Air bags were mentioned a few posts back by Owen.

And yes, I agree they are an extremely good idea. I always keep a large 40 litre one rolled up in my day hatch, along with a roll of extra thick cling film to wrap around the boat to seal it into the hatch opening (thanks Howard Jeffs for that tip).

112. It’s an emergency item hardwired into mobile phones that bypasses all the financial/business stuff to get you out of deep shit without having to give credit card details. I may be wrong but there is always someone to point this out on here :) Ok, I can see the confusion here. When you dial 999...

There is a system on our smart phones to bypass stuff in an emergency that does much the same stuff? Not sure what you're on about there ? Your mobile can: - receive GPS signals to locate itself - talk to a cell tower to communicate with the outside world If you aren't in range of a cell tower your...

I wasn't saying that they were hard to find, they aren't, RS Components carry them for example. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/speciality-size-rechargeable-batteries/8801558/ (they are twice around the price of quality unprotected cells of the same capacity, though still not expensive in the grand s...

18650 cells rarely have protection circuitry

I’ve also run into the mobile deny listing today, for the first time. I’ve been using mobile internet for our home internet for over a year. First time I’ve seen the deny list kick in, I guess there must have been some updates to the list on UK mobile IPs recently.

I know it is the done thing in model aircraft, but you’ll find USB battery packs don’t generally charge the cells separately.

It isn't clear* that that buck converter has any battery protection in it. A standard powerbank doesn't just have a buck converter in it, it also has battery protection circuitry in it to turn off the output when the charge in the batteries gets too low. Without this protection circuitry you will da...

Many VHF radios are limited to lower power transmission when running from the AA adapter. Not sure if that applies to the HX851e. Possibly not an issue, as from what I can tell, most of the time line of site for a kayaker is a lot more relevant than whether you're transmitting at 5 watts vs 1 watt. ...

Our Xtra-HV is a bit of a tighter fit, you'd probably need to move the seat back quite a bit for foot comfort. Our Romany Surf would fit you.

A Xplore-L will certainly fit, though depending on the leg length you might need to move the seat back a touch to get size 11.5 feet in. I'm 6'2", have been 110kg and I fit with size 12 boots (normally wear size 10, but worn 12s for a bit after breaking my ankle).

The outer layer on our Corelite-X is noticeably softer than any of the single layer plastic boats we have. It is also very thin, I’d probably not chose it for a boat I expected to rub against rocks on a regular basic.

The weight differences certainly aren’t massive, our Corelite-X canoe is maybe 15% lighter than the equivalent single layer boat.

It isn’t quite as simple as how much stiffer it is, as boats using triple layer also tend to be thinner, to trade off stiffness against weight. So what you often have is a lighter boat that is a bit stiffer.

One of the handy things about some lead acid batteries is that the terminals are a long way apart:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lead-aci ... s/5375450/

Which is a very handy feature if you think you might occasionally be splashing salt water over the setup ;)

A charger pack of similar dimensions also has around the same 24 watt-hour capacity as the above lead acid battery. The lithium cells themselves have a much higher energy density than the lead acid cells. But the packaging of the charger packs adds a lot of extra bulk in physical protection, connect...

Sounds like they were probably paddling playboats, extremely short boats designed for playing waves and doing acrobatic "freestyle" tricks. They get away with being a lot shorter as you tend to have you knees higher in them than normal boats. Even then, I've still only found one playboat that my leg...

While the local clubs aren't open, you might still find local coaches doing social distanced 1-to-1 coaching sessions, which might be a good way to help you get back on the water.

The D75 was the largest of the previous generation Diesel. I've got a Diesel 80, which is the largest of the current generation. The D75 is a little bit smaller than the 80, but should* fit you fine. You never no for sure until you sit in a boat though. * guessing at fit isn't as simple as just look...

The boats you probably want to look at are the so called crossover ones. They have whitewater style hulls, that have been stretched in length to make them more enjoyable for long trips and to add storage. The two obvious examples are the Pyranha Fusion and the Wave Sport Ethos. The Fusion comes in S...

The RescueMe PLB1 provides a GPS test feature to check it can get a GPS fix, which they recommended you use no more than once a year (as it uses a fair amount of battery).

I expect some other PLBs have similar test modes.

These are dirt cheap and keep the water out of my ears.

Do you have any pictures of the MarSport mount in use, I cannot make any sense of how it might work from their product shot.

Or a vicious circle, it is far harder to practice to gain the finesse needed to roll before you can actually roll ;) And many people stop trying to find the finesse once they can roll, leading to them being stuck with an "ugly" (we've all seen that brute force "I will force myself upright" sort of r...

if the upright fails, the boat is still strapped to the bar. (Another reason not to like J bars - the boat is only strapped to the J bar). Not the way I use my J bars. The strap goes through the hole at the top of the J bar, around the boat, through the hole in the bottom of the J bar and then roun...

I feel that any kind of V or J cradle adds a significant additional height that you must overcome to get the boat on and off, and I'd find that much too awkward with my dodgy back. It really depends on the J bars. Lots of them to add very significant additional height, but I use the KCS ones, which...

I've emailed Ivan all the details, just waiting to hear back from him/Nelo.

It would make more sense if the HX40 had significant extra features, but beyond having to drive a dot matrix display rather than segments it has basically the same features if I remember correctly.

That's disappointing and very surprising. Newer hardware, doing the exact same job as the older hardware, normally uses less power not massively more !

I guess it really does have a standby current five times larger than the HX300.

A very odd backwards step.

I was planning on getting in touch with you about it this week Ivan. It feels like the issue is getting more noticeable, you only need a tiny bit of water on the sealant to get that running mascara look now, I'm pretty sure it wasn't noticeable when first picked it up from you last autumn, if it was...