😉

Give yourself a pat on the back, there..... oh wait, you already did.

Aren't you brilliant!

Have the prices of second hand boats and marine items come in price over the last few months?

I think I've noticed a change, it must be due to inflation and fuel price?

I actually meant to say down in price. I was thinking only ertain items like engines. With fuel the price it is I thought it was reasonable that people would get rid of boats with the thirsty engines, and struggle to sell them hence a price slight decrease when compared with what they were last Summer?

No. You’re looking at this the wrong way.

The rise in fuel prices is not really much in the overall context. For example, a 150hp diesel burns about 15 LPH. Say you run 100 hours in the season so 1500L– with a price increase of 30 cents that’s an extra €450 which is not much in the overall cost of running a boat of that size.

I think second-hand boat prices actually will increase as people realise the enjoyment a boat can give and contrast the price with how expensive Irish hotels, holiday home rentals and ferry fares are here. There is a shortage of boats in the market and none are coming in from the UK. Look at the second-hand car market and what is happening to prices there.

You can't just replace standard 12v lead acid batteries with AGM all the time. AGM batteries require different charging voltages and will fail prematurely if not used with an alternator / battery charger specifically setup for AGM batteries. Most battery chargers will have a different function for AGM batteries for this reason although some can detect themselves

At 6 amps I'd guess the charger is too small, you probably need one double that size. Without knowing the condition, charge state and size in amp hours of the battery it is impossible to give a straight answer. I'd guess that the battery is about 90ah so it's going to take at least a day to bring it back up.

Unlikely it will be for an AGM battery, depends how much use the boat gets Vs how often you have the battery on the charger.

It's about time for Fergal to invest in a real boat!

https://yachts.apolloduck.ie/boat/sailing-yachts-classic-yacht-for-sale/697269

You're doing well that you haven't those already! I love the idea of a wooden deck, grew up on tales of holystones, bears and swabbers!

There's no such thing as a bargain boat

Has anyone been to Inishkea? I am tempted to go over for a few days in the next month or so, do a bit of wild camping

I went to have a look at a house on Inishmeane just up the road from Gola. Didn't get it in the end, perhaps I should have.

There's a ferry service to Gola now, of some sort, I haven't used it myself but family have.

I was there about 40 years ago, and have two abiding memories - nearly breaking my ankle in a feet-deep rabbit hole - and the houses that looked like the family had their tea, and just got up, put their coats on, and walked off the island - the furniture was still there, delph on the dresser, turf and ashes in the fireplace - it was properly spooky!

I think a few have returned to have summer homes there now, and there's a little bothán shop as well.

I too once lived on an island but it was connected by bridges and tunnels with the mainland!😀 Despite those links it was equally difficult to leave and enter at weekends.

and that's the part ordered from Yacht Agencies, will be in the post tomorrow.

Excellent, Cheers Fergal.

I'll need to root out that bottle of Loctite thread lock I have lying around somewhere and hope she stays on this time!

Ouch…

Can't post the video, but it aint pretty!!

Ah jeepers 😥

I saw the video on fb, but didn't realise it was that boat - I saw her fully crewed in racing action in St Tropez a few years ago, and she was a magnificent sight.