Forum - Maintenance - Questions from a New Boy
| Topic | Replies | Latest Post |
|---|---|---|
| Questions from a New Boy | 2 | Tue 12 Nov 2019 23:06:47 |
 Red Herring Mon 11 Nov 2019 17:33:51 | Having recently taken possession of Red Herring I would welcome advice from more experienced Manta owners on the following points: - What sort of cooker and where to locate it on board; - Design of a boom tent; - Design and fitting of a self-tacking jib; - How long the road trailer should be from snubbing post to hull supports (Red Herring's looks a bit short to me); - Availability of original paint (Rail Red in our case); - Function, if any, of four squares of buyancy foam about 30x30x5 cm currently loose in the cabin. Any help gratefully received. Charles | |
Replies | ||
 Mark Tue 12 Nov 2019 11:03:26 | Hopefully this might be of some help. 1. Cooker. I don't know what cookers were originally fitted but they were stored under the port berth. Mine has a holder for a gas bottle in port cockpit locker with a couple of holes for the gas pipe leading through to the port berth locker. For safety, I have never had the pipe or gas fitted. I have used a small self contained camping stove and there is probably a lot more choice around now than there was when Mantas were being built. 2. Boom tent. I made mine out of a piece of boat cover material which drapes over the boom and has bungy and hooks attached to keep the edges over the side of the hull. Other owners have used a modified camping tent which also seems to work quite well. If you do a search on the webite for 'cockpit tent' there are a few posts with some details. 3. Self tacking jib. I think this will be a case of trial and error if you want to fit one to a manta. I haven't seen any other Mantas with one fitted. 4. Road trailer. I think the important thing is to make sure that the boat on the trailer is balanced properly so that the down force on the towing hitch isn't too much as this will push down the back of your vehicle and make steering hazardous - but beware of too little weight on the towing hitch which is dangerous as the trailer can swing around behind the towing vehicle. Here is some good info for towing caravans which I think is just as relevant for towing boats: https://www.caravanguard.co.uk/news/how-to-measure-and-adjust-your-caravans-nose-weight-3999/ 5. Paint. The Manta brochure shows they were originally produced in 5 colours but this is the colour of the fibreglass gel coat. If you want your gel coat repairing then a good boat repairer should be able to match it. Some Manta have been painted by their owners and if yours has been then you might just have to try and find the closest match or paint the whole thing. I used this company once to fix a damaged sailing dinghy. It was about 15 years ago but they were really good and might be able to help with gel coat questions: http://www.glassfibresolutions.co.uk/ 6. Foam squares. No idea but my only thoughts are that perhaps they are just for a bit comfort when you are sat in the cockpit? | |
| Red Herring Tue 12 Nov 2019 23:06:47 | Many thanks for your swift response Mark. Very helpful. Charles | |
