After a magical sailing season last year, we have decided to trade up to a bigger boat and that means that we need to sell Welia. This does feel a bit like we’re parting with one of the family!
For more information, please visit http://welia.info.
After a magical sailing season last year, we have decided to trade up to a bigger boat and that means that we need to sell Welia. This does feel a bit like we’re parting with one of the family!
For more information, please visit http://welia.info.
I’ve been looking into the best method for attaching sheets to the foresail. Metal shackles are dangerous and can rip holes in sails, bowlines are unreliable knots when not under pressure, and a continuous line looped in the middle through the clew is likely to compress the clew over time.
The ideal solution appears to be to splice soft eyes into the end of each sheet, and attach them to the clew with a “soft shackle”. Being a lover of knots, I thought I’d give it a go and this was my first attempt. The surprising thing was the cost – I used 5mm Marlow Excel Vectram 12, at a cost of £5.91 per metre, which is enough to make a single soft shackle. The reason is the strength 5mm Vectram has a similar strength to 10mm braid on braid, 2400kgs breaking strain.
I followed the instructions in this video, which resulted in a 5 inch loop, too short for the intended purpose. A second attempt with a 7 inch loop looks long enough; although I have not yet tried it on the boat. The next step will be to splice soft eyes into each sheet.
Our built-in De-Dietrich microwave over has been broken for weeks. Initially the door catch had broken, but a replacement catch DIY-fitted had not fixed the problem.
De-Dietrich’s service agent wanted £195 to come out and fix the oven – a ludicrous price for a 13 year old microwave. Other appliance repair centres would either not repair microwave ovens at all, or particularly excluded De-Dietrich.
Fortunately one such appliance repair person recommended that we contact Visual Eyes in Farnham, Surrey. We did so, and the next day a nice man came and fixed our oven for £40.
Great service, thank you Visual Eyes.