It's pretty hard to believe it's been 15 years since DieselDuck said, email me, on his old forum.
(I can't even describe the old forum, it was basically a scrolling line of text with pictures interspersed, but it was pretty busy. I was introduced to it by a coworker when I was musing about writing my 1st class about 5 years earlier and I quickly became addicted to it. After all, I had a complete tech library at my fingertips that I could refer to in rapid order!)
I emailed him back and that's how I got the magic wand of forum cat management. At the beginning, that was how it was, managing cats, spammers and parts salespeople. Martin tighten the security, the bots were eliminated and some very good topics were discussed and some catastrophic accidents dissected with help from very knowledgeable contributors.
Over the years, some very professional people have come in, stayed awhile and contributed their hard gained experience and expertise, then went their way as they retired or moved on. I was always sorry to see them disappear, but with Facebook and the ability to Google, forums seem to be drying up and I commend Martin in resisting the evil empires.
2020 is drawing to a close. When I was sailing for a living, I used to watch co-workers grumble incessantly about there still being 2 months in a trip and I always thought, man you are wishing your life away. Well, I'll be pretty glad to see the year end, and move on through to next summer when hopefully we can shake off the ugliness.


I wish everyone who visits the forum a very Happy Holiday season and New Year!

Second on the right?
Am I correct?
When you were younger?
PS
Keep that old bearing scraper radii sharp ( two of ) world's turning upside down over here in U.K. Maybe back to square one and the beginning of it all.

Happy Xmas

What an awful Year!!
I wish everyone all the best in 2021.

It's been a tough year for sure. I think this year's happenings show that there's a lot of people out there who would fail miserably at the self discipline we required to sail and co-habit with the same people for months on end.
Merlyn, people don't get that we could go back to the beginning, do they?

Very well said JK. Thank you for your enduring and very much valued guidance. I have been run over by life these days, but for me, 2020 was a great year, not in the usual terms, that's for sure, but then again, we are not a usual lot.

As JK alludes, yes, I have always resisted the trend or the empires, ehehehe, preferring to an old school simple and accessible forums and website to still get that real world, "one on one" knowledge and experience that is so fickle these days, filled with bullshitters and straight up liars. We are able to access google, facebook and such, and it gives us what its calculated we need to see, but I am finding that the more access to information, the least it is useful. With traffic much lower than what it used to be, there is still a great deal of informational wealth to be found on this project and I do not intend to let go of it anytime soon. Many other websites have come and gone, the kicker is that it is done for money I suppose, whilst the stuff here is straight up passion, and the algorithm don't have that figured out just yet, in my humble opinion.

So to you passionate professionals who contribute and share, thank you! It is an honor to be at your service and sending you my positive vibes for a wonderful, calm, productive new year.

Martin