Testlab

Since you're staying at Forresters Beach, then go and try Spoon Bay, it's the next beach around the southern headland of Forresters. You drive up Spoon Bay Rd and walk down to the beach. There is little formal parking so go midweek and please respect the locals driveways. Spoon Bay has a lot of rocks and reef close inshore. Walk down the beach toward Wamberal and you'll find some holes and gutters as it changes from reef to beach. The rocky area changes as the amount of sand varies during the year and from year to year so enjoy the walk and keep lookout for those fishy spots. Early morning and evening/night are best, as they are at Forresters itself. You can walk/fish the entire length of beach from Spoon Bay to Terrigal. If its a bit rough at Spoon Bay then give Bateau Bay a try at the middle to northern end. The southern end looks good but the bottom is barren rock and sand and I've found it to produce little but the occasional small shark (but that could my superior skill as "The Fish Jinx"). Heading a little further north, there is Blue Bay and then as mentioned The Entrance channel. Since you're fishing lures or SPs there is also Picnic Point park and channel at The Entrance. It's off Tuggerah Parade where the main boat ramp is. Instead of fishing near the car park, follow the channel south toward Long Jetty and if you don't mind wading into the reeds or finding the gaps in them to wade out a little you will get onto some nice flatties by casting into the channel and retrieving with the typical flick and wind technique. Depending on time and tide you could head south to Ettalong channel in Brisbane Water, opposite half tide rocks, or if you don't mind making it a day trip, if that's unsuccessful keep following the road toward Patonga and give Pearl Beach a try and then onto Patonga where you have the choice of the rocks at the north end, the beach and lagoon entrance at the south end or the lagoon/creek itself. Have fun and good luck.

I don't mind, once he's in there we can close up, toss in a few scraps and tell him it's a career.

The setup you have should work fine with the trickle charger connected to either battery. You can tell it's charging both if the LED on the VSR is on. Remember both batteries should be disconnected and charged separately if flat.

Dave, that's why there are half a dozen wine and champaign corks hanging from a tie in the engine room. I am however missing a spider monkey to crawl in there to jam one in.

The tilt and trim fluid level. When I read the original post I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that was where crunchy noise was coming from (air in the system). Now I've read the rest either you had a bit of sand in the transom assembly that was scraping and then washed away or when you hit the sand the release valve tripped and was rattling with the fluid flow as you tried to put the leg down. If you hit something and the valve trips run the leg right up and down to the stops to make sure it closes again.

Do you have a VSR on/off control or do you mean the battery switch itself? What VSR do you have? Do you have a wiring diagram of the boat? Most VSRs should be wired direct to the batteries but some have an enable wire that goes to 12V to make them work. If its one of those then it may not switch on unless the main battery switch is on and the enable switch turned on. In which case you will have to charge the batteries separately or make a wire to connect them together (but only while trickle charging).

Check the fluid level is right. Also tilt the engine right up and right down a few times to make sure it is indeed getting full travel.

Thank you. The log was a stumpy root ball that was waterlogged and under the surface in the middle of the river so impossible to see. I'm glad I wasn't going faster. As for man made rubbish floating down the river... How's this for size? Note the treated pine sleeper in the boat too, that was fished out just beside the rail bridge and the old pontoon we found near Dangar Island.

Go for it... plenty of people fish from there. Just be mindful it is a public wharf and the ferry and other watercraft using the wharf have right of way.

If it is a trickle charger then leave the batts connected and let the VSR parallel the batteries so they both get trickle charged. But... for normal charging the VSR needs to be out of circuit so it does not parallel the batteries. The easiest way to do this is disconnect the battery being charged.

There is variable ratio oil mixing in those engines. My guess is the oil metering is not working and it's over oiling at low revs, hence the plug fouling and thus hard starting and excessive smoke. There is no check you can do yourself and I strongly suggest taking it to a Yamaha dealer.

If the Gross or Aggregate Trailer Mass is 6000 pounds then that's approx 2.7 tonne and it will require brakes on all wheels and a breakaway system having 15 mins reserve capacity. VSB1has everything you need to know. I think it was linked to previously, if not it's here: http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/vsb1/pdf/vsb01_June2009.pdf

There are lots of places along Singleton Road. If you can get down to near the end there is a large table shaped rock that juts out from the bank and is a great spot. Throw a few SPs in each direction or float a few prawns in the current. The deeper water is not too far from shore there and you can get quite a mixed bag.

The assessor rang today and asked me to send the quote to them. They seem easy to deal with (so far, so good). I am unsure about how they treat value of hull and outboards, my boat has twin 7.4L Mercruiser inboards and I didn't have to value anything separately. The whole vessel is insured for an agreed value.

I have an old scuba cylinder so all we need now is a crappy old boat and a 303. Oh, and don't forget the music.

When I did the 20 questions thing on the phone I did note they specifically asked about claims against only that policy in the last five years, they didn't ask about other policies. Interesting that there is no claim form, all I have to do is get quotes, email them in and wait for the assessor to call. So far they have been very easy to deal with.

The problem with cheap jump start units is they often simply can't provide enough energy to bring the flat battery to a high enough float charge to then allow the engine to crank and start. The deeper the discharge the greater the difficulty. What I mean is the small capacity of the battery in the portable jump unit dumps its charge into the flat battery but it's not enough to start the engine. The bigger the flat battery the less likely a portable jump pack will be successful. Also many cheap packs have thin cables that don't allow enough cranking current, making this problem worse. That is, they dump their charge into the flat batt but the cables won't carry enough cranking current. On old tech small capacity outboards a jump pack may still work because they are magneto ignition and don't have any voltage sensitive electronics, but on bigger sized outboards or those with high tech or electronic fuel injected engines if there is insufficient voltage because they won't start unless the voltage is above a predetermined minimum. If you're going offshore, spend the money and do it right. If you're in sheltered waters and don't mind the inconvenience of the occasional flat batt then go with the cheap option and see what happens. There has been an exhausted jump pack present for half of the jump starts I have done for people on the water in the last year.

Just call The Whittley Marine Group in Victoria, they'll happily tell you. The 700 is a nice boat.

Holy cow!!! That's an unexpected turn of events. At least with the enclosed spaces being inspected by cam you know there aren't any more of these sparse glass joints.

After cautioning other raiders about the amount of debris in the Hawkesbury that's been lifted by the big high tides lately I hit an unseen, submerged log last Saturday morning and snapped a 32mm stainless prop shaft and lost the prop (17"x17" bronze). Was only doing 10 kts but that was enough. Lodged a claim with QBE which I believe should be straight forward.

All those stickers are free at a motor registry. It's a west cardinal marker at the channel entrance, which confuses people because that says the safe water lies on the shore side, which is correct. There is a big lump rising off the bottom approx 30m out into the main river. Rises from say 4m to 1.2m and then drops back to 2m and then rises again to as little as 0.4m just inside the channel on a low low tide. So either take it on the plane or at idle but not in between as the extra draft from a dug in stern will bottom out.

Gazza, I have put myself aground once or twice after getting confused in unfamiliar waters. It happens to everyone if they boat long enough and in places where shallows exist. The Mooney road bridge channel is where the photo was taken and it is tricky because the road bridge end is choked up with mud. The channel mouth is market by a cardinal marker and the channel passes between this marker and the shore... counter intuitive but the stay between the cardinal and shoreline, then head up the channel staying closer to the red lateral marks. At low tide it is very shallow at the each end. In the main river It shoals very quickly between Spectacle Island and the green lateral marks (the stretch between the bridges). Lots of people get stuck here and at low tide the exposed mud shows the snail trails and prop furrows of people driving over the mud with the boat barely floating and the engine driving through the mud. By the way, the mud is like thick slime and several metres deep. I suggest not getting out of the boat and trying to push it clear as its impossible to get a decent foot hold.

I drew this up this afternoon. Although this uses a normal four position battery switch (Off, 1 2 Both) you should always leave it switched to the starting battery (Batt 2) when in use and obviously Off when not in use. The DVSR (or VSR) will switch in to charge the house battery (Batt 1) when the starting battery has come back up to full capacity. If the starting battery dies, select Batt 1 then change back to Batt 2 once everything is running. The electrical isolation switch provides a quick means to isolate the electronics and lights. It should be turned off while starting older tech engines using battery 1. I am happy to answer questions... but please note the fuse sizes will depend on wiring size used, the maximum load and the manufacturers recommendations. Note, when using a mains battery charger the battery should be disconnected or else the VSR will turn on and an intelligent charger will be unable to work properly. Please disregard the note in the top left corner about connecting the DVSR in(+) to the battery switch C terminal. I meant to delete that after I removed some additional circuitry. the VSR in(+) should go to the start battery (+)

Sunseeker, Fairline, Princess are all English brands that look similar. It has that look about it. Unless you can identify the vessel it is unlikely the Police can do anything. I would do a tour of the various Sydney marinas, by water so you can get amongst the boats and look for that hull colour. It's not common. Definitely file a report so it can be followed up on when you can identify the vessel, even then they may not be able to do much if they owner denies liability and there are no witnesses verifying that vessel was responsible. It might become a civil matter if you had good evidence but let your insurance company handle it once you've found the culprit. PS: Marine Rescue could help you if you were disabled or in danger but they can't do anything about law enforcement* or incidents between vessels. *When acting as duty vessels at major events they act to relay instructions from Police or Maritime, so ignoring a request or directive that is reasonable and asked on behalf of the authorities can have consequences enforced by that instructing authority, but not by Marine Rescue itself.

Great work Roberta, thank you.