Hi all ..............

[Kingfisher 3]

Glad to have found this forum after some years on YBW ........

Been boating since about 1960 (foggy memory for exact dates!) when I used to help out on the tripper boats in The Scillies. Taught myself to sail in a 14 ft dinghy when I rented the wing of a lovely house by Restronguet Creek - £5 a week including a mooring! - this in the late 60s .... followed by a Folkboat in about 1974 kept at Mylor ... I also raced Half Tonners for a few years in Falmouth but other people's boats ... then moved to Devon and bought something called a Dolphin ... there was a little class of them in Plymouth where they raced twice a week .... heavy centreboarder. Also bought a racing dinghy when I lived in Teignmouth, can't remember it's name but it was very beamy with huge wing like side decks and all the inherent stability of a 40 gallon oil drum! Moved up country after that and took up motor racing for many years till about 2000. Moved to Port Solent, bought an American Sportsfisher, 26ft with a 200 odd hp Mercruiser, then an ex-racing Southern Ocean Shipyard 33 footer, then a Peter Duck Ketch, then a one off Paul Gartside designed Helford Cutter which I had refurbished and was beautiful. Lately blessed with arthritis so gone back to motor boating, first a 22ft Searay then a Monterey 295CR which I had trucked down to the South of France where I live these days ... perfect boat for the weather here. Bought a 10m pontoon berth with a 30 year lease for it ... better than renting and will always sell ... I should live for another 30 years! Decided the boat wasn't big enough for more than a night or two so have just bought a Beneteau Flyer Gran Turismo 38 ... along with another bigger pontoon! Lovely great boat it is with 2 x D4 300s. Eye watering fuel consumption! Anyway ... if anyone wants a nice Monterey and a berth in St.Cyprien Marina ... you know who to ask!

[Ianfs]

Hi and a very warm welcome to you Kingfisher 3.

Wow, it sounds like you are certainly down to Earth and have had a variety of craft. South of France eh, again wow, great area.

A few of our members sometimes want to enquire abut boating in that area, it's not often, but does arise.

Sorry to hear about your arthritis, it's something we all have to endure, especially when you get to my age, come on now all of you, are we all there yet???

Anyway, I hope there is something on here you will be able to relate to and to add from time to time.

Actually, we all like photos! Especially if it's warm

[Kingfisher 3]

Thanks for the welcome!

I'd love to post some photos but ...... why is it always seemingly very difficult to post pics on forums ... I've just tried a pic for the forum and another one for an avatar ... both rejected and I don't think either too big ... mind you, I do live in an IT desert!

[Ianfs]

Sorry Kingfisher it's probably not you, I've set the photo uploads to maximum I.e. 0 but they still won't accept an image from my D5300 without it having been resized. 1024x768 is a good size to upload.
I have however set the Avatar sizes to 100 x 100 pixels otherwise they will be too big for the page.
Windows has a handy resizing area called Paint which has a resizing tool in the toolbar, save the altered pic then upload it.
PM me or any of the team if you need help, we're a helpful bunch.

[Kingfisher 3]

Might just have managed a pic ... this was yesterday ... I'm in there peering out!

[Kingfisher 3]

.
......... and this is the one I wanted for an Avatar but I've no idea how to make it tiny!

14_diaporama.jpg (74.26 KiB) Viewed 15002 times

[shibbs]

What a lovely looking boat. Welcome to the forum too!
Oh, for the avatar, I had a mare trying to get it shrunk down enough, was just a case fiddling with it on paint. Good luck..

[Ianfs]

That's a smashing looking boat you have there. Leave the avatar with me I'll sort it out when I get home this afternoon.
I can see that picture going into the forum header at some stage.

[Kingfisher 3]

Thanks with the avatar ... I've just tried again and shot it off into the ether somewhere, probably never to be seen again.

[Ianfs]

There you go Sir.