MattInOz

I did look at them but the price vs a reef anchor put me off a bit, I'm already spending about $270 replacing the Manson, and the reef anchor really won't see much use, I almopst always anchor in sand or mud. Why am I not using a fluke anchor? I used to and it was ok, but it doesn't self launch and having to get out the front and shove it sort of takes away at least some of the fun of a winch. Re: the zip ties down the shaft thing... that works right up until the tide/wind shift your boat around and the anchor tries to reset and the chain tears the zip ties, then your rode's pulling on the head of the anchor. Probably not a huge issue on a reef anchor since you won't be relying on it overnight or unattended, but still. Thinking I'll just get a 20m line and a float to attach to the head of the anchor in case I need to pull it loose. The sliding shackle in a slot thing you see on some anchors seems a bit problematic too to me. It's fine if you're in a nice level sandy bottom but if you're anchor's sitting on a bottom that means the shaft's on an upsward angle the shackle's not going to slide down the anchor as you motor forward. It could also end up pulling out the anchor if your boat shifts but at least then the anchor would turn around and reseat itself.

I don't really have an option for the main anchor as it's on a winch, and the thicker silver rope means a much shorter anchor rode. I've got a coil of silver rope I was planning on putting on a fluke anchor to use a s stern achor when I'm anchoring off a beach or as a second anchor in case a storm blows up... no reason I couldn't swap it out and use it on the reef anchor too, just put on whichever anchor I'm using on the day. It also has the advantage that if you do need to cut it you can always resplice a new thmble into it.

Hey guys While I was up north I ended up having to cut off my expensive manson anchor (which also means replacing the double braided rope & chain since the old rope no longer has a thimble and apparently you can't resplice double braided rope once it's been wet & taut), so I've decided that to prevent a repeat of this I'll invest in a reef anchor. It's less likely to get permanantly snagged, and I'm less concerned about chopping off a $20 anchor than a $300 one. I'm gonna use the old anchor rope with it and just tie it onto the chain with an achor bend knot... but that begs the question of how much chain do I need? I know the "standard" answer to that question is "the same as the length of the boat", and the "extreme" answer is "as much as you can store", but that assumes a "standard" anchor and I keep seeing posts in various places that say when using a reef anchor on reef or rocks you should reduce or even omit the chain altogether as the chain is often the bit that snags or damages the reef. So what's the concensus? Same as the boat (abt 4.5m)? A bit less (say 3m)? Use chain but put it in a chain sock? None at all? What say you all? Matt

I've used both the boat wash and the engine flush. I can say for sure the boat wash works, but it's expensive so I switched to a 4x4 "after beach wash" that, while it doesn't do as good a job, is a ton cheaper and for a beat up fishing boat I'm not that concerned about appearance. I still use their engine flush religiously though. I didn't get their expensive "captain's musket" thing... I bought exactly the same thing in a cheaper brand on special from Anaconda. If you have a pretty new boat and want to keep it looking flash by all means use the Salty Captain products... they do work. Just comparing the cover on my outboard after washing with "salty captain" compared to the 4x4 wash shows a significant difference in salt spotting on the black surface once it all dries.

That's gotta be a lot easier than hosing it all off and flushing the engine.

Funny, there's a 2007 (I think) Yammy 60 with the same problem listed for $2.5K on gumtree that I was very tempted to spring for and have a go at fixing as an upgrade from my 1999 40HP Merc. Thought it might have been yours at first but you fixed it, so no.

Best idea I've heard all week... thanks.

I heard about this when I was doing my VHF licence (at Manly Coast Guard) but I wasn't paying a whole bunch of attention. Will we still need paid memberships, or will it be a govt funded service like Police, Fire, Ambulance, etc?

The answer to your question is another two questions: Are the batteries charging to 100% during the day, and are they discharging to below a usable voltage with normal use overnight? A volt meter will answer the question for you... a lead acid battery at full charge will read just under 14 volts, and once below about 11 volts it'll probably be too discharged for your fridge. If your batteries are not charging completely you need a bigger solar panel, and if they're charging to 100% during the day and discharging too quickly at night you need bigger batteries (or possibly just new ones, get them load tested). Of course, putting bigger batteries in might also require bigger solar panels to charge them too... have to suck it and see. If your current batteries are already at 100% by say 11am you can probably afford to put a bigger battery on it but if they struggle to get to 100% by say 4pm a bigger battery will require a bigger panel. As for the type of battery, a deep cycle battery is specifically designed to be fully discharged and charged repeatedly, while a cranking battery is designed for the heavy, brief load of a starter motor and then immediately recharged by the alternator. If replacing your house batteries you want deep cycle (or dual use) ones ideally.

Nice idea, but ridiculously expensive. Think I'd just get a plastic garbage bin and cut it to suit instead. Suppose I could do that and put 3-4 jerry cans of water in the ute... fill them up in Gin Gin or somewhere else close by to save carting water all the way from Brisbane. Still, as Huxstang pointed out it's probably not worth it if I'll be using the boat daily, just do it when I get back.

Unfortunately my understanding is there's no town water anywhere in the turkey beach area... will look into it though. I'd be happier if I could rinse things off.

From my time as a mechanic working on old Minis, MGs, Rovers etc I can confirm this. Spending money on octane levels higher than your engine is designed to use is just throwing money away. The fuel companies will argue that they put in detergents etc to help "clean your engine" but realistically all that would do is take up space in the combustion chamber with something that's not producing power and actually lower your output. Of course if your engine's designed to use 95 or 98 RON you should use that, but the majority are not. One caveat though is if you're using 91RON (or 94, depending on the brand) be very sure not to use fuel with ethanol in it. Not because it would do any damage (it won't assuming your motor's less than 30 years old) but because ethanol is hygroscopic... ie: it absorbs moisture from the air. This isn't a real problem with cars under normal use, but with boats it's inviting water contamination in the tank.

Thanks guys, you've set my mind at ease. I tend to get a bit OCD about things like this.

Yep... just when you the boat's perfect and there's nothing else to do some other shiny toy (usually with a 4 figure pricetag) suddenly seems absolutely essential. Oh well, everybody needs a hobby.

Well the winch is all fitted up and I finally got out on the water the other day... what a game changer it is, especially for a solo sailor. It's now so easy and fast to drop the anchor and pick it up that I'm questioning if I even need a trolling motor now. Just pull up, throw in half a dozen casts, and if you're not happy and want to move on you're gone in under a minute. Oh and I talked myself into lay-bying a new fish finder too at the BCF boxing day sales. Upgrading the old Lowrance Elite Ti the boat came with to a Lowrance HDS Live. They had the 7" ones on sale for $1399 ($30 less than the Elite FS 7") because they're discontinued now in favour of the HDS Pro. From looking at the difference between the Ti and the Live on youtube, it's like comparing chalk and cheese. If you want one they had about half a dozen left at various branches the other day... I bought the second last one at Ipswich. (Tried to attach a pic of the winch but it gave me an error when I tried to upload.)

The obvious suggestion is have you checked the fuses, and are you 100% certain they're connected correctly? Looked for damaged wires? (I'm sure you've checked it half a dozen times, but it's gotta be asked). If nothing's working it suggests a bad power supply or eath return... if you have a test light or multimeter find out which connections are +12v and -12v and make sure they're working correctly.

Hey guys I'm going up to Turkey Beach near Gladstone with some mates to do some fishing for a week in April, and the house we're renting (AirBnB) only has tank water (no town water in the area) and they expressly forbid washing boats/motors with their limited supply. The boat will be in the water every day for the week... how much of an issue is it if it's not flushed till I get back to Brisbane? Matt

Perhaps not exactly the same time but on the same outing. If I decide to pull up somewhere and anchor I don't to have to mess about taking the trolling motor off (and knowing me dropping it overboard) before I can.

Thanks for that... was pretty sure that's what it was but couldn't find any videos of them in action, and the staff at whitworths are surprisingly uninformative about anything to do winches, bowsprits, etc. They sell them, but don't seem to know much about them.

Hey again guys If you remember, I was asking about trolling motors a while back but I came to the conclusion that the only way I was gonna fit it on my small (4.3m) runabout with windscreen was to lay it across the foredeck diagonally with a welded on plate sticking out the front to mount it on... and that was going to interfere with the anchor and lie over the top of the anchor well, so I'd have to take the troller off to use the anchor... what a pain. Decided to put it on the back burner till I figured out a better plan. Then I saw this boat online... (bugger, not letting me upload pics from phone). Ok, I saw a pic of boat very similar to mine with the same anchor well on the foredeck except he'd mounted a windlass over the top of the well with chain feeding down into it so the well became a chain locker... and a trolling motor mounted diagonally over the top mounted on a sticky-out plate. So that was my eureka moment... though I'm buying a drum winch instead of the windlass and mounting it in the anchor well on the aft wall. I've pretty well decided on a "Viper S Series 1000 Micro Winch" with 65m of rope/chain. Problem solved, I can have my troller and use my anchor all at once, AND it's easier to go out on my own since I don't have to deal with anchors manually. So that leaves me with another issue... I need a bow roller/bowsprit compatible with self launching/retrieving, and hopefully one that'll fit in the 58mm gap between my bow rails. I was at the point of committing to cutting off my bow rails completely (I'll have to modify them for the troller anyhow) when I came across one at whitworths - listed as "Stainless Steel Hinged Bow Roller 57mm x 380mm". I'll have to put a bit of teflon sheet between the SS roller and the aluminium hull so I don't get galvanic corrosion but that's sorted, it's suitable for boats up to 5.5m, and it'll clear my bow rails neatly. So... my question is... what's the point to hinged bow rollers? Is it going to do what I want? Is there a better way? I'm currently using a danforth style anchor but planning to change out to plough style anchor (dc anchor delta brand probably) as they apparently work better with winches. So... whatta you guys think? Matt

Thanks for the honest advice... it's not what I wanted to hear, but I'd rather an unpleasant truth any day. I'll look further into how to make a front mount work.

Hey guys... I have the oppourtunity to buy a used electric trolling motor and I really know bugger all about them so I'm here to pick the collective consiousness and take advantage of your combined wisdom. Seller says it's a "Minn Kota RT/AP Trolling Motor" that comes with a 60" shaft, 55lb thrust, Maximiser, cordless remote control, corded foot control, 2 mounting brackets, and an anderson plug. He's asking $600 for it, is that a reasonable price? What sort of things should I look for/be wary of with a used electric motor? Will it be appropriate for a 4.3m aluminium runabout with a 40hp and 2-3 POB? I'm assuming that doesn't have any of the funky GPS functions like spot lock and autopilot... can they be added? My boat has a two battery system with a 680CCA battery for the engine and a 780CCA battery for the "house" battery (yes I'm aware it's overkill for a house battery, it came with the boat)... could I run the motor from the house battery or would I need a third battery? Oh and what is a "maximiser"? Something else I'm wondering... due to the design of my boat (windscreen, small bow area, bow rails) it'd be difficult to mount it on the bow, and a pain in the butt to deploy/retrieve. Can these things be stern mounted? I don't have much transom area as my boat has a splashwell incorporated and the outboard takes it all up so I can't use one of their transom mounts but it does have large horizontal surfaces either side of the transom to which I could deck mount the motor and it could lay along the stbd gunwhale when stowed... would this work or would I be going backwards when I want to go forwards? Would the 60" shaft be ridiculously tall on the stern? Can it be shortened? Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share. Matt

Yep... that's exactly where I was... I could see a "total loss" insurance claim in my immediate future.

I did briefly consider pulling a bung once I got moving again but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Thankfully the pump eventually kicked in. I've got a new one sitting on the dining table ready to go in today.

Yeah great idea... so it's always right there. Funny, a spare bung was one of the parts I never thought I'd need in an emergency and rather it turned out to be the first one I needed. I won't be leaving land without a few on board from now on. That patch of reef sounds worthwhile, will have a look for it.