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...

In my debilitating sea sickness incident, I wasn't sick or even thinking I would be sick. It was just a general feeling of awfulness and wanting to die to end it.

There is already a thread here on the subject from earlier this year.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=132859&p=822757&hil ... ss#p822757

The petition mentioned is here

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300139

Severe seasickness is an an absolutely appalling sensation. Those who are immune are very lucky. I have suffered on long night passages in sailing yachts, and have lain in the bilges all night, not caring if i lived or died. It can be that serious. Agreed 100% I've never been seasick in a kayak, bu...

Ah, interesting. I wasn't aware of that feature, certainly better than fumbling for a phone. When I see people saying that their phone is their emergency contact option, I wonder whether they've actually ever tried to use their phone in conditions where the protective case is getting splashed with w...

I wasn’t aware that any of the Garmin watches had a “quick and reliable one press emergency action” even when paired with a phone for communication.

I don't think it was a gap in the sealant that is now being washed out. All the sealant on all the hatch rims weeps when water is on the surface of the sealant. This video shows the sealant on the day hatch, which at the moment doesn't leak and has no visible signs of a void. It is hard to see the s...

The covers and the rims themselves aren't leaking, I identified where the leak was by pulling a vacuum in the compartment. You could then hear the air rushing in through the leaky spot and covering the spot stopped the vacuum from diminishing. Further, when I applied sealant over the voids (in my pr...

I tried that today, though with 3M 5200 rather than Sikaflex. The sealant, even on a nice hot day, was too viscous to get through the needle. I have also tried using a vacuum to draw the sealant into the gap (by heating the air inside the boat and then putting the hatch cover on). But again it looks...

I've got a couple of hatch rims with a leak and I've identified where it is leaking, there are small voids between the rim and the deck in one spot on each rim. The voids are just small enough to be hard to see visually, but large enough to squeeze the tip of a 1mm syringe need into and move it abou...

I should be clear that I have no evidence that either of my skegs were actually leaking. I was investigating rear compartment leaks on both boats and I added sealing around the skeg tubes before I’d tracked down other leaks (one had hull damage, the other had a tiny void in the sealant round the hat...

I believe with both our Tideraces the tube just disappears into the black sleeve without any sort of clamping/locking.

However I can't check because they are both sealed up with either self-amalgamation tape or Sugru now...

High vis vest, but with a cheap karabiner holding it on to the toggle as I got bored with looping it round the toggle every time 😉 Though I'm about to change my toggles to the single cord design, so I'll have to start clipping into the deck lines instead. I always have several high vis vests in the ...

I can’t remember if it is installed by default or not, but it is free for all Macs.

Any short sit in boat will be easier to carry upstairs than a sit on, you just stick it on your shoulder, much easier than trying to wrestle a sit on up the stairs. The Wavesport I linked above is 17kg and not too bad to carry on the shoulder.

Another good option is a Wavesport Z, just a few inches longer than 8 foot, for a short boat is tracks better than you'd expect (I've got one I use occasionally). https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/wavesport-Z-kayak-black-age-related-scratches-but-still-solid/184363188364 Get something like that and a bit o...

No one knows at the moment, the second hand canoe/kayak market is in chaos this summer. 20 year old whitewater boats that would normally be under £150 are regularly selling for £350+, though occasionally they are still selling for normal money. As you say the post lockdown surge in demand has pushed...

8 foot is really short for a sit on, or even a non playboat sit in.

The RTM Mojito is just over 8 feet.

https://www.rtmkayaks.com/fiches-produits/mojito/

I'm trying to reduce the number of bits of cord clipped/tied to my BA ;)

Yeah, there is no way I'm fitting the EDF1 or the other omnidirectional LED flares in my BA. I do carry one of the small Greatland lasers in my BA, though I too have doubts over how usable they will be in real conditions. The LED flares really are a lot bigger, the laser fits in the smallest of BA p...

Given there are only around 100 PLB activations a year in the UK it wouldn't be too onerous a load on the DSC alerting throughput.

Hmmmm, maybe the DSC regulations aren't as restrictive as I thought, given these man-over-board signals send a DSC alert.

https://www.force4.co.uk/item/Ocean-Sig ... IS-DSC/D9K

So yes, I want a PLB with built in DSC alerts please.

I really wish it was possible to have a PLB with a builtin DSC transmitter that sent a DSC mayday at the same time as the satellite signal is sent. That would be technically reasonably easily achievable (the PLB already has a VHF transmitter for the homing signal that the RNLI use), but all the regu...

Does anyone have any real world battery life figures on the HX40 ? It has over twice the battery capacity of the HX300 (1850 mAh at 7.4 V vs 1500 mAh at 3.7 V), but the standby current is listed at 100 mA, which is five times the standby current listed for the HX300 ! The HX40 manual doesn't appear ...

I'm tempted to replace one of our two HX300s with a HX40, because it is so much smaller and would make life easier in the situations that I've got my VHF in my BA pocket. I'd still take the HX300 on a multi day trip though, so much easier to charge than bringing the charging base for the HX40 (given...