Jason AUS

I don't want to think about how hard it would be putting together a pie crust in those warm conditions. I guess you could always wrap the whole bird in foil and put it next to the engine when you're doing a battery charge...

Well, apparently Frantic finished first an hour ago and Yeah Baby is 0.3 miles from the finish. I have to say, that while I'm sure the race itself was awesome that the reporting has been... virtually non existent?

Touch wood.... I recall the Lupa of London guys sailed their boat out here for the Hobart race a couple of years ago and didn't even make it half way up the harbour before getting involved in a port / starboard incident that saw them back on the dock by 3pm on the 26th.

Now I'm wondering if they'd taste better with teriyaki sauce or sweet 'n' sour?

Would you slow roast them, or a nice hot wood fired roast? Actually.... how would they go with a nice crispy batter and a deep fryer?

Isn't that option 2 in the background of the photo ? Just add some letters on the transom... HOPPY'S WINGS

Oh, and when you flip your pancakes over to cook the second side NEVER pat them down with the spatula as that breaks the air bubbles inside and you'll end up with pan-flats rather than pancakes. It's also why that tricksy, impressing the woman you spent all night romancing "watch me flip the pancakes over" shit is a bad idea. Sure, it's impressive looking but being known as the guy who served up beautiful fluffy blueberry pancakes after a night of amazing cunnilingus is what'll keep her coming back. And bringing a friend. Shit, did I take this off topic again?

Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

It's a pain in the ass, but separate your eggs. Mix the yolks in with the other ingredients, and whip the whites until you get stiff peaks. Then fold the egg whites into the rest of the mix. This will ensure that your pancakes stay light and fluffy, whether they're buttermilk, blueberry or whatever.

Given that there's a switch, a whack of wiring and no sign of a pump handle - what are the odds that the head has a macerator on it and everything expelled from the boat is errrr... sludge?

Got a contact number for the owner?

I've worked in the lease/finance industry for 15 or so years, mainly in passenger vehicle and commercial truck leasing. It's a great tool if you can deduct some or all of the finance payments as a business expense. If you go down the route of a fully maintained lease through a deduction from your pre-tax salary (which is popular here in Australia) then it's a great tool if you're bad at budgeting. You don't get that "whoops, the rego and insurance are due and I don't have the $1500 to shell out" moment - it's all included in the cost from the finance company. Plus fuel, servicing, tyres etc. So you don't really have an excuse to not change the tyres or get the timing belt changed when it falls due. I personally leased all my cars even if I couldn't write off the payments, as I like flipping my cars every 4 years. Knowing that there is a balloon/residual at the end of the term is OK if you're careful with your cars... and I am. So I know that even though the final balloon is maybe $10k still owing to the bank, if I can take my well maintained and straight body car, flip it to a private buyer or car yard for $12k (using the profit to take the missus away for the weekend) and then lease the new model then it works for me. Plus - if I was going to finance under a personal loan arrangement and make 10x $1 payment to drive a Hyundai 4KSB, or I was happy to lease and make 10x $0.60 payments plus 1x $4 payment instead, then I could (and did) make 10x $1 payments plus 1x $4 payment to drive a Subaru WRX instead of the Hyundai. BUT.... as mentioned above you've got to look after the car, otherwise the bank is going to nail your ass to the wall under "fair wear and tear" guidelines. I think of my cars as a big, expensive DVD rental (pre-Netflix). I borrow it, I look after it and I return it on time in good condition then I'm all ok. If my kid scratches the bejesus out of it, then I'm going to be paying for a looooong time.

Is it going to be a simple registry office wedding for you two, or a big church do? NTTAWWT Awesome project though - I'll be waiting for all your updates from down here in the freezing Sthn Hemisphere!

It's so you can do sick burnouts down on the main drag at Brighton Le Sands....

IIRC, there has been more than one 30 foot Toecutter designed, owned and built by Robert Hick and both have done the Hobart. One (the first) built in GRP, and one in carbon. Anna comes from the same earlier family of Hick 30 as Very Tasty and Evolution (ex Diana) and all built within a few years of each other. Evolution has disappeared from Sydney, but as Diana she had an upgraded rudder and plumb bow and as Evolution some of the lifelines were removed in an effort to mimic Tasty. As well as having a carbon stick that was sometimes more for show than go. The rig had an affinity for the trees on the shoreline near Bradley's head, and would sometimes come back to the dock with a tree branch caught in the V's. Tasty was originally upgraded as a pure sports yacht soon after being built with lifelines removed and a super long articulating sprit. She was 99% of the time the quickest boat as her kites kept getting bigger and bigger, and the boys raced her at 110% effort from the start gun all the way through to the finish gun. And she heard a shitload of "1st to finish" guns in her time. She also swapped her saildrive for a cute little outboard as reverse had a nasty habit of not working very shortly after yet another costly repair. As Chris used to say "Bukh. It's Danish for shit." So removing the drag of a saildrive that only sometimes worked was a great interim upgrade for her planing ability. She used to hum like a pedophile on a school bus at 16 knots though! Just before Chris' untimely passing a few years ago she got the full tickle up - carbon rig, rudder upgrade and plumb bow. The short version is that these Hick 30's are all super quick, lots of fun to sail and definitely not family friendly...