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@@HoistTheBloodyColours you can indeed, mine has rollocks and I used to keep the oars aboard, however the oars that came with the boat when I bought it were a little short which made it quite awkward. Or maybe it was just my technique. Could make decent progress if it was flat calm but in to a headwind not so much

@ Thanks for your reply 🙏

@@davidford4200 Great stuff! Drascombes are so good

Nice one, have a great trip. I have dried some but normally I eat them fresh in scrambled eggs with toast, delicious!

@@dirtbagd89 thanks!

Thankyou, glad you enjoyed it.

@@piotrn9309 west coast of Scotland

Hi, on the gaff I have the beads on the Jaws and further up where the halyard attaches. In a very light wind I leave the gaff up against the mast but more often I undo the parallel beads and bring the mainsail and gaff down into the cockpit. This trip was actually back in June, I have been out on a few other short trips but I agree the season has been pretty rough so far! Hope you have has some quality time on the water

I have never beached the boat myself, although I know many others do. I think it would be fine as long as you are careful to ensure there are no rocks under your boat that could damage the underside of the hull. There is also a risk that you can get small stones or gravel lodged in the centreboard case preventing the centreboard from going down, I have experienced this with another boat, and it could particularly be a problem with drascombes as they rely on gravity to go down. Despite that, I am not saying I wouldn't consider it on a nice sandy beach somewhere. Maybe I will try it and report back!

Not cold, but not warm either!

Hi there, the grill is made buy Volcann, I went for it because it's marine grade stainless steel. www.indooroutdoors.co.uk/products/volcann-stainless-steel-portable-bbq

Yes slept aboard and mostly cook aboard but sometimes on the beach, depending on the sea state and weather.

Wouldn’t it be fair to assume that John keeps his dogs in check…. and that birds (being part of nature…) know how to recognise predators (no more than being another part of nature….) hence know how to deal with that knowledge… without total panicking…. Surely if the ongoings were not like so John would not venture in these sort of places….

@henktulp4400 Good sentiment, and I would hope so. I have seen so many incidents over the years by less thoughtful trekking dog-owners that I am concerned. Thanks.

Thanks @dirtbagd89, it was a great trip, time you bought yourself a boat so you could do cool trips like this 😉

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks, she's a great boat!

Thanks Sam, can't wait to see your version of events!

Thanks for the feedback and the suggestion. I will get around to doing a boat tour soon, stay tuned!

At the risk of stating the obvious, a good walk before setting off is a good start, and try and plan a route that allows for some beach stops though out the day. My younger dog, who is still a puppy does go on the back of the boat, which sounds grim but it's actually really easy to wash it all away with a bucket of water. My elder dog has a very strong bladder. Happy sailing!

Midges genuinely not that bad! At least they can be escaped on the water. The cabin is perhaps a little cramped but in wet or windy weather its still great to get in the warmth and relative dry!

@@johnleonardandpack A cramped cabin beats a wet tent every time! (Sam's dad here 😉)

If you approach a Coaster thinking "cabin" then it's cramped. If your frame of reference is bivvy bag or tent then it's cosy luxury.😂⚓

Thanks John. We got out on mine for the first time on Tuesday. Think my first overnighter will be over to the Holy Isle off Arran.

​@@crimeariver2519 I heard a rumour that you are thinking of buying a rib?

"wetter than an otters pocket" on the return leg hence not much footage.

Glad you enjoyed it, I would prefer it if you didn't use it. Why don't you make and post a video of yourself at work? 🙂

@@johnleonardandpack I'm not going to use the video, just the idea of felling them all in the same direction, cutting them to length, and then stacking them between the trees in the 'row'. I planted a bunch of chestnut trees in the last few years so they ate not big enough yet, but I will keep this in the back of my head. There may be some hazels of my dad's to bring down though. I've been thinking of doing some videos of things I'm doing but haven't done that yet, I just squeeze things into my weekends when I can, but now I don't have as many pressing projects I can spend a bit of time on that

@@thecurrentmoment ah sorry bro, I misunderstood, my bad. Are you based in New Zealand? How does the chestnut grow over there?

@@johnleonardandpack all good, easy mistake to make. Grows pretty well, we mostly have the Japanese/European chestnut hybrids here because they handle our warm humid climate better. The nuts can be huge too, I think I was regularly getting 30g nuts which were on the bug end, some were 40g or so. Can't remember the numbers. One 20 year old tree I coppiced (a hybrid) has 10 shoots that I saved and they have each grown to 6cm dbh in three seasons. I planted some European ones and they are also growing well, I suspect they'll be similar when I coppice them but they could be slower. We'll see. I'm planting them for fencing material because I think I can save a lot of money in fencing. Treated radiata pine posts are about $10-20 here so I think I can make some decent savings doing my own. A question, seeing as you have coppiced more chestnut than I have, I've planted them 2m x 2m apart, is that a good spacing? His many stems would you leave on each one? And when would you first coppice them? I'm feeling a bit impatient because many of them are quite branchy - I was hoping to let them bulk up and then chop them but I might be waiting a lot longer for any straight timber. I was contemplating chopping them off as soon as I am confident they'll regrow so they can start off with a number if straight stems. What are your thoughts? Thanks