The March Scottish Cruise

With plans almost finalised, the new season is imminent.

Albatross lies happily in Troon with a freshly painted bottom and yet another March heatwave now appears a certainty.
David will join us on 19^thMarch for a week and will leave his dog at home.
First stop may be in East Loch Tarbert (or anywhere really).
After a trip through the Crinan Canal  (probably) on 20^th March, we will head up the coast, possibly stopping at Oban, Tobermory, Arisaig, Plocton, Portree and eventually Ullapool.

One day we may arrive in the Orkney Islands.

The Crinan Canal last year (photo by Ann  .. thanks)

Friends interested in a week or two of sailing in the Western Isles after 26^th March, please do let us know.


Please remember that this trip will be entirely dog-free.

Anodes for Anoraks

Happy New Year everyone!

We've been to Troon.  Yes, really.

We went to Troon for a holiday. 

We considered the Canaries or the Caribbean but ended up in Troon because Albatross needed her bottom painted.

Now, some might have asked whether it worth driving 450 miles each way and paying for three very nice nights in a hotel (the excellent South Beach Hotel in Troon), just to paint the boat’s bottom. 

It isn't really, but we went anyway.

Albatross in Troon

Anyway, back to anodes.  

In my humble opinion the most ridiculously overpriced bit of metal on our boat is the anode on our "Autoprop" propeller. 

Zinc costs a little over $2000 per tonne on the LME http://www.lme.com/zinc.asp. 

My propeller anode weighed about 250 grams when new.  So, roughly, that’s about 4000 anodes for $2000 or about 32 pence each.  

So why are they retailed in UK at £23.00 plus VAT (plus P&P)?  

That’s over 70 times the cost of the metal. 

Well, of course, there’s the manufacture of this technological masterpiece and the plastic screws to hold it on.

Oh, and a profit margin.

Here’s my old Brunton’s Autoprop H5 anode (aka "The Trinket")

What’s truly remarkable to me is that this year my Brunton’s Autoprop anode (thanks Google) lasted the whole season.  Previously, we found that they were heavily depleted in only a few months. 

The reason for new-found success relied on my ignorance of the difference between the Galvanic Series for Metals and the Electrochemical Series.  By using the later (in error), I worked out that attaching an Aluminium anode  (£10 for 960 gm. .. that’s more like it) to the hull and connecting this through the engine to my Autoprop, I could stop this expensive metal trinket from corroding away so quickly. 

Apparently this shouldn't have worked, was bad practice etc., and was generally "not a good thing to do". 

Anyway, it worked.