Mike Richardson

Had one of those on each of our cruisers. As far as I can recall the 'missing bung thing' is a threaded collar attached to the outer sleeve of the teleflex cable. The inner cable, which has a spiral outer wrap, goes around the outer edge of a gear inside the housing and the 'spare end' moves to and fro inside a length of transparent tubing fitted into the end of the existing threaded collar. I guess the tubing is there so that the loose end doesn't collect your instrument panel wiring on it's travels. I found the two lever control easier to set up on the Honda 7.5 and 9.9 outboards that we had. Mike

We have a 38W panel laid flat on the roof, together with a 10W panel hung vertically in a south facing window. We have 220Ah of domestic batteries together with a 90Ah starter battery, connected together when appropriate by a Gibbo Smartbank system. In summer the battery voltage usually exceeds 13V when we return to the boat, and last weekend on a murky and miserable day it was 12.7V. The two panels are doing what I wanted them to do, namely stopping self discharge between visits and helping to cut down engine running time in the summer. Obviously they won't keep up with our compressor fridge, but "every little helps"

Ah yes, a quick burst of nostalgia! Our first boat was a Fairline 19. Rambled all over the place from Lymm to Sharpness in it for six years until we bought a giant Buckingham 25 with full standing headroom. Great little boat, though, even though we only had a Honda 7.5 hung over the back end. Happy Days!

I reckon Bones is right, the resistance you feel probably comes from a shut-off cock underneath the pump between the sump drain and the bottom of the pump. Mine has a brass screw-in seal in the spout as well.

I'll go along with bottle, it's nice to have an average sort of figure to work on. My 20hp Beta manages between 4.5 to 5.2 hours to the gallon measured tankful to tankful over eight years. The dipstick is calibrated with notches marking off 10% of the depth of the tank. Since it's a Liverpool shell with a curvey back end that's as close as I reckon it needs to be. I also have one of those fuel consumption gizmos on my Toyota, but I try not to look at it first thing in the morning and when climbing long hills

Hi Mike, I bought the 13mm non-adhesive stuff from TW Marine and used Timebond (by Evostick) and aluminium channel around the edges to stop it peeling off. Six years plus and no problems yet. Timebond is IMHO easier to use, comes with a plastic spreader and gives you a chance to move it if your first stab isn't quite right.

We had a very pleasant few days there, like you. Every thing to hand, Pub, Shops, Chippie and the nice people at the Heritage boatyard for dealing with the bucket and chuckit. The only challenges were the long walk to get to the '8 til late' for the papers, at least the pub was closer <vbg>. We found the walk to the top of Mow Cop well worth the view, but the walk back down really hurt . . . . . We'll look out for you to give you a wave next time we're heading in the Chester direction. Mike

Hi all, 'Corkscrew', Paula? Was it you we were stuck with above the breach on the Macc some years back? 1999 I think it was. We started off in 1981 with a 19ft Fairline, 'Teide' and followed that in 1987 with a 25ft Buckingham, 'Calypso' We had these two for seventeen years before getting our present 35ft nb 'Kingsbridge' in 1998 when I was made an offer I couldn't refuse by my employer at that time, (nice people !) Still looking at the classifieds but commonsense will probably rule.