Burnham or bust!

This weekend, my brother-in-law and family were at Burnham sailing club for an Optimist dinghy event, with their daughter (my niece) R. So we decided to try and head for Burnham this weekend with an early afternoon arrival, so that we could pop over and say hello... The tides were fairly OK, with a rather pleasant 07h00 start being optimum on Saturday, but a slightly less pleasant 04h00 start best for Sunday..... So after finishing work on Friday, we set off down to the boat at about 17h00..... half way to Ipswich we remember that we have completely forgotten about the empty gas bottle from last weekend.... not only are we going to be struggling to get a replacement bottle, but I don't have a spanner or adjustable or anything on board big enough to undo the retaining nut (its propane, so bolts on, not with a self sealing regulator like butane)..... bugger. So we start a process of pulling in to every petrol station we pass to see if they sell gas in bottles..... nope. We found one that did, but he only had butane... he didn't sell regulators otherwise I would have seriously considered cutting the propane regulator off and fitting a butane one, even though the bottle wouldn't have fitted in the gas locker..... As we approached Ipswich, we started visiting the marinas.... they were all shut until we reached Levington, which was open, and joy above joy, had the required 3.9Kg propane bottles in stock..... We finally got to the boat at about 22h30, and with a bit of effort, some heath robinson engineering, and a bit of luck, I managed to unscrew the old bottle, and fit the new one.... (we bought a new bottle, as well as the gas, so that we now have a spare)..... thank goodness... coffee! So, the kids go straight to bed, and we settle ourselves down.... in bed with lights out by 00h30...bit late, but at least we are set... weather is promising a NE 14kts tommorrow.... downwind, but not too strong.... We set various alarm clocks to wake us up, and are a bit slow in notifying the lock master who has the rotating road across the lock, and so, don't get out until 07h30.... half an hour later than planned, but OK.... by 09h00 we have passed Harwich, and the sails are up.... we reach across past Walton-on-the-Naze... marvellous stuff, tide assisted, we are hitting the high part of 8kts... as we round Walton, it freshens to 20kts, and we are treated to a classic Northerly wave pattern, with short sharp breaking waves... so up into the wind, and a couple of reefs in the main, and a few turns in on the genny settles her nicely..... but, we are now dead downwind for the next 15nm.. so we get a roller coaster ride.... C turns green, goes quiet, which is a warning sign, and 3nm in, has chucked up.... seems to sort her out though... she's back to her normal bright bubbly self after that.... We eventually make our way through the Wallet Spitway at about 11h30, the tide is in full flow, and given that it is a HUGE tide, we have to really work the boat to stay in this narrow channel... its deep enough. At worst we measured 3.5m under the keel, but I am aware that you don't need to be far off track to hit the bottom, so real caution... As we leave the Spitway, we turn towards Burnham, taking the more southerly route, marked with Cardinals and channel markers.... its actually easier than I thought.... the marks are quite a way apart, and in this short sea, impossible to see from more than about 1nm away, but, I had the presence of mind to put them into the GPS the night before as way points, so no worries. It is back to dead downwind, and the wind has settled at a steady 20kts now, rather than peaking at 20kts, so we rock and roll for another 7nm into Burnham.... We drop the sails, perhaps a little too soon, being overly cautious, so the last 1nm is a real wobble..... Eventually, we are safely into Burnham Yacht Harbour at 14h00, and wander over to the sailing club..... we sit and chew the fat with new and old friends for a few hours, and eventually wander back to the boat at about 19h00, with my brother-in-law and family... we open a bottle of wine, and chat for a bit.... one of the other oppy parents has a very radical 1/4 tonner across on the next aisle of the marina, and as he delivers his rib back for the evening he is talked over, and joins us for a nice glass or two of wine..... turns out he's one of the Coxs of the lifeboat... great evening.... eventually we eat at about 21h00, a rather good spaghetti bolognaise, and the kids are soon after put to bed.... We both retire very early at 22h00, tired from the days sail, and aware of an early start. We have elected to miss the turn of the tide at 04h00, and set of at 05h00. Being very tired, we set 3 alarm clocks! (1 watch, 2 mobile phones)... We get up, get ready, and cast off, all within 1/4 of an hour...a perfect departure, neat, quiet, and incident free..... We set off up the river, fully ready to make the all important first coffee of the day, and bloody hell, there is one swell and a half coming up the river..... the forecast has promised F3 sea state slight.... looking out of the end of the river towards the sea, the horizon is showing ample evidence of something other than 'slight'... lumps are very visible on the horizon.... flick the wind gauge on the cockpit repeater.... 23kts... oh heck.... we are straight into it.... tide is running with us, and we have a classic wind against tide sea...... I decide to motor for a while.... firstly we are in a quite narrow channel, secondly, its blowing its nuts off, thirdly, the kids are in bed still, so a 45 deg heel, through the lumpy stuff will not be that kind on them...... After 3 hours of pitching and bouncing, we have made it through the spitway in the other direction.... very hard with a rolling sea, beam on.... sails might have helped here, but its less than 1nm from side to side, so not the end of the world.... depth did however get down to 0.9m under the keel!, so sea was challenging.... I was VERY careful, being extremely aware that we were on a falling tide that was very large.... When we turned north again in the wallet, we decided to carry on motoring.... it would have been tough on SWMBO if we had sailed, as she isn't an experienced sailor, and we don't yet have self tailing winches, so each tack would be hard work, and there would be plenty of them in the wallet channel.... The kids have now arisen from their slumber, and are on deck, suitably equipped (as are we) with lifejackets, and in their case, also lanyards.... they sit under the sprayhood, and enjoy the motion.... We are paying the price for not having sails up, and the boat is being tossed around, and eventually C succumbs again.... a good heave, and she is OK.... it was to be repeated a further 3 times, but then she was OK and cheerful throughout... shes a good kid...... We still had the tide heaving us north, and we made good time, averaging 5 knots over the ground.... glad we had the tide with us though, as the short steep swell/chop was killing our boat speed over the water, being under engine... Soon enough, we are just 2nm from the Walton headland, where we can put a load more westerly in our course, and free onto a reach.... but we pay the price for refusing to get up at 04h00, and the last 2 miles see the tide turning, and we make a pitiful 1.5 knots over the ground.... the sea however has settled significantly with the change of tide, and things are a lot more comfortable.... as we round the Walton headland, with its very conspicuous tower, we debate setting the sails for the short reach into Harwich.... after some debate, we decide against it, both being tired and worn down by the previous 6 hours of boat motion.... It was more my call in honesty, and I decided that we were too tired and inexperienced to be safe in 25kts of wind....accidents happen in those kinds of environments.... I do occasionally glance slightly enviously at the other boats now around us, clearly enjoying the windy reaches..... but I also noted that virtually all of them had more than the 2 people sailing on board..... I did also feel slightly embarressed, at being one of the only boats out there under engine! So, as we cleared Languard point, we found lovely flat water again, and motored up the river.... the tide was in full flood, so we got a swift ride.... 6.3 knots over the ground... and we also got only our 3rd hot drink of the day, it being previously just too rough to make too many...... We are treated to a bonus, with the lock being on free flow, and so we are quickly back on our berth... the wind is blowing us on for a change, and we execute a near perfect arrival! By 15h00, we are packed, and various items are decamped back to the car..... we all climb in, I turn the key... Click...... Click...... Click..... Oh no, just what I don't need..... seems we've managed to leave the internal lights on.... nobody remembers switching them on.... maybe we knocked the switch on the way out... one of lifes mysteries... fortunately, the marina office have a darned great big tractor battery, and set of gigantic jump leads, so we are soon started, and on our way...... SWMBO apologises for not making cheese sandwiches for the journey home..... its was just too rough she says...... I think we should let her off this time don't you?...! Another great weekend.... our conclusion though, that 71nm is a little too much in a 2 day weekend when cruising with the kids...... perfect for a 3 day weekend though.... And following Silkies lead..... Passage this weekend - 71nm Season to date - 283nm

Berth building

I’ve been getting grief from SWMBO about finishing the forepeak…. Firstly, we’ll get an extra two berths, making a total of 7, so we can have friends come along more easily, and secondly, and probably more urgently, we can get the kids to bed, and still have the lights on!… so we can actually read again in the evenings, rather than be forced into either the cockpit, or sitting is a state of semi darkness! So I’ve order the materials to do it today….. £70 of stainless screws, resins, hardeners, pumps, mixing pots and thickening agents, and a further £160 of various forms of timber to get.... I am getting that from a local timber merchant simply because its not easy to get full size sheets delivered, and I have found a local timber specialist that can supply marine grade ply...... SWMBO has committed to making the cushions… we have the material.. (we bought a load on ebay… enough to recover all the cushions on the boat), but still need to get the foam…. That’s also bloody expensive….. Still, it’ll make the boat a whole load more useable, make it a whole load more fun for the kids by giving them their own private space, and give us a load of additional storage space in all the lockers under the berth…..

Message in a bottle

A friend of mine is raising money for basic material like paper and pens for schools around the more deprived parts of the world, with a really creative idea...

Its a really worthy cause, and its a great way of helping... leaning on a well used african phrase 'give a man fish, and he shall eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life'... so please visit him at www.stingo.co.uk and make a small donation... thanks...

Turn up the heat!

What a weekend! Its not often you get a weekend in the UK where its still 85 deg at 20h00...! So, we got down to the boat Friday night, and after a bit of messing about, including taking the kids for a row in the new tender, we put them to bed, and enjoyed a pleasant summer evening sat out in the cockpit.... I replaced the diode, and measured 13.3V at the batteries with the engine running..... humhhhh.... mind you, they are absolutely charged to the top after a week on shore power... Saturday morning sees us up and about at 07h00... no mean feat after being disturbed at 04h00 by the stupid idiots runnign around on the quay, blind drunk, playing football with an empty beer can.... After the neccessary showers etc (it was quite hot overnight, and very humid!).. we slipped at about 08h00 in rapidly rising temperatures, locked out, all painlessly (read - no mistakes!) and proceeded up the Orwell under engine due to an absence of wind...... by 09h30 we were motoring past Shotley, with a bit of wind filling in, so we hoisted the sails, and shut down the engine... ah.. peace.... now, the wind had filled in, but it was hardly blowing a gale, so we ended up sailing directly to Pye End beacon, marking the entrance to Walton Backwaters.... this took us over an hour, so we dropped the sails as we rounded Pye End, and motored up the channel to the Twizzle entrance, and started looking for an anchorage....there were quite a few boats in there, but still plenty of space.... it was just after high water, so needed careful checking of depths throughout teh entire swinging area.... as we motored past Stone Point and its lovely beach, we spot Sailorman from the forum... or at least his boat anyway.... I motor past, and yell "Hello Roger"... blank looks allround.... ow 'eck... I haven't gone and got the wrng boat have I? So we find a deep spot behind Sailorman, and turn round to make an approach... and some cheeky bugger nips in, and drops his hook right in fron of eyes...... So we have to go a bit further and eventually find a lovely spot.... down goes the anchor, 20m of chain, and 3m warp in 7m water... ideally i'd like a bit more scope, but this end of the Twizzle is only 100m wide at low water, so swinging space is limited...and with the weather forecast, I expect a lot of boats to arrive..... As the boat is settling on its anchor a tender buzzes over..... "Hello, its Sailorman.... It was my Son yu waved at.... he wonder who the hell you were!"...mystery solved... After an hour or so around midday, we are happy that we are holding, and have got ourselves sorted, and decamped into the tender.... we row ashore to find an absolutely lovely beach, that is onkly accessible via a boat, so very spacious, and a real sense of camaraderie.... Sailorman turns up with his Grandkids in tow, and we set about making camp, drinking cold beer, and generally relaxing.... As only kids can do, within 10 mins, they have formed a possy with a dozen other kids, and are merrily splashing about, rowing a tender backwards and forwards, and generally having a really good time! 6 hours later, after a good barbeque, with as ever, more food than you could possibly eat, we've had enough of the beach... its been well into the 90s all day, and everyone is a little red, but very very happy. Sailormans son has brought along his dog, Charlie, a delightful Jack Russell, with a lovely nature... I can honestly say, I have never seen a dog look so tired!... he was walking back along the beach with his head hung low, and his eyes half shut.... complete exhaustion! We get back to the boat, along with the obligatory buckets of shells, and several killos of unwanted sand hiding in shoes, towels, clothes, etc etc, and settled back in.... A very pleasant evening meal, and we eventually put the kids to bed..... it was just as the sun dipped, and we are treated to a spectacular sunset... a glowing red orb, disappearing behind the beautiful suffolk countryside with a long reflection tailing across the river, and absolute peace...... We, yet again, settle down to quiet evening.... sat and read for a while... heaven.... And then the magic.... as the light faded away to dusk, the various anchor lights are set, and the river starts to twinkle... no sound other than the gentle frapping of a few halyards, a perfect moonlight evening.... makes you want to beome a poet.... About 23h00, the tide reaches high water, and we start to swing.... I notice that we seem closer to the neighbouring boat than previously... might just be down to swinging patterns, but, no after some checking, we have dragged about 40m on the change of tide.... its holding again, but we are a bit close to our neighbour, and the water depth has shallowed considerably.... we decide to reset, back in our earlier spot, and disturb the peace by firing up our engine... SWMBO is under strict orders... I'll wind in the anchor, and as I feel it lift off the bottom, I'll signal, and she will give it enough throttle to just stem the tide and work our way back up to the earlier spot..... I wind, feel it lift, and give the signal.... revs increase, and the boat simply starts drifting backwards towards the shore.... cripes!... I run back to the cockpit.... ah. I did tell her to give it some revs, but we have a two lever engine control, and I had failed to mention that she needed to put it in gear first!.... problem solved, we motor to our spot, and drop the hook.... it bites, and we settle back... perfect 7.0m of water.... hang on, we must have dropped a few meters short of before.... 6.0m.. thats OK.... 5.0m..... 4.0m.... 3.0m.... we need 4.9m at high water to avoid going aground.... I rush back to raise the anchor again.... SWMBO is now in full panic mode.... the depth gauge is now reading 0.3m...... clearly we have gone too far over to the east, and are sitting over the shelf..... hard to spot when the tide is right in, and covering it.... so we yet again motor forward, and drop again..... this time she settles in 7.5m of water, and stays there.... great, we have found the deep water..... Something just seemed wrong to me, and I couldn't workout what.... eventually I twig, and look over the stern to see absolutely no water coming out of the exhaust..... shit! I stop teh engine.. good job I spotted it, as we don't have a temperature alarm on the engine.... as its so old, it was built before alarms were invented! (only joking)... After SWMBO has calmed down, I check the inlet strainer to find it absolutely bunged solid with various bits of seaweed and sealife... I clear it... hopefully thats solved the problem... I am a bit worried about the impellor having run dry, but its too late to disturb everyone again, so I elect to leave it until the morning, working on the theory that I can run the engine if we drag again for a couple of mins without doing too much harm.... At 07h30, the kids raise us.... I haven't had a good nights sleep, worrying about the anchor dragging again and its seems very early....however, upon removing the washboards and blinking in the already strong sunlight, I find many other crews already up.... clearly this anchorage, and its proximity to the beach means that lots of kids are aboard! I run teh engine to find to my delight, a healthy flow of water out of the exhaust... she might be old this engine, but she's a tough old bird! We wave to Sailorman, and his family, as they weigh anchor, and leave on the now high water...... our kids want another foray ashore, so we nip ashore for a final hour on the beach.... already its really hot, and people are working their way ashore from the various boats... The channel out of Walton can be quite shallow, so we want to leave reasonably soon, to avoid too much risk, and therfore get back to the boat (with more unwanted sand!), and get her ready. Eventually we weigh anchor at about 10h30, and motor off out... as we round the channel marker, where the channel turns North we find a lovely 6 knot breeze, so up goes the sails, and off goes the engine.... silence is returned.... the tide is with us, and we are flying along.... 5.5 knots over the ground, tight on the wind... to my delight we sail over and past several similar sized boats.... this is good stuff..... We sail up past Harwich, and eventually decide to gybe around, and head for home...a reasonably early finish is in order, as the kids have their school sports day on Monday, and they are both tired! We free off the sails, against the tide, and with the loss of apparent wind, we are making precisely 0.0kts over the ground, so I furl the genny, crank in the main, and on omes the engine.... as we motor back across the channel, we see a particularly large container vessel coming out of Harwich, so it worked out OK anyway, as we would have had to fire up the donkey even if we had persevered under sail..... We gradually work our way into Harwich, along the preferred yacht track, and slowly creep past the docks, and into the quieter, prettier river... its slow going... we still have half the ebb to fight against, but we are making progress.... the wind has picked up a bit, so I free of the main slightly, and she powers up, and goes again..... In the distance, I can now see sailorman again, and we aren't catching him up.... he looks like he isn't running his engine, but has 2 sails up.... I don't want to do that, as its almost a run, and I would like to rig a preventer on that tack... but with SWMBO pretty much a beginner, its a lot for her to do when we need to gybe... and its a busy bit of water on a Sunday afternoon, so we could piotentially need to gybe at fairly short notice..., and we do suffer the ocassional idiot, who has a powerful motor boat, and likes to thrash up the channel at full pelt, despite the 6kt speed limit, and both create huge wash, causing accidental gybes, and also create a bad name for the vast majority that are considerate and sensible..... As we come through past Woolverstone, sailorman gybes back.... looks like he's either doing an MOB drill, or perhaps just furling his genny..... yep he's furling his genny, but we have caught him up, and exchange waves again.... he motors behind us... SWMBO puts the kettle on... or rather doesn't... the gas has run out, and we don't have a spare bottle.... tahnk god it happened now, and not yesterday! As we near the Orwell bridge, we have to firstly get out of the channel to let a cargo vessel through, and then head up to drop the main.... Sailorman does the same, and we both pass under the bridge, and he peels off to his marina, while we carry of teh extra 1/4mile to ours. We lock through, and head for the fuel berth at haven..... we wait nearly 3/4 hour for them to get their cat together, but eventually we are full again, after spending £13 from pretty mch empty to completely full! Our berth, as usual causes us challenges... fortunately, the neighbouring berth is empty so we go on the one, and haul ourselves across..... Tired, well sun kissed (red!), and happy than I can possibly express in writing, we head for home........

changing plans

The forecast has swung round a little, with a wind direction ensuring that trip down to Burnham wouldn't be just an early start, but would also be straight into the wind, at 4 to 5kts.... not my idea of fun.... In the meantime, Sailorman from the forum has suggested a BBQ on Stone Point beach...... now ordinarily, this would be out of the question for us, as we don't have a tender.... but........ Tuesday evening, I went to look at a secondhand one, and bought it!..... yes, our options are now truly opened up... it was a red 2.7m Plastimo, in pretty good condition...... only negative thing is that it has a slatted floor rather than an inflatable one, but I can live with that, especially as we only paid £170 for it.... it can take up to an 8HP engine... that'll have to wait.. its rowing for now.... but at least we can all fit in...! So Stone Point on Saturday.... it'll be the first time i've anchored in 15 years, and the first time SWMBO has anchored full stop..... could be interesting.... at least I've checked the ground tackle.. its all OK... the winch works.... or at least the manual side does... haven't tested its electric motor yet..... and i've already marked the chain up at 3m intervals... we carry 20m chain, and 20m warp, so can anchor in aything up to about 10m with limited scope..... The water at Stone point is fairly steep to shingle, sand and mud, so holding is pretty good.... but i'm going to have to think pretty hard about where to drop the hook to avoid swinging into anyone, or the bottom! New diode has turned up, and its has completely different characteristics on the meter... near infinite resitance in one direction, and low the other.... i'll fit it this evening, and see if that fixes the charging prolems....

Magna in pictures

I just found this good photo of Magna Carter as we picked up her up at Bursledon Bridge for the delivery trip back to Ipswich...

weekend plans

Looking at what to do this weekend.... we are thinking of heading down towards Burnham.... its about 35 Miles, but tides aren't perfect for the outward trip... it'll mean an early start of around 04h30.... but its a lot more attractive for the return with a optimum departure at 09h00........ at least an 04h30 start means that we'll get the afternoon in Burnham.... its a nice simple passage, one little dog leg through a channel between sandbanks at the end of the journey, but otherwise pretty straightforward... Burnham itself looks very easy to enter, although I've never been in there...... We are also thinking long and hard about what we should do with a our week off in August.... its 9 days, and ideally we would like to cross the channel... I'm a little hesitatant as we have a very old liferaft that hasn't been serviced since god knows when.... and I wouldn't want to trust it..... affording a new one before then is out of the question... so either a very benign weather forecast might tempt us, or we stick to the UK side of the channel for this year, and buy a new liferaft over the winter.... Plenty to keep us occupied in the UK, perhaps a trip down to Eastbourne/Brighton? However, a crossing from Ramsgate or Dover to Dunkirk could be quite good fun....and then work our way up to Flushing, and staright back to Harwich... its possible... We'll see......

pottering about...

I went down to the boat last night, and spent a few hours pootling around doing little jobs here and there... Used some graphite spray on the sliders on teh main, and the main now falls down unaided... when I can afford a bosuns chair, i'll be able to re-rig the lazy-jacks I test hoisted the storm jib, thats all seems OK.... lubricated and serviced various bits and bobs of fixings.... freed up snap shackles etc etc I did a couple of slightly less pleasant jobs, particularly cleaning the oily water out from under the engine.... yuck.... I also started again the process of trying to track down why the alternator is not charging the batteries properly.... I tested out the cable between the alternator and the battery... measured 0.15 ohm so that looks OK... the excitor circuit is getting power at the switch... about 12.5V without any charge system running, so that seems OK... In the battery sensed excitor circuit is a diode to drop some additional voltage, and hence raise the output charging voltage....... well it looks like that might be the problem... its showing virtually no resistance in either direction.... surely not correct for a diode?.. although I am still measuring 12.5 V at the alternator end of the excitor circuit... my theory is that the diode has failed... a replacement is 24p... (plus £3 postage!) so its worth replacing anyway..... lets hope this solves the problem... Finally, I met up with the guy selling a wheel system Saturday morning.... its just what I was looking for, so £200 poorer, and I now have a wheel system.... given that I need to ideally drop the rudder to fit it, It wont happen until the autumn when the boat comes out of the water, but the pedestal and wheel looks a treat in the cockpit!

The Forepeak

this is what my forepeak looked like when we bought the boat.... I've taken half the sails home...




























they are hank on genoas and jibs of various sorts, and just kept the kites and storm jib on board.... the furling genny is fitted for the season! Since this photo, I have also removed the metal 'pulpit', and removed the pipecot berth that you can see of the port side....

glasswork

Well..... I've got the old pipecot fixings removed finally..... 4 hours with a blunt chisel, a hacksaw blade and sore hands finally saw the glassed on fitting removed... its all measured up.. so it getting on with ordering the wood now..... I've decided, following advice to glass the berths in rather than try to make up a frame.... should be interesting... I've done a bit of glasswork before, including widening the wings on an old glassfibre bodies car, so not too worried about doing it.... It will however, be fun in the confined space that is the forepeak!

Gardens and glass

This weekend, SWMBO has decreed that our ever growing garden, which is starting to resemble a wildlife reserve, needs some care and attention...... its serious enough that we've had to order a skip..... into it have gone quite a bit of green waste, including several small trees, and quite a few years of various tired garden toys for the kids.... memories all the way.... This evening, i'm off down to the boat solo to measure up the forepeak accurately, so that I can order the timber for my planned berth conversion, and to start removing the final pipecot bracket.... the one that looks most challenging..... While I'm there, I'll take a good look at the rudder set up with a view to whetehr or not to proceed with the wheel conversion So no sail this weekend, but work getting done... Next weekend may well be the same, weather permitting, I'm going to try and get on with starting the forepeak berths... that way we can have some friends along for the first time....

Wheel of fortune....

While I have a list of tasks/jobs that need doing as long as my arm, I am busily finding all sorts of other interesting jobs that aren't anywhere near as urgent, and getting on with them instead.... When we were shopping for a boat originally, we ummed and arred about whether we wanted a wheel or not, and part of the reason for ending up with a tiller was financial.... I however, have recently been pointed at a wheel kit that is for sale, that specification wise meets my needs exactly, and I am seriously considering whether or not to have ago at fitting it...... I am thinking that it will firstly make the steering a bit more fun for the kids and SWMBO, but also that it won't do the re-sale value any harm either. The cockpit area of the boat is fitted with a seperate pit for the helmsman, and so a wheel would be a relatively straightforward addition in the cockpit... The only really major challenge would be fitting the quadrant to the rudder post. I need to look at the weekend to see how the rudder post is presented internally... and whether there is a seal/bearing at the bottom, and then a bare post, or whether it runs through a tube all the way up to the deck where the tiller fits onto a normal square peg..... if that is the case I don't think I'll bother, as the additional hassle of cutting the rudder tube, and fitting a seal is more trouble than its worth.... If however, the post is exposed... then it could be very doable.... alternatively, I could fit the quadrant to the square peg at the top anyway, and hide all the mechanism in a seat for the helmsman.... It also has the added advantage of having a space for a binnacle compass, so would avoid me having to cut a hole in the bulkhead.... Food for thought......