Christmas Rant :)
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sat 28 Dec 2013 02:15
Thanks for all the emails and e cards. The Christmas-eve Yottie BYO went well. Much home-brew was drunk! Christmas day started with an 'English Breakfast' at the Chamek Kopitiam, hereafter referred to as the JB Hop-Hing. Obviously I don't usually have 'English Breakfasts' but their version of it was scrambled eggs (good) garlic toast (umm, keeps the vampire mosquitoes away I suppose) cold baked beans and chicken sausages. Good effort, 10/10 for lateral thinking but don't change the menu! A bit of writing then after various phone calls a bottle of Merlot (oh the expense but I suppose £9 once a year isn't exactly excessive) and a slow-cooked steak. A good day if a bit of a solitary one. Like last year now I come to think of it.
Right then. I had an email that said basically glad to hear that life had got onto a bit of an even-keel but the regular rants were missed. There now followeth a Crimbo Rant: Enjoy Andy.
I just priced a haul-out here in JB, although not at Danga Bay Marina. They were having a laugh! Lift-out and splash back was £614 and on the hard was basically £14 per day. Oh, if you were out for three months you got a 20% discount! That comes to roughly £345 per month to be on the hard for three months. £30 a day (!) for labour....that's per man) if they supply the labour and if you hire somebody independently they charge £19.80 per day per man. Yard facilities were a hosepipe for a shower and a tiled hole in the ground for a toilet. If you add on the price of electricity for power tools the whole exercise comes to just under £2000 for the three months. That's without actually doing any repairs. It was a 30 min walk to a bus-stop and a taxi-fare back from the nearest supermarket would be about £4!
That said, I've just had a chat with an Aussie who's done a lot of GRP work over the years. His message was don't get fixated on the idea that you need three (or even two) months to dry out....the boat I'm talking about, just so we're all clear about that. He reckons if I grind back to the GRP then once all the water has drained the hulls should be dry in around a week. During that week I can prepare to do the GRP/laminating work. That's still £1000 before I start, assuming the job would take a month and of course the yard facilities haven't got any better. Well, I still don't have it and I haven't priced the materials I'd need yet. I still think the whole exercise would cost a minimum of £3K which although better is not affordable...yet. But it will be. The upside of the yard is they have a contract with the Malaysian Coastguard to build fast (55kt!) patrol boats so they have plenty of on-site expertise.Right then. I had an email that said basically glad to hear that life had got onto a bit of an even-keel but the regular rants were missed. There now followeth a Crimbo Rant: Enjoy Andy.
I just priced a haul-out here in JB, although not at Danga Bay Marina. They were having a laugh! Lift-out and splash back was £614 and on the hard was basically £14 per day. Oh, if you were out for three months you got a 20% discount! That comes to roughly £345 per month to be on the hard for three months. £30 a day (!) for labour....that's per man) if they supply the labour and if you hire somebody independently they charge £19.80 per day per man. Yard facilities were a hosepipe for a shower and a tiled hole in the ground for a toilet. If you add on the price of electricity for power tools the whole exercise comes to just under £2000 for the three months. That's without actually doing any repairs. It was a 30 min walk to a bus-stop and a taxi-fare back from the nearest supermarket would be about £4!
AND ANOTHER THING
A new night-club has opened in the marina so there is much music from 2200 until 0330. Well, copious amounts of hooch takes care of the sleeping problem although it does mean a later start to the day. HOWEVER, one of the bands murdered my favourite 10CC track the other night (Dreadlock Holiday if you were wondering). Unfortunately this appears to be their 'signature' tune. GRRR!!!
--
Current cell no (Malaysia) 0167366251
http://www.peterbernfeld.com
http://blog.mailasail.com/troutbridge
For a list of my books currently available in both paperback and ebook format and for reviews and news, visit my author page on Amazonhttp://www.peterbernfeld.com
http://blog.mailasail.com/troutbridge
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B008O89WFO