Yachting Monthly - April 2016

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POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building,

110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU

Please send us your letters in less than 200 words

A BOTTLE OF RUM

The letter of the month

wins a bottle of Pusser’s Rum,

produced to Admiralty specification

and served daily to every sailor in the

Royal Navy for more than 300 years

(UK residents only) http://www.pussers.com

WIN

LETTERS

Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/letters

If your batteries die and your chartplotter

powers down, a smartphone app can save the

day, writes Andrew Thomson

Navigating when the

batteries have gone flat

Another answer to the ‘Question of the month’

(Jan 16) is the free Saildroid app (others are

available). I do not own a tablet or handheld

GPS, but if I did lose all power and thus the

A small petrol generator gives you power on

tap when you’re sailing off-grid

use of the chartplotter and GPS, the Saildroid

smartphone app provides a GPS fi x anywhere,

regardless of mobile reception. It’s a quick and

reliable way of confi rming that the estimated

position on the paper chart is correct, for free.

Andrew Thomson

I bought Venezia, my fi rst boat, three years

ago. I attended an RYA diesel maintenance

course, had all the right tools and spares,

but due to time pressure I had the engine

serviced by a local marine engineer. I felt

confi dent that I could change anything in

an emergency and off I went.

This year I decided that I would service

the engine myself. Getting the drain plug

out of the pre-fi lter was a fi ddle, and only

by chance did I have a small enough bottle

to drain fuel into. Then I had to reseat

the fi lter and ended up with a quite a

leak. Finally, when I started the engine, it

didn’t run for long because I hadn’t pulled

enough fuel through with the lift pump.

It’s very lucky that the fi rst time I

changed the fi lters and impeller wasn’t

in rough sea near a lee shore. I am now

wracking my brains for any other jobs that

I may need to do in an emergency so that I

can practice in a marina berth.

Simon Fawthrop

6 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com APRIL 2016

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Can you

perform under

pressure?

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK

The pre-fi lter catches gunk from the fuel

tank and needs checking regularly. How

accessible is yours?

‘Bump start’ an engine

In the Question of Seamanship How would you

cope with fl at batteries? (Feb 16) there is an

assumption in Bill’s reply that no consideration

would be given to starting the engine. Perhaps

that is the case in modern yachts. However,

faced with this problem in our 30-plus year-

old Rustler 31, I would at least try.

The original Bukh engine has a hand

start with decompression. If we’re sailing

fast enough it can be ‘bump started’ off the

propeller. I should add that a secondary iPad,

emergency navigation lights with batteries,

handheld VHF radio and paper charts could

be used. Have I lost the skills to use them

properly? Probably. I will now be looking for a

suitable torch and handheld GPS, just in case...

David Durling

WWW.TIMEINCUKCONTENT.COM

PHOTO: TERRY BAILEY

Portable power

Bill’s Question of Seamanship about fl at

batteries (Feb 16) highlights many private

nightmares. For those with the locker space I

recommend Honda’s small 1000w generator.

When spending days at anchor (I seldom

visit marinas) I set it up on the sidedeck for

the odd hour, and it copes with the electrical

drain caused by fridge or heater, depending

on the time of year. In a real emergency it can

recharge the batteries from fl at, enough to get

an engine start, in an hour or two. I run it with

the onboard 40A multi-stage charger using

the Honda’s 240v AC output rather than rely

on its small 12v DC output.

Terry Bailey

PHOTOS BELOW: DES McLINDON

Help identify

these buttons

In my large collection

of yacht club buttons,

these two have remained

unidentifi ed for a number

of years. Is it possible,

bearing in mind your large

circulation, to print the

images in the hope that

someone, somewhere will

recognise them?

Des McLindon

PHOTOS BELOW: DES M

Which yacht

club do these

buttons

represent?