S-Westerly

Scott waterproofs. Not particularly cheap but very, very waterproof.

Grab me a job onboard mate, I'll be roger the cabin boy for ya Rogering the cabin boy is deffo not allowed.

Could be an interesting combination. Just try not to drink the ACF, could spoil your day.

Like Boing 737 Max?

I actually like the big ones. 15 years on VLCC / ULCC and another 11 on Suezmax. I like the long voyages - 40+ days is great and find time passed fast. Hate interacting with ports with all the bullshit that comes with it.

Wish I had one of them right now. What's yours called? Exxon valdez 2 I'm not allowed to give it's full name but suffice to say it's owned by a large Scandinavian company that is big in ferries as well as tankers. From full speed ahead to stopped is not that bad. A shade under 3 miles under control. A crash stop which will probably break the engine or at least the chief engineer takes less than 2. For reference this one weighs in at 159,000 tonnes. My biggest which has long since been scrapped was a somewhat larger 509,000 tonnes. Google "Esso Atlantic" if you want to know more.

US Marines had special squads called Tunnel Rats who got to go down these tunnels and chase the VC. Probably pretty hideous for both sides.

Its not a boot its a Schooner. Dingey.jpg Wish I had one of them right now.

Tis indeed. The small ship in front had just delivered us 250 tons of diesel and we were stopped in the water. She was actually about 100 metres off our bow and this manoeuvre is quite common. Had I been rattling along at 15 knots in the Channel then the context would have been somewhat different and probably on News at Ten.

You know when you sometimes see a photo and think WTF? Usually just stand alone and not in context with any thing? Then when you get more background it turns out to be not what you thought at all. Here's a couple of out of context pics. Not quite a disaster 1 Definitely not a disaster

I thought our Gloucestershire roads were bad but yours look even worse! Bike looks nice though.

U boat pens Much like the u boat pens in various French ports. Looked at dismantling them after the war but were quite literally almost bomb proof and they're now tourist attractions, kind of.

Seem to remember someone doing basic CBT stuff down at Mallory park, but that's a fair old hike from Hexham. Circuit based training I think they are called and my son used them. Rated them highly.

Must be a flounce record though. Two posts and gone. Impressive.

That's a big baby. Congratulations to you all.

I'll put some pics up afterwards. Basically it's a 700 mm bore so quite a lump but by modern standards not as big as some of the real beasts - 960 mm bore and 14 cylinders.

Nice looking bike but I think purely from the aesthetics I prefer the BMW. No idea how ride quality and performance compared though. I ride a Multistrada so am certainly not in a position to cast aspersions on other folks bikes! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Watching my engineers pull the engine to bits and put it back together with a new piston.

Serve the bast*rds right if someone stole their gear. Probably would in the UK.

I wouldn't have recognized that as a speed camera! Thanks for the pic. As my brother lives in Munich I have driven in Germany (in car) so this is good to know.

Well you could always buy the Chinese imitation 450!

No help from me as I don't commute.

I do. I'm a lousy singer, can't carry a tune in a paper bag but I like singing to myself. Best place to do it is on the bike as nobody else can be traumatized by it. Also sing in the car if I'm by myself. Once inadvertently broke into song when my grandsons were with me. The abuse I received was cruel.

Be interesting to see how it wears. Not a fan of stuff that's so cheap as my past experience has been it's never worn well. Still if it works for you then crack on.

The trouble is that American companies have done it to themselves hence the rust belt. We're not much better as a lot of heavy engineering has vanished from the UK.