Recent content by Hoolie

We use our wide brim Bunnings straw hats brought back from Aus. They're considered plebian in Australia as they are widely used by road repair crews and other outdoor workers but they're good quality and practical so who cares? Not us!

I think it's readily available here in France too, but I haven't bought any recently as I'm still using the 25kg bag I bought on UK eBay!

I agree polypropylene should never be used for rigging. IMO it's only use is towing a dinghy where a floating line will minimise tangles round the prop!

I've seen silver painting as well and as pointed out above is hardly distinguishable from aluminium frames, certainly not from a distance.

We had wet bilges when we acquired the boat but not on the scale you describe. Two causes; water heater without an expansion tank leaked a bit through the PRV every time it heated up and the water pump aluminium body was fractured slightly on the high pressure side and constantly leaked. Both...

In the chart options tab you can set the level of detail that you prefer for various zoom settings, though I'm a bit puzzled by your screenshots as they have little detail apart from the depths. I think the manual will give you a better idea of what you can do.

We're having a replacement sprayhood cover made in France for our 40ft. Cost at about £2400 is on the high side but it is a big three rail cover and has to be made from scratch as the old cover is completely shot. The cost includes making a made to measure template out of plastic sheet and...

Contact o-charts directly via their website as they have a reputation for being very helpful!

Yep. I have Mediterranean France and Spanish charts for the western Med regularly updated for free during the first year of validity. O-charts was specifically set up and run by the OpenCPN development team to provide up-to-date and legitimate charts based on the various hydrographic organisations.

BTW do you know that sold items can be included in an eBay search if you tick the right box? Very useful for seeing what the actual prices were as opposed to the optimistic asking prices.

Back to the OP's question. I bought one earlier in the year on eBay for £49+postage. Good condition, no bubble and two mounting brackets/wedges.

We have a similar, but a lot larger, solid rudder. It has at times been subject to impact so personally I wouldn't dream of replacing it with something less robust!

I don't really need any extra kit as the boat PC will drive the autopilot via the N2K bus. My comment was in respect of a backup capability that might be better than simple manual control via the P70s

My application for the Element 7S that I have is for displaying instrument data at the helm and to provide a backup if the boat PC or its 24" HD monitor pack up. I can transfer waypoints and routes from the PC rather tediously using a micro SD card which I do before starting out on a planned...

Have you looked at the price and spec of the Element 7 currently offered by CactusNav for less than £374 ? Where can you get a rugged waterproof 12v tablet with a 1500 nits display for that price? For cockpit use there‘s no contest! It also connects directly to a N2K AIS receiver. BTW I don‘t...