This is the first delivery of  our new Venture trolleys, complete with cradle chocks and docking arms.

My life revolves around  ‘ Certificate of Conformity’ personally  I couldn’t tell the difference between a Hyundai, Dacia and a Kia without looking at the badge,  and now all  fruit and vegetables have to be a certain size, but  do we really want everything to be the same?

The simple answer is no and I  really admire anyone who has the courage to try to be different, because  ultimately in the sailing world it’s going to be expensive and  probably  doomed to fail,  these  projects are  always  driven by the heart and not by the  mind.

I recently  visited  Simon Hipkin  on the East coast who builds the H2,  and  I was  delighted  to be shown a new wooden Merlin  under construction  designed by  Gavin Willis with Simons input.

The fleet is so incredibly  competitive  and the deigns are well established and proven, it would however be absolutely brilliant if it all works.

Today 1st March 2023 is World Complement Day!

Brilliant: I set out this morning with every intention of being complementary to  suppliers and customers. The day didn’t start well with a major smash on the M1 and I sat there for nearly 3 hours, I got carved up by a black Mercedes with darken windows who thought the best thing to do was to drive along the hard shoulder, then cut across me to get back on the carriage, so no complement for him!!  When I got to work a representative from Affinity Water  told me they were going to close Herbert Road, which was going to make it virtually impossible  for customers and deliveries to get to us, so again no complements to them!! The Galvaniser  arrived and the driver was told the road had been closed, but he managed  to navigate his 7 ton lorry up all the tiny back streets and  then back down Herbert Road from the other end.

This is Ben from Medway Galvaniser and he was the only person I  complemented  today, because everyone else was RUBBISH!!!

It was actually really pleasant  just wandering around and taking everything in.

Do I miss not having a stand there, yes and no, but probably more No!

February is not the start of the season but with the days getting longer and orders coming in it does feel like the end of the winter is not far away!

Now available £9.95 collect or £12.95 delivered please phone 0208 202 8629.

Spent the morning at the Harp working on our committee boat.

The reason for this post is to thank Brian Jeffreys and his team for all the hard work they do, it really is a never ending job, and to Russel Hall for his help in restructuring the steering.

All I can say is thank goodness we’ve got something to do!

It is incredible how many are now in use, in fact 1.1 million drones were registered in the U.S. in 2019.

What do I think?

Well it’s not great when your own self-lands in the middle of a lake, and don’t forget gravity is always a problem.  As  far as the images  are concerned, well they are absolutely amazing!