Dear all, After owning the 1981 Maramu called Popeye for 7 years we have just sold her to an Australian couple called David and Maddy Baddiley who will take her to Brisbane. She was listed on the mark

Kent, Ideally 2 pack poly paint should have an undercoat of epoxy primer. You then may need two coats of colour. That amount of paint would fill in the texture too much. If you could getaway with very

A mobile unattached Rule type submersible pump with a long lead with crocodile clips and a fairly long semi rigid outlet hose makes a good back up. John Maramu, #91 Popeye

There's a picture on the internet I've seen of an old Maramu deck redone with a composite teak look material. It's probably not too hard to find with Google To me it doesn't look right, a bit too shar

Sounds like that's for the best. The lift is 40 tonnes with a maximum width of 4.6m so probably only just too small. Norship which has the bigger lifts up to 400 ton is quite a lot more expensive. I t

The thick gel-coat on the faux teak has a hard life with the combination of UV and temperature cycling. It's great non slip but it's too much to expect it to last forever. If the deck is very old then

Fred, There 's not much choice in Cairns. The Yacht Squadron has a travel-lift andsmall hard stand storage area. That would be your best bet if you were set on Cairns.The travel-lift can cross the roa

Hi Porter, Ah, the great thing about a mechanical fuel pump - you know that the black smoke is meant to be there ;) But more seriously, it's interesting that the smoke is on cold start and not also wa

Jeff, A good supplier of Barka Italian taps is Penguin Engineering in UK who do mail-order. Not sure about the 54 but some of them match the older Amels and probably better quality chrome plating than

Porter, Mybrother has two Lagoon 500s that work commercially. Despite what some may sayabout the brand they are built to take a knocking and are really good boats.They are probably better looking and

If you plan on serious sailing and really want to do it properly then stowage on deck or aft-rail with a hydrostatic release is the way to go. (Ok mine is in the cockpit locker.) But more important th

Jacob, I have hull 91 built in 1981. I bought the boat about 6 years ago and have refitted her. I don't know the history of the particular boat in Florida but it looks good from the pictures and a goo

Stefania and Dietmar, Welcome. Your arch looks very neat. To reduce flexing you could easily add some braces inside the top corners. An easy way would be to use short lengths of matching stainless tub

Curt, I already own a Maramu but had a look at your photos out of interest. Congratulations on having such a nicely kept and updated boat. Regards John

Graham, Alan has given a pretty clear description. I do have an older rig than you but on my Maramu the tack of the foc d'artimon also goes to the U bolt on the deck in front of the dodger, the halyar

Pat, Furono used to be leaders in radar and sounders and are still very good butmore commercially focused these days and for recreational use others have caught up. Navico (B&G, Lowrance and Simrad) v

Doug, I would say osmosis is not a common problem. Minor osmosis may be present as the boats are old. One factor in causing osmosis is how the lay up was done. If there are more tiny air bubbles in th

Warren and Zetta, I am at sea on Tuesday but should be around on Wednesday to Friday between 9 and 3. I'm normally coming and going so the office can contact me and best if you give me some notice. Ch

Damon, Sharkis do have a great use of space. Which model depends on what you want to do and what you can find. As they are old boats now the condition and history is important. I would much rather hav

Paul, To answer your question about the starter motor, I think you'll find the isolated ground doesn't make a difference. If my memory serves me correctly (at least on the Perkins) the ignition switch