What's up with the Walker Bays...

I actually quite like the Walker Bay hard dinghies... We used to have one of their eight footers but it was just that little bit too small to allow us to use it for the purpose of rowing and the ten footer would have been a better choice.

I always liked that the Walker Bays had a neat inflatable collar making for a neat niche between hard dinghy and inflatable that would actually row. I should add that while I gave a lot of thought to purchasing a ten footer the deciding factor was that the inflatable collar seemed to be somewhat excessive in price costing more than some dinghies.

In hind sight I'm glad that we never bought the ten footer with the collar as over the last couple of years we have seen many sad specimens of the collars looking much the worse for wear with leaking and with what appears to be excessive UV degradation (in comparison to hypalon dinghies made by Caribe and AB) and in fact they don't seem to keep up with the PVC dinghies by Plastimo in the UV area which were cheaper (for the whole dinghy) than the Walker Bay collars.

Anyway, for anyone considering the Walker Bays for sailing in the tropics you might want to think long and hard before buying the collar...

Cockpit reading... The sailing rags

I know I spend far too much time bemoaning the state of the yachting press and their pimpish ways but fair is fair and I really should point out that they do get it right from time to time as well...

"Latitude 38" in my books is easily the best sailing mag out there and when I sat down to try and find a good article to mention in this blog the fact is that there were so many goodies all I can say is simply to point out that it's best to simply read the whole issue. For those not in the know Latitude 38 is FREE!

"Sail Magazine" has a wonderful editorial this month (July 09) entitled "All We Really Need To Know About Being Green We Learned At Sea" by Clark Beek that is so right you might want to make copies and send it to friends, family and political hacks....

The new "Wooden Boat" has a very neat dinghy plan that is worth the cost of admission. Throw in a very good article about a Dutch Sharpie design and you are well on your way to an excellent issue but then again, I don't ever recall a bad issue of Wooden Boat!

While the current issue of "Cruising World" is of the big pimping ilk (so they can sell all sorts of advertising from Catamaran builders/sellers/charter co's) it does have a great little article from Fatty Goodlander about guns on boats or some such "Unarmed but Uneasy"... Borrow a copy or read it while in line at West Marine (It's a short article)!

For those who read French, the new "Voiles" has a wonderful series of articles about anchors and anchoring which is just the sort of thing we could use in American magazines long on content and short of tests done to favor folks who take out big ads... Fact is the French magazines Bateaux, Loisirs Nautiques and Voiles all kick some serious ass so you might want to check them out if you have a chance!

SSCA...

Formed in 1952, the Seven Seas Cruising Association has long been one of the best resources for the cruising sailor. Period!

Membership includes what is easily the best cruising info available anywhere in the guise of its monthly newsletter which is written by members. These days where most "cruising" articles in the yachting press are simply bareboat charter accounts which have very little to do with cruising and a lot to do with pimping their advertisers. The monthly newsletters by the SSCA being written by people who are out there and doing it in a timely manner is truly the gold standard and if you join only to be able to get the newsletter you are way ahead of the game.

I'd go on as there are many more reasons you should join but the SSCA can do it a lot better so I will just let you take a look at the SSCA!

Really it is not rocket science... JOIN!

Surf city...

One of our favorite blogs here at Boat Bits central is 70.8% (which is one year old today!) and as always whenever I go there I find neat stuff...

Case in point, they recently did a great post on Brian Schultz and his kayaks.

Being that I really like skin on frame kayaks, I spent quite a bit of time perusing the various designs on Brian's site... Cowabunga, I see easily the neatest surf kayak I have come across in ages!

Rhino!

Nuff said....

masts and rigging for the real world...

Sadly these days a lot of things cost silly money and more than their share has the word "marine" attached!

For those of us firmly in the cheap seats, there are a lot of ways to bring costs down but I'm always surprised at just how expensive some stuff can be...

Take masts and rigging for instance! Seriously silly prices get thrown around for what is really just aluminum tubes and wire. Now in the cheap seats of course we know that we NEVER buy industrial stuff (like wire) from a purveyor of marine goods. Buying it from Acme wire who may not know a boat from a hole in the wall but certainly DO KNOW wire, is even more important because they are not in the world of silly marine pricing. They sell wire and other rigging stuff for what it's worth not what they can gouge which is often a huge difference!

The same line of thinking goes for chainplates and suchlike... Now that just about every city has some sort of CNC metal cutting operation you can make a drawing give it to a guy and have a perfectly cut and polished chainplate for just a little more than the cost of the metal value. I won't even mention the obscene pricing the last time I looked at chainplates from a marine store...

Masts, being low volume products with seriously high tooling costs are pretty silly price wise but you have to wonder how various mast builders always seem to have brand name masts with maybe a little scratch or cosmetic blemish in the anodizing for 10% of the retail price. Of course with masts being just hollow tubes there are all sorts of alternatives to marine industry spars... I've known more folks who built boats and wound up with light poles and suchlike that worked out just fine at a fraction of what it would cost to buy something from Francespar or the like.

Dudley Dix and CKD boats are even doing mast kits in... (Dare I say it?) ... Wood!

It might suprise a lot of folks but wood works real well for masts and in these days of epoxy and other evil chemicals, no longer falls prey to 99% of all the negative press... Check it out!

since we're talking Tiki...

On the Tiki thing... Seriously I've always felt it was a good thing to have Tikis on boats. They feel right.

For those of a like mind you really should take a look at the work by the Southern California artist Bosko who really has an excellent handle on the whole Tiki thing. Not only does he do stuff like Tiki mugs but does custom Tiki moldings which would look awesome on "So It Goes"

Lots and lots of neat stuff...

Plus don't miss the short film about Bosko as well.

Have a happy Tiki 4th of July...

The 4th of July for me has always meant beach, surfboards and Tiki drinks...

When I was a kid, the whole Tiki bar thing was quite the rage and seriously hip. In these modern times the whole Tiki fad is looked down on by many as a pinnacle of kitsch but it was a LOT of fun, and I'll go on record as saying we could always use a whole lot more FUN!

Plus let's get real... What better place to have your very own movable Tiki Bar than an ocean-going sail boat?

Of course to do it right you need LOTS of RUM! Lucky for us that down here in the Caribbean you can buy a good rum for less than $4 a liter (and you'd be dumb-as-nails to use anything better for Tiki drinks) various fruit juices and some serious Tiki mugs...

I mean you really do need the Tiki mugs as they strike just the right note and the whole point of the excercise is striking the right note! Of course you can always use coconuts and hollowed out pineapples but for me Tiki mugs are the serious stuff (and who wants to waste good drinking time hollowing out a pineapple?).

Of course you need the recipes because, while most things on boats are not rocket science, mixology of the Tiki variety IS and before you are ready to come up with your own special signature Tiki/Boat drink it is best to spend a bit of time learning from the masters and working on the classics!

"Sipping Safari" is a great place to start but any of the Beachbum Berry books will do...

I would be remiss in not mentioning that for a proper on-board Tiki party that the old T-shirt is something of a faux pas and that at the least a real Aloha shirt is the minimum for Tiki chic (leis however are considered to be something of an over kill)!

Have a happy 4th...

a call to action...

Latitude 38 and Sailing Anarchy have both been fighting the good fight where the case of Bismarck Dinius is concerned but things are getting down to the crunch and it is time for the rest of us boat-folk to help pull the weight...

Bismark Dinius support group

My diesel mechanic says electric propulsion sucks...

The other day I got that message from a reader...

When you think about it, it's hardly surprising that the internal combustion posse would be less than enthused about electric propulsion. If I made my living repairing people's diesel engines and drive trains I'm sure I would not be the biggest booster of electric propulsion solutions as I'd have an agenda.

Keep that in mind when someone is offering advice!

Just for the record I do have an agenda as well and while its not about "money" in my pocket I see electric propulsion as a very good thing for some sailors and I'm stoked and enthused. I realize EP is not for everyone but I think folks should make up their own minds on the subject and need real info to work it out. Real info so you can make that choice is my agenda...

One of the best parts of electric propulsion is how little there is to go wrong and how easy it is to fix or replace problematic bits when it does. Bringing repair and maintenance within the skill set of all but the most ham fisted tyros. Throw in the fact that replacing a motor (if needful) costs less than most "small" diesel repairs and it gets even more attractive.

Spares being both cheap and light... The Mars motor used by Electric Yacht in my system only weighs 36 pounds and as it is available for around $500 you could find space and budget for a spare motor if you planned to be sailing the Ultima thule!

Hard dodger progress...

So work continues... Now we have the windows cut and most of the exterior glass work done...

I'm not over the top about what the dodger does to the lines of the boat but dodgers always take their toll. On the plus side, when it is painted it will be a lot better and not quite as jarring to the eye.






Now it's time to flip the sucker and glass the interior... No rest for the wicked!