Testlab

This is where it gets a bit tricky. Choosing the right size battery is a balance between capacity of the battery, the capacity of engine alternator, sustained load and the size of your wallet. For a boat around 5m and average use I would fit something like an Exide ED4 deep cycle as the house battery (batt B in my example). A good quality marine battery rated for your engine size will do as as battery A but make sure it is of similar reserve capacity as batt A. If you expect to be running a high house load all night then a bigger reserve capacity is needed in both battery and wallet. The bigger the batteries the longer the recharge time so running huge batteries off a small engine means it will take a long running time to get a decent charge back into them. To keep them in good condition you should top off the charging after each deep discharge with a good quality charger matched to the battery size. The VSR will simply parallel the batteries which is not the ideal way to charge them, especially if the batteries are not identical and at different states of charge (as they will be). Put your circuit breakers as close to the positive poles of the batteries as possible. Depending on the size of our engine you should not put a breaker between the battery and engine. However always locate a breaker close to the battery for any wiring going off to house loads. Size this breaker one third larger than the maximum possible load.

Easy.. you have all the right gear. Connect the engine to battery A and all the house loads to battery B. Use the VSR to parallel the batteries. this way you start off battery A and the VSR will automatically parallel the battery banks when the charging voltage exceeds the threshold voltage. Thus battery B can go flat and battery A will be protected from discharge.

A minor correction, the Parsley Bay ramp will be closed from Midnight Saturday until Sunday afternoon. If you leave your car and trailer there Sat night thinking she'll be right then be back before sunrise on Sunday as the place gets very busy very early. The Police will be attending to help organize traffic.

It's terrible up here, really awful. If takes me 5 mins to walk and launch the dinghy to row out to the Sea Ray and I only have 5 boat ramps within 10 mins drive for the trailer boat. The damn kids down the street annoy me by trying to help me drag the dinghy out. There is so much alcohol that the guys visiting our local wharf keep giving it to me when I wander down to see if anythings on the chew. There is the skeleton of a 100cm fatty nailed to the pole down the street. Someone added a second one two weeks later. Bloody vandals. Seriously it's that bad. Stay away. We moved up here 22 years ago. Spent 20 of that up near Tuggerah Lakes and then moved to the other end near Empire Bay. Raising three kids, all born up here and apart from the problems every public school faces I can't say any stand out as places to avoid. There are problems with bogans but it's probably far less of a problem than in other places around Sydney and they seem to keep to their own kind. Crime doesn't seem any worse than anywhere else. I have commuted for 22 years and if you are a normal, considerate and capable driver it's fine. But you need patience and forgiveness because there are times other people can really annoy you on the M1/F3 and you can't retaliate like a tool. It's too dangerous for everybody. The trains are far better than they used to be but unless you work near a northern line station or the city then forget it. The time to connect and move further afield is ridiculous. I work in Dural and it takes roughly 75 mins drive if I time it to miss peak hour. By public transport it takes (without taxis) over 3 hours. Housing is a mix of old blue collar workers holiday/retirement style bungalows through to multi million waterfronts. There is a generational change happening... The retirees of the 70s and 80s are dying and the houses being sold by their inheritors, renovated or demolished. A lot of people who can't buy investment properties in Sydney are flocking up here as are their children (who are priced out of owner-occupying in Sydney) but they turn their noses up at the cheaper 50s and 60s type housing and the non-city centric lifestyle. If you like clubbing and city nightlife you won't find it up here but it is only a train ride away. So there are good bargains. As for fishing, there isn't any. None. The Brisbane Water entrance is home to the The Kracken (see Pirates of the Caribbean) so only the brave ever venture through there and the edge of the world is known to exist somewhere in Broken Bay (way else would it be broken... duh). It's a shame really, you'd think the pristine headlands would hold piscatorial interest but unfortunately they don't. Hundreds look there every week but nobody have ever admitted to catching anything. They do keep carting eskys away with samples for research but there's no fish. There was a lot of interest in an area offshore called The Flathead Grounds but archeologists discovered it was a Neanderthal settlement drowned by rising sea levels. As I said, stay away, it's awful. 22 years ago I said I'll leave as soon as I find somewhere better.

Timely subject, the boys and girls from MR Hawkesbury had just this scenario crop up recently with a big cruiser. Against all advice the owner went over the cut it free and got so cold and exhausted in less than 10 mins he had to be assisted from the water (unable to get back on his own boat). It was freed with a long stout boat hook. If you are exerting yourself beware that cold water. Tide, current and work sap your strength so fast it's surprising.

Just remember that Parsley Bay ramp will be closed from Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon and the river itself closed upstream of Dangar Island from around 8am Sunday until early afternoon. The Bridge to Bridge race is on. I posted all the details last week.

It's not modern engines you have to worry about, it's the grunge that E10 scours out of old tanks. Plus it is hydroscopic and phase separates over time. Bad stuff for marine use or anything where fuel has to sit unused for a long time (months). Empty the tank, purge the fuel hose and clean the filters. Should be right.

The devil is in the detail. What is it? Brand, model and year? It can be done, at a price, as it's more complicated than just adding a starter motor.

Sorry Dean maybe I wasn't clear before. That is the right waterways map and there are no public moorings in Pittwater according to the maps. The mooring map just shows where maritime have set aside areas where one may apply for a mooring. On the waterways map you can see a blue Police mooring marked EP at The Basin. Public moorings look like this but are in pink, you can see some on the Cowan Creek map. As for leaving a boat on a mooring at The Basin while camping. At this time of year it's a busy place so maybe midweek you'd be OK, but from Friday onwards you would be risking someone's ire.

The waterways boating maps do show courtesy moorings.... they are shown as a pinkish beehive, like the police emergency moorings are shown as blue beehives. I don't think there are any at The Basin, at least not in close to shore. Note the yellow moorings are privately owned and the orangey red ones are commercially owned, mostly by the various clubs, marinas and co-ops. I looked at the waterways map for Pittwater and didn't see any courtesy moorings anywhere.... is this right? I thoughts there were some around Taylor's Bay and up that western shore, but maybe they're gone now. Public moorings in the Cowan Creek and Broken Bay system are mostly owned by National Parks. They have some additional rules regarding their use.

Going from memory... No. During the week you can probably borrow one of the private club moorings providing you leave immediately when asked. On weekends, buckleys chance.

Everybody should learn from experience, including that of others. I have done something similar but when returning to the mooring. I was tired and careless and let the dinghy pass to one side of the bow and the mooring buoy the other. The plan was for the boat to sit still long enough for me to grab the buoy or rope with the boat hook over the bow, something I'd done solo lots of times before. Well the tide had me and I missed the rope and buoy, watching each slide past on separate sides until they stopped right on the stern quarters. Somehow the rope had gone over one freewheeling prop, under the keel and over the other prop and there I hung. So I got the boat hook and plunged head first over the swim platform to try and disentangle it. Now you'd think that would be enough to this story but as I am lying there dunking my head and swearing a family in a 18ft bow rider had come charging past a couple of times tossing up a good wash and making me really pee'd off. They passed by again, slowed down and crept up to my stern, my annoyance immediately subsided as they'd obviously seen me in trouble and come to help. Not quite.... "Hey bro!! Where dis da fish and chip place here man?" You never have a big enough snapper sinker at hand when you really need it. At least I got it free 5 mins later... by myself and after yet another rock and roll fly past.

I can't modify my post above so I'll add some extra comments here. Fuel tanks for building in can't have detachable couplings, the fuel line has to be plumbed in. The tank itself has to fully sealed and the vent and tank filler pipes must be plumbed in. The filler pipe has to be located higher than the vent and located not to drain into the boat from any spillage.

Are you going to put the floor over that? If so you have created a floating bomb. That tank has a vented tank cap so it is going to breath fumes under the floor with every temperature change and every refill so even without the floor over it it's damn dangerous. Under floor or other tanks designed for use in sealed semi-sealed compartments must be vented overboard - which means to an outside surface of the hull below the gunwales that is never covered. If your insurance company knew of that modification then kiss goodbye any coverage.

Here's a little game Kikila... It's called "Hide and Seek" here's how you play it. 1. Get a 3m tinny and old 5HP outboard 2. Launch at DeRubbins three quarters of the way through a 1.9m flood tide 3. Fill the tinny with one adult (you) and 4 children under 12 along with assorted gear 4. For extra challenge, you're old, unfit and can't swim properly and you won't wear a PFD 5. Attempt to drive tinny alongside the Hawkesbury road bridge pylons through the tidal eddy 6. Capsize tinny Now, while you hold onto to the capsized tinny for dear life the kids have a chance to hide. Next you start counting, minutes that is, waiting for someone to pass by and see you. The seeking part is done by the Water Police, Marine Rescue and other boaters who all swarm to help you as soon as the alarm is raised. Now where are those pesky kids hiding? Where do we seek them? Do we use binoculars and thermal cameras to see if they've floated upstream or do we use fish finders and divers? Oh, you get bonus points for surviving early spring water temps for longer than, say 60 mins depending on your age and condition and how long until hypothermia takes hold. And.... There's a bonus multiplier for doing it at night. Seriously... 1 to 6 above happened last month around 0900 on a weekday. Fortunately a passing river contractor saw it happen in front of him and fished them all out in a few minutes. Five minutes later and he wouldn't have been there. Then there's the old fella I found floating in Lintern Channel at 2am the other week while on the way home from soaking a few lines. His boat was in the middle of the channel and looked adrift so I was going to tow it to the wharf and tie it off. Imagine my surprise to find a 70s gent on the floor with the outboard inside the boat. He'd hit an oyster lease at high speed and the motor flipped into the boat because the clamps were loose, knocking him into the edge of the front deck breaking his nose and teeth. He said he nearly capsized when he hit the timbers and only just missed getting the prop through his leg. No lifejacket but i think he may have floated OK judging by the fumes. His son and wife were not amused when I called them. Ever done CPR Kikila and had the joy of the fluid in the patients lungs filling your own mouth as you try and get some air back into them? Have you done so on a child with the parents distraught and desperate as they look on begging and screaming at you? I have. Frankly I couldn't give a hoot about "control" issues because I don't want to live through these things again or have anybody else do so either. Call me selfish or a control freak, I don't care. Oh... Wear a #####!!!! hat so my tax dollars don't have to pay for treating your ignorance.

I've had the dog clutch problem but in my case it threw itself out of gear when under load, which is the more common way this problem presents. The dog gets rounded by people easing it into gear. Slam it in and slam it out, at idle of course. Mine lasted 40 years (1982 to 2012) before it needed a gear box rebuild. Its still a great, strong little engine but the fuel consumption is woeful when compared to a modern one.

Remove any memory cards, including the chart card if fitted and try again. If it doesn't start there's no doubt it's crook.

The Bridge to Bridge is on again on the weekend of 23rd and 24th November 2013. The Hawkesbury River will be closed under exclusive aquatic license from Sackville to Windsor on Saturday 23rd and from Brooklyn to Windsor on Sunday the 24th. Please read here for more information: Navigation Restriction - Hawkesbury River - 2013 Bridge To Bridge Water Ski Classic - Marine Notices - Maritime.pdf The Parsley Bay boat ramp will be closed from Saturday afternoon until sometime Sunday afternoon. No vehicles, trailers or boats will be allowed entry at these times unless authorised as part of the races. There will be 180 race boats, skiiers and support crews launching... it's organised chaos... you really don't want to be there anyway. Please note there is a transit zone from Berowra Creek and Brooklyn to Mooney Mooney (including De Rubbins boat ramp). The transit zone from/to Berowra Creek runs along the Sydney side shoreline. Follow it to the road bridges and then approach the check point vessel on that side of the river (flying a large green flag). Ask the CP to obtain permission for you to cross the river. Likewise when leaving DeRubbins ramp follow the shore line to the CP vessel on that side to ask permission and wait. Seriously... these race boats are hitting over 200km/hr and you have no chance other than pure luck to get out of the way as they pass under the bridges and power up the straight. You won't see them coming and if the a race boat misses you then maybe the skiiers won't. Please keep transit zone speed below 4 kts and no wash. No wash is really important as under calm conditions these boats really open up and waves can result in serious accidents. If you want to watch the action from the water then there are several vantage points below Spencer and at points where the river widens out. Please follow directions of the CP vessels as they have to maintain a safety margin from the racing line. There have been accidents over the last few years caused by spectator craft being in the wrong spot and the races won't be started until spectator craft are in safe locations. NSW Maritime and the Water Police will be in attendance and will back up reasonable CP requests. Marine Rescue Hawkesbury coordinates check points for the event and there is always need for additional CP vessels, so any help is always appreciated but be careful they will try and recruit you, offer you a radio course/exam, boating license courses/testing or safety inspections.

Pull the carby apart and clean it out. It's going to gunged up with oil in the bowl and jets. After that it should be ok providing it didn't run too long on what was (to it) straight petrol.

You could reseal it and tighten after checking the glass hasn't collapsed or been crushed underneath. It may never have been properly tightened.

I have some business commitments and I am writing a competency assessment related to boat handling at the moment. Once these are done I will look at putting something together on drogue selection, deployment and retrieval for small power boats. There are also some techniques I'd like to check as they apply to small vessels.

Ok... Gotcha. That's just two batteries in parallel so by all means get a dual switch and wire them individually to the new switch. When you're charging them off the engine after a nights use, start on the best battery and leave it charge by itself for a little while (assuming it didn't get much use running lights, sounder, etc). Then switch to the discharged battery only. Don't use the both position until the flat battery has had a good long charge by itself. With the batteries having approx equal (nearly full) charge then run them on "both." This will ensure the batteries get the best charge possible and keep them in good condition. So, start on 1 and leave it to charge for say 10 mins. Then switch to 2 (the flat battery) for a couple of hours while running. Then switch to "both."

You need to provide some more details on the way the batteries are wired. There might be a charge equalizer or a VSR installed which may be better than the dual switch.

Everything I read refers to "persons" so I take that to mean people. However let's assume for a moment dogs, cats, rabbits, rats and roaches are all occupants... PFD 1, 2 or 3 ??

How old is the dog and what size is the boat? Will it be in the cabin or out the back? Anchored or underway? Oh wait, that's for children (seriously, kids on water means jackets on kids). There are no rules for dogs as far as I am aware. I guess it depends on how much you value your dog. Take into account not just how well your dog swims but how difficult it might be to get it back on board. Both of mine, (x-kelps) have jackets and the handles on the back make it so much easy to manhandle them.